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    The Agent from Iran

    How a mother of two ended up in a plot to smuggle high-tech gear to the enemy.

    By Deirdra Funcheon

  • Westword

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    By Alan Prendergast

  • Village Voice

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    Amy Neustein never could resist going public with her family dramas.

    By Elizabeth Dwoskin

  • Houston Press

    The Ghosts of Galveston

    A visit with the hurricane victims that a country forgot.

    By John Nova Lomax

The Archaeology of Downtown

By Jessica Armbruster

Published on May 08, 2008 at 3:23am

Ever wonder what secrets of the past are buried underneath downtown St. Paul skyscrapers? How about Nicollet Mall or the U of M campus? When thinking of archaeological dig sites, it might be easy to go to extremes, imagining the cinema-friendly stereotype, an Indiana Jones-type character carefully making his way through a long-lost ancient temple in search of a jewel the size of a pillow. Perhaps not as dramatic, yet still very interesting, this Sunday archaeologist Kent Bakken will be discussing upcoming and ongoing archaeological digs around the concrete-laden areas of our cities. In conjunction with National Archaeology Week, the talk will touch on various projects, including excavations at Mill Ruins Park and in the Elliot Park neighborhood. The Elliot Park excavations are a community-based project now in its fifth year. Volunteers each year are invited to a specified site where people unearth things like broken pitchers, bits of what once was a porch, and other items kept in the backyards of the 19th-century houses that once existed in the area. Yes, history is still alive, despite sometimes being hidden beneath gravel or a slab of concrete.
Sun., May 11, 2 p.m., 2008