Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Gravings, Henan, China

Recently, I traveled abroad with about 20 other teachers to Southern Henan during the Fall Holiday.  We hired a tour guide to arrange our trip, and one of the places on his list was the Nanyang Museum of Han Stone Gravings. 

This was a really fascinating place. The museum holds hundreds of stones engraved with various pictures and images collected from ancient Han tombs. We were told that they were more than 1000 years old!

I was intrigued by the carvings themselves. Naturally, they varied on the subject of their work – dinners, hunting, musicians, kings and counsels. It’s always neat to see art demonstrating the use of ancient musical instruments or to watch fashions change as the years go by. But I was really interested to see some of the animals are actually pre-historic. One was clearly a dinosaur (you know the kind that is Sarah on The Land Before Time?). Two were dragons, but only one had wings.

You kind of expect the dragons, but the differences in how they were depicted suggests two origins to the dragon legend. One was wingless and quite fat. The other had wings and was longer and thinner. Add in the dinosaur, and it was all really cool!

 

‘Stunning’ Roman Cockerel Goes on Display

Question for my Readers! – Is this just good History Preservation, Our right to Cultural Heritage, or Tomb Robbing? ** DB

“‘Stunning’ Roman Cockerel Goes on Display”

by Victoria Woollaston via “Daily Mail“

Three years since it was discovered during excavations on an ancient cemetery, a rare bronze Roman cockerel has been given a permanent home.

The 2nd century figurine is believed to be one of only nine ever found in the Roman Empire, and is part of a new exhibition at the Corinium Museum in the Cirencester.

Other finds on display include a hoard of almost 1,500 Roman coins, and the perfectly preserved vase it was found in.

This bronze and enamel cockerel was found in a child’s grave in Roman Cirencester in 2011 – and has been painstakingly restored. It is now on display at the Corinium Museum

Archaeologists made the discoveries three years ago while excavating a western cemetery at the former Bridges Garage site on Tetbury Road in Cirencester – or Corinium as it was known when it was the second largest town in Roman Britain.

The bronze and enamel cockerel was said to have been placed in the grave of the two-year-old Roman girl by her parents, and experts believe it was used to ask the Gods to protect her.

They also believe the expensive gift was placed in the grave to ease their daughter’s transition into the ‘next world’.

‘It is the most significant Roman cemetery investigation in the town since the early 1970s,’ said a spokesman for the town’s Corinium Museum.

‘The cockerel found underneath the former Bridge’s Garage site – now St James’s Place – is one of only nine known cockerel figurines from the Roman world, and is the only example with its tail intact.

‘Displayed with the cockerel are an exceptional example of a Roman flagon and a selection of jewellery which include beads and bracelets found in a richly furnished child’s grave.

‘These are high status objects, which give a fascinating insight into the people of Corinium.

Neil Holbrook, Chief Executive of Cotswold Archaeology added: ‘The cockerel is the most spectacular find from more than 60 Roman burials excavated at this site.

‘It was excavated from the grave of young child and was placed close to its head. Interestingly a very similar item was found in Cologne in Germany and it looks like they both could have come from the same workshop based in Britain.’

The Tetbury Hoard, also on display at the museum, contain 1,437 silver and copper-alloy 3rd century Roman coins.

‘The hoard is the museum’s first Roman Coin Hoard and comes from a fascinating period of political upheaval across the Roman Empire,’ continued the museum’s spokesman.

‘It was a time of rapid succession of rulers and usurpers. The coins themselves tell this story.

‘Depictions and inscriptions represent 12 emperors from just a 16 year period.’

The child was buried wearing hobnailed shoes and was accompanied by a pottery feeding vessel and the remarkable enamelled bronze figurine of a cockerel.

The cockerel is 5-inches tall (12.5cm) and the breast, wings, eyes and ‘comb’ are inlaid with enamel, which now appears blue and green.

There is a separately moulded tail plate, also enamelled, with ‘openwork’ decoration. The beak is shown open, in the act of crowing.

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The Ruth E. Aten World Doll Collection: Americas

via “Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology”

Caribbean

Caribb1. Nassau, Bahamas. Junkanoo Doll. 9 ½ “Junkanoo is a carnival-like parade that takes place in the Bahamas on December 26th and January 1st annually. The parade grew out of celebrations held by African slaves at Christmas time. Today, groups of paraders known as Junkanooers compete against each other for cash prizes. Groups range in size from 10 to 1000 people. All group members wear elaborate costumes made from strips of colorful crepe paper pasted onto cardboard that has been shaped into a variety of forms. Junkanoo is accompanied by music performed on traditional Junkanoo instruments such as cowbells, foghorns, whistles, conch shells and goatskin Goombay drums, as well as “modern” wind instruments such as trumpets, trombones and tubas.Given by Nina Wood (student). Nina was from Nassau and arranged for a personal tour guide on one our trips to Nassau. My husband, Bob, and I actually got a chance to see a parade. 1996
Caribb2. St Thomas, Bahamas. Bahamas Girl. 2’ Stuffed cloth dolls with long legs, yarn hair with scarf, polka dotted top and flowered skirt. Given by Ruth Aten. 1995
Caribb3. Matanzas, Cuba. Black Cuban Doll. 10” Stuffed black cloth doll with pearl earrings, blue and white plaid head wrap and dress with yellow rickrack trim and blue ruffles. Given by John McDowell (faculty). 2000
Caribb4. Nassau, Bahamas. Straw Doll. 16” Woven straw doll with orange straw pom-poms on hat, dress and shoes. Doll was purchase in Nassau at the Straw Market. It was a popular souvenir doll. The famous Nassau Straw Market burned down shortly after this doll was purchased. Given by Ruth Aten from a trip to Nassau. 1995
Caribb5. St. Maarten, Bahamas. Bahamas Lady. 12” Painted wood ball head on dowel frame with wood bead arms and stuffed body.  Doll dressed to depict current fashion in St. Maarten with flowered print skirt and head wrap. Given by Ruth Aten from a trip to St. Maarten. 1995

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Organized Crime, Military Linked to Theft of Cambodian Artifacts

by Robert Carmichael via “VOA News“

PHNOM PENH —

Over the past 40 years Cambodia’s cultural heritage has been looted on a massive scale, with countless thousands of artifacts taken from hundreds of sites, smuggled out of the country and into museums and private collections around the world. New research indicates that not only was much of this the work of organized networks, but that most pieces have disappeared from public view – probably forever.

Between the start of Cambodia’s civil war in 1970 and the eventual end of hostilities some 30 years later, the country’s 1,000-year-old temples and other historic sites were comprehensively plundered. In one incident in the early 1970s, government soldiers used a military helicopter to airlift artifacts from the 12th century citadel of Banteay Chhmar in the northwest.

At the same complex in 1998 – generals spent a fortnight tearing down and carting away 30 tons of the building. Just one of the six military trucks that went to neighboring Thailand loaded with artifacts was stopped and its contents returned. The rest disappeared, likely sold on the black market.

The Duryodhana statue is one of three returned to Cambodia from the United States in early June, Phnom Penh. (Robert Carmichael/VOA)

For many years, researchers assumed that such brazen, well-organized looting was the exception rather than the norm, and that most of the looting of Cambodia’s heritage was a low-level affair, with local people plundering ancient sites and selling statues, carvings and stone reliefs in haphazard fashion.

But a new study carried out by researchers from the University of Glasgow in Scotland shows that was not the case.

“The organized looting and trafficking of Cambodian antiquities was tied very closely to the Cambodian civil war and to organized crime in the country,” explained Tess Davis, a lawyer and archaeologist, and member of the study team that also included criminologists.

“It began with the war, but it long outlived it, and was actually a very complicated operation, a very organized operation, that brought antiquities directly from looted sites here in the country to the very top collectors, museums and auction houses in the world,” she added.

Davis said the Cambodian and Thai militaries were often involved in looting, as was organized crime. Local people were often forced to work as laborers.

Researchers say that at the end of the chain in Thailand was a Bangkok-based dealer who provided the laundering link between the criminals and the collectors and museums.

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4,000-Year-Old Burial with Chariots Discovered in South Caucasus

by Owen  Jarus via “Yahoo!News“

An ancient burial containing chariots, gold artifacts and possible human sacrifices has been discovered by archaeologists in the country of Georgia, in the south Caucasus.