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☆ Trove of 750 looted artifacts returned to Italy from disgraced British dealer
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Some 750 looted archaeological treasures have been seized from the notorious British antiquities trader Robin Symes and returned to Italy after a decades-long fight for their return, the Carabinieri art police said on Wednesday. Some of the antiquities returned to Italy from London are seen on display at Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome. The 750 repatriated items were seized from the disgraced British art dealer Robin Symes. He was often investigated but never charged for his alleged crimes despite countless attempts by Italy and Greece. The return of these 750 objects marks another success in Italy’s attempt to recover its stolen treasures.

Persons: Robin Symes, …, Remo Casilli, Symes, General Lorenzo d’Ascia, Reuters Symes, Marion True, True, Vincenzo Molinese, Gennaro Sangiuliano, ” Organizations: CNN, Carabinieri, Magna Graecia, Ministry of Culture, Castel, Reuters, Symes Ltd, Italian Judicial Authority, State, Paul Getty Museum, Castel Sant'Angelo Locations: Italy, Castel Sant’Angelo, Etruria, Magna, London, Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome, United Kingdom, British, Swiss, Greece, Castel, United States

☆ Fighting escalates in Sudan's capital after ceasefire expires
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The ceasefire between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had started on May 22 and expired on Saturday evening. Beyond the capital, deadly fighting has also broken out in Darfur in the far west of Sudan, already grappling with long-running unrest and huge humanitarian challenges. There was no comment from the army, which has been using war planes to target the RSF spread out across the capital. Fighting in the capital has led to widespread damage and looting, a collapse in health services, power and water cuts, and dwindling food supplies. Hemedti's whereabouts are unclear though he appeared in video footage with his troops in central Khartoum earlier in the fighting.

Persons: Sara Hassan, Witnesses, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, Khalid Abdelaziz, Ahmed Tolba, Hatem Maher, Omar Abdel, Aidan Lewis, Frances Kerry, David Holmes Organizations: REUTERS, Rapid Support Forces, Darfur Bar Association, Thomson Locations: Khartoum North, Sudan, Khartoum, Darfur, Saudi, U.S, DUBAI, Sudan's, North Darfur, Saudi Arabia, United States, Bahri, Omdurman, Jeddah, Dubai, Razek, Cairo

☆ Archeologists made a game-changing discovery at Greece's oldest dig site where ancient humans used to roam 700,000 years ago
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-04 | by ( Nicholas Paphitis | Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Archeologists discovered simple stone tools that date back an estimated 700,000 years. The discovery was made at Greece's oldest site where ancient humans were thought to exist. The Greek site was one of five investigated in the Megalopolis area during a five-year project involving an international team of experts, a Culture Ministry statement said. This skull from a member of the deer family was also discovered at the dig site Megalopolis, southern Greece. These stone tools, discovered at the dig site Megalopolis, southern Greece, date back about 700,000 years ago.

Persons: —, Panagiotis Karkanas, Eleni Panagopoulou, Katerina Harvati, Homo antecessor, antecessor, directorss, Nikos Efstratiou, Efstratiou, Megalopolis Organizations: Service, Ministry, Greek Culture Ministry, American School of Classical Studies, Athens, University of Tübingen, Associated Press, Greece's University of Thessaloniki Locations: ATHENS, Greece, Europe, Spain, Germany, Megalopolis, Mycenae, Olympia, Pylos

☆ The average wedding just hit $29,000
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The average cost of a wedding, nationally, this year is $29,000, up $1,000 from 2022, according to online wedding planning site Zola. It said searches for alternative weddings – especially underwater weddings – have jumped 305% on its platform. “Though slightly challenging logistically, it should be interesting to see the data for underwater weddings in 2023,” she said. “Wedding photographer Kimber Greenwood, who specializes in underwater wedding photography, is booked to photograph 20 of them this year. The wedding industry should enjoy the recovery, because it may not last.

Persons: Zola, they’re, Emily Forrest, San, Esther Lee, ”, Knot’s Lee, “, Kimber Greenwood, Pinterest, Jenna Landi, “ There’s, Greenwood, they’ve Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNN, New York, Big Apple, Jewelers Locations: New York, New York City, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, Ft . Lauderdale, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, Gainesville , Florida

☆ Ancient tombs and large mummification workshops unearthed in Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Niamh Kennedy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Egypt has announced the discovery of two of the largest workshops ever used to mummify human and animal corpses in ancient times. “Today, we announce the discovery of the two biggest mummification workshops for humans and animals at the Saqqara Necropolis. Amr Abdallah Dalsh/ReutersArchaeologists unearthed tools used by ancient Egyptians to dissect bodies to remove internal organs alongside the canopic jars used to preserve internal organs, Waziri said. ‘Beautiful tombs’Alongside the two workshops, archaeologists also came across “one of the most beautiful tombs” in the necropolis, according to Waziri. In January 2021, archaeologists uncovered a plethora of ancient treasures in Saqqara, including ancient coffins, burial sites and a funeral temple.

☆ Egypt unearths tombs and workshops where humans and sacred animals were mummified in the age of the pharaohs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Alia Shoaib | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Archaeologists found ancient mummification workshops and tombs in the Saqqara necropolis. The workshops were used to embalm humans and sacred animals to prepare them for the afterlife. The tombs of two priests dating back to the 24th and 14th centuries BC were also found. Amr Nabil/AP PhotoThe excavations also uncovered the tombs of two priests dating back to the 24th and 14th centuries BC. The new discoveries were unveiled by Egypt's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in a high-profile press conference on Saturday.

☆ Egypt unearths mummification workshops, tombs in ancient burial ground
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Hatem Maher | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Amr Abdallah DalshSAQQARA, Egypt, May 27 (Reuters) - Egypt unearthed human and animal mummification workshops as well as two tombs in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara, officials said on Saturday, marking the latest in a string of discoveries that the country hopes can help revive its vital tourism industry. Mostafa Waziri, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told reporters that the two large "embalming workshops" date back to the 30th dynasty (380-343 BC) and the Ptolemaic (305-30 BC) eras. "We found embalming workshops, one for humans and one for animals. We found all the tools that they used (in mummification) in ancient times," Waziri said. Both workshops featured stone beds, clay pots, ritual vessels, natron salt, which is one of the main ingredients for mummification, and linens among other mummification instruments.

☆ Back in Mexico, 'Earth Monster' sculpture points to ancient beliefs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( David Alire Garcia | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MEXICO CITY, May 26 (Reuters) - A massive stone sculpture carved by Olmec artists more than 2,000 years ago that evokes ancient religious beliefs has returned to Mexico after decades in the United States in a homecoming cheered by officials and scholars. The mountain was also made to resemble the head of a jaguar, ancient Mexico's most fearsome predator, with the cave doubling as its open jaws and the entrance into the underworld. Some have speculated the sculpture may have been used in ritual acts as a sacred passageway. Other scholars note how the worldview of the Olmecs as seen in the "Earth Monster" sculpture is a recurring theme across ancient Mexico, including up to the Aztecs, who began their rise to power around 1,700 years later and whose main temple also doubled as a sacred mountain. The Olmec sculpture's return to Mexico was hailed by Mexico Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, who spoke just before it was carefully hauled onto a plane for its trip back home.

☆ Building Boom on Mykonos Reveals ‘Wretched’ Side of Greece’s Recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Liz Alderman | Niki Kitsantonis | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Among them is Nammos, a jet-set playground featuring open-air luxury boutiques and a beachside restaurant, owned by Monterock International, a Dubai-based private equity holding company, and Alpha Dhabi Holding. On Friday, the government called for Nammos to be shuttered, and the police closed one of its beach restaurants. There is also Principote, a destination for the affluent that for years has expanded over Panormos Beach, along a picturesque bay, despite multiple citations. Principote, which is registered to a holding company in the Marshall Islands, has contested the infractions and resulting fines. In 1989, his father built small bungalows above Panormos, a public beach once accessible to all.

☆ Whose Queen? Netflix and Egypt Spar Over an African Cleopatra.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On this much, at least, everyone can agree: Cleopatra was a formidable queen of ancient Egypt, the last of the Macedonian Greek dynasty founded by Alexander the Great, who went on to even greater posthumous fame as a seductress, immortalized by Shakespeare and Hollywood. Beyond that, many of the details are fuzzy — which is how one of the world’s dominant streaming services ended up in an imbroglio with modern-day Egypt recently, called out by online commenters and even the Egyptian government for casting a Black actress to play Cleopatra in the Netflix docudrama series “African Queens,” which airs on Wednesday. Soon after the show’s trailer appeared last month, Netflix was forced to disable comments as they turned into a hostile, and occasionally racist, pile on. For the show’s makers, the four episodes about Cleopatra were a chance to celebrate one of history’s most famous women as an African ruler, one they portray as Black. But for many Egyptians and historians, that portrayal is at best a misreading, and at worst a negation, of Egyptian history.

The new Netflix docudrama “Queen Cleopatra,” produced and narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith, has already elicited a passionate response, though perhaps not the kind that publicists hoped for. “Queen Cleopatra” depicts the legendary monarch as Black. Many contemporary Egyptians view her as a key figure in the preservation of their history and even as a role model for contemporary Egyptian women. Scholars have long debated whether certain references in Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra” suggest that the playwright believed she had dark skin. “Queen Cleopatra,” however, has touched an international nerve.

☆ Cleopatra wasn't a Black woman, Egypt tells Netflix in a feud over new drama-documentary
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Egypt has accused Netflix of misrepresenting Cleopatra by framing her as a Black woman. Dr. Mustafa Waziri of the Supreme Council of Archeology said it's a "blatant historical fallacy." The drama-documentary "Queen Cleopatra" is set to air on May 10, with Adele James cast as the queen. "Queen Cleopatra," the soon-to-be-released drama-documentary on the famed Egyptian queen, portrays her as a Black woman. Waziri said that depicting Cleopatra, a legendary beauty, as a Black woman is a "falsification of Egyptian history and a blatant historical fallacy."

☆ New York repatriates three antiquities to Yemen after seizing them from Met board member
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Moira Warburton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 28 (Reuters) - New York will return three antiquities worth $725,000 to the people of Yemen, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced on Friday, as part of a criminal investigation into a Manhattan-based private collector. The investigation into White by the Manhattan Antiquities Trafficking Unit "has allowed dozens of antiquities that were ripped from their countries of origin to finally return home," Bragg said. "These are just three of nearly 1,000 antiquities we have repatriated over the past 16 months." In December, the Art Newspaper, a trade publication, reported that the Manhattan district attorney's office had seized $24 million worth of antiquities from White's apartment. The Yemeni pieces will be on temporary display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington until Yemeni authorities can safely repatriate them.

☆ Looted Monastery Manuscripts Rediscovered During Office Renovation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Colin Moynihan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 2008, Swann Auction Galleries in Manhattan sold three Greek-language manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries to an antiquities dealer who returned them two years later after concluding they might have been looted. The dealer was reimbursed but the auction house, its officials said, was unable to reach the person who had consigned the items. So they sat on a shelf for more than a decade, all but lost in the shuffle of daily operations. Three months ago, though, the manuscripts resurfaced when Swann’s chief financial officer went through his office before a renovation. There on a shelf in a long-forgotten plastic bag were the manuscripts, which are believed to have been stolen from a Greek monastery in the midst of World War I.

☆ Libya Seeks U.S. Help in Fresh Effort to Recover Gadhafi Billions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Benoit Faucon | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A study estimates that as much as $120 billion in Libyan state assets was looted. Artifacts at a museum in Shahat, Libya. Photo: Abdullah Doma/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesLibya’s United Nations-backed government is asking Washington to help it recover tens of billions of dollars in state assets that it alleges were stolen by the country’s former dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his cronies and stashed around the world. Gadhafi ruled the oil-rich country for 42 years before he was ousted and killed and Libyan officials say family members and others close to him looted government coffers of cash, gold and rare antiquities. A 2016 study by Berlin-based Transparency International estimates as much as $120 billion was taken.

☆ The Kylix Marvel: Why Experts Distrust the Story of an Ancient Cup’s Rebirth
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Graham Bowley | Tom Mashberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Dietrich turned what was a bunch of fragments into something that was beautiful,” said Hemingway, the Met curator. It is not clear how the dozens of fragments that were used to reconstruct the kylix came to be so widely dispersed. And all of them had some kind of relationship with von Bothmer. Fritz Bürki, who sold the Met the first fragments in 1978, was an expert in the reassembly of fractured artifacts. He had rebuilt the infamous Euphronios krater for Hecht, the dealer who sold it to von Bothmer and the Met.

☆ Ancient Egyptian zodiac symbols were found in a temple after archaeologists cleared away 2,000 years' worth of grime
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Ancient Egyptian star signs were found under a thick layer of soot and dust in the Temple of Esna. The colors in the full set of Egyptian zodiac symbols are vivid after being protected by the grime. The set is just one of three full sets of ancient Egyptian zodiac signs uncovered in Egyptian temples, said Dr. Daniel von Recklinghausen, a Tübingen Egyptologist who worked on the project. These zodiac symbols were uncovered in the latest series of renovations, which revealed the designs in brilliant colors. Ancient Egyptians adopted astrology late in their reignThese symbols show the decans, which are zodiac symbols representing the 12 hours of the night.

☆ 2,000 mummified ram heads left in honor of Egypt's most powerful pharaoh are found inside an ancient temple
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Bethany Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

More than 2,000 mummified ram heads have been discovered in Egypt. Archaeologists at the King Ramses II Temple of Abydos found the mummified remains. They also discovered mummified dogs, wild goats, cows, deer and an ostrich. The mummified remains are believed to have been left at the site to honor Ramses II about 1,000 years after his death, the Egyptian Ministry for Tourism and Antiquities said. The discovery could help "reestablish the sense of the ancient landscape of Abydos before the construction of the Ramses II temple," Iskandar said, per Reuters.

☆ Ancient Egypt excavation uncovers 2,000 mummified ram heads at Abydos
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

CAIRO, March 25 (Reuters) - At least 2,000 mummified ram heads dating from the Ptolemaic period and a palatial Old Kingdom structure have been uncovered at the temple of Ramses II in the ancient city of Abydos in southern Egypt, antiquities officials said on Saturday. It added that the discoveries would expand knowledge of the site over a period of more than two millennia up to the Ptolemaic period. The Ptolemaic period spanned about three centuries until the Roman conquest in 30 B.C. It was a necropolis for early ancient Egyptian royalty and a pilgrimage centre for the worship of the god Osiris. The structure could help "reestablish the sense of the ancient landscape of Abydos before the construction of the Ramses II temple," the head of the mission, Sameh Iskander, was quoted as saying.

☆ Russia's invasion of Ukraine has had wide-reaching effects, including trade and partnerships in Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Sponsor Post | Created Insider Studios With Fcdo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has damaged partnerships and trade agreements around the globe. For Egypt, this has meant the country must seek new trade routes and reinforce existing partnerships with Europe and the US. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has presented Egypt with complex diplomatic challenges. Bilateral trade between the US and Egypt, at $9.1 billion in 2021, is also almost double the volume of Egypt's trade with Russia. A year on from the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western economic partnerships with Egypt are only likely to grow in importance.

☆ Hi-res art scans from Taiwan's National Palace Museum leak online -- and turn up for sale on Chinese online shopping platform
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Chris Lau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The National Palace Museum in Taipei said Tuesday it had reached out to Taobao, a shopping website popular in mainland China, to prevent the images from spreading. “We are looking into it and have hired lawyers to raise to Taobao about the intellectual properties and damages involved,” said deputy museum director Huang Yung-tai. In its statement, the National Palace Museum said they first identified the leak in June last year and it launched an investigation into the matter two months later. The National Palace Museum’s collection is a major bone of contention between Taiwan and China. Much of its vast collection of artifacts were once housed at the Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City – treasures that have already survived two wars.

☆ A 2,000-year-old mummy was found dumped in the trash in Yemen with its insides ripped out
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Marianne Guenot | Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A 2,000-year-old mummy was found dumped in the trash in Yemen. Local officials said the mummy was likely abandoned by grave robbers and antiquities smugglers. Yemen's General Organization of Antiquities and Museums (GOAM) on Wednesday blamed "tomb robbers and antiquities traffickers" for exhuming the artifact. Locals looking at the mummy found in the trash in Yemen. Yemen General Organization of Antiquities and MuseumsThe discovery has caused fury among locals, who have seen their rare historical artifacts threatened by the country's long-raging civil war, per the Saudi-Arabian daily Arab News.

☆ Dutch historian finds medieval treasure using metal detector
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Charlotte Campenhout | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Part of the 1000-year-old medieval treasure discovered in Hoogwoud, Netherlands, consisting of jewellery and silver coins, is shown in this undated handout picture obtained by Reuters. Archeologie West-Friesland/Handout via REUTERSAMSTERDAM, March 9 (Reuters) - A Dutch historian found a unique 1,000-year-old medieval golden treasure, consisting of four golden ear pendants, two strips of gold leaf and 39 silver coins, the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) announced on Thursday. Lorenzo Ruijter, 27, who told Reuters he has been treasure hunting since he was 10, discovered the treasure in 2021 in the small northern city of Hoogwoud, using a metal detector. "Golden jewellery from the High Middle Ages is extremely rare in the Netherlands," the museum also said. Given its archaeological significance, the treasure was given as a loan to the museum which will display it, but it will remain the official property of finder Lorenzo Ruijter.

☆ Turkey cannot recover ancient 'Stargazer' idol from Christie's - U.S. court
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - Turkey cannot recover a 6,000-year-old marble idol from Christie's and hedge fund billionaire Michael Steinhardt after waiting an unreasonably long time to claim it had been looted, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Wednesday. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Turkey "had reason to know" by the 1990s that the "Guennol Stargazer" might have been wrongfully removed from its territory. Lawyers for Turkey, Christie's and Steinhardt did not immediately respond to requests for commentThe Stargazer is about nine inches (22.9 cm) tall, and named because its head tilts slightly upward toward the sky. Nathan was later elevated to the appeals court. Circuit Court of Appeals No.

☆ Archaeologists in Israel left red-faced after it transpired that a unique 'ancient' inscription was carved last summer
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-05 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An inscription bearing the name of a Persian king is "not authentic," the Israel Antiquities Authority said. In a demonstration, an expert in ancient inscriptions had etched the words into the shard last summer. The Antiquities Authority said they take "full responsibility for the unfortunate event." "The Israel Antiquities Authority takes full responsibility for the unfortunate event," said Professor Gideon Avni, the authority's chief scientist, according to Israeli news outlet i24. Darius I ruled the ancient Persian Achaemenid Empire from 522 BC until his death in 486 BC.

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