French archaeologists dig up 30-year-old banquet

Pigs ears, smoked udders or veal lungs? French archaeologists this week begin examining the remains of an open-air banquet shovelled underground almost 30 years ago as an art performance. Supervised by the creme-de-la-creme of French archaeology, a bunch of dusty diggers are unearthing the leftovers from a work now known as Lunch Under The Grass -- a meal for 80 in sumptuous gardens south of Paris where the star course was offal.

On April 23, 1983, Swiss artist Daniel Spoerri, one of the central figures of post-war European art, invited dozens of artists, gallery-owners, critics and friends for a lunch held by a 40-metre (-yard) long trench. The meal over, the 80-odd participants trundled tables laden with plates, glasses and leftover tripe into the trench to be buried for posterity.

This is what you could call garbage archaeology, one of France's top archaeologists, Jean-Paul Demoule, told AFP, referring to schemes under way across the world to examine society by perusing its rubbish.

What will these remains tell us about the way artists lived in the 1980s, what will they say about our society? Demoule, who is leading the project and is former head of the National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP), asked.

Continue Reading Here

Sonar scanners find ancient wrecks off Italian coast

Tiny Clay Head May Have Been Used As Ancient Effigy

Ancient "Solar Boat" Unearthed at Pyramids