On This Day...

The Fall of Constantinople 563 years ago today, the last of the Roman Empire. See History Today

Another Collector Saves Rare Artifact

The delicate Greek myrtle wreath, which
is thought to date to 300BC,
was found in a tatty cardboard box

Valuers from an auctioneer went to visit an English pensioner to look at some items he had inherited from his grandfather who was a great collector who was fascinated by archaeology and the ancient world. They were astonished to find that one of the items they were shown was a gold wreath from Antiquity which the collector had likely bought sometime in the 1940s when he travelled extensively.

The man said: 'I knew my grandfather travelled extensively in the 1940s and 50s and he spent time in the north west frontier area, where Alexander the Great was, so it's possible he got it while he was there. 'But he never told me anything about this wreath.

Very probably, the fact that the collector bought this items from its finders saved it from being melted down. The object will be sold in June and is expected to reach up to 200 0000 pounds.

Financial Incompetence of Italian Cultural Officials Highlighted in New Report

"Italy squanders €150m in EU grants" by Tina Lepri, Hannah McGivern, The Art Newspaper 16 May 2016

The southern Italian regions of Sicily, Calabria and Campania have failed to spend hundreds of millions of euros in European Union (EU) culture and tourism funding [...] The chronic mismanagement of EU funds is threatening a number of poorly preserved Sicilian heritage sites [...] The president of Sicily, Rosario Crocetta, his predecessor, Raffaele Lombardo, and four regional managers are under investigation for neglect of duty and damaging the island’s cultural heritage. [...] The EU has also recalled grants worth €70m that it deems to have been misspent by the Sicilian government. [...]  Naples, meanwhile, failed to spend €100m in EU funding that had been earmarked for the conservation of churches and monuments in its historic centre, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1995, as well as various urban regeneration initiatives. Just eight of 28 planned projects were completed before the 2015 deadline. [...]  In 2013, a report published by Il Corriere della Sera revealed that around 200 of the city’s historic churches—around half the total number—are closed and abandoned.

The Archaeological Museum of Aidone has not renovated its galleries because they did not get funding from the EU because of incomplete documentation and the lack of a sensible economic framework. The museum was to be the new home of the Head of Hades (400-300BC), a Hellenistic terracotta fragment repatriated to Sicily by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in January. But the sculpture remains in limbo in Palermo because the Aidone museum has still not prepared a suitable display for it.

ADCAEA Comments on Syria Import Ban

Inside the "Islamic State"

On the news: "President Signs Engel Bill to Stop ISIS From Looting Antiquities New Law Cracks Down on Funding Source for ISIS While Protecting Syria’s Cultural Heritage" (May 9, 2016)m, the Association of Dealers and Collectors of Ancient and Ethnographic Art remarks:

A great move: this shall certainly stop ISIS from "looting" antiquities, shame it won't stop them from destroying antiquities which I think to be the more true and pressing issue.

More evidence, if any were needed, that our lawmakers really have lost track of what is the most important. Leaving precious ancient art in Syria at the mercies of reckless raghead barbarians with their hammers and acid really is not a policy of wisdom.

Hiker Discovers Viking Sword in Norway.

Marissa Fessenden, "Hiker Accidentally Discovers 1,200-Year-Old Viking Sword in Norway" Smithsonian   magazine  October 28, 2015.

The mountainous Haukeli region of Norway attracts visitors for its fishing, hunting and hiking. One of those hikers recently stumbled across an unusual find: a Viking sword that may be 1,200 years old. Gøran Olsen had just stopped to rest as he hiked a well-known path in the region, reports Elahe Izadi for the Washington Post. That’s when he noticed the remarkably preserved sword in the rocks. The Hordaland County Council recently announced the discovery. "It's quite unusual to find remnants from the Viking age that are so well-preserved ... it might be used today if you sharpened the edge," Per Morten Ekerhovd, a county conservator, tells Mairi Mackay of CNN. According to Ekerhovd, hikers often discover artifacts in Haukeli, though the sword is remarkably well-preserved. Frost and snow cover the region for half of the year, while low humidity in the summer months helps protect undiscovered objects.

Maoists still a force 50 years after the Cultural Revolution

Fifty years after Mao Zedong unleashed the decade-long Cultural Revolution to reassert his authority and revive his radical communist agenda, the spirit of modern China’s founder still exerts a powerful pull (Gerry Shih, "Maoists still a force 50 years after the Cultural Revolution" Drudge Report May. 15, 2016).

Millions of people were persecuted, publicly humiliated, beaten or killed during the upheaval, as zealous factionalism metastasized countrywide, tearing apart Chinese society at a most basic level. Student groups tortured their own teachers, and children were made to watch mobs beat their own parents condemned as counter-revolutionaries. Gangs engaging in “armed struggle” killed at least a half million people while countless more committed suicide, unable to cope with relentless persecution. It was only in 1981 — five years after Mao’s death — that China’s government officially pronounced the Cultural Revolution “a catastrophe.” But in the ancient city of Luoyang, the old, the poor and the marginalized gather daily in the main public square to profess nostalgia for the decade-long political movement, downplaying that period’s violent excesses. In the marble halls of power in Beijing, Cultural Revolution-era song-and-dance performances are being revived. China’s liberals see ominous signs of a society tugged backward by ideological currents. “Either it’s because people have forgotten the Cultural Revolution or are increasingly dissatisfied with social conditions, but since the mid-1990s these kinds of ideas have been gaining currency,” said Xu Youyu, a former Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher.

Maoists long for China to reverse its path toward market capitalism and return to Mao’s radical vision of a classless society steered by a powerful and ideologically pure leader. They have largely embraced President Xi Jinping as one of their own, though he has never endorsed their views outright, and the nuances of his personal ideology — especially on economic matters — remain a cipher. Many see encouraging echoes of Mao’s political style in Xi’s crusade against corrupt party bureaucrats, and in his staunchly populist rhetoric, nationalistic bent and repeated demands for ideological conformity.

State Department not Monitoring Human Rights in Sisi's Egypt

As archeologists are given free hand to demand the repatriation of items seized from collectors to the repressive military regime of Egypt, we learn that government overreach goes even further in the case of this state. The State Department's database for reporting human rights violators in Egypt has not been updated since the 2013 coup.

The US is not sufficiently vetting the sale of weapons to the repressive government of Egypt, and doesn’t know enough about how those weapons are being used – including night vision goggles and riot control weapons. According to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, the State Department also fails to consistently conduct legally-required review of the Egyptian forces that are supplied and trained by the U.S. The U.S. government has sent Egypt more than $6.4 billion in military aid since 2011.

The U.S. government has bankrolled the Egyptian military for decades, and this aid did not stop when a military coup deposed Egypt’s new democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi. To skirt a law banning aid to coup regimes, the State Department has refused to call what happened a “coup.”
After the military regime came to power, led by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, it immediately cracked down on protestors and members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the political party of the former president. One morning that August, government forces killed 900 people. In the year that followed, the government detained at least 41,000 people, and sentenced citizens to die hundreds at a time. But U.S. aid continued.

88% of collectors

As we have seen, 88% of Collectors Oppose Renewal of Greek MOU or Restrictions on Coins. This raises the issue of where the other 12% buy their coins? Perhaps they get them from the archeologists they side with?

88% of Public Comments Either Oppose Renewal of Greek MOU or Restrictions on Coins

The Greece MOU extension papers show that these MOUs are special interest programs for politically connected archeologists and their trade associations. Those commenting who expressed unqualified support appear largely to be archaeologists who excavate in Greece and have to pander to the Greek government. Meanwhile, 88% of Public Comments Either Oppose Renewal of Greek MOU or Restrictions on Coins

Some 88% of the 207 public comments recorded on the regulations.gov website express qualms about the MOU.  And of the 25 comments in favor, those of AAMD member museums may support the MOU, but only with substantial changes. 

That is a good result, it shows that collectors can work together for a common goal. Let us see whether our government really is willing to listen to the voice of the people.

Pompei in Chicago

The Glory that was Rome

Pompeian Room, Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, early 20th century

Assad's Warplanes Destroy Archeology Museum

Assad regime warplanes destroy the archeological museum in Maarat Al Numan in Idlib, Syria   http://youtu.be/Gm0PtJM3P6k

Yet archeologists still want to repatriate to the corrupt officials of this brutal heritage smashing regime. To what end?
 

Raqqa's Past

Long before Raqqa was known for IS, it produced some of the finest ceramics of the medieval Islamic world 

 

Turkish "Free Speech"

The Kurdish MP from HDP party, Ferhat Encu made a powerful speech recently and was attacked for by the Turkish MP shouting to be shot inside the parliament. Encu mentioned the fact that Turkish military is committing Genocide against the Kurdish population and what is today called "Turkey" is the stolen land of Greeks, Armenian and Kurds, and said "We Kurds live in Kurdistan, and when we lived in this land, you Turks were in Mongolia busy gathering grass for your horses, this is our land and we will stay here. Modern Turkey is less than 100 years old, while Kurdistan is more than 5000 years old and there are dozens of ancient Greek text that mention the name of Kurds and Kurdistan, while the name of Turks only appeared on the history book less than 1000 years ago.

Egyptian president says ‘Western’ human rights don’t apply to his country

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

Human rights and freedoms in Egypt should not be viewed from a “Western perspective”, the country’s president has said in what campaigners have described as "deeply troubling" remarks. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi told a US delegation that “differences in domestic and regional conditions” in the north African nation made it difficult to apply the same rules regarding civil liberties.  [...] Nicholas Piachaud, an Egypt specialist at Amnesty International, told The Independent: “President Sisi’s reported remarks are deeply troubling, and he should stop making excuses for the authorities’ disturbing human rights crackdown. “There’s nothing remotely ‘Western’ about basic human rights like the right not to suffer torture or to be able to speak freely without fear of arrest and imprisonment.

Gabriel Samuels, "Egyptian president says ‘Western’ human rights don’t apply to his country" Independent 5 May 2016

That of course does not stop archeologists making deals with the increasingly outrageous authoritarian regime imposed by the military dictatorship. They are quite happy to go along with it all and persecute collectors to get their excavation permits.
 

Corruption getting worse Across Arab World

Transparency International says that corruption is getting worse across Arab world A survey of nearly 11,000 respondents showed that there is growing public anger across at least nine countries in the region at inaction to halt increasing levels of perceived government corruption. Sleaze is a;so seen to be on the rise in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Sudan and Tunisia. These of course are the very countries where archeologists work with the governments not only through excavation concessions, but also in getting artifacts repatriated to the same corrupt government officials who likely turned a blind eye to their removal in the first place.

Egypt: No Transparency over italian Death

Memos From Egypt's Interior Ministry Leaked to Journalists

Memos from Egypt's Interior Ministry that were leaked to the media on Tuesday outline strategies for deflecting public outrage over recent arrests and suggest a gag order on the case of an Italian student abducted and killed in Cairo. [...] One note suggested the prosecutor general impose a gag order on the investigation into the killing of Giulio Regeni, who was abducted in January and severely tortured before his body was found several days later on the outskirts of Cairo. The ministry has said security forces were not involved in the killing, which has strained ties between Egypt and Italy. [...]  "(The ministry) cannot retreat from this position now; a retreat would mean a mistake was made, and if there was a mistake who is responsible and who is to be held to account?" it added.  [...] 

This is the state of the military repression, that muzzles mouths and restricts freedoms, and yet archeologists willingly work with officials from this government in obtaining their excavation concessions and the repatriation of items forcibly taken from reputable dealers and collectors at home. Archeologists should be boycotting Egypt, instead they are flocking there in hordes.

Treasure trove of ancient Roman coins found in Spain

the coins

Construction workers have found 600kg (1,300lb) of ancient Roman coins while carrying out routine work on water pipes in southern Spain, local officials have said ( "Massive 600kg haul of ancient Roman coins unearthed in Spain" Friday 29 April 2016) Dating back to the late third and early fourth centuries, the bronze coins were found on Wednesday inside 19 Roman amphoras, a type of jar, in the town of Tomares near Seville.

“It is a unique collection and there are very few similar cases,” Ana Navarro, head of Seville’s archeology museum, which is looking after the find, told a news conference. Navarro declined to give a precise estimate for the value of the haul, saying only that the coins were worth “certainly several million euros”. The coins are stamped with the inscriptions of emperors Maximian and Constantine, and they appeared not to have been in circulation as they show little evidence of wear and tear. It is thought they were intended to pay the army or civil servants. “The majority were newly minted and some of them probably were bathed in silver, not just bronze,” said Navarro. “I could not give you an economic value, because the value they really have is historical and you can’t calculate that.” Local officials have suspended the work on the water pipes and plan to carry out an archaeological excavation on the site.

There is a really nice video here.

If these coins were sold to collectors, it would finance Spain's efforts to protect other elements of its historical patrimony.

Beating the British

 Titus Denarius celebrating Agricola's victories in Britannia, British captive bound

Italy's Biggest Cultural Heritage Investment for Decades

Bits are falling off ancient Pompeii right, left
and center, note the overhead electricity cables

Italy intends to spend a billion euros on restoring museums and monuments in the biggest cultural heritage investment there for decades  ( Nick Squires, "Italy to spend a billion euros on restoring museums and monuments in biggest cultural heritage investment for decades" Telegraph 2 May 2016).

Italy will spend one billion euros to restore an unparalleled but often neglected collection of monuments, museums and ancient sites, in the biggest such investment for decades, the government announced on Monday. The money will be spent on restoring and maintaining the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, the Uffizi Galleries in Florence and museums in Rome and Naples.  [...] Past governments have frequently made grandiose promises to inject much-needed funds into the country’s archaeological and historical sites, but the administration of Matteo Renzi, the prime minister, insisted that this time the money really will materialise. “This is the biggest investment in Italy’s cultural heritage in the history of the republic,” said Dario Franceschini, the culture minister, referring to the foundation of the modern Italian state in 1946, when the monarchy was abolished. “These projects will start straightaway. These are not just announcements, but initiatives that have already been deliberated and financed.” A total of 33 cultural sites will benefit from the money, which will come from regular government budgets. 

If Italy's past record is anything to go by, it will not be long before we hear of most of this money disappearing before any real progress is made. Pompeii is falling apart, despite the money that has been ineffectively spent there by a succession of corrupt Italian politicians. See an interesting article here, written three years ago: The six things wrong with Italy – and how to solve them. What has changed since then? Renzi replaces Enrico Letta who stayed in power just one year, who knows how long he will last, despite his populist pledge to defend Italian national culture? Maybe the preservation of sites needs to be placed in private, rather than central government, hands? They will do the job much more efficiently.

   

Curb the Urge to Control

The House has approved the Senate's trimmed down version of HR 1493. The Senate did away with a controversial new State Department "Cultural Property Czar" in favor of recommending a coordinating committee. The passing of the legislation was delayed by the proponent's desire to use the Syrian crisis as a justification for the creation of a new State Department enforcement bureaucracy. It seems pretty obvious that in reality this is not so much really about "cultural heritage preservation" but "control". We need to be vigilant, the federal government has become bloated, antiquated and unresponsive to the real needs of the people, we need a government which protects the constitutional rights of citizens.

Turkish Idea of Democracy

Ruling party and opposition lawmakers in Turkey exchanged punches and hurled water bottles during a debate over constitutional reforms in a shocking mass brawl which erupted in parliament. This is not the first time this has happened there.

Ruling party and opposition Turkish lawmakers on Monday

Turkey has been loudly demanding antiquities in our museums be surrendered to be 'looked after' by this government. Let them first show they deserve it.

Alexander the Great in Jerusalem

A fortress built by Alexander the Great after he conquered Jerusalem has been discovered

Some ancient Egyptians were natural blondes

Bridie Smith, "Some ancient Egyptians were natural blondes" Sydney Morning Herald   May 1, 2016

Forensic egyptologist Janet Davey has proved that fair-haired Egyptian mummies were natural blondes, [...] "The general public and a lot of egyptologists think that the ancient Egyptians had very dark brown or black hair," Dr Davey said. "But this shows there were fair-haired Egyptians." She said fair-haired mummies were rare: she has seen just four in her research career. [...] there were blondes dotted among the ancient Egyptian population during the Graeco-Roman period, which spanned from 332 BC to around 395 AD. She said it made sense. The child mummies had fair hair because they lived during the rule of the Greeks and the Romans. This era would have brought many new genes into Egypt, via the Northern Greek and Roman soldiers as well as traders and slaves who may have had northern European genes. "Some ancient Egyptians could have been blue-eyed blondes or brown-eyed blondes," she said. "I wouldn't say ancient Egypt was multi-cultural like Australia today but certainly there were various mixes."

 

Ancient Puppy Paw Prints Found on Roman Tiles

Paw prints and hoof prints of a few meddlesome animals have been preserved for posterity on ancient Roman tiles recently discovered by archeologists in England.

Remembering Diocletian

 

On this day Diocletian abdicated, he was the first emperor to do so (from Mint Imperials)

Jewish American Heritage Month

May is Jewish American Heritage Month
The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in paying tribute to the generations of Jewish Americans who have helped form the fabric of American history, culture and society.