| Wednesday, September 29, 2004 |
| ENDANGERED TREASURES OF THE PAST |
(by: HENRY WRIGHT Archeologist, University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, said our history is vanishing. He's studied the remains of civilizations worldwide, and he woriees that "50 years from now we won't have enough of an archaeological record left to answer fundamental operations about our past-- and our possible futures." Here's the list of the most endangered archeological sites, and they're in trouble)
NO. ONE.... IRAQ EARLY CITIES (4000 to 1200 BC) some of the Mesopotamia's earliest cities are being destroyed by thieves seeking statue, bronzes, and tablets with cuneiform writing.
NO. TWO.... TOWNS OF MALL(500 BC to AD 1400) on the Niger's inner delta, thousands of townsites, including the oldest in Sub-Saharan Africa, are being mined for terra-cotta artifacts.
NO. THREE.... MISSISSIPPIAN CULTURE(AD 800 to 1700) to improve agricultureal yield and make way for development in America's Mississippi Valley, thousands of Native American villages and temple centers have been flattened.
NO. FOUR.... KHMER CITIES AND TEMPLES(AD 200 to 1350) these ruins in Southeast Asia are no longer shrouded by jungle. Conitnuing conflict makes it easy for armed gangs to loot irreplaceable Kmer statuary for profit.
NO. FIVE....SHIPWRECKS In all the world's seas, shipwrecks-- some more than 5,000 years old -- are now accessible to latter-day treasure hunters who are equipped with high tech sensing and recovery technologies.
NO. SIX.... MAYA CITIES(AD 250 to 900) they're being stripped of Stelae and carved stone reliefs just as we're learning to read their glyphs as the history of early Maya Royalty.
NO. SEVEN.... PERU'S ROYAL TOMBS (200BC to AD1450) grave robbing has accelerated as thieves have learned where tombs are hidden. because of Peru's early dynasties did'nt develop a writing system, studying the rich fabric and gold jewelry from tombs is the best way for us to document the rise and fall of the first Andean Kingdoms.
(read about it at nationalgeographic.com/magazine/0310/feature3.) |
| posted by infraternam meam @ 11:33 PM |
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Name: infraternam meam
Home: Chicago, United States
About Me: I am now at the prime of my life
and have been married for the past 25 years.
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