Archaeology News Online

A total of 59 artefacts were seized last week in Varamin, Tehran Province, during a police raid, a local cultural heritage official said. "The artefacts date back to the 3rd millennium BC," Sahab Pouzaki, the head of the Varamin office of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, said during a press conference on Thursday, Mehr News Agency reported. "Preliminary studies show 29 relics trace their roots back to Mesopotamian civilizations in southwestern Iran but more research is required," he said. The haul includes everyday objects, statues, jewelries and beads bearing writings. Pazouki said the objects are particularly valuable because very few artefacts belonging to Mesopotamian civilizations have been found in southwestern Iran. Mespotamia (Ancient Greek for the land between rivers) was an ancient region located between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, comprising most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, eastern parts of Syria, southeastern Turke

The results, which include information during the last glacial and interglacial periods, showed that relief from the current dry spell across the interior of the Middle East is unlikely within the next 10,000 years. Graphs showing data measured from two stalagmites from QK Cave in Iran in comparison with other proxy records.  A: Blue line is δ18Oc from QK14 and green line is QK8. Both are from the same came but ~75m apart from one  another. Primary driver for long scale climate change is orbital configuration.  Colored diamonds represent U-Th  age tie points with their associated error bars. B: Orange line is δ18Ow measured in the NGRIP ice core.  C: Purple line is δ18Oc measured in Sanbao Cave, China, part of the Hulu Cave record (Wang et al., 2008).  D: Dark blue line is δ18Oc measured in Soreq Cave, Israel (Bar-Matthews et al., 2003). E: Light blue line is δ18Oc measured in foraminifera collected from deep sea sediment cores (Lisiecki et al., 2005)  [Credit: Sevag Mehterian, UM Rose

Arts and crafts retailer Hobby Lobby has agreed to forfeit thousands of illegally smuggled ancient Middle Eastern artifacts obtained from antiquities dealers, the company and U.S. officials said on Wednesday. Cuneiform tablet, one of several artifacts smuggled from Iraq by owners of Hobby Lobby, according to a civil complaint  filed on Wednesday by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. Under an agreement with the federal government,  the company consented to return some of the items and improve the way its collects antiquities  [Credit: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York] The forfeiture will include some 5,500 artifacts purchased by Hobby Lobby Inc that originated from the region of modern-day Iraq and were shipped under false labels, as well as an additional $3 million to settle the civil charges, the Department of Justice said in a statement. "The protection of cultural heritage is a mission that (Homeland Security Investigations) and its partner U.S. Cus

A total of 59 artefacts were seized last week in Varamin, Tehran Province, during a police raid, a local cultural heritage official said. "The artefacts date back to the 3rd millennium BC," Sahab Pouzaki, the head of the Varamin office of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, said during a press conference on Thursday, Mehr News Agency reported. "Preliminary studies show 29 relics trace their roots back to Mesopotamian civilizations in southwestern Iran but more research is required," he said. The haul includes everyday objects, statues, jewelries and beads bearing writings. Pazouki said the objects are particularly valuable because very few artefacts belonging to Mesopotamian civilizations have been found in southwestern Iran. Mespotamia (Ancient Greek for the land between rivers) was an ancient region located between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, comprising most of modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, eastern parts of Syria, southeastern Turke