The University of Phoenix stadium, the site of the Super Bowl XLII, has its roots in a network of sophisticated canal systems once built by the ancient Hohokams, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times:
"Centuries ago, native people known as the Hohokam built an agricultural civilization on a stretch of desert known today as Arizona's Valley of the Sun. Some archaeologists believe the brutally arid climate forced the people to scatter in search of milder environs, leaving behind miles of irrigation channels, stick-figure pictographs and no forwarding address. From the ashes of that civilization rose one of America's fastest-growing assemblies of planned urban developments, golf courses and cactus, and it will host Super Bowl XLII on Feb. 3."
Here is an interesting website about this mysterious civilization believed to have lived in central and southern Arizona for about 1,500 years.
Courtesy: Michael Tang/University of Colorado at Denver
The treasure was sealed in seven trunks and hid in a vault carved out of rock. It was protected by a steel gate bolted shut by seven locks, with keys held by seven people.
The vault could only be opened if all seven keys were used. If any of the key holders died, the key reverted to his eldest son.
It is not a fable. It is the real story of the archaeological treasures kept in Kabul's National Museum. In 1979, when the Soviets Union invaded the country, the museum had some 100,000 objects on display.
As well as causing two million deaths, the Russian invasion destroyed the country's economy and the cultural infrastructure. Many treasures were plundered.
But the low point for the museum came in 2001, when the Taliban regime, who opposed to any art displaying human or animal forms, wiped out not only the colossal figures of the Bamiyan Buddhas, but also 2,500 priceless artifacts at the museum.
Luckly, the Taliban did not get it all.
Already in 1988, when the situation was deteriorating, the heroic museum director Omar Khan Massoudi and his staff moved the best of the collection -- intricate ornaments, figurines showing dragon-like creatures and winged goddesses, pendants and necklaces dotted with precious stones -- to a vault in the Central Bank at the presidential palace. Of course, Massoudi was one of the seven key holders.
It was not until 2003, more than a year after the overthrown of the Taliban, that the Afghan government confirmed the treasure was safe: 22,607 objects had survived the devastating regime. Restoration began, and the idea of a large travelling exhibition was launched.
Now 250 restored objects are on display in Amsterdam's Nieuwe Kerk Museum. In May, the exhibition will travel to Washington, DC, to start a 17-month tour of the US.
Coming from four archaeological sites — Tepe Fullol, Ai Khanum, Tillya-tepe, and Begram — the pieces show varying artistic influences. Indeed, ancient Afghanistan, strategically located on the trade routes between East and West, was at the crossroads of civilizations in central Asia.
The artifacts also provide an exhaustive view of the country's history from ancient times (2nd millennium BC) to the Buddhist dynasty of the Kushanas (1st to 3rd century AD).
The highlight is the gold treasure found at a site in northern Afghanistan called Tillya Tepe, "The Golden Mound."
Discovered by Russian archaeologist Victor Sarianidi in 1978, it was the funerary outfit of elaborately dressed women and a warrior buried at Tillya-tepe. It is considered one of the most important post-war discoveries of the 20th century.
"There is more to Afghanistan than war and destruction," says the exhibition's catalogue.
Published in the Afghan languages of Dari and Pasthu, the catalogue will be distributed to every school in Afghanistan.
Here is a slideshow of some of the artifacts on display. The Amsterdam exhibition runs until 20 April 2008. In May it will go to Washington, DC, to start a 17-month tour of the U.S.
According to Paolo Cocchi, Tuscany’s culture councilor, Michelangelo’s David should stand in a dismissed railway station on the edge of the city ring road.
The place, known as Stazione Leopolda, is set to become a new concert hall.
“Florence has already reached the point at which tourism becomes unsustainable," Cocchi wrote in a letter to the minister of Culture and the Mayor of Florence. "To enlarge the area visited by tourists and reduce congestion in the centre would bring benefits for everyone."
Every year, around 1.3 million tickets are sold for the Galleria dell’Accademia, where David has been the star attraction for 135 years.
Moving the towering sculpture would be "extremely risky," according to Franca Falletti, the director of the Accademia Gallery. "There are cultural and conservation reasons that render this idea baseless and inopportune. The proposal is one that absolutely cannot be shared. For historical and scientific reasons we can affirm that David's home is in the centre of Florence."
Living in Florence, I can say that Michelangelo’s David is regularly tortured by extravagant ideas, and Cocchi's proposal doesn’t come as a surprise.
Bella Firenze is going to change -- and not for the best, I’m afraid.
Local authorities have planned to run a new tramline that would slice through Piazza del Duomo, the cathedral square, and run by side of the Accademia.
In the next future, 32 metre-long super-trams will run through monuments, Renaissance palaces and museums housing fragile art works.
No wonder they want to move David from the Accademia. Tremors from the tram -- not the impact of mass tourism-- would be a constant threat to the world's most beautiful statue.
What do they have in common?
Much more than you might think.
The first image has become distressingly popular in Naples these days. The other shows some analysis carried on a titulus pictus, a painted inscription used to communicate decrees and measures in ancient Herculaneum.
It was discovered in 2006 (here is my article ) on the eastern side of the city's water tank, but the find is now even more topical.
Yes, Naples' mountains of garbage aren't just a modern-day problem: the inscription shows that even before Mount Vesuvius buried Herculaneum under 75 feet of ash, local authorities were already trying to reign in trash.
"No Garbage Dumping," said the inscription, which was issued by two joint magistrates, Rufellius Romanus and Tetteius Severus.
Local authorities were very strict, at that time. Transgressors, if free citizens, would have had to pay a big fine. Lashes were reserved for slaves.
Well, this isn't strictly archaeological. However, you have to dig hard to find what a group of Da Vinci theorists claim to have unearthed in Leonardo's masterpieces.
Yes, another Da Vinci code is emerging from Leonardo's brushes, according to a forthcoming book by a group called "The Mirror of The Sacred Scriptures and Paintings," who believe that biblical images -- showing horrendous faces, demons and four legged women -- are hidden within the master's artworks. Here is my article and here is how Da Vinci's paintings are mirrored:
It's an intriguing theory. Nevertheless, the claim has raised skepticism in Italy. It seems you can make mirrored images do what you want them to do.
In his website computer scientist Mariano Tomatis shows what you can obtain by mirroring Pellizza da Volpedo's "Fourth Estate," Munch' s "The Scream," and even a picture of Marilyn Monroe.
Here is a slideshow I created with pictures from his website. While the first two images show some sort of extra-terrestrial lifeform and a figure similar to an unidentified flying object, in the third picture an emaciated Marilyn has nothing less than the Holy Grail impressed upon her nose and forehead.
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