Tag: Middle East

Ticket sale starts for ‘Secrets of the Silk Road’ at the Penn Museum – Exhibition Preview

We all know the face of the Xiaohe Beauty, but what about the Yingpan Man? His clothed mummy - excavated at Yingpan, China - dates to the 3rd to 4th century AD. - Image copyright Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology Tickets go on sale today for “Secrets of the Silk Road” a landmark exhibition from China making its only East Coast stop at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) in Philadelphia February 5 through June 5, 2011. The exhibition aims to reflect the wide extent of the Silk Road trade and cultural interchange (see some of the highlights in this slideshow).

Despite of what its name suggests, the Silk Road isn’t one single route. Rather, it is an extensive interconnected network of maritime and overland trade routes extending from Southern Europe through The Arabian Peninsula, Somalia, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Java-Indonesia, and Vietnam until it reaches China.

This travelling exhibition of materials from half way around the world is opening new doors providing visitors with an unparalleled opportunity to come face to face, literally, with life in East Central Asia, both before and after the formation of the fabled Silk Routes, noted Victor Mair, University of Pennsylvania scholar, and curatorial consultant and catalogue editor for the exhibition.

‘Secrets of the Silk Road’ Preview

Click one of the images to see a larger photograph.

The Secret of Silk

Although recent archaeological evidence a small ivory cup carved with a silkworm design as well as spinning tools, silk thread and fabric fragments is dated to between 4000 and 5000 BC,it is still generally assumedsilk production started in China somewherein thelate 4th millennium BC.

About 500 years later, the domestication of pack animals (we wouldn’t learn to ride until the 1st millennium BC) and the development of shipping technology increased the capacity for prehistoric peoples to carry heavier loads over greater distances; trade started to develop rapidly.

It were not just goods that were exchanged along the first trade routes. Over the centuries, many different peoples controlled parts of the Silk Routes, all using it to spread their technology, ideas, believes and art.

Even before the 1st century AD, the earliest evidence ofsilk reaching Rome, Alexander the Great took the Greek culture into Central AsiawithGraeco-Buddhism as result.

Yet the well-guarded secret of sericulture or silk production did not spread at all.(Recent research does show the possibility that silk production started independently in the Indus Valley, around 2000BC.)

Roman historian Pliny the Elder wrote in his Natural History in 70 BC that “silk was obtained by removing the down from the leaves with the help of water”.

The secret of silk production reached the Middle East only in the 6th century AD, when two monks appeared at Emperor Justinian’s court hiding silkworm eggs in their hollow sticks.

And Europe? It wasn’t until the 13th century that Italy began that Italy began silk production with the introduction of 2000 skilled silk weavers from Constantinople (once Byzantium, modern day Istanbul).

Even then, high-quality silk textiles woven in China would continue to be highly valued in the West, and the trade along the Silk Route continued as before.

TheBeauty of Xiaohe

The appearance of the 3,800 year old Beauty of Xiaohe, one of two strikingly well preserved ‘caucasian’Tarim mummies and their associated artefacts travelling from China, makes “Secrets of the Silk Road” an exhibition that reaches back well beyond the historic period of the Silk Road to tell a tale of long-forgotten peoples and cultures along the worlds legendary trading route.

Tall in stature and fair in complexion, the Beauty was excavated in 2003 (listed as one ofour’Top 10 Most Important Archaeology Finds in China… ever‘). She is one of hundreds of spectacularly preserved mummies, many with surprisingly Eastern European and Mediterranean features, buried in the harsh desert sands of the vast Tarim Basin of Central Asia, in the Far Western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

The Beauty of Xiaohe, will be shown along with a bundled baby mummy dated to the 8th century BC, and the complete trappings of Yingpan Man, a six-foot six-inch mummy, from the 3rd to 4th centuries AD.

The Wide Extent of the Silk Road

Besides the mummies, the exhibition features a wide range of objects, 700 to 3,800 years. Objects include well-preserved clothing, textiles, jewellery, gem-encrusted gold vessels, wood and bone implements, coins and documents even preserved foods (2,500-year-old fried dough and flower-shaped desserts).

Organized by the Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, California in association with the Archaeological Institute of Xinjiang and the Urumqi Museum, “Secrets of the Silk Road” began its U.S. tour at the Bowers Museum (March 27 to July 25) before traveling to the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences, where it is on view through January 2, 2011.

Timed tickets for the Secrets of the Silk Road exhibition at the Penn Museum can be purchased online at www.penn.museum/silkroad or by phone: (877)77-CLICK. Discounted group tickets are available by phone: (215)746-8183, or by email: grouptickets@museum.upenn.edu.

Teacher programs, including a Thursday, November 4 Educators’ Evening, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, are available through the Museum’s Community Engagement Office: (215)898-4015. Teacher materials will be available online starting December 15.

Cyrus Cylinder row resolved: ‘Ancient declaration of human rights’ to visit Iran

The Cyrus Cylinder will go on loan to Tehran, Iran The British Museum has announced that it is lending the Cyrus Cylinder to the National Museum of Iran. Together with two fragments of contemporary cuneiform tablets, it will be the centrepiece of an exhibition that celebrates a great moment in the history of the Middle East.

The artefact which is described as ‘an ancient declaration of human rights’ by the United Nations was originally due to arrive in Iran in September 2009. At that time, the British Museum cited the ‘political situation’ in post-election Iran as the reason for the delay. In August this year, the loan was once again delayed, prompting Iran’s Cultural Heritage Organisation to declare it would cut all ties with the British Museum.

In a statement released today, the British Museum said that although political relations between Iran and the UK are at the moment difficult, the Cyrus Cylinder will after all be send to Tehran, where it will be on display for four months.

One of the chief tasks of our generation is to build a global community, where peoples of differing ideologies can live together in respect and harmony, said Karen Armstrong, author and commentator on religious affairs and a British Museum Trustee.

At a time of political tension, it is essential to keep as many doors of communication open as possible. We all have much work to do to build a peaceful world. This cultural exchange may make a small but timely contribution towards the creation of better relations between the West and Iran.

Objects are uniquely able to speak across time and space and this object must be shared as widely as possible.

In 2004, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, wrote in ‘The whole world in our hands’ that the Cylinder may indeed be a document of human rights, and clearly linked with the history of Iran, but that it is in no real sense an Iranian document: it is part of a much larger history of the ancient Near East, of Mesopotamian kingship, and of the Jewish diaspora. According to McGregor, it is one of the British Museum’s tasks to resist the narrowing of the object’s meaning and its appropriation to one political agenda.

The two fragments of tablet that will accompany the Cylinder were also found in nineteenth century British Museum excavations in or near Babylon.

These fragments were identified by experts at the Museum earlier this year as being inscribed with parts of the same text as the Cylinder but do not belong to it. They show that the text of the Cylinder was probably a proclamation that was widely distributed across the Persian Empire.

Originally, the Cylinder was inscribed in cuneiform and buried in the foundations of a wall after Cyrus the Great, the Persian Emperor, captured Babylon in 539 BC. It stayed buried there until it wasdiscovered by an excavation team from theBritish Museumin 1879, which brought the ancient document to England. Cyrus’ Cylinder has been in London ever since.

The clay document records that, aided by the god Marduk, Cyrus captured Babylon without a fight. According to Cyrus (this part of the document is written as he himself is speaking)he abolished the labour-service of Babylon’s free population and restored shrines dedicated to Marduk and other gods. He also repatriated deported peoples who had been brought to Babylon; the decree that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild The Temple.

It is because of these enlightened acts, which were reasonably rare in antiquity (and quite the opposite of Nebuchadnezzar’s behaviour), that the Cylinder has become a symbol of tolerance and respect for different peoples and different faiths.

You could almost say that the Cyrus Cylinder is A History of the Middle East in one object and it is a link to a past which we all share and to a key moment in history that has shaped the world around us, comments MacGregor, referencing the museum’s ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ project.

Objects are uniquely able to speak across time and space and this object must be shared as widely as possible, he adds.

It does make you wonder. If this is true, shouldn’t the Elgin Marbles be allowed to have their s(t)ay in Greece?

World’s Oldest Leather Shoe Discovered in Armenia

A 5,500-year-old leather shoe has been found in a cave in Armenia. The shoe 1,000 years older than Giza’s Great Pyramid and 400 years older than Stonehenge is perfectly preserved and was found complete with shoelaces. It is believed to be the oldest example of enclosed leather footwear, out-dating the shoes worn by Otzi the Iceman by a few hundred years.

The shoe is sole-less, made out of a single piece of cow hide and was shaped to the wearer’s right foot. It contained grass, which might have served to either keep the foot warm or to maintain the shape of the shoe. It is not known whether the shoe 24.5cm long and a European size 37 belonged to a man or a woman, though it would have been ideal for a male of that era.

The shoe is similar to the ‘pampootsies’ worn until the 1950s on Irelands Aran Islands. In fact, enormous similarities exist between manufacturing technique and style of this shoe and those found across Europe at later periods, suggesting that this type of shoe was worn for thousands of years across a large and environmentally diverse geographic region, said Dr Ron Pinhasi of Cork University.

We couldn’t believe the discovery. The crusts had sealed the artefacts and archaeological deposits and artefacts remained fresh dried, just like they were put in a can.

Such a well-preserved artifact from a Middle Eastern archaeological site is considered an amazing find because organic materials usually deteriorate due to the high content of salts and fungi in the soil, as well as fluctuations in temperature and humidity.

The discovery was made in Vayotz Dzor province on Armenias border with Iran and Turkey by Diana Zardaryan of Armenias Institute of Archaeology. I was amazed to find that even the shoelaces were preserved, she said.

The stable, cool and dry conditions in the Areni-1cave resulted in the exceptional preservation of the shoe and other objects. Other finds included large containers, many of which held well-preserved wheat, barley, apricots and other edible foodstuffs.

Click the images to see them inlarge size

A thick layer of sheep dung covered the floor of the cave, sealing the artefacts and archaeological deposits and further assisting preservation. Other discoveries included a broken pot, fishbones and sheep’s horns.

We couldn’t believe the discovery, said the dig’s co-director Gregory Areshian, part of an international team of archaeologists working at the site. The crusts had sealed the artefacts and archaeological deposits and artefacts remained fresh dried, just like they were put in a can.

Both the shoe and the grass samples were shown to be the same age, and dated to the Chalcolithic period, about 3500BC.

While the Armenian discovery is believed to be the oldest recorded example of a leather shoe and the oldest Eurasian shoe it is not the oldest known footwear. Predating the shoe by as many as 2,000 years are a moccasin made of plant material and a pair of leather sandals discovered in the 1970s in a cave in Missouri.

Leather sandals of a similar age to the Areni-1 shoe were found in a cave in Israels Judean Desert but these were never directly dated. Rather, their age is based on various other associated artefacts found in the Cave of the Warriors.

The archaeologists have not yet identified the purpose of the cave.”We know that there are children’s graves at the back of the cave but so little is known about this period that we cannot say with any certainty why all these different objects were found together,” said Dr Pinhasi.The international team will continue to excavate the many chambers of the cave.

The same team last year announced the find ofthe ‘world’s oldest human brain’ at the Areni-1 site, a 9 by 7 centimetres brain fragment, possible evidence of ceremonial cannibalism as well as a large number of vessels and grapevine shoots (possibly the ‘world’s oldest commercial winery’).

Further details on the study of the Areni-1shoeare published in the online scientific journal PloS ONE as First Direct Evidence of Chalcolithic Footwear from the Near Eastern Highlands.

Who Has Conquered the Middle East throughout History? Mapsofwar’s Interactive Map

My generation has grown up almost exclusively exposed to war in the Middle East. Two wars in Iraq, one in Afghanistan and countless battles between neighbouring nations in the region. The Middle East has been a battleground since time began – and now you can see exactly who has conquered it through the ages with mapsofwar.com‘s great-looking 90 second walkthrough.

The map begins in 3,000 BC with the invention of the Egyptian Empire – though there’s no mention of the Sumerian states which comprised the Cradle of Civilization – and shows the spread of the Hittites, Israelis, Assyrians and Babylonians before Cyrus the Great’s Persians swept all in their path, forging an empire which stretched from Libya and Greece to Syria from 550 to 330 BC.

Alexander the Great – Heritage Key’s ancient election 2010 victor – then wiped out Persian resistance, establishing Hellenistic rule from his native Macedon to Pakistan. Alexander’s mighty empire would soon collapse under civil and economic unrest, and the Roman Empire controlled the Mediterranean as far east as the Persian Gulf.

The Byzantines and Sassanids then conquered various parts of the Middle East, until the rise of Islam resulted in the Caliphate around the 6th and 7th centuries AD. Great leaders such as Saladin and, of course, Genghis Khan, then stamped their mark on the continent before the Middle East moved out of the ancient period. The map is a great way to see how the world’s greatest empires have evolved over time. Let’s face it: there are much worse ways to spend 90 seconds!

Dr. Zahi meets President Obama – Video

One can’t ‘tour’ the Middle East and visit Egypt without having seen the pyramids.And if you happen to be the President of the United States of America, you get the VIPtreatement: Dr.Zahi Hawass as a guide for an exclusive guided visit in the pyramids and tombs. A comment by Kate Burgess on Dr.Zahi’s facebook profile reads: ‘President Obama was so lucky to have you as his guide.‘ Areversed world?;) Watch the video here on drhawass.com, or click play: