Archaeology Odyssey

To understand how this could possibly be, see chapter 15 of the author’s The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1999).

See Denise Schmandt-Besserat’s article on the origins of counting, “One Two ... Three,” Archaeology Odyssey, September/October 2002.

Sumer, the earliest major civilization in Mesopotamia, included the city-states of Eridu, Ur, Nippur and Uruk. Sumer is also a somewhat fluid place-name referring to the southernmost region of Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C.

See Jessica Meyerson’s review of author Susan Redford’s book, The Harem Conspiracy (Northern Illinois Univ. Press, 2002), in Archaeology Odyssey, July/August 2003.

See “Archaeology Odyssey’s 10 Most Endangered Sites,” Archaeology Odyssey, September/October 2002.

See the following articles by Francis Deblauwe in Archaeology Odyssey: “Plundering the Past: The Rape of Iraq’s National Museum,” July/August 2003; and “Iraq Update,” September/October 2003.

Since the discovery of the crypt in 2001, the site has come under the protection of the Romanian Ministry of Culture.

The Historia Augusta, a collection of biographies of Roman emperors of the second and third centuries C.E., was probably compiled no earlier than the fourth century C.E.

Mihail Zahariade has led the excavations since 1981. Since 1999, the Earthwatch Institute of Boston has provided workers during each excavation season. Myrna K. Phelps joined the expedition after serving as an Earthwatch volunteer in 1999.

The caryatids seen on the structure today are replicas. One of the originals was taken by Lord Elgin; the others have been removed to the Acropolis Museum.