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The ancient city of Zeugma, in Turkey, is scheduled to be excavated. If all goes well, the digging would have started on July 25, 2005. Since I write my articles in advance, I can only assume that it has begun on schedule. In the first century BC, Rome had only eight legions between the Black Sea and the Red Sea but two of them were in this area. It was one of two towns know as the twin towns. The other was Samosata. It was a fortress city and people came from all over, to trade, because it was located near several key trading routes and was on the silk road. Some say it was the main point where east met west. It grew as an urban center. There were ruins that were known for several hundred years near the village of Turcoman but no one realized the extent of these ruins and that they might belong to the famous city of Zeugma. Supposedly Alexander the Great was the first to build a bridge at this site and that is why the city is sometimes called the bridge city. One of his generals, Selevkos Nicator founded the city. Procopius states that Justinian built the wall around the city. The word Zaugma is Greek for yoke. The government has declared that the city is of special archaeological interest. One of the problems in excavating the city is that since the Birecik Dam was built, it put 100% of the ruins underwater. So many artifacts have been recovered from the area that a new museum had to be built to house them. Among what was found was the Mars statue, 3700 coins, a mosaic that measured 1,000 square meters, 100,000 seal imprints, a fresco that is 150 square meters, a turkish bath, archive buildings and many other items. It is believed that the population of the city may have reached 80,000 people. Turkey is known to have more ancient ruins than any other country.

An ancient city in China named Hubei that is over 6,000 years old has been discovered. The city was surrounded by water on three sides, of course it is in ruins now. It was mostly constructed using, what we could call today, pottery. It is described as having been built mostly of fired red earth. The city is considered a very significant find because many people are interested in how early cities developed along the Yangtze River.

Goodbye Assur! Unfortunately for the archeological community the government in Iraq has decided to build a dam that will destroy the ancient city of Assur, the city that gave the name to the country Assyria. This will be the greatest loss to archeology in modern times. The dam will be built across the Tigris River. This city has been called the most important city in the near east. It was occupied for over 2,000 years. It makes one wonder why, after such a long period of time, that people left, doesn't it? I thought that the building of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt was the worst thing to happen to archeology but some archeologists are saying that there will be even more loses with this dam. So why is this dam so important to Iraq? They claim that Turkey is taking most of the water from the river and that it is so bad that there are now places that you can walk across. Asssur was Assyria's capitol in 2,000 BC. Babylon captured it in 614 BC. Many of the artifacts found so far, reside in German museums because they began excavating the site in the early 1900s.

Foot prints have been discovered in Mexico. Hey so what, they have also been discovered in my yard, but these foot prints are very different and much more significant. They are over 40,000 years old and are human. The reason they are so significant. is the fact that until now, it was believed that man didn't arrive on this continent until tens of thousands of years later. Well there goes another theory. The footprints were found near the city of Puebla. They were discovered in an abandoned quarry near Cerro Toluquilla volcano. The footprints were preserved in the volcanic ash. It was believed that North America was only settled about 11,500 years ago when people crossed the Bering Straits from Russia. Archeologists now believe that these early people were curious about the volcano and they walked along the beach toward it. When the volcano released ash it covered the footprints preserving them.

Archaeologists in Peru have found that a "quipu" which is a arrangement of knots and strings used to pass information, was used thousands of years earlier then previously believed. The device was found in the oldest city in the Western hemisphere, Caral. Previously it was believed that these rope devices dated back to about 650 AD, but the last one found is estimated to be 5,000 years old.