Remains of Long-Lost Temple Discovered in Iraq

Life-size human statues and column bases from a long-lost temple dedicated to a supreme god have been discovered in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. The discoveries date back over 2,500 years to the Iron Age, a time period when several groups — such as the Urartians, Assyrians and Scythians — vied for supremacy over what is now northern Iraq. "I didn’t do excavation, just archaeological soundings —the villagers uncovered these materials accidentally," said Dlshad Marf Zamua, a doctoral student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who began the fieldwork in 2005.

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Chinese Collectors Given Unfair Advantage

Chinese coin experts are coming to America, presumably looking for historical coins to bring back to their homeland. Why has the Archaeological Institute of America and the State Department's Cultural Heritage Center worked so hard to preclude Americans from importing the exact, same coins Chinese collectors enjoy, and now Chinese dealers are now freely exporting back into China?

More at Cultural Property Observer: Sucking Sound

Repatriation and Fundamentalism go Hand-in-hand?

Peter Tompa, a valiant defender of US and collectors' rights has an interesting piece about the relationship of retentionist restrictive repatriation cultural property laws, corrupt dictatorial foreign governments intent on persecuting US art and relic collectors and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism:

I can't but help wondering after reading Thomas Friedman's interesting opinion piece whether the "State Owns Everything" model favored by Arab Dictators inexorably leads to the "Trash the Past" model of Islamic Fundamentalists. The former have mismanaged and exploited cultural heritage for their own ends for generations. The latter recently ransacked the Malawi Museum in Egypt. And now, they are even more menacingly being embodied by the iconoclasts of ISIL. Hammer in one hand and video camera in the other, they gleefully record their work.  

More at:  Cultural Property Observer 'Two Sides of the Same Coin?

 

Archeologists' Secret Ties to Middle Eastern Dictators and Terror States?

Cultural property lawyer Peter K. Tompa makes a really good point about archeologists working in foreign countries on permits issued by dictators and states supporting terrorism:

According to the archaeological blogosphere there are links between terrorists and collectors that must be investigated. If so, CPO hopes any such investigation also explores the established but opaque links between the archaeological lobby and Middle Eastern military dictatorships like Egypt and even terror states like Saddam's Iraq, the Assad's Syria and the Mullah's Iran. Any such links are potentially far more dangerous to our own national security than a few cylinder seals in the hands of terrorists. And this is no job for Homeland Security or even the FBI. No, this is one for the CIA or perhaps even the NSA. They'll get to the bottom of all this.

Brent Benjamin for CPAC!

An observer of the Washington cultural property scene makes an appeal for a wrong to be righted ( Brent Benjamin for CPAC!):

Now that the Saint Louis Art Museum has prevailed on appeal in its long running battle to save the Ka Nefer Nefer Mummy Mask for the good people of Saint Louis, MO, its high time for President Obama to right a wrong and reseat Saint Louis Art Museum Director Brent Benjamin on CPAC.  Unfortunately, although President Bush appointed Benjamin to the post, the State Department never allowed him to serve, presumably because of pressure from the archaeological lobby and then Egyptian Antiquities Pharaoh Zahi Hawass.

It's now time to stand up to outside interference with our affairs and right this wrong. Let President Obama reappoint Benjamin to CPAC at the earliest possible opportunity.

St Louis Wins

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed a decision dismissing the government's forfeiture complaint against the Ka Nefer Nefer mummy mask.  The mask is staying in the US.

Will Reason Prevail?

The efforts of the archaeological lobby in Washington in league with the Egyptian Military Dictatorship to create restrictions to US collectors having access to Egyptian antiquities are detailed in a long text by cultural property lawyer Peter K. Tompa 'CPAC Public Session on Egyptian MOU'. He represented the  International Association of Professional Numismatists and the Professional Numismatists Guild, while other dealers and collectors' representatives were there too to present out point of view. Mr Tompa's own excellent speech on behalf of coin collectors was given earlier ("Done Deal or No, Don’t Restrict Coins"). Mr Sayles of the Ancient Coin Collectors Guild seems to think: "State Department MOU hearing leaves room for optimism" for collectors of coins, but what about those of us who collect other minor antiquities?