History · 31. October 2017

Scottish ledger from 1658 lists names, towns, and confessions of accused witches.

Politics · 28. July 2017

A whopping 72 scientists have collaborated on a paper in which they advocate changing the default statistical significance threshold from 0.05 to 0.005.

History · 27. July 2017

Today is the 50th anniversary of the U.K.’s “Sexual Offenses Act 1967,” an act which partially decriminalized homosexuality. To celebrate, Historic England has added LGBTQ oriented properties to the National Heritage List for England. Newly listed properties include St. Anne’s Chapel, home to a stained glass window created by artist and suffragette, Mary Lowndes in 1906, and the studio/cottage home of artists Judith Ackland and Mary Stella Edwards. Fourteen other properties, already on...

Politics · 25. July 2017

Idaho’s Craters of the Moon, Washington’s Hanford Reach, and now Colorado’s Canyons of the Ancients have made it through round one of the national monument review unscathed. U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke announced last Friday that he has recommended no changes be made to Canyon of the Ancients, a 178,000 acre monument containing an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 archaeological sites, located in southwest Colorado and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. In a statement,...

Politics · 11. July 2017

Time has run out on the national monuments comment period. According to a statement released by the Department of the Interior, over 1.2 million comments were submitted via regulations.gov and thousands more were submitted through snail mail. Secretary Ryan Zinke stated, “President Trump and I opened the formal public comment period – the first-ever for monuments designated under the Antiquities Act – in order to give local stakeholders a voice in the decision-making process.” When...

Archaeology · 10. July 2017

The United States filed a civil complaint and a stipulation of settlement with Hobby Lobby last Wednesday over the company’s illegal importation of thousands of cuneiform tablets and bricks, clay bullae, and cylinder seals. According to the complaint, the ancient artifacts were smuggled in to the U.S. through the United Arab Emirates and Israel by way of packages labeled as “ceramic tiles” or “clay tiles (samples)” and shipped to three different Hobby Lobby corporate addresses in...

Politics · 28. June 2017

It’s too late for Bears Ears, but If you’d like to voice your opinion on the other National Monuments under review, you have until July 10. A quick review, Executive order 13792 mandated that all National Monuments created or expanded after January 1, 1996, be reviewed and potentially altered if the monument exceeds 100,000 acres OR if the “Secretary [of the Interior] determines that the designation or expansion was made without adequate public outreach and coordination with relevant...

Archaeology · 15. June 2017

Archaeology business is booming in the U.K., so much so that 25 British universities have joined forces to create “University Archaeology Day,” an attempt to recruit the next generation of archaeologist. You may be thinking, ok, every major does that, but in the case of British archaeology, recruitment activities are a priority because of growing demand and projected shortfalls of trained diggers of dirt. So what’s going on? Are we in the upside down? Nope, we are in a world of...

Politics · 18. April 2017

Happy World Heritage Day everyone! What the heck is that you ask? Let us introduce you. World Heritage Day (a.k.a. International Day for Monuments and Sites) is an annual event held every April 18. It is promoted by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), a global non-government entity dedicated to the preservation of heritage sites around the world, and by the United Nations World Heritage Centre. Every year there is a different theme and this year’s theme is “Cultural...

Politics · 16. February 2017

Fines for violating the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGRPA) are being adjusted for inflation thanks to the 2015 Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act. As its name implies, the 2015 Act requires Federal agencies to adjust penalties based on inflation. Agencies initially have to make a “catchup” adjustment after which they are required to adjust penalties annually so that fines remain deterrents of bad behavior. Effective February 16,...