Japan picks ancient Jomon Period sites as candidates for UNESCO World Heritage recognition in 2021
A government panel identified on Tuesday a set of Jomon Period archaeological sites in northern Japan as a potential candidate for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage designation in 2021. Tokyo will submit its formal recommendation by next Feb. 1 to the organization representing the ancient sites, ...
Archaeologists in Israel have discovered the remains of one of the world's oldest rural mosques, built around the time Islam arrived in the Holy Land, they said on Thursday. The Israel Antiquities Authority estimates that the mosque, uncovered ahead of new construction in the Bedouin ...
Egypt on Saturday opened two of its oldest pyramids to visitors for the first time since 1965. Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany told reporters that tourists are now allowed to visit the Bent Pyramid and its satellite pyramid in the Dahshur royal necropolis, located about 40 ...
Egypt asks Interpol to trace Tutankhamun mask over ownership documents
Egypt has asked Interpol to track down a 3,000-year-old Tutankhamun artefact that was sold in London for $6 million despite fierce opposition from Cairo, government officials said. Christie's auction house sold the 28.5-centimeter (11-inch) relic for £4,746,250 ($5,970,000) to an unknown buyer in early July ...
Ancient Iraqi city of Babylon designated UNESCO World Heritage site
The ancient city of Babylon, first referenced in a clay tablet from the 23rd century B.C., was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site on Friday, after a vote that followed decades of lobbying by Iraq. The vote, at a UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in ...
Tutankhamun relic fetches $6 million in London despite Egyptian outcry
A 3,000-year-old quartzite head of Egyptian "Boy King" Tutankhamun was auctioned off for $6 million on Thursday in London despite an outcry from Cairo. Christie's auction house sold the 28.5-cm (11-inch) relic for £4,746,250 ($5,970,000, €5,290,000) at one of its most controversial auctions in years. No ...
Acropolis Museum opens ancient Athens neighborhood site below its base
Greece's Acropolis Museum has opened an excavation site underneath its modern building, allowing visitors for the first time to walk through an ancient Athenian neighborhood that survived from the classical era to Byzantine times. The museum, which sits at the foot of the Acropolis hill ...
Ancient Afghan citadel collapses; other cultural heritage sites at risk
An ancient tower dating back 2,000 years in the historic Afghan city of Ghazni collapsed last week, local officials said, raising concerns about the vulnerability of the country's cultural heritage and the government's ability to protect them. The old citadel, known as Ghaznain Fort, originally ...
Russia uncovers 40,000-year-old wolf head preserved in Siberian ice
About 40,000 years ago, a wolf died in what we know as Siberia. Now its severed head has been found, and because of the freezing conditions, it is so well preserved that its fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue are largely intact. A Yakutia resident, ...
Pre-Inca, myth-generating funerary towers restored in Bolivia
Unique quadrangular pre-Inca towers made of earth and straw dot the landscape at Condor Amaya on the Bolivian altiplano, giving rise to myths and legends. These eight chullpas, standing almost side by side, are funerary towers that have been built with a technique unique to ...
Modern humans split from Neanderthals far earlier than thought, study suggests
Scientists seeking to unlock the mysteries of human evolution have in recent years relied on increasingly sophisticated DNA techniques that provide "molecular clocks" to date the remains of our ancient ancestors. But a new analysis that instead examines fossil teeth provides an alternative approach — ...
UNESCO panel recommends adding Japan's Mozu-Furuichi tombs to World Heritage List
A UNESCO advisory panel has recommended adding two ancient tumulus clusters in western Japan, including the country's largest keyhole-shaped mound, to the World Cultural Heritage list, a government official said Tuesday. Among the sites is the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku in Osaka Prefecture, officially called ...
