LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - First it was the Greeks wanting their Elgin Marbles back. Now Egypt wants the British Museum to return one of its ancient treasures too.
Egypt's antiquities chief said on Sunday he wanted the British Museum to return the carved face of pharaoh Ramses VI, now that his smashed stone coffin has been largely reassembled.
The tomb of Ramses VI, who ruled around 1156 to 1145 B.C., was robbed within 100 years of the pharaoh's death, like most burial chambers hewn into the rock of Egypt's Valley of the Kings, and his sarcophagus was broken into hundreds of pieces.
A project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development gathered about 250 pieces to reassemble much of the sarcophagus. But the team had to use a cast of the face because the original has been in the British Museum since 1823.
See March 23 entry on this.
Newly unearthed finds will enhance research
Chinese archaeologists are making important and interesting discoveries across the nation. Some of them might lead to breakthroughs, while others might throw more light on things already known.
Shanxi Province
A group of Buddhist sculptures recently caught archaeologists' attention in North China's Shanxi Province.
Located in Jiaguo Village in the city of Qingyuan, in southern Shanxi, the sculptures, numbering nearly 100, are set in grottoes of different sizes.
The sculptures date back to the Northern Wei Dynasty (AD 386-534), whose rulers were enthusiastic promoters of Buddhism.
China's another one of those places that is really terra incognita archaeologically speaking (at least in the West), but that would add immensely to our knowledge of the origins of complex civilization.
Clay pot discovery aids migration estimate
CHIBA (Kyodo) A third-century clay pot emblazoned with a Chinese character found at an archaeological excavation site in Nagareyma, Chiba Prefecture, indicates literate people had moved from western to eastern Japan by the end of that century, prefectural officials said Tuesday.
An infrared picture of part of a third-century clay pot found at an archaeological excavation site in Chiba Prefecture bears what appears to be a kanji character painted in black ink. PHOTO COURTESY OF CHIBA PREFECTURE CULTURAL ASSET CENTER
The character was painted with black ink on the upper part of the 9-cm pot found at the Ichinomiyajiri archaeological site.
Yet another way cool application of digital imaging New life for old Elgin Marbles?
One of the greatest artworks of all time is scattered in fragments across Europe. But there is now a way to view the surviving Parthenon sculptures together for the first time - a virtual reconstruction.
They're still magnificent nearly 2,500 years after being carved, but the sculptures of the Parthenon are a bit like sad ghosts - pale, battered, half-lost and spread far and wide.
The fragments are strewn across 10 museums in eight countries. The Greeks are keen to reunite these in a purpose-built museum within sight of the ruined temple the frieze once adorned.
Make sure to click on the related story, How the Parthenon marbles are being reborn as well.
Antonine Wall World Heritage Site
European heritage experts have met in Scotland to mark the start of a bid to win World Heritage Site status for the Antonine Wall, the most northerly boundary of the Roman Empire.
Culture Minister Frank McAveety, who hosted a reception for the delegates, wished the team luck in what will be the first ever bid to involve more than one country.
He said:
“If this bid is successful the Antonine Wall will join the World Heritage Site designation for Hadrian’s Wall. Successful bids from Austria, Germany and Slovakia will see their sections of the frontier added to the designation, emphasising our shared history. I am particularly pleased that we are working closely with our European counterparts to make this trans-european bid a success.
New word of the day: Enology Red Wine Found in King Tut's Tomb
March 25, 2004 — The tomb of King Tutankhamun has given up the key to uncovering the origins of enology, Spanish researchers report in the current issue of the journal Analytical Chemistry.
While analyzing the dark brown deposit found inside a wine jar retrieved from the tomb of King Tut, Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós and colleagues from Barcelona University developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine in archaeological samples.
I will admit I had never heard the word "enology" before.
e-nol'e-je n. The study of wines and winemaking. Also, enology and oinology.
See here.