CAIRO – 19 April 2020: Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced a new archaeological discovery on April 18, for the first time via the internet. A shaft measuring 120 x 90 centimeters 11 meters deep has been found, at the bottom of which five sealed stone coffins/sarcophagi, four niches in a room containing wooden coffins and Late Period human burials were uncovered.

A massive anthropoid wooden coffin bearing hieroglyphs written in yellow pigment was
discovered in one of these niches.

Other objects were discovered around this coffin, including: 365 faience ushabti figurines, some of which bear hieroglyphs texts, a small wooden obelisk about 40 centimeters tall, all four of its sides bearing painted scenes depicting the goddesses Isis and Nephthys, and the god Horus; wooden statues of the god Ptah-Sokar-Osiris; three pottery canopic jars in which the viscera removed during mummification were kept, in addition to many other artifacts.

All the small artifacts were removed from the shaft so they can undergo restoration
before being stored.

The discovery is located at the sacred animal necropolis in Saqqara. In this place many
announcements of archaeological discoveries were made along the past two years, by
experts of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The most important of these discoveries were the gorgeously decorated tomb of Wahti
and the cachette of the sacred birds and animals from which many animal
mummies—some extremely rare—were brought to light.

Work began in this area in April 2018, and it is still ongoing. In April 2020, the project is
now in its third season.

On April 18 within the celebrations of the World Heritage Day, Egypt’s Ministry of
Tourism and Antiquities lit the Pyramids of Giza with the slogans launched by
International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS ) which are Shared Cultures,
Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility.

The ministry was keen to launch this event from the Giza Pyramids area as it is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Egypt’s minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enany and Egypt’s minister of
information Osama Heikal.

Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities organised a lot of events to celebrate the World
Heritage Day.

Egypt’s minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enany took us in a tour inside the
awe-inspiring tomb of Wahti in Saqqara.

Uncovered in 2018, Wahati tomb is considered one of the most important discoveries of
the decade.

The tomb belonged to a Fifth Dynasty High-Priest of ‘Purification’, making it an
especially apt and timely reminder that cleansing and protecting that which we hold dear is an innate human desire that stretches back through millennia.

World Heritage Day falls on April 18 every year. It is tailor made to increase awareness
about the vitality of cultural heritage and find ways to protect and preserve our heritage.

In 1982 the International Council of Monuments and Sites suggested celebrating heritage on April 18, and it was approved by the General Assembly of UNESCO in 1983.

Also in celebration of World Heritage Day, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
launched a drawing competition for children aged 6-12.

The children are supposed to Chose one of the seven World Heritage Sites found in
Egypt, draw a picture of it and write a short essay to describe it. Each kid will send a
photo of his/her drawing,essay and personal data on this email: moa.cultural.develop@gmail.com.

The ministry will organise an online gallery for the drawings and chose three winners.
The last day to submit the drawings is 15 May 2020.

This day is the day to celebrate your creativity and new ideas! It has been celebrated in over 46 countries since 2002. People in businesses, organizations, schools, and communities take part in this day to generate new ideas for a brighter future.

Marci Segal, a creativity specialist, came up with the idea for World Creativity and
Innovation Day. After reading a newspaper headline, “Canada in Creativity Crisis,” Segal decided to do something about it. With the help of her colleagues, she organized the first World Creativity Day to encourage people to use creativity to make the world a better place.

There are many ways to celebrate this day, so just use your imagination!

By: Simon Stephens
Material will be cared for by Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park Exeter City Council has voted to return material held by its Royal Albert Memorial Museum (Ramm) to the Siksika Nation in Canada.
The regalia, which includes a buckskin shirt, pair of leggings, a knife with feather bundle, two beaded bags and a horsewhip, once belonged to Chief Crowfoot, a Blackfoot leader in the late 19th-century.
The Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park (BCHP) made a formal request for Ramm to
repatriate the Crowfoot regalia in 2015. The BCHP visitor centre focuses on Siksika
cultural heritage and the preservation of their way of life. The area is of great spiritual
significance to the Siksika Nation and BCHP is built on the site of the signing of an
important treaty in 1877. It is also the place where Crowfoot died.
After initial dialogue with BCHP, Ramm approached Chief Ouray Crowfoot in January
2020. Chief Crowfoot, a Siksika Nation chief, confirmed that the Siksika Tribal Council,
as the elected representatives of the community, would be prepared to take ownership of the regalia.
The Siksika Nation will lend the regalia to the BCHP, which will care for the regalia.
Chief Crowfoot will visit Exeter for an official ceremony to hand over the regalia once
Covid-19 restrictions have lifted. Chief Crowfoot said: “As a direct descendant of the Great Chief Crowfoot, I am pleased that the regalia will be returned to its rightful home, the Siksika Nation. The returning of this regalia will contribute to healing and reconciliation and the Great Chief’s spirit can rest easy once all his belongings are gathered from the four corners of Mother Earth and returned back to his home.”
Councillor Rachel Sutton, Exeter City Council’s portfolio holder for climate and culture,
said: “When considering the claim for repatriation, the council recognised that the
original injustices still reverberate today with First Nation Canadians. Giving back
Crowfoot’s regalia returns control to the Siksika Nation over their cultural identity,
dignity and authority and is the right thing to do.”
The Crowfoot regalia are thought to have been acquired from Chief Crowfoot by Cecil
Denny, a British-born policeman and one of the signatories of the 1877 treaty. Crowfoot
played a key role in the treaty signing, which he believed would help protect Blackfoot
lands and traditional ways of life, but the terms of the treaty were broken by the Canadian administration. The regalia were loaned to Ramm by Denny’s sister in 1878 and the museum bought the items in 1904.

Stone artifacts painstakingly shaped into spheres were part of the daily lives of early humans for more than two million years. They have been unearthed by archaeologists in East Africa, humanity’s ancestral home, and they litter prehistoric sites across Eurasia from the Middle East to China and India. Yet experts have been puzzled by their function since the early days of research into our evolutionary history.

Now, an international team of archaeologists led by Tel Aviv University archaeologist researcher Ella Assaf, has produced evidence that these enigmatic artifacts were used for a very specific purpose: breaking the bones of large animals to extract the nutritious marrow inside.

The study, published last week in the journal PLOS ONE, highlights how an elegant technological solution that allowed hominins to increase their calorie intake endured for hundreds of thousands of years and continued to be used even as our ancestors developed new techniques and created more complex societies.

The researchers analyzed shaped stone balls, also called spheroids, found in Qesem Cave, a prehistoric site just east of the modern city of Tel Aviv that was inhabited from 400,000 to 200,000 years ago. The discovery of around 30 of these artifacts in this particular cave was a puzzle wrapped in an enigma for archaeologists. Not only did the function of the spheres remain obscure, but their presence there was considered anachronistic, because these artifacts are usually found at much older sites.

Mastery of fire

Qesem Cave was uncovered during road works in the year 2000. Since then, excavations led by Tel Aviv University archaeologists Avi Gopher and Ran Barkai has uncovered a treasure trove of hundreds of thousands of flint tools and animal bones as well as 13 hominin teeth, belonging to the as-yet-unidentified group that lived at the site. 

Whoever they were, these distant ancestors of ours were relatively ahead of their time in much of the behavior they displayed, experts say. The people of Qesem Cave (whose modern name somewhat appropriately means “magic” in Hebrew) were among the first hominins to master controlled fire to cook meat, and they learned how to preserve food for a rainy day. 

By: MICHELLE L. PRICE
According Associated Press Two Nevada men have been indicted on charges of vandalizing an archaeological site after U.S. prosecutors say the pair spray-painted rock formations in a national monument that features petroglyphs — and were caught soon after while still covered in blue paint.
Daniel Plata and Jonathan Pavon, both 25 and from Elko, are charged with conspiracy,
destruction of government property and unauthorized damage or alteration or defacement of archaeological resources, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Trutanich’s office said Monday.
Prosecutors say the men “went on a vandalism spree” while on their way to a wedding in September 2019, where they stopped at three different locations on a remote Nevada road and filmed themselves using spray paint to vandalize buildings with their nicknames “Velor” and “Cluer.”
The men then drove into the White River Narrows Archaeological District within Basin
and Range National Monument, where Pavon acted as a lookout as Plata spray-painted
two large pieces of graffiti, including one near a petroglyph, according to a court documents.
A witness reported the spray painting. When state troopers stopped Plata and Pavon soon after, the men were covered in blue paint and had over 100 cans of spray paint and painting equipment in their car, according to court documents.
The White River Narrows is a winding canyon that is home to one of the largest
concentrations of prehistoric rock art in eastern Nevada, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
The agency deferred questions about damage from the graffiti to the U.S. Justice
Department. Department spokeswoman Trisha Young says the spray paint was removed.
Plata and Pavon made initial court appearances on March 6, prosecutors said.
The men do not yet have listed attorneys to comment on their behalf or publicly listed
phone numbers where they could be reached for comment.

As we recognize the courage of human rights defenders everywhere, let us commit to protect those who seek truth and justice, and provide victims with effective remedies and restore their dignity.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres

The Right to the Truth
The right to the truth is often invoked in the context of gross violations of human rights
and grave breaches of humanitarian law. The relatives of victims of summary executions, enforced disappearance, missing persons, abducted children, torture, require to know what happened to them. The right to the truth implies knowing the full and complete truth as to the events that transpired, their specific circumstances, and who participated in them, including knowing the circumstances in which the violations took place, as well as the reasons for them.

Background
On 21 December 2010, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 March as
the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights
Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.

The date was chosen because on 24 March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero of
El Salvador was assassinated, after denouncing violations of human rights.

In a study conducted in 2006 the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
concluded that the right to the truth about gross human rights violations and serious
violations of human rights law is an inalienable and autonomous right, linked to the duty
and obligation of the State to protect and guarantee human rights, to conduct effective
investigations and to guarantee effective remedy and reparations.

The study affirms that the right to the truth implies knowing the full and complete truth as to the events that transpired, their specific circumstances, and who participated in them, including knowing the circumstances in which the violations took place, as well as the reasons for them.

In a 2009 report on the Right to the Truth , the Office of the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights identified best practices for the effective implementation of this right, in
particular practices relating to archives and records concerning gross violations of human rights, and programmes on the protection of witnesses and other persons involved in trials connected with such violations.

The Commission on the Truth for El Salvador was established in accordance with the
Mexico Agreements of 27 April 1991 to investigate serious acts of violence that had
occurred since 1980 and whose impact on society was deemed to require an urgent public knowledge of the truth. In its report of 15 March 1993 , the Commission documented the facts of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero by pro-government forces, the so-called “death squads”. He was shot dead by an assassin as he celebrated mass on 24 March 1980.

Dearest Rosemary,
It was a limpid dreary day, hung as in a basket from a single dull star. I thank you for your letter. Outside, I perceive what may be a collection of fallen leaves tussling against a trash can. It rings like jazz to my ears. The streets are that empty. It seems as though the bulk of the city has retreated to their quarters, rightfully so. At this time, it seems very poignant to avoid all public spaces. Even the bars, as I told Hemingway, but to that he punched me in the stomach, to which I asked if he had washed his hands. He hadn’t. He is much the denier, that one. Why, he considers the virus to be just influenza. I’m curious of his sources.

The officials have alerted us to ensure we have a month’s worth of necessities. Zelda and I have stocked up on red wine, whiskey, rum, vermouth, absinthe, white wine, sherry, gin, and lord, if we need it, brandy. Please pray for us.

You should see the square, oh, it is terrible. I weep for the damned eventualities this
future brings. The long afternoons rolling forward slowly on the ever-slick bottomless
highball. Z. says it’s no excuse to drink, but I just can’t seem to steady my hand.

In the distance, from my brooding perch, the shoreline is cloaked in a dull haze where I
can discern an unremitting penance that has been heading this way for a long, long while. And yet, amongst the cracked cloudline of an evening’s cast, I focus on a single strain of light, calling me forth to believe in a better tomorrow.

Faithfully yours,
F Scott Fitzgerald