I never realized it before, but archaeologists get very excited about bodies of land that haven't changed over thousands of years. I guess that this makes sense, because if there were any civilizations living there in the past, there still might be traces of them since the land is relatively undisturbed. It turns out that the North Carolina coast is such a place. Some of us can appreciate that statement more than others. For most of us archeology is a plus, but there are places in the world where people curse the finds that are made. An example of this is when a public works project is going on in an ancient country like Turkey or Italy and right in the middle of the dig, some historic relic is uncovered that stops the whole project, sometimes for years. This is when archeology is not too popular. A recent example of this was the discovery of an ancient seaport in Turkey that has delayed the construction of a tunnel.

Theft of artifacts is a very big problem all around the world and takes on even greater significance in the poorest of countries such as Yemen. One of the problems for Yemen is that the penalty for stealing artifacts has been criticized by many as not being severe enough. The country is also very poor and can one really blame a starving farmer from selling an ancient artifact that he found on his land? Unfortunately it is not only starving farmers that are selling artifacts, but also criminal organizations, making the theft of these artifacts a big business. Suggestions are being made that classes should be given in schools teaching children that it is bad to sell these things. There is an Archeology Prosecutor's Office, but they have released notorious smugglers in the past without having them stand trial. One had previously been arrested and put on parole when he was caught with a bag of precious artifacts which in turn violated his parole. Worse yet, one smuggler was found with 872 ancient artifacts in his home which were seized. He only received a small fine, and the prosecutor's office was ordered to pay the guy for what they took. Is this upside down justice or what? It sort of reminds me of the two border guards in this country that were thrown in jail for shooting a criminal that tried to get across our border.

Some archaeologists have stated that they have found where the first farmers lived. You have to wonder how this was figured out, but anyway they say that the inhabitants of the Khabarovsk Region who lived there in the stone age, were the very first people on earth to till the soil, breed cattle and make earthenware. This is quite a statement and the find is the archaeological equivalent of landing on the moon. Khabarovsk is in Russia and is about 23 miles from the Chinese border. The ancient site was found when a new highway bridge was being built. The bridge is going to extend over the Amur River in Khabarovsk. Talking about the find an archeology museum worker stated,  “It was the first earthenware on the globe, and though it was primitive, with plain decoration, and poorly baked, yet it was a significant landmark in the history of mankind”.

Antikythera Mechanism
Photo Source: GNU Free Documentation License

This is hardly news, but a new important find was made in Rome. It seems that every day something else is being found in the area, but what can we expect, the ancient city of Rome was the biggest in the world at one time and was the only ancient city to have over 1,000,000 people living in it. The next biggest ancient city had about 500,000 residents. A huge cemetery was found that dates back to the ancient Romans. To confuse things, pottery from the middle ages was also found in the area. It seems that people in the middle ages lived where the ancient cemetery was. They probably had no idea that the cemetery was even there. That was not the only find in the area. A tomb was uncovered that is believed to be from the second century and belonged to Marcus Nonius Macrinus, who was an aide to Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The authorities are thinking about building a museum near the tomb.

Ancient tools have been found in Indiana. One was a bone from a white tailed deer that had been fashioned into an awl. If you look closely at it you can see the marks of the tool maker. This tool has been dated back over 10,000 years. When one thinks of archaeological sites, Indiana is not on the top of the list. We are learning however that much of this country was inhabited before even the indians showed up. Before these peoples showed up there were all sorts of animal life dating back hundreds of millions of years. Some very important dinosaur finds have been made in this country. Sometimes with this digs other significant information is found. I am not talking about bones and such, but hard facts, such as the fact that an area might have been completely under water. Facts like this can help make sense of some of the things that are found.

Not everyone agrees with the accepted view of archeology today. Some believe, as I do, that many discoveries have been hidden from us. Why would anyone do this you might ask? There could be several reasons:
1. Archaeologists wanting to protect their reputations.
2. Discoveries being classified as important to national defense.
3. Archaeologists and amateurs not knowing the value of what they had found.

Books have been published, such as Forbidden Archeology by Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson, that question the entire archaeological process and state that scientific knowledge has been suppressed. There is just too much going on that indicates that this is true for it to be ignored. Then there is the question of what is laying on dusty shelves in the basements of museums. Remember that the Antikythera Mechanism laid in he basement of a museum for over fifty years before anyone even gave it a thought. This turned out to be an ancient Greek computer that dates back to at least 100 BC, shocking the entire archaeological community. Maybe before anymore digs are even conducted, all the objects in the basements of museums and universities around the world should be examined?