archaeology

The Valletta Convention was originally signed at Valletta, in Malta, in January 1992. It is a Convention, not of the EU, but of the Council of Europe, a body that preceded the EU, but still exists to deal mainly with cultural affairs.

The Valletta convention to a considerable extent follows the earlier London Convention of 1961 and English Heritage, and particularly Geoffrey Wainwright, its principle negotiator, regards it as a triumph in that it inserted some of the principles of Developer Funding, (known as PPG 16) into the convention. However much, especially paragraphs 3 and 10, is highly controversial, and this analysis seeks to go through the Convention and to interpret what it actually says.

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European Convention on the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage (Revised)
Valetta, 16.1.1992

Preamble

The member States of the Council of Europe and the other States party to the European Cultural Convention signatory hereto, Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its members for the purpose, in particular, of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage; Having regard to the European Cultural Convention signed in Paris on 19 December 1954, in particular Articles 1 and 5 thereof; Having regard to the Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe signed in Granada on 3 October 1985; Having regard to the European Convention on Offences relating to Cultural Property signed in Delphi on 23 June 1985; Having regard to the recommendations of the Parliamentary Assembly relating to archaeology and in particular Recommendations 848 (1978), 921 (1981) and 1072 (1988); Having regard to Recommendation No. R (89) 5 concerning the protection and enhancement of the archaeological heritage in the context of town and country planning operations; Recalling that the archaeological heritage is essential to a knowledge of the history of mankind; Acknowledging that the European archaeological heritage, which provides evidence of ancient history, is seriously threatened with deterioration because of the increasing number of major planning schemes, natural risks, clandestine or unscientific excavations and insufficient public awareness; Affirming that it is important to institute, where they do not yet exist, appropriate administrative and scientific supervision procedures, and that the need to protect the archaeological heritage should be reflected in town and country planning and cultural development policies; Stressing that responsibility for the protection of the archaeological heritage should rest not only with the State directly concerned but with all European countries, the aim being to reduce the risk of deterioration and promote conservation by encouraging exchanges of experts and the comparison of experiences; Noting the necessity to complete the principles set forth in the European Convention for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage signed in London on 6 May 1969, as a result of evolution of planning policies in European countries, Have agreed as follows:

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Two Years Later: Some Lobbying Successes But the Devastation of Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Continues

By Dr. Francis Deblauwe
The 2003- Iraq War & Archaeology Project, August 2005

After the conquest of the Iraqi capital Baghdad in April 2003, the world witnessed in astonishment and shock as the National Museum was looted and vandalized for several days while the US military did not lift a finger to protect it. This museum is the premier repository of Mesopotamian artifacts of which it holds the largest collection in the world. Even more importantly though, these are mostly excavated and documented pieces, indispensable for true archaeological research, unlike many in other museums that are without clear provenance or context. In the end, the Museum was secured and through the efforts of Iraqi police, US and Coalition law enforcement, and international efforts some of the stolen artifacts were recovered. Especially noteworthy was the return of the Lady of Warka sculpture, the Warka Vase, and the Bassetki statue. An estimated 13,000 pieces are still missing. The many tens of thousands of archaeological sites throughout Iraq have not been so lucky: their looting and destruction has not even begun to abate since 2003. The Sumerian heartland in southern Iraq has been hit the hardest. Whole "tells" or ruin mounds have been reduced to pockmarked moon landscapes due to the frantic digging activities of looters, e.g., Tell Jokha (ancient Umma), Ishan Bakhriyyat (ancient Isin), etc.

>The reaction in the US to the events of 2003 has been mired in controversy. After the intial confusion in the media during which it was feared the National Museum had been robbed bare, a number of conservative, pro-Iraq War political commentators falsely claimed that hardly anything had been taken. In other words, the museum theft story supposedly had been just a ploy by Ba’athists to make the Bush administration look bad. Western archaeologists and scholars had been either willing or naïve participants in this fraud, so it was said. It is hard to believe but this myth is still being repeated every so often. In general, the US academic community reacted with horror and anger. Notwithstanding serious pre-war efforts to educate both the Pentagon and the State Department about their responsibilities toward the heritage of Iraq once the war would begin, it was apparent that the commanders on the battlefield had not been instructed to safeguard archaeological and cultural sites. The one positive effect from the consultations was that Coalition airplanes did manage to avoid bombing sensitive heritage sites.

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THE EMERGING REVISION OF ANCIENT HISTORY: RECENT RESEARCH

by Martin Sieff

Was Shishak of the Bible really Thutmose III as Immanuel Velikovsky claimed? Or was he really Ramses II, as claim Peter James, David Rohl and other proponents of the historical model long pushed by publishers of the British-based Catastrophism and Chronology Review? Did the Exodus occur at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, as they and John Bimson argue, and as Velikovsky himself believed? Or did it take place at the end of the Early Bronze Age, as Donovan Courville, Tom Chetwynd, Stan Vaniger, Emmett Sweeney, Brad Aaronson and I have argued?

Over the years, it seems that detailed new models for the radical revision of ancient history have been falling faster than leaves in the New England autumn… However, amid this babel of tongues and theories, much significant work has emerged within the past five years or so; from both the academic mainstream and revisionists camps…

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by Angela M.H. Schuster

A survey of the Mediterranean seabed by Robert D. Ballard of the Institute for Exploration, based in Mystic, Connecticut, has found the remains of eight ships, five of which date between ca. 100 B.C. and A.D. 400. Found in 2,500 feet of water off Skerki Bank reef, between the Tunisian port of Carthage and Sardinia and Sicily, the ships include five Roman trading vessels: one from the late first or early second century B.C., a boat of western Mediterranean origin dating to the time of Christ, two first-century A.D. cargo ships, and a fourth-century A.D. merchantman. An eighteenth- or nineteenth-century Islamic fishing vessel and two nineteenth-century merchant ships were also found.

According to project archaeologist Anna Marguerite McCann of Boston University, the earliest of the Roman traders is about 100 feet long with two cargo holds, one fore and one aft of the mast. Among the ship’s artifacts were kitchen and household items, fine bronze vessels, and eight different types of amphorae, including some from Cosa on the Tyrrhenian coast. Amphorae on the ship from the time of Christ suggest trade with North Africa, southern France, and Campania.

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Archaeologist Liu Yi-chang previously unearthed pre-historical artifacts in the area set aside for a buttress of a bridge. The bridge was part of project near the Port of Taipei, and was a vital part of the Bali – Xindian east – west highway. Liu carried out the digging as part of the environmental assessment required ahead of the construction of the bridge. The “rope line pottery” artifacts found by Liu were dated back to the middle part of the New Stone Age, which means that they are over 4,000 years old. Liu successfully unearthed other red pottery shards with designs and rope lines, and other artifacts from the era.

General site views

City Hall Park is part of the landmarked African Burial Ground and The Commons Historic District because of its known archaeological potential. When plans for a large-scale renovation of the park were drawn up in 1998, care was taken to ensure that mitigation would occur to avoid damage to the archaeological resources. This included archaeological monitoring of all subsurface work in the park, as well as hand-excavated test trenches and in certain areas complete excavation. The archaeological project design was "impact-driven" rather than "research-driven."

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Of the seven wonders of the ancient world, only the Great Pyramid of Giza remains. An estimated 2 million stone blocks weighing an average of 2.5 tons went into its construction. When completed, the 481-foot-tall pyramid was the world’s tallest structure, a record it held for more than 3,800 years, when England’s Lincoln Cathedral surpassed it by a mere 44 feet.

We know who built the Great Pyramid: the pharaoh Khufu, who ruled Egypt about 2547-2524 B.C. And we know who supervised its construction: Khufu’s brother, Hemienu. The pharaoh’s right-hand man, Hemienu was "overseer of all construction projects of the king" and his tomb is one of the largest in a cemetery adjacent to the pyramid.

What we don’t know is exactly how it was built, a question that has been debated for millennia. The earliest recorded theory was put forward by the Greek historian Herodotus, who visited Egypt around 450 B.C., when the pyramid was already 2,000 years old. He mentions "machines" used to raise the blocks and this is usually taken to mean cranes. Three hundred years later, Diodorus of Sicily wrote, "The construction was effected by mounds" (ramps). Today we have the "space alien" theory–those primitive Egyptians never could have built such a fabulous structure by themselves; extraterrestrials must have helped them.

Modern scholars have favored these two original theories, but deep in their hearts, they know that neither one is correct. A radical new one, however, may provide the solution. If correct, it would demonstrate a level of planning by Egyptian architects and engineers far greater than anything ever imagined before.

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Archaeologist Tom Kutys thought he’d found a stone wall when he came across mortared capstones in a trench at the state park that once was the site of French and British forts.

Instead, archaeologists at Point State Park believe they very well might have uncovered long-buried remnants of Fort Duquesne, Pittsburgh’s original fort.

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