recovered

Dazzling jewels from an Ethiopian grave reveal 2,000-year-old link to Rome

“Dazzling jewels from an Ethiopian grave reveal 2,000-year-old link to Rome”

by Dalya Alberge via “The Guardian“

British archaeology team uncovers stunning Aksumite and Roman artefacts

Grave in Ethiopia — The grave in Ethiopia where the woman dubbed ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was discovered. Photograph: Graeme Laidlaw

Spectacular 2,000-year-old treasures from the Roman empire and the Aksumite kingdom, which ruled parts of north-east Africa for several centuries before 940AD, have been discovered by British archaeologists in northern Ethiopia.

Louise Schofield, a former British Museum curator, headed a major six-week excavation of the ancient city of Aksum where her team of 11 uncovered graves with “extraordinary” artefacts dating from the first and second centuries. They offer evidence that the Romans were trading there hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.

Schofield told the Observer: “Every day we had shed-loads of treasure coming out of all the graves. I was blown away: I’d been confident we’d find something, but not on this scale.”

She was particularly excited about the grave of a woman she has named “Sleeping Beauty”. The way the body and its grave goods had been positioned suggest that she had been beautiful and much-loved.

Schofield said: “She was curled up on her side, with her chin resting on her hand, wearing a beautiful bronze ring. She was buried gazing into an extraordinary Roman bronze mirror. She had next to her a beautiful and incredibly ornate bronze cosmetics spoon with a lump of kohl eyeliner.”

The woman was also wearing a necklace of thousands of tiny beads, and a beaded belt. The quality of the jewellery suggests that she was a person of very high status, able to command the very best luxurious goods. Other artefacts with her include Roman glass vessels – two perfectly preserved drinking beakers and a flask to catch the tears of the dead.

There was also a clay jug. Schofield hopes that its contents can be analysed. She believes it would have contained food and drink for the afterlife.

Although “Sleeping Beauty” was covered only with soil, her grave was cut into a rock overhang, which is why the finds survived intact.

The team also found buried warriors, with each skeleton wearing large iron bangles. They may have been killed in nearby battlefields. . . . .

Huge tomb of Celtic prince unearthed in France: ‘Exceptional’ 2,500-year-old burial

“Huge tomb of Celtic prince unearthed in France:

‘Exceptional’ 2,500-year-old burial”

The tomb of an Iron Age Celtic prince has been unearthed in a small French town.

The ‘exceptional’ grave, crammed with Greek and possibly Etruscan artefacts, was discovered in a business zone on the outskirts of Lavau in France’s Champagne region.

The prince is buried with his chariot at the centre of a huge mound, 130 feet (40 metres) across, which has been dated to the 5th Century BC.

The biggest find at the site was a huge wine cauldron. Standing on the handles of the cauldron, is the Greek god Acheloos. The river deity is shown with horns, a beard, the ears of a bull and a triple mustache

A team from the National Archaeological Research Institute, Inrap has been excavating the site since October last year.

They recently dated it to the end of the First Iron Age – a period characterised by the widespread use of the metal.

Its discovery could shed light on Iron Age European trade, researchers say.

The 2,500-year-old burial mound has at its heart a 14 square metre burial chamber, not yet opened, of an ancient royal.

An Iron Age Celtic prince lay buried with his chariot at the center of this huge mound in the Champagne region of France, according to the country’s National Archaeological Research Institute (Inrap)

Eight lioness heads decorate the edge of the cauldron (right). Inside the cauldron, the archaeologists found a ceramic wine vessel, called oniochoe (left)

A team from the National Archaeological Research Institute, Inrap has been excavating the site since October last year. Pictured is part of the cauldron found

‘It is probably a local Celtic prince,’ Inrap president Dominique Garcia told journalists on a field visit.

WHAT WERE THE KEY FINDS?

The prince is buried with his chariot at the centre of a huge mound. His chamber has not yet been opened.

This biggest find was a large bronze-decorated cauldron that was used to store watered-down wine.

The cauldron has four circular handles decorated with bronze heads that depict the Greek god Acheloos.

Another interesting discovery was a perforated silver spoon that was part of the banquet utensils, presumably to filter the wine.

The mausoleum contained a decorated ceramic wine pitcher made by the Greeks.

The most exciting find, he said, was a large bronze-decorated cauldron that was used to store watered-down wine. It appears to have been made by Etruscan craftsmen from an area that is today in Italy.

The cauldron has four circular handles decorated with bronze heads that depict the Greek god Acheloos.

The river deity is shown with horns, a beard, the ears of a bull and a triple mustache.

Eight lioness heads decorate the edge of the cauldron.

The mausoleum contained a decorated ceramic wine pitcher made by the Greeks.

Decorations on the vessel reveal the god Dionysus, lying under a vine and facing a woman.

The archaeologists also found remains of a iron wheel, from a chariot buried with the prince.

Another interesting discovery was a perforated silver spoon that was part of the banquet utensils, presumably to filter the wine. . . . .

by Ellie Zolgfagharifard via “Daily Mail“
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Items of Jewish victims of Theresienstadt discovered during house renovations

“Items of Jewish victims of Theresienstadt discovered during house renovations”

via “World Jewish Congress“

Terezin (Theresienstadt), a fortress and garrison town built at the end of the 18thcentury, was used by the Nazis as a transit camp for Jews rounded up in Czechoslovakia and deported from elsewhere in Europe. They were held in the ghetto until they could be transported to camps farther east.

Nearly 160,000 Jews went throughTerezin. Most perished either there or in the death camps of Nazi-occupied eastern Europe. The camp remained in operation from autumn of 1941 till its liberation in May 1945.

The discovery of the objects, some of which bore their owner’s names, was disclosed by the Ghetto Theresienstadtproject, which is funded by German and Czech sponsors. “The unexpected finds such as these suggest that an abundance of precious legacies from the ghetto period are still waiting to be discovered in buildings throughout Terezin,” the group said in a news release.

The group said the highlight of the find was the head tefillin, a small black capsule containing a handwritten parchment scroll with the “Hear, O Israel” verses from Deuteronomy. The home owners discovered the objects while replacing a roof truss in their attic in November. “In their view, the way that the objects were concealed under the beams indicates the great importance that the prisoners gave in hiding their possessions,” the group said.

‘Degenerate Art’ Opens at Neue Galerie in the Spring

by Carol Vogel via “NY Times”

The Neue Galerie’s big spring show, “Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937,” has been nearly three years in the making, yet it seems particularly prescient after the discovery last month of what may well be the biggest trove of missing 20th-century European art — about 1,400 works suspected of being traded or looted during the Nazis’ reign, including paintings by Matisse, Chagall, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso and a host of other masters. Some disappeared in the late 1930s, around the time the Nazis raided German museums and public collections, confiscating works they called degenerate because Hitler deemed them un-German or Jewish in nature. . . .

This would be interesting to catch; I’m surprised so many works survived, since the Nazis destroyed so much of what they disapproved of (the loss in literary history was devastating). It is a relief to know that so much survived, and I would be fascinated to attend this showing. If anyone has a chance to go, a review would be greatly appreciated!

Musings on Arthur Pinajian

I had never heard of Arthur Pinajian before I read the Telegraph’s article, but I find myself fascinated with his art. Pinajian lived through two world wars and the great depression, born in 1914 during WWI and surviving until 1999, the end of the century. (1) Kurt Vonnegut’s novelic work “Bluebeard: The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian,“ actually retells the story of Pinajian’s life, whose real life was really very private. (1) He was one of the great heroes of WWII, but he soon surrendered weapons for more artistic tools, when he began as a comic book artist for Marvel (3). However, Pinajian found himself more readily drawn to the abstractionist style of art and he eventually move to Long Island, fading into obscurity for the remainder of his life. (1) Pinajian another of the many artists more appreciated upon death than during life, and thousands of his paintings remained buried in garages and boxes until as late as the last decade. (2)

: The Artist: Arthur Pinajian

Typically, I am not overly fond of abstract art, in fact I don’t particularly like the painting shown at the top of The Telegraph’s article. However, in several of his works, Pinajian successfully pulls together both abstraction and realism. I appreciate how his works depict landscapes through simple brush strokes and vibrant mixed colors. He utilizes the coloring beautifully to depict contrast and depth, without losing any of the meaning which I feel so much abstract art does. Here are my particular favorites: