"The Questioner of the Sphinx"

Museum of Fine Arts:  Elihu Vedder painted "The Questioner of the Sphinx" using travel books as reference for the monument.

'Turkey arms ISIS in exchange for oil, antiquities'

I knew it: 'Turkey arms Daesh in exchange for oil, antiquities' Press TV Nov 29, 2015. The Syrian army says Turkey has stepped up its weapons supplies to terrorists in Syria in exchange for oil and antiquities stolen from Syria and Iraq by Daesh.

Tibetans are fighting ChineseDomination to Save Their Culture

Tibetans are fighting under China to save their culture (Edward Wong, 'Tibetans Fight to Salvage Fading Culture in China', NY Times Nov 28, 2015) story, photos & video.

 

NYT story, photos & video. http://nyti.ms/1NArDLM 

Dolphin Money

These tiny dolphins were used as money in Greek cities around the Black Sea

Islam Death Cult

They are all the same.... clash of civilizations.

Turkish Government, Not Collectors, Facilitates Antiquity Smuggling

Syria's culture minister Issam Khalil accused the country's northern neighbor Turkey of not doing enough to stop the smuggling of antiquities and other items across their shared frontier. The UN Security Council resolution passed on Feb. 12 "maintains that groups such as Islamic State and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda's affiliate in the Syrian war, are generating income by selling antiquities looted in the conflict". Turkey supporting groups fighting the Syrian government.

Khalil criticized Turkey for "facilitating" smuggling across the 910-km (560-mile) border which he said was the main route for antiquities leaving Syria illegally [...]. Damascus says Ankara has extended support to jihadist groups including Islamic State, which has seized wide areas of northern Syria at the border with Turkey. Ankara denies that charge and says sealing the frontier completely is impossible. "The United Nations knows for certain that the Turkish government is facilitating the smuggling of antiquities to the black market," said Khalil. Tension between Damascus and Ankara flared anew on Sunday when Turkish forces crossed into northern Syria to evacuate around 40 Turkish soldiers who were guarding the mausoleum of a figure revered in Turkey as the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire. In a move described by Damascus as a "flagrant aggression", the Turkish forces relocated the tomb of Suleyman Shah to a more secure area. Khalil said the operation showed the Turkish government's links to Islamic State, which controls the area surrounding the site. "The tomb that was used as an excuse for this Turkish aggression ... was under the protection of the terrorists who destroyed (other) tombs, shrines, churches and mosques, but did not go anywhere near the Turkish tomb," he told Reuters by telephone on Monday. 

Turkey pursues an aggressive retentionist policy towards its own antiquities, but obviously has no problem with acquiring precious artefacts from its neighbors' territory for internal sale to collectors. It should be stressed that none of this material is passing onto the US market - despite the claims of anti-collecting archeologists.

Laila Bassam and Tom Perry, "Syria says must be part of fight against antiquities theft" Reuters Feb 23, 2015.

Archeologist Goofed Big Time!

Plan of tomb as recovered
by archaeologists

Howard Carter seems to have got it wrong.... ’90 Percent Chance’ King Tutankhamun’s Tomb Holds a Hidden Chamber: Egypt’s Antiquities Minister'

There is a 90 percent chance a hidden chamber lies behind King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Damaty announced at a Saturday press conference in Luxor. According to Damaty, the scans, conducted by Japanese radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabu, covered the southern, western and northern sides of the pharaoh’s burial chamber. “The primary results of the scan gave us very positive results, very good results,” Damaty said. “We have here something behind the west and the north walls… We believe that there could be another chamber.” The findings, which lend credence to British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves’ theory that Queen Nefertiti’s tomb is hidden behind that of King Tutankhamun, may lead to “one of the most important finds of the century,” Damaty said. 

So much for the 'scientific' approach of archeology, if such a chamber can lie hidden in a site they explored almost a hundred years ago, one wonders what else they have missed?

The real story?

Islamist Book Burners

Islam's cultural genocide continues. It's just like Caliph Umar's comment after the library at Alexandria was burned to the ground by Muslims. He said of the priceless lost manuscripts and books that, " .... they will either contradict the Qur'an, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous."

Mali manuscripts Saved from Jihadists Again at Risk

There are fears that Islamists may try to complete the cultural cleansing they started almost three years ago in Timbuktu (Kim Sengupta, 'Mali manuscripts: Nation's treasure trove of ancient books saved from jihadists are once again at risk' Independent 27 November 2015).

Almost three years after they were smuggled out of the clutches of jihadists in Timbuktu who had begun to burn them, the ancient books remain at risk. As the murderous attack on the Radisson Blu Hotel showed, Bamako is not out of the reach of the Islamists and there is fear they may try to complete the cultural cleansing they had started almost three years ago [...]. The collection is hidden around Bamako [...] Despite the obvious care and attention of those in charge, the conditions are far from ideal and many of the documents, some analysts estimate up to 40 per cent, have been damaged. Initially this was caused by rainwater seeping through a leaking roof. But although that was repaired, dust and heat has begun to erase some of the beautiful calligraphy, while pages get stuck together due to the humidity, insects eating through the bindings.  “I am afraid a lot of the manuscripts have been affected, it is a great pity,” said Dr Abdoulkadri Idrissa Maiga, director of the Institute. “The weather conditions here in Bamako are not good for keeping them. It’s a big problem. Even the dust here is not the same as the dust in Timbuktu and believe it or not the type of dust has a bearing on how the pages can be preserved.” [...] “We have made some improvements in the way things are kept here, controlling some of the damage. But what we can’t control is the human danger, those people who want to destroy these lovely books and those who want to steal them. All we can do is keep the places where we have them confidential.” 

The obvious answer is to pack them up and send them to the US where the dust can be kept off them, and our conservators will deal with the insects which defeat the Africans. 

Another Museum Theft in Italy

Pisanello. Madonna of the Quail
(c. 1420), Source:
Wikimedia Commons

The museums of Italy are plagued by red tape, nepotism and funding shortages, and the whole museum system has long been in need of an overhaul. In recent years we have become increasingly aware of scandalously bad security problems which have led to many thefts from Italian museums. As many as seventeen paintings were stolen from the Castelvecchio Museum in Italy – one of the finest civic collections in northern Italy – on the evening of 19 November, they included the works: Pisanello, Madonna of the Quail; Jacopo Bellini, Penitent St Jerome; Mantegna, Holy Family with a Saint; Gian Francesco Caroto, Portrait of a Young Boy Holding a Child’s Drawing; Rubens, Lady of the Campions; Hans de Jode, Seaport.

See: Thomas Marks: 'It is hard to overstate the gravity of the Castelvecchio thefts' Apollo Magazine Nov 25, 2015

The Italian museum sector has been in a shambles for a long time. The country is obviously not up to the task of looking after the heritage that it so desperately clings on to. They admit it themselves and successive culture minister to institute reforms that will improve the situation, despite a shake up of Italian museum directorships the situation goes from bad to worse.

the details of this raid indicate that inadequate security measures were in place. The gang of three thieves knew exactly when to make their move, when only one security guard and a cashier were on the premises at the close of the day, in that window between the museum closing and its alarm system being activated for the night. They knew when the building was vulnerable – but should it ever have been this vulnerable? [...]  In a blog for La Reppublica, the combative art historian Tomaso Montanari has expressed his concerns that this episode may harbinger further thefts, given how badly safeguarded are many of the museums in the country. This locally run museum, he went on, has been ‘massacred by budget cuts’ [...].

Italy's grossly underfunded, over-bureaucratic cultural establishment is not up to the task of protecting the heritage. The endemic lack of effective and honest governance negatively impacts the preservation of Italy's cultural heritage. "Given the dismal performance of Italy's public sector", Dave Welsh sagely writes,

"Italy's antiquities and coin dealers should be allowed to sell not just to other Italians, but to the world. Each MOU has already called for Italy to ease the process for granting export permits for artifacts legally sold within Italy itself, something that has not happened (along with much else) because of Italy's choking bureaucracy. AAMD advocates opening up the Italian auction market so it can not only be a source of legitimately acquired artifacts, but help bring much needed money to help fund Italy's underfunded cultural establishment".

Dealers and collectors have been repeating this advice for many years, but over in Italy, the navel-gazing lawmakers of Italy seem not to able to break away from the indoctrination of archeologists and see the light.

We must Send UN Blue Helmet forces into the region to protect cultural heritage

Jim Cuno: The world must find ways to intervene and protect antiquities when nation-states cannot do so, send UN Blue Helmet forces into the region to protect cultural heritage

The international community has effectively outsourced the protection of cultural heritage to nation-states. As UNESCO declared in its 1970 Convention on cultural property, “It is incumbent upon every State to protect the cultural property existing within its territory against the dangers of theft, clandestine excavation, and illicit export” and that “the protection of cultural heritage can be effective only if organized both nationally and internationally among States working in close cooperation.”
But what if, as is increasingly obvious with regard to Iraq and Syria, nation states are incapable of protecting the cultural heritage within their borders? Sadly, the international community has very little recourse.

Life in Raqqa

The BBC give a glimpse into what life in Raqqa is like under the so called Islamic State by talking to those who have managed to get out.

BBC Newsnight

The barbarism of putting opponents' heads on public display on fence posts shows what depraved individuals we are fighting. There is no mention of any antiquities traders. 

Giving Thanks

In 1789,  Washington designated November 26 as a national “day of public Thanksgiving

 

Happy Thanksgiving, fellow Americans.

Egyptian Temple Falling Apart

Photos of ‘eroded temples’ provoke ire says the Cairo Post - footage has recently circulated on social media showing erosion of stone surface of an ancient Egyptian temple.

The photos show the layers of plaster falling off the walls and columns of two temples; allegedly Madinet Habu and Seti I temples in Egypt’s Luxor. “I am not sure whether the photos are old or new. However, they indicate failure and carelessness of the stakeholders,” Ahmed Shehab, assistant of the head of the Archaeologists Human Rights Care Association posted on his Facebook page Wednesday. He called on the antiquities ministry to issue a statement explaining more details about the issue and immediately embark on restoring the erosion showed at the photos describing the incident as “farce.”

This shocking lack of care highlights the idiocy of leaving the world's heritage exclusively in the hands of a bunch of foreigners totally unprepared to look after it properly.

Sarcophagus Rescued from Treasure Hunters

'Sarcophagus found by Turkish farmer transferred to museum'

An 18-century-old sarcophagus thought to be belonging to the Late Roman Empire was unearthed and transferred to a museum after it was found by a farmer in the İznik district of Bursa last week. The sarcophagus weighing nearly 7 tons was found by farmer Hatice Süren, who went to an olive grove near the Hisardere area, last week. She informed the gendarmerie and excavations were launched in the area to unearth the sarcophagus. Archeologists found out that the sarcophagus had been partially damaged by treasure hunters.

It is quite clear that in some unenlightened countries, anything left in the ground will be damaged by ignorant peasants, we need to save history by placing it in collections.

France to Offer Safe Harbor to Syrian Antiquities

Bearded tards in dresses destroy culture

France has proposed an aggressive program to gather up Syrian antiquities and offer them "safe harbor". It is good to see that it is not just Americans who are willing to take up the burden of looking after the heritage of humanity, and put protecting Syrian archaeological objects from destruction at the hands of fanatics first.

There is NO Trade in Major Syrian Antiquities

Wayne Sayles of all people should know what is happening on the global antiquities market. This is what he has to say about claims that US collectors are financing ISIS:

The U.S. market has certainly not seen any measurable rise in artifacts from Syria. If anything, the opposite is true. Because of international sensitivity, the traditional market for objects from this region is shrinking and many dealers shy away from it. Typically, those things seen on the market today are items from old and well known collections. In the rare instances where looted material has been interdicted, it has been really minor material. Except for a few exponents of the prevailing archaeogical view, Customs and federal law enforcement agencies have generally acted reasonably and appropriately in their investigations, seizures and criminal prosecutions. I really don't see how the U.S. Collector can be villainized with any justification. That trend seems to me more of an ideological crusade than legitimate news.

These aggressive attacks on collectors and the legal trade fail to address the question of who "owns" our cultural heritage.

Homeland Threats Ignored

All the time our officials have been following the advice of the archeologists and hunting for non-existent antiquities:

We will prevail

Thirty U.S. governors are now opposing or refusing to allow Syrian refugees into their states.

 

 

 

 

Half of world's museum specimens are wrongly labelled

"Professional" dinosurs in our museums

Those archeologists who claim that they have the exclusive right to collect, leaving no room for the private collectors? Oxford University finds that half of world's museum specimens are wrongly labelled! Worse, "much of the inaccurate information has now been fed into huge globalised databases allowing the misidentification to spread across the world". So much for the "professionals".

BLOOD OIL: how ISIS really funds its operation

The result of investigations by the ADCAEA on "how ISIS really funds its operation!" have just been published on their Facebook page. It is no surprise to find that it is not what our opponents maliciously label "blood antiquities", it is "BLOOD OIL" (Erika Solomon, Guy Chazan and Sam Jones, 'Isis Inc: how oil fuels the jihadi terrorist' Financial Times October 14, 2015).

On Monday, as a result of these new facts, on Monday 

United States warplanes for the first time attacked hundreds of trucks on Monday that the extremist group has been using to smuggle the crude oil it has been producing in Syria, American officials said. According to an initial assessment, 116 trucks were destroyed in the attack, which took place near Deir al-Zour, an area in eastern Syria that is controlled by the Islamic State. The airstrikes were carried out by four A-10 attack planes and two AC-130 gunships based in Turkey.

The Pentagon said it dropped leaflets to drivers and civilians before the attack to warn them the parked trucks would be targeted.

Until now, the U.S. military has bombed small oil production sites in Syria but has held back from attacking major oil and gas refineries and other large facilities to try to preserve the battered country's economic infrastructure. Commanders also passed up bombing gas trucks to avoid potential civilian casualties.  

An oil truck destroyed in historic US mission

 Let that be an end to the unjust accusations from unscrupulous archeologists that collectors and our dealer colleagues are funding the raghead terrorist state.

March of the New Europeans

As numerous state governors resist allowing them in, this is how the British newspapers see the dilemma they are facing with the flood of Muslims into their country:

Egypt Detects 'Impressive' Anomaly in Giza Pyramids

This image is from a Fench web-site

This makes you wonder what those archeologists have been doing all this time:

Two weeks of new thermal scanning in Egypt's Giza pyramids have identified anomalies in the 4,500 year-old burial structures, including a major one in the largest pyramid, the Antiquities Ministry announced Monday. [...]  The scanning showed "a particularly impressive one (anomaly) located on the Eastern side of the Khufu pyramid at ground level," the ministry said in a statement. [...] While inspecting the area, el-Damaty said they found "that there is something like a small passage in the ground that you can see, leading up to the pyramids ground, reaching an area with a different temperature. What will be behind it?" Other heat anomalies were detected in the upper half of the pyramid that the experts said need to be investigated further.

Maram Mazen, 'Egypt Detects 'Impressive' Anomaly in Giza Pyramids Pyramids' Associated press Nov 9, 2015

Cultural Vandalism in Chinese Tomb Discovery?

Countless coins unearthed from the ancient tomb. (Photo/Xinhua)

Yao Xinyu, 'Ten tons of copper coins unearthed in 2,000 years old ancient tomb' People's Daily Online November 05, 2015.

In Xinjian, China's Jiangxi Province, recently a 2,000 years old tomb from Western Han Dynasty (206BC - 9AD) was discovered. Over 10,000 objects were unearthed, including 10 tons of cooper coins (2 millions pieces, which had equal value of 50 kilograms of gold today), chime [bells?], bamboo slips, tomb figurines etc., which reveal the lives of the nobility in the Western Han Dynasty.

Peter Tompa remarks as he always does when groups of these objects are found in closed contexts like tombs that "for import restrictions under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act to apply, an item of archaeological interest must also be of cultural significance", and "With numbers like that, one wonders why there are any import restrictions on Chinese cash coins at all. China allows its own citizens to collect such cash coins freely. So why can't Americans freely import them from abroad as well?". It seems to me that the cultural significance of this find does not consist of the numbers, but the manner in which careful excavation reveals how they lay in the tomb, still in the strings in which they were brought to the site. Surely the Chinese are not going to split this group up and sell them off loose to collectors, either at home or abroad? That would be cultural vandalism.

The Green Collection and Federal Overreach

Political opponents want to stop this museum opening

Questions have been raised by opponents of collecting about the provenance of some articles in the collection of the Green family of Oklahoma City. The Daily Beast ran a story about two or three hundred cuneiform tablets purchased form an Israeli antiquities dealer and confiscated by U.S. Customs when they were being shipped to the Green collection storage facility in Oklahoma City in 2011.  These tablets, like the other 40,000 or so ancient artifacts owned by the Green family, were destined for the Museum of the Bible, the giant new museum funded by the Greens, slated to open in Washington, D.C., in 2017. Cary Summers, the president of the Museum of the Bible confirmed the seizure of the cuneiform tablets and the subsequent federal investigation reported by the "Daily Beast" (an internet publication edited by Tina Brown, who is not known to be a fan of the Greens or their evangelical and conservative background). Summers indicates however that the ongoing federal investigation was simply the result of a logistical problem. “There was a shipment and it had improper paperwork—incomplete paperwork that was attached to it.” Summers suggests that the tablets were merely “held up in customs,” and "sometimes this stuff just sits, and nobody does anything with it.”  Peter Tompa raises the point that it is far too early to jump to conclusions based on information that was initially leaked to the journalist from the Daily Beast. "How do we know the information that was leaked is accurate? [...]  So, let's see how this develops before we convict the Greens of anything". On the contrary it is the Federal government which has to aswer for why this man's property has been held up in Customs so long. Questions should be asked, this looks like a political issue.

Looking After the Heritage: The Acropolis

Jarett A. Lobell, 'The Acropolis of Athens: The decades-long project to restore the site to its iconic past' Archeology Magazine October 07, 2015

In 1975, the Greek government began a large-scale, multidisciplinary project to address the declining condition of these structures, as well as of a lesser-known building called the Arrephorion, the defensive walls encircling the Acropolis, and the so-called “scattered members,” the thousands of complete, nearly complete, and fragmentary pieces of stone and marble that lie all over the surface of the Acropolis.

The text discusses the methods used to do this and the ideas behind them. I must admit I am a bit puzzled by the criticism of the Canadian writer and mentor John Hooker who writes scathingly:

I am reminded of the amount of history demolished on the Acropolis at Athens in order to provide a better view of the Parthenon. This included a Byzantine church! (Yannis Hamilakis, _The Nation and its Ruins_).

The site was more recently however a mosque, I wonder whether Mr Hooker would prefer a place of worship of the enemies of our civilization to stand on the ruins of the core of the very democracy which forms the basis of our own cvilization. Mr Hooker, look at this. In order to impose their sharia law and customs on the Greeks, the Moslems built mosques in the middle of the Acropolis, the Athenian Capitol: 

The Moslems kept explosives in their mosques (nothing changes it seems)
and this barbarism nearly destroyed the heritage of Greek civilization in 1687

A heathen mosque standing in the shattered ruins of Ancient Greece

Now Moslem refugees are flooding into Greece. They must not be allowed to take over and do this again. The Greeks are right to protect this site from later alterations, in the name of democraqcy, n the name of us all who value freedom!

Archaeologists Destroy Evidence in England

English metal detecting expert John Howland courageously writes of the evil practices of certain anti-collecting archeologists:

There's another angle to all of this; one of my friends in the upper echelons of archaeology (yes, I do have them) told me many years ago that one 'roman' archaeologist, (citing an example) has no truck with any period later than 4th Century AD and gladly tears through the upper layers just to get to his precious 'roman' era. Everything from 4th Century AD, along with the topsoil goes to God knows where. Many know this vandalism goes on and I know the name of at least one of these vandals. Others in archaeology are as appalled as I am, yet fearing for future sponsorship, wisely stay silent. Some excavation Directors have egos the size of British Columbia and are not to be crossed... except perhaps by collectors and others who don't give a toss for archaeological reputations. Maybe the wind of change is blowing?

Let us hope so and the Dictatorship of these evil evidence-destroying Directors can be brought to an end in England. Collectors should do all they can to expose such malpractices. We might ask where the antiquities from the layers they tear through go. EBay? Perhaps we should ask ourselves where any artefacts we consider buying are coming from, and reflect on whether in buying them, we are responsible for putting money into the pockets of corrupt academics like this.