“Today peace faces a new danger: the climate emergency, which threatens our
security, our livelihoods and our lives. That is why it is the focus of this year’s
International Day of Peace. And it’s why I am convening a Climate Action
Summit.” – UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September.
The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of
peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.
The United Nations Member States adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in
2015 because they understood that it would not be possible to build a peaceful world if
steps were not taken to achieve economic and social development for all people
everywhere, and ensure that their rights were protected. The Sustainable Goals cover a
broad range of issues, including poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change,
gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, environment and social justice.
The International Day of Peace (“Peace Day”) is observed around the world each year
on 21 September. Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution 36/37, the
General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to “commemorating and
strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples.” For
the text of the U.N. Resolution,
Furthering the Day’s mission, the General Assembly augmented the original resolution in
2001, fixing the date on 21 September. For the text of this second unanimous UN
resolution,
Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all
differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace.
News
The Getty Trust will invest $100 million in saving antiquities around the world.
The J. Paul Getty Trust will invest $100 million in the conservation of antiquities from ancient societies across the world, citing threats such as sectarian violence and climate change, officials of the Los Angeles-based organization said Tuesday.
The trust, which operates the Getty Museum, has long focused on Greek and Roman antiquities. This new program, however, is designed to expand the conservation efforts it underwrites to countries where they have not worked before, including Southeast Asia and Central and South America.
Rare and unique Cycladic antiquities unveiled in exhibition series on Greek islands this summer
According to rnos news an extensive and extremely interesting series of exhibitions have
been organised on the Cyclades islands this year by the Cyclades Ephorate of Antiquities,
according to ANA.
The exhibitions will feature many unique and rare ancient artefacts, many of which are shown to the public for the first time, as well as new creations that form a link with the past, promising to make the time of holiday-makers on the islands even more memorable. Among these are the exhibitions “From the world of Homer. Tinos and the Cyclades in the Mycenaean era” that runs between July 13 and October 14, which is being held in cooperation with the Piraeus Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) at its Museum of Marble Craft in the village of Pyrgos, Tinos. A second exhibition, entitled “Look Opposite) is to be inaugurated on July 14 at Archaeological Collection of Koufonisia and will run until September 30, 2019.
“Both exhibitions are extremely important,” noted Dimitris Athanasoulis, Director of the
Cyclades Ephorate of Antiquities, to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA). “On
the occasion of the founding of the tomb of Agia Thekla in Tinos, we have the first
exhibition for an unknown period of the Cyclades, the Mycenaean period, presenting
great and unknown material,” he added. However, the exhibition on Ano Koufonissi is
also very important, he added, as “unique discoveries from Keros and Daskalio are
revealed for the first time.”
Four-year excavations and research on the spectacular architectural findings of Kavos on
the island of Keros in the Cycladic Islands group confirmed the existence in Early
Cycladic times of a complex, stratified and technically expert society. The sanctuary at Kavos on the islet of Keros was an important regional centre for all the Cycladic Islands, the Ministry of Culture said at the conclusion of the research programme under Cambridge University.
The programme has “revealed impressive architectural remains of a significant Early
Cycladic settlement,” the ministry pointed out. Under the project, excavations were carried out on the small islet of Daskalio, originally connected to the nearby site of Kavos on Keros through a narrow strip of land. The date of Early Cycladic was confirmed scientifically, and the remains of the culture at the time include “impressive staircases, drainage pipes and stone buildings that reveal an advanced urban architecture without precedence for the specific period.”
This year’s results, the ministry announced, feature paths leading to the top of the
settlement, passing by terraces created to support buildings. “The complicated,
interlinked and multi-level architecture shows the existence of a well-organised and well-
built settlement on a steep promontory,” it added. The Daskalio buildings were mostly made of good-quality marble from Naxos island, almost 10 km north of Keros.
According to co-excavator professor Colin Renfrew, Daskalio indicates that the building
techniques that were applied, the existence of huge entrance gates, stone ladders and the
drainage pipes throughout the island show that there must have been a specialist architect
and a central administration to carry out the building programme. He said the complexity
of the construction is only comparable to Knossos on Crete for the same early period, he
said.
The ministry added that materials discovered, including the marble and obsidian, show
that the settlers were expert seamen and trade extended over a wide network reaching
beyond the Cyclades.
Co-director of the site Michael Boyd added that a unique feature of the site includes the
fact that metallurgy played a significant role throughout the life of the settlement. Its
extent and scale prove a constant replenishing of raw materials from western Cyclades
and Attica, and a social structure that trained and passed skills on to newer generations.
The fourth and last excavation period in the “Keros-Naxos Sea Roads” project took place
in September and October 2018 by Cambridge University under the aegis of the British
School at Athens and the supervision of the Antiquities Ephorate of the Cyclades,
represented by Irene Legaki. The four-year project picked up from where the previous
excavation cycle concluded in 2008 at Kavos Daskaliou.
New Sanctuary Discovered in Ancient City of Troy in Western Turkey
According daily sabah Archaeologists have discovered a new sanctuary preceding the ancient city of Troy in Turkey’s western Çanakkale province, which is expected to shed light on the details of ancient civilizations that inhabited the area.
Professor Rüstem Aslan from Çanakkale University’s Faculty of Archaeology, who leads the excavations at Troy, told the Anadolu Agency that they found the third sanctuary in the 156th excavation period.
Excavations at Troy, located near the village of Tevfikiye, were launched by Frank Calvert for the first time in 1863, Professor Aslan said, noting that the discovery of the new sanctuary is exciting as it has significant implications in terms of the history of Troy and Anatolia.
“In this year’s excavations we have come up with exciting results regarding the southern entrance to the ancient city of Troy,” Aslan said and added: “We came to the conclusion that there was a new sanctuary area in Troy especially during the Hellenistic Roman periods.”
Aslan said that the excavations prove the existence of a third sanctuary in the area.
The findings at Troy are expected to shed light on the relations of the city with the Anatolian and Hittite cultures, and its function in Western Anatolia.
2,500-year-old Persian Post Office found in Turkey’s Amasya
Archaeologists have discovered a 2,500-year-old post office from the Persian civilization during excavations at the Oluz Höyük settlement mound in the village of Toklucak in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Amasya.
Professor Şevket Dönmez, who is an academic at Istanbul University’s Archaeology Department and who leads the excavations said their excavations in the past four years focused on the Persian period layer of the mound. “A monumental road leading to a sanctuary and a linked hall with pillars have been discovered in the excavations,” Professor Dönmez said, noting that from a design perspective, the road marks the first time such a detailed design from the Iron Age Anatolia was unearthed.
Dönmez noted that the architecture centered on a fire temple, which means that the Persians replaced the religion of their predecessors, —the Greeks-. Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest extant religions, is believed to have originated from the prophet Zoroaster in what is now present-day Iran. The discovery of a temple for fire worship suggests the religion was present in Anatolia, as well.
The “pillared hall” became the center of this year’s excavations, as archaeologists believe the structure, located just a meter away from the fire temple, served as a post office for the Persians.
https://www.dailysabah.com/history/2019/08/24/2500-year-old-persian-post-office-found-in-turkeys-amasya
Dissolution of an Important Educational Center, Once a Place Where Prince Reza Pahlavi Studied
Shokooh Mirzadegi
A few weeks after the closure of the ninety “Nature Schools” by the order of the ayatollahs and the Iranian Department of Environment, the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization has ordered the dissolution of a major environmental training center.
The center which is known as the “Cultural Heritage Higher Education Center”, is located at Niavaran Palace. The center was also before the Iranian revolution where Prince Reza Pahlavi and many children of the Royal court’s staff went to school, but after the Revolution (1979) the school was taken over by Muslim revolutionaries. In 1985, the school was assigned to the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization until 1989, when with the efforts of some professors interested in cultural heritage, the school was dedicated and became a center for training specialists in the three areas of cultural heritage, handicrafts and tourism.
The Cultural Heritage Higher Education Center, unlike most government-run schools, has been able to train skilled experts in archeology, anthropology, museums, conservation and restoration work since its inception. This has been due to the fact that the teachers are knowledgeable and experts in the areas they are teaching and the subject matter.
In 2010, the head of the Ahmadinejad Cultural Heritage Organization, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, decided to dissolve the center and as a result they stopped accepting new students from 2013. With Rahim Mashaei’s departure from the Heritage Organization, and again with the efforts of the university professors, in 2015, students were again admitted to the center. But, at times, the dissolution of the center was raised by officials of the Cultural Heritage Organization, and, in contrast, many efforts were made to maintain the center. Former and present professors and students have repeatedly emphasized that Iran’s cultural heritage requires efficient and professional forces that grow in such scientific centers.
In August 2018, before Ali Asghar Mounsan was appointed head of the Cultural Heritage Organization, it seemed likely that the center would remain viable. Iran’s cultural heritage stakeholders had appealed to Tehran University to move the center under the auspices of the university and they had agreed.
However, despite all the goodwill and interest shown by Tehran University officials, this issue was dismissed due to Mounsan’s opposition to a clause in the draft agreement. The center was finally ordered to evacuate the facility in July, earlier this year.
Why did the government officials try actively to dissolve the center?
For many years the status of most universities in the country has deteriorated due to the dominance of religious laws over education in Iran. As a result the degrees in humanities subjects from Iranian universities are no longer accepted by many European and American countries and most of the advanced countries of the world. In such circumstances, the dissolution of a center which offered educational opportunities, in line with scientific standards followed and practiced internationally is truly regrettable. I have researched and contacted some of the former students and professors of the center and the staff of the Heritage Organization, and have concluded that for the Islamic State, two major reasons are sufficient to announce the end of this center:
1. The first thing that worries the Islamic State is the fact that the teaching standards were mostly based on international scientific standards. One of the leading professors of technical urbanization, architecture and restoration, Dr. Mohammad Mansour Flamaki, stated in an interview with one of Iranian outlets: “The Cultural Heritage Center is doing very well.” He stated that he believes the students at the center are different from students at other Iranian universities, and that students at are “free-thinkers”, something that he does not think exists at other universities. Mr. Flamaki added: “Students at other universities are not completely free-thinkers as they are educated under the rigors of hard, old, and untransformed education, but students at Cultural Heritage Center are nurtured and taught with different standards.”
2. Another case concerns corruption and profit driven actions which has great presence in Iran’s government and government agencies. One person close to the head of the Cultural Heritage Organization has reportedly said: “The land and the campus where the center is located have drawn attention from some high-ranking government officials and they have some plans for the area which will soon be disclosed.”
It is noteworthy that reports indicate that the reason Mounsan objected to the possible partnership between the Cultural Heritage Center and the University of Tehran was because under the partnership and agreement, the University of Tehran would have had full access to the land and the campus.
It is clear that dissolution of the center by the Rouhani government will cause tremendous loss for Iranian youth who will no longer have the opportunity to study at such exceptional center, therefore depriving Iranian cultural and historical heritage community from future skilled and trained professionals.
August 2019
Evidence of the Babylonian Conquest of Jerusalem Found in Mount Zion Excavation
Researchers digging at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s ongoing archaeological excavation on Mount Zion in Jerusalem have announced a second significant discovery from the 2019 season – clear evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city from 587/586 BCE.
The discovery is of a deposit including layers of ash, arrowheads dating from the period, as well as Iron Age potsherds, lamps and a significant piece of period jewelry – a gold and silver tassel or earring. There are also signs of a significant Iron Age structure in the associated area, but the building, beneath layers from later periods, has yet to be excavated.
The Mount Zion Archaeological Project, co-directed by UNC Charlotte professor of history Shimon Gibson, Rafi Lewis, a senior lecturer at Ashkelon Academic College and a fellow of Haifa University, and James Tabor, UNC Charlotte professor of religious studies, has been in operation for over a decade and has made numerous significant finds relating to the ancient city’s many historical periods, including the announcement made in July, 2019 on evidence concerning the sack of the city during the First Crusade. The current find is one of the oldest and perhaps the most prominent in its historical significance, as the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem is a major moment in Jewish history.
The team believes that the newly-found deposit can be dated to the specific event of the conquest because of the unique mix of artifacts and materials found — pottery and lamps, side-by-side with evidence of the Babylonian siege represented by burnt wood and ashes, and a number of Scythian-type bronze and iron arrowheads which are typical of that period.
Read more:
Inscription Found in Paleochoria Links Goddess Artemis to Amarynthos Sanctuary
A partially preserved inscription linking Artemis with the ancient town of Amarynthos was unearthed in Paleochoria, Evia, 2 km east of the modern-day town with the same
name, the Ministry of Culture said on Monday, according to ANA. The fragmentary inscription, “… of Artemis in Amarynthos”, was reused in a Roman-era fountain, confirming that the foundations of the building in Paleochoria were related to the sanctuary of the goddess Artemis, first mentioned in Linear B tablets found in the Mycenaean palace of Thebes as “a-ma-ru-to”.
The discovery was made during this season’s excavations of the sanctuary by the Swiss Archaeological School in Greece (director Karl Reber) and the Antiquities Ephorate of Evia (Amalia Karapaschalidou, honorary ephor). Excavations to locate the sanctuary began in 2006. This year’s dig focused on the Paleochora area where a modern house was razed in 2018 after a University of Thessaloniki geological survey located remains of ancient buildings next to it.
Archaeologists in Pompeii Find Amulets and Charms That May Have Been Used by Roman Sorcerer
Archaeologists in Pompeii have discovered a treasure trove of good luck charms and fertility amulets which they think may have been used for casting spells by an ancient Roman sorcerer.
The collection includes tiny carved phalluses, pieces of bone shaped as human skulls and fists, small bronze bells which would have been rung to ward off bad luck, and scarab beetles made from amethyst.
There are fertility symbols made from turquoise, pieces of crystal and amber beads from a necklace. Archeologists discovered the objects in a horde hidden in a room in the Casa del Giardino, or House of the Garden.
Glass beads are decorated with images of the god Dionysus and dancing satyrs.
The objects included tiny animal figures and a bone carved into a miniature human skull
Experts think the objects may not have belonged to the villa’s wealthy owners because the horde did not include the gold jewellery that they would have expected to have found.
Instead they think the esoteric collection belonged to a low-born Roman or even a slave who used it for casting spells and engaging in rituals linked to fertility, seduction, child birth and marriage.
They said the area in which the trove was found was probably part of the servants’ quarters. These were items “to wear on ritualistic occasions, rather than as a show of elegance,” said Massimo Osanna, the director-general of the archeological site.
They were kept in a wooden chest, the bronze hinges of which survived while the wood has long since decomposed.
Archeologists believe the objects could have been used by a Roman sorcerer to ward off evil and cast good luck spells Credit: Cesare Abbate/EPA/EFE/REX
The precious gems and decorative items were abandoned when the family and their slaves tried to flee the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79.
Many of them, if not all, did not make it – archeologists found the skeletons of 10 people, including women and children. These are objects from daily life and they are extraordinary because they tell the stories of the inhabitants of the city who tried to flee the eruption,” said Prof Osanna.
“What is particularly interesting is the recurring iconography of the objects and amulets, which invokes good luck, fertility and protection against bad fortune.
An archeologist working on a fresco found in a Roman villa in Pompeii Credit: Ciro Fusco/Ansa
“There are numerous pendants shaped like small phalluses, as well as scarab beetles and the skull. We are studying them in order to understand their exact significance and function.”
The objects are to be put on display in Pompeii in the coming weeks.
Archeologists made another surprising discovery in the House of the Garden last year – an inscription which suggested that the eruption of Mt Vesuvius happened in October AD 79, rather than August, as previously thought.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk
/news/2019/08/12/archaeologists-pompeii-find-amulets-charms-may-have-used-roman/
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition
The UN’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition reminds people of the tragedy of slave trade.
Each year the UN invites people all over the world, including educators, students, and artists, to organize events that center on the theme of this day. Theatre companies, cultural organizations, musicians, and artists take part on this day by expressing their resistance against slavery through performances that involve music, dance, and drama.
Educators promote the day by informing people about the historical events associated with slave trade, the consequences of slave trade, and to promote tolerance and human rights. Many organizations, including youth associations, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations, actively take part in the event to educate society about the negative consequences of slave trade.
Background
In late August 1791, an uprising began in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) that would have a major effect on abolishing the transatlantic slave trade. The slave rebellion in the area weakened the Caribbean colonial system, sparking an uprising Ethat led to abolishing slavery and giving the island its independence. It marked the beginning of the destruction of the slavery system, the slave trade and colonialism.
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was first celebrated in many countries, in particular in Haiti, on August 23, 1998, and in Senegal on August 23, 1999. Each year the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reminds the international community about the importance of commemorating this day. This date also pays tribute to those who worked hard to abolish slave trade and slavery throughout the world. This commitment and the actions used to fight against the system of slavery had an impact on the human rights movement.
