Monday, May 14, 2012

Hot Links

I just saw the news late last week about a RAF P-40 dating from 1942 that was found in the Egyptian Desert in a remarkable state of preservation.  I have seen it referred to as either a "Kittyhawk" or "Warhawk" variant - I'll have to do a little more research to see which one was sold to the RAF. The P-40 had its greatest fame as the aircraft used by the "Flying Tigers" American Volunteer Group that flew for the Nationalist Chinese government in 1941.  This find immediately reminded me of the story of the "Lady Be Good" a USAAF B-24 that was found in similar circumstances in the Libyan Desert in the late 1950s.  That was a big news story when I was a kid, and I remember seeing big photo-spreads on it in Life magazine. I also remember a special TV dramatization about it on "Armstrong Circle Theater."  My parents let me stay up late to watch it. Is anybody else here old enough to remember Douglas Edwards and "Armstrong Circle Theater?"  As many organizations as there are these days actively looking for recoverable crashed WWII warbirds, I would be surprised if this doesn't set off an exploration rush in the Sahara.  Especially now that the Kadahfy regime is out in Libya.

The Lost Colony of Roanoke has always been one of the great mysteries of American colonial history.  Sir Walter Raleigh and his associates planted a colony in North Carolina in 1587.  Due to war with Spain and the battles with the Spanish Armada in 1588, supply vessels couldn't return for three years and they found the colony abandoned and all the colonists missing.  This article tells about re-examination of a contemporary map showing hidden symbols that may give clues to answering these questions.

Here's a NY Times article about the National Eagle Repository here in Denver that the USFWS uses to "manage" Native American access to eagle carcasses for religious uses.

Archaeologists and physical anthropologists have obtained a temporary restraining order to prevent the University of California at San Diego from repatriating two 9000 year-old burials to a consortium of Kumeyaay tribes under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). These burials from the San Diego area were excavated in 1976 and appear to be roughly the same age as the well-known Kennewick Man that was a famous NAGPRA court case a few years ago.

I mentioned a few weeks ago, that archaeologist Bill Kelso was being honored for his discovery of the original 1607 James Fort in Virginia that was long thought lost to river erosion. Kelso is back in the news as further work at James Fort has meant the excavation and removal of Ft. Pocahontas, a Confederate fortification  built on top of the southern portion of James Fort during the Civil War.  The earthworks of Ft. Pocahontas were full of Seventeenth century artifacts as the archaeological deposit was the Confederates' source for fill.

Finally in more Civil War archaeology news, the US Army Corps of Engineers will be sponsoring the excavation of the wreck of the CSS Georgia, a Confederate ironclad that was scuttled in the Savannah River in 1864. It lies in the path of a channel dredging project.

 

1 comment:

Moro Rogers said...

Re the eagle carcasses, it doesn't seem very cool to have to get your sacred items out of a shitty freezer. (With a wait list to boot...)