M.J. Rose

My heart still breaks when I think of the Buddha statues that were destroyed back in 2001, but this recent find does make me feel just a little bit better..

Buddha statue find at Afghan site [BBC News]

The seat of Bamiyan Buddhas: The Taleban dynamited the Buddha statues in 2001

A giant statue of a Buddha has been discovered in central Afghanistan, near to the ruins of the world-famous Bamiyan Buddhas.

Archaeologists say the 19m (62ft) statue is in a sleeping position and dates back to the Third Century.

Other relics such as coins and ceramics were also found.

The Taleban blew up two giant standing Buddhas carved into the mountainside at Bamiyan – once a thriving centre of Buddhism – in 2001.

The statues, the tallest such standing Buddhas in the world at the time, were considered by the Taleban to be un-Islamic representations of the human form.

Archaeologists are working on restoring the larger of the two Buddhas in a project that is expected to take a decade… [Complete article from BBC News and a video clip: here.]

Mystery ship washes ashore in Alabama after Hurricane Ike

FORT MORGAN, Alabama (AP) — When the waves from Hurricane Ike receded, they left behind a mystery: a ragged shipwreck that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from 70 years later.

A ragged boat from 1862 or 1933 washed ashore in Fort Morgan, Alabama, after Hurricane Ike.

The wreck, about 6 miles from Fort Morgan, had been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969.

Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the U.S. Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War.

After examining photos of the wreck post-Ike, Museum of Mobile marine archaeologist Shea McLean agreed that it is probably the Monticello, which ran aground in 1862 after sailing from Havana, Cuba, according to Navy records. iReport.com: See video of the ship from iReporter Tammy Brewer

“Based on what we know of ships lost in that area and what I’ve seen, the Monticello is by far the most likely candidate,” McLean said. “You can never be 100 percent certain unless you find the bell with ‘Monticello’ on it, but this definitely fits.”

Fort Morgan was used as Union forces attacked in 1864 during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

Other clues indicate that it could be an early 20th-century schooner that ran aground on the Alabama coast in 1933…[Complete article from CNN.com here.]

Here is a truly unsolved mystery – The Phaistos Disk. Undeciphered to this day, and quite beautiful to look at. When I traveled in Greece I purchased a silver ring with an image of this disk. The inscriptions continue to mystify me. Could it be just an ancient doodle? Symbols from a fake language created by kids, sort of like pig latin? Is it art? Or do these symbols represent an undiscovered ancient tongue?

Deep thought: I wonder what the folks at The Rosetta Project have to say about the Phaistos Disk? Perhaps they borrowed the object’s spiral format for the design of their prototype? Hmmmm….