The evolution of the Coca-Cola bottle

 The evolution of the Coca-Cola bottle

Historic Kyiv Burns as Russia Continues to Try to Eliminate Ukraine

This is the scene in Kyiv early on 4 July. Putin launched a massive bombardment of the Ukrainian capital immediately after his call with Trump. Note, these are all civilian, not military targets. Russia continues to try to eliminate Ukraine while we all stand by and watch. Apparently the US not so long ago gave them a "security guarantee" and declared support for "as long as it takes".

Valuing the Heritage in the UK

The irresponsible use of historic sites and landscapes can have a lasting impact and result in the destruction of the irreplaceable heritage. 

Of course in the British mentality that does not always apply to those who use metal detectors to hoik out collectable artefacts for themselves. That's "OK" they say. 

Funding cuts to U.S. Archaeology Could Imperil Discipline’s Future

An analysis of cancelled and curtailed federal grants reveals hits to research, collections, and training (Taylor Mitchell Brown, 'Funding cuts to U.S. archaeology could imperil field’s future', Science [ Vol 388, Issue 6753] 18 Jun 2025O). In the US:

archaeology has always survived on a trickle of federal funding. But it has not escaped cuts by the administration of President Donald Trump, which has halted or slowed research on past cultures and human origins and choked off spending on training and scholarship, jeopardizing the future of the field in the United States, researchers say.

Some of the excuses offered by the US officials sound pretty dystopian. One piece of research was cut because in the view of MAGA policy-makers it "advanced “woke DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion) objectives". Another aiming to reconstruct the social and political networks of the Classic Maya kingdoms was said to "represent neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda” (what's the betting by somebody who has not the slightest inkling of what Marx actually wrote as it turns out many MAGAmericans bandying the M-term about actually do not).

Ari Caramanica, an archaeologist at Vanderbilt University[...] says the cuts represent “an event that will mark ‘before’ and ‘after’ times; it’s existential, and it’s a completely novel disruption to our work with no foreseeable remedy”.