The restoration of the Kızlar or Panaghia (ie., Virgin Mary) Monastery, one of the most important tourist spots in the Eastern Black Sea region, will soon come to an end and local officials are confident the site will boost local tourism.Trabzon’s famous Kızlar or Panaghia Monastery has been undergoing a restoration process for nearly a year. The work is almost done and the monastery will soon open to tourism [Credit: Hurriyet]
In a written statement, Trabzon Metropolitan Mayor Orhan Fevzi Gümrükçüoğlu noted Trabzon was a city of civilization and culture, and they were trying to revive the historical venues in the city to bring in more tourists.
For this purpose, the restoration of the Kızlar Monastery, located in the Boztepe neighborhood overlooking the city, began in March 2014. “The restoration project of the monastery had been made in the past with the financial resources of the municipality. Then we handed over this historical site to the Culture and Tourism Ministry for five years to begin the restoration. On our insistence, the ministry initiated a tender for the restoration and the contactor company who won the tender is carrying out the restoration,” the mayor said in the statement.
Speaking on the importance of the monastery in terms of tourism in the region, Gümrükçüoğlu said, “When the work is done, the Kızlar Monastery will serve tourism and revive the cultural, artistic and touristic life of Trabzon. We believe the city will become a rising star in tourism.”
He also noted artisans in the city were very pleased with the restoration, adding, “The monastery will be a frequently visited spot for local and foreign tourists. This makes the locals and artisans of the neighborhood very happy. The monastery will contribute to Eastern Black Sea tourism when it is opened. It will be a center of attraction for tourists visiting Trabzon. The historical rock church in the monastery and the rare frescoes will come to the surface when the restoration is done. The cost of the restoration project is 1.57 million Turkish Liras.”
The monastery complex built on two terraces and is surrounded by a high protective wall. The monastery was founded in the reign of Alexios III (1349–1390). The monastery initially comprised the rock church on the south side the chapel in its entrance and a few cells. Inside the rock church there are inscriptions and portraits of Alexios III, his wife Theodora and his mother Irene.
When war erupted in Libya in early 2011, Savino di Lernia and several other Italian archaeologists were stranded in the Sahara Desert. They had been studying Libya's prehistory at the Messak plateau in the southwest corner of Libya, which is home to some of the world's oldest rock art. As violence in the country escalated, the researchers took shelter in an isolated oil camp before they were eventually evacuated to safety on an Italian military aircraft.The Temple of Zeus at Cyrene, Libya [Credit: David Stanley/WikiCommons]
At first, di Lernia and many of his colleagues were optimistic about the future of archaeology in Libya after years of neglect under dictator Moammar Gadhafi. But today, di Lernia has trouble imagining what fieldwork will look like in the war-torn country.
Years after the conflict began, Libya is still unstable. The United Nations was holding talks in Geneva this week to attempt to unify the two rival governments in control of Libya since Gadhafi's dramatic downfall. Meanwhile, ISIS extremists have taken power in parts of the country, such as Derna, a city in the east, where the group Human Rights Watch has documented violent forms of abuse, including executions and floggings.
Alongside reports of human atrocities, there has been a steady stream of reports detailing the threats to Libya's cultural resources, from ideological destruction to unchecked development. In 2013, for example, there was construction equipment sitting at the Hellenic city of Cyrene, one of five UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Libya, ready to clear the way for houses. Another World Heritage Site, Ghadamès — a city sometimes called "the pearl of the desert" that was once home to the Romans and the Berbers — suffered rocket attacks in 2012. The same year, ultraconservative Islamists reportedly destroyed Sufi shrines and graves in Tripoli that don't conform to their beliefs. In 2011, robbers pulled off one of the biggest archaeological heists, stealing a hoard of nearly 8,000 ancient coins from a bank vault in Benghazi.
"I'm afraid if nothing happens, this will be a disaster for generations of Libyan archaeologists — and for universal heritage," di Lernia told Live Science. Today (Jan. 28), he published a commentary in the journal Nature to try to raise awareness about the situation within the scientific community. "It's very difficult to keep the light on Libya in this moment," di Lernia said.
Over the last four years, di Lernia, who is a professor at the Sapienza University of Rome, and his colleagues have been able to publish new research based on the wealth of material they collected in past field seasons. They've shown that dairy farms existed in a once-green Sahara. They have also analyzed Stone Age burials in the desert region.
Though access to the southeastern part of Libya has been restricted since 2011, di Lernia used to be able to travel to Tripoli. But as the fighting between Libya's two governments worsened over the past year, di Lernia wasn't able to get to Libya at all. From afar, it's difficult for international observers to assess the damages in the country.
"From time to time, I succeed in talking to my friends there, and they say that all sites are in danger, all sites are at risk," di Lernia said. "We don't know what's going on in many places. We don't know what's going on in the museums."
In other conflict zones, such as Syria, archaeologists have turned to satellite imagery to assess damage to cultural heritage sites. Those images show that places like Apamea, a Roman city and once-thriving tourist attraction for Syria, has been turned into a moonscape because of the holes gouged out by looters. But the same approach might not work in Libya, di Lernia said, as satellites can't detect more subtle damages, such as graffiti that's been reportedly painted over rock art in the Tadrart Acacus mountains, near the Messak plateau.
Di Lernia used to spend months at a time at the Messak plateau, but he can’t imagine long archaeological field seasons resuming in Libya anytime soon. In Nature, he put forth a host of recommendations to rekindle research, calling for more support for museum, university and lab-based research. Di Lernia said he'd like to see more museum collections go online, and a Web-based library for rock art sites. He also wants to see international universities provide support and funding for Libyan students and scientists to train and work overseas.
"The only way to keep Libyan archaeology alive is to do lab research, desk research, working on the Internet and working on the digitization of cultural heritage in Libya," di Lernia said. "The situation in Libya is a part of a wider picture, I'm afraid. Probably we have to rethink our capacity to do research within this political framework."
An Egyptian conservation group said Friday it will sue the antiquities minister over a "botched" repair of the mask of King Tutankhamun that left a crust of dried glue on the priceless relic.Picture taken on January 23, 2015 shows the burial mask of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, who ruled Egypt from 1334 to 1325 BC, at the Cairo museum in the Egyptian capital [Credit: AFP/Mohamed El-Shahed]
The golden funerary mask, seen Friday by AFP at the Egyptian Museum, showed the sticky aftermath of what appears to have been overzealous use of glue to fix the mask's beard in place.
A museum official, who spoke anonymously to avoid repercussions, told AFP the beard had fallen of accidentally when the mask was removed from its case last year to repair the lighting.
Museum head Mahmoud al-Helwagy denied that conservation workers had damaged the mask
"This is illogical and inconceivable," he told AFP. "These are conservation workers, not carpenters."
Antiquities Minister Mahmud al-Damaty also denied that the 3,000-year-old relic was treated carelessly.
"The job was done correctly," he told AFP, without explaining why curators needed to fix the mask.
Monica Hanna, an Egyptologist who inspected the mask, said what she saw had so shocked her that her group was taking the matter to the public prosecutor.
"We are presenting a complaint on mismanagement to the prosecutor tomorrow," said Hanna, from Egypt's Heritage Task Force, which has long battled mismanagement and looting of Egypt's legendary ancient artefacts.
According to the museum official, "there seems to have been a lapse in concentration and the mask hit the case and almost fell" when it was removed from its case.
"So (the curator) grabbed it in his arms to break the fall, and the beard separated," he said.
The long braided beard fit into the mask with a peg, and had been separated before, the official said.
"This mistake can happen. But what caused it to get worse? The curator was scared and he fixed it hastily."
The epoxy glue dried very quickly, said the official.
"You should use material (that dries slowly) and then support it, maybe over several hours or 24 hours, so you can fix mistakes," he said.
"Renovation work needs an adhesive that is easy to remove in case there is any damage, without leaving any traces."
Museum director Helwagy told the official MENA news agency that epoxy glue is used internationally to fix artefacts.
The death mask of the enigmatic boy king is one of the crown jewels of the museum, which also houses the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses II.
The museum used to attract millions of tourists before a 2011 revolt -- centred in nearby Tahrir Square -- brought down president Hosni Mubarak and unleashed four years of tumult.
The blue and gold braided beard on the burial mask of famed pharaoh Tutankhamun was hastily glued back on with epoxy, damaging the relic after it was knocked during cleaning, conservators at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo said Wednesday.In this Aug. 12, 2014, photo provided by Jacqueline Rodriguez, a man glues the beard part of King Tutankhamun's mask back on at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. The blue and gold braided beard on the burial mask of famed pharaoh Tutankhamun was hastily glued back on with epoxy, damaging the relic after it was knocked during cleaning , conservators at the museum in Cairo said Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2015 [Credit: AP/Jacqueline Rodriguez]
The museum is one of the city's main tourist sites, but in some areas, ancient wooden sarcophagi lay unprotected from the public, while pharaonic burial shrouds, mounted on walls, crumble from behind open panels of glass. Tutankhamun's mask, over 3,300 years old, and other contents of his tomb are its top exhibits.
Three of the museum's conservators reached by telephone gave differing accounts of when the incident occurred last year, and whether the beard was knocked off by accident while the mask's case was being cleaned, or was removed because it was loose.
They agree however that orders came from above to fix it quickly and that an inappropriate adhesive was used. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisals.
"Unfortunately he used a very irreversible material — epoxy has a very high property for attaching and is used on metal or stone but I think it wasn't suitable for an outstanding object like Tutankhamun's golden mask," one conservator said.
"The mask should have been taken to the conservation lab but they were in a rush to get it displayed quickly again and used this quick drying, irreversible material," the conservator added.
The beard on the Pharaoh’s mask was detached during cleaning at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and was “hastily” glued back on with epoxy [Credit: Al-Araby Al-Jedeed]
The conservator said that the mask now shows a gap between the face and the beard, whereas before it was directly attached: "Now you can see a layer of transparent yellow."
Another museum conservator, who was present at the time of the repair, said that epoxy had dried on the face of the boy king's mask and that a colleague used a spatula to remove it, leaving scratches. The first conservator, who inspects the artifact regularly, confirmed the scratches and said it was clear that they had been made by a tool used to scrape off the epoxy.
Egypt's tourist industry, once a pillar of the economy, has yet to recover from three years of tumult following a 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Museums and the opening of new tombs are part of plans to revive the industry. But authorities have made no significant improvements to the Egyptian Museum since its construction in 1902, and plans to move the Tutankhamun exhibit to its new home in the Grand Egyptian Museum scheduled to open in 2018 have yet to be divulged.
What the beard should look like [Credit: Profimedia]
Neither the Antiquities Ministry nor the museum administration could be reached for comment Wednesday evening. One of the conservators said an investigation was underway and that a meeting had been held on the subject earlier in the day.
The burial mask, discovered by British archeologists Howard Carter and George Herbert in 1922, sparked worldwide interest in archaeology and ancient Egypt when it was unearthed along with Tutankhamun's nearly intact tomb.
"From the photos circulating among restorers I can see that the mask has been repaired, but you can't tell with what," Egyptologist Tom Hardwick said. "Everything of that age needs a bit more attention, so such a repair will be highly scrutinized."
Author: Brian Rohan | Source: Associated Press [Jabuary 22, 2015]
Illegal excavations carried out by tombs raiders underneath a residential house in Alexandria have uncovered a Graeco-Roman necropolis.Some of the objects discovered during illegal excavations [Credit: Ahram online]
Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty told Ahram Online that the necropolis, in the Gebel Mahran area, includes a collection of tombs called Likoli, which have holes engraved in a rock-hewn wall.
The tomb raiders unearthed a collection of artefacts including 20 clay lamps, 18 glass bottles and a large number of clay pots.
Eldamaty said the pots give us a view of the pot industry during that period.
The ministry of antiquities is to send an archeological mission to the site to continue excavations and reveal more of these tombs.
The Tourism and Antiquities Police caught the criminal red-handed and they are now under investigations.
Following comprehensive diplomatic efforts between Egypt and Belgium, Leuven University has agreed to return a 35,000-year-old human skeleton to Egypt which it has held since 1980.The prehistoric human skeleton unearthed in the Nazlet Khater area of the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag [Credit: Ahram Online]
The skeleton came into the possession of the university according to the division law. The law allowed foreign missions to have a share in the artefacts they discovered at archaeological sites in Egypt.
Minister of Antiquities Mamdouh Eldamaty explained that the skeleton was unearthed in the Nazlet Khater area of the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag during an excavation by the Leuven University archaeological mission.
After diplomatic efforts, he continued, the university agreed to return the skeleton because it is a very important artefact in the history of Egypt.
Ali Ahmed, head of the Stolen Antiquities Recovery Section, told Ahram Online that the skeleton will arrive next week and a committee is now studying how to put it on display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat.
A large number of historical artifacts, including the head of a 2,000-year-old Hermes statue, have been seized during an operation by the Sivas Police Department Directorate of Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Branch.The head of Hermes was seized after a three-month operation [Credit: DHA]
Following three months of preparation, the police department simultaneously raided various addresses in villages and districts of the Central Anatolian province of Sivas, as well as in Nevşehir, Adıyaman and Kayseri on Jan. 13, and discovered historical artifacts.
A sculpted head in the image of the ancient Greek god Hermes was among the artifacts seized in Sivas. It has been claimed that the head had found a buyer for $1 million three years ago, who then attempted to smuggle it abroad, but operations at the time failed to find the head.
Cumhuriyet University academics have confirmed that the head of Hermes was the original one, but further examinations would be conducted in the coming days.
Along with the head of Hermes, three rings, a plate, 23 coins, six Ottoman-language books, a metal ashtray, two column pieces and four stones inscribed with various motifs were also among the findings during the operation.
The remains of an ancient city have been put up for sale in Turkey, it's reported. Bargylia, which dates back to the fifth century BC, is on the north of the Bodrum peninsula, a popular holiday spot. It's being advertised by a real estate agency just like a holiday home, although the site is protected from building work, the BirGun news website reports.Bargylia dates back to the 5th century B.C. and is located near Güllük Bay on the northern coast of the Bodrum peninsula [Credit: Hurriyet]
The advert describes "a first degree archaeological site, facing the Bird Heaven Lake near Bogazici village, with full sea and lake view". Prospective buyers will need deep pockets - it's on the market for 22m Turkish liras ($9.6m; £6.3m). But those willing to splash out could find all sorts of treasures beneath the unexcavated ground. It's thought the site includes the remains of an amphitheatre, temple and Byzantine-era necropolis.
Archaeologists want the site and others like it to be bought by the government, to ensure they're properly looked after, but say the funding isn't available.
"Private ownership of those sites is obstructing archaeological work," says Binnur Celebi from the Archaeologists Association.
"However, the person or persons who acquire those sites can absolutely not conduct any construction activities."
The site even comes with a bit of Greek mythology. It's said that the mythical hero Bellerophon named it after his friend Bargylos, who died after being kicked by the winged horse Pegasus.
Egypt has formed a ministerial committee charged with developing a strategy to safeguard the country’s Islamic heritage by reinvigorating faltering projects.The Sultan Hassan Mosque and madrasa (school) is considered stylistically the most compact and unified of all Cairo's monuments [Credit: Flickr.com/desktopio]
“The committee has agreed to found a joint fund to complete stalled renovation projects to many mosques and other Islamic sites.” said Gamal Mostafa, part of the new committee and director general of the archaeological sites of Al-Sultan Hassan and al-Rifaai mosques. “[The committee] aims to tackle the bureaucracy and obstacles that inhibit the completion of Islamic heritage development projects.”
Over the past decade, several development projects – particularly in Cairo which is one of the world’s oldest Islamic cities – have been launched to protect Egypt’s ancient mosques, but lack of funding coordination and security following the 2011 revolution meant the majority of projects were abandoned.
The Egyptian government has been criticised over the increase in thefts, not only in mosques, but in Egypt’s heritage sites across the country. Following the 2011 revolution and the subsequent collapse of the country’s government, armed gangs, looters and general destruction placed the country’s rich cultural history in peril. As a result, Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab requested support from UNESCO to try and stem reports of ongoing chaos at Egyptian heritage sites.
Author: Tom Anstey | Source: Leisure Management [January 13, 2015]
The number of tourists visiting the ancient city of Sardis in İzmir’s Salihli district has increased three fold over the last five years, thanks to promotional work. The ancient city was the capital of Lydia, the civilization that invented money.
The ancient city of Sardis was the capital of Lydia, the civilization that invented money [Credit: AA]
Salihli Tourism Association Chairman Mustafa Uçar said that excavations had started in Sardis in 1910 and accelerated again after 1958, unearthing many historical artifacts.
Uçar said the excavations covered an area of 3,000 square meters and shed light on 1,400 years of history between the 7th century B.C and the 7th century A.D., with artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman cultures, among others.
He said among the findings were an acropolis, a gymnasium, a synagogue, a bath, a court building, houses, 85 graves where Lydian kings had been buried and the Temple of Artemis, one of the seven holy temples of Christianity, built in 300 B.C. by the ancient Greeks and renovated by the Romans in the 2nd century A.D.
The ancient city had been overlooked for many years and rarely hosted tourists, said Uçar, adding that interest in the city has been increasing in recent years and it now draws tourists throughout the year.
“Eight to 10 buses of tourists come to Sardis every day,” he said, adding that ongoing excavations and promotional activities were the reason for the increase of interest in the ancient city.
“In recent years, both local management and non-governmental organizations attached great importance to the promotion of Sardis. Symposiums and conferences were held to showcase the importance of the ancient city and the status of the Lydian Kingdom in history. Catalogues and brochures were printed and delivered to travel agencies. The site was promoted in both in Turkey and abroad. As a result, tourist interest in the ancient city has increased every day,” Uçar said.
“The ancient city of Sardis hosted 22,000 people in 2010. This number increased to 27,000 in 2011, 30,000 in 2012, 43,000 in 2013 and 65,000 in 2014. The city is expected to welcome 100,000 tourists annually in the near future,” he said.
Uçar said that the traces of the Lydians, who had led the way for the invention of money, could be found only in Sardis, and expressed the importance of the Temple of Artemis to tourists.
“It is the fourth largest ionic temple in the world. It had remained underground for many years, which is why it is still in good condition. It draws lots of interest from tourists,” Uçar said.
A site in the Central Anatolian province of Yozgat’s Sorgun district, which the ancient Hittites had used as a sculpture workshop, will be reorganized as an open-air museum by Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry.
An area of 1.5 kilometers in Yozgat’s Sorgun district that served as a sculpture atelier in the Hittite era will be reorganized as an open-air museum, thanks to a new project [Credit: Hurriyet]
As part of the project, the Karakız, Kazankaya, Armutlu and Hapis Boğazı neighborhoods will be declared as first degree archaeological areas, according to local Mayor Osman Yılmaz.
The region was home to a large number of Hittite-era sculptures, some of which were unfinished, indicating that this may be why an atelier may have been located on the site, Yılmaz said.
“The first examination in this historical area was made in 1982 and it was taken under protection in 1987 as the Hapis Boğazı ruins. But no detailed work was conducted at the ruins until 2009, when the Yozgat Museum Directorate and Hittite University initiated joint works,” he added.
The mayor said there was a granite layer on a wide space in the region. “There are carved lion sculptures and pieces of various architectural structures in this area. We can see them over an area of 1.5 kilometers. We will preserve these artifacts in their original place and open them up to tourism,” Yılmaz said.
He added that the project, titled the “Open-Air History and Culture Park Museum,” would reorganize the area dating back to 1,200 B.C.
Following joint work with the Kayseri and Sivas Council of Monuments, the Culture and Tourism Ministry approved the project, Yılmaz said. “The most important feature of this settlement is that it is close to Hattusha, the capital of Hittite in the center of Anatolia. There are relief sculptures in front of the big gates in the entrances of significant cities in Hattusha and its vicinity. There is a sculpture atelier here. The Hittites used granite materials in making massive sculptures. This place has historical importance,” he added.
Sculptures will be moved
Yılmaz said archaeological reports indicated that the area, where unfinished lion sculptures exist, served as an atelier in the Hittite era and many of the sculptures unearthed at Hittite settlements were made there.
As part of the project’s plans, the team made a change in the architectural plan of an area in the Karakız neighborhood and allocated it as an open-air museum.
“The sculptures in Kazankaya and Hapis Boğazı will be moved to a place in the Open Air History and Culture Park Museum. When the weather conditions is suitable, we will start moving the sculptures in spring, which is the first stage of the project,” Yılmaz said.
He also complained that treasure hunters had caused much damage to historical artifacts in previous year.
“Those who saw these sculptures made their own excavations in the region and damaged many of them. But with this latest project, these artifacts will be rescued from treasure hunters. This region is estimated to be the first sculpture atelier of the Hittites, and now it will be opened up to tourism,” Yılmaz said.
