Puruchuco, an ancient Incan complex, sits at the fast-moving edge of Lima's real estate boom, forcing authorities in the Peruvian capital to get creative as they seek to preserve the archeological treasure.Panoramic view of the almost unknown pre-Inca Puruchuco,"Feather helmet", complex, on March 4, 2015 in Lima [Credit: AFP/Cris Bouroncle]
At first glance, the site looks like an empty hill on the city's east side -- a bald spot surrounded by a slum, a new university and a shopping mall scheduled to open soon.
But then, a low structure becomes visible -- Puruchuco, an Incan palace with a 16th-century burial ground, and untold numbers of priceless artifacts buried within.
Just 10 percent of the 75-hectare (190-acre) complex has been explored, but that small slice held more than 2,000 mummies and some 100 artifacts in gold, silver and copper.
"The entire Puruchuco hill has monuments, cemeteries, pre-Hispanic mausoleums that have never been explored because of a lack of funding," said archaeologist Clide Valladolid, the director of a small museum at the site.
The problem is that as the Peruvian economy has boomed in recent years -- registering average annual GDP growth of 6.4 percent in the decade to 2013 -- Lima, a city of more than nine million people, has expanded voraciously, with rich and poor alike snapping up real estate.
Puruchuco sits right in the growing capital's path.
Authorities want to extend Javier Prado Avenue, one of the city's main arteries, to link it up with Carretera Central, the highway to the Andean region and the main route to the capital for food and other products from the country's interior.
Originally, the idea was to split Puruchuco in two and build the road straight through it -- a plan that initially got a green light from authorities.
But then the culture ministry intervened, asking for construction to be halted.
Construction on a new road goes on in the eastern outskirts of Lima, in the Andes, near the pre-Inca Puruchuco, "Feather helmet" complex, on March 4, 2015 [Credit: AFP/Cris Bouroncle]
With a little creative engineering, planners came up with a system of two three-lane tunnels, each 45 meters (150 feet) long, that will pass through the narrowest part of the hill.
Work on the $8.9 million project began last August using non-disruptive digging techniques and no explosives, and is due to be completed in June.
"It was the engineering equivalent of heart surgery to avoid one of the cemeteries on the upper part of the hill," said engineer Onerio Robles, who designed the project.
"When we had defined the route and begun excavating, we found a mummy a meter away from the tunnel's path and had to recalculate everything."
An archaeologist at the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos had warned in 2010 that there was a pre-Inca palace hidden in that part of the hill.
Puruchuco means "feather helmet" in the Quechua language.
The complex is named for a headpiece on display at the site museum. Crowned with brightly colored feathers, it was worn by the curaca, or ruler, who lived in the palace.
A pre-Inca silver ceremonial mask is seen on March 4, 2015, at the site museum of the almost unknown Puruchuco -"Feathered Head-Piece" in Andean Quechua language-complex in Lima [Credit: AFP/Getty Images]
More than five centuries ago, Puruchuco was an important administrative and religious center where the curaca led rituals.
Today, the palace has been painstakingly reconstructed and is open for visits.
Authorities have promised to expand the site museum, opening the largest collection of mummies in the country and a laboratory to study them.
Valladolid, the museum's director, wants to bring back 2,000 mummies that were discovered at Puruchuco in 2000 during a separate construction project -- a road through a slum that had sprung up atop the largest burial ground.
Some of the mummies' bones had been broken with sharp swords in combat -- apparently an early battle with the Spanish conquistadors, who descended on the area in 1532 and made Lima the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
One of the mummies' skulls was pierced by a musket ball -- it is believed to be the first person killed by gunfire in the Americas.
Many more discoveries are likely lurking in the hill, said Valladolid.
"In the lower part of Puruchuco, called Huaquerones, there are three pyramids with ramps and cemeteries. We need to fence them off to stop squatters from moving in," she said.
The winner of of the Strand NYC bag is Lisa from Lit and Life. Congratulations Lisa and thanks to everyone else who entered! This bag is part of a giveaway from my trip to New York City.
Today's post is going to be short and sweet because I'm still recovering from my amazing Saturday. What made it so amazing? Here is a quick summary for you: Coffee with my friend Hanna, blogger at The Art Blotter. The fabulous Eula Biss reading (and cheese fries). Sharing Chinese food with the boyfriend. Camera Obscura concert! And finally, The Real Face of Jesus on the History Channel. Best. Day. Ever.
Here are the books I read in the amazing (reading wise) month of March. 1. Aurora Floyd by Mary Elizabeth Braddon (A) 2. Emma Volume Three by Kaoru Mori (A) 3. Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith (B) 4. The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen (A) 5. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (A) 6. Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine (A) 7. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (A) 8. Proof by Seduction by Courtney Milan (B) 9. How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster (B)
Nine books! I was pretty happy with that. My favorite book was definitely The Creation of Eve with a close second being The Bell Jar. My least favorite was probably How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which I had high hopes for and they weren't quite fulfilled. Honestly though, I didn't dislike any book I read in March and I would recommend all of them!
I made myself a new layout last night! I think it's much improved from my previous layout, which I never thought reflected me very well. This is closer to what I'm wanting, but I only have time to do a little bit on the layout every once in awhile. Luckily I'm ahead on posts for next week so that gave me some extra time to work on layout.
I've been tossing over what to do Sunday Salon about this week. It's not quite the end of March, so I didn't really want to do a March wrap-up post, but I did just reach 25 books which I think is something to celebrate! So I think I'll do a 1/4 year wrap up today, and next week I'll do a quick, more focused, March wrap-up. You can check out the full list of books I've read on my 2010 Reads page.
Books read in 2010: 26 YA Books: 5 Classics: 7 Graphic Novels: 3 Historical Fiction: 12 Romance: 2 ARC/For review: 4 My favorite: The Creation of Eve by Lynn Cullen My least favorite: The Secret History of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig Distributed grades: 10 A's, 8 B's, 6 C's, and 1 D.
I was actually really surprised by a few things on this list. For example, I thought I'd given out mostly C's this year, but I've actually read more A books. I think this is partially because I read a lot of C books at the beginning of this year and recently I've had a streak of awesome books. I was also surprised to see how many "Classics" I have read, since it seems like I haven't read that many. I was really surprised by how many historical fiction books I've read because I felt like I've read hardly any, although to be fair I counted graphic novels in that which I don't really consider historical fiction while I'm reading them. 26 books in three months means I should be able to read 100 books this year. This was never really a spoken goal of mine, but I thought it would be neat. I'm glad to see I'm on my way.
This week I posted a review of Dawn of the Dreadfuls and Aurora Floyd. I brought back Children's Book Thursday with a vlog about a great book called Library Lion. I shared my thoughts on Writing Classes and posted a review of the Moleskine Passions Book Journal. Also, don't forget to enter the contest to win a bag from Strand Bookstore in New York City! I will announce the winner next week so be sure to leave a comment on last week's Sunday Salon before next Sunday!
The British Museum has rejected, albeit in a polite manner, an offer for UNESCO mediation vis-a-vis the Parthenon Marbles and underlined that it is not a government body, and that the marbles do not belong to the British government.
In a letter dated March 26, 2015, the museum’s trustees claimed they are retaining the friezes — sliced off the Parthenon by the notorious Lord Elgin — for British people … for the benefit of the world’s public, present and future.
The letter also cited trustees’ “honest respect for the organization” but also “the already good relationships with colleagues and institutions of Greece”,
Here’s the British Museum’s very “long-winded” response, signed by the chairman of the British Museum board of trustees, Sir Richard Lambert:
“I write on behalf of the Trustees of the British Museum, who at their meeting of 19th March 2015 considered the request put forward by the Greek Government that they should enter into a process of mediation, facilitated by UNESCO, on the subject of the Parthenon Sculptures in the British Museum. After full and careful consideration, we have decided respectfully to decline this request. We believe that the more constructive way forward, on which we have already embarked, is to collaborate directly with other museums and cultural institutions, not just in Greece but across the world.
The British Museum admires and supports the work of UNESCO, fully acknowledging the importance of its unique ability, as an intergovernmental agency, to address the serious issue of the threats to, and the destruction of, cultural heritage around the world. The Museum has a long history of collaboration with UNESCO, notably in Iraq in 2003-5, and is currently engaged with UNESCO in formulating responses to the crisis in Syria, including the illicit trafficking of antiquities. The Museum would wish always to align itself with UNESCO’s purposes in the preservation and safeguarding of the world’s endangered cultural heritage. However, the surviving Parthenon Sculptures, carefully preserved in a number of European museums, clearly do not fall into this category.
The British Museum, as you know, is not a government body, and the collections do not belong to the British Government. The Trustees of the British Museum hold them not only for the British people, but for the benefit of the world public, present and future. The Trustees have a legal and moral responsibility to preserve and maintain all the collections in their care, to treat them as inalienable and to make them accessible to world audiences.
In pursuit of this aim, the Trustees would want to develop existing good relations with colleagues and institutions in Greece, and to explore collaborative ventures, not on a government-to-government basis but directly between institutions. This is why we believe that UNESCO involvement is not the best way forward. Museums holding Greek works, whether in Greece, the UK or elsewhere in the world, are naturally united in a shared endeavour to show the importance of the legacy of ancient Greece. The British Museum is committed to playing its full part in sharing the value of that legacy for all humanity.
The potential of this approach can be seen in the British Museum’s current special exhibition Defining Beauty, the Body in Ancient Greek Art, which opened to the public today. Here some of the Parthenon Sculptures are displayed with other works that similarly show the intense humanism of ancient Greek civilisation, including masterpieces generously lent by museums around the world. Nowhere else in the world is it now, or has it ever been, possible to see these objects together. The aesthetic impact is considerable, and the intellectual content compelling. This seems to us to point the way forward, as an example of the great public benefit that arises from museums internationally using and sharing their collections in this way."
Meanwhile, the British government also addressed a letter to Alfredo Pérez de Armiñán noting their respect for UNESCO’s work in preserving cultural heritage and “providing a forum for the resolution of international disputes.”
“The issue of the Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum has been the subject of much discussion over the years both within the Committee and elsewhere, and while the UK is not formally a member of the Committee, officials from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the British Museum have regularly attended and sought to assist the Committee in its work,” the letter stated.
However, while the British government wishes to cooperate with UNESCO, they clearly state that they cannot agree to the Greek government’s request for the return of the Parthenon Marbles since they “were legally acquired by Lord Elgin under the laws pertaining at the time and the Trustees of the British Museum have had clear legal title to the sculptures since 1816.”
“We have seen nothing to suggest that Greece’s purpose in seeking mediation on this issue is anything other than to achieve the permanent transfer of the Parthenon sculptures now in the British Museum to Greece and on terms that would deny the British Museum’s right of ownership, either in law or as a practical reality. Given our equally clear position, this leads us to conclude that mediation would not carry this debate substantially forward,” the British government added
The letters sparked a reaction from the Greek government. In a statement, Culture Minister Nikos Xydakis criticized the British officials’ “unwillingness to cooperate.”
“We are surprised at the ongoing effort to downgrade an interstate issue to an issue between museums,” he said, adding that the Greek government would continue its bid to repatriate the sculptures.
Greece has unsuccessfully campaigned for the return of the ancient sculptures that were removed from the citadel by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s.
Today I have an interview with up and coming author Alexandra Bracken. Her novel, Brightly Woven, debuts March 23. The short description of the novel from her website is, "Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him." I haven't read her novel yet, though I plan to, so many of you might be wondering why I chose to interview her. Bracken is unique in that she was working on publishing her novel while she was still in college. She signed with an agent on her 21st birthday and after spending her senior year revising the novel her dream is finally coming true next week. How did she do it you might ask, and I think the work diligence pretty much sums up Bracken's story. I won't just leave it at that though, as follows you can read her answers to my questions about how she balanced school and writing and what path (or paths) she took to get there.
Where did you go to school, when did you graduate, and what did you go? I went to the College of William and Mary, graduated last Spring, and majored in History and English
Did you start as an English major? What made you decide to become an English major? When I was applying for schools, I focused on the Virginia area, mostly because I knew I wanted to study Early American History and I would freeze my butt off if I went to school in New England. I had always loved English, but my dad had convinced me to major in History and Government because he wanted me to be a lawyer. BIG mistake. I took one Government class and realized how stupid it was for me NOT to major in English--AKA the subject I really loved.
What were your plans for after graduation? How have those plans been fulfilled or how have they been different than you expected? Originally, I was going the pre-law route (I'm sure you've all noticed that when you say you're an English major, most people assume that you want to be A) a lawyer or B) a teacher)... but I realized, in the middle of taking the LSAT unfortunately, that being a lawyer would make me MISERABLE, and spent all of the summer between Junior and Senior year moping around without a life plan. My next idea was to work in PR/Communications (which I definitely recommend), but I ended up getting a scholarship to attend the Columbia Publishing Institute and decided to take it. I now work as an editorial assistant in children's publishing. Looking back, it seems like a natural choice since being an author had given me a lot of insight into the business.I'm not sure if it's what I want to be doing forever, but I'm happy to be employed and doing something I enjoy!
What made you decide to take on writing a novel while in college? I first tried my hand at writing a novel my freshman year--I always say that NaNoWriMo made me very brave, and it's true. I thought I would just give it a go, and ended up getting hooked on the process.
Were you planning to publish this all along? No... I tried to be very realistic about it and not get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping I'd be able to sell something before I graduated.
How did you balance school and writing? I get asked this all the time, and I'm still not sure what the right answer is. I was very disciplined and made a lot of social sacrifices on the weekends. You really do have to find a schedule that works, though. The first three years of college were incredibly reading and writing intensive (I was once assigned 2000 pages of reading a week in my Sophomore year. Not. Fun.), but that helped me write. Knowing that I only had an hour here or two hours there meant that I used that little time for writing and writing alone. When i was working on revisions with my agent, I gave myself a deadline to finish the first round before finals that May. Starting in March, I woke up at 6 AM every day and wrote until I had class at 1 PM, and when I was done with homework at night, I'd be back to revising. I tried getting up at 5 AM and squeezing in an hour of work out time, but... uh... I quickly decided an extra hour of sleep was more important than getting my fitness on.
What advice would you give college students who want to write seriously in college? What advice would you give those who want to publish? What steps should they take? The advice that I always give to high schoolers and college students that ask me this question is this: While you're in school, focus on being a writer before you focus on being a published author. I really miss the days I had before I was published, when I could write whatever I wanted regardless of how crappy it was and I didn't have to worry about another person's judgment. I can't reinforce this enough, being published in college is like having a full-time job, and one that isn't always fun. It's an incredible amount of stress and pressure to put on yourself, when you're already anxious about exams/papers/what-have-you. Not everyone will have a negative experience, but I would also add that a good portion of my friends thought that I had graduated a semester early because I was so deep in my revision hole that I only surfaced for food and class. School is such a unique and wonderful time, but you don't get to experience it when you're by yourself writing. There are a zillion and a half elements in Brightly Woven that I picked up from the classes I was taking at the time. Be a sponge and absorb as much as possible from your classes and friends. Make sure you're taking advantage of all that college life has to offer, and if you happen to write something that you feel is ready to be seen by the world, go for it! Revise it seriously, submit it to agents, and learn from the feedback you get. Make sure that when you're writing you are happy and excited, because the minute you start feeling stressed out or depressed, it often means that your life has become unbalanced, and you need to step away and refocus.
What advice would you give to English majors about how to make the English major work for them after school? Okay guys, here's a secret: what matters in the job world isn't necessarily what you majored in, but the internships and work experiences that you have. My current boss didn't hire me because I was an English major (though I'm sure that helped)--she claimed it was because I talked about coordinating our Student Assembly's Thanksgiving airport shuttle rides. So don't discount any work experience you have, regardless of how small or insignificant you think it is. I would also recommend networking with alums in the career field of your choice, and seeking out speciality programs like the Columbia Publishing Course, which often feed you directly into jobs. Besides the fact that companies are always looking for good writers (seriously--critical writing does not tend to be a strength of most business majors), so be sure to always play that up. Plus, you've spent how many years analyzing and forming your own arguments, right? That's another skill you have in the bag.
Alexandra's novel, Brightly Woven, comes out March 23. You can read a longer synopsis if you follow the Brightly Woven link.
Pompeii's biggest house, the Villa of the Mysteries, is set to reopen in its entirety on March 20, following nearly two years of restoration work that began in May 2013.Aerial view of the Villa of the Mysteries at Pompeii [Credit: AD 79 Eruption]
The restoration was funded by the Special Superintendency for the Archaeological Heritage of Naples and Pompeii (SANP) and was conducted in lots so that parts of the Villa were still open to the public throughout the restoration process.
The Villa was first discovered in excavations in 1909 and was exceptionally well-preserved despite the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., which covered it in a layer of over 30 feet of volcanic ash.
The recent restoration work, which involved 70 rooms of the Villa, corrected some of the damage inflicted by previous restoration techniques that were found to be harmful to the Villa's frescoes over the years.
In work done during the 1930s, wax was applied to preserve the frescoes, but ultimately faded the colors, something that was corrected using techniques to first identify the nature of the chromatic alterations and other damage over time and then perform restorations.
In addition to work done to restore the Villa's frescoes, the most famous of which is the Dionysiac frieze portraying the mysteries of the Cult of Dionysus from which the Villa takes its name, work was also done to clean the intricate mosaic floor decorations.
By SARAH BULL Back together... officially: Chanelle Hayes and Jack Tweed make their romance public with a romantic beachside clinch in Southend, Essex They set tongues wagging when they stepped out together earlier this month. And now Chanelle Hayes and Jack Tweed have made their rekindled romance official, by a display of affection on the beach. The pair shared a romantic kiss during an outing in Southend, Essex, with Hayes's son Blakely. Family day: The pair made the most of the sunshine as they played with Hayes's son Blakely. Hayes has said she wants to book a holiday for the three of them Hayes and Tweed looked like a regular young family as they treated themselves to an ice-cream and had fun on the arcade games. Earlier in the day, Hayes had tweeted fans: 'Family day out :-) xxxxx.' Hayes looked summery in a yellow T-shirt and skinny Topshop jeans, while 10-month-old Blakely looked smart in a shirt and chinos. The couple are thought to have started dating again in March after previously splitting in November. Treats all round: Hayes, Tweed and even Blakely cool down with an ice-cream She said: 'Jack’s still trying to get back with me at the moment, actually. But seeing as he’s trying to get into every other girl’s knickers at the moment, too, I’m not really that bothered. 'We’ve been on then off again too many times to mention - more than 100, anyway.' Hayes caused controversy yesterday when she revealed that she wanted to have a gastric band fitted to drop from a size eight to a size six. Happy together: Hayes and Tweed share a laugh as they mess around with the arcade games in Southend In the driving seat: Hayes treats her son Blakely to a ride on an automatic fire engine Speaking to Closer magazine, she said: ‘I’m nine stone now and a size eight, but I want to lose another stone at least and drop down to a size six.’ ‘I’d have a gastric band if doctors would let me. I’ve already asked – I begged!’ It appears that the serious nature of the operation, nor the fact that at nine stone she is clearly not a suitable candidate for the dangerous procedure, is lost on Hayes. She added: ‘There’s something called a hypno-band where they hypnotise you into thinking you’ve got a band, and I’d like to have a go at that.’ Sweet! Chanelle and Hayes are thought to have started dating again in March You're a natural: Tweed looked every inch the doting father as he pushed Blakely along in his buggy source:dailymail
Italy’s culture minister has called for the creation of a UN peacekeeping force to protect the world’s heritage sites, following the destruction of ancient cities in Iraq by Islamic State (Isis) militants.The Hatra ruins in Iraq, which have reportedly been demolished by Isis militants, who have also looted artefacts from Nimrud and bulldozed the 3,300-year-old site [Credit: Antonio Castaneda/AP]
“A sort of ‘blue helmets of culture’ are needed, as there are blue helmets that intervene to protect in situations of war,” said Dario Franceschini told the Guardian, referring to the signature uniforms of UN peacekeeping troops.
“There should be an international rapid response force to defend monuments and archaeological sites in conflict zones,” he said.
Franceschini was speaking following the partial destruction of Iraq’s Hatra, an ancient fortress city that the Roman empire repeatedly failed to conquer. Local residents on 7 March reported hearing a large explosion, as Isis militants went on a destructive rampage through the city.
Such attacks were described by Unesco as “a turning point in the appalling strategy of cultural cleansing underway in Iraq,” coming just two days after the Islamist groups bulldozed their way through the 13th-century BC city of Nimrud.
Isis militants have also decimated collections at Mosul museum, which housed artefacts dating back 3,000 years, and set about razing the ancient city walls of nearby Dur-Sharrukin.
As the extremists continue their wanton destruction of Iraq’s prized heritage, Italy’s culture minister urged the international community to wake up to a new form of warfare.
“At one time great monuments were hit accidentally in wars, during bombing. Now they’re hit precisely because they are symbols of culture, symbols of a religion,” he said. Building a force specifically to protect heritage in crisis situations could not be left to an individual state, Franceschini said, and must be initiated by the international community.
The UN security council agreed measures last month to combat the trafficking of antiquities plundered from Iraq and Syria, but safeguarding culture has yet to be written into the mandate of peacekeeping operations.
As historians mourn the loss of Iraq’s cultural heritage, fears have been raised that the same destruction could be wrought on Libya. Amid growing instability, Isis has been gaining ground in Libya, where five sites have been awarded Unesco world heritage status.
Author: Rosie Scammell | Source: The Guardian [March 20, 2015]
Police in Bulgaria’s northeastern Shumen Region have arrested four people suspected of illicit possession of and trading in archaeological artefacts.Part of a sarcophagus featuring the image of the Gorgon Medusa, the Greek mythology monster with female face and snakes instead of hair, is one of the impressive archaeological finds saved from the hands of treasure hunters by the Shumen Police [Credit: Bulgarian Ministry of Interior]
As BGNES news outlet reported on Tuesday, police have found 19 marble and stone slabs and sculptures as well as ancient coins and moulds for production of fake coins at the homes of the suspects.
An ancient dedication altar with the images of a family and an inscription in Ancient Greek is among the impressive finds rescued from the hands of the treasure hunters in Bulgaria’s Shumen District [Credit: Bulgarian Ministry of Interior]
A Turkish national permanently residing in Bulgaria has been detained after ancient coins and a fragment of a stone statue were found at his home. Police suspect the artefacts were being prepared for sale in EU countries.
A lion’s head, apparently a fragment from an ancient sculpture, is among the items seized by the police in Shumen [Credit: Bulgarian Ministry of Interior]
The marble and stone slabs and parts of statues were discovered at the home of a 56-year old Bulgarian national in Shumen.
An ancient stone slab with images is among the items rescued from the treasure hunters in Shumen [Credit: Bulgarian Ministry of Interior]
Some 9,000 ancient coins, presumably dating back to the times of the Roman Empire, and moulds for casting fake coins were found at the home of a a 52-year old Bulgarian national in the nearby town of Novi Pazar, some 30 km from Shumen.
Ancient figurines and other artifacts rescued by the Shumen Police [Credit: Bulgarian Ministry of Interior]
Antique metal artefacts and some 80 coins were found at the home of a third Bulgarian national in the village of Ivanovo.
More than 9,000 ancient coins including forged ones were seized from the treasure hunters in the Shumen District [Credit: Bulgarian Ministry of Interior]
The three Bulgarians had been arrested on 11 March and charged with possession of unregistered cultural heritage items. They face prison terms of one to six years and fines in the range of BGN 1,000 to 20,000 if convicted.
Wielding metal detectors, three amateur archaeologists have unearthed a significant find of 75 large silver coins dating back to the turn of the 17th century, along with fragments of a silver belt, near Orenæs, Falster, in southeastern Denmark.This silver coin minted in 1603 during the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf II, was among the coins found [Credit: Anders Rasmussen/Museum Lolland-Falster]
Michael Märcher, a museum inspector and coin expert with the National Museum of Denmark, was impressed by the many coins. In total, they weighed two kilos.
”We are talking about silver coins that were the international hard currency of the 1600s,” Märcher told Ekstra Bladet tabloid. ”The coins date from 1593-1650, and about one third of the coins come from the Netherlands.”
”The treasure resembles many of the silver treasures that were hidden away in Jutland and west Funen during the Dano-Swedish Wars of the late 1650s.”
Field of dreams
It's not the first time that a treasure has been found on the same field in Orenæs. In the 1940s, two silver knife scabbards and two silver belt loops that were worn by well-to-do women of the Renaissance period were also discovered. They are on display at the National Museum of Denmark.
The new find will be on display at the Museet Falsters Minder museum in Nykøbing Falster from March 28.
Author: Christian Wenande | Source: The Copenhagen Post [March 17, 2015]
The British Museum is considering three further overseas loans from the Elgin Marbles – but a reluctance to entertain the sculptures’ return to Greece is set to provoke renewed anger in Athens.
Moves could reignite tensions over Greek art treasures [Credit: Independent]
Last year the British Museum allowed part of the Marbles to leave the country for the first time when it lent the headless statue of Ilissos, a Greek river god, to the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
Greece, which is seeking to reclaim ownership of the 2,500-year-old sculptures removed from the Parthenon in Athens in the 19th century by Lord Elgin, described the Russia loan as “provocative”.
A current request from the British Museum for a key antiquity from the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens for a forthcoming exhibition on classical sculpture has been delayed, in what is being seen as retaliatory move by the Greek authorities.
The work has been requested for the show, “Defining Beauty: the Body in ancient Greek Art”, which opens in March.
The delay is ascribed to “tensions” with the Greek government, despite friendly curatorial relations between the two institutions – the British Museum currently has 24 items on loan to the Cycladic museum.
However the chances of securing the loan in time for the exhibition may be harmed by the news that the British Museum is seriously entertaining bids for further Elgin Marbles loans to museums outside of Greece.
“Three serious bids are being considered,” The Art Newspaper reports, including one informal loan request made before the Hermitage deal was revealed.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Berlin’s museums and the Louvre in Paris are the kind of institutions which “stand the best chance of success” when formal loan requests are submitted, the art title suggested.
The British Museum would expect any museum to which it lends the Parthenon sculptures to “be generous in responding to loan requests” made in return by the London body. Requests for single sculptures will be more favourably received, it is suggested. Bids are also expected from the UK’s regional museums which could expect huge interest in displaying items from the famous collection.
The Museum confirmed that further loans from the Elgin sculptures are being considered. A spokesman said: “Museums around the world have shown interest in requesting to loan from our set of Parthenon sculptures, and we always welcome these conversations. The Trustees will consider any request for any part of the collection to be borrowed and then returned, subject to the usual considerations of condition and fitness to travel and this has always been made clear to the world.”
Further Marbles loans will inflame tensions with Athens. Antonis Samaras, the Greek prime minister, described the loan of the Parthenon sculpture to the Hermitage as “an affront to the Greek people”.
Some of the Marbles will be moved from their permanent display to the temporary exhibition gallery for the British Museum’s March show, including the pediment sculptures of Ilissos, which will be returning from Russia, Iris and Dionysos.
However time is running out to strike an agreement with the Museum of Cycladic Art for the work that the London museum is seeking. The British Museum spokesman said: “We have requested to borrow one object from Greece and await the official response. The Museum has very positive working relationships with colleagues in Greece and lends extensively to museums in Greece including 24 objects on loan to two temporary exhibitions at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.”
The Athens museum declined a request to comment. A source said: “The museum is happy in principle to lend the work but the Greek government is stalling on the paperwork.”
Greece refuses to recognise the British Museum’s ownership of the sculptures, which make up about 30 per cent of the surviving decoration from the Parthenon.
Author: Adam Sherwin | Source: The Independent [January 06, 2015]
A coalition of environmental groups filed suit in federal court on Wednesday to push back against Bureau of Land Management's permitting of hydraulic fracturing wells near Chaco Culture National Historical Park.An oil well is pictured in September 2012 off County Road 6480 at sunset [Credit: Daily Times]
The suit, which names the BLM and the U.S. Interior Department as defendants, argues that the federal government is putting the environment, public health and the region's cultural resources at sites like Chaco Culture at risk by allowing oil and gas development in the lower San Juan Basin, primarily the Lybrook area.
Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment, the San Juan Citizens Alliance, WildEarth Guardians and the Natural Resources Defense Council, with attorneys from the Western Environmental Law Center, collectively filed the complaint in New Mexico's U.S. District Court, arguing that the BLM's ongoing permitting of drilling in the area violates the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, and the National Historic Preservation Act, or NHPA.
The groups also took to the state Capitol Wednesday to try to convince legislators to support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, production for Mancos Shale oil in the Gallup Play area. The drilling process involves injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure to fracture shale rocks and release the natural gas or oil inside.
On Dec. 30, the BLM said it would defer issuing leases for five Navajo allotment parcels that represent 2,803 acres in response to a protest filed by environmental groups that demanded the agency suspend fracking on public lands near the Chaco park.
The BLM's Farmington Field Office is expected to finalize its amended resource management plan later this year, said Victoria Barr, the BLM Farmington Field Office district manager. Barr declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Jeremy Nichols, the climate energy program director at Santa Fe-based WildEarth Guardians, said the lawsuit was a last resort but a necessary one, given BLM's continued drilling permitting.
"The BLM has not fully analyzed the full impacts of horizontal hydraulic fracturing in the Mancos Shale area. Why are they approving all these permits? We wanted to take it to court and have a judge decide," Nichols said.
Groups like WildEarth Guardians complain that the BLM should cease approving all oil drilling permits in the Mancos area at least until its management plan is completed.
"They're leaping before looking because, at the same time, they're trying to update their (resource management) plan, and they've acknowledged that fracking wasn't something they'd thought hard about," Nichols said. "While they're doing that, they're approving dozens — over 100 permits. It doesn't add up to us."
Overall, Nichols said the groups' concern rests with the unknown implications of unchecked drilling in a culturally sensitive region.
"They are approving these permits and arguing that they're insignificant. It's unfortunate that we have to go to court," he said. "Maybe they should think more about the public resources that are at stake. These are public lands and minerals. It's not the oil and gas industry's lands and minerals. Hopefully, we can get BLM to realize that a little restraint is warranted."
Colleen Cooley with Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment said in the group's March 11 press release that the impacts of ongoing horizontal drilling pose dangers to Native communities who live in the region.
"The (BLM) is not taking serious consideration of the sacredness of the Greater Chaco region and the impacts on surrounding Diné communities as they continue to approve more drilling and fracking," Cooley said in the release. "It's time to account for what really matters, our health, our environment, and future generations."
Author: James Fenton | Source: The Daily Times [March 11, 2015]
Tracy over at Book Room Reviews is once again hosting the Book Giveaway Carnival! Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to participate last year but I'm really looking forward to participating this year!
Check back here and Book Room Reviews March 2-8 for some great giveaways!
is part of the Molly Murphy Mystery series. Molly Murphy is an Irish immigrant living in New York City during the beginning of the suffrage movement. Her neighbors, Sid and Gus, are lesbians and women's right activists. They appear for short periods throughout the story to invite Molly to marches or parties, but their presence as never as heavy as it is in the beginning. Molly, Sid, and Gus march in a parade and are eventually thrown in jail. Molly is not afraid like many of the other women though because she is a detective and has been in jail before. Her boyfriend is also a police captain so she knows she as a way out. During this intense scene she meets Emily, a Vassar graduate who works at a pharmacy. When Emily finds out Molly is a detective a fire lights up in her eyes. She has a mystery she wants to be solved.
Emily hires Molly to find out the truth behind her parents. She grew up with her aunt and uncle. Her aunt died at a young age and her uncle was very cruel to her. She lived with them because her parents were missionaries in China who died, but that is all she has ever been able to find out. Molly is also approached by an elite wife named Fanny, who is actually Emily's college roommate. Fanny is convinced her husband is having an affair and hires Molly to track down who the mistress is. If Molly can find proof Fanny plans to divorce her husband. But shortly after Molly has started to figure the mystery out Fanny mysteriously dies of pneumonia. It doesn't take too long before all the women in Fanny's circle of friends are also dying. Molly tries to convince herself that it's just a coincidence, but she knows something is up.
This was a good read, although it was a little too detective story for me and not enough historical information. It was obviously well researched but I really was looking for a fiction novel set during the suffrage movement. All the information about the suffrage movement in this is pretty basic. Still, it is good for the kind of novel it sets out to be. A detective mystery is promised and it is delivered. Bowen has great dialogue, unlike so much fiction I never felt like things were moving too quickly. It was always suspenseful and never boring. I might even consider reading more of the Molly Murphy Mystery books because Molly's character is very lovable. She is fiery and a hard worker, plus she always try to do what is right for other people. She did give in a little too easily to her boyfriend at some points but there was a lot of tension between them which I enjoyed.
Pub. Date: March 2009 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Format: Hardcover, 288pp I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you make a purchase using one of my links I will earn a small percentage which will then go back into this blog.
Syria has retrieved more than 120 antiquities looted from cemeteries in the millennia-old oasis city of Palmyra following years of destruction and war pillaging, its director of museums said Wednesday.Syrians ride their bikes in the ancient oasis city of Palmyra, March 2014 [Credit: AFP/Joseph Eid]
Looters have breached tombs and Roman temples have been damaged in Palmyra, once a vital stopping point for caravans crossing the Syrian desert carrying spices, silks and perfumes, said Ahmad Deeb told Reuters in his office in Damascus.
Clashes between the army and rebels have damaged historical sites and buildings throughout Syria, during the four-year-long conflict that has also killed 200,000 people.
"Special authorities in Palmyra have done great work during the last year when they returned more than 120 antiques, the most important of which were tombstones that were secretly excavated," Deeb said.
Unfortunately, some of the looted artefacts have been moved outside Syria, he added.
Syria is a cultural treasure trove and home to six UNESCO World Heritage sites. Four of these sites, including Palmyra and the Crusader castle Crac des Chevaliers, have been used for military purposes, the United Nations says.
Nearly two dozen funeral busts and the headstone of a child from the necropolis at Palmyra were looted in November, according to UNESCO. From the 1st to the 2nd Century, the art and architecture of Palmyra married Greco-Roman techniques with local traditions and Persian influences, UNESCO says.
Satellite imagery shows that 290 cultural heritage sites in Syria, which has a history stretching back to the dawn of civilization, have been damaged by the civil war, the United Nations' training and research arm said in December.
To preserve its history, Deeb said all Syrian museums were emptied two years ago and the artefacts were put in stores. A list of antiquities smuggled from archaeological sites have been documented on a "red list" distributed to Interpol, he said.
Deeb estimates that more than 1,500 items may have been stolen from museums in Raqqa, a city in northeastern Syria now controlled by ISIS militants, and Deir Atiyah in northern Damascus. Some of are still in Syria, he said.
As jihadis who adhere to a hardline school of Islam have grown in power, they present a new threat to Syria's heritage. Shrines and tombs in areas under their control have been targeted and destroyed as idolatrous symbols.
More than 750 archaeological sites have been attacked, Deeb said. The U.N. Security Council last month banned all trade in antiquities from the war-torn country.
It is always a shock reaching Bamiyan, coming face to face with the two huge cavities in the cliff face. The upright tombs stare out over the valley, a splash of vegetation surrounded by wild mountains. The town straddles the Silk Road, close to the point where it used to enter Persia, dwarfed by two massive mountain ranges, the Koh-i-Baba and Hindu Kush. The void left by the two destroyed Buddha figures is appalling, it rouses an emotion almost more powerful than their once tranquil presence did for centuries.
The giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, which stood for over 1500 years, were destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001 in an 'Islamic' mission to destroy ancient statues. They were reduced to rubble over a period of about 3 weeks using dynamite, rockets and tank shell [Credit: Getty Images]
To understand what happened you must go back to the beginning of 2001. The Taliban-led regime was on very poor terms with the international community and increasingly tempted by radical gestures. The decision to destroy the two monumental Buddha figures at Bamiyan was just part of the drive to destroy all the country’s pre-Islamic “icons”, an act of defiance to the outside world.
Demolition work at Bamiyan started at the beginning of March 2001 and lasted several weeks, the two figures – 58 and 38 metres tall – proved remarkably solid. Anti-aircraft guns had little effect, so the engineers placed anti-tank mines between their feet, then bored holes into their heads and packed them with dynamite. The world watched this symbolic violence in impotent horror.
Now almost 14 years on, reconstruction work has yet to start as archaeologists and UNESCO policy-makers argue.
The two cavities resemble open wounds, a blemish on the long history of Afghanistan, which experienced the fervour of Buddhism long before the arrival of Islam. For 15 centuries the two mystic colossi gazed down as the trading caravans and warring armies streamed past. Monks came from China to worship here. Others meditated in nearby caves.
The two Buddhas, draped in stucco robes, are testimony to a unique case of cross-breeding, which flourished in the early years of the first century AD, drawing on Buddhist influences from India and Greek aesthetics left behind by Alexander the Great. It gave rise to the kingdom of Gandhara and made a mark so deep that even the disciples of Allah, who reached here in the ninth century, made no attempt to disturb it.
Today the site has recovered a certain serenity. Children play volleyball below the cliffs and archaeologists work unhindered. Whereas a low-intensity war is still rumbling on elsewhere in Afghanistan, the central Hazarajat region and its capital Bamiyan (population circa 60,000) has been relatively spared. Most of the inhabitants are Shia Muslims and they had little sympathy with the Sunni Taliban from the Pashtun south. In the 1990s there was fierce fighting between the two sides. In Bamiyan there is a fairly enlightened view of Islam, and few women wear burqas. They proudly explain that 40% of girls in the province are in education, the highest proportion in Afghanistan.
So the outrage perpetrated by the Taliban came as a huge shock, a blow against a tolerant community that sees itself as unusual in the country as a whole. “The statues symbolised Bamiyan,” says mullah Sayed Ahmed-Hussein Hanif. Bamiyan had adopted and integrated the statues, making them a part of local legend. They had become an allegory for unhappy love, a foreshadow of Romeo and Juliet set in the Hindu Kush. He was Salsal, prince of Bamiyan; she was Shamana, a princess from another kingdom. Their love affair was impossible so, rather than live apart, they turned into stone, beside each other for all eternity.
“Local people had completely forgotten they were figures of the Buddha,” says Hamid Jalya, head of historical monuments in Bamiyan province. The Taliban and their dynamite reminded them of the original story. Ever since, people here have been unsure what to do about them.
An incident in 2013 demonstrated the sensitivity of the subject. A decade ago UNESCO authorised archaeologists and engineers to consolidate the two niches, with props and grouting. But nothing else. Almost two years ago someone noticed that, on the site of the small Buddha, a team from the German branch of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) was beginning to rebuild the feet. This was contrary to UNESCO policy, based on the 1964 Venice charter for the conservation and restoration of monuments and sites, which requires the use of “original material”. If work on the Bamiyan remains disregarded this rule, then the site would be struck off the World Heritage list. The Afghan authorities ordered the Icomos team to down tools, leaving the remains even less sightly than they were before.
The incident highlights the lack of a clear consensus on the future of Bamiyan both internally and among the international community. “Bamiyan seems emblematic of the way international aid has treated Afghanistan,” says Philippe Marquis, former head of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan (Dafa). There has been endless dithering, underhand rivalry, pointless discord and mistakes.
The Buddhas are a powerful symbol – of confessional tolerance, Buddhism in a Muslim country and the remains of the Silk Road – with scope for considerable political kudos, so academic quarrels have been diverted to serve strategic aims. The Afghans have watched this spectacle with growing amazement: Germany and its experience of post-war reconstruction; France and its archaeological exploits in Afghanistan; Japan and Korea, with their interest in the origins of Buddhism; UNESCO and its byzantine bureaucracy. The various parties have sometimes cooperated with one another, but more frequently waged secret wars. “All these endless discussions among experts are pitiful, yielding no positive results,” says Zamaryalai Tarzi, a Franco-Afghan archaeologist who has been in charge of the French dig at the foot of the Bamiyan cliff for many years.
Behind the squabbling there is, however, a very real controversy as to how best to honour the fallen Buddhas. How should we go about making sense of an obscurantist crime the better to vanquish it? Or, in other terms, how should we mourn the martyrs? There are two opposing schools of thought: complete reconstruction or keeping the status quo. For now, the latter camp have the upper hand. “The two niches should be left empty, like two pages in Afghan history, so that subsequent generations can see how ignorance once prevailed in our country,” Tarzi asserts. Many other sites have adopted this approach, in particular the Genbaku dome in Hiroshima and the former summer palace in Beijing.
There is also a practical side: any attempt at reconstruction would be extremely complex. The original material, as required by the Venice charter, would be a major obstacle. The 2001 demolition left a heap of scattered fragments. Barely a third of the smaller Buddha has been saved, consisting of a pile of rock behind a wire fence. Furthermore, some of what does remain is from more recent additions. Over the centuries, long before the coming of the Taliban, the two figures were damaged and defaced. In the 1970s Indian archaeologists rebuilt the feet of the smaller Buddha using new material. Given this, how can the Venice charter rules be applied?
The final objection is that it may be a mistake to focus so much attention on the two Buddhas, given that the Bamiyan valley boasts many other exceptional sites, as yet little known. The ruins of the Shahr-e-Gholghola fortress, and probably monastery, perched on a hillock across the valley from the Buddhas, and the fortified town of Shahr-i-Zohak are both at risk, worn down by weather and earthquakes. “The priority is to save all the endangered sites around Bamiyan,” says Amir Fouladi, of the Aga Khan Trust. “There is no urgency about rebuilding the Buddhas.” The economic development of Bamiyan, due to gather speed with the projected launch of the Hajigak iron ore mines, makes it all the more important to adopt an overall strategy.
Meanwhile, the advocates of reconstruction have not wasted their time. Although the current mood is hardly in their favour, the small structure resting on the remains of the small Buddha’s feet suggests that the German branch of Icomos has not given up hope. Its president, Michael Petzet, a professor at the Technical University of Munich, has made many statements in favour of at least rebuilding the smaller of the two figures. The local representative of Icomos Germany, Bert Praxenthaler, sees the controversy about the small Buddha’s feet as salutary in that it “stirred debate about what should be done with the Buddhas”. “We must be ready the day a decision is taken,” he adds. He is referring to the possibility that an ad hoc UNESCO group may give the go-ahead for “partial re-assembly of the fragments”. His organisation sees this as an opportunity to demonstrate the quality of its restoration work in combining old and new materials.
Local residents are in favour. The idea of leaving the larger niche empty but rebuilding the smaller Buddha appeals to them, particularly as they take little interest in quarrels about original material. They are more concerned about boosting tourism in a relatively isolated area in desperate need of revenue. But there is symbolic value too. “By rebuilding a Buddha we could regain possession of our history and send a message to the whole world in favour of reconciliation between religions,” says Shukrya Neda, who campaigns for a local NGO. “By leaving the other niche empty we leave a testimony to the damage done by the Taliban.” Kabul has officially approved this approach, but some in Bamiyan feel its support is rather timid, for ethnic reasons. The Hazara population of Bamiyan distrust the Pashtun leaders in Kabul. “The government doesn’t want Bamiyan to develop its identity and economy,” says Riza Ibrahim, head of the city’s tourist board. “It’s discrimination.”
UNESCO has tried to steer a cautious middle course on the issue of reconstruction. Its ad hoc expert committee has warned against rushing to make a decision. “It is neither for nor against reconstruction,” says Masanori Nagaoka, head of UNESCO’s culture unit in Kabul. The committee has ruled that before considering partial reassembly of the small Buddha, a thorough technical and scientific study would be required. All of which favours keeping the status quo. Will the reconstruction lobby finally succeed in resurrecting Shamana (the small Buddha)? Perhaps, by dint of patience, but everyone seems to have overlooked an essential detail: the legendary prince and princess wanted to stay together forever. If Shamana rises again, but without Salsal, it would break their oath.
Islamic State fighters have looted and bulldozed the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud, the Iraqi government said, in their latest assault on some of the world's greatest archaeological and cultural treasures.ISIS militants reportedly smashed winged-bull statues at the Iraqi archaeological site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud on March 5, 2015. These statues known as lamassu were placed at the gates of Assyrian palaces as protective spirits [Credit: Getty Images]
A tribal source from the nearby city of Mosul told Reuters the radical Sunni Islamists, who dismiss Iraq's pre-Islamic heritage as idolatrous, had pillaged the 3,000-year-old site on the banks of the Tigris River.
The assault against Nimrud came just a week after the release of a video showing Islamic State forces smashing museum statues and carvings in Mosul, the city they seized along with much of northern Iraq last June.
"Daesh terrorist gangs continue to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity," Iraq's tourism and antiquities ministry said, referring to Islamic State by its Arabic acronym.
"In a new crime in their series of reckless offences they assaulted the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy machinery, appropriating the archaeological attractions dating back 13 centuries BC," it said.
Nimrud, about 20 miles (30 km) south of Mosul, was built around 1250 BC. Four centuries later it became capital of the neo-Assyrian empire - at the time the most powerful state on Earth, extending to modern-day Egypt, Turkey and Iran.
Many of its most famous surviving monuments were removed years ago by archaeologists, including colossal Winged Bulls which are now in London's British Museum and hundreds of precious stones and pieces of gold which were moved to Baghdad.
But ruins of the ancient city remain at the northern Iraqi site, which has been excavated by a series of experts since the 19th century. British archaeologist Max Mallowan and his wife, crime writer Agatha Christie, worked at Nimrud in the 1950s.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he was deeply disturbed by the destruction at Nimrud.
"This crude attempt to erase the heritage of an ancient civilization will ultimately fail. No terrorist can rewrite history," he said in a statement.
A local tribal source confirmed the attack had taken place.
"Islamic State members came to the Nimrud archaeological city and looted the valuables in it and then they proceeded to level the site to the ground," the source told Reuters.
"There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely."
Archaeologists have compared the assault on Iraq's cultural history to the Taliban's destruction of the Bamyan Buddhas in 2001. But the damage wreaked by Islamic State, not just on ancient monuments but also on rival Muslim places of worship, has been swift, relentless and more wide-ranging.
Last week's video showed them toppling statues and carvings from plinths in the Mosul museum and smashing them with sledgehammers and drills. It also showed damage to a huge statue of a bull at the Nergal Gate into the city of Nineveh.
Archaeologists said it was hard to quantify the damage, because some items appeared to be replicas, but many priceless articles had been destroyed including artifacts from Hatra, a stunning pillared city in northern Iraq dating back 2,000 years.
Islamic State, which rules a self-declared caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, promotes a fiercely purist interpretation of Sunni Islam which seeks its inspiration from early Islamic history. It rejects religious shrines of any sort and condemns Iraq's majority Shi'ite Muslims as heretics.
In July it destroyed the tomb of the prophet Jonah in Mosul. It has also attacked Shi'ite places of worship and last year gave Mosul's Christians an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious levy or face death by the sword. It has also targeted the Yazidi minority in the Sinjar mountains west of Mosul.
Author: Dominic Evans and Saif Hameed | Source: Reuters [March 06, 2015]
Four groups of historically important areas in Japan were recommended to the Cultural Affairs Agency for registration as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, the agency announced.The Mozu tumulus group, part of the Mozu-Furuichi Kofungun Ancient Tumulus Clusters, in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture [Credit: Asahi Shimbun]
The areas are: the Jomon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaido, northern Tohoku, and other regions (Aomori, Akita and Iwate prefectures); the Sado Gold and Silver Mine in Niigata Prefecture; the Mozu-Furuichi Kofungun Ancient Tumulus Clusters in Osaka Prefecture; and Okinoshima island and related sites in the Munakata region of Fukuoka Prefecture.
Oyukanjoresseki, stone remains that are a part of the Jomon Archaeological Sites in Hokkaido, northern Tohoku, and other regions, are seen in Kazuno, Akita Prefecture [Credit: Asahi Shimbun]Odatetatekoyagura, a facility of the former Sado Gold and Silver Mine in Niigata Prefecture [Credit: Asahi Shimbun]
The submission of the draft recommendations marked the first step toward applying for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status in 2017, the agency said March 27.
Okinoshima island in Munakata, Fukuoka Prefecture [Credit: Asahi Shimbun]
The Council for Cultural Affairs, an advisory body to the agency, will review the suggestions and select one to be submitted to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The Islamic State group's rampage through the ancient city of Nimrud in northern Iraq is an act of "cultural cleansing" that amounts to a war crime, and some of the site's large statues have already been trucked away for possible illicit trafficking, the head of the U.N.'s cultural agency said Friday.Detail of a statue from the Assyrian period displayed at the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. Islamic State militants "bulldozed" the renowned archaeological site of the ancient city of Nimrud in northern Iraq on Thursday, March 5, 2015 using heavy military vehicles, the government said. Nimrud was the second capital of Assyria, an ancient kingdom that began in about 900 B.C., partially in present-day Iraq, and became a great regional power. The city, which was destroyed in 612 B.C., is located on the Tigris River just south of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in June [Credit: AP/Hadi Mizban]
In an interview with The Associated Press, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova described her angry reaction to Thursday's attack that came just a week after video showed Islamic State militants with sledgehammers destroying ancient artifacts at a museum in Mosul.
"We call this cultural cleansing because unfortunately, we see an acceleration of this destruction of heritage as deliberate warfare," Bokova said. She said the attack fit into a larger "appalling vision" of persecution of minorities in the region and declared that attacks on culture are now a security concern.
"It's not a luxury anymore," Bokova said.
Later Friday, the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general said Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks and said the deliberate destruction "constitutes a war crime and represents an attack on humanity as a whole."
The Iraqi government says Islamic State militants "bulldozed" the renowned archaeological site of the ancient city in northern Iraq with heavy military vehicles on Thursday.
Bokova said U.N. officials have to rely on satellite images of the destroyed city to assess the level of damage, because the dangerous security situation makes it impossible to get people close to the site.
But she said officials have seen images of some of the large statues from the site "put on big trucks and we don't know where they are, possibly for illicit trafficking."
Officials have seen photos of destroyed symbols of the ancient kingdom of Assyria, with the head of a human man and the body of a lion or eagle. She called them and other items at the site priceless.
"The symbolism of this, they are in some of the sacred texts even, in the Bible they are mentioned," she said. "All of this is an appalling and tragic act of human destruction."
She said that before the attack, UNESCO had been preparing to include Nimrud on its list of World Heritage Sites. The city was the second capital of Assyria, a kingdom that began around 900 B.C. and became a great regional power. The discovery of treasures in the city's royal tombs in the 1980s is considered one of the 20th century's most significant archaeological finds.
The site lies just south of Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, which was captured by the Islamic State group in June.
Bokova denounced the "cultural chaos" and said she had alerted both Ban and the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.
She was meeting with Ban later Friday and said she was sure of his support.
Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohamed Alhakim, said Iraq had not yet formally asked for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. He did not say what exactly Iraq wanted from the council but warned of the looted treasures.
"Somebody is going to buy these," he said.
Bokova said she also plans to meet with Interpol, major museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, major auction houses and Iraq's neighbors in an attempt to stop the illicit trafficking of items from the Nimrud site.
Bokova appealed in a statement Friday to people around the world, especially young people, to protect "the heritage of the whole of humanity."
"I don't see any justification, any religious belief, any other kind of ambition, political or others, that justify this kind of destruction," she said.
Author: Cara Anna | Source: The Associated Press [March 06, 2015]
Iraq's government is investigating reports that the ancient archaeological site of Khorsabad in northern Iraq is the latest to be attacked by the Islamic State militant group.The foundations of an ancient palace in the Assyrian city of Khorsabad which has reportedly been looted and destroyed by Islamic State militants near the Iraqi city of Mosul [Credit: Polaris]
Adel Shirshab, the country's tourism and antiquities minister, told The Associated Press there are concerns the militants will remove artifacts and damage the site, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) northeast of Mosul. Saeed Mamuzini, a Kurdish official from Mosul, told the AP that the militants had already begun demolishing the Khorsabad site on Sunday, citing multiple witnesses.
On Friday, the group razed 3,000-year old Nimrud and on Saturday, they bulldozed 2,000-year old Hatra — both UNESCO world heritage sites. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has called the destruction a "war crime," and a statement by his spokesman on Sunday night said Ban was "outraged by the continuing destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq" by theIslamic State group.
Khorsabad was constructed as a new capital of Assyria by King Sargon II shortly after he came to power in 721 B.C. and abandoned after his death in 705 B.C. It features a 24-meter thick wall with a stone foundation and seven gates.
Since it was a single-era capital, few objects linked to Sargon II himself were found. However, the site is renowned for shedding light on Assyrian art and architecture.
The sculptured stone slabs that once lined the palace walls are now displayed in museums in Baghdad, Paris, London and Chicago.
The Islamic State group currently controls about a third of Iraq and Syria. The Sunni extremist group has been campaigning to purge ancient relics they say promote idolatry that violates their fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law. A video released last week shows them smashing artifacts in the Mosul museum and in January, the group burned hundreds of books from the Mosul library and Mosul University, including many rare manuscripts.
At a press conference earlier Sunday, Shirshab said they have called for an extraordinary session of the U.N. Security Council to address the crisis in Iraq.
"The world should bear the responsibility and put an end to the atrocities of the militants, otherwise I think the terrorist groups will continue with their violent acts," he said.
