Art & Culture

Ohio Art Museum to Return Likely Stolen Artifact to Germany

“Ohio Art Museum to Return Likely Stolen Artifact to Germany”

via “ABC News“

A 450-year-old German artifact that was used to tell time and to make astronomical calculations will be returned to a German museum from which it was likely stolen, according to the Toledo Museum of Art.

The device, called an astronomical compendium or astrolabe, disappeared from the Gotha Museum in Gotha, Germany, sometime in 1945.

“This was a one-of-a-kind scientific device,” said Brian Kennedy, president and director of the Toledo museum. “It’s sad to see it go, but it’s not ours.”

Americans occupied Gotha during the war and many of the museum’s collections were moved in 1945 to the former Soviet Union once authority over the area was transferred from United States.

The astronomical device, though, was one of the few items from the museum that didn’t end up in the Soviet Union. Instead, it landed in the hands of a New York art dealer before it was sold for $6,500 in 1954.

The museum in 2013 received a letter from the director of the Gotha Museum, saying that it found out about the piece in Toledo and believed it was theirs.

Kennedy said they reviewed documentation, including photographs, from the Gotha Museum and determined that the piece on display in Toledo was “most likely one and the same.”

The two museums then reached an agreement to get the historically valuable piece back to its rightful owner, Kennedy said. . . .

Coming Exhibition: Vikings

“Vikings”

Who:

The Field Museum in Chicago, IL

When: February 27, 2015 – October 4, 2015 (9am-5pm 7 days a week)

Where:

The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, IL 60605

More Information: Here.

Who were the Vikings? Seafaring invaders and plunderers? Or were they also innovative explorers, traders, and craftsmen? In the upcoming exhibition, Vikings, go beyond the legend of brutal warriors and learn the truth about the Vikings. Through new archaeological discoveries and hundreds of rare Scandinavian artifacts, explore the power of mythology and the symbolism of Viking ships, gain fascinating insights into domestic life and death rituals, and understand the importance of travel and trade. View astonishing Viking workmanship in exquisite jewelry, metalwork, and objects made from glass, bone, and amber; and marvel at swords and armor from 750-1100AD. Virtually excavate a boat grave, and try your hand at a game that entertained Viking families hundreds of years ago. See the earliest Scandinavian crucifix and other striking silver pendants representing the pagan Norse gods, and uncover the complexities of Viking religious practices. Discover why–even 1,000 years later–Viking culture still captivates our imagination.

The exhibition was organized by the Swedish History Museum in Sweden, in partnership with MuseumsPartner in Austria.

Greek archaeologists find couple locked in millennia-old hug

Gruesome or Sweet? **DB

“Greek Archaeologists Find Couple Locked in Millennia-Old Hug“

**via “Yahoo News!“**

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Death did not part them.

Archaeologists in southern Greece have discovered the grave of a man and woman buried as they died some 5,800 years ago — still tightly embracing.

A senior member of the excavation team, Anastassia Papathanassiou, says the discovery — made in 2013 and publicized this week after DNA testing determined each skeleton’s sex — is the oldest of its kind in Greece. She says the couple most likely died holding each other.

Papathanassiou told The Associated Press on Friday that the remains of the couple, estimated to be in their 20s, were found near the Alepotrypa Cave, an important prehistoric site.

It’s unclear how they died and whether they were related, but Papathanassiou says further DNA testing should answer the latter question.

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Chinese archaeologists find 2,800-year old burial of chariots and horses

“Chinese archaeologists find 2,800-year old burial of chariots and horses”

by Ruth Schuster via “Reuters“

Archaeologists excavating ancient tombs in central China have unearthed 28 chariots and 49 pairs of horse skeletons dating back three millennia.

The 2,800-year-old group of tombs, which dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC-476 BC) is located in the city of Zaoyang, in the province of Hubei. Current explorations have found at least 30 tombs of various sizes.

Preliminary studies show that the tombs belong to high-ranking nobles of the period in Chinese history.

Now a new 33-meter long, four-meter wide chariot pit has been discovered. “This chariot and horse pit is different from those discovered previously along the Yangtze River. The chariots and horses were densely buried,” said Liu Xu, professor from School ofArchaeology and Museology of Peking University. ” Many of the wheels were taken off and the rest parts of the chariots were placed one by one.”

At least 28 chariots were discovered in three months of excavation. About five meters away the chariot pit was a horse pit, where at least 49 pairs of horse skeletons were discovered.

“Judging from the way the horses were buried, they were buried after they were killed, as there was no trace of struggle. Second, it is the way they were laid. They were laid back to back, lying on their sides. It means that two horses pull one chariot,” said Huang Wenxin, researcher from the provincial archaeological institute. . . .

“Why Preserving Pakistan’s Cultural Heritage Should Matter to the United States”

by Rick Olson via “Huffington Post“

We walked beside the now dusty wash that once contained the mighty but ever shifting Indus River, puzzling out the names of long-deceased members of royal dynasties now barely remembered. I was visiting the necropolis of Makli Hills with Yasmeen Lari, a conservation architect and herself a national treasure of Pakistan. The monuments at Makli chart the history of Islam in Sindh province, one of the cradles of civilization, dominated by the alluvial plain of the Indus, from which Sindh gets its name. I was there to announce that the U.S. Government is helping to conserve two of its most magnificent monuments.

ambassador rick olson

As the U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, I live in a country facing political, military, and humanitarian challenges on many fronts. One front that has not received sufficient attention in Western media is the war on cultural heritage and how this matters to the people of Pakistan.

One of the ways in which ISIL has consolidated a reign of terror in Iraq and Syria is by erasing any heritage of religious diversity. Their atrocities are not confined to military battlefields. Groups like ISIS have another important ideological objective: they are threatened by the existence of a rich cultural heritage and a history of pluralism and tolerance. They seek to destroy it.

***

Islam came to Sindh in 711 c.e. via the invasion led by Muhammad bin Qasim. And its dominance on the culture was fixed by the Sufi scholars who accompanied the central Asian invaders of the 16th century. The history of this long conversion is etched in the stone of tombs at Makli Hills. The oldest ones, at the north, show a robust Hindu influence, including elaborate rosettes, with the inscriptions written in the austere Kufic script of early Islam. The later tombs, to the south, become more Persianate, with the slanting script replacing the more linear Arabic and more delicate floral and venial depictions. These ancient monuments enrich and inform today’s Pakistan and connect us to our cultural origins.

Wind and sun have taken a severe toll on the monuments, as has vandalism and looting, all perhaps part of the toll that more than a decade of fighting terrorism has inflicted on Pakistan. Treasures of Moghul artistry lie scattered and broken on the ground. Some of the elaborate sepulchers have lost their foundations and are visibly splitting apart. Even the large tombs that are structurally intact have lost their turquoise tiled roofs and cladding and now reveal their baked brick skeletons. . . . .