You're invited to my public lecture tomorrow night

I'll be reporting on the results of last year's fieldwork in Nicaragua

Date: February 13th, 7pm
Location: Palm Beach County Main Library
3650 Summit Blvd., West Palm Beach, 33406
"Under the Volcano II, Maribios and Chontales"
Presented by Clifford Brown, PhD

Dr. Clifford Brown will talk about the initial results his and his colleagues’ 2013 season of survey and excavations in northwest Nicaragua. The team located a number of new sites. They focused their excavations in the eastern and northern parts of the Department of Chinandega, at sites in the municipalities of Chichigalpa and Somotillo. Near Chichigalpa, they found a large site which has interesting stratigraphy as well as seemingly distinctive ceramics. The location and the ruins of a Colonial period church strongly imply that it is the lost Maribio town of Mazatega.

In the north, at the site of Dulce Nombre de Jesús, they found an extensive field of stone mounds as well as numerous prehistoric stone house foundations. Part of the site has a very unusual obsidian industry, while the remainder has a more conventional one. Finally, the site of La Trinidad produced patches of dense midden with cultural features. That site produced tantalizing evidence of ground stone tool production.

War in Syria Causing Looting of Archaeological Sites

The AP reports that the civil war in Syria has led to extensive looting of the country's significant archaeological heritage, with UNESCO expressing concern. The European Union has provided funding (€2.5 million!) to combat the looting and trafficking. A related report from Reuters says that UNESCO also thanked "Hollywood" (probably referring to George Clooney) for raising awareness about threats to cultural heritage through the new movie "The Monuments Men."