Philanthropy Joke

Just received this, and it's too good not to share ...

A visitor to Israel attended a recital and concert at the Moscovitz  Auditorium.  He was quite impressed with the architecture and the acoustics.
He inquired of the tour guide, "Is this magnificent auditorium named after  Chaim Moscovitz, the famous Talmudic scholar?"
"No," replied the guide.
"It is named after Sam Moscovitz, the writer."
"Never heard of him.  What did he write?"
"A check," replied the guide.

1,500-year-old mosaic tiles returned to Hagia Sophia after 55 years

1,500-year-old mosaic tiles returned to Hagia Sophia after 55 years

This is a lot 'off' about this story - for example, why would someone working at Haghia Sophia just give a random tourist tesserae from the Byzantine mosaics; and if she felt so bad about having them, which suggests she knew they should not have been given to her, why didn't she just post them to the Turkish Embassy instead of giving them to a random jeweller in Istanbul she ....

Looted by Gaddafi Troops

Yesterday it was announced that Greek and Roman antiquities that Gaddafi forces had stolen were caught with them a they fled from Tripoli.


Libya displays Roman treasures looted by Gaddafi troops | Reuters

Today we have photo of some of the 17 items, mostly small stone heads, courtesy of the Washington Post:

Attempted theft ...

Thieves tried to raid the dig-house where items from Lagina are stored. The door was forced open, but it is unclear if anything was stolen. Excavation houses are particularly vulnerable, as are the sites themselves - whenever I see a Corinthian capital turned into a coffee table, I wonder which site it was pinched from.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=door-forced-open-at-excavation-house-2011-11-23

The Temple of Jerusalem

Coins found under the walls surrounding the Temple post-date Herod's death and confirm Josephus' account that the complex was completed under Herod Agrippa II.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/11/23/2282892/new-find-sheds-light-on-ancient.html

The Capitoline Lupercalia

The theory that the Capitoline Lupercalia is Medieval not Etruscan is once again in the news.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8907425/Romulus-and-Remus-symbol-of-Rome-could-be-medieval-replica.html

The twins, Romulus and Remus, were added in the Renaissance, but the date of the creation of the She-Wolf has been the subject of debate for a century or so. I discussed some of the early Medieval sources describing the statue outside the Lateran Palace, as well as a drawing of it standing there in the Renaissance, in this post (scroll down):

http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2011/08/medieval-collections-of-antiquities.html

In addition to the evidence I included there, I should add one key piece of very early Medieval evidence. When Charlemagne (crowned Holy Roman Emperor in AD 800) built his capital at Aachen, he went out of his way to make it the New Rome of his new Roman Empire. This included building a magnificent palace from which to rule it, modelled on the pope's palace in Rome; Charlemagne not only named his new palace the Lateran, but also arranged for an ancient statue of a She-Wolf found in Gaul to be brought to stand outside the palace, just as one stood outside the Roman Lateran. It is possible that a different She-Wolf stood outside the Medieval Lateran palace from the one now on the Capitoline, but unlikely.

The problem is that ... if the Capitoline She-Wolf is a post-Antique creation, one must ask who was able to create such a statue? La Regina's objection seems to be that the statue was cast whole, but there is no evidence of Medieval bronzes cast whole of this size and quality.

Previous claims have tried to date the creation of the She-Wolf to the time before the sources place her outside the Lateran Palace, meaning that she must be a Carolingian work. The problem with this, is that one must wonder why such emphasis was placed in Carolingian sources on Charlemagne's re-creation of the Lateran with a Lupercalia outside, if there was no Lupercalia outside the Roman palace he was imitating. And there is no evidence for anyone having the ability of cast such a piece at the time, and the nearest comprable work would be the great German Lion a couple of centuries later.

The only new suggestion I am seeing in the press coverage is that it was copied off a statue brought from Constantinople in 1204. Again, I would question whether the ability to cast such large pieces whole existed in 1200s Rome, and why there are no other examples of similar style in Medieval sculpture as comparanda.

Although many bronzes were brought back from Constantinople after the capture of the city in 1204, and we know that there was a Roman Lupercalia in the Hippodrome in Constantinople which seems to have survived to the time of the Fourth Crusade ... The Capitoline Lupercalia seems to have been outside the Lateran Palace in Rome before then.

Hagia Sophia - a Mosque?

There have been a few stories circulating that Haghia Sophia in Istanbul might be turned into a mosque, for example: Is it Santa Sofia in Istanbul's turn now? - La Stampa

The news, or rather the hypothesis, comes from Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, where a few days ago, the newspaper "Sabah" dedicated an article to the situation, stating that Santa Sofia could be used again as a place for Islamic worship, overturning the decision made by Turkey under Kemal Ataturk. The newspaper reported that there are building works underway to bring it about.  Amongst the restoration work there are plans to construct a "mimbar", the pulpit or raised platform from which the Imam guides the prayer and gives the Friday sermon, the most important moment of prayer in the Muslim week. What could a mimbar be used for if not for the "active" Islamic use of the ex-cathedral?

I have not been to Haghia Sophia in Istanbul since May, so these comments may be out of date, but ... Yes, there was some work going on, but it looked like normal restoration work. There is no need to construct a minbar, because there is already an Ottoman one in the building, from the centuries it was used as a mosque.

Haghia Sophia in Istanbul is a very popular tourist destination, whose tickets sales raise a huge amount in revenue - I find it as unlikely that it will be turned back into a mosque. Similarly, I'd bet money that the various Greek campaigns to turn it back into an Orthodox church will fail.

This nonsense of a story seems to have begun again because the church of Haghia Sophia in Iznik, ancient Nicea, is being used as a mosque following restoration (my 2007 photos here). Although the church is important in the history of Christianity, as this is where the first Ecumenical Council was held, I'm not sure what the big fuss is about - there are not enough Christians to justify using it as a church, nor enough tourists to keep it full-time as a museum. To continue to use it as a mosque, its use since the Ottoman conquest, makes sense and does not stop people from visiting it.

Whither The Popular Archeology Magazines?

It's a discussion I keep having with people, and maybe readers have an answer - why are there plenty of good popular archaeology / ancient history magazines each month in French and Italian, but not in English? I used to love picking them up at the Louvre bookshop, where one could buy old issues on special topics, not just current ones. And if you're thinking "but that's the Louvre!" you'd be wrong, because I could also pick up current editions in Valbonne, a little village in France.

L'Archeo Thema, which from its web site seems to be Swiss, and bi-monthly, is currently covering the archeology of Tripolitania, the western half of Libya.

(What's interesting is that one can subscribe to Archeo Thema - Revue Archeologie et Histoire in the US via Amazon, but not in the UK!)

In the Autumn following 9/11, as US forces went into Afghanistan, one of the French archaeology magazines devoted an issue to Afghan history and archaeology. It was interesting, in depth, and far more interesting than similar stories in British newspapers and magazines.

Looking on Amazon US, I see one can subscribe to a number of English language popular archaeology magazines, but outside museums I've only ever seen Archaeology magazine in a few of the larger Barnes and Noble book stores.

If you're in the US, then the AIA's Archaeology magazine is probably the best choice - you can subscribe via their web site (here - it's cheaper than via Amazon, and all the money supports their work).

In the UK, I went to a few museum bookshops and the large magazine section at Selfridge's and there was only one archaeology magazine available - the Australian Archaeological Diggings. I bought a copy, and it was ... charmingly amateur, reading like an enthusiastic club newsletter. I mean that as a compliment, but I did wonder how this little Ozzie magazine managed to get distributed in the UK, but no other magazine.

There are a few UK based archaeology magazines, but I never see them for sale, and I'm not going to subscribe if I don't know what I'm getting, so others probably won't either.

The best know popular archaeology magazine in the UK is supposedly the monthly Current Archaeology, which is very much 'hands in the dirt' archaeology rather than artefacts as art, and only covers the UK. The same publishers have also launched a bi-monthly World Archaeology covering non-UK archaeology.

I tend to recommend Minerva Magazine instead, as it seems easier for people to approach, with less anti-collecting preaching, but its articles are basic and there's a lot of pro-antiquities market coverage. It's bi-monthly, and covers on their web site show it's trying to target new readers through interviews with Tony Robinson, Bettany Hughes, etc.

I should probably also mention Biblical Archaeology Review in the US, but ... I'd almost rather not. They have driven me nuts with stories about Solomon being admired by the Romans at Pompei, and Vesuvius' eruption in AD 79 being punishment for the Romans' destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70 (why does God have to wait nine whole years, I ask you?!?) ... and the photo to the left seems to have led to an article in the current issue titled "A Menorah at Persepolis?" ... If you want to wind an archaeologist up, just tell them about an article you've read in BAR ...

Ancient Warfare is a magazine friends in the field - Adrian Goldsworthy, Adrian Murdoch, etc - had spoken highly of. Again, I never see it for sale, but I ordered their Gaius Marius special issue through their web site, and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was popular, but interesting - and I loved that one can order single issues, pay using PayPal, which arrived within days.

What I find fascinating is that there is a demand for specialist magazines: my local newsagents in London stock the Council of Foreign Relations' Foreign Affairs, and Selfridges stocks dozen of specialist art magazines ... but despite the popularity of ancient history and archaeology, there is no popular archaeology / ancient history magazine easily available.

If anyone out there is thinking of starting one up - a few people have expressed interest in passing - then why not try the online rather than print format? It worked for Lonny magazine, a purely online 'shelter' magazine set up by some editors from magazines that were closed down, it looks as good as any 'real' magazine out there, and it makes money through advertising.

Updates:

Coincidentally,  David Meadows just mentionned a new online only magazine, Worldwide Archaeology Magazine, which can be downloaded as a PDF ... The first issue is charming, but I suspect the National Geographic won't be quaking in its boots.

 Daniel Pett reminded me to add the bi-monthly British Archaeology, which is available at WH Smiths (although I've never seen it for sale there, and there are fewer and fewer branches of Smiths these days).

A comment was left about KMT A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, which looks interesting, but again, I have to admit I've never seen a copy of it.

A few people have emailed in with other suggestions, mostly online journals - very different from popular magazines - and web sites, and with explanations of why it's a pain in the neck running a journal / magazine, but the point remains - there are lots of English language magazines, but most of them are quite niche, and none other than Archaelogy comes close to the standard of the French magazine.


Tweet

Christie's December Antiquities Sale

Provenances can get lost over the years, as I've said again and again, or sellers might not want people to know they're having to sell items, so their names are not listed. But plenty of antiquities go through the art market with provenances that turn out to be a figment of the seller's imagination, designed to deliberately conceal the fact that the items were looted. I'm not saying that these items were looted. But I'd like to see a little more information about the provenances of some of these items.

Palmyrene sculpture pretty much only comes from Palmyra in Syria. Although odd examples have been found at other Syrian cities, and cities linked by trade to Palmyra such as Hatra in NW Iraq (JSTOR), Palmyrene sculpture comes from a pretty limited geographical area, and unlike, for example, Attic vases, was not traded widely. The style is pretty distinctive (for a summary see here), and this makes it easy to identify examples and to state that they almost certainly originated at Palmyra - just as Cypriot sculptures almost certainly came from Cyprus. Palmyrene sculptures have long been collected, and most large Western collections have good examples of them.

An inscription of Julius Aurelius Zebeida was recorded at Palmyra in the 18th century, so it was interesting to see this relief for sale at Christie's NY (Lot 24) of "Masheku, son of Zebeida, son of Zebeida, Alas!"

My problem is that the provenance has too many red flags:

"Private Collection, Lebanon, early 1980s.
Acquired by the current owner in Geneva, 2007"

Many antiquities were smuggled through the Lebanon during it's civil war, and had dodgy documents issued there. This piece may have been legally exported from Syria to Lebanon, and then legally exported from Lebanon to Switzerland, but I'd want to know a bit more information about the provenance of this funerary relief.

Greek vases on the other hand, although made in Greece, particularly Athens, were mostly found intact in Etruscan tombs in Italy - hence why so many American museums and collectors were forced to return vases looted and sold by Giacomo Medici to Italy rather than Greece. But unlike Palmyrene sculpture, an Attic black figure vase could in theory have been found anywhere around the Mediterranean or Black Sea, or possibly even traded as far as Germany.

Projects such as the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum mean that the majority of Greek and Apulian vases are published, so a lack of a publication in many ways raises as many questions with a vase as lack of a provenance, pariticularly when it comes to Southern Italian vases.

Luckily this amphora (Christie's Lot 69) has both: the provenance goes back to "William Randolph Hearst, San Simeon, California" (he bought most of his vases from old UK collections, so I suspect this could be pushed back into the 19th century with a little research), and it was published in "J.D. Beazley, Attic Black-Figure Vase-Painters, Oxford, 1956, p. 605."

This Attic red figure cup attributed to the Tarquinia painter (Lot 109) has a collecting history going back to the 19th century:

"Said to be found in Etruria, possibly Tarquinia.
British government official, stationed in Italy, circa 1870; thence by descent, England.
Private Collection, England, circa 1923.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 14 November 1966, lot 120.
with Charles Ede, London, circa 1990."

I wish we had the name of the British official who bought it in Italy, but like that the seller is named:
"THE PROPERTY OF THOMAS C. SIMIELE, OHIO"
And cup also has three publications:

"J.D. Beazley, Paralipomena, Oxford, 1971, p. 427, no. 77bis.
J.-L. Durand and F. Lissarrague, "Un Lieu d'Image?, L'espace du louterion," in Hephaistos 2, 1990, p. 98, fig. 14.
T.H. Carpenter, Beazley Addenda, Oxford, 1989, p. 300.
Beazley Archive Database no. 276018."

Most of the provenances at this Christie's New York sale of Antiquities seem more solid that those in recent Christie's London sales, probably because the department is run by people who have experience.

This little white figure lekythos (Lot 112) attributed to the Quadrate Painter is in terrible condition, and doesn't look like much ... but it appeals to me because it was formerly in the collection of the painter Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka is well known today as a painter, but people often forget that before he fled the Nazis (they'd branded him a degenerate artist), he had also been a playwright, writing several plays based on Classical themes such as Orpheus and Eurydike.

We tend to forget that Greek pottery was created as a cheaper imitation of bronze and silver vessels - Alexander the Great would have drunk out of a silver cup, not a clay Attic one. The problem with metal vessels is that they could be melted down, and often were, so very few survive. Silver vessels without a solid provenance are the cause of great suspicion - for example the Sevso Hoard.

Again, I want to be clear that I am not saying this Greek 5th century silver cup (Lot 114) is looted - but if I were a collector or a museum bidding in the million dollar range for it, then I'd want something far more substantial as a provenance than these claims:

"Private Collection, Geneva.
Art Market, London.
Private Collection, U.S., 1996.
with Phoenix Ancient Art, New York and Geneva, 2008 (Crystal III, pp. 58-60)."

The only solid piece of information the provenance gives is that the cup was offered for sale by Phoenix in 2008, a dealer which has had questions raised about the provenances of several other pieces which have passed through their hands. It's all very nice quoting Herodotus in the 'Lot Notes' but it would be far more useful to know where this cup was pre 2008, and ideally pre 1970.

This bronze figuring (Lot 157) is said to be early 1st century BC and said to depict Mithradates VI ... The Christie's Lot Notes explain why this is a portrait of Mithradates VI:

"A passionate philhellene, Mithradates identified himself with Alexander the Great. This accounts for the style and stance of this bronze figure, relating closely to Lyssipan depictions of Alexander, such as the bronze in the Harvard University Art Museum, no. 38, p. 118 in Yalouris, et al., The Search for Alexander, an Exhibition, thought to represent the now-lost Lyssipan Alexander with a Lance. Like Alexander, Mithradates is shown here likely once holding the lance in his left hand.
For a marble head of Mithradates with similar wildly touseled tresses, see no. 84, pl. 52,3-4 in Smith, Hellenistic Royal Portraits, and on coinage, figs. 207-209 in Davis and Kraay, THe Hellenistic Kingdoms, Portrait Coins and History."

I know I'm probably just being my usual cynical self, but ... I can't see the great resemblance between this statuette portrait and the one in Smith, but ... there's a nice little academic article by Jakob Munk Hotje about portraits of this enemy of Rome, available online which illustrates most of the possible Portraits and Statues of Mithridates VI ... so maybe you can spot the resemblance I'm missing. (For more articles about him from the same book, see here).

And no sale would be complete without a Cleopatra, though in this case it's a little silver head of Cleopatra Selene (Lot 174).

It is similar enough to the Boscoreale emblema dish now in the Louvre (photo below) for one to assume that they are the same sitter, and the crescent preserved in the Louvre piece makes it possible that Cleopatra Selene, queen of Mauretania, daughter of the more famous Cleopatra VII of Egypt, is indeed depicted. The cornucopia she holds is associated with the ruler-cult of Ptolemaic queens from the time of Arsinoe II onwards (Arsinoe can be identified because she was the only queen that held a doubole cornucopia).

The Louvre catalogue is more careful attributing, calling their dish (left), excavated in 1895, as an allegory or possibly Cleopatra VII or Cleopatra Selene. We know that the villa della Pisanella was destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, and scholars date the Boscoreale Treasure to the time of Augustus or Tiberius.

The portrait found at Cherchel, and mentioned in the Christie's Lot Notes is confusing, as there were in fact two portraits found there, one of which is believed to be one of the few certain Greek-style portraits of Cleopatra VII, and another of which is sometimes assigned to Cleopatra Selene (or sometimes a man - see plate 4 here), and which does look like the little head Christie's is selling.

If I were a collector, I'd want this in my collection. If the Christie's figure is genuine - and when it looks too good to be true, I bet someone will be asking Jack Ogden before they bid $2-3m - it still has issues of lack of any real provenance. It's apparently the property of a New York private collector, who presumably bought it on the "Art Market, New York, 1996." ... It strikes me as a little odd that the dealer he bought it off is not listed, and I'd want a hell of a lot more information about the provenance of such an important piece.


Tweet

Padre Pio 'used carbolic acid to make stigmata'?

The stigmata where wounds appear on the palms of the hands and on the feet is a phenomenon seen from the Medieval period onwards. The would are meant to be in imitation of Jesus Christ's crucifixion, although we know that people were crucified with nails through the wrists not the palms.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062103/Padre-Pio-used-carbolic-acid-make-stigmata.html

The return of the neo-Nazis

Interesting story about a Neo-Nazi group in Germany, that was "allowed" to grow to the point that it murdered a number of people of non-Aryan origin.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2011/11/2011111683726365533.html?utm_content=automateplus&utm_campaign=Trial6&utm_source=SocialFlow&utm_medium=MasterAccount&utm_term=tweets

Tweet from @bonesdonotlie

@bonesdonotlie: Do you think Bones Don't Lie is valid scholarship? If yes, support my blog on my new Endorsements page: http://j.mp/vymmMU Thanks!

I'm not sure to what extent a blog is scholarship - as opposed to some ideas - but if you like her blog, then endorse her!

All I want for Christmas ...

... Is a 13th century Italian castle built by Frederick II. (Though right now I'd swap it for a few bowls of chicken soup). The castle is lovely, typical of his style, with the addition of Angevin towers. I'm not sure if the collection of antiquities is included in the sale price.

http://www.medievalists.net/2011/11/16/13th-century-italian-castle-for-sale/

Hixenbaugh Ancient Art: Neo-Assyrian Royal Armor

I've never heard of the dealer, but the armour has a good provenance going back to 1960, it seems.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/11/15/prweb8965097.DTL

The only Arabic Crusader inscription ever found

It dates from 1229, and mentions Frederick II - the Holy Roman Emperor who crowned himself King of Jerusalem. The inscription was found in 2008 at Jaffa, but thought to be Ottoman because it is written in Arabic, so was deemed a low priority - now that someone has read it, they realised that it was the only know Crusader inscription written in Arabic.

http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early+History+-+Archaeology/Crusader_inscription_Arabic_14-Nov-2011.htm

And then she ...

Caesar wrote the story of his Wars in the third person. As did Pius II, the only pope to write an auto-biography (although since he published it under a pseudonym, his use of the third person is less surprising).

Having been trying to write up a vita for a publisher, it's so much easier to write about someone 'else' - and frankly given the nuts in my close family (psychopath, war criminal, etc), I'm half wondering if I can write in the third person too and pretend they're nothing to do with me!

"On Monday Dorothy decided that she'd had enough of reading through DoJ War Crimes files, and found herself faced with a stark choice: let the dog invade the garden, or open a box of chocolates ..."

The Wisdom to Know it’s not Solomon …

One of my pet hates is when people try to give every portrait out there a “name” – and I’m highly skeptical of the identities given to most Juli0-Claudian portraits, for example “Drusus” or “Germanicus” … unless the images bears a clear ancient label, it’s purely speculation who’s represented. Don’t get me wrong, academia is largely based on speculation and discussion, and this is how scholarship moves forward, but that doesn’t mean we’re as certain as we like to make out.

The same can be said when it comes to iconography – some scenes are obvious, but others are not.

In an article in BAR by Theodore Feder (written in 2008), there were  some “new” claims made about this fresco found in the House of the Physician in Pompeii (VIII 5,24; now Naples Museum).

Feder has “re-interpreted” it as representing Socrates and Aristotle watching Solomon adjudicating between two women claiming the same baby – a scene known as the Judgement of Solomon in later art, and one of the prime examples of the Wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 3:16–28). Socrates and Aristotle were two Classical Greek philosophers, Solomon was an Israelite Bronze Age king, and the fresco is in a Roman town. For me that makes the inclusion of a figure such as Solomon very unlikely, unless the owner of the house was Jewish – and nothing else excavated there would suggest that the owner was, as Feder himself admits.

Feder goes on to claim that “The presence of the two ancient philosophers … reveals the great respect that Greek philosophy could have accorded to Hebrew wisdom in the ancient world” … please note the use of the word “could” because, oh, aliens “could” have built the pyramids and then migrated to Atlantis. And pigs “could” fly if they had wings.

Did I mention that his Aristotle, Socrates and Solomon are all pygmies?  It’s mean to be a humorous scene on a podium decorated with fresco scenes of pygmies. In another panel they battle crocodiles and hippopotami, whilst in a third they process along the banks of a river (images here).

The crocodiles and pygmies, along with a large river, make it clear that the scenes depicted are set in Egypt. These sorts of scenes that poke fun at Egypt began as anti-Cleopatra propaganda in the 30s BC, and continued after she and Antony had been defeated at the Battle of Actium (31 BC).

I wish I could have found a better picture, but you’ll have to take my word for it that in Feder’s panel there does seem to be a man with authority and a baby. It sounds like the Judgement of Solomon, but it’s not. There are two soldiers who look as if they’re about to hack something to death, possibly a baby, possibly a side of lamb:

But there is only one “mother” pleading with “Solomon” not two …

… and I know I may be on slightly tenuous ground here, since the scene has been identified as the Judgement of Solomon since the 19th century, but … the figure looks like a man to me, so is more likely to be a “father” pleading for his child’s life.

It’s impossible to be certain what the scene represented, but since it involved Egypt and a Judgement, a better suggestions is an Egyptian Pharaoh famous for his wisdom – Bocchoris.

Bocchoris, known as Bakenranef, was a pharaoh who reigned very briefly for five or six years around 720 BC. In terms of Egyptian history he is almost irrelevant – an upstart against the Nubians who briefly controlled the western Delta as the sole ruler of the 24th Dynasty – and only recorded once, as far as I am aware, in the Egyptian archaeological record (an inscription recording an Apis Bull, image):

Pharaoh Bocchoris may have been a non-entity in Egypt, but, probably because of contact with traders from Greece, he became famed for his wisdom and known as one of the great law-givers of Egypt. More ancient sources mention him than Solomon and Jesus Christ combined.

What’s interesting is that this contact with the Greeks and Phoenicians is recorded in the archaeological record. The first Greek colony was set up by Euboeans at Pithecusae (Ischia), and in the cemetery there has yielded a high number of Egyptian items from the 8th century BC. Grave 325, an inhumation of a 3 year old girl and a 10 year old boy, included a scarab of Bocchoris (image):

We can deduce from ancient literary sources that this colony was founded by the Euboeans around 775 BC, and the dateable Egyptian finds help to confirm this chronology, as well as the chronology of early Greek vase painting – for example the two Early ProtoCorinthian aryballoi found in the grave.

Slightly more problematic are two situlae bearing the name of Bocchoris found at Tarquinia and Motya. The first was found in the late 19th century in a tomb, which became known as the Tomb of Bocchoris at Tarquinia and was used as one of the fixed points around which to build a chronology of Etruscan tomb painting:

The faience vessel found at Motya, a Punic colony, is almost identical. These vessels were originally thought to be of Egyptian manufacture, but an increasing number of scholars see them as having been made in Phoenicia, and opinion remains divided.

Fresco scenes in the Black Triclinium of the Roman villa under the Farnesina in Rome, and now in the Terme, have been convincingly argued to have represented Bocchoris (see Ling), so he seems the most likely candidate for the Pompeian scene – but it could equally well be a scene from a lost play set in Egypt.

Stolen in 1818 ...

I've always had a soft spot for the French painter Nicholas Tournier, so I was fascinated to hear that this painting, stolen from a French church in 1818, had been seized by the French government in Paris off the London art dealers Weiss.

A friend that works for an Old Master gallery and I were discussing it yesterday, and neither of us had heard of a similar case. The painting was stolen almost two hundred years ago, and seems to have passed through the hands of several well known dealers this year.

To add spice to the story, there were questions recently concerning its authenticity. Tournier was only 'rediscovered' in recent decades, with the first retrospective in 2001 in Toulouse, but he was popular in his day and widely copied in the years after his death. The extent of his studio production is still not entirely clear.
My guess is the possession is nine tenths of the law, but since there is no precedent, what will happen to the painting is anyone's guess.

Arghh ...

I've agreed to be sold off to raise funds for a charity. Or rather a few hours of my time ... And now I'm having nightmares that no-one is going to bid for me ...

The Gates of Jerusalem

Fascinating 19th century colour photographs of the gates of the city of Jerusalem - many of these Ottoman gates were damaged in the 1940s, and these are the only early colour photos I've seen of them.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2011/11/new-photos-added-to-gates-of-jerusalem.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+israeldailypicture%2FXPzN+%28Picture+a+Day%29

Returned to Iran

It's good to see that articles stolen from Jiroft have gone back to Iran.

http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1049.html

Damnatio Memoriae: Geta

Damnatio memoriae is one of those interesting concept debated by scholars - to what extent did emperors try to remove records of predecessors they disliked? The memory of Agrippina, for example, is meant to have been removed from the record, but archaeologists suspect that this meant her statues were removed from public view and stored in warehouses rather than destroyed as there are almost more examples of them than of any other empress.

Geta is one of the few emperors whom we are sure suffered damnatio memoriae - his name was erased from an inscription found at Matilo (Leiden), his image was erased from a tondo depicting the family of Septimus Severus ... and now another inscription has been found from Alba Iulia in Romania, where again Caracalla erased the name of the brother he'd had murdered (news story). Although the name was crudely scratched out in the Leiden inscription, the photo above of the Romanian inscription shows that it was neatly erased, and so as a result of an official measure rather than a mob reaction.

I do believe that a lot of the destruction of sculptures may well have been by 'mobs' in Antiquity, just as it is today - for example Saddam in Iraq, and more recently statues of Gaddafi in Libya this summer - but when the destruction was on official monuments we can be sure that it was endorsed by the emperor and his regime. Another example of a 'vanished' Geta is this panel from the Arch of the Argentari in the Roman Forum, which today only shows Caracalla making an offering; the 'shaddow' behind him outlines the body of Geta which was cut away.

More about the damnatio memoriae of Geta can be found here (pp. 168 ff).

Wooden Greek Statues

I was rather excited to see a recent story in the Athens News - Vravrona sanctuary yields rare wooden votives - and had been hoping that more photos would emerge of the finds:

Perhaps most impressive in the deposit are wooden objects, including the head and upper torso of a female figurine (ca 500-450BC) wearing a peplos, or body-length garment, and a headscarf over ornately curled hair, with traces of red pigment. Also discovered among the wooden finds are fragments of ceramic vessels and flattened pieces of wood, perhaps from plank-shaped figurines.

Vravrona is of course Brauron, which was famous in Antiquity for its temple of Artemis. Although Egyptian sculptures in wood survive, almost none from Greece do, because of the different climate. Wood was used not just for some of the famous old cult statues known as Xoana - the statue of Athena in the Erechtheion, the statue of Artemis at Brauron - but also for lesser objects. Small wooden sculptures have been found at  Brauron in the past (see photos here).

The Antiquities Trade and Collectors

This Forbes article (link below) gives Peter Aldrich's ideas on antiquities from the view-point of a collector. I don't agree with the feasibility of most of his suggestions, but it's important to keep the debate going about how to clean up the antiquities market.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/11/01/theres-big-money-and-the-need-for-reform-in-the-antiquities-trade/

I had a chat recently with a journalist writing a piece about collecting antiquities for the FT. We stuck to discussing the collectors who had chosen to make their collections public - Leon Levy & Shelby White, George Ortiz, Christian Levett - and how attitudes of collectors to looters had changed.
There's a lot of 'bad press' about collectors on some blogs, seemingly linking them directly to looting. The truth is that most collectors are trying to go out of their way to buy material that was not looted, and they know that if items turn out to be looted they'll have to return them - and will loose the money they paid for the item. So in financial terms it's simply not worth buying smuggled art.
Mrs White has returned a few items to Greece and Italy in recent years, but as a percentage of the collection she and her late husband put together, this is minute. She and her husband have funded excavations, publications and a great deal of scholarship - although her critics tend to forget this.
Levett is actively collecting on a large scale, and going out of his way to buy pieces with solid provenances: he's also displaying part of his collection in his Mougins Museum of Classical Art, so clearly feels secure in his belief that they were not looted.
I took the time out to wonder, if I were a collector, what would I do differently, because we academics always like to critique how we'd do things better ... But as much as I hate to admit it Levett's a model collector, doing it by the book.
There are some dodgy collectors out there buying pieces they know to have been dug up clandestinely and smuggled, but most of those are, as far as I'm aware, in the Middle East and Asia (notably Japan). No serious Western collector would, for example, go near any of the antiquities recently looted from Benghazi.

Top Five Reasons for Disturbing a Burial

Interesting post on why graves are disturbed - and although grave robbing has been going for almost as long as we've had record (see the Abbott Papyrus from Egypt in the BM), there are other reasons ... Including stopping the undead from rising again!

http://bonesdontlie.wordpress.com/2011/11/03/top-five-reasons-for-disturbing-a-burial/