Sting Operation Breaks Smuggling Ring

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—A husband and wife and two other men were arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury on allegations that they were involved with smuggling artifacts from Peru to the United States. The four defendants each face one count of smuggling and one count of interstate transport of stolen goods. The investigation by Homeland Security agents revealed that the accused were able to bribe Peruvian officials to get the artifacts, which had false certificates stating that the pieces were replicas, out of the country. 

Police Recover Stolen Sculptures

TAMIL NADU, INDIA—A special team of police assigned to solving a rash of temple burglaries arrested four people accused of looting stone and copper statues. The officers were able to recover 26 of the ancient statues that had been stolen from some of the many temples in the town of Kumbakonam when the arrested men confessed the name of their dealer. Artifacts have also been taken from temples in the towns of Swamimalai and Pasupathikoil.

Byzantine Lantern and Wine Press Unearthed

HAMEI YOAV, ISRAEL—A large, 1,500-year-old wine press was found during salvage excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in southern Israel. The archaeologists think that fine wine was made for export at the site, which is located near the road to the port at Ashkelon. From Ashkelon, wine was shipped throughout the Mediterranean. A Byzantine ceramic model of a church decorated with floral motifs and crosses was also unearthed. “An oil lamp inserted into it through the decorated opening illuminated the inside of the model. Since the crosses also served as narrow openings, the light was disseminated via them and shadows of crosses were projected onto the walls of the building where the object was placed,” said excavation director Rina Avner. The wine press will be incorporated into an events garden at a spa.

Volunteers Excavate Medieval Monastery

TRIM, IRELAND—Irish archaeologists and a team of volunteers are excavating a thirteenth-century friary and its cemetery, where Geoffrey de Geneville, a French nobleman and an ancestor of Richard III, was buried. Funding for DNA testing would be needed to try to identify his remains, however. The site will eventually become an archaeological and public park. “Ireland’s greatest asset is its people and its heritage, and what we’ve done is try and put them together,” said archaeologist Steve Mandal.

Ming Dynasty Tomb Unearthed

BEIJING, CHINA—An intact Ming Dynasty tomb decorated with religious murals has been found during construction work in Jiangxi Province. Most of the 600-year-old paintings are in poor condition, although a section on the eastern wall is well preserved. The images depict peonies, lotuses, chrysanthemums, and sticks of bamboo in red, black, blue and yellow. Ming Dynasty murals are rare in southern China.

Cattle Enjoy Bronze Age Monument

WEST CORNWALL, ENGLAND—A Bronze Age monument known as Men-an-Tol is being used as a rubbing post by grazing cattle, according to Ian McNeil Cooke of the Save Penwith Moors action group. “I noticed cattle hair on the holed stone with hoof prints in the churned up ground surrounding all three stones,” he said. The cattle have recently been introduced to the land as part of a natural way to keep the grass short. Tradition holds that children passed through the hole in the 4,500-year-old monument would be cured of rickets, and that women will soon become pregnant if they pass through the stone seven times backwards at full moon. “We are working with English Heritage to look into these claims and to ascertain whether there is any need to review grazing management for the area,” said a spokesperson for Natural England.

Museum Show Ponders Tolkien’s Inspiration

BASINGSTOKE, ENGLAND—Could a cursed Roman ring have inspired the writing of The Hobbit? It had been thought that JRR Tolkien was inspired by the Niebelung legends, but an exhibition at The Vyne, a sixteenth-century home built for King Henry VIII’s Lord Chamerlain, explores the possible link between a Roman gold ring and author. The name inscribed on the large, precious ring, which is part of the collection of the house, is mentioned on a curse tablet that was found some 100 miles away. “Among those who bear the name of Senicianus to none grant health until he bring back the ring to the temple of Nodens,” it reads. In 1929, archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler consulted with Tolkien, an Anglo-Saxon scholar, about the ring and the unusual name of the god mentioned in the curse. The Hobbit was published in 1937.

Third Key Ingredient Found in Maya Blue

VALENCIA, SPAIN—Spanish researchers have detected the pigment dehydroindigo in Maya Blue, the extremely durable blue paint used by the Maya to decorate their walls, codices, and pottery. The pigment is formed when indigo oxidizes during heating. “Indigo is blue and dehydroindigo is yellow, therefore the presence of both pigments in variable proportions would justify the more or less greenish tone of Maya Blue,” said Antonio Doménech of the University of Valencia. Varying the temperature and the cooking time may have allowed the Maya to control the color of the paint. Clay is another ingredient in Maya Blue that makes it long lasting.

Archaeologists Seek War of 1812 Ship

CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA—Two hundred years ago this week, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Gallatin exploded due to an accident and sank in Charleston Harbor. Three crew members were killed and five were severely injured. The Gallatin had been charged with enforcing maritime regulations and conducting incoming cargo inspections for the Treasury Department, and during the War of 1812, performing combat patrols and seizing enemy ships. Archaeologists will use side-scan sonar to look for the wreckage and the ship’s eight cannons. “The odds are long. If we don’t look, we’ll never know,” said Jim Spirek of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Genetic Markers May Link Brazil and Polynesia

BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL—A possible genetic link has been found between the late nineteenth-century Botocudo people of inland, southeastern Brazil and Polynesians, supporting the unlikely suggestion that Pacific Islanders traded with the peoples living on the west coast of South America thousands of years ago. Of the bone samples that were analyzed from 14 Botocudo skulls, mitochondrial DNA from 12 of them matched a Palaeoamerican haplogroup. Mitochondrial DNA from two of the skulls, however, is found in a haplogroup common in Polynesia, Easter Island, and other Pacific Islands. That haplogroup is also found in Madagascar, so it may have come to the Botocudo through the nineteenth-century slave trade. “We currently don’t have enough evidence to definitively reject any of these scenarios,” said molecular geneticist Sérgio Pena of the Federal University of Minas Gerais. 

Structures of Pluto’s Gate Uncovered in Turkey

ISTANBUL, TURKEY—Francesco D’Andria of the University of Salento announced that he has unearthed the structures of Pluto’s Gate, known as the portal to the underworld in Greco-Roman tradition, at the World Heritage site of Hierapolis in southwest Turkey. The remains of a temple, a pool, and a series of steps above a cave that emits poisonous gases were found, in addition to an inscription with a dedication to Pluto, ruler of the underworld, and Kore, or Persephone, whom he abducted. Before Hierapolis became a Roman city, the Plutonium’s cave was used in local religious rites by the eunuchs of the goddess Cybele.

Riace Bronzes Await New Home

REGGIO CALABRIA, ITALY—The restored Riace Bronzes, two full-sized sculptures of nude, bearded warriors discovered off the coast of Calabria in 1972, have been kept in temporary quarters at a regional government office for the past three years while Reggio Calabria’s National Archaeological Museum is under renovation. “I know it’s not nice seeing them horizontal, but we can’t stand them up again until they’re in their final placement in the museum,” said Simonetta Bonomi, Calabria’s archaeology superintendent. The fifth-century B.C. Greek bronzes may have been thrown from a ship traveling from Greece to Rome to lighten the load during a storm.