The Stone Towers by Zaha Hadid Architects

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Scholars and curious visitors have spent more than a century trying to unravel those mysteries and more work needs to be done.

That's why nearly 30 top archaeologists from universities and organizations around the nation called on the U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday to protect the area surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park from oil and gas development.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, they talked about the countless hours they've spent in the field, the dozens of books they've published about the Chaco society and their decades of collective experience studying its connection to modern Native American tribes in the Southwest. They call Chaco a distinct resource.

"Many of the features associated with this landscape — the communications and road systems that once linked the canyon to great house sites located as far away as southeast Utah and which are still being identified to this day — have been damaged by the construction of oil and gas roads, pipelines and well pads," the archaeologists said.

They're pushing for the agency to consider a master leasing plan that would take into account cultural resources beyond the boundaries of the national park. They're also looking for more coordination between federal land managers, tribes and archaeologists.

The Bureau of Land Management is revamping its resource management plan for the San Juan Basin and all new leasing within a 10-mile radius of Chaco park has been deferred until the plan is updated, likely in 2016.

Wally Drangmeister, a spokesman for the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, said the BLM's existing plan already takes into account cultural resources. He said there has been a push by environmentalists to tie Chaco to development in the Mancos shale more than 10 miles from the park.

Environmentalists have been calling for protections for the greater Chaco area, and Drangmeister said that expansive definition could put the whole San Juan Basin off limits.

The basin is one of the largest natural gas fields in the U.S. and has been in production for more than 60 years. More development is expected in some areas since technology is making it easier for energy companies to tap the region's oil resources.

Some archaeologists have theorized that Chaco's influence spread far and wide from its remote desert location. A World Heritage site, Chaco includes a series of great houses, or massive multistory stone buildings, some of which were oriented to solar and lunar directions and offered lines of sight between buildings to allow for communication.

Steve Lekson, a professor and curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, has spent years studying Chaco and its influence over the Southwest. He likened the process to learning how to play baseball after discovering home base and the pitcher's mound.

"You keep poking around and find more bases and the warning tracks and all that stuff. You need the whole picture to understand how the game is played," he said. "Of course, Chaco being a political system or major regional system is much more complicated than baseball. You need enough of the package intact so you can actually understand the structure of the thing."

Lekson and others said the hope that there's more to be discovered doesn't mean energy development should come to a halt.

"I don't think anybody is saying that, but we need to pay a lot of attention to how that's done and be cognizant of the larger issue," he said. "It shouldn't be a site-by-site thing."

The archaeologists' letter comes on the heels of a tour of the Chaco area by U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-New Mexico, and Interior Deputy Secretary Mike Connor. The two met with land managers and others after the tour.

Connor said there are Navajo allottees who want to develop their resources and other Native Americans who want to protect those resources.

"It's a balancing act throughout all of BLM's lands and I think Chaco is particularly unique," he said. "The more I learn about it, the more I was struck by the more we all have to learn."

Author: Susan Montoya Bryan | Source: The Associated Press [July 01, 2015]

The ancient Jewish town of Bet She'arim reached its zenith in the 2nd-4th centuries CE. The inhabitants of Bet She'arim hewed grand tombs deep within the hill, with rock-cut burial chambers and stone coffins (sarcophagi). The rooms and the sarcophagi feature an abundance of carved reliefs, inscriptions and wall paintings. Stone-carved doors, which imitate the style of wooden doors, were fashioned to close some of the caves.

In the third century CE, Bet She'arim became a renowned Jewish center due to the presence of the spiritual leader Rabbi Judah Hanasi, head of the Sanhedrin. The Roman authorities, who supported his leadership, gave him much property, including an estate at Bet She'arim. Rabbi Judah moved the Sanhedrin from Shefar'am to Bet She'arim, and towards the end of his life to Zippori. He was buried at Bet She'arim in 220 CE, garnering fame for its cemetery in the Jewish world throughout in the talmudic

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority noted that the site is the oldest and most densely populated cemetery in Israel, and one of the most crowded burial sites in the Roman world, similar to the catacombs in Rome. "This is the most important ancient Jewish cemetery, and it contains a wide variety of architectural burial styles, containing a varied wealth of Classical Oriental Roman art, combined with folk art, with hundreds of inscriptions in four languages - Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic and Palmyric."

Last year, Beit Guvrin was declared a World Heritage Site. Other sites previously added to the prestigious list were the Nahal Me’arot Nature Reserve, the Baha'i holy sites in Haifa and the Western Galilee, the Incense Route and its Nabatean towns, the biblical tels of Megiddo, Hazor and Be'er Sheva, The White City of Tel Aviv, Masada and the Old City of Acre. The Old City of Jerusalem and its walls were the first Israeli heritage site declared by UNESCO, in 1981.

Source: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs [July 05, 2015]

It was a dramatic contrast with a larger frock of similar hue she wore two years ago.
Young love: Beatrice was at the event with boyfriend Dave Clark
She now looks at least two sizes smaller, and credits a fitness regime based on exercise, lots of water and plenty of fruit and vegetables, with keeping the weight off.
Speaking about the pictures, she said at the time: 'I could probably do with losing the odd pound though, so perhaps it's the kick I need.
'It was such an unflattering bikini and I've got one that's so much nicer, so I could have kicked myself for wearing it.
'I thought people were a bit mean, although I know it comes with the territory.
'The trouble is, I don't have much confidence so it can be quite upsetting.'
Inspired: It was the unflattering pictures of the princess on a beach in St Barts that spurred her on to lose two stone and run the London Marathon as part of a charity team tied together
There has been no let up this year for the princess, who took part in the Windsor half marathon in September.
She managed to complete the run in a very respectable two hours and 16 minutes.
Then, in April she completed the London Marathon with her American boyfriend David Clark as part of a charity team tied together.
They formed a human caterpillar of 34 people who ran the 26.2mile course together along with Sir Richard Branson's two children Sam and Holly.
source: dailymail

VIA Superslim Princess Beatrice keeps shedding pounds thanks to 'water and fruit diet'