Category: bija-knowles - Part 5

Funeral for Venice: Will ‘Museum City’ Win Back Inhabitants?

Next Saturday Venice will be holding its own funeral. As far as publicity stunts go, it’s quite an unequivocal message that the city is on the brink. Only this time the threat is not from the rising tides and the island city’s subsiding foundations; the danger comes in the form of the rapidly shrinking population it seems that the Venetians are migrating to the mainland faster than you can say ‘just one cornetto’.

According to one group of locals members of the online community venessia.com – the population has now fallen below the threshold of 60,000 people (down from about 150,000 in 1960) and the city’s inhabitants are being driven out of their ancestral homes by property, food and transport prices far higher than those on the mainland. The main reason for the soaring cost of living is the relentless flow of tourists to the small city. As a result the local Venetians are being priced out of their historical island city.

The funeral will take place in two stages: the first is a procession taking a bright pink coffin by gondola through the city’s canals to the Rialto bridge, followed by a ceremony and public eulogy. A more upbeat tone is set for the second part of Saturday’s ceremony, as the Venetians will be campaigning for the rebirth of their city. They will launch a project called ‘Looking for Venetians’, where they will be collecting signatures as the first step of a scheme to find new inhabitants. Each person who signs up will be asked if they would live in Venice if the cost of living was acceptable and there was fiscal help available. The responses and signatures will be logged and presented on the eve of the local administration election in March, as part of a petition asking them to create living conditions that will attract families back to the city.

As part of the initiative to highlight Venice’s heritage and situation, a group of scientists from the Genographic Project (run by National Geographic and IBM – read here for more info) will be carrying out DNA tests on local Venetians after the funeral to establish more about their provenance and their ancestral migratory routes thousands of years ago.

A Modern Pompeii?

It is hoped that the funeral will bring the problems of Venice into the public eye – and to international attention – with a media-grabbing message. Matteo Secchi is a native Venetian whose parents and grandparents were also Venetian, but he has now been forced by exorbitant prices to live on the mainland. He told a local news site aqvaalta.com: We want to show the world, that behind the romantic postcard image of the Venetian gondola, there are lots of problems and there is a risk that Venice will turn into a modern Pompeii ie, a city with no vitality or inhabitants. We want to send a message to the local Venetians that we need to take action and do something for our city. We also hope to influence the local government administration because we’re not happy with the way they’ve handled the local residential politics over the past 20 years.

Locals Priced Out

The members of venessia.com are mainly Venetians with a passion for their beautiful city (although there are members from all over the world who simply want to support Venice). They all have a common goal of campaigning to save the way of life there. The group was set up by Matteo Secchi and several friends and now has 850 members. Some years ago they set up an electronic population-counting sign in Rialto. They vowed then that if the population actually fell below 60,000 (seen at that time as a dangerous threshold), then they would hold a symbolic funeral for their city, which they fear could be on the brink of becoming uninhabitable. According to Matteo Secchi, the funeral is a humorous way of symbolising what the group believes is the end of Venice as a city and one-time centre of a powerful empire. With a population in decline, Secchi believes the city is now a shadow of its former self.

This isn’t the first time in the city’s history that its population has dropped dramatically. During the 16th century, it fell from 175,000 people in 1575, to 124,000 by 1581, according to John Julius Norwich‘s A History of Venice. However, the current level is far lower than the population during the city’s heyday during the republic.

Investors Distorting the Property Market

Part of the problem with the large numbers of tourists is not the people themselves but the fact that they are not encouraged to spend significant amounts of money with local businesses and many stay for just a day, avoiding the expensive Venetian hotels, restaurants and gift shops. Exasperating the problem is the penchant that rich international investors have for buying property in Venice and then leaving it empty for several years before selling it on at a profit. According Secchi, the city is being used as a stock exchange by the rich. Whether the comparison is to a museum, a stock exchange, ‘thinking man’s Disney Land’ or with an abandoned relic such as Pompeii, the prognosis paints a bleak future for the city unless successful regeneration efforts can be put in place.

The Venetian Republic

It would be a very sad end to the long and colourful history of this lagoon culture that has its roots in the Roman empire. Mainland inhabitants first started settling on the group of islands in the Venetian lagoon after the mainland city of Altinum was sacked by Huns and then Lombards in the fifth and sixth centuries AD. From that time on, an island colony began to grow and within a few centuries it became the powerful Venetian republic that endured for a thousand years until 1797. It was the wealth and power of the republic and the trade routes it controlled along the Dalmatian coast that enabled Venice to become the beautiful renaissance city that today attracts so many tourists.

That Sinking Feeling

We want to show the world, that behind the romantic postcard image of the Venetian gondola, there are lots of problems and there is a risk that Venice will turn into a modern Pompeii ie, a city with no vitality or inhabitants

Of course Venice also faces the problem of rising sea levels and subsidence of the great wooden piles that make up the city’s foundations. The sinking is caused by water wells that were drilled during the 20th century, causing the foundations of the city to start to subside. While some research has found that the city has actually stopped sinking, this has not yet been confirmed. High tides flood the city centre at Saint Mark’s square regularly and climate change isn’t likely to improve the situation. Several solutions have been proposed to stop Venice from sinking, including a project to install 79 inflatable barriers that can be inflated when a high tide is predicted, keeping the water out of the city. Another plan is to pump water into the soil beneath the city to elevate it above sea level. Venice suffered with severe flooding even before the 20th century in 1604 officials introduced the first stamp tax in an endeavour to raise funds to repair flood damage.

The mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, has caused outrage by saying It is ridiculous to think that Venice’s population is decreasing. He argues that other cities such as Milan, Turin, Bologna and Florence are also losing headcount and at a higher rate than Venice. According to the members of Venessia, the population counter on display in Rialto tells another story one that could spell the end of the city’s community as soon as 2030.

The Funeral of Venice, organised by Venessia.com, is taking place on Saturday, 14 November.
The water procession will leave from Santa Lucia Station at 11.30am and will convene at Ca’ Farsetti at 12pm.
There will be a funerary oration given by Cesare Colonnese, after which the ‘Venetians Wanted’ initiative will begin.

Test Your DNA as Part of National Geographic and IBM’s Unique Genographic Project

When it comes to our roots, most of us think we know where our early ancestors came from the continent if not the country. Most people have clear ideas on their nationality and they see it as a defining part of themselves and their identity. The Genographic Project, launched by National Geographic, IBM and scientist Dr Spencer Wells, seeks to challenge what we think we know about our very distant past – and our very notions of who we are.

Studies of DNA have suggested that all humans today are descended from one group of ancestors who lived about 60,000 years ago in Africa although their migratory routes from Africa to the most far-flung parts of the globe are not clear. A DNA-testing project has just been launched to try and gain more data about the migratory history of the human species and the public is invited to participate.

It will be DNA-testing ‘indigenous’ and traditional people from around the world but it’s also asking the general public to get involved by sending in a DNA swab to be tested in IBM’s labs. To do this you need to buy a Genographic participation kit, which includes project literature and a swab to be taken from inside your mouth but, at $99.95, it doesn’t come cheap.

Who are the ‘Indigenous’ People?

The issue of where we come from was in the news after Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party, was challenged on the BBC’s Question Time to define what he meant by the ‘indigenous’ peoples of Britain. As the American playwright and British Museum trustee Bonnie Greer said on the programme, screened on 22 October: the idea of ‘indigenous’ people just doesn’t exist.

Griffin’s attempt at a definition may have had archaeologists ‘tearing their hair out’, as Madeleine Bunting points out in the Guardian, but the Genographic DNA test could provide some interesting clarity on this political question. Would Mr Griffin rethink his party’s policies if it transpired that his own ancestors originated far away from the small island called Britain? It’s worth $99 to find out.

San Diego’s Museum of Man

In San Diego’s Museum of Man, the first Genographic Project exhibit has gone on display. A giant map on the exhibition floor shows migratory patterns around the world, while the exhibition gives a full explanation of how DNA can be used to understand the interconnectedness of the human species.

To mark the exhibit opening, the project director, Dr Spencer Wells, is presenting a public lecture at the Charmaine and Maurice Kaplan Theater at the nearby San Diego Natural History Museum on 11 November at 6:30pm. The lecture is free but booking is required. Call +1 619-239-2001, ext 10 or email mtaylor@museumofman.org.

Photos by Alan1954 from the Heritage Key Flickr pool, and Tim Stahl, Stahl Photographics.

Schoolboy Tourist Finds Ancient Underwater Ruins Off Montenegro Coast

The seas off the coast of Montenegro are largely under-explored by archaeologists, but a school-boy’s discovery could put one site near the city of Bar on the archaeological map once and for all. When 16-year old Michael Le Quesne, from Buckinghamshire, was snorkelling at the bay of Maljevik in September, he came across what looked first of all like some round stones two metres below the surface.

Many people might have thought nothing of it and would have snorkelled happily on, preferring to look for fish instead. But Michael had obviously learned a thing or two about old ‘stones’ at a young age. When his father, professional archaeologist and Historic Environment Consultant at RPS Group, Charles Le Quesne, saw the rocks his son had spotted, he realised they were in fact fluted columns on plinths.

Exploration set for Spring 2010

According to Charles Le Quesne, it is much too early to say whether this is actually a Graeco-Roman port. He will be working with Dr Lucy Blue (presenter of BBC Two’s Oceans programme) and Professor David Peacock, both from the University of Southamptons Department of Maritime Archaeology, to explore the site properly in Spring 2010.

What Le Quesne can confirm about the site is that is it close to Bar, the site of the ancient port of Antibarum, which itself has not yet been thoroughly explored by archaeologists. Le Quesne said: This might be connected with quarrying of local stone for use in a monumental building there, or possibly at one of the many other Graeco-Roman sites along the coast (Ulcinj, Budva, Tivat, Risan, Cavtat). They might even be related to a nearby Fransiscan monastery (Ratac).

“On the other hand there is widespread evidence for substantial sea-level change since the Roman period with many reports of sunken coastal settlement in this area of very substantial seismic activity. He adds that there are many questions about the site that need to be addressed.

Submerged Settlements

The site was found roughly 150m off the beach at Maljevik, near Bar, and there are two areas of ancient ‘stones’, roughly 50m across, according to Mr Le Quesne. He points out that it is not clear at this stage whether the stones are in situ or not. However, he adds that in the context (a lot of Roman pottery has been found on the sea floor in the area, as well as local reports of other submerged structures in the bay) then it’s reasonable to think this could be another Graeco-Roman site.

Samples of the stone are currently being analysed by Professor Peacock at Southampton University, but early indications are that it is non-precious, local rose-coloured stone, of the same kind that was also used during medieval times in buildings in Dubrovnik and Venice.

Little is known about the Graeco-Roman town of Antibarum, which is about 3km south of Maljevik. Some objects and structures (such as an early Christian church) were uncovered during the 1970s when a modern port was built and part of the area was dredged.

Looted Shipwrecks

Numerous ancient shipwrecks – from Roman and Venetian times – have also been found off the coast of Montenegro, many of which have been severely looted. Le Quesne and the team from Southampton University hope to extend their exploration to some of these sites as well. Criminals have been robbing the sites of shipwrecks along the Montenegro coast “pretty much without restraint” according to Le Quesne. He hopes that the research and conservation project will help to address this problem and also to highlight the value of Montenegro’s heritage sites.

The project’s first task will be to create a digital inventory of sites and artefacts, including GPS mapping. The team will work with local and national authorities, as well as the Bar archaeological museum, curated by Mladen Zagaranin. Le Quesne adds that a lot of information has been gathered by local archaeologists working in Montenegro under difficult circumstances.

Le Quesne told the Telegraph that the ruins in question are unlikely to signify a major ‘lost city’, and that for now the nature of the site is a mystery: If it is a monumental building it is not going to be part of a small hamlet, but it is not a missing Atlantis, as we would already know about it. It remains a bit of a mystery. The area was an important, ancient trading route, so it may have been a port.

Photos by Mladen Zagaranin and Charles Le Quesne.

Eco Revamp Plan for Hadrian’s Wall

A management plan has been published that maps out how the World Heritage Site of Hadrian’s Wall will be conserved, researched and made accessible to visitors and local communities over the next five years.

The wall was built in the 120s AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian as the northern frontier of Roman-occupied Britannia. The site today is one of Britain’s most outstanding historical monuments; it recently came second in a list of favourite British sites as voted by the UK’s children – beaten only by Stonehenge.

It’s also of educational, environmental and economic value to many different groups of people, including archaeological researchers, conservationists, visitors and local businesses. The five-year plan sets out to provide care for the heritage site, while also providing access and opportunities for different members of the community.

One of the priorities will be the conservation of archaeological sites along the wall. Further excavation and research are also important only 0.13 per cent of the length of the wall has so far been investigated by modern experts, while just 9 per cent of the original wall is visible above ground today. Of the original 80 Mileforts dotted along the wall, the locations of just 22 of them are known.

The five-year plan also includes identifying and realising social and economic benefits that the site can bring to the local communities. According to Dr Nigel Mills, director of World Heritage and Access for Hadrians Wall Heritage Ltd, over 50 organisations, 700 private landowners and 980,000 people live or work within Hadrians Wall Country, which includes a 10-mile buffer zone on either side of the Wall.

There are many organisations and people who have an interest in the World Heritage Site but no single interest can be allowed to dominate, or the Walls unique qualities could be lost.

As part of plans to regenerate certain areas and improve environmental conservation, fuel-efficient buses could be introduced to connect sites with local bus and railway stations. There will be a focus on improving the Hadrians Wall Country Bus, the National Trail and the Hadrians Cycleway, which will provide better access to the site.

Tyneside and Carlisle have been earmarked as future ‘gateways’ to the World Heritage Site, and will benefit from investment and economic regeneration, while other market towns in the area could also benefit.

Professor Peter Stone, the Chairman of the Management Plan Committee, emphasises that there are many diverse groups of people with vested interests in Hadrian’s Wall Heritage Site. He said: There are many organisations and people who have an interest in the World Heritage Site but no single interest can be allowed to dominate, or the Walls unique qualities could be lost. Sometimes, you find everyone has to give a little bit of ground in order to move forward, but thats the best way to get something we can all live with.

Lists at the Louvre: Umberto Eco Curates ‘Mille e Tre’ Exhibition

Everyone makes them (some of us more compulsively than others): scribbled on post-it notes, or kept mentally in our imaginations we all make lists. And we’re not the only ones either; lists have been around for a long time possibly since the first writing systems and certainly since Sumerian scribes began to keep accounts in the fourth millennium BC in Mesopotamia. So what is it about the beauty of a list its numerical order, hierarchy, completeness that makes them such a part of how we like to categorise, order and understand the world?

An exhibition opening at the Louvre on 7 November may provide some insight into this intriguing subject, with its collection of lists ranging from some of the earliest known lists from Mesopotamian scribes, to modern hand-written lists from the Louvre archives. The name of the exhibition ‘Mille e Tre‘ (One thousand and three) is itself a reference to another famous list: it’s the number of Don Giovanni’s lovers in Mozart’s opera.

‘Mille e Tre‘ is part of a series of events and exhibitions at the Louvre called ‘The Vertigo of Lists‘, which is the brainchild of Italian writer and philosopher Umberto Eco. He is the latest personality to be invited to be ‘guest curator’ at the Louvre for one year and ‘The Vertigo of Lists‘ runs from 2 November to 13 December 2009.

The thinking behind this series of events is that vertigo, or dizziness, is what we feel when we are ‘faced with the impossibility of ordering our world’. Presumably Mr Eco isn’t just talking about making a shopping list here. Apparently lists also represent our need to ‘enumerate, to cite, to count, to classify, to record, to memorize’.

The exhibition Mille e Tre shows how lists have been around since antiquity: buried in tombs, naming gods or ancestors, commemorating athletes or treaties, and publicising the spoils of war. As well as a special exhibition area dedicated to Mille e Tre, other permanent exhibits at the Louvre will be specially sign-posted as part of the exhibition trail. Some of the older exhibits on display include:

A Sumerian Library Catalogue
A clay tablet dating from the start of the second millennium BC is actually a list of literary texts from a Sumerian library. It originates from Nippur (in ancient Mesopotamia, modern-day lower Iraq), which was one of the most important Sumerian cities.

An Inscribed Tablet
Mesopotamian literature was also applied to science and was used by scholars to catalogue types of plants and substances. This inscribed tablet in terracotta is an example.

The records of Thutmose III
The inscribed sandstone blocks from a wall at the Temple of Amun, Karnak, give a list of triumphs and booty brought back for the king during the reign of Thutmose III (1479-1425 BC).
The inscriptions reads: Account of booty in this town and among the troops of this miserable prince of the town of Tunip:
Prince of this town: 1
Soldiers: 3029
Silver: 100 dben (= 9 kg)
Gold: 100 dben (= 9 kg)
Lapis lazuli, turquoise and bronze vessels.

Further ancient lists can be found at the Louvre in rooms 5, 12 and 23 of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities and, in display case 16 of room 3 in the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities, in the Code of Hammurabi.

These ancient tablets contrast with some of the modern lists on display, which include notes on the backs of drawings, in notebooks, and in the form of modern artworks and conceptual art.

According to the curator of Mille e Tre, Marie-Laure Bernadac, the list is a powerful and symbolic concept for modern artists and some of the modern pieces in the exhibition include wallpaper, a list of disappeared people and a book listing all the inhabitants of the Louvre. Called ‘Les Habitants du Louvre‘, the book lists all the people who currently work at the Louvre (about 2,000 people) as well as the 2,500 artists whose work is displayed there. It is on sale at the museum bookshop.

Umberto Eco is well known for his theories on semiotics and his novel The Name of the Rose. Past guest curators at the Louvre have included Robert Badinter (French criminal lawyer and anti-death penalty campaigner), US novelist Toni Morrison, Anselm Kiefer (a German painter and sculptor) and French classical music composer Pierre Boulez.

World’s Oldest Statue to go on Show in Rome

Ancient artworks from Jordan some of them never before seen outside Petra and Amman – are going on display today at Rome’s Quirinal Palace. The star attraction at the exhibition is a statue found at the site of Ayn Ghazal near Amman dating from 7500 BC, one of the oldest surviving statues of its kind and size.

The exhibition has been organised by the President of the Italian Republic in honour of the state visit of the King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan. Sixty items will be on display in the ‘Sale delle Bandiere’ at the Palazzo del Quirinale and these will reflect the history of Jordan, from the Neolithic era to the end of the Ottoman empire.

The ‘oldest statue in the world‘, stands 84cm high and is made of white plaster encasing a cane frame. It belongs to a group of cane and plaster statues found in Ayn Ghazal in 1983. Many of the Ayn Ghazal statues, including the one on display in Rome today, have painted clothes, tattoos and features including cowrie shell eyes marked with black bitumen. Ayn Ghazal is a neolithic site in north-eastern Jordan outside Amman and was largely forgotten until development work and subsequent excavations began in the 1970s and 80s.

Other exhibits include a limestone bust of a male with a curly beard and hair wearing a pointed hat. This was found at Petra and dates from the Nabatean era during the first and second centuries AD. The Nabatean culture traded along networks of oases in the area between Syria, Arabia, the Red Sea and the Euphrates river. They were annexed to the Roman empire some time during the rule of Trajan (98-117 AD). A Roman-era pendent or cameo is also on display from the Jordan Archaeological Museum this dates from the second or third centuries AD and is made of gold and gemstone.

Whether the Ayn Ghazal statues are actually the oldest statues known to us may be a matter for debate. Earlier this year a far older ‘statue’ was found in a cave in Germany the ‘Venus’ of Hohle Fels is 35,000 years old and is believed to be the earliest known form of figurative art. However, the figure is less than 10cm high and, in my humble opinion, looks more like a roast chicken (or as Sean points out in his blog, a large molar) than any kind of ideal female form. The Ayn Ghazal figures are much bigger and more complex.

The exhibition – Jordan: a Crossroads of People and Culture is free to the public except on Sundays when the representative rooms of the presidential palace are also open and there is a charge of 5 euros. Opening hours are 10-13 and 15.30-18.30 from Tuesday to Saturday; 8.30-12 on Sundays and closed on Mondays.

An exhibition in the building opposite Palazzo del Quirinale is currently showing an excellent exhibition of Roman paintings, including impressively realistic portraits, frescoes and still-lifes. Roma: La Pittura di un Impero is showing at the Scuderie del Quirinale until January 2010.

Photos courtesy of Jordan Archaeological Museum and Petra Archaeological Museum.

Rome’s Third Metro Line Delayed Again By Archaeological Discoveries

While London’s tube had much of its 12 lines and 250 miles of track in place well before the mid 20th century, Rome is still struggling to add its third metro line. The problem is an age-old one: the metro runs deep underground and is deep enough so that the tunnels themselves do not interfere too much with Rome’s layers of buried civilisations. The stations and air vents, however, need to come to the surface and, much to the frustration of the construction company, they more often than not strike valuable archaeological areas.

The first line (the unchronologically-named line B) was completed in the 1950s, and the second (line A) followed in the 1980s after 20 slow years of archaeological digs. But what hope is there for a new line C? With a completion date set for 2015, the president of the company building the new metro line, Giovanni Ascarelli, admits that the infrastructure project is already way behind schedule.

Archaeological Finds on Line C

Several recent finds from the metro works are of great importance they were announced today at Palazzo Massimo by three archaeologists working on the project: Roberto Egidi, Mirella Serlorenzi and Fedora Filippi. They include:

an auditorium believed to have been from the age of Hadrian in piazza Venezia about five metres in front of the monument to Vittorio Emanuele;
Nero‘s Greek gymnasium near Nero’s thermal baths on Corso Vittorio Emanuele (in front of the church Sant Andrea della Valle);
traces of a canal that drained the marshy ground of the Campus Martius;
parts of the Aurelian wall built in 271 AD;
traces of machinery and equipment used in building the Colosseum;
remains of human habitation from the Eneolithic and Bronze Ages (from the fourth to the third millennia BC) near the site of Gabii.

According to Filippi, there is now enough evidence to redraw part of the map of the Campus Martius (Field of Mars the large flat area of ancient Rome between the Capitoline Hill, the Tiber and the Quirinal Hill, used at times for military training).

Work on line C began in 2006, but if the works for line A are anything to go by, Romans may not be travelling underground between Grottarossa and Pantano for quite some time yet. Line C is planned to have stations at Ottaviano (north of St Peter’s), at the Colosseum, Piazza Venezia and San Giovanni. By 2011 work is planned to begin for a fourth line D so Romans can expect to see quite a few more holes in the ground cordoned off with orange plastic nets on the route between piazza Venezia and EUR.

According to this article by Ann Wise in abcnews, the area of Largo Argentina was one of the planned metro stations for line C but these were scrapped when archaeological excavations couldn’t find a suitable space that wouldn’t damage the Roman temples currently being excavated in the area (also in the vicinity are Crypta Balbi and Pompey’s theatre).

The most important discovery in the current line C project is Hadrian’s auditorium, dating from around 135 AD and also referred to by ancient writers. During excavation work probing for space for the piazza Venezia metro station, archaeologists came across two sets of yellow marble steps. They now believe these are of the small theatre built at the emperor’s own expense.

Photos by the Superindency of Archaeological Heritage of Rome.

York University Dig Turns up Fourth Roman Skeleton

A fourth skeleton has been unearthed at the site of York University’s proposed new campus at Heslington East, 3.5 km outside the city of York. The skeleton is well preserved and was found laid with feet pointing north to south, rather than the east-west direction common in Christian burials of that time. It was discovered buried next to a less well-preserved skeleton in a separate grave.

So far little is known about the individual except that it is male. Cath Neal, Field Officer for the Heslington East archaeological project, hopes that the good condition of this skeleton will enable them to discover more about the person’s life. Isotope tests will provide more details about the diet and provenance of the person for example, traces of a Mediterranean diet might indicate that the person had travelled north to reach Roman Eboracum (the modern city of York in North Yorkshire). The skeleton is currently being cleaned and will then be sent to an osteo-archaeologist for further tests.

Coins, pottery and radio-carbon dated items found at the site indicate that it is from the third and fourth centuries AD. The site being currently excavated, which is about 3.5km outside York city centre, is very near to an old Roman road that runs between York and Brough-on-Humber (known as Cade’s road after John Cade the 18th century antiquarian who recognised it as a Roman road).

In addition to the burial, the excavators have found evidence of Roman land divisions and cobbled surfaces near to a Roman masonry building (excavated last year). Neal says: We’re thinking of it as a rural settlement for domestic use. There has been no evidence of any industry here. It is possible that constructions would have been built on top of the cobbled areas and these may have been timber structures. She adds that before the excavation began, the team had no idea that they would come across burial sites. Several roundhouses have also been discovered nearby dating from the bronze and iron ages.

This fourth skeleton and its neighbour are laid out north to south, which may indicate a non-Christian burial although Neal also points out that this could also have simply been to conveniently follow the direction of the ditch in which they

this British grey mass is far younger than the oldest Armenian brain matter which is said to be the oldest in the world, dating back 5,000 years

were buried.

This is the fourth skeleton found on this excavation. On a previous dig a skeleton was found to have suffered from anaemia and tuberculosis in life, while an iron-age skull has also been found at the site by the York Archaeological Trust this contains what is thought to be the oldest brain matter to be discovered in Britain.

Considering that the British Iron Age began in around 800 BC, then this British grey mass is far younger than the oldest Armenian brain matter which is said to be the oldest in the world, dating back 5,000 years.

The site is being excavated in preparation for the University of York’s extended campus. Neal says that prior to the dig it was a green-field site which had been arable for a very long time. She said: This is one of the opportunities that sometimes come as part of development projects. Otherwise we would not have got to excavate here.

Eboracum was founded in around 71 AD, about 10 years after the revolt of Boudica, during the reign of Vespasian. The Ninth Legion built a fortress on the north-east bank of the river Ouse and during the next 300 years the site became a permanent military base as well as a thriving civilian town.

The team working on the site are made up of members of the University of York‘s Department of Archaeology, as well as 31 volunteers including local residents, students from Archbishop Holgate’s School, York and District Metal Detecting Club and members of the Greater York Community Archaeology Project.

Photos by Unversity of York.

10 Reasons Why the Bust of Nefertiti Should Stay in the Neues Museum

At the opening of the new Neues Museum in Berlin this week, it seems that one question is on everybody’s mind – will Germany return the bust of Nefertiti to Egypt? Dr Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities may be feeling a little more confident after obtaining an agreement from the Musee du Louvre for the return of the fragments from Tetiki’s tomb recently.

There’s not much chance that Egypt would have received that reassuring phone call from President Sarkozy had the Louvre’s access to excavations at Saqqara not been threatened. These tough tactics have worked in this case.

But have they set a precedent for future discussions on other controversial artefacts housed in western European museums? Are institutions such as the British Museum going to consider returning the Rosetta Stone or the Elgin Marbles unless they stand to lose out themselves?

The Bust of Nefertiti is on display in Berlin and has been more or less ever since it was discovered in Egypt in 1913. In August this year, Dr Hawass began to stoke the fire around the discussion of this artefact’s repatriation, by saying that he would reveal some incontrovertible arguments about the legal ownership of the bust. This information was to be written in a letter to the Neues Museum – opened this week – which now houses the bust.

So the argument is now heating up nicely but what are the chances that the German museum’s curators will agree to Hawass’s demand? There are strong arguments on either side but here are some of the most often heard reasons why the German authorities should not give Nefertiti back.

1. Nefertiti cannot be moved! Well, only a little bit.

The number one reason is that the bust, made of a core of sculpted limestone and then finished with a layer of render that gives her that super-smooth look, is actually too fragile to go anywhere. The curator of the Altes Museum, Dietrich Wildung, has been quoted as saying: “It is an enormous risk to let her travel.” The museum is backed up by German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann, who has been quoted as saying: “We could never be certain that she would arrive in good health. They claim that the limestone bust with its plaster layers is very delicate and could be damaged by vibrations or changes in temperature. This argument has been slightly disproved by the fact that Nefertiti has been moved from the Altes Museum to the newly-refurbished Neues Museum. Admittedly the two museums are very close but the fact that she was moved would suggest that due care could also be taken to move her all the way to Cairo.

2. The bust belongs to us! Or does it?

The German authorities claim that they legally own the Bust of Nefertiti. However, the story of how it got to Germany doesn’t really point to an honest transaction. The German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt found the bust during excavations at El Armana between 1911-14. Apparently he then doctored a photo of the bust to make it appear in far worse condition that it actually was and also claimed it was made of plaster rather than plaster-rendered limestone. Whether Borchardt practised some deception, or whether the authorities at the time Egypt was occupied by Britain – were lax in allowing the bust to leave the country remains unclear. There is no doubt in Dr Hawass’s mind though he refers to the bust on his website as one of the world’s illegally taken treasures. The legal ownership of the statue is something that will have to be thrashed out between Dr Hawass and the curators of the Neues Museum very soon. But who was it that that possession is nine-tenths of the law?

3. The queen is a fake!

This argument seemed to distract the main debate for a while. The Swiss art historian Henri Stierlin claimed this year that the famous bust on display in Berlin is actually a copy made for Ludwig Borchardt almost 100 years ago. His theory hasn’t gained much credibility among the world of canny Egyptologists. As Keith Payne points out in his blogpost on the subject, the authenticity of the bust is about the only thing that the Egyptian and German authorities can agree upon.

4. Will she be in safe hands?

Dr Hawass would like to see it housed in the new Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza, which is due to open in 2013. If there is any truth in the argument that an Egyptian museum might not have the resources to house such a valuable artefact, I imagine this will have to be revisited once the museum is actually open. Meanwhile, the German authorities have the strong argument that their museums on Berlin’s Museum Island are some of the most modern and fully-resourced places for ancient artefacts in the world.

5. Egypt is full of antiquities surely?

I imagine that certain parts of Egypt are a bit like Rome: there is such a wealth of ancient structures and artefacts that the authorities are very hard pushed to find the money and the space to do them all justice. Many of Rome’s museums show only the very best of their collection, while many objects, which could be of interest to foreign museums, are left in storage. The same may well be true of the museums in Cairo. In the case of Nefertiti, the bust is a huge crowd-puller for Berlin’s Neues Museum (and the Altes Museum before that). She draws up to half a million visitors a year. Would the unique beauty of the bust be lost among the many remarkable Egyptian objects that are on display in Cairo?

6. Museums educate the general public

Not everyone can afford to visit ancient sites such as the pyramids of Giza or the site of El Amarna. By displaying objects from Egypt in many different museums around the world, you are providing access for millions of people to fascinating artefacts from far-flung cultures. The Rosetta Stone in the British Museum or a bust of a Roman emperor at St Petersburg’s Hermitage could inspire someone who might have no other possibility of learning about Egyptology or ancient Rome.

7. Hedge your bets

Many people also argue that it is better to disburse artefacts around the world so that if there were to be some kind of disaster or war, for example in Egypt, then all the Egyptian artefacts would not be damaged or destroyed all in one go. This is the basic ‘don’t keep all your eggs in one basket’ idea and coupled with the benefits of education and bringing objects to a wider audience, I think it’s a convincing argument although it’s also a logic that would argue against keeping an excessive number of precious objects in super-museums such as the British Museum, the Louvre and the Hermitage.

8. Talking about fakes…

While we’re on the subject of fakes, one very reasonable solution to all this repatriation palaver could be to make very convincing copies of the controversial objects in question. This is the temporary solution that allows the full Elgin Marbles frieze to be displayed at the New Acropolis Museum. Of course many would then argue that the Neues Museum can keep its fake bust, but send the real thing to Giza.

9. Money talks

Whether the bust of Nefertiti should ethically or legally be taken back to Egypt is an argument that may go on for quite a while longer. But I don’t think I’m being too cynical in saying that, in the world of modern archaeology, museum curatorship and research, money and numbers come top of most agendas. The Altes Museum was pulling in 500,000 visitors each year with Nefertiti as their most important exhibit. If the Neues Museum lost her, how many visitors would they lose and what would be the financial impact? It could also be argued that the bust on display in Berlin is a very good advert for Egyptian tourism could they also lose out financially?

10. The power of Nefertiti

Hitler once said: I will never relinquish the head of the queen. Apparently the Fuhrer was very much attached to Nefertiti and had plans to build a spectacular Egyptian museum in Berlin, in which she would be the star attraction. The dictator’s only relevance to the modern question of where Nefertiti should reside, is that his attachment typifies the power that the 3,300-year old statue has always had on those who ‘own’ her. It seems that in this tug-of-war over the queen’s head, someone is bound to get hurt. Dr Hawass is pretty confident it’s not going to be him. But I’m not so sure.

Ancient Man Was Stronger, Faster, Wittier and Better Looking

Who hasn’t watched Gladiatorand then wondered why you don’t meet men like that down the local pub? The same goes for those bulging muscles of antiquity that we see in classical art galleries they’ve often made me think that, well, they don’t make ’em like they used to. Now it turns out that what we thought all along that men in ancient times were a darn sight fitter than their modern descendants – is actually true. What’s more, it seems that ancient man was also better looking and more intelligent. This is the controversial argument that Australian author Peter McAllister sets out to prove in his latest book: Manthropology – The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male.

Being a qualified archaeologist and palaeoanthropologist, McAllister has picked out some interesting examples to make his point. One is the prehistoric aboriginal people of Australia, who McAllister claims could probably have beaten Usain Bolt to the finishing line if they had still been around to compete in last year’s Olympics.

By analysing 20,000 year-old hunters’ footprints fossilized in clay, experts have established that one of the six hunters, who were chasing animals across a soft surface, would have reached a top speed of 37 km per hour. Usain Bolt ran at 42 km per hour during his 100m sprint with all the advantages of modern training, a special running track and state-of-the-art shoes.

With modern training and techniques, McAllister believes that aboriginal man could probably outrun Bolt. He is quoted by Reuters as saying: “We can assume they are running close to their maximum if they are chasing an animal. But if they can do that speed of 37 kph on very soft ground I suspect there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does.

The List Goes On…

There are many other case studies in the book that all go to prove the point that ancient man was stronger, cleverer, quicker, more intelligent, more cunning and better looking that our modern specimens. Some of these examples include:

A biomechanical analysis that concludes that a Neanderthal woman would have beaten Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm-wrestle. Fair enough, but I’m not sure why McAllister chose Arnie here. I know he used to be Mr Universe back in the day, but surely he’s a bit past it now. Surely even I could beat Arnie in an arm wrestle these days?
A philological investigation of why 50 Cent wouldn’t have stood a chance in a battle-rap with the poet Homer. Yeah sure, but did Homer know who his homies were?
A comparison of injury rates between today’s Ultimate Fighting and ancient Greek Pankration.
An examination of the ancient Tutsi male right of passage in Rwanda, where youths would need to jump their own height to become a man. Apparently this would put our modern men’s high-jump record, set by Cuban Javier Sotomayor at 2.45m, in the shade.
Why David Beckham wouldn’t have cut it as a pin-up if he was judged by the standards of the ancient Fulani tribe. Sorry, did someone say he also plays football? We only have to look at the statues of Hadrian’s Antinous to see that male beauty was highly considered in Roman times as well.

McAllister’s arguments are convincing and engage with popular culture at the same time. They tap into the growing culture of magazines and media focusing on male health and beauty. But any men out there feeling worried that they might not compare so well with the ancients should take some consolation in remembering that what they’ve lost in hunter-gatherer speed and gladiatorial muscle tone, they gain in other areas. For one thing modern brewing techniques have come a long way, and you never saw a Greek pankratiast with an ipod.