Slate may show early colonist efforts to communicate with Indians.

With the help of enhanced imagery and an expert in Elizabethan script, archaeologists are beginning to unravel the meaning of mysterious text and images etched into a rare 400-year-old slate tablet discovered this past summer at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America.

Both sides of the scratched and worn 5-by-8 inch (13-by-20 centimeter) tablet are covered with words, symbols, numbers, and drawings of people, plants, and birds that its owner or other users likely encountered in the New World.

There are differences in the style of handwriting, which may mean that more than one person used the tablet as a sketch pad and possibly for writing rough drafts of documents, Kelso noted.

Researchers who examined an Egyptian mummy with the latest imaging technology found no evidence that a packet inside her was an offering to the gods of the ancient world.

Previous tests led to speculation that the packet was a bird mummy something researchers said would be an unusual and exciting find but high-resolution tests Thursday at Quinnipiac University showed no remnants of a bird.

Instead, researchers said the packet and a few others in the mummy likely contained organs, which were sometimes preserved and placed back in mummies for use in the afterlife.

The mummy, known as Pa-Ib and believed to be about 4,000 years old, has been in the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport since the 1890s and was a prized exhibit of the flamboyant showman P.T. Barnum.

Two press conferences and dozens of interviews by experts over the past two weeks have failed to quiet the unprecedented public debate on the ownership of an ancient tomb discovered in Anyang, Henan province.

Archaeological officials believe the tomb belongs to Cao Cao (AD 155 to 220), a legendary ruler during China's most dramatic historical period, the Three Kingdoms (AD 220 to 280). But skepticism spread like wildfire soon after the discovery was revealed to the public on Dec 7.

Gao Xing, director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said as an archaeologist he trusted his peer's expertise to arrive at a valid conclusion.

The arrival of 2010 is spurring looks backwards and fears of history repeating itself. That's because in the past two centuries, there have been revolutions in Mexico—both in years ending in 10.

First there was 1810, when an insurgent priest named Miguel Hidalgo gave a nighttime battle cry that sent thousands of Mexicans into the streets to oust the Spaniards. Then came 1910, the year that was supposed to be the government's crowning centennial. Parades were held, banquets given—and within a month, the Mexican Revolution began.

The numerology isn't fringe thinking in Mexico. It's regularly discussed in the nation's biggest newspapers and by politicians. On a recent morning, leading newspaper El Universal awoke its readers with three foreboding opinion columns on the matter: "The Fear of 2010," "The Impending Revolution" and "2010: Third Revolution?"

This kind of talk has become so common that the imagined revolution even has a name already: the estallido social, or the "social explosion." Nearly every day, Mexican politicians can be heard warning darkly of its coming.

President Obama has tapped George W. Bush, a prime target of Democratic criticism during the presidential campaign for his response to Hurricane Katrina, to help lead Haiti relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated the country two days ago.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Thursday that Obama, who spoke with Bush Wednesday evening, is looking to replicate the relief effort that Clinton and George H.W. Bush led after the 2004 tsunami that struck Asia.

Obama's Republican predecessor may seem an unlikely candidate for the job considering how Obama and other candidates, even Republican John McCain, wailed on him in 2008 for what was widely seen as a bungled response to Katrina in 2005.

Obama accused the administration of "half-hearted leadership" and "half-measures" during one visit to New Orleans in early 2008. After taking office, Obama continued to criticize his predecessor over the response to the devastating 2005 hurricane blamed for more than 1,600 deaths.

Conservation work has been completed on the Papal Bull which granted medieval Scotland its first university, the University of St Andrews.

The Bull of Foundation is one of a series of six letters from the Pope, sent in 1413, which together brought the University fully and formally into existence.

This document embodies the 1412 charter, issued by Bishop Henry Wardlaw, which granted the masters and students of St Andrews recognition as a properly constituted corporation. It marks the culmination of three years of academic development and the birth of the third oldest university in the English-speaking world.

Having been stored for years in a portfolio folder, this surviving piece of the history of Scottish education was showing its age, as it approached its 600th anniversary.

A team of experts at the University of Dundee Book and Paper Conservation Studio spent three weeks giving the Bull its 600 year service, at a total cost of £600 - just £1 for every year of its life.

Work included surface cleaning, the repair of vulnerable edge tears, the realignment of the document's silk tag, and the provision of a cutting-edge storage box and mount to allow safe storage and display.

With the Papal Bull preserved and protected, plans are now being developed for a `tour of goodwill' to allow people the opportunity to connect with Scottish history and the 600th anniversary of the University of St Andrews.

University of St Andrews Muniments Archivist Rachel Hart said: "We are the custodians of a vital piece of evidence not only of the University's history but also of its place as an international seat of learning within the history of Scotland. The Bull of Foundation is an amazing document to see and I hope that with the 600th anniversary approaching, many may have the opportunity."

In May 1410 a group of masters, mainly graduates of Paris, initiated a school of higher studies in St Andrews, the seat of the greatest bishopric in Scotland and location of a monastery noted as a centre for learning. By February 1412 the society had established itself sufficiently to obtain a charter of incorporation and privileges from the Bishop, Henry Wardlaw. This granted the masters and students recognition as a properly constituted corporation, duly privileged and safeguarded for the pursuit of learning. However, recognised university status and the authority to grant degrees could only be conferred by the Pope or the Emperor as heads of Christendom.

At time there was a schism in the Church and two rival papacies. Scotland believed that the Avignon Pope, now exiled in Peñiscola, was the lawful Pope. Accordingly, confirmation was sought from Pope Benedict XIII and in August 1413 a series of Papal Bulls were issued. With their promulgation in St Andrews Priory on 4 February 1414, the University of St Andrews may be said to have come fully and formally into existence.

The University of St Andrews will be marking its 600th anniversary in 2013.

Oliver Stone, the controversial film director, is facing another backlash after suggesting that Hitler was made an "easy scapegoat" by history.

Stone, who has previously been accused of promoting conspiracy theories and glorifying violence in his films, has made a new documentary series which he says will place historical figures including Hitler and Stalin "in context".

In the trailer for "The Secret History of America" the director says: "You cannot approach history unless you have empathy for the person you may hate."...

Stone said he did not want to make an "easy" history programme and talked about trying to understand people he despises. His series will aim to uncover little reported facts that shaped the modern United States.

Supporters of Israel have worried of late that much of the campus discussion about the country has taken place in rallies and counter-rallies on the quad, and not in the classroom. But a study released Wednesday found significant growth in the past few years in the number of courses focused on Israel. Further, these courses are appearing in a wider range of disciplines than in the past and do not focus exclusively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the military history of Israel.

At 246 colleges for which data were collected in both 2005-6 and 2008-9, the number of courses focused on Israel increased by 69 percent, to 548. The colleges studied included a wide range of research universities and liberal arts colleges, and a mix of institutions with larger and smaller Jewish student populations. Of the top 20 national universities in U.S. News & World Report rankings in 2008-9, all but one offered Israel-focused courses and 12 offered four or more. Three years earlier, five offered no such courses and only three offered four or more....

The relationship between courses about Israel and Israel studies programs and Middle Eastern studies has been controversial at times. Many advocates for Israel accuse Middle Eastern studies scholars of being hostile to Israel or of ignoring Israel, while many of those scholars say that some pro-Israel groups get upset about any criticism of Israel and don't respect academic freedom....

The saying "History is everywhere" once again has proven to be true — this time in a pasture in Clinton Township.

John and Kathy Allen discovered their property, Armstrong Farms, holds the remains of a Grand Army of the Republic building, where Civil War veterans met starting in 1886.

All that's left of the G.A.R. — an organization similar to a VFW or American Legion, but whose members fought for the Union in the Civil War — is the building's foundation, but the historical significance is still there, John Allen said.

Allen also found two Civil War uniforms, complete with velvet collars, in the corner of his barn and is researching how to preserve the artifacts. Considering the uniforms sat in a barn for at least 40 years, they're in surprisingly good shape.

Nazi death-camp guards could expect the firing squad or hanging if they fled their posts, a historian told the trial of alleged SS guard John "Ivan" Demjanjuk in Munich yesterday.

Munich University historian Dieter Pohl was giving evidence for a second day at the trial where Demjanjuk, 89, is accused of being an accessory to 27,900 murders at the Sobibor death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland in 1943.
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Pohl detailed how Nazi Germany recruited Soviet prisoners of war to wear the SS uniform and carry out killings during the Holocaust.

Asked what happened if they tried to stop the work and flee after seeing the death camps, Pohl said they could expect to be executed as an example.

Yet a significant number did run away, Pohl said, and not all were executed after being caught. Some were given given military prison terms or incarcerated in concentration camps instead, he explained.

Pohl described how an SS base at Trawniki in occupied Poland trained 4,000 to 5,000 ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe and POWs to do SS work. They were dubbed the Trawniki men.

In one case, two Trawniki men and five inmates joined together to escape from Sobibor. The Nazis caught both Trawniki men and one inmate and executed them.

'I'm not Hitler'

As Pohl spoke, Demjanjuk lay on a stretcher with his mouth open and a trademark blue cap over his face.

Throughout the trial so far, the normally chatty former Ohio factory worker has not spoken, though he was animated on Tuesday outside the courtroom, quipping to a German television team, "What's up? I'm not Hitler!"

Pohl said the Trawniki men also helped in mass shootings of Jewish prisoners judged to be too sick to work or be transported by rail.

Prosecutors at the Demjanjuk trial have produced what they say is Demjanjuk's SS personnel record, but have no witnesses who remember seeing the Ukraine-born man at Sobibor.

Trawniki men volunteered to collaborate with the enemy, according to Pohl, after seeing their fellow Soviets die in the atrocious conditions and starvation of German-run POW camps.

"Not much is known about the behavior of individual Trawniki men," said Pohl, while adding that there were differences between those who identified entirely with the Nazis and others who quietly passed news or warnings to inmates.

Using texts and images, a University of Arkansas researcher has for the first time reconstructed the time when the use of porticos -- roof-covered structures supported by columns -- gave way to loggias, or recessed porticos.

In an article in the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, architecture professor Kim Sexton accounts for the time between the 7th and 12th centuries when there are no surviving porticos. In European history, loggias represented more than just interesting architectural features. They also served important cultural functions.

"It's important because we had porticos in Roman times, and then they come back in the Renaissance," she said. "It's unaccounted time -- what happened in between?"

Sexton argues that they returned to prominence because different ethnic groups used them "to display their judicial systems." As court proceedings were held outdoors, "they used different styles to frame that." At times there was German law and at other times, Roman law, and certain loggia announced each style.

"In this competitive kind of culture, they start to use the portico again," Sexton said. "From there it comes back into prominence in the Renaissance and late medieval Italy."

Loggias were "used to display activities that were kind of new, and maybe people felt unsure about their value. So that they wanted to display there was something good about the justice system." She compares it to television today, as a powerful medium that can influence behavior.

Loggias and porticos have long interested Sexton. "They seem at once so transparent in their function because they seem like simple shelters," she said. "But then, why did they come to be built with such magnificent architecture by some of the best architects of the Renaissance?"

Sexton discovered images in several medieval sources -- the center of a gem, illustrations of the book of Psalms, illuminations from law codes and encyclopedias. The article's most important image, which is in color on the journal's cover, shows the only known instance of a king in a loggia where a trial is actually in progress.

"If you see them empty, you're not getting what it's about," she said of loggias. "You have to see it when they're full of activity."

Sexton is associate professor of architecture, Fay Jones School of Architecture, University of Arkansas.

Journalism has a long and storied tradition in the United States. Indeed, since the days before the U.S. was a country, journalism has flourished. Beginning with the first publication of a newspaper in the Colonies (Publick Occurrences both Foreighn and Domestick) in 1690, and continuing to this day with journalists appearing in broadcast format and on the Internet, journalism has been a huge part of America’s development. And journalists have always had some sort of influence. Here are 25 of the most influential journalists in history, divided into print and broadcast:

Print Journalism

Even though newspapers are in decline, print journalists have had an important place in history. Many print publications are moving to the Internet, and many print journalists today augment their columns by writing blogs. Here are some of the most influential print journalists in history:

1. John Peter Zenger: This man published the New York Weekly Journal in the 1700s. He wrote unflattering things about the British government, and in 1735 he was arrested and tried for libel. He was found not guilty, since what he wrote was based on fact. His case not only helped influence the American Revolution, but established one of the litmus tests for libel.

2. Benjamin Franklin: We know that Benjamin Franklin had a lot of interests. But many people don’t realize that the inventor and founding father was also a journalist. His The Pennsylvania Gazette began in the 1730s, and Franklin used it to help get his ideas out there and influence the populace leading up to the American Revolution.

3. William Randolph Hearst: Hearst was well known as one of the biggest publishers and journalists of his time. He started with The San Francisco Examiner, and went from there. Hearst was one of the instigators of “yellow journalism” which started a whole branch of journalism that involved sensationalism.

4. Joseph Pulitzer: This man is so famous that his name is on the prize given for the best journalism contributions. Joseph Pulitzer wrote for newspapers and later purchased and ran the New York World. After it became obvious that his circulation war with Hearst was becoming problematic for the sensationalized stories, he gravitated toward truth in journalism. He was indicted for libel when he exposed an illegal payment to the French Panama Canal Company, but since the story was based on fact, the indictment was dismissed.

5. Tom Wolfe: In the 1960s and 1970s, news writing and journalism underwent a bit of a transformation, and was called “new journalism“. One of those at the forefront was Tom Wolfe. This was magazine journalism, and Wolfe helped established a style that was carried on in long-form narrative, using scenes rather than straight-out facts.

6. Hunter S. Thompson: Like Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson was heavily involved in the new journalism movement. He was a proponent of “Gonzo journalism“, in which reporters actually become involved in action of the story, participating in the events, rather than just watching and reporting. He recently committed suicide (in 2005), but his influence on journalism and literary tradition remains strong.

7. Woodward and Bernstein: Admittedly, these are two separate people. But they are forever linked by their stories that brought then-president Richard Nixon down over the Watergate scandal. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are well-known for their investigative journalism and for proving that it was still possible for the press to effectively hold the government accountable.

8. Helen Thomas: This woman is the first lady of print journalism. Helen Thomas is a veteran journalist in the finest tradition, and has been a White House reporter since 1961. She is known for her relentless questions, and for her ability to get to the heart of the matter. Thomas gained new influence and prominence during the administration of George W. Bush for her sharp questions and criticisms.

9. Robert Novak: A moderate/liberal turned conservative, Robert Novak was known for his columns and stories in a variety of newspapers. He was a reporter and later became a Washington insider. He helped play a role in CNN when it was founded, bringing the credibility of print journalism to broadcast journalism. He died in 2009 after a battle with a brain tumor.

10. Judith Miller: One of the most famous journalists of our time is Judith Miller. She was known for her exclusive stories with Ahmad Chalabi in the run-up to the Iraq War, and for her breaking news stories. She is a Washington insider with contacts in high places. Miller gained increased, er, press when she went to jail over the Valerie Plame scandal when she refused to reveal her sources.

11. Seymour Hersh: Recognized as one of the best investigative journalists of the current era, Seymour Hersh is known for his exclusive military contacts, and for his hard-hitting pieces. He is meticulous, and writes for The New Yorker, and his influence helped reshape the debate over the Iraq War.

12. Maureen Dowd: As the only female op-ed writer for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd has significant influence. Her ideas are polarizing, though, and that makes for interesting debate. Dowd is known for her beginning as a gritty reporter, and is now known for her Washington contacts and her ability to influence debate.

Broadcast Journalism

Television and radio changed the look of journalism. There are many broadcast journalists who have influenced journalism, and even the world.

13. Edward R. Murrow: The most distinguished figure in broadcast journalism in the U.S. is Edward R. Murrow. He developed many of the techniques associated with newsgathering for broadcast. His integrity, and his willingness to go up against the “powers that be” was a mark of his career. He influenced public opinion and even policy by exposing the abuses of power in the government.

14. Walter Cronkite: Another icon of American broadcast journalism, Walter Cronkite was known for his investigative journalism, fulfilling his watchdog role, and for his matter-of-fact way of delivering the news as a CBS anchor. He died in 2009.

15. Ted Koppel: Many of the most influential journalists have been TV newsmen, and Ted Koppel is no exception. His newscasts and his newsgathering was a standard of journalism for years. Koppel hob-nobbed with decision makers and interviewed the powerful. Now retired, he hosts a show on Discovery.

16. Dan Rather: Early in his career, Dan Rather was known for his investigations, and for his meticulous newsgathering. He was influential, interviewing the politically powerful, and for exposing government cover-ups. However, a snafu over false documents related to George W. Bush tarnishes his career.

17. Barbara Walters: As one of the most influential broadcasters is Barbara Walters. She was one of the first women to become a successful broadcast journalist. She started as a research and writer, and soon worked up to become an interviewer and one of the faces of television.

18. Tim Russert: Well known for his ability to get the powerful decision makers to explain themselves, Tim Russert is considered one of the most influential broadcast journalists. In order for aspiring Washington insiders to get anywhere, they first have to appear on Russert’s “Meet the Press” and answer questions.

19. Wolf Blizter: One of today’s most influential broadcast journalists is Wolf Blitzer. He is seen everywhere, and is one of the most well-known insiders in Washington. Indeed, his shows and his ability to be heard makes him a force to be reckoned with.

20. Gloria Borger: As one of the broadcasters known for exposing the machinations of Washington, Gloria Borger is quietly influential. Her stories are aimed at helping people understand what is going on, and she is a CBS correspondent and PBS commentator.

21. Katie Couric: Katie Couric is the first female anchor of a major network’s evening news. She has appeared on 60 Minutes and done a great deal in terms of journalism. Now, she anchors the CBS Evening News. She interviews the powerful, and reaches hundreds of thousands in their homes.

22. Cokie Roberts: As someone raised in Washington, and well-acquainted with life on Capitol Hill, Cokie Roberts is an adept at exposing the excesses in government, and offering reason and moderation. Her broadcast career encompasses ABC and NPR, and she also writes a syndicated column.

23. Brit Hume: Fox News isn’t exactly known as a bastion of actual journalism, but Brit Hume, the anchor of Special Report is known for his hard work and integrity. He is recognized as influential, as his weeknight show was the #1 political program in its time slot. He stepped down, though, after saying that he lost his enthusiasm for the job.

24. Jim Lehrer: The venerable Jim Lehrer is know as the most thoughtful broadcast journalist right now. His PBS newscast is known for its insight, and he is respected by his peers and by decision makers as someone with integrity, savvy and good sense.

25. Anderson Cooper: First rising to prominence as a reporter for CNN during Hurricane Katrina, Anderson Cooper is known one of the most influential broadcast journalists around. While he hosts his even show from New York City, he often still travels to report on breaking news. He interviews the rich and powerful, and many enjoy watching his newscast. His “everyman” persona, combined with his classic attractiveness, is one of his most powerful assets as a journalist.

An iconic Canadian history magazine is changing its name to avoid a variety of misunderstandings.

The current issue of the 90-year-old Winnipeg-based bi-monthly, The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine, is the final one to have that name on the cover.

Effective with the April issue, the magazine will be known as Canada's History.

"Use of the word 'beaver' on the internet has taken on an identity that nobody could have perceived in 1920," said Deborah Morrison, president of Canada's National Historical Society. "And increasingly, if we put 'The Beaver' in a heading, we would be spam-filtered out."...

"Canadians were twice as likely not to subscribe because of the title of the magazine, even if they showed an interest in Canadian history," Morrison said, adding there were also a lot of people who thought the magazine was a nature publication....

An Antarctic expedition has found what they believe to be camera parts abandoned by a renowned Australian photographer during a historic trip to the frozen continent nearly a century ago.

James "Frank" Hurley, who died in 1962, was the official photographer of the 1911-14 Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE) led by the country's most famous polar explorer Sir Douglas Mawson. He was also the official photographer of the Australian armed forces during both World Wars.

Members of the current expedition, which is dedicated to restoring Mawson's original wooden huts at Cape Denison, said they had retrieved a plate-changing box from a Newman and Guardia camera dating back to between the late 19th to early 20th centuries, inside Hurley's dark room.

Recently at Discovery News I told you about Neanderthal-made shell jewelry that suggests these hominids were as smart and creative as modern humans were at the time the jewelry was made, 50,000 years ago.

University of Bristol archaeologist Joao Zilhao, who led the project, told me about some other interesting discoveries he and his team made about Neanderthals. One concerns how they harvested shellfish for consumption.

By packaging the harvested shellfish in water-soaked algae, the Neanderthals helped to preserve the shellfish from the point of collection to the place where they ate them, such as Aviones Cave in Spain. This cave is right near the entrance of Cartagena harbor, so it provided "rooms" with a view as well as water resources. Algae remains were found among the shells within the cave.

We always hear about the big game hunting talents of Neanderthals, but this new research suggests that at least some groups enjoyed surf and turf meals. Or surf one night and maybe turf the next.

It’s long been thought that so-called modern human behavior first arose during the middle Stone Age, in “modern” humans—Homo sapiens.

But a new study suggests modern living may have originated roughly 500,000 years earlier—courtesy of one of our hairy, heavy-browed ancestor species.

At the prehistoric Gesher Benot Ya'aqov site in northern Israel, researchers have found the earliest known evidence of social organization, communication, and divided living and working spaces—all considered hallmarks of modern human behavior.

The former hunter-gatherer encampment dates back as far as 750,000 years ago, and must have been built by Homo erectus or another ancestral human species, archaeologists say. Homo sapiens—our own species—emerged only about a couple hundred thousand years ago, fossil record suggest.

At the site, researchers found artifacts including hand axes, chopping tools, scrapers, hammers and awls, animal bones, and botanical remains buried in distinct areas.

Dr. Richard Jones of Lee University will give a slide lecture on biblical archaeology. The lecture is the last program associated with the Museum Center at Five Points’ current exhibit, “Treasures of the Holy Land: Cleveland’s First Museum.”

The slide lecture, entitled “Biblical Archaeology on the Karak Plateau, Jordan” will be given on Jan. 23 at 10:30 a.m. at the museum center.

Jones’ talk will be on the biblical archaeology uncovered during his work through Lee University on The Karak Resources Project which is a multidisciplinary research project that examines the Karak Plateau in central Jordan.

Researchers look at how people from this region used the natural resources in the Biblical past and also how the inhabitants use them today. The team includes researches in anthropology, archaeology, religion, history, geology, and soil science.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Wednesday announced China's six top archaeological discoveries in 2009, including the discoveries of ruins of ancient paper-making workshops and the tomb of Chinese legendary general Cao Cao.

The ruins, spanning from Song Dynasty (960-1279) to Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), were located in the city of Gao'an in eastern Jiangxi Province

Other discoveries are the Lower Xiajiadian site of an ancient civilization between 2200 to 1100 B.C in Chifeng city in Inner Mongolia; the Neolithic ruins at Dongshan Village in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province; the ruins of a city in Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 B.C.) in Chenzhuang Village in Gaoqing County, Shandong Province; the Lu-Clan burial grounds of Northern Song Dynasty at Wulitou in Lantian County, Shaanxi Province.

The top discoveries in 2009 were announced at the CASS Archaeology Forum, an annual academic forum on modern Chinese archaeology since 2002. The forum was jointly organized by the CASS, the Institute of Archaeology CASS and the Archaeology Press.

Argentine courts have launched an investigation into crimes committed at the ESMA Navy Mechanics School during the nation's military dictatorship. The landmark human rights trial is one of the most far-reaching attempts to bring crimes of Latin America's bloody past to justice.

For more than three decades, survivors and their families awaited the trial that finally began on Dec. 11, 2009. During Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship, the ESMA Navy Mechanics School served as a clandestine detention center, used to torture and disappear thousands of people. Now 17 former ESMA officers face charges of human rights abuses, torture, and murder.

The ESMA trial was scheduled to begin in November but was postponed at the request of the defense. Those on trial include Alfredo Astiz, Jorge Acosta, Ricardo Cavallo, and Adolfo Donda—cited by human rights groups as among the most brutal and sinister repressors in the Argentine security forces. In total, 13 marines, two police, one coast guard, and one army official are on trial.

More than 200 witnesses will testify in the historic trial. Groups have stressed the need for witness protection following a wave of threats and the disappearance of a key witness, Jorge Julio Lopez, three years ago. Even President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who has supported the human rights trial, has received threats. While traveling in her presidential helicopter, the helicopter's transit radio signal was intercepted at almost exactly the same moment as the ESMA trial opened. Anonymous voices were broadcast saying the words "kill her," followed by the military hymn that was played when Jorge Rafael Videla took power in the March 24, 1976 military coup. Interior Minister Anibal Fernandez says the threats could be "closely linked" to the ESMA trial....

Israeli archaeologists have confirmed that an inscribed pottery shard, reliably dated by Carbon 14 testing of organic material found with it to the 10th century BCE--the time of King David-- is in fact written in Hebrew, making the shard the oldest known Hebrew inscription. Moreover, both the location where the shard was discovered --the Valley of Elah, well to the west of the Judaen hills--and the translation of the ancient Hebrew text bolster the case of the "traditionalist school" of Biblical archaeologists against the "revisionist school," who have challenged the authenticity of the Biblical account of the history of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah. An account of the discovery and translation of the shard appears online in Science Daily, among other sites.

Another chapter now opens in a sometimes bitterly contested scholarly debate, which has raged at least since the birth of biblical criticism in the 19th century. As played out in the field of archaeology, the generation of traditional Biblical archaeologists, exemplified by Kathleen Kenyon and Yigdal Yadin, contended that their discoveries bolstered the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative. Kenyon believed that she had discovered the ruins of the City of David in her Jerusalem dig. Yadin argued that his discovery of nearly identical six-chambered gates in the excavations of Gezer, Megiddo and Hazor authenticated the description of King Solomon's city building in First Kings 9:15:

“And this is the account of the forced labor which King Solomon levied to build the house of the Lord and his own house and the Millo and the wall of Jerusalem and Hazor and Megiddo and Gezer.”


However, a later generation of Israeli archaeologists challenged the interpretations of Kenyon and Yadin, arguing that their predecessors were influenced by a pro-Bible and Zionist bias. These revisionists argued that the archaeological record actually proved the opposite of what the traditionalists had held. The discoveries at Jerusalem, Megiddo, Hazor and Gezer, according to the revisionists, belonged to a much later era, the 7th century BCE, long after the supposed time of Kings David and Solomon. In their book "The Bible Unearthed," Professors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, insisted that if Kings David and Solomon existed at all in the 10th century BCE, they were "little more than hill country chieftains." There was no golden age of a united kingdom under Kings David and Solomon, no magnificent capital of Jerusalem or Temple of Solomon, and no extensive empire that split into two rival kingdoms, Judah and Israel, after the death of King Solomon. The Biblical narrative, from Genesis through the Books of Kings, according to "The Bible Unearthed," was a myth, the product of a propaganda campaign launched by King Josiah of Judah in the 7th century BCE to further his geopolitical goal of absorbing the rival northern Semitic Kingdom of Israel.

Readers who want to delve more into this debate, as it stood prior to the discovery of the Elah shard inscription, can read "God's Ghostwriters," a New York Times review of "The Bible Unearthed" by Phyllis Trible, Professor of Biblical Studies at the Wake Forest University Divinity School; and "Did David and Solomon Exist?", by Eric H. Cline, Chair of the Department of Classical and Semitic Languages and Literatures at The George Washington University.

The Elah shard strikes a blow for the traditionalists. The revisionist school, exemplified by Professor Finkelstein, contended that the hill-country village tribes of David and Solomon would not have boasted literate scribes who could have written the biblical accounts of Kings David and Solomon and their successors found in the Books of Samuel and Kings. Also, as noted above, they challenged the very existence of a Davidic kingdom that had controlled extensive territories in the land of Israel beyond poor villages in the Judaen hills.

As noted in an editorial in the Jerusalem Post, the Elah shard would appear to prove that, contrary to the revisionist thesis:

• There was an expansive Kingdom of David which extended well beyond the hill country, out to the Valley of Elah.

• The Hebrew language was sufficiently developed in the 10th century. It reinforces what many scholars have long appreciated - that parts of the Bible are very, very old.

• During the reign of King David there were scribes who were able to compose complex literary texts such as the books of Judges and Samuel.

• The find establishes that scholarship was taking place away from kingdom's hub, implying that even greater learning was going on at its heart.

Why, the reader may ask, does an archaeological discovery become the subject of a newspaper editorial. Well, the Jerusalem Post is an Israeli newspaper and many Israelis, both religious and secular, Zionist and anti-Zionist, take biblical archaeology very seriously. But beyond that, the archaeological debate between the traditionalists and the revisionists has serious political implications. Past Israeli leaders such as Professor Yadin, David Ben Gurion and Moshe Dayan, although arch-secularists, believed that biblical archaeology testified that the Zionist enterprise and the establishment of the State of Israel represented the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland. Conversely, the writings of the latter day revisionists, such as Professor Finkelstein, have provided scholarly ammunition for the anti-Zionist viewpoint that seeks to portray Zionism as an European colonial venture foisted on the indigenous Palestinian Arabs.

Most striking to me, however, is not the political significance of the Elah shard, but rather the moral message of its text. The translation of the text of the shard echoes the ethical message of Moses, Samuel and the other prophets of Israel:

"You shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
[and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger."

Already in the 10th century BCE, the people of Israel were busy publishing their moral message to the world.

The scandal has riveted Northern Ireland like few things before. First, Peter Robinson, leader of the province's Protestant-Catholic coalition government, admitted that his 60-year-old wife Iris had embarked on an affair with a teenager two years ago. Then came the allegations that she had obtained $80,000 from two property developers to help her lover set up a café and that Peter Robinson, upon learning of the deal, failed to report it. Now that the Evangelical base of Robinson's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has had time to digest the lurid headlines, the political fallout begins....

But much more is at stake over the next six weeks than one man's political career. The scandal broke at a critical time for the province's shaky power-sharing agreement. For months, the two biggest parties in government, the DUP and the Catholic-backed Sinn Fein, have been at loggerheads over the devolution of policing and justice powers from London to the Northern Ireland Assembly, which was reconvened two years ago following its suspension in 2002. Sinn Fein wants control over the province's police force to be transferred to Belfast to end what it perceives to be a longtime pro-Protestant bias. But many Protestants, including Peter Robinson, are reluctant to change the status quo. Even before Iris Robinson's affair came to light, Sinn Fein had signaled that it could walk away from the power-sharing deal — painfully negotiated throughout the 1990s — if the DUP fails to compromise. Now, the Robinsons' personal crisis threatens to turn an impasse into a political vacuum — with potentially deadly results.

Northern Ireland's watchdog body on paramilitary activity, the Independent Monitoring Commission, said two months ago that dissident republicans opposed to power sharing now pose a greater security threat than at any time in the past six years. On Jan. 8, a Catholic police officer was critically injured when a bomb exploded under his car in County Antrim. And in November, another police officer survived a gun attack by suspected dissidents in County Fermanagh. Many fear that a political collapse could play into the dissidents' hands — and bring more violence. "A lot depends on the next few days in relation to progress on policing and justice," says Michael Graham, a political-history professor at Queen's University in Belfast. "If Sinn Fein don't feel they're getting very far, I think they're likely to pull the plug."...

The dreaded shipworm is moving into the Baltic Sea, threatening artefacts of the area's cultural heritage. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, suspect that the unfortunate spread is due to climate change, and are currently involved in an EU project to determine which archaeological remains are at risk.

The shipworm is capable of completely destroying large maritime archaeological finds in only 10 years, and while it has avoided the Baltic Sea in the past, since it does not do well in low salinity water, it can now be spotted along both the Danish and German Baltic Sea coasts....

'Around 100 wrecks are already infested in the Southern Baltic, but yet it hasn't even spread past Falsterbo. We know it can survive the salinity of the Stockholm archipelago, although it needs water with higher salinity than that to be able to reproduce,' says [Christin Appelqvist, doctoral student at the Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg].

Police have found Claude Monet’s painting Beach at Pourville, stolen nine years ago and worth millions of dollars.

The painting has been found in Olkusz, southern Poland - 41-year-old Robert Z., suspected of the theft, has been detained.

Beach at Pourville was stolen on 19 September 2000 from the National Museum in the western city of Poznan. The painting, worth from 3 to 7 million dollars, located in the Monet exhibition room, was not properly protected – there were no CCTV cameras in the room and the paintings were not in glass cases. The thief cut the painting out of the frame and replaced it with a forgery.

Beach at Pourville is the only painting by Claude Monet in a Polish art collections. It was painted in 1882 and is one of a series of canvases that depict a seascape of Pourville. The museum in Poznan, then in Germany, bought the painting in 1906.

Centuries ago, come September, galleys would be rowed into Mġarr ix-Xini harbour and loaded with amphorae filled with wine that had been pressed in the valley.

Winemakers would fill shallow basins with grapes and, once pressed, the juice would flow through holes and channels into a deeper collecting holder, all carved into the rock.

These wine presses, said to date back to 500 BC, can still be seen embedded in the Gozitan valley and are being studied and documented in a project carried out by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Sannat and Xewkija local councils with the support of Camilleri Wines.

Apart from safeguarding heritage, the project offers an interesting insight into Malta and Gozo's past.

"What is not seen today is that Mġarr ix-Xini valley was functioning as a main artery, as a seaport... It functioned as a huge agro-industrial area," explained Superintendent of Cultural Heritage Anthony Pace, who leads the project together with archaeologist George Azzopardi.

He explained how the presses, dug into the ground, were made of a shallow basin upon which an additional structure was mounted to press the grapes.

The Hamas-run ministry of tourism and antiquities in Gaza on Monday announced the discovery of ancient artifacts near the Egyptian border town of Rafah.

"The most important of the findings are 1,300 antique silver coins, both large and small," said Mohammed al-Agha, tourism and antiquities minister in the Islamist-run government.

He said archaeologists had also uncovered a black basalt grinder, a coin with a cross etched on it, and the remains of walls and arches believed to have been built in 320 BC.

They also discovered a "mysterious" underground compartment with a blocked entrance that appeared to be a tomb, Agha said.

The Palestinian Authority has been carrying out archaeological excavations since the 1990s, but this was the first major find to be announced by the Hamas-run government.

The Islamist movement seized control of the impoverished coastal territory in June 2007 when it drove out forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas.

The archaeological dig, still under way, is close to where a vast network of smuggling tunnels provides a vital economic lifeline amid strict Israeli and Egyptian closures imposed after the takeover.