Stories below the fold

HeirsOfDurin has screenshots of the new Hobbit Trailer for your viewing pleasure, including the four "alternative endings", including where Bilbo reads the part in his contract about Durin's not being responsible if he is incinerated...and promptly faints.

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 Unique 1000 year old limestone sarcophagi found in the mountains of the Philippines.

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 Remember those headlines stories about a text saying Jesus being married?

 Did they mention that a lot of scholars think the whole thing is a forgery?

In other words, the "anonymous collector took it to just the sort of naive person who would be targeted by a scam, and presented her with a papyrus that would confirm her feminist interpretation of church history...

wonder how much Harvard paid for it?

Some archaeologists were quick to question Harvard's ethics, noting that the fragment has no known provenance, or history of where it's been, and that its current owner may have a financial interest in the publicity being generated about it.

King has said the owner wants to sell his collection to Harvard.

"There are all sorts of really dodgy things about this," said David Gill, professor of archaeological heritage at University Campus Suffolk and author of the Looting Matters blog, which closely follows the illicit trade in antiquities. "This looks to me as if any sensible, responsible academic would keep their distance from it."

KACHING!

the real question is why the Smithsonian "fell" for pushing such a poorly authenticated piece of parchment when selling fake antiquities has been a big business in Egypt for 4000 years.

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