England's Portable Antiquities Scheme Reaches a Million

England's Portable antiquities Scheme has saved more than a million objects for the nation, all found by metal detectorists. A model for other nations to follow.

Understanding IS

ISIS' real target must be the Hijaz -- the seizure of Mecca and Medina -- and the legitimacy that this will confer on ISIS as the new Emirs of Arabia. (Alastair Crooke, 'Middle East Time Bomb: The Real Aim of ISIS Is to Replace the Saud Family as the New Emirs of Arabia' Huffington Post 09/02/2014).

Egyptian Military Dictatorship Botches Pyramid Restoration Work

The Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara was built by the famous builder Imhotep and dates back to the 27th century BC and is 100 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza. In 2011, a British team was working to restore the structure and reportedly prevented a cave in with a huge inflatable balloon. Here is an account of the amazing project. Then funding was cut. Now (Katie Spicer, 'Ancient Egypt: World's Oldest Pyramid 'Ruined' by Restorers' International Business News, September 4, 2014), Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities, Mamdouh Eldamaty, is under fire after rehiring a company named Shurbagy for restoration of the pyramid after the firm caused damage and major deterioration to the very same structure in an earlier botched job. Shurbagy is accused by critics of causing serious damage and the collapse of a section of the Step Pyramid. Critics add that the company had no experience in restoring archaeological sites and that all six prior contracts for archaeological projects are under investigation. However, Eldamaty just gave it a new and major contract. See Peter Tompa, 'Egyptian Military Dictatorship Botches Pyramid Restoration Work' for comment. Our hero asks:

Is the Egyptian state and its supporters in the archaeological lobby really interested in conservation or control?

But surely this is about lack of control, just like there appears to be little accountability in our own government for gross negligence, as shown by the response to the debacle over the rollout of the Obamacare website and billions wasted or lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Close Turkey's Border with Syria

As the nature and extent of reported looting by or under the protection ISIS/ISIL terrorists in Syria is being widely debated, excepting our man Peter Tompa, no one seems to have suggested an obvious solution to any problem:  Turkey should close its border with Syria ! Turkey's Islamist government is already facing criticism for allowing jihadists free passage to and from Syria from Turkish soil.  Turkey should deploy its army to the border to both cut off the flow of people across the line (jihadists on their way to the war zone) and confiscate any artifacts illicitly removed from Syria and arrest the smugglers. Obvious. 

The Source of the Problem

"The problem, of course, is that the State Department cultural bureaucracy and its enforcers at CBP seem more interested in scoring points with UNESCO, foreign governments and their allies in the archaeological establishment than addressing the legitimate concerns of collectors".

Peter Tompa  Thursday, August 28, 2014

Perversion of American Law by Radicals

American legislation was purposefully laced with protections against the wholesale embargo of cultural property.  With those specific protections in place, few could argue that such a carefully weighed restriction on transfer of cultural property (under the agreed conditions) would be anything but a fair and logical response.  If there are "reasonable grounds" to assume that an object came illegally out of Syria, then it should not be migrating out of Syria, even in an attempt to preserve it — an odd paradox to say the least, but that is the law (or regulation). [...]   The ancient coin collecting community respects and supports CCPIA.  Sadly, archaeologists do not.  Instead, they support the bureaucratic perversion of this law boldly criticized by a wide range of knowledgable and respected scholars and private citizens—including some who have worked within the very bureaucratic system that has perverted it. Unfortunately, the protective language against overreach in CCPIA has been stripped of its contextm by administrative procedure.  [...] Collectors represent an entire class of dedicated, capable and law abiding people who are among the world's best ambassadors for cultural understanding and tolerance.  Sadly, to many of them, the rule of law is becoming a paper tiger subject to selective enforcement and administrative nullification.  If this is indeed a sign of the times, the road ahead will a difficult journey.

More here.
 

When Egypt was a land of three faiths and one god

The British Museum in London is co-organising an exhibition next year with the State Museums Berlin about the Jewish, early Christian and Muslim communities of Egypt from the Roman to early Medieval periods. “One God: Three Religions on the Nile” will include sculpture, architectural fragments, jewellery, textiles and manuscripts from the museums’ collections together with loans from other institutions to tell the story of the three faiths in Egypt between 30BC and AD1200. The theme of politics and religion will inevitably present parallels with the Middle East today. The exhibition will chronicle the last centuries of pagan religion under Roman rule, the rise of Christianity—the dominant religion by the fifth century—and the arrival of Islam after the Arab conquest of the seventh century. At the British Museum, the exhibition is sponsored by the Blavatnik Family Foundation.