An archaeological team with the University of Alabama is working to save artifacts from an eroding stretch of the Black Warrior River’s bank on the north side of Moundville Archaeological Park.Cultural resource assistants Petrina Kelly, left, and Ron Stallworth, right, work with cultural resource investigator Jera Davis on an excavation salvage Monday on the bank of the Black Warrior River at Moundville Archaeological State Park. [Credit: Erin Nelson/The Tuscaloosa News]
“This is a salvage operation to get as much as we can,” said archaeologist Jera Davis, who is part of the team excavating the site.
The sites along the bank overlooking the river have been endangered by rapid erosion caused by a shift in the river channel. The salvage effort is a stopgap measure until UA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can agree on a plan to stabilize the stretch of riverbank along the wooded northern border of the park, according to Matt Gage, director of the UA Office of Archaeological Research.
“Since 2010, we have really seen a major change in what is happening with the erosion in this area,” Gage said.
The university and the Corps are trying to work on a feasibility study, he said.
The stabilization work would likely be funded by local and federal matching funds, with the Corps responsible for the stabilization and the university assisting with the archaeological work at the site.
At a site below the raised walkway that runs along the edge of the bank, the team has been excavating a midden heap — or trash pit — for about a week.
The bank below the excavation is a steep slope of exposed sandy soil where the trunks of toppled cypress and gum trees protrude from the silt at the water’s edge.
Gage estimated the staff has about six to eight months of salvage work along the riverbank on the edge of the park. The salvage by the archaeologists needs to be done before the stabilization work begins and before the valuable archaeological deposits slide down the slope into the river.
Only about 15 percent of the massive Moundville complex has been excavated. The section threatened by the river is among the least explored, according to Davis.
The site overlooking the river was likely one of the first and last places to be occupied at the complex, which was inhabited from roughly the 11th to 16th centuries by Native Americans of the Mississippian culture. The site was a religious and commercial center, home to both elite and commoners of the culture.
Based on materials found in the trash pit, experts say the sites near the river were likely the residential areas for the elite members of the society. The items include such things as shards of elaborate ceramics and mineral pigments from the Midwest, Davis said.
The trash pits offer glimpses of daily life at the sprawling complex, once the second largest of its kind in what is now the United States.
Moundville is eligible as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site, Gage said.
Erosion along the bank is speeding up, he warned.
“Every day, we are losing a little bit of Moundville,” he said.
In the past, a natural jetty formed by silt deposits at the mouth of Carthage Branch to the east of the park helped protect the stretch of riverbank by redirecting the current. The recent changes to the river channel eroded the natural barrier and began to cut away at the bank along the Moundville site, Gage said. He estimated that approximately 30 meters of riverbank has been lost since 1969. The Corps of Engineers stabilized a stretch of riverbank northwest of the park roughly 25 years ago with riprap and other stone to prevent erosion.
While the Corps was previously able to stabilize the riverbank on the northwest corner of the park with aggregate, the erosion occurring now is a more challenging engineering problem because of the steep slope of the bank, which drops almost immediately into the river channel, Gage said.
Gage anticipates the project could cost anywhere from $7 million to $11 million.
“It all depends on what the Army Corps of Engineers decides is a possibility,” he said.
Author: Ed Enoch | Source: The Tuscaloosa News [January 26, 2015]
Every city throughout the United States has been impacted by the recent economic recession. The combined forces of the credit crisis and the foreclosure crisis led to plummeting home prices in every region of the country. The ripples were felt from San Francisco condos to homes for sale. However, some metropolitan areas were able to avoid the worst of the turmoil and are now emerging from the mess faster than the rest of the country.
The recovery is swiftest in those areas that didn’t have as much of a housing price run up to begin with, either because the economy in those areas has stayed healthy or the economy has been limited for decades and residents have adapted or left. The top recovering areas also had lower rates of sub-prime and negative amortization loans financed in the years leading up to and during the crash.
In December of 2009, Forbes Magazine released a list of the number of loans that were foreclosed upon in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. Forbes then calculated the percentage of loans that were descending into further delinquency versus those that were improving.
For example, the number of foreclosed homes in Austin was examined to see which loans continued towards the path of complete default versus those which inched their way back towards normalcy. The lower the rate of deterioration was for a given area, the higher their corresponding ranking with regard to recovery.
Here are the cities that fared best by that measurement and are recovering the most quickly:
1. Harrisburg-Carlisle, Pa. 2. Austin-Round Rock, Texas 3. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah 4. Buffalo, NY 5. Knoxville, Tennessee
Source: Forbes, Francesca Levy (12/09/2009)
The Pennsylvania region of Harrisburg, and the Austin area of Texas were rated the best, followed by Ogden, Utah and Buffalo, NY. The homes seem to be recovering quite well as that region came in fifth in the study.
Top 5 Recovering Real Estate Markets in the U.S., 7 out of 10 [based on 512 votes]
All people on the Earth needs the safety and though they only stay at home, they should make sure that they have a safe home. There are a lot of ways you can make your house protected, for example install security system in your home can be really good idea. There are a lot of security companies which offers the security service for your dwelling, but us interests really worthy ADT Security Systems.
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Authorities are looking for whoever dug up rocks from an archaeological site in Sedona and threw them over a steep embankment. The U.S. Forest Service says it happened Dec. 16 at Jordan Cave near the trailhead.Officials are seeking out the individuals in this photograph who may have information about the vandalism of an archaeological site [Credit: U.S. Forest Department]
Patrol Capt. Jon Nelson says several people were spotted removing the rocks, some dug out of the prehistoric floor of the site. The Forest Service has distributed a photo of three people who it says might be able to help with the investigation.
It's a federal crime to vandalize archaeological resources. Penalties range from a $5,000 fine and six months in jail to a $20,000 fine and a year in jail.
New Fine Arts Center becomes the first public building constructed in a small Texas city for last thirty years. Local artists and active workers, parents and teachers, historians and collectors of national creativity participated in center building. All of them thought over what should be their place for public meetings
Hi-tech Audience
Project by Kell Muñoz Architects is almost 2000 sq.m., a hall 975 places and an audience completed with the hi-tech audio-visual equipment. The project budget has been limited enough, $5.7 million dollars. This building of time declaring a multicultural modernism, traditional for district (Rio Grande Valley), mixed with the international modernism associating with Mexico.
Art Center in Texas
To allocate a new public place, the construction facade has been raised. The front composition from the bright vertical strips organized according to a color spectrum, very brightly allocates a building in a silent and harmonious landscape.
Hirshhorn Museum soon will cardinally change appearance, and without especial and cardinal changes. The New York architects from bureau Diller Scofidio + Renfro will add an existing complex with two easy structures in the form of blue spheres which will allow a museum to open additional spaces during a season. The sphere on a roof precisely reminds eggs on a museum of El Salvador of the Distance.
The Unusual Museum in Washington
In one of spheres the audience on 1,000 visual places will take places. Through transparent walls of a sphere spectators can enjoy not only a show, but also possibility to peep for the visitors of a museum walking on galleries. In the friend, a smaller sphere on the size there will be a cafe.
Estimated cost of realization of 5 million dollars, now the project is in a stage of study of the concept. Under plans, pavilions will open in 2011 year. However, if statements Fine Arts Commission) be required and National Capital Planning Commission, realization will be postponed for couple of years.
Two pavilions which should become a tribute of memory Daniel Burnham which will note 100-year-old anniversary, have opened in Millennium Park (Chicago). Designers — two modern legends: Ben van Berkel and Zaha Hadid. Though, pavilion Zaha Hadid has been left unfinished, but pavilion opening even in a semikind has received the good criticism: “the Aluminium design of pavilion bewitches, to crowd has very much liked”, — has told Sallie Gaines, the press-secretary of action.
Burnham Pavilions by Ben van Berkel & Zaha Hadid
Expecting pavilion Zaha Hadid opening, it is possible to receive now already aesthetic pleasure from the second work, pavilion Ben van Berkel. It consists of two parallel panels, a roof and a floor, connected by three support. The pavilion will be highlighted especially at night.
To receive the maximum impressions, you need to walk very quickly on pavilion.
The building for company T Bailey Inc is made as factory expansion on manufacture of steel pipes. The architect of the project — Tom Kundig from studio Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects — used huge pipes as a design element.
We Make the Pipes!
Total area of office of 1,100 sq. m. For construction of office architects used directly that product which is made by the customer. Visitors will get to a building on huge pipes. In a huge vertical pipe the large fan which will condition air at the main office is placed. The conditioner will be charged by energy of the sun.
The interior corresponds to stylistics. The concrete floor, open structure, a covering minimum. The roof inclination will direct streams of rain water to a garden, for watering of trees growing there.
Bar in Las Vegas, work of the Japanese studio “Design Spirits Co., Ltd” became one of winners of competition The Great Indoors Awards. The Chinese restaurant is in one building with very large casino and hotel on 3,300 apartments.
Luxury Relax & Consume
The project has won a nomination “Relax and Consume”. Walls and a ceiling are covered by a white openwork pattern from a steel.
Habitual registration of an interior — division into various zones by means of various "samples". In the given premise there is one magnificent feature — an absolute openness, absence of columns. Designers have decided to use this fact and have issued all interior in uniform style. The space has turned out unique and picturesque.
Each skyscraper in Chicago is continuation of History of Skyscrapers which has begun for a city in 1885 with building Home Insurance Building. "Tower" in height of 42 meters (plus two floors have been completed in 1891, having finished height to 50 meters) became the first-ever building exceeding level in five floors. New Aqua Tower — height of 250 meters, the sculptural facade of a structure creating illusion of waves is unique.
The Unique Architectural Structure
Calcareous rocks, characteristic for area of Great Lakes became a prototype of a wavy facade. Such architectural decision it has not only visual value, and is functional; waves are used as viewing platforms, and also a shadow veil. Building parameters; 82 floors, 250 meters in height, 215 hotel rooms (with 1 on 18 floor), 476 apartments (with 19 on 52 floor), 5,100 sq. m. trading and office areas, an underground parking, a 8-storeyed cellar a total area of 32,000 sq. m., a terrace with gardens, pools, arbors, paths for walks and run.
They are tattered yellowing fragments of bygone civilisations, ancient manuscripts that open a outstanding window on preceding millennia, including the earliest days of Christianity. But papyrus scrolls are also now increasingly hot items in the distinctly 21st Century globe of the on the web auction trade.Papyrus trading is becoming feverish with 15 tattered lines of Homer selling at £16,000 [Credit: Telegraph]
A rectangular scrap measuring about 4.five inches by 1.five inches and featuring 15 partial lines of Homer's epic poem The Iliad in the elegant hand of a 4th Century Egyptian scribe was just [DEC] picked up by an unidentified European purchaser for £16,000 right after a feverish Net auction battle.
That value was way above the posted estimated but is standard of the sums that collectors will now devote to lay their hands on these fingerprints from the previous. Indeed, it is not just modern day art that has been setting jaw-dropping records at auction lately - so have ancient scrolls.
When a fragmentary parchment sheet from the 3rd century AD featuring portions of Paul's epistle to the Romans was bought at Sotheby's for £301,000 auctioneers and antiquity authorities alike have been stunned.
But even though there is no suggestion of any impropriety in these unique sales, scholars are alarmed by the burgeoning online trade as some unscrupulous sellers also cash in. They portray a no cost-ranging trade, particularly on the on line auction giant eBay, exactly where precious documents are carved up for sale, potentially stolen goods are trafficked and forgers can flourish.
Brice Jones, a papyrologist and lecturer in New Testament and Early Christianity at Concordia University in Montreal, has turn into an on the web scrolls sleuth, scouring auction web-sites for manuscripts that are usually incorrectly labeled or their provenance unclear.
A couple of pieces are straightforward forgeries. Most famously, the papyrus fragment called the Gospel of Jesus's Wife created headlines for apparently overturning almost two millennia of theological teaching that Jesus was unmarried, but is now widely viewed as a forgery.
Considerably a lot more distressingly, some sellers are dismembering papyrus books to sell things page-by-page, a financially lucrative endeavor that amounts to small extra than vandalism of ancient works.
A single eBay papyrus seller turned out to be two sisters who ran an online beauty supplies store. They had inherited a Book of Revelation from which they cut person pages to sell on an ad hoc basis to fund the wedding costs for one.
But Mr Jones has also identified a proliferation of scrolls becoming sold of which the origin and ownership is unknown or unclear. A fragment of papyrus with neatly penned Greek script of Homers Iliad, 565-580, 4th Century AD. Ex Hamdy Sakr collection, London, formed in the 1960's. There had been only two serious bidders on the piece and it probably went a lot greater than either of them had anticipated.
Papyrus itself is a tall, fibrous reed plant that grew along the shallow banks of the Nile River in Egypt. 'Papyrus' is the Latin type of the Greek word papuros, from which the English word 'paper' is derived.
The papyri - mostly written in ancient Greek and Coptic - variety from items such as rare biblical texts or the lines of the Iliad to hum-drum but fascinating each day records of book-maintaining accounts or letters amongst loved ones members. All exert an incredible lure for collectors, historians, archaeologists and theologians.
But under American and Egyptian law, only antiquities that can be verified currently to have been in private hands ahead of the early 1970s can be traded. Those guidelines are intended to avoid looting and end the export of papyrus that is generally still identified by Bedouin tribesmen, preserved by the arid desert situations. But critics say that lots of sellers skirt or ignore the guidelines on Internet internet sites that are difficult to monitor and regulate.
The disapproving tone from academia also reflects a deep philosophical objection by many scholars to how manuscripts flow by means of private hands, fearing that priceless scripts will disappear forever amid the frenzy of trading.
"The study of ancient papyri is a fascinating field of historical inquiry, simply because these artefacts are the fingerprints of true men and women from a bygone era," Mr Jones told The Telegraph.
"Each time I study a new papyrus, it is as if I am peeking over the shoulders of the scribe who wrote it, eavesdropping on a conversation that in several cases was meant to be private: an argument in between a husband and wife, a divorce contract, an invitation to dinner, a letter in between a father and son.
"But when private collectors acquire papyri for private enjoyment and restrict scholarly access to them, the instant consequence is that we drop worthwhile historical info that would otherwise advance our understanding about ancient people."
Nonetheless, the owner of a little specialist World-wide-web auction corporation, who asked not to be named due to the fact of the sensitivity of the situation, pushed back against these criticisms.
"We are scrupulous about producing certain of ownership despite the fact that not everybody is so fussy and it's accurate that there are some people today who know practically nothing who are out attempting to make a buck in the wild West of the Web," he mentioned.
"But some of these archaeologists and purists simply hate the reality that that any private person would personal, invest in or sell antiquities.
"They ignore the reality that things like this have always been collected. Indeed, some of these scripts have been commissioned by the private collectors of that time.
"Collectors play a crucial function in preserving these items with their interest. A lot of these items would stay hidden, forgotten, fading away, unknown to the scholars, if there was not a industry for them."
Amongst specialists in the research of early Christianity, there is specific concern about the emergence of eBay as a absolutely free-wheeling marketplace for antiquities, with low opening bids and normally exaggerated language to lure in possible purchasers.
An eBay spokesman, however, stated that its150 million buyers and sellers "must make certain listings comply with our clear policy on artefacts. We operate with regulators, law enforcement and other parties which includes the Egyptian Embassy to apply this policy, and if a listing of concern is identified we will need proof that it was legally exported and take away any listing exactly where this proof is not supplied."
As a specialist who spends his life studying such scrolls, Mr Jones also has concerns for the preservation and conservation of sensitive centuries-old documents when they are handled by traders.
He cited then instance of the well-known papyrus codex of the Gospel of Judas, which published in 2006. It was stored by one particular of its owners in a protected-deposit box on Long Island for sixteen years, and then placed in a freezer by a possible purchaser who thought that was the ideal way to preserve it.
"The benefits of these choices have been horrifying: the codex crumbled into quite a few hundreds of tiny pieces and what was after a practically total codex was now badly deteriorated and tricky to restore," he stated.
The booming trade has clearly revealed to scholars how numerous papyri have survived down the centuries.
"This prompts the question: just how quite a few ancient manuscripts are sitting in the basements, match boxes, drawers, safes, or shelves of private collectors about the globe?" Mr Jones asked lately.
"It is nearly certain that numerous ancient manuscripts or fragments thereof are just sitting in the dark closets of their collectors, decaying and crumbling to pieces. The public demands to be conscious of the importance of the preservation of antiquities, for the reason that when they are gone, they are gone forever."
Author: Philip Sherwell | Source: The Telegraph [December 28, 2014]
