Displaying items by tag: archaeologists

A team of archaeologists in Egypt has discovered six rock cut statues inside two adjoining shrines, previously believed to be completely destroyed by an earthquake that shook the region centuries ago. The find occurred during a dig at Gebel el Silsila, an ancient major quarry site in Upper Egypt, by a group from Sweden’s Lund University. Led by Dr. Maria Nilsson and Associate Director John Ward, the archaeologists have been excavating the area since 2012.

Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) yesterday unveiled a large, 1,700-year-old mosaic floor featuring intricate patterns and images of animals, uncovered in the city of Lod, about nine miles southeast of Tel Aviv. The discovery, made last year during excavations from June through November, occurred when archaeologists were preparing the site to build a visitors center to display the famous Lod Mosaic, according to a release published by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Lod Mosaic, which measures 600 square feet (~55 square meters) and has recently been on view in museums from the Louvre to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, served as the living room floor for the same ancient villa that housed the recently exposed work, which archaeologists believe decorated its courtyard.

Italy’s culture ministry has appointed 20 new directors to manage some of its top museums, including Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, with a number of foreigners brought in to revamp the way the country’s vast heritage is presented to the public.

Fourteen art historians, four archaeologists, one cultural manager and a museum specialist make up the new directors, who will be at the forefront of cultural reform in Italy. The majority have international backgrounds and half are women, although the culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said nationality and gender had no influence on Tuesday’s appointments.

A trove of 2,000 delicate gold spirals that date back to the Bronze Age was recently discovered in Denmark -- and archaeologists are trying to figure out what the ancient coils were used for.

The 3,000-year-old spirals are made of thin, flattened gold wire and were found during an excavation in the town of Boeslunde, on the Danish island of Zealand.

Each tightly wound coil is about one inch long. All together, the gold spirals weigh more than half a pound.

Among the surprises in the British Museum’s exhibition on Greek sculpture is an important early 20th century bronze copy which most archaeologists assumed had been destroyed during the Second World War. It is a reconstruction of the famous Doryphoros (spear-bearer), made in around 1920 by the German sculptor Georg Römer. He based it on three Roman marble copies of the lost Greek original by Polykleitos of around 440 to 430 BC.

Römer’s copy has had a chequered history.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia says it has offered to house Iraqi artifacts to protect them from destruction by the Islamic State group.

The foundation says its president, Mitchell Reiss, made the offer to a team of Iraqi archeologists and museum experts who visited earlier this month. Iraqi authorities say the Islamic State group has attacked and destroyed several archaeological sites.

Archaeologists unearthing a huge ancient burial site at Amphipolis in northern Greece have uncovered a large floor mosaic. The mosaic - 3m (10ft) wide and 4.5m (15ft) long - depicts a man with a laurel wreath driving a chariot drawn by horses and led by the god Hermes.

The burial site is said to be the largest ever found in Greece. It dates from the late 4th Century BC, spurring speculation that it is linked to Alexander the Great of Macedon.

More than 80 prominent archaeologists and other scholars from around the world have signed an open letter calling on the United Nations Security Council to ban trade in Syrian antiquities, a market they say is now destroying Syria’s cultural heritage and providing funding for extremist groups.

“Our shared world heritage in Syria is being looted and turned into weapons of war,” the letter says.

Two stunning caryatid statues have been unearthed holding up the entrance to the biggest ancient tomb ever found in Greece, archaeologists said.

The two female figures in long-sleeved tunics were found standing guard at the opening to the mysterious Alexander The Great-era tomb near Amphipolis in the Macedonia region of northern Greece.

"The left arm of one and the right arm of the other are raised in a symbolic gesture to refuse entry to the tomb," a statement from the culture ministry said Saturday.

A 2,000-year-old trove of rare bronze coins from a Late Second Temple Period Jewish settlement was discovered in Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced today.

The discovery was made after pottery shards discovered several months ago, during construction to widen the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, led archaeologists to continue their excavation.

"The hoard, which appears to have been buried several months prior to the fall of Jerusalem, provides us with a glimpse into the lives of Jews living on the outskirts of Jerusalem at the end of the rebellion," said IAA excavation directors Pablo Betzer and Eyal Marco in a press release.