Antiquities Found on Shipwreck That Carried Elgin Marbles

Too bad the ship sank, but most of the other sculptures Lord Elgin saved from being burnt for lime are in the British Museum:

Lord Elgin collected other Greek antiquities besides the sculptures taken from the Parthenon, finds a new survey at the site of the British ship Mentor, which sank off southern Greece more than 200 years ago carrying marbles from the Acropolis to London. During a two-week search that ended on July 12, Greek Culture Ministry divers explored the wreck of the Mentor, off the island of Kythera and found three ancient handles of Rhodian amphoras and a small stone vessel. The handles date to the 3rd century B.C. and belong to jars made in the island of Rhodes. Two are stamped. The findings confirm the theory that other antiquities besides the Partenon marbles were aboard the ship. The shipwreck has been investigated by underwater archaeologists since 2009 in the hope of finding other Parthenon marbles. The ship was loaded with 16 crates of marble art removed from the Acropolis on behalf of Thomas Bruce, the Scottish Earl of Elgin. En-route to Malta and then the United Kingdom, the ship sank in 1802 during a storm at the entrance of the port of Avlaimona, on the island of Kythera.

For more, see here: 'Antiquities Found on Shipwreck That Carried Elgin Marbles' Discovery

Mysterious Jamestown Burials Identified as Founders

Four lost leaders of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas have been identified, thanks to chemical analysis of their skeletons, as well as historical documents.
The settlement leaders were mostly high-status men who were buried at the 1608 Jamestown church in Virginia. And all played pivotal roles in the early colony. “They’re very much at the heart of the foundation of the America that we know today,” said Douglas Owsley, a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., who helped identify the bodies. [See photos of the newly identified Jamestown settlers]

more here.
 

some of the most amazing historical artifacts held in private collections

 

The tea cup, made in China during South Song Dynasty (13th century), is a national treasure of Japan. Japanese name the tea cup "A Universe In A Tea Cup" because when you observe the cup in a dim light, the speckles will shine like stars and in different colors as you rotate it. It is the sole one in the world. No similar ones found in its original producing place, China. The tea cup had a twin when acquired by Japanese ruler Oda Nabunaga who accidentally broke one. The tea cup finally became personal collection of chairman of Mitsubishi, he confessed that he never dared to drink tea from it because he thought the cup is not for the mortal.

Oldest Manuscript of Koran Preserved by a Collector

What may be the world's oldest fragments of the Koran have been found by the University of Birmingham. Radiocarbon dating found the manuscript to be at least 1,370 years old, making it among the earliest in existence. The pages of the Muslim holy text had remained unrecognised in the university library for almost a century. The British Library's expert on such manuscripts, Dr Muhammad Isa Waley, said this "exciting discovery" would make Muslims "rejoice".

They'd better be grateful to the English for looking after it for them, if it had been left behind among the rag-head heritage destroyers, there'd be nothing left to look at.

The manuscript is part of the Mingana Collection of more than 3,000 Middle Eastern documents gathered in the 1920s by Alphonse Mingana, a Chaldean priest born near Mosul in modern-day Iraq. He was sponsored to take collecting trips to the Middle East by Edward Cadbury, who was part of the chocolate-making dynasty.

This once again shows the good that private collectors do - so often dismissed by the anti-collecting league. For more see here: ''Oldest' Koran fragments found in Birmingham University' BBC News.

Let's Support our Fellow Collectors in Germany!

It is a matter of concern that draconian legislation is being introduced in one of the more important European states, and a major trading partner of US dealers which will make collecting of small antiquities and coins virtually impossible. A group of public-spirited collectors over there has started up a petition. I think it is important for us to show not only our support but also US disapproval of what they are trying to do. Please sign the petition not only to show our solidarity with German collectors, but to demonstrate our own commitment to coin collecting and the people to people contacts and cultural understanding it helps foster:   https://www.openpetition.de/petition/online/fuer-den-erhalt-des-privaten-sammelns (there is an English translation).  For more background, see here.

 

"Proof" of Terror Funding by Collectors?

The anti-collecting archeology lobby has rolled out a group of objects being repatriated to Iraq after being seized from the home of jihadist and terrorist financier Abu Sayyaf, taken out by a Delta Force stealth attack. They say these are artefacts being used to finance terror in Syria. But are they?  A few hundred minor antiquities and Islamic coins (including fakes and a few objects said to be stolen from the Iraq Museum) were found, but if this haul represents the quantity, quality and monetary value of what is stored in those fabled "warehouses" postulated to hold fabulous treasures intended to fund ISIS and its insurgency, hype again has indeed far outstripped reality.

An African Art Collection Grows in Brooklyn'

This story illustrates the good private collectors do, preserving and displaying historic objectes (Marion Maneker, 'Largest Private Collection of African Art in US Wants to Become a Museum', Art Market Monitor July 6, 2015):

NBC News did a story about the owner of a large collection of African art who originally wanted to donate the works to an existing institution but has now decided to build his own museum in New York with the help of a kickstarter campaign. This effort should stand as a stark reminder to those who view the art market with suspicion that all great museum collections have been founded on private collections amassed through the market: Over 2,500 pieces of African art — some dating back as far as 4,000 years — all exist under one apartment roof and potentially worth millions of dollars. As one of the largest private collections of African artifacts in the United States, it represents each of Africa’s 54 countries and continues to grow, due to the passion of former AT&T executive Eric Edwards. [...]  An emphatic collector with a keen historical and cultural understanding of the items he has accrued over 44 years, Edwards stay close with his art, in fact, he lives it.

Nice video: 'An African Art Collection Grows in Brooklyn' (NBC News)

 The Kickstarter for the museum is up. Link is here: kck.st/1MWEfs3

Collectors (and dealers) are the new museums

In a very interesting series of posts John Hooker from north of the border presents the view: ' Collectors (and dealers) are the new museums' (six parts). This is well worth reading for the wealth of arguments it offers to counteract the negative propaganda of the anti-collecting league.

ISIS takes a sledgehammer to civilization once again

Proof of the reality of the Clash of Cultures

ISIS has publicly sledgehammered Palmyrene busts of the sort it is allegedly selling to fund terrorism into dust,

New photos have emerged of ISIS destroying a number of historic statues from the ancient archaeological site of Palmyra in Syria. An activist had been attempting to smuggle the statues out of Palmyra only for the statues to be uncovered when he was caught by the militant group. As punishment for his crime, pictures show the activist being publicly flogged after being forced to use a hammer to destroy the statues he had been trying to save from ISIS. The photos provide more evidence that the brutal jihadis remain hell bent on eradicating any trace of Syria and Iraq's rich heritage.

Centuries-old artifacts found in Seattle

Some of the stuff they have found is not much to look at, but it is a tangible link to our past:

Workers building a rainwater storage tank under the Magnolia Bridge recently unleashed a torrent of Emerald City history, helping recover roughly 2,600 artifacts dating back as far as the 1700s, officials said Tuesday. Most of the items are believed to be from Finntown, an immigrant community along Smith Cove from 1911 to 1941, researchers say. The discovered objects include Prohibition-era alcohol bottles, old shoes, and even children's toys. It's a really special site because this is one of Seattle's smaller shantytowns," said Alicia Valentino, the project archaeologist. "This very diverse community that was living in this spot (was not) mentioned in the historic record, so it really tells us a lot about this group of people that was living there." [...]  Archaeologists have been cataloging the items, which include eyeglasses, suspenders, and a token for the old Seattle Municipal Railway. Several artifacts show the presence of Native Americans on the site, experts said, including a chisel likely built from the femur of an elk. Another surprising discovery: a Chinese coin dating back centuries, likely brought to the area by an immigrant.

Lindsay Cohen, 'Workers find centuries-old artifacts under Seattle bridge', KOMO News Jul 1, 2015