Englishman John Webster inherited the cup from his grandfather, a "rag-and-bone" man or junk dealer, and had it stored for years thinking it had little value.

"Because he mainly dealt in brass and bronze, I thought that was what it was made from," Webber told the Bournemouth News and Picture Service. "I put it in a box and forgot about it. Then last year I moved house and took it out to have a look, and I realized it wasn’t bronze or brass.

"I sent it to the British Museum, and the experts there hadn’t seen anything like it before and recommended I had it tested at a laboratory. So I paid quite a bit of money for it to be examined by a lab the museum recommended. And they found the gold dated from the third of fourth century B.C."

The cup is 5 1/2 inches or 14cm high with two female faces looking in opposite directions. Experts from the University of Oxford and Harwell Scientifics dated the cup to the Achaemenid empire in the third or fourth century BC.

The Achaemenid empire was the first of the Persian empires. It ruled over major portions of Greater Iran, and was eventually was wiped out by Alexander the Great in 330 BC.

For a video of the auction and interview with John Webster, follow Gold cup auction sale for £50,000.

On top of two new shipwreck site finds, Odyssey will be in front of millions of people worldwide in a new prime time TV series on the Discovery Channel.

Odyssey filed admiralty arrests in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida on two shipwrecks sites in the English Channel. According to a company statement,

The sites both contain cannon and other artifacts which are believed to date from the Colonial period. Odyssey has conducted preliminary surveys but has not yet been able to confirm the identity of either site.

The company said the sites were in international waters and they were currently planning the excavation and conservation of each.

In news earlier in the week, Odyssey also announced that they would be seen in a 11-part High Definition (HD) series on the Discovery Channel to premiere in 2009.

John Ford, president and general manager of Discovery Channel, was quoted as saying:

“This series will give our viewers a front row seat as Odyssey’s archaeological and forensics teams search for sunken treasures and unravel the mysteries of long-lost shipwrecks.

“This compelling 11-part series will show viewers the intense drama of underwater detective work and we are excited to have JWM creating this series for our audiences around the globe.”

The Discovery Channel is watched in countries around the world by hundreds of millions of people. Viewers will get to see "the Odyssey Marine Exploration team as they brave high seas, heavy weather, political red tape and courtroom clashes to keep their research vessels and deep ocean equipment operational on the hunt for underwater archaeological sites and shipwrecks that each have unique stories to tell."

It should be exciting!

Cleopatra was Queen of Egypt, and Mark Anthony a ruler of Rome after Caesar’s death. The pair were famous lovers and each committed suicide in 30 BC after Anthony lost a Roman civil war.

The statue of Aphrodite and a headless royal statue from the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ruled Egypt between 323 and 30 BC, were discovered by a joint Egyptian-Dominican Republic team of archeologists who were looking for Cleopatra’s tomb.

“We have found nothing that indicates the presence of the tomb,” he said, adding that the search for the tombs will restart in November.

For more, read the following embedded article, Archaeologists discover statues of Cleopatra, Aphrodite.

Dig Like an Archaeologist

If you’ve ever had the hankering to work on an archaeological dig, the only thing stopping you could be yourself.

For $25 a day, or thousands for a couple of weeks, you can participate in digs and learn a thing or two, according to an msnbc report.

But how do you get started? Check out that msnbc article, Dig Deeper into Archaelogy. 10 online resources are provided that can help get your hands dirty in a real dig.

Real Crystal Skulls

The film “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is now playing. So, what are crystal skulls? Are they real or movie made up magic?

For a brief overview into their mythology, science and "realness", check out the LiveScience article, Secrets of the Real Crystal Skulls.

For an in depth look, read Legend of the Crystal Skulls.

3,000 Year Old Chocolate Brew

If scientists are right, chocolate drinks could have been made ages ago, as in more than 3,000 years back.

Archaeologists at Cornell University found the residue of the chemical theobromine, which only occurs in Mesoamerica in the cacao plant used to make chocolate. And the pottery holding it dates from somewhere between 1400 and 1100 BCE.

Read the entire article at Scientists Discover Ancient Chocolate Brew.

Two men are responsible for the vandalism, accordion to English Heritage who protects and promote England’s historic environment.

AFP quoted an English Heritage spokesperson as saying,

“Thanks to the vigilance and quick action of the security team at Stonehenge, very minimal damage was caused.

A tiny chip was taken from the north side of the Heel Stone with a screwdriver and hammer, but as soon as the two men were spotted by security guards they escaped over the fence and drove off."

It has been reported that the site had not been vandalized in decades. Ironically, visitors were once encouraged to take pieces of Stonehenge away with them. According to a BBC news account:

At one time, chisels would be handed to people visiting Stonehenge, so they could chip away at the ancient monument to get their own souvenirs.

But the practice has been outlawed since 1900, when landowner Sir Edmund Antrobus decided the site needed protecting and introduced charges.

Last May, the first archaeological dig in nearly fifty years started at the site. British archaeologists are trying to unravel age-old secrets to the ancient stone circle. They believe Stonehenge was built around 2500 BC, but that’s simply an estimation.

Around 850,000 visitors per year come to see Stonehenge.

Marine archaeologist Billy Ray Morris may have found Kate Dale, a Civil War blockade runner, at the bottom of Florida’s Hillsborough River. James McKay was the captain of 80 to 100 foot boat, and ran runs of cotton to Cuba for supplies.

According to the article, Hull of Civil War sloop likely found in Tampa river, McKay had a deal with the Union to go through the blockade.

That arrangement became too obvious, and Union troops were ordered to burn Morris’s boats, including the Kate Dale.

In other news, a stolen Yemen statue made of bronze depicting a dancing woman was found in a London auction house. According to a Yemen Observer source at the archeology prosecution,

"Sources in London reported that they found the stolen state in one of London’s auctions," said the source. "The statue was smuggled to Dubai then to London to show in the auction. The case is now in the court that investigating and questioning some suspects."

An old brewery site in Melbourne, Australia, could be a wealthy source of artifacts when archaeologist go looking later this year.

Relics left from the over 100 year-old brewery are of interest. And potentially better, artifacts from early city homes that may have been on the site first.

“We’re looking at a residential community, one of the first neighborhoods of Melbourne.

And it may have survived reasonably well. We think that when the brewery was built over the top of the site, there wasn’t a lot of below-ground disturbance," said Heritage Victoria senior archaeologist Jeremy Smith.

For more, read Brewery site a treasure trove of city’s past.

Nearly 20 years ago, Canadian archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars discovered a 28,000 year-old chipped mammoth bone.

What was unusual and stunning was that it appeared to be made into a harpoon point, and it was found in a cave above Bluefish River.

That’s within the "Beringia" area — known as the land bridge between Siberia and Alaska during the Pleistocene ice ages — where old theories hypothesized that humans used Beringia to migrate to the Americas just 13,000 years ago.

So, how did a 28,000 year old, man-made harpoon point get in the cave, if people were first introduced to the area only 13,000 years ago? Something doesn’t stack up.

Jacques Cinq-Mars is now returning to Beringia, to look for further evidence people were in the area before the Ice Age.

Have you ever wondered about the sunken shipwrecks within Lake Erie? There is now a new online and interactive Web site, www.ohioshipwrecks.org, which attempts to satisfy your curiosity.

The site is entitled Shipwrecks and Maritime Tales of the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail, and has the stated goal to:

"make you, the visitor, aware of the rich maritime history which lies beneath the surface of Ohio’s Lake Erie…"

While the site hopes to expand knowledge, it also is designed to protect Lake Erie’s shipwrecks.

In a Mansfield NewsJournal article, Ohio Sea Grant Extension specialist Dave Kelch was quoted as saying,

"Whether you are a seasoned scuba diver or a maritime history aficionado, we believe you will not only learn more about Lake Erie’s maritime heritage but will also gain an increased respect for the need to preserve and protect Ohio’s historic shipwrecks."

You can check out the site today!

"Indiana Jones" actor Harrison Ford has been elected to the Board of Directors of the Archaeological Institute of America. Ford commented on his real-world dedication to archaeology,

“Knowledge is power, and understanding the past can only help us in dealing with the present and the future.”

Harrison Ford’s latest movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, opens in U.S. theaters May 22.

Are you a Stonehenge buff? How much do you really know about it? Find out now. Test your knowledge and take the National Geographic ten-question Stonehenge quiz. You may possibly learn a thing or two.

Athens’ National Archaeological Museum has placed more than 1,100 ancient Egyptian relics on display. The priceless artifacts feature a wooden body tag for a mummy, a stunning bronze statue of a princess, and a 3000-year-old loaf of bread with a bite-sized chunk missing.

Museum officials say many of the items have never before been seen by the public.

A life-sized bust of Julius Caesar, with wrinkles and all, may be the oldest of the emperor ever discovered.

Divers found the Julius Caesar bust in the Rhone River near the town of Arles, France, which Caesar founded. The marble bust is thought to date back to 46 BC. Other artifacts were also discovered.

The SS New York was a 165-foot side-wheel steamship that was found under some 60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

It carried within its hull coins made in old U.S. Mints of New Orleans, Charlotte, N.C., and Dahlonega, Ga. Mints that have not been in action for many years.

David Bowers, co-chairman of New York-based Stack’s Rare Coins and coin expert, said some of the coins are in uncirculated or mint condition and could be worth $50,000 to $100,000 each.

For the intriquing story, read the following embedded AP article.

Ironically, there’s an article about German researchers claiming to have found the remains of the palace of the Queen of Sheba — and an altar that may have held the Ark.

And finally, in another story, treasure hunters find two pieces of gem-stuffed gold jewelry on a shipwreck. Here are brief article descriptions and links…

"Indiana Jones managed to retrieve the trinket he was after in the opening moments of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” He pretty much wrecked everything else in the ancient South American temple where the little gold idol had rested for millennia."

With the opening of that paragraph by an Associated Press article, you can pretty much deduce where their article, ‘Indiana Jones’: Real archaeologists don’t have whips, goes. From movies to reality, it’s an interesting read.

An article from Times Online reports that archaeologists claim to have found the palace of the Queen of Sheba, an altar that may have held the Ark of the Covenant. No, this isn’t a movie script. It’s real reporting.

The discovery was announced by the University of Hamburg, and its obviously brought out the archaeological skeptics.

Professor Helmut Ziegert, of the archaeological institute at the university, has been supervising a dig in Aksum, northern Ethiopia, since 1999.

From the dating, its position and the details that we have found, I am sure that this is the palace,” he said. The palace, that is, of the Queen of Sheba, who is believed to have lived in the 10th century BC.

For more, read the entire article, The lost Ark: are the Germans on its trail?

And for the final article, treasure hunters find gem-studded jewelry…

Capt. Greg Bounds, master of the salvage ship MV Gold Hound and a Mel Fisher’s Treasure subcontractor, found two pieces of gem-studded gold jewelry on Sunday at the 1715 fleet shipwreck site known as “Corrigans."

For more, check out the Scripps article entitled Treasure hunters strike gold, find gem-studded jewelry off Indian River County.

Last month geologists hunting for diamonds instead discovered a several hundred year old shipwreck filled with silver and gold coins, copper ingots, cannons and other valuable artifacts.

The Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint venture of the government of Namibia and the mining company De Beers, made the discovery during mining operations and had kept the find a secret until April 30.

Since the beginning, they have secured the site and artifacts.

Namdeb spokesman Hilifa Mbako confirmed three government Ministers flew to inspect the site late last week. In a written statement, one the Ministers, Errki Nghimtina of Mines and Energy, thanked Namdeb

"for all the phenomenal work they have done in protecting the site where the wreck was found and providing security for the artifacts."

He went on to say:

"there will be no further information or media comments on this matter - until further notice."

The silence should provide the government time to assess the situation and plan future direction.

A source for further information is "the namibian" article written by John Grobler titled, Govt takes over ancient shipwreck.

It’s a good thing she didn’t. Although she didn’t know what to do with it or how to sell it, she felt it could be worth something. She was right.

After watching a local TV news report, Bullock decided to contact WorthPoint.com, a site about antiques and collectibles that helps people identify said items and also connects them with other collectors interesting in buying and selling.

With the help of Thom Pattie, WorthPoint’s Chief Worthologist, the painting was identified as "Coin De Paris, Rue De Meaux," a work created by 20th century Japanese artist Takanori Oguiss.

WorthPoint brokered the painting for Bullock and it was sold Thursday at Sotheby’s prestigious spring sale of Impressionist and Modern Art for an incredible $103,000. The final auction price was nearly 50 percent above its estimate.

Tammy Bullock was elated.

"I never would have had this wonderful experience without the help of Thom Pattie and WorthPoint, Bullock says. "And I’ll never drive by another dumpster without wondering what treasure it might hold."

One would think that finding a priceless painting in the trash is rare. It is, for sure. But accounts of similar stories have been reported. As examples, check out the articles here on HuntTreasure:

• Treasure Finds from Flea Markets, Rummage, Yard and Garage Sales
• Priceless Tamayo Painting Found in Trash - Could Sell for $1M

For a further accounting of this particular story, including comments from Tammy Bullock and how she found and almost threw it away herself, read the WorthPoint release embedded here:

About WorthPoint

Atlanta-based WorthPoint is a social network for collectors and a search engine rolled into one. Its Web site (www.worthpoint.com) is changing the process of assessing worth for collectibles by providing a vast database of sales records wherein an individual can assess the worth of their own collection. Through WorthPoint, collectors connect with experts to learn more about authenticity and value in art, antiques, and vintage items. Through the WorthPoint online community, members can contact other collectors interested in buying, selling, or swapping stories, and they can share their insight and knowledge through the forums and wikis.

Don’t worry, your jeweler isn’t chopping pieces off from your jewelry when making them all shiny again. Buffing and cleaning a ring results in minute amounts of silver, gold or platinum wearing away. It’s normal.

In fact, weighing your ring before and after a cleaning normally shows no difference unless a most sensitive scale is used.

But for the jeweler, those minute dust particles add up after months and months of cleanings.

Does the precious metal dust just get vacuumed away or pulled into the air filters like normal dust? Yes, except…

Those vacuum bags, air filters, dust rags, etc. are often saved, boxed up and stored. Then, after a few months, they’re all sent away to a refinery to get sifted, burned and melted down into precious metal bars.

With gold at $884 an ounce and platinum at $2,087 (as of May 9), that’s a few thousand dollars of "extra" money.

Interesting? Not as much as this video describing and showing it all:

By accounts, their legal battle with Spain over the 17-tons of silver coins found in a shipwreck of May of 2007 isn’t helping them. Not only must the legal bills be substantial, but the financial rewards of the treasure are in limbo until the situation is settled.

According to the financial numbers for Q1, Odyssey reported revenue of $.3 million compared to $2.2 million in the first quarter 2007.

The value of the discovered shipwreck treasure, code-named "Black Swan", dwarfs these numbers significantly.

In a news wire, Greg Stem who is the Chairman and CEO of Odyssey commented in part:

"…Our 2008 marine operations activities are underway with work in the Atlas search area and we are looking forward to an exciting season. With the Black Swan, Firefly, Atlas and several other confidential projects on our radar, I am excited about our future and the continued execution of our long-term strategy."

You have to absolutely love those code names!

The entire release annoucement of Odyssey’s quarterly results may be read here:

Namdeb Diamond Corporation, a joint venture of the government of Namibia and the mining company De Beers, made the discovery during mining operations in the Atlantic, off the Namibia, African coast.

The goal was to search for diamonds and not shipwrecks filled with treasure, so the discovery was made in what many would think was an unusual and unexpected way.

Geologists working for Namedeb had built an earthen wall off the Namibian coast to push back and drain the enclosed water in their search for diamonds. Instead of diamonds, they happily found an archaeological treasure trove.

“The site yielded a wealth of objects, including six bronze cannons, several tonnes of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins, minted in the late 1400s and early 1500s,” said Hilifa Mbako, a Namdeb company spokesman.

The mining operations were halted, the site secured and archaeologists brought in to professionally excavate the site.

For a further in depth read, try the AP article on the national Geographic News page, Treasure-Laden Shipwreck Found off African Coast.

Some 15,000 artifacts were removed in just a few short days after Baghdad’s fall. The museum was broken into, safes opened, priceless pieces stolen and the building itself badly damaged. Easily the largest museum theft ever.

Fortunately, several thousand artifacts have at least been returned or recovered. According to a new book released by the by the University of Chicago’s Cultural Policy Center entitled "Antiquities Under Siege: Cultural Heritage Protection After the Iraq War," of the estimated 15,000 artifacts taken:

• About 5,000 are still missing,
• 4,000 were returned and
• 6,000 were recovered

One of the many notable artifacts still missing, "Lioness Attacking a Nubian Boy,” an 8th century B.C. Assyrian ivory carving of a lioness attacking a Nubian boy, overlaid with gold and inlaid with lapis lazuli. Although it is impossible to put a dollar number to such a priceless piece, one value thrown was at least $100 million (US).

While so many historical artifacts have not been returned, those that have or have been recovered are now being preserved. The museum itself is also going through renovation. Yet, with the amount of work and ongoing concerns with security, the museum is not expected to open for some time.

For an interesting look into the museum, some of the artifacts and additional information regarding the looting and recovery, watch the AFP embedded video, Iraq’s National Museum Makeover.

Archaeologists found the tools in a rock cave and believe further digging at the site could uncover artifacts as old as 45,000 years. Consultant archaeologist Neale Draper commented,

"Because we have a two-metre (six foot) deep archaeological deposit in this rock shelter dating from the recent past right back to that time, we have a very, very long record of people’s technology."

Including the discoverer tools, the site is a host to other easily dated material such as charcoal.

For the full story, read the embedded AFP article, Ancient Aboriginal tools uncovered in Western Australia.

But it was indeed feces, of the fossilized variety, that leads to new evidence that North American’s arrived at least some 14,300 years ago—dispelling the common textbook date of origin of around 13,500 years ago.

Several weeks ago an article in Science magazine entitled “The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas,” relayed evidence supporting the arrival of American thousands of years earlier as well.

With that and this latest evidence, scientists may have to rewrite those textbook theories of the migration people through the Beringia land bridge, where people were thought to have traveled through ice-free corridors as glaciers broke up.

In the latest findings by archaeologist Dennis Jenkins and team from the University of Oregon, some 700 samplings of fossilized feces found in caves points to the earliest human biological evidence known. They support an earlier migration to a time where the corridors were not yet open.

On top of the carbon dating of the feces, DNA snapshots indicate the people from the cave had a similar genetic makeup closely related to modern Native Americans.

For a very interesting read, check out the below embedded article from Sandi Doughton of The Seattle Times.

It met expectations and in fact broke a record for any presidential manuscript and any American manuscript ever auctioned. The final winning bid was $3,401,000.

The manuscript was Lincoln’s response to a "Children’s Petition to the President asking him to free all the little slave children in this country."

According to a Sotheby’s press release,

"The letter, which is arguably Lincoln’s most personal and powerful statement on God, slavery and emancipation, was purchased by an American private collector bidding over the telephone."

In the reply to the children’s letter, Lincoln wrote,

“Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it.”

The letter was part of a collection of Lincoln rarities from the Dr. Robert Small Trust.

In addition to Lincoln documents, several other prominent letters and documents went up for auction from prominent historical figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Buchanan, Calvin Coolidge, and John Brown.

A listing of these and their final winning bids can be read in the Sotheby’s sales results.

The tablet was found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the Assyrian Royal Palace at Nineveh, and was made by an Assyrian scribe who copied a Sumerian astronomer’s recorded notes. The tablet depicts astronomical drawings, known constellations and an object that was unknown. Taken in altogether, an intriguing and puzzling picture.

To decipher the cuneiform script on the clay tablet, modern software programs were used. The programs were sophisticated enough to go back in time to reconstruct the positioning of stars from ages gone by.

From there, it was a matter of uncovering the correct historical date that matched the information on the tablet. Then also, isolating the trajectory of that unknown depicted object.

According to Bristol University:

Half the tablet records planet positions and cloud cover, the same as any other night, but the other half of the tablet records an object large enough for its shape to be noted even though it is still in space. The astronomers made an accurate note of its trajectory relative to the stars, which to an error better than one degree is consistent with an impact at Köfels.

The observation suggests the asteroid is over a kilometer in diameter and the original orbit about the Sun was an Aten type, a class of asteroid that orbit close to the earth, that is resonant with the Earth’s orbit.  This trajectory explains why there is no crater at Köfels.  The in coming angle was very low (six degrees) and means the asteroid clipped a mountain called Gamskogel above the town of Längenfeld, 11 kilometer from Köfels, and this caused the asteroid to explode before it reached its final impact point. 

As it traveled down the valley it became a fireball, around five kilometres in diameter (the size of the landslide).  When it hit Köfels it created enormous pressures that pulverized the rock and caused the landslide but because it was no longer a solid object it did not create a classic impact crater.

The landslide centered at Köfels had been a mystery of its own—how did it happen? In the end, modern know-how solved not just one mystery, but two. That’s science at its best …

The cuneiform tablet translated in its entirety along with the research analysis and conclusions of Köfels impact are found in the book, A Sumerian Observation of the Kofels’ Impact Event.

It is published by Alcin Academics, ISBN 1904623646.

Researchers and References

• Research by: Alan Bond, Managing Director of Reaction Engines Ltd and Mark Hempsell, Senior Lecturer in Astronautics at Bristol University
• The tablet is object number K8538, known as “the Planisphere”, in the British Museum. 
• Read the Bristol University press release,
  Cuneiform clay tablet translated for the first time or the embedded version below
• Image from Bristol University

The last site excavation of the site occurred in 1964, or 44 years ago. Video of that dig shows the Stonehenge area looking like a construction site. In this latest round, the excavation will last for a two-week period and performed in a more delicate manner. So delicate that visitors are not expected to know archaeologists were ever at the site once the dig is finished.

The goal of the dig? Archaeologists hope to uncover a more exacting date—a range within 25 years— of when Stonehenge was first built.

The dig is concentrated around the smaller and inner bluestone circle, named the “Double Bluestone Circle.” The stones in this part of the structure were the very first to be erected in Stonehenge. As such, anything that can be discovered and dated within the blue stone area can provide evidence to the age of Stonehenge itself.

“The bluestones hold the key to understanding the purpose and meaning of Stonehenge,” said Dr Simon Thurley, the chief executive of English Heritage. “Their arrival marked a turning point in the history of Stonehenge, changing the site from being a fairly standard formative henge with timber structures and occasional use for burial, to the complex stone structure whose remains dominate the site today.”

According to the article, The secret of Stonehenge, written by David Keys,

The bluestones are natural columns of white-spotted dolerite, found only in the Carn Menyn region of the Preseli Hills, in north Pembrokeshire, and it was from there, about 4,500 years ago, that Stonehenge’s neolithic builders brought 80 of the stones the 160-mile journey from south-west Wales to Salisbury Plain. The reasons why they did so, archaeologists argue, hold the key to Stonehenge’s existence.

The following embedded BBC news video offers an excellent look into the latest Stonehenge dig.

Texas A&M University Professors Ted Goebel and Michael Waters and University of Utah Professor Dennis O’Rourke theorize migration through Alaska may have started as long ago as 15,000 years. They say their finding are supported by archaeological and more refined genetic evidence.

Modern theories revolved around the migration of people through the Beringia land bridge, which connected Alaska and eastern Siberia during the Pleistocene ice age, to Tierra del Fuego in South America. Goebel says scientists have concluded that the migration process was much more complex.

An article in Science magazine titled, "The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas," relays their findings.

“The Hobbit” was originally penned for Tolkien’s children. A friend later convinced Tolkien to try to get it published. It was, but only 1,500 copies were originally printed. Those copies sold out immediately.

The 60,000 pounds for the auctioned novel was more than double the estimated value it would bring. According to Bonhams, it set "a new world record price at auction for an inscribed copy of the book." The book was not only signed but dedicated to Elaine Griffiths, who helped Tolkien with its publishing.

The movie version of Tolkien’s "Lord of the Rings" grossed nearly $3 billion pounds worldwide. "The Hobbit" is currently being made into two films. The first installment is expected to hit theaters in 2010.

The Bonhams’ press release announcing the auction results also stated:

Also included in the sale was the first foreign language edition of The Hobbit, translated into Swedish in 1947, which fetched £1,560. It had been expected to sell for £400-800. Again, this book was inscribed by Tolkien to Elaine Griffiths. The Hobbit has since been translated into nearly 50 different languages.

Another exceptional and poignant item in the sale was the last known photograph of Tolkien, taken by his grandson Michael on August 9th 1973. The photograph, expected to fetch £400-600 sold for £864. It shows the author in the Oxford Botanical Gardens leaning against his favourite tree, the Black Pine he named Laocoon. It was a gift to Elaine Griffiths from Tolkien’s daughter Priscilla, who wrote on the back “For Elaine with love from Priscilla”.

About Bonhams

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world’s oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies.

Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further seven throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas.

CBC article, First edition Hobbit sells for $120,000

Another perspective of this story may be read through the below embedded CBC article, First edition Hobbit sells for $120,000.

The silver shekel-denominated coin was said to be of the type used to pay the half shekel head-tax in the Second Temple period.

The excavations, directed by Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa, are being conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Nature and Parks Authority and the ‘Ir David Foundation.

In a statement regarding the shekel coin find, Eli Shukron was quoted as saying:

"Just like today when coins sometimes fall from our pockets and roll into drainage openings at the side of the street, that’s how it was some two thousand years ago – a man was on his way to the Temple and the shekel which he intended to use for paying the half shekel head-tax found its way into the drainage channel."

According to the same statement, the discovered shekel weighs 13 grams, bears the head of Melqart, the chief deity of the city of Tyre on the obverse (equivalent to the Semitic god Baal) and an eagle upon a ship’s prow on the reverse. The coin was struck in the year 22 CE.

Only seven other Tyrian shekels and half shekels were said to be ever found in Jerusalem excavations.

Photographic credit: Clara Amit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

The Roman coins, along with part of a brooch discovered, were declared treasure. Russell Willis, one of the men who found the coins and brooch commented,

"The owner gave us permission to detect on his land and within minutes we found a coin. After that we found quite a few more. We them came across the segment of the brooch ."

Read more from the Scarborough Evening News article, Roman coin declared ‘treasure’.

A new Archaeological News section has been added to the HuntTreasure site. The top section contains the latest embedded archaeological news stories from around the world. The bottom section has archaeological headlines, excerpts and linked stories.

The embedded articles can be read by scrolling through the list, selecting a headline that interests you with a mouse click, and then reading it as it appears to the left. The linked stories toward the bottom page will actually jump you to the site where the article originated.

The stories from each of these sections are independent of each other - articles in one section will many times not be in the other section.

A word about these news articles … Because they are computer generated without human editing, there is the possibility that a few of the stories listed will not completely match the archaeological topic. Please just disregard them. We’ll continue to tweak and refine the area.

You can jump to the Archaeological News section on any page of the HuntTreasure site by simply clicking its menu found underneath the HuntTreasure banner.

For webmasters…

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As you may recall from past HuntTreasure.net articles, this series of events started in May of 2007, when the treasure hunting company Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. discovered approximately 17 tons of treasure. It consisted mostly of Colonial-era gold and silver coins, potentially worth up to an estimated 500 million dollars.

The situation became quite "combative", in a sense at one point. In October, the country of Spain officially and forcefully detained a ship belonging to Odyssey, and escorted it to a Spanish port. There police boarded the vessel, escorted the sailors off, and arrested the captain.

At issue is Spain’s claim that if the treasure was found in Spanish waters, or was of Spanish origin, it belongs to that country. Odyssey maintains that the treasure ship, code named “Black Swan”, was located in international waters, and therefore not subject to Spain’s control.

The six count ruling included decisions not to grant Odyssey’s request for a declaration that the “shipwrecked vessel and artifacts are beyond territorial waters of any nation and subject to the law of abandonment, finds, or salvage”. Also denied was Odyssey’s request for damages arising from acts of the country of Spain.

In an Odyssey release following the ruling, CEO Greg Stemm commented:

The Court’s denial of certain Counts of the complaints relates only to jurisdiction. The Judge did not determine that Odyssey has no right to damages against Spain as a result of Spain’s illegal actions against Odyssey and its vessels, only that he does not have the authority to award such damages.

Of more important note was the ruling of refusal to grant Spain’s motion to dismiss Odyssey’s claim for “possession and ownership of a shipwrecked vessel and artifacts recovered from the vessel”.

While this case is certain to continue for some time, it is certain that neither party will willingly give up their claim for such a great treasure. For future updates on this story, keep coming back to HuntTreasure.net.

Up to the third day of drilling, which was yesterday, Feb. 28, eleven holes at two different locations had been dug. (See photos of the dig.) Currently, there has been no evidence of any Nazi treasure. And further, there are now expectations that the search could take weeks in the digging aspects alone.

Additional news flowed today indicating drilling at the site would be halted for two weeks to allow a team of geophysicists to take measurements in the area. The hope is that geophysicists can get the dig back on track to find what is hoped to be a Nazi man-made cavern filled with gold, artifacts and, better, parts of the Amber Room.

What is the Amber Room?

The Amber Room was built from 1701-1709 in Prussia and was beautifully created by German and Russian craftsmen with amber panels that were backed with gold leafs and mirrors. Its unsurpassed beauty was so great that it was sometimes called the “Eight Wonder of the World”.

But words really give it no justice. A reconstruction of the room does. The embedded video from Reuters gives a quick walk through of the reconstructed Amber Room, showing its greatness and really places everything in perspective. It also covers a brief history of the Amber Room.

The Amber Room was built from 1701-1709 in Prussia and was beautifully created by German and Russian craftsmen with amber panels that were backed with gold leafs and mirrors. Its incredible beauty was so great it was sometimes called the "Eight Wonder of the World".

Since HuntTreasure first discussed the potential find last Friday, Feb 22, the hunt and excitement has intensified. Mainstream media outlets have picked up the story with several articles including:

• Treasure hunters dig for Hitler’s gold
• Germans dig for Nazi treasure
• Treasure Hunters Drill for Buried Nazi Gold, Looted Paintings
• Hunt Continues for Nazi Treasure

And with the beginnings of the dig, photos of the site are starting to hit the public. View the dig photo gallery:

The chamber was given to Russian Czar Peter the Great in 1716 by Prussia’s King Friedrich Wilhelm I to deepen their alliance.

During the early invasion of Russia in World War II, Germany looted the Amber Room. It was taken apart, moved and eventually disappeared toward the end of the war. Since then, only mystery has surrounded its fate - some believing it was destroyed while others believed it to be hidden.

The mystery, or at least part of it, has perhaps been solved. An underground cavern was detected that may have two tons of gold and leads to the speculation of the presence of the Amber Room.

“I’m well over 90 percent sure we have found the Amber Room,” the mayor of Deutschneudorf, Heinz-Peter Haustein, who led the search, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “The chamber is likely to be part of a labyrinth of storage rooms that the Nazis built here. I knew it was in this area. I just never knew exactly where.”

Articles of this story may be found through Spiegel Online, German Treasure Hunters Claim to Have Found Amber Room, as well as the short embedded Newscom report here: