Sheldon Museum of Art at the University of Nebraska presents the exhibitions “Approaching Landscape” and “For Freedoms: In the future days …” from August 10 through December 31, 2018. Wally Mason, Director and Chief Curator, explains that the two exhibitions explore issues currently on the minds of many people. “As we navigate daily through social and physical landscapes, we are increasingly cognizant of and vocal about change. ‘Approaching Landscape’ focuses attention on the convergence of nature and culture, on crossroads of human activity and perception.” Emphasizing that each exhibition offers more questions than answers, Mason described “For Freedoms: In the future days …” as “an effort to draw on past and current events that shape, or have shaped, where we find ourselves currently.”

Israel on Wednesday unveiled a golden earring dating from the second or third century BC, found in the shadow of the Old City walls in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the artifact, in the Hellenistic style and shaped like a horned animal, was found in October in the City of David National Park, between the Old City and the flashpoint Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan. The find was not announced publicly until now to give archeologists time to study the find and publish an academic paper. “It is unclear whether the gold earring was worn by a man or a woman, nor do we know their cultural or religious identity, but we can say for certain that whoever wore this earring definitely belonged to Jerusalem’s upper class,” an IAA statement said, citing “the quality of the gold piece of jewelry”. Following the conquest of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC, Jerusalem remained under Hellenist rule for the next 200 years.

Easter Island’s indigenous authorities have asked Chile’s government to help them recover a unique monumental Moai statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London. The 2.4-meter (seven feet) tall Hoa Hakananai’a sculpture was allegedly pilfered illegally by Richard Powell aboard the “Topaze” and given to Queen Victoria as a gift. “It’s a unique piece, the only tangible link that accounts for two important stages in our ancestral history,” the island’s Rapa Nui authorities said on Tuesday. Of the more than 900 giant humanoid sculptures on the island, most were carved from volcanic ash between the sixth and 17th centuries, but the Hoa Hakananai’a, which means “the stolen or hidden friend” in the island’s indigenous Rapa Nui language, is unique as it was made from basalt. Figures associated with the Tangata Manu (bird

An international team of paleontologists and other geoscientists has discovered the first North American co-occurrence of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks in the lower Cantwell Formation within Denali National Park, suggesting that an aspect of the continental ecosystem of central Asia was also present in this part of Alaska during the Late Cretaceous. This comprehensive cross-disciplinary effort has resulted in a paper – entitled “An unusual association of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks within Late Cretaceous rocks of Denali National Park, Alaska” – published in Scientific Reports, an online open access scientific mega journal published by the Nature Publishing Group, covering all areas of the natural sciences. Anthony R. Fiorillo, Ph.D., chief curator and vice president of research and collections at the