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As combat troops leave, it’s important to know where we are and why.

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Archaeological finds in the northern Jordan Valley are forcing experts to rethink the patterns of the earliest civilisations. In Tabqat Fahel, 90 kilometres north of Amman, recent finds indicate that the ancient site of Pella may have been a part of the cradle of civilisations.

Over the past five seasons, University of Sydney teams have been focusing on the early Bronze Age period, 3600 BCE-2800 BCE, a time when humans went from smaller villages to larger towns and large-scale urban communities. When Australian and Jordanian teams began exploring early urbanisation in the Jordan Valley, many expected it to occur later and be influenced by the burgeoning civilisations to the east and west. Findings of a city wall and other structures, dating back to 3400 BCE and as early as 3600 BCE, show that Pella was a formidable city-state at the same time Sumerian Iraq was taking shape. “We found stuff as early if not earlier than Mesopotamia and much earlier than ancient Egypt,” Stephen Bourke, University of Sydney professor and Pella project leader, said.

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Crime has never paid. As far back as 4000 years in fact, according to Professor Fikri Kulakoğlu, who is currently in charge of excavations at Kültepe in Kayseri (Turkey). The semi-arid highlands of Anatolia are considered the heartland of the region.

Professor Kulakoğlu described the excavation so far as being very revealing. In a statement he said that the work at Kültepe has revealed not only information about the lifestyles of peoples living there thousands of years ago, but also new information about the penal system that was in place at that time. “In the inscriptions we found, for example, there are many terms used regarding going to prison, release from prison and facing punishment in prison. It is a significant indication that there were many prisons in Anatolia approximately 4,000 years ago.”

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On May 15 2005 Kerim posted the first entry on Savage Minds — a blog which in the past 5 years has grown to over 1,500 entries and over 12,000 comments. Although its hard to make time to blog when you are raising twins and applying for tenure simultaneously, I didn’t want to let the opportunity of our fifth anniversary — ‘wood’, apparently — go without taking a moment to reflect on what a strange and wonderful experience this blog has been.

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Cairo – Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a 3,300- year-old tomb at Saqqara, south of Cairo, the Ministry of Culture said Sunday.

A team from Cairo University’s archaeology department unearthed the tomb of Ptahmes, who was the mayor of the capital and an army chief, as part of an excavation mission that started in 2005.

Archeologists also discovered ruins of statues for the owner of the tomb and his wife, as well as amulets, pottery and bricks showing the journey of the family while hunting and fishing.

The archeology department first began its excavation in Saqqara decades ago, with some 43 tombs discovered since the 1980s.

Saqqara, some 30 kilometres outside Cairo, was the burial ground for Memphis, the capital of ancient Egypt.

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Slitherine’s Development Director Iain McNeil has announced today that History Egypt: Engineering an Empire will be available for both PS3 and PSP Minis via PSN.

Egypt Engineering an Empire is a strategy game inspired by the Engineering an Empire TV series by History and games like Civilization and Advance Wars.

The TV series circles the globe and re-examines history’s most magnificent civilizations, surveying their architectural and engineering triumphs. Beginning with the Egyptians more than five-thousand years ago, the first of the 14 documentaries brings to life the spectacular glory of the Egyptian Pharaohs. The game seeks to do the same.

Egypt Engineering an Empire puts you in control of Egypt, or one of the many opposing nations of the time such as the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and many more. You are in control of the development of your empire, constructing utility buildings for the economic development or military buildings to improve your armed forces.

As a result of the collaboration with the History TV channel, the game is all based on extensive historical research to make sure it’s as accurate as possible, without compromising gameplay.

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Archaeologists are for the first time trying to reveal a snapshot of the rural life in China during the Han Dynasty.

The rural farming village of Sanyangzhuang was flooded by silt-heavy water from the Yellow River around 2,000 year ago.

T.R. Kidder, an archaeologist at Washington University in St. Louis, and his Chinese colleagues are working to excavate the site, which offers a exceptionally well-preserved view of daily life in Western China more than 2,000 years ago.

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If you’re a civil engineer doing hydrological work, then this one’s for you. In 1999, archaeologists found a puzzling water feature while working at Palenque, the much studied Mayan city-state in the southern Mexico state of Chiapis.

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Ancient Mesoamerican peoples manufactured rubber from latex some 3,500 years before the modern invention of vulcanization and even compounded it for different applications.

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The search for the City of David may offer tourists a reminder of Jerusalem’s ancient past. But for the Palestinians whose homes are threatened by the excavations, archaeology is merely the latest weapon being used against them

If you walk out of Jerusalem Old City through its south-eastern gate and on to the perimeter road encircling it, you will most likely see several large coaches with elderly western tourists climbing out of them. You will see them stand at the low wall at the edge of the road and peer down into the lush valley with its pretty houses that nudge and lean against each other. The tourists may notice the woman marking exercise books on her sunny terrace, they may smile to see the bright-haired four-year-old riding her tricycle round the yard. Some of them will think of a favoured grandchild back in Kansas or Ottawa.

Now, if this were a scene in Italy, Spain, or even Turkey, we might have left it there: the tourists come, stare, spend money and go. But here their effect is devastating – and most of them don’t even know it. For the town that nestles here, in this valley on the southern flank of Jerusalem, is Silwan, home to some 55,000 Palestinians, annexed by Israel along with east Jerusalem in 1967, and currently one of the hottest spots in the contest between the rights of the Palestinian townspeople and the plans that Israel has for the area – plans put into effect through a series of administrative measures, clandestine coalitions, and progressive-sounding projects. None of which could work without the funding that floods into Israel from the west.

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