Historic battlefields across Scotland are to be given more protection. A list of the country's most important battlegrounds is being drawn up and is expected to be complete by 2011. Councils will then have to consider a site's history when deciding planning applications, although building on battlefields will not be forbidden. The scheme was officially unveiled on the 320th anniversary of the Battle of Killiecrankie, the first major battle of the Jacobite Risings. Culture Minister Michael Russell said: "There's a real passion and affection for Scottish history, not just in Scotland but worldwide, and names such as Bannockburn, such as Culloden, such as Flodden - failures as well as successes - are known worldwide and people want to know that we in Scotland are looking after these places and remembering their importance. "This is not to say that there won't be change, there's always change in the every landscape, but the change has to be sensitive and the change has to take account of the fact that these are very important places." [...]

An Egyptian mummy and a lock of Mary Queen of Scots' hair are two of the artefacts to go on display at a Lancashire college. The collection will be showcased at Stonyhurst College, a 16th Century former manor house near Clitheroe. Other items include a 17th Century Persian astronomical calendar, a hat belonging to St Thomas More and Arthur Conan Doyle's school desk. They will be on display from 4 August over the summer months. The Egyptian mummy is the preserved body of a young boy aged about five or six years at death and is about 2,500 years old. It was discovered in the 1850s by a Jesuit missionary and archaeologist with a strong scientific interest in Egyptology and brought back to Stonyhurst. During the tour of the college, visitors will see the desk on which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle carved his name, the table on which Oliver Cromwell slept before the Battle of Preston and Jacobite pistols. Katherine Walker, marketing director at Stonyhurst, said: "It will be a rare opportunity to see artefacts that are both sacred and secular. "Stonyhurst is a Grade I listed building and renowned for its magnificent towers and gardens. [...]

Earth's first animals may have evolved in salty lakes, not oceans, a new study suggests. Evidence for simple life on Earth stretches back billions of years, but the first multicelled animals didn't appear until a few hundred million years ago. Many scientists have argued that these first, complex creatures arose in the oceans. It just seems like a fairly reasonable thing to assume, given the chemical and environmental stability of the oceans," said Martin Kennedy of the University of California, Riverside. But a new study of one of the oldest known fossil beds has revealed abundant amounts of a mineral called smectite, which forms in salty, alkaline lakes—not seawater. Southern China's Doushantuo formation, which dates back 600 million years, contains well-preserved fossil embryos of some of the earliest known animals, including sponges, jellyfish-like creatures, and early forms of a group of extinct corals. At the time those animals lived, fungi and primitive plants had already colonized the land and were gradually increasing the levels of oxygen in the atmosphere. Lakes absorb atmospheric oxygen more readily than the ocean, so early lakes may have become the first hospitable environments for animals, said Kennedy, lead author of the study, appearing in the current online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [...]

Restoration workers have uncovered a well-preserved, long-hidden mosaic face of an angel at the former Byzantine cathedral of Haghia Sophia in Istanbul, an official said Friday. The seraphim figure — one of two located on the side of a dome — had been covered up along with the building's other Christian mosaics shortly after Constantinople — the former name for Istanbul — fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and the cathedral was turned into a mosque. The mosaics were plastered over according to Muslim custom that prohibits the representation of humans. Some of the mosaics were revealed when the domed complex was turned into a museum in 1935, but the seraphim had largely remained covered, Ahmet Emre Bilgili, who heads culture and tourism affairs in Istanbul, told The Associated Press. Two Swiss architects saw the two seraphim during restoration work ordered by the Sultan in the mid-19th century but the figures were covered up again, Bilgili said. "It is the first time that the angel is being revealed," he said, adding that the figure had been covered with metal and plaster. "It is very well preserved." [...]

Experts would now work to uncover the second seraphim, which was also plastered over and covered by metal, Bilgili said.

Following the recent destruction of part of an archaeological site in Khuzestan province by state controlled Iran’s National Oil Company’s subcontractors, an Iranian archaeologist claimed the site is the location of the lost Partho-Sasanian city of Azem. The ancient city of Azem was located 35 kilometres east of modern city of Ahvaz, the modern capital city of Khuzestan Province, beside the Gargar River, one of the branches of Karun River. The anciant city believed once had a large population prior to its destruction.  Apparently a pre-Islamic inscription was unearthed during the bulldozing the site which points out to its ancient origin. The language of the inscription whether it was Parthian-Pahlavi or Sasanian-Pahlavi was not disclosed. According to archaeologist Hamid Reza Farrokh-Ahmadi, the city was mentioned in the ‘Figures of the Climates’ written over 1100 years ago by Iranian Geographer Estakhri.  “Regrettably, ICHHTO does not care about the faith of the site, not understanding that these ancient sites are our national identity, and when they are ignored our identity is threatened”, said Farrokh-Ahmadi speaking to the Persian service of Mehr News agency. [...]

Crews from the Bay Area and Scotland are preparing to do a laser scan of Mount Rushmore this fall. The project will create a nearly precise digital 3D image of the iconic mountain from all angles.  It will give archaeologists the information needed to repair or rebuild the monument in case it is ever damaged by an attack, earthquake or other disaster. The technology was pioneered by Orinda-based CyArk. The company is working to digitally preserve cultural heritage sites around the world. [...]

Officials of the regional department of archeology and museums have urged the Unesco and federal department of archaeology to save the Buddhist stupa and monastery from the illegal digging and excavations. The request was made after the two officials of the federal department of archaeology and museums sub-regional office, Taxila, found illegal excavation and theft of the ancient artifacts from the Buddhist monastery. In a report submitted to highups of Ministry of Culture, the officials said the stupa and the monastery had been badly damaged by the excavator s digging the sites with heavy equipment. ‘And, most probably they have also taken away two or three small statues of Buddha,’ the officials reported. The officials said if the proper excavations under official patronage were carried out, it would not only help to preserve the cultural heritage but also promote tourism in this area where researchers, students of archeology, tourists and scholars from across the world come to visit the ancient civilisation. [...]

Two men have agreed to make a "significant" donation to the Historic Places Trust (HPT) after digging up items at an archaeological site in Central Otago. Campbell Munro Withington, 46, a journalist, and Alexander John McLean, 69, a teacher, pleaded guilty in Queenstown District Court yesterday to damaging or modifying a site without HPT approval, the Otago Daily Times reported. They, and a third man against whom charges were dropped, accompanied a TV3 camera crew to Coal Creek in the Nevis Valley in 2007 in hope of discovering an old mining village known as the North Pole. The court was told that about 400m from Coal Creek they reached a site which was they did not believe was pre-1900. The camera crew wanted some action footage so the men dug up a shovel and bottle. Judge Michael Crosbie said the proper action would have been to record the site and wait for a professional to examine it. [...]

Archaeologists found highly valuable artifacts at the St. Ivan Island near the coastal town of Sozopol during their research there, FOCUS News Agency correspondent reports. Apart from the pleasant surprise of the untraditional burial in the narthex of a monastery, the team of archaeologists also found an engraved cross over a marble capital, the image of which is characteristic for the IX-X century. “Before we believed that the monastery was dated back to the XIII century, which was proved by a written material about its restoration. The cross and the marble pillar of the altar bar make us believe that the bottom chronological line of monastery’s establishment dates back to the X century. Another interesting thing we found is a piece of inscription, which was found around 25 years ago and which Academician Vasil Gyuzelev published. [...]

Selon les responsables de l’Office national de gestion et d’exploitation des biens culturels protégés (Ongebcp), il a été décidé l’année dernière d’amorcer une opération d’envergure en vue de réhabiliter et de protéger définitivement les sites archéologique de Tamentfoust. Depuis, rien de concret n’a été fait. Les travaux devaient consister une première phase en vu nettoyage qui toucherait tous les sites archéologiques se trouvant à Tamentfoust, pour procéder ensuite à la construction d’une clôture qui protégera en particulier des ruines se trouvant à l’entrée de la ville et ce, contre les actes de pillage et de dégradation. A cela devait s’ajouter l’installation d’une loge pour les gardiens et une signalisation appropriée qui indiquera l’histoire de ces ruines pour les visiteurs. Ce programme ambitieux est resté dans les tiroirs de l’administration et n’a jamais été mis en œuvre, laissant ainsi libre cours aux pilleurs de tout acabit qui s’adonnent toujours à leur sinistre besogne, faute d’une protection efficace. Hormis la réhabilitation du fort turc, aucune autre prise en charge pour le reste des vestiges archéologiques n’est à signaler. [...]

Conservators in Berlin piece together the Tell Halaf fragments over 60 years after they were damaged by Allied bombs. A group of 30 monumental sculptures from Tell Halaf, in Syria, have been reconstructed after being pulverised into 25,000 fragments in a bombing raid in World War II. Dating from soon after 1000 BC, the basalt statues were on display in Berlin until a combination of fire and water caused devastating damage.Following the war, there were legal and political problems in even considering restoration. Although the reunification of Germany in 1990 eased the difficulties, conservators initially feared that reconstruction of the sculptures would be impossible. However, the painstaking work eventually began in 2002 and is finally nearing completion.Tell Halaf lies in north-east Syria, close to the Turkish border and is now a Kurdish region. The site’s origins date back to 6000 BC, in late Neolithic times, but arguably the most important remains are those of the Aramaean civilisation, in the tenth century BC.In 1899 Tell Halaf was discovered by Baron Max von Oppenheim, a German diplomat based in Cairo. He later sought permission from the Ottoman authorities to excavate the site between 1911 and 1913. Work was interrupted by World War I, and his final dig took place in 1927. [...]