1600s

Australia dig unearths Batavia mutiny skeleton

“Australia dig unearths Batavia mutiny skeleton”

via “BBC News Australia“

The skeleton of a victim from one of Australia’s most famous shipwrecks has been unearthed by archaeologists.

The remains on Beacon Island, off Western Australia, date from the wreck of the Dutch East India ship the Batavia in 1629.

In the aftermath of the disaster, more than 100 survivors were murdered by a group of mutineers.

Maritime experts hope the latest find will shed new light on the episode.

The wreck site was first discovered in 1963 and a mass grave was found in 1999.

But Dr Daniel Franklin, of The University of Western Australia Centre for Forensic Science, said this was the first skeleton to be found undisturbed on Beacon Island through archaeological investigations.

He said it “represents a unique opportunity to reconstruct events surrounding this individual’s death and internment”.

The Batavia story is well-known across Australia

Jeremy Green, head of maritime archaeology at the Western Australian Museum, said they hoped to learn more about about the life of sailors on board Dutch East India Company ships.

“It is as much about knowing where the people came from, what their diet was, as well as how they died,” he said.

The skeleton is of an adolescent and two musket balls were reported to have been found nearby.

The Batavia had sailed from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies but veered off course and was shipwrecked in the Abrolhos Islands. . . . .

Was this the first calendar?

“Was this the first calendar? Mysterious 3,600 year disc that let ancient farmers track the seasons”

by Mark Priggs via “Daily Mail“

It has perplexed astronomers since being dug up in 1999.

The Nebra Sky Disc is thought to have been made during the Middle Bronze Age in around 1600 BC, and experts believe it could be the first ‘sky map’ ever created.

The bronze disc, about 32cm in diameter, has a gold inlay clearly representing the moon and/or sun and some stars.

The Sky Disc was discovered in Germany in 1999 as part of a hoard also containing two bronze swords, two small axes, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets.

HOW IT WAS FOUND – AND STOLEN

The disk’s recent history dates to 1999, when two looters using metal detectors discovered the artifact, along with several bronze weapons and tools, in a wooded area near the German town of Nebra, 100 miles southwest of Berlin.

Amateur archaeologists Reinhold Stieber and Hildegard Burri-Bayer tried to hawk the disk for $400 000 – and were seized by police officers in the basement bar of a touristy Swiss hotel.

After a short trial, the duo, along with the looters, were found guilty of illegally trafficking in cultural artifacts.

Experts believe the Sky Disc was a calculator to help Bronze Age people predict the best times for sowing and harvesting in spring and autumn.

It recorded the fact that when the Pleiades, a very obvious group of stars in the night sky which are a familiar sight in the northern hemisphere in winter, were seen next to a new moon, that signaled the beginning of spring, when seeds should be sown, at the latitude of central Germany.

When the star cluster stood next to a full moon, it was a sign that fall had begun and it was harvest time.

The Sky Disc was discovered in Germany in 1999 as part of a hoard also containing two bronze swords, two small axes, a chisel and fragments of spiral bracelets.

A small piece in wood found in one of the swords allowed scientists to date the hoard to around 1600 BC.

The disc was also used to determine if and when a thirteenth month — the so-called intercalary month — should be added to a lunar year to keep the lunar calendar in sync with the seasons. . . .

“Over 1,000 Ancient Buddha Statues Uncovered in China”

by April Holloway via “Epoch Times“

“Archaeologists have discovered more than 1,000 ancient Buddha statues in three stone caves on a cliff-face in Yangqu County, in north China’s Shanxi Province, according to a report in China.org.cn. Although official dating has not yet been carried out, it is believed that the statues date back to the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming dynasty, was the ruling dynasty of China for 276 years (1368–1644 AD) following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming, described by some as “one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history”, was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic Han Chinese. The creation of stone Buddha statues reached its peak during the period from the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589) to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), so it is rare to find stone Buddha statues from the Ming Dynasty.

According to traditional accounts, Buddhism was introduced in China during the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) after an emperor dreamed of a flying golden man thought to be the Buddha. Although the archaeological record confirms that Buddhism was introduced sometime during the Han dynasty, it did not flourish in China until the Six Dynasties period (220-589 AD). The year 67 CE saw Buddhism’s official introduction to China with the coming of the two monks Moton and Chufarlan.

The latest finding including stone statues carved into the cave walls and measuring 12 to 25 centimetres long, said Yang Jifu, director of the county’s cultural heritage tourism bureau. Yang said two of the caves had been restored in the Ming Dynasty, according to the record on two steles in the caves. . . . .”

Coming Exhibition: “El Greco and Modern Painting”

“El Greco and Modern Painting””

Who: Museo Nacional del Prado

When: June 24, 2014 – Oct. 5, 2014 (Mon-Sun. 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.)

Where:

Museo Nacional del Prado

Calle Ruiz de Alarcón 23

Madrid, Spain 28014

Tel.+34 91 330 2800

How Much: 14 € (reserve tickets online)

More Information: Here.

“On the occasion of the fourth centenary of the death of Domenico Theotocopuli, El Greco, the Museo del Prado is organizing the exhibition El Greco y la pintura moderna (El Greco and Modern Painting).

The exhibition will be one of the main commemorative events of the artist’s death and will show the deep influence that the rediscovery of El Greco had on the development of painting during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will feature a selection of twenty five works by the Cretan master, which will be shown in relation to approximately seventy five paintings and drawings by modern artists, thus revealing the complexity and richness of their connections.”

“French police recover painting by Rembrandt (or in the style of Rembrandt) stolen in 1999 from the municipal museum in Draguignan”

French police recover painting by Rembrandt (or in the style of Rembrandt) stolen in 1999 from the municipal museum in Draguignan

Via ArtCrime.Blogspot

“Journalist Vincent Noce reports in the French newspaper, Liberation, that a Rembrandt painting stolen in 1999 has been recovered in Nice (“Un Rembrandt volé en 1999 e été retrouvé à nice, 19 March 2014) although the thieves may have discovered the work was not by the ‘genius from Amsterdam’.

Noce reported that Tuesday afternoon French police from the unit assigned to fighting trafficking in cultural goods (OCBC) arrested two men (ages 44 and 51 years old) for trying to sell a painting stolen 15 years ago from the municipal museum in Draguignan in southeastern France. The oil painting, measuring 60 cm by 50, is attributed to Rembrandt and known as “Child with a Soap Bubble”. According to Noce’s article, the recovered painting has an estimated value of 4 million euros (U.S. $5.56 million) — if it is indeed by the Dutch master and not by an artist inspired by Rembrandt. According to the article, the museum’s inventory shows that the painting was taken from the Château de Valbelle [now in ruins] in Tourves during the revolution in 1794.

Sophie Legras, writing for L’Agence France-Presse (AFP) and published in Le Figaro, reports that judicial police in Nice helped the OCBC in recovering the painting . . . . .”