Iris Chang

This is an article written by a friend of Iris Chang, the amazing historian who committed suicide last week...

Posted on Mon, Nov. 15, 2004
Iris Chang's death robs the world of a courageous geniusBy Jeff GuinnStar-Telegram Books Editor

At 36, my friend Iris Chang was acknowledged as one of America's best young historians. She had written three books, including the controversial The Rape of Nanking, a national bestseller in 1999. She had a husband and a 2-year-old son. She was brilliant, breathtakingly beautiful and young enough to have her best years ahead as a human being and as a writer. She apparently killed herself last Tuesday morning with a gunshot to the head.

Iris' death is a terrible loss -- to her family most of all, but also to those who want and need to know about some of the most inconvenient parts of history, the iniquities and outright atrocities that too often are deliberately forgotten. Fourteen months ago in Fort Worth, she alternately charmed and shocked an audience at Scott Theatre as she explained why she chose to write about massacres (Nanking) and long-term, ongoing racial discrimination (The Chinese in America).

"I try to tell the stories that many people will neglect or ignore," Iris said. "I've always felt that in every writer there is something that dictates the theme of what she writes. For me, that's injustice."

She told those stories effectively. Shortly before his own death, the author Stephen Ambrose called Iris "maybe the best young historian we've got, because she understands that to communicate history, you've got to tell the story in an interesting way."

Because her books generated so much controversy, it was inevitable she would have detractors, too. Since The Rape of Nanking's publication, some have claimed it was written as anti-Japanese propaganda or that its description of atrocities committed during the city's occupation in 1937 were exaggerated. Yet she never backed down. Politely, firmly, she defended her research and conclusions. On one occasion, she appeared on The News Hour With Jim Lehrer with the Japanese ambassador to the United States and stated that the Japanese government had never apologized for its country's crimes in Nanking. The ambassador responded that perhaps there had been "unfortunate incidents." Iris' reply was, " 'Unfortunate incidents'? Did you hear an apology? I didn't."

Yet there was an immense softness to her as well, a genuine empathy for others. If she felt sweeping indignation for the actions of some, she felt equally intense pain for the suffering of victims, and I believe this is what eventually caused her to take her own life. We talked about this quite often, a few times in person, more often by phone or e-mail. She would discuss her most recent research efforts -- lately, she was preparing a book on Japanese mistreatment of war prisoners in the Bataan Peninsula -- and she never seemed quite able to adopt a scholar's emotional distance from her subjects. Apparently, at some point a few months ago on a research trip, the agony she felt for all those whose sufferings she chronicled finally caught up with her.

She returned home to California, was treated for depression and never really recovered. Her suicide note asked that she be remembered as she was before her illness.

Iris Chang was a genius, the most brilliant intellect I have ever encountered. The advantage of genius is the ability to know and feel things to a greater degree than everyone else. But that's the penalty of genius, too. You lose the ability to compartmentalize, to put harmful things out of your mind, at least for a little while. I'm certain Iris was finally overwhelmed by the sadness she couldn't stop feeling for victims whose stories she didn't want forgotten.

Because of her, they won't be.

Jeff Guinn, (817) 390-7720
jguinn@star-telegram.com

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/10172940.htm

Lost treasures of Afghanistan being recovered

Afghanistan's 'Lost' Heritage Found in Musty Boxes
Wed Nov 17, 2:33 PM ET
Science - Reuters
By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 22,000 ancient cultural treasures from Afghanistan, feared lost or destroyed after decades of war and Taliban rule, have been taken out of dusty crates and safes in Kabul and inventoried for safekeeping, said a U.S. archeologist on Wednesday.

The objects, including 2,500 years' worth of gold and silver coins and ancient sculptures, represent a "Silk Road" of goods once traded from China, India, Egypt, Greece, Rome and ancient Afghanistan.

"By the end of the Taliban's reign, most of us thought there was nothing left, just destruction and despair," said National Geographic fellow and archeologist Fred Hiebert, who led an inventory project of the items.

Many of the treasures were once on display in the Kabul Museum, which was shelled several times and lost its roof and door. Inventory cards were lost by fire and neglect, making it difficult to track down any of the items.

"This project has been an enormous boost for Afghanistan - finding the treasures intact and then working with the outstanding team to inventory each one of them, preserving our heritage for our children," said Afghanistan's minister of information and culture, Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, in a statement released by National Geographic.

Hiebert told reporters in a conference call he hoped the detailed inventory would make it easier for international law enforcement groups to track down precious items still missing.

Some looted artifacts have turned up in recent years at auction houses in Tokyo, London and New York, and Hiebert hopes these can be returned to Afghanistan.

DUSTY BOXES

The bulk of the newly inventoried items were found in April 2003 when a presidential palace vault in Kabul was cracked open to reveal a trove of famed, in tact Bactrian gold pieces.

But many more artifacts, including giant Buddhist sculptures and ancient ivory statues, have been found in recent months in unmarked boxes and safes stashed for safekeeping during the Soviet-led coup and then during the years of hardline Taliban rule.

After doing a first inventory of the Bactrian gold pieces, Hiebert was surprised when he was asked to look at 20 other boxes found to contain precious objects that Silk Road camels once carried between China and Rome and elsewhere.

"I looked at the eyes of the museum curators who had not seen these (artifacts) for 25 years and it was a very emotional experience. They saw their own heritage coming to life," he said.

Later, more trunks of precious artifacts were found in another location, which Hiebert declined to name because of security concerns.

Fearing they would find only objects smashed by the Taliban which had destroyed many pre-Islamic objects, these trunks were filled with hundreds and hundreds of sculptures and carvings from Buddhist religious structures, Hiebert said.

None of the newly uncovered items is yet on display in Afghanistan, mostly due to security concerns but also because a suitable exhibit space has not been found yet.

The old Kabul Museum is on the edge of the city and Hiebert says there are hopes a new museum will be built in a central location. One option is to stage an international tour of these objects until a new museum space is built.

Yahoo! News - Afghanistan's 'Lost' Heritage Found in Musty Boxes

Rethinking ancient history

Fire Pit Dated to Be Over 50,000 Years Old
Thu Nov 18,10:10 AM ET
Science - AP
By AMY GEIER EDGAR, Associated Press Writer

COLUMBIA, S.C. - In the growing debate about when people first appeared on this continent, a leading archaeologist said Wednesday he has discovered what could be sooty evidence of human occupation in North America tens of thousands of years earlier than is commonly believed.

University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear said he has uncovered a layer of charcoal from a possible hearth or fire pit at a site near the Savannah River.

Samples from the layer have been laboratory-dated to more than 50,000 years old. Yet Goodyear stopped short of declaring it proof of the continent's earliest human occupation.

"It does look like a hearth," he said, "and the material that was dated has been burned."

Since the 1960s, anthropologists have generally accepted that hunters migrated to North America about 13,000 years ago over a land bridge into Alaska following the retreat of Ice Age glaciers.

But other sites, including the Topper dig in South Carolina, have yielded rough stone tools and other artifacts suggesting that humans lived in North America thousands of years earlier when the climate was much colder. While there is no ironclad proof that an older culture existed, scientists are increasingly open to the idea that humans arrived from many other directions besides the northwest, perhaps even sailing across oceans.

But a 50,000-year-old fire pit would scorch the prevailing occupation theory.

Goodyear's evidence was examined by other scientists, who performed radiocarbon tests on samples to determine their age. However, he made his initial case for the fire pit Wednesday in a news conference rather publishing data in a scientific journal edited by other researchers.

Goodyear, who has worked the Topper site since 1981, discovered the charcoal layer in May.
Thomas Stafford, director of Stafford Laboratories in Boulder, Colo., then took samples of the substance for tests at the University of California at Irvine.

The results showed that wood varieties — oak, pine, red cherry and buckeye — had been burned in a low-temperature fire at least 50,300 years ago, he said.

Stafford described the burnt layer as measuring 2 or 3 inches thick and about 2 feet wide.
Rather than a simple black band in the soil, Stafford said the layer had the "shape of a very shallow plate."

He said it could have been the result of a fire tended by humans, or the ashes could have been deposited by wind, rain or flooding.

Other researchers were more skeptical of Goodyear's discovery, noting that previous claims of very old occupation at other sites never have been verified.

"We still need to be cautious," said Vanderbilt University anthropologist Tom Dillehay. "I would not yet rewrite the books. The find is very significant and shows that there is much we don't understand and can't easily reject or accept."

Other scientists were blunter.

"I think it's a 50,000-year-old geologic deposit," said University of Texas archaeologist Mike Collins. "It has almost nothing to do with the story of the peopling of North America."

Modern humans are believed to have emerged from Africa 100,000 years ago and spread around the world, elbowing out less capable human cousins like Homo erectus and Neanderthals.

Yahoo! News - Fire Pit Dated to Be Over 50,000 Years Old

Everest

Everest is in danger of being affected by global warming. I wrote a biography of one of the victims of this mountain, a man called Andrew Irvine, a biography which was never published thanks in large part to Andrew Irvine's family, but this mountain still haunts me...

Climate change 'ruining' Everest
Campaigners demand urgent assessment of the risks to Everest

Environmentalists are calling for Mount Everest to be put on a UN danger list because of global warming.

Melting glaciers have swollen lakes and increased the risk of catastrophic flooding in the Himalayas, they say.

The move to save the world's highest peak is part of a new campaign to force reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

The campaigners are arguing that countries are legally bound to protect World Heritage Sites from damage.

The group, including famous mountaineers and members of the UK-based group Friends of the Earth, will ask Unesco, the UN educational, scientific and cultural agency to put Nepal's Sagarmatha National Park on its danger list.

Unesco must shout out loudly and say we need greenhouse gas emission cuts - legally
Peter RoderickClimate Justice group It will also submit petitions for the Belize barrier reef and the Huascaran National Park in Peru to be included in the list.

"Mount Everest is a powerful symbol of the natural world not just in Nepal," the director of Friends of the Earth Nepal, Prakash Sharma, was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

"If this mountain is threatened by climate change, then we know the situation is deadly serious," the director added.

The campaigners admit that their initiative is a largely symbolic act, the BBC's environment correspondent Richard Black says.

But they argue that if politics is failing to curb global warming, then other avenues - including the law - must be used, our correspondent says.

If Unesco agrees with the submissions, it can ask member states to take corrective action.

However, even if Unesco does demand emission cuts, there is nothing in its rules which would force governments to obey, our correspondent adds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4018261.stm

Awesome

Italy Prepares to Return Prized Ethiopian Obelisk
World - Reuters
By Shasta Darlington

ROME (Reuters) - Italy finally looks set to heal a feud with Ethiopia by returning one of its most cherished relics, the obelisk of Axum, taken by fascist invaders almost 70 years ago.

Final details of a plan to transport the 200-tongranite column from Rome to the holy city of Axum are expected to be discussed when Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi meets Italian officials on Thursday and Friday.

Ethiopia has had to build an airstrip to receive the obelisk, the most important symbol of the dawn of Ethiopian civilization, and a road to take it to a pit in the center of town.

"Talks are in the final phase, there are just a few things to check, like whether the road is ready," an Italian government source said.

Government and diplomatic sources said the obelisk could be loaded on to an airplane before Christmas and at the very latest before the Ethiopian rainy season starts in April.

Asked about the road and airstrip, Eshetu Yisma, at the embassy in Rome, said: "From the Ethiopian side everything is ready. They are just agreeing on details on both sides."

But after more than half a century of promises, Ethiopians can be forgiven for being skeptical.
The 24-meter obelisk, believed to be at least 2,000 years old, was split into three and hauled off when fascist Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1937.

After the fall of the dictator Benito Mussolini and his nascent Italian "empire," Rome signed an accord in 1947 agreeing to return stolen relics and art works to Ethiopia.

Another accord was signed in 1956 and another in 1997, but the obelisk with its geometric designs remained in Rome, in front of what had been the Ministry of Italian Africa.

Two years ago, Ethiopia threatened to sever diplomatic ties, eliciting a fresh pledge.

Nature also gave a helping hand. Lightning damaged the obelisk in the same year, spurring Italian authorities to begin dismantling the column.

However, logistical obstacles have delayed its return.

Italy had removed the monument by ship, but the only convenient port now lies in Eritrea, unfriendly to Ethiopia.

So authorities have had to build the airstrip and road, and find an airplane that can handle the obelisk, whose heaviest section weighs over 80 tonnes.

A national holiday has been promised for the day it is finally returned home.

"Until the obelisk is returned to Ethiopia, Mussolini will be laughing at us from his grave," said Richard Pankhurst, a British historian living in Addis Ababa who has led the demands for the return of Ethiopian treasures.

(Additional reporting by Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)

Atlantis found?

U.S. Researcher Says Finds Atlantis Off Cyprus
Sun Nov 14,11:35 AM ET
Science - Reuters
By Michele Kambas

LIMASSOL, Cyprus (Reuters) - A U.S. researcher on Sunday claimed he had found the lost civilization of Atlantis in the watery deep off Cyprus -- adding his theory to a mystery which has baffled explorers for centuries.

Robert Sarmast says a Mediterranean basin was flooded in a deluge around 9,000 BC which submerged a rectangular land mass he believes was Atlantis, lying about 1 mile beneath sea level between Cyprus and Syria.

"We have definitely found it," said Sarmast, who led a team of explorers 50 miles off the south-east coast of Cyprus earlier this month.

Deep water sonar scanning had indicated man-made structures on a submerged hill, including a 3-kilometer-long wall, a walled hill summit and deep trenches, he said. But further explorations were needed, he added.

"We cannot yet provide tangible proof in the form of bricks and mortar as the artifacts are still buried under several meters of sediment, but the circumstantial and other evidence is irrefutable," he claimed.

At a news conference in the port city of Limassol, Sarmast provided only animated simulations of the "hill."

Whether and where Atlantis existed has captured imaginations for centuries.

According to ancient Greek philosopher Plato, Atlantis was an island nation where an advanced civilization developed some 11,500 years ago.

Theories abound as to why it disappeared, from Atlantis being hit by a cataclysmic natural disaster to Greek mythology which describes the civilization as being so corrupted by greed and power that it was destroyed by God.

Skeptics believe Atlantis was a figment of Plato's imagination.

Sarmast says he was led to Cyprus by clues in Plato's dialogues. Plato's reference to Atlantis lying opposite the Pillars of Hercules -- believed to be the Straits of Gibraltar -- have often led explorers to focus on either the Atlantic Ocean, Ireland or the Azores off Portugal.

"People who dismiss this have not really done their homework, skeptics don't really understand.

To understand the enigma of Atlantis you have to have good knowledge of ancient history, Biblical references, the Sumerian culture and their tablets and so on," said Sarmast.

Although the most prevailing story of a world cataclysm is listed in the Biblical Old Testament, several ancient cultures do list accounts of civilizations being destroyed in floods.

Probing a Pharaoh

Egypt Hopes to Solve Riddle of Tutankhamun Death
Sat Nov 13, 5:41 PM ET
Science - Reuters
By Tom Perry

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt plans to X-ray the mummy of Tutankhamun to find out what killed the king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago and died while only a teen-ager.

Archaeologists will move Tutankhamun's body from its tomb, which was discovered packed with treasure in 1922, to Cairo for tests which should resolve the mystery over whether he died naturally or was murdered.

"We will know about any diseases he had, any kind of injuries and his real age," Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told Reuters. "We will know the answer to whether he died normally or was he killed."

The mummy would be moved by the end of November and the CAT scan, which will produce a three-dimensional X-ray of his remains, completed by the end of the year, he said.

Tutankhamun's treasures, including a stunning gold mask which covered the head of his mummy, were removed from the tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter. They are usually on show in the Cairo Museum.

But his mummified remains were left in the tomb in a stone coffin. Archaeologists last opened the coffin in 1968, when an X-ray revealed a chip of bone in his skull.

That fueled speculation that a blow to the head had killed the king, whose high priest and army commander have been singled out as chief suspects.

"No one has seen the mummy since 1968," Hawass said.

The three-dimensional X-ray of what appears to be a fracture would show whether it had been caused by a blow to the head, said Brando Quilici, a film maker with National Geographic, which is partly sponsoring the research.

Hawass said Tutankhamun's mummy had largely been smashed to pieces by Carter's expedition, when tools were used to remove the king's gold mask from his body. The mask had been firmly attached to the mummy by resin, he said.

But that would not hinder the research.

"Even if it just bone, we can examine each bone," he said.

Hawass said he would like Tutankhamun's mummy to go back to its tomb after the completion of the research.

Mystery has surrounded Tutankhamun since the discovery of his tomb. Lord Carnarvon, Carter's sponsor and among the first to enter the tomb, died shortly afterward from an infected mosquito bite.

Newspapers at the time said Carter had unleashed a Pharaonic curse which killed Carnarvon and others linked to the discovery.

Scientists have in the past suggested that a disease lying dormant in the tomb may have killed the British aristocrat.

Hysterical!

This is from the AP via Yahoo (and just in time, too--I needed a giggle!):

Beavers Make Dam Out of Stolen Money
Top Stories - AP

GREENSBURG, La. - Beavers found a bag of bills stolen from a casino, tore it open and wove the money into the sticks and brush of their dam on a creek near Baton Rouge.

"They hadn't torn the bills up. They were still whole," said Maj. Michael Martin of the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office.

The money was part of at least $70,000 taken last week from the Lucky Dollar Casino in Greensburg, about 30 miles northeast of Baton Rouge.

Sheriff's deputies in St. Helena Parish, where the truck stop video poker casino is located, have accused a security guard at the casino of disabling its security cameras. Jacqueline Wall, 25, was booked with felony theft, Martin said.

She told investigators a ski-masked gunman made her help him empty all the casino's safes, then kidnapped her, knocked her out and left her in an uninhabited area in East Feliciana Parish.

Deputies had searched for the money for days before an attorney called with a tip: the money had been thrown into the creek. The attorney's client hopes to make a deal with prosecutors, Greensburg Police Chief Ronald Harrell said.

They found one money bag right away. The second was downstream, against the beaver dam.
After trying unsuccessfully to find the third bag in the deep water near the dam, Martin said, deputies began to break it down to release some of the water so they could search in a shallower pool.

That was when they saw the dam's expensive decoration.

He said they eventually found the third sack, which still had some money left in it.

"The casino people were elated" to get the money back, even if some of it was wet, Harrell said.
Deputies found about $40,000, and expected to find the rest in a safety deposit box at a bank in
Mississippi.