ARCHAEOLOGY - Roman sarcophagus found after 20 years ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News This file photo shows two guards waiting in front of Roman sarcophagus in Rome. According to Britain-based The Art Newspaper, an ancient Roman alabaster sarcophagus that had been stolen more than 20 years ago from a church south of Rome was returned to Italy July 18. It came from a London-based collection of antiquities and was flown back to Rome on a cargo flight in a container reportedly displaying the official seal of the Italian Embassy in London. A special team from the cultural heritage protection division of Italy’s police force, the Guardia di Finanza, gruppo Tutela Patrimonio Archeologico, lead by Massimo Rossi, conducted the repatriation operation, reported The Art Newspaper. The sarcophagus, which dates from between the second and third centuries BC, was presented at a press conference in Rome and then returned to its hometown of Aquino, around 100 kilometers south of the capital, where it is on display in the deconsecrated Church of Santa Marta.
10 Forgotten Nations That Once Ruled The Land History Rome annihilated Carthage to ensure it would never again rise as a major threat. The Ottomans forever ended Byzantium’s glory. The vast armies of Persia were repeatedly beaten back by the Greeks, subjugated by the might of Alexander, and destroyed by the rise of Islam. 10BurgundyWestern Europe France’s greatest historical rivals are often considered to be England or Germany. We’ve previously mentioned how Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne, divided the Carolingian Empire among his sons. For a time, it seemed that fortune favored Burgundy. 9NovgorodEastern Europe The city of Novgorod, whose residents sometimes called it “Lord Novgorod the Great,” truly lived up to its name. By the 14th century, Novgorod had become one of the busiest trading ports in Europe—an estimated 400,000 people lived in the city. Sadly, this state of affairs wouldn’t last forever. Ivan III, also known as “Ivan the Great,” invaded the city in 1471, subsequently annexing it in 1478. 6MajapahitSoutheast Asia
Sami people Traditionally, the Sami have pursued a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. Their best-known means of livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding. Currently about 10% of the Sami are connected to reindeer herding and 2,800 are actively involved in herding on a full-time basis.[8] For traditional, environmental, cultural and political reasons, reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in certain regions of the Nordic countries.[9] Etymologies[edit] The first known historical mention of the Sami, naming them Fenni, was by Tacitus, about 98 CE.[13] Variants of Finn or Fenni were in wide use in ancient times, judging from the names Fenni and Phinnoi in classical Roman and Greek works. In Sweden and Finland, Lapp is common in place names, such as Lappi (Länsi-Suomen lääni) and Lapinlahti (Itä-Suomen lääni) in Finland; and Lapp (Stockholm County), Lappe (Södermanland) and Lappabo (Småland) in Sweden. Homeland of the Sámi people
Turkey to create world's largest museum of civilizations Turkey exhibits an unprecedented activity in the area of the restitution of cultural property removed from the country. The country has an excuse - the creation of the world's largest museum of civilizations. The Turks not only want to return the heritage of their ancestors, Seljuks, but also ancient artifacts of Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hittites - the cultures and peoples who once lived here. The Museum of Civilizations will be built in Ankara on the area of 25,000 square meters. Since the territory of modern Turkey was populated by a number of different cultures and different ethnic groups at different periods, the creation of the Museum of Civilizations will require a variety of artifacts, and if there is none in the country, they should be returned from abroad. Last spring, as a friendly gesture, Germany gave the Turkish Republic the statue of the Sphinx from Hattuša, the former capital of the Hittite Empire. In 1882 it was found in a field near the town of Samsat. Igor Bukker
11 Things You May Not Know About Ancient Egypt — HISTORY Lists Ancient Egypt stood as one of the world’s most advanced civilizations for nearly 3,000 years and created a culture so rich that it has spawned its own field of study. But while Egyptian art, architecture and burial methods have become enduring objects of fascination, there is still a lot you probably don’t know about these famed builders of the pyramids. From the earliest recorded peace treaty to ancient board games, find out 11 surprising facts about the Gift of the Nile. Along with King Tut, perhaps no figure is more famously associated with ancient Egypt than Cleopatra VII. But while she was born in Alexandria, Cleopatra was actually part of a long line of Greek Macedonians originally descended from Ptolemy I, one of Alexander the Great’s most trusted lieutenants. For over two centuries the Egyptians fought against the Hittite Empire for control of lands in modern day Syria. After a long day’s work along the Nile River, Egyptians often relaxed by playing board games.
Norway's monument to 91 (Sami) murdered as witches 1593-1692 His firm paid a king-sized fine for trying to sell planes to Iran. That same company was a member of the politically connected Clinton Global Initiative. An Iranian businessman accused by the U.S. government of violating sanctions on Iran donated money to the Clinton Foundation, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Vahid Alaghband’s Balli Aviation Ltd., a London-based subsidiary of the commodities trading firm Balli Group PLC, tried to sell 747 airplanes to Iran, despite a federal ban on such sales. Alaghband is one of an array of questionable actors who’ve been found in recent months to give to the Clinton Foundation. But Alaghband stands out from the rest, because the beneficiary of his firm’s deals with Tehran was an Iranian airline accused by the U.S. government of working with the regime’s foreign intelligence operatives and shipping arms and troops to Syria. On the Clinton Foundation website, Alaghband’s company is listed as a donor in the $10,001 to $25,000 bracket.
Colossal statue of Neo-Hittite warrior king found The Tayinat Archaeological Project in southeastern Turkey continues to prove itself a bonanza of Bronze and Iron Age archaeological wonders. To last year’s roaring lion sculpture that once guarded the gates of the citadel of Kunulua (aka Kinalua), capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 B.C.), we can now add the top half of a colossal statue of Patina’s warrior king Suppiluliuma. The statue is the head and torso of the king, depicted with a neatly curled beard and head of hair. His wide eyes are made of inlaid white and black stone. His arms are bent at the elbow, forearms extended and hands clenched in tight fists. The statue is almost five feet tall and intact from the waist to the top of his head, but the bottom half is missing. It’s a long inscription on the back that identifies him as the king. Experts believe this Suppiluliuma fought against the powerful Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III as part of a coalition of Syro-Hittite states in 858 B.C.
1922: The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb — in color In 1907, Egyptologist and archaeologist Howard Carter was hired by George Herbert, the 5th Earl of Carnarvon to oversee excavations in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Carter had built a reputation for scrupulously recording and preserving discoveries. Carter searched the valley for years with little to show for it, which drew the ire of his employer. Revisiting a previously abandoned dig site at a group of huts, Carter started digging again, desperate for a breakthrough. On Nov. 4, 1922, his crew discovered a step carved into the rock. On Nov. 26, with Carnarvon at his side, Carter chipped open a small breach in the corner of the doorway at the end of the stairs.
What the Sami people can teach us about adapting to climate change Elina Helander-Renvall comes from Utsjoki, a place so obscure that even many Finns have little idea where it is. Utsjoki, or Ochejohka, Uccjuuha, and Uccjokk, depending on which local language you are speaking, is Finland's northern-most municipality. Straddling the border with Norway, it shivers, unregarded, deep inside the Arctic circle, a few icy miles from the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Utsjoki, population 1,034, is home to Finland's largest concentration of Sami speakers, the indigenous people once loosely known as Lapps who have eked out an itinerant existence herding reindeer across the frozen wastes of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and western Russia since the last Ice Age. Born and raised on the margin though she was, Helander-Renvall's message these days is strictly mainstream. In order to keep a reindeer herd out of trouble, for example, a knowledge of different types of snow could be decisive, Helander-Renvall said. The Arctic as a whole faces enormous challenges.