Ancient

Rita St. Clair and her staff turned to an ancient classic when the Baltimore interior designer was asked to decorate a room upon her induction into the Washington Design Center Hall of Fame. The group wanted a fabric to accent a number of pieces in the room and make them pop. They chose ikat. With its Central Asian origins and exotic feel, ikat — a weaving and dyeing technique that uses a range of materials — was perfect for creating a room inspired by a worldly family.

Except for the spout sticking up from its backbone, the reddish-brown clay dog bears a striking resemblance to the Chihauhau curled up in front of your fireplace. There's the whiplike tail that's been temporarily stilled, the ears cocked sleepily in the direction of a faraway sound. An observer would almost expect that pup's nose to be moist and its tongue warm. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? This drowsy canine just leaped over 18 centuries. One of the delights of "Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas," the new exhibit opening Sunday at the Walters Art Museum , is that it creates common ground between contemporary humans and the ancestors from whom we are separated by four millennia.

A MEMORABLE PLACESince 1995, summer has found me walking alone with my life on my back in the wilds of County Clare, on the west coast of Ireland. Clare, home of my distant bloodlines, had persistently beckoned to me over the years, until, finally, I answered the call.Each year I ready myself for yet another part of this continuing journey, this pilgrimage of the heart ... searching for something I have lost, recovering my long-lost self, not knowing from one year to the next if I can even return at all, what with life's twists and turns being what they are. But it seems some greater hand is moving me there once again.

The first immigrants to this hemisphere arrived between 15,000 and 10,000 years ago. As time progressed many unique and advanced cultures developed, particularly in Mesoamerica. Luckily for Baltimore and its environs, the Walters Art Museum will soon open a new special exhibition, "Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas," focusing on artifacts from Mesoamerica. The show, which opens Feb. 12, will provide all of us with an opportunity to learn more about the cultural history of our hemisphere, a history that our schools have long neglected.

NUWEIBA, Egypt -- From the start, running the Taba Hilton was a challenge. When Neil Mathieson took over as general manager of the resort hotel almost two years ago, Israel had just been forced to hand the Taba enclave at Israel's southern tip back to Egypt after years of argument and negotiation.Bitter and angry, Israeli tourists, the hotel's only natural clientele, stopped coming. And they began to return only after more than a year of coaxing, price cuts and carefully crafted package deals.

Every Saturday, a class meets at the Columbia Gym in Harper's Choice to practice kendo, a Japanese martial art that is similar to fencing. Stemming from the ancient samurai tradition, kendo instruction is compulsory for Japanese children in primary school. Now it is a sport, and contenders compete in tournaments from the regional level all the way up to the international level. Matches last from three to four minutes and never end in a tie. Men and women compete against each other, but women can compete only against other women if they choose.

PHILADELPHIA--Trowels in hand, the student archaeologists had settled down to the day's dig when Katie Gerbner, 18, spied a blue-trimmed vase and peered inside. "Guys, there's coins in here," Gerbner announced. "Katie," said their teacher, Matt Glendinning, "how many are there, and can you see anything on them?" "They're Roman," Gerbner said. Gerbner and her 15 Germantown Friends School classmates would say they are on an adventure that's the next best thing to a real archaeological dig. The students had embarked on a discovery mission that ultimately will span ancient Greece to the Middle Ages.

PHILADELPHIA - A major early civilization - rivaling in sophistication the ones that emerged in the Indus Valley or Mesopotamia, the famed Cradle of Civilization - apparently thrived in central Asia between 2200 B.C. and 1800 B.C. These people, who lived in desert oases in what is now Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, used irrigation to grow wheat and barley, forged distinctive metal axes, carved alabaster and marble into intricate sculptures, and painted pottery...

By studying traces of ancient starlight, astronomers are gaining a better understanding of how the infant universe took shape - a step toward answering questions about the nature of space, time and energy as defined by Einstein's theories. But the deeper in space that scientists try to probe, the murkier things become. Even with ever-improving technology, the oldest stars are still too distant to observe directly. In probing this and other enigmatic phenomena, astronomers often make assumptions based on what the latest instruments reveal.

BAIRAGHAR, India --Plenty of women might feel they deserve an award for marrying their husbands, but Madhavi Arwar is actually getting one - from the Indian government, no less. Not that her husband, Chandrashekhar, is a bad sort. In fact, he's good-looking, holds a steady job at an insurance company and dotes on their apple-cheeked son. But he is also a Dalit, or an "untouchable," the lowest of the low under India's ancient caste system. Madhavi is not, and for marrying "down" the social ladder, she is entitled to $250 in cash, plus a certificate of appreciation.

Certainly, the Piscataway must have been among the Native Americans who understood The Way of the Heron. They lived along the shores, too. They inhabited land at the edges of the Chesapeake in what became Southern Maryland. They must have noticed how the great blue heron, stalking fish in the marshes, got along with other birds - even the teasing red-winged blackbird - and from that observation came a whole feast of philosophy about the peaceful life. The Way of the Heron, Evan Pritchard says, is an ancient Algonquin teaching, and he knows it well enough that he can share its timeless wisdom easily with those who are open to it. Mr. Pritchard, a descendant of Algonquin-speaking people, is the director of the Center for Algonquin Culture in New York, a professor of Native American history at Marist College, a teacher of philosophy and ethics, and the author of several books, including, "Native American Stories of the Sacred" and "No Word For Time, The Way of the Algonquin People.

In one of the largest gifts ever received by Baltimore's Walters Art Museum , a New Mexico collector is donating some 300 pieces and promising a $4 million bequest to shine a spotlight on the art of the ancient Americas. "This is a huge development for us," said Walters director Gary Vikan, noting that the soon-to-be-created center for the study of the arts of the ancient Americas should prove especially alluring to the area's "very vibrant" Latino community. "This is a huge new ingredient in building audience for us," he said.

It's late on a steamy August morning. Forty scholars and their lecturer have been at their studies for a couple of hours. One of the more challenging courses in the summer program at Anne Arundel Community College is already well under way. But there are no desks or chalkboard. The classroom is a gym, and six young people are walking the floor on stilts. Eight more spin plates on sticks, and one weaves his way through the commotion on a bicycle the size of a ringmaster's hat. Welcome to Circus Camp, a five-day, 40-hour expedition through the big-top arts in which comedy is king, the teacher is a clown and the students — county children between the ages of 7 and 14 — will be able to conquer the course material only if they can manage not to take themselves too seriously.

Rita St. Clair and her staff turned to an ancient classic when the Baltimore interior designer was asked to decorate a room upon her induction into the Washington Design Center Hall of Fame. The group wanted a fabric to accent a number of pieces in the room and make them pop. They chose ikat. With its Central Asian origins and exotic feel, ikat — a weaving and dyeing technique that uses a range of materials — was perfect for creating a room inspired by a worldly family.

After generations tucked into a small room on the first floor of Gilman Hall, The Johns Hopkins University's archaeological collection has emerged from seclusion. Ancient sculptures, pottery, jewelry, weapons and tools from the Americas to the Middle East will now get their moment in a mix of sun and cool museum light that illuminates an expanded new display space after an $85 million renovation. The collection marked its opening day Sunday with lectures, lunch and a cocktail reception, and with a new, more dignified name: The Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum.

Descendants of fish that roamed the seas when dinosaurs ruled the earth, Atlantic sturgeon are in danger of disappearing just like their ancestors. They're the biggest, strangest-looking fish most people have never seen in the Chesapeake Bay, so few are left in these waters. Now, at the urging of an environmental group, the federal government wants to formally classify them as endangered, which triggers stricter legal protection from harm for the remaining sturgeon. But some scientists and state officials worry it could also complicate efforts to restore their numbers.

Excavations at a ruined city on the plains of northeastern Syria have turned up the oldest known example of large-scale warfare -- an ancient campaign that pummeled the city into submission at the dawn of civilization more than 5,500 years ago, researchers said yesterday. The discovery of the devastated remains of the ancient trading center suggests that the urge to attack and conquer cities is as old and basic as the need to build them, the researchers said. "This clearly was no minor skirmish," said archaeologist Clemens Reichel of the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, who led the team of archeologists who made the discovery.

SEATTLE -- His bones lay for 93 centuries in a bed of fine Columbia River sand that held them gently, without compressing or distorting them. He was middle-aged when he died, say the few scientists who have seen him. He had all his teeth, and a spear tip embedded two inches deep in his pelvis.And, they say, his face had somewhat Caucasian features.He is called Kennewick Man, after the southern Washington town where he was discovered this past summer, and he is at once one of the biggest anthropological finds and frustrations in years.

Erosion along the Chesapeake Bay cliffs in Calvert County has exposed another ancient whale skull, and students from Harrisburg, Pa., were expected to help scientists dig the fossil from the heavy clay sediments. Only a small portion of the back of the skull is visible, said Stephen Godfrey of the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons. But the Miocene-era fossil is probably 16 million years old, and likely belongs to an extinct family of small whales that swam in what were then Atlantic coastal waters teeming with marine life.

Branch Rickey knew what he was talking about when he said he would rather trade a player a year too soon than a year too late. He wasn't speaking about franchise icons specifically, but that wisdom carries over to the mess the Mariners find themselves in with Ken Griffey Jr. It's no huge surprise Griffey's pride and addiction to the lifestyle allowed him to overstay his ability. The steady decline of his batting average (.277 in 2007, .245 in '08, .214 in '09) exposed his diminishing skills.