artifacts

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Rare Jar Smashed by Boy, 4, Is Back on Display With New Sign

'Please don't touch,' museum advises visitors

(Newser) - A rare Bronze Age jar accidentally smashed by a curious 4-year-old visiting a museum in Israel was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together. Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the Hecht Museum in Haifa when their youngest...

Ancient Necklace Likely Looted From Turkey Returns Home

Boston Museum of Fine Arts is applauded for its move to return piece

(Newser) - A stunning gold and carnelian necklace displayed at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts for four decades is heading back "to its rightful home," per Smithsonian . The museum has returned the 2,500-year-old necklace to Turkey, from which it was likely stolen in 1976. Jewelry taken from Turkey'...

Just 8 of These Exist. We the People Can Now Bid on It

Minimum bid for rare 237-year-old copy of US Constitution found in NC filing cabinet: $1M

(Newser) - Historical document appraiser and collector Seth Kaller spreads a broadsheet of paper across a desk. It's in good enough condition that he can handle it, carefully, with clean, bare hands. There are just a few creases and tiny discolorations, even though it's just a few weeks shy of...

Museum to Kid Who Broke Ancient Artifact: Come Back

Israel's Hecht Museum let the 4-year-old who accidentally smashed jar piece it back together

(Newser) - A 4-year-old boy who accidentally broke a rare 3,500-year-old jar in an Israeli museum has been forgiven and was even invited back on Friday to help piece the jar back together, as curators hoped to turn the disaster into a teachable moment. Alex Geller, the boy's father, said...

Curious 4-Year-Old Shatters Museum's Ancient Jar

Bronze Age artifact does not survive an inquisitive boy at Israel's Hecht Museum

(Newser) - The clay jar at Israel's Hecht Museum had withstood the tests of more than three millennia, but it proved no match for a curious 4-year-old boy. The BBC reports that the child was "curious about what was inside" the 3,500-year-old jar that sat unprotected at the museum'...

A Rare Peek at Locked-Away Titanic Artifacts

BBC pays a visit to the secret warehouse storing thousands of items salvaged from the wreck

(Newser) - Our fascination with the Titanic has kept it in the headlines for the past 112 years, but some of its secrets are still under lock and key. The BBC had the chance to visit a secret warehouse in Atlanta, Georgia, filled with 5,500 of the ship's treasures, but...

Man's Find on Goodwill Site: a Piece of Washington's Tent
Man Hides Historic $1.7K
Goodwill Buy From Wife
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Man Hides Historic $1.7K Goodwill Buy From Wife

Richard Moore scooped up fragment of George Washington's tent from nonprofit's online store

(Newser) - If you prefer online shopping to in-person browsing, Goodwill's online store offers that option for not only its typical gently used clothing, books, and housewares, but also rarer items with heftier price tags. The nonprofit is now boasting of a "historic sale" via its site—a tattered piece...

Woman's $3.99 Thrift Store Find Is Priceless Mayan Artifact

Vase purchased in Maryland is actually ceremonial urn dating back 2K years

(Newser) - Five years ago, Anna Lee Dozier was browsing the shelves of the 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland, when she stumbled upon an interesting find in the clearance section. "It looked old-ish, but I thought maybe 20, 30 years old and some kind of tourist reproduction thing, so I...

US Returns $80M in Stolen Italian Artifacts

And says there are more such returns to come

(Newser) - Italy on Tuesday celebrated the return of 600 or so works of art looted from the country years ago and finally returned by the US. Together with 60 items the US repatriated to Italy last year, the antiquities are worth more than $80 million—an amount CNN reports is just...

Site Highlights Early Humans' Mastery of Wood, Largely Lost

Spear Horizon site shows evidence of splitting, carving wood 300K years ago

(Newser) - The Stone Age, launched roughly 3 million years ago, marks the time when tools first appeared. Early humans used stones for hammering, stones for grinding, and sharp stone flakes as knives and projectile points. But the Stone Age might just as well be called the Wood Age, German archaeologist Thomas...

With Signs of Afghan Looting, 'I Feel As If My Soul Is Dying'

Taliban denies looting at ancient sites despite evidence in satellite images

(Newser) - The Taliban's vow to protect the cultural treasures of Afghanistan may have been little more than lip service, according to researchers, who've uncovered evidence of the widespread bulldozing and looting of ancient sites. The Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation at the University of Chicago used satellite images and...

Auction Said to Be 'Nothing Short of Remarkable' Is Halted

Sale of Nelson Mandela artifacts has been suspended as South Africa fights for them

(Newser) - The planned auction of dozens of artifacts belonging to Nelson Mandela has been suspended pending a court application to completely halt it. The online auction had been scheduled by New York-based Guernsey's auction house on Feb. 24, in conjunction with Dr. Makaziwe Mandela, the eldest daughter of the anti-apartheid...

Mad Scramble in US Museums on Native American Displays

New rules handed down by Biden administration prohibit such exhibits without consent from tribes

(Newser) - Museums across America have started closing exhibits highlighting Native American artifacts in an attempt to comply with new Biden administration rules that mandate venues get the OK from Indigenous tribes before displaying those samples. The requirements under the updated Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , originally passed in 1990,...

Archaeological Dig May 'Change the History' of Brazil

Scientists find relics that push back the time of first inhabitants by about 1.4K years

(Newser) - Archaeologists weren't too surprised when they began unearthing relics from a dig in northeastern Brazil. They were stunned, however, to keep finding relics the deeper they dug in the coastal city of Sao Luis, reports AFP . In all, they've unearthed four layers representing different eras of human habitation,...

Confederate Relics Unearthed in South Carolina River
South Carolina River Cleanup
Makes Surprising Civil War Find
in case you missed it

South Carolina River Cleanup Makes Surprising Civil War Find

Hundreds of relics uncovered from Sherman's March to the Sea

(Newser) - Hundreds of Civil War relics were unearthed during the cleanup of a South Carolina river where Union troops dumped Confederate military equipment to deliver a demoralizing blow for rebel forces in the birthplace of the secessionist movement. As the AP reports, the artifacts were discovered while crews removed tar-like material...

These Auction Items Touched Titanic Survivors, and the Dead
3 Rare Titanic Artifacts
Top $100K at Auction
UPDATED

3 Rare Titanic Artifacts Top $100K at Auction

Pocket watch taken from body of 2nd-class passenger sells for nearly $119K

(Newser) - Someone paid more than $100,000 for a century-old dinner menu, reflecting "ongoing interest" in the Titanic, according to auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd. The menu—coveted by Titanic enthusiasts as the only one to survive from April 11, 1912, three days before the luxury ocean liner...

Metal Detector Uncovers a Bronze Age Treasure Trove

Jewelry collection comes from Swiss area with few known settlements from that time

(Newser) - A Swiss man who set out to explore a freshly plowed field with his metal detector stumbled upon what some are speculating are treasures once contained in an ancient jewelry box. From the carrot field in Güttingen, 50 miles northeast of Zurich, Franz Zahn first pulled a bronze disc...

US Tourist Arrested for Hurling Museum's Statues to Floor

Lawyer says man was suffering from so-called 'Jerusalem syndrome'

(Newser) - Israeli police have arrested an American tourist at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem after he hurled works of art to the floor, defacing two second-century Roman statues. The vandalism late Thursday raised questions about the safety of Israel's priceless collections and stirred concern about a rise in attacks on...

Oldest Wood Structure Is a Surprise to Researchers
'When I First Saw It,
I Thought This Can't Be Real'
in case you missed it

'When I First Saw It, I Thought This Can't Be Real'

Oldest known wood structure found to predate modern humans by almost 200K years

(Newser) - Archaeologists have uncovered what is thought to be the world's oldest known wood structure, whose estimated age suggests woodworking is at least 175,000 years older than our species. A research team discovered five very old pieces of wood in waterlogged sediment near Zambia's Kalambo Falls in an...

1.9K-Year-Old Roman Swords Have a Story to Tell

Remarkably well-preserved weapons are discovered in an Israeli cave

(Newser) - Four Roman-era swords, their wooden and leather hilts and scabbards and steel blades exquisitely preserved after 1,900 years in a desert cave, surfaced in a recent excavation by Israeli archaeologists near the Dead Sea, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Wednesday. The cache of exceptionally intact artifacts was found about...

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