The following are all the articles on A Blog About History for the week of February 22-26, 2010.

• Jurassic Parkette: The island of dwarf dinosaurs
• 7,000-year-old bricks found in China
• Uranium found in scrapyard belonged to lost Nazi nuke-project
• Megalithic settlement found in Sumatra
• Minaret collapse prompts examination of old mosques
• Stone Age pictographs get a second look
• Turkish temple predates civilization
• 6 insane historical coincidences
• Warner Bros. blooper reel from 1936
• Evidence supports Biblical description of Jerusalem
• 18th-century octagonal house found
• Unearthing the treasures of Ur
• Caravaggio’s madness caused by lead poisoning
• Civil War cannonball found in Hollywood home
• Earliest evidence of humans in India found
• U.S. to return 3,000-year-old pharaonic sarcophagus to Egypt
• Abbey Road studios given English Heritage status
• New species of dinosaur found in Utah
• Gene study shows small dogs originated in the middle east
• Man-eating crocodile may have preyed on ancient humans
• The 16-century origin of platform shoes
• Avenue of Sphinxes uproots families
• 33-foot-long shark fossil found in Kansas
• Ancient Aztec temple found inside colonial building
• Ring fort may have been Bronze Age sports arena
• Idaho pictographs defaced by graffiti
• 65,000 colonial artifacts unearthed in New York City
• Roman burial urn found containing human ashes
• The search for Ming Dynasty shipwrecks

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China and Kenya are planning to search for ancient Chinese ships which wrecked almost 600 years ago off the east coast of Africa.

The sunken ships are believed to have been part of a massive fleet led by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He that reached Malindi in 1418. Kenyan lore has long told of shipwrecked Chinese sailors settling in the region and marrying local women.

Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He — whose name is also spelled Cheng Ho — led armadas with scores of junks and thousands of sailors on voyages to promote trade and recognition of the new dynasty, which had taken power in 1368.

Zheng’s seven voyages marked a high point in Chinese power. But imperial rulers soon lost interest in the outside world and canceled further exploration more than a half century before Columbus reached the New World.

Zheng’s story has been heavily promoted by China’s government in recent years as evidence of China’s tradition of nonaggression abroad, although historical records show the treasure fleets carried significant firepower and participated in at least three major military actions.

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An intact Roman burial urn has been found in England, complete with human ashes inside.

The 2,000-year-old vessel, which is whole and unbroken, was dug up during construction work on the Millwood Homes site in the centre of the town.

It was x-rayed at Exeter Airport because it was too large for the machines at the city’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum.

Pictures showed it contains soil, dense material thought to be ash from the cremation and several mysterious curved object, which may be bone fragments or possibly metal items.

The urn is one of many finds at the Cullompton site that prove the Roman occupation lasted from the 1st Century until the 4th Century – a fort on St Andrews Hill discovered in 1984 suggested they left in the mid-70s AD.

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65,000 colonial-era artifacts have been unearthed during construction of a subway station in New York City.

The goat bones and oyster shells tell us what our colonial forefathers ate. Stone jugs from Germany show where they traded, and stylish brass buckles and pointy leather shoes are a reminder that New Yorkers have always been fashion savvy.

These are among 65,000 historic artifacts that have turned up during construction at the South Ferry subway station, and offer a rare glimpse into colonial New York. Next month, a new exhibit will provide the public with a window into this vanished way of life.

“This is probably the only time in our lifetime that this area will be dug up and studied,” said Carissa Amash, curator at the New York Transit Museum, which will showcase the artifacts discovered at South Ferry.

“We have history books. But the artifacts provide information about what was actually going on,” Diane Dallal, archaeology director for AKRF, a firm that analyzed the remnants.

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Vandals/idiots/yobs have defaced ancient pictographs in Lewiston’s Hells Gate State Park, Idaho, by spray-painting graffiti over them.

Some of the animal figure and geometric pictographs on the basalt wall are believed to be 2,500 years old. Idaho state archaeologist Ken Reid told the Lewiston Tribune that the damage violates the federal Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979.

The graffiti was left sometime in the last two weeks and includes references to marijuana and peace signs.

Joseph Saxon with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says a team is being sent in to investigate the vandalism.

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