According sofia globe Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a
previously-unknown 14th-century aristocrat, a descendant of the Byzantine Palaiologos
dynasty, at the Kaliakra fortress on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, the National History Museum said on August 15.
The tomb was found by a team headed by the National History Museum’s director,
Associate Professor Boni Petrunova, who has led digs at the Kaliakra site since 2004.
Previous excavations have yielded many other rich tombs of Kaliakra noblemen, but this
was the first time that archaeologists found a descendant of the Palaiologos dynasty,
identified as Georgi Palaiologos.
Although there were no other historical records of this person, archaeologists believed
that he could have been a relative of Balik and Dobrotitsa, who ruled the independent
Despotate of Dobroudja – with Kaliakra as its capital – in the middle of the 14th century.
The tomb featured rich burial gifts, including luxurious fabric to cover his face and a
glass vessel. Most notably, archaeologists found a massive gold signet ring with the
nobleman’s name and the Palaiologos family crest, which allowed to identify the
aristocrat, the museum said.
The digs, funded this year by grants from the Culture Ministry and Kavarna municipality,
are scheduled to continue until the end of the month.
Last year’s digs at Kaliakra also yielded a major discovery of hundreds of gold and silver
coins, with the museum planning to publish a catalogue of the findings later this year.
News
90 Environmental Schools Have Been Closed By The Islamic Government
Early this week, Isa Kalantari, the director of Iran’s Department of Environment, called the continuation of “environmental schools” illegal, cancelling their licenses and preventing them from continuing operation. Since last year in fact, half of these environmental schools have
been closed by the Islamic government and permits for opening new schools, granted in the past, have also been revoked.
Kalantari has stated the reason for the suspension of these schools as “religious” or due to a lack of religious teachings or for connections to the Tudeh Party.1 Nature or environmental schools were centers that had nothing to do with the Tudeh Party,
working solely to educate children and adolescents about life skills and to familiarize them with environmental issues. These schools, which started operation in 2014, were founded by Dr. Abdolhossein Vahabzadeh, along with a number of other Iranian environmental experts and activists who cared deeply about environmental issues. Dr. Vahabzadeh is a prominent Iranian environmental scientist who completed his studies in environmental sciences at U.S. universities and has been teaching for the last 40 years.
Families agreeable to the establishment of these schools alongside interest from students to learn more about the environment and to become more environmentally friendly have led to the establishment of more than 90 “nature schools” in various provinces of Iran within the last three years.
It is clear that the popularity of these nature schools has angered the Friday Prayer Imams and other religious authorities. In these schools, compulsory religious studies which have been the hallmark of public and private education in Iran for the last 40 years were not taught. Children and adolescents spent their time learning about nature and the environment instead of going to mosques and listening to boring religious lessons.
At the same time, it should be noted that 2017 marked the culmination of an onslaught by the ruling regime on environmentalists, through the death of prominent figures like Dr. Kavous Seyed-Emami in prison in 2018, as well as the imprisonment and torture of hundreds of environmental experts, some of whom continue their work and activities while in prison.
In fact, 2017 has been the year in which the role that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the military play in attacking Iranian environmentalists and preventing their efforts has been revealed. This is most likely due to the fact that the government’s illegal nuclear operations could be exposed.
(1) The Tudeh Party was the name of the pro-Soviet communists who began their activity in Iran in 1941. The party was outlawed before the Islamic Revolution (1979); however, during the revolution it re-emerged. Unlike other socialist groups that were initially
separated from Muslim revolutionaries, whose members were mostly arrested by the
government and frequently sentenced to death, the Tudeh party had the full support of
the Islamic State. In fact, they worked closely with the government, advising and guiding
them on different issues, until they were also disbanded and announced illegal in early
1981.
August 17, 2019
Rare Stamp Discovered by Archaeologists
Archaeologists have discovered a rare stamp and statues belonging to the ancient Turkic Ashina tribe in Mongolia, reports said Saturday.
The discovery was made during excavations in Shiveet Ulan, led by the Turkic World Educational and Scientific Cooperation Organization (TWESCO). TWESCO President Darhan Kıdırali said significant archaeological findings have been made in the area since 2014.
“Numerous unique stones with stamps belonging to the Ashina Khagan tribe, as well as
lion statues were found in the excavations,” Kıdırali told the Anadolu Agency.
He noted that the statue is well-preserved and is a rare find. Kıdırali also noted that other findings in the area suggest the area had been used as a monument for a khagan and that they will continue to work to identify more details about it.
Archaeological excavations are also being carried out near Kerulen region, with many
artifacts suggesting that the region had been one of the holy lands of the Turkic tribes
during the Göktürk period.
The first Turkic people, who referred to themselves as Turks were the Göktürks, who
appeared in the 6 th century AD.
Record-breaking year for the Louvre with more than 10 million visitors in 2018
Not only is the Louvre the most visited museum in the world, but it welcomed more than ten million visitors in 2018 — an unprecedented figure for an international museum,
according to its management.
“For the first time in its history, and I think for the first time in the history of museums, more than ten million visitors visited the Louvre in 2018,” Jean-Luc Martinez, President and CEO of the Louvre , said on Thursday.
With 10.2 million visitors last year, the Louvre recorded a 25 percent increase compared
to 2017 (8.1 million) and broke its own attendance record (9.7 million in 2012).
In 2017, the Louvre was followed by the National Museum of China with 8 million
visitors, followed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (7.3).
Were These 3,500-Year-Old Carvings of Nude Women Used As Ancient Fertility Drug?
By Owen Jarus
An inscribed ancient Egyptian scarab and five clay tablets with carvings of naked women have been found in Rehob, a 3,500-year-old city in Israel.
The carvings likely depict ancient fertility goddesses, such as Asherah or Ashtarte, Amihai Mazar, an archaeology professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Live Science. “[They] were used at home, as part of popular domestic religious practice in the domestic sphere, mainly related to fertility of women,” Mazar said in an email, noting that similar carvings have been found at other archaeological sites in the region.
The excavation showed that Rehob (known today as Tel Rehov) was founded about 3,500 years ago, and the city flourished at a time when Egypt controlled much of the region. Rehob was constructed near Beth Shean, a town protected by an Egyptian garrison, Mazar and Davidovich wrote in the journal article. [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]
A carving found during excavations may show a fertility goddess.
Credit: Gabi Laron/Tel Rehov excavations, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
An inscribed ancient Egyptian scarab and five clay tablets with carvings of naked women have been found in Rehob, a 3,500-year-old city in Israel.
The carvings likely depict ancient fertility goddesses, such as Asherah or Ashtarte, Amihai Mazar, an archaeology professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told Live Science. “[They] were used at home, as part of popular domestic religious practice in the domestic sphere, mainly related to fertility of women,” Mazar said in an email, noting that similar carvings have been found at other archaeological sites in the region.
The excavation showed that Rehob (known today as Tel Rehov) was founded about 3,500 years ago, and the city flourished at a time when Egypt controlled much of the region. Rehob was constructed near Beth Shean, a town protected by an Egyptian garrison, Mazar and Davidovich wrote in the journal article. [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]
Mazar and Uri Davidovich, a lecturer at the same institution, detailed their findings in a paper published recently in the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.
Made of a mineral called steatite, the scarab contains a hieroglyphic inscription saying that it was created for a deceased man named “Amenemhat,” who was “scribe of the house of the overseer of sealed items,” according to Arlette David’s translation of the inscription.
The “sealed items” referred to in the title represent various products and raw materials dealt with by the administration,” wrote David, an archaeology lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the appendix of the journal article.
It’s a mystery who exactly this individual was and what the scarab was doing in the building where it was found. “Since there is no other attestation of an Amenemhat ‘scribe of the house of the overseer of sealed items,’ we don’t know anything else about him, including where he was buried,” David told Live Science in an email. [Photos: Mummies Discovered in Tombs in Ancient Egyptian City]
David noted that it’s possible that Amenemhat never lived in or visited Rehob and the scarab may have been used in Rehob as a reminder of Egypt’s control over the area.
Mysterious structure
The scarab and two of the carvings were found within a large structure whose purpose and total size are unknown. It hasn’t been fully excavated yet, but it “appears to have been a large and elaborate public structure. Its wide walls, arrangement of buttresses, spacious courtyard with a large hall to its south, deep foundations, and massive constructional fills all attest to its non-domestic nature,” Mazar and Davidovich wrote.
More research needs to be done to determine what exactly it was used for. It could be part of a palace, administrative building or an elite person’s residence, Mazar and Davidovich wrote.
https://www.livescience.com/
Archaeologists uncover lost mound at historic Native American site in Mississippi
By natchez.democrat
Until recently only three mounds were known to exist at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians historic site.
Recent archaeological studies of the land reveal new secrets to the ceremonial site of mound-building Native Americans in Southwest Mississippi.
The face of the Grand Village has changed over centuries of erosion, plowing and other work done on the site, Grand Village director Lance Harris said, adding ongoing archaeological studies may change the Grand Village once again — this time restoring some of what was lost.
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Thursday evening, Vin Steponaitis, a professor of archaeology and anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, presented maps from the early 1700s that show a cluster of at least five mounds on the Grand Village site where only three mounds are still visible today.
“There are two missing mounds here that there’s bound to be evidence of, somewhere,” Steponaitis said.
Steponaitis said some maps and early writings reference structures sitting on top of Mounds B and C, including a house for the Natchez chief and a Natchez temple, while mound A is believed to have been abandoned before the Natchez Indians ever arrived.
In 1730, the French Colonial militia laid siege to the Natchez village and took refuge in forts on St. Catherine’s Creek, Steponaitis said.
The French may have repurposed the temple mound as a military headquarters and used an adjacent mound where an “old temple” stood as a field hospital for the wounded, Steponaitis said.
The National Park Service recently awarded an American Battlefield Protection Program grant for the University of Mississippi Center for Archaeological Research in collaboration with the Grand Village to do an extensive study on the site.
Tony Boudreaux, the director of the Center for Archaeological Research and associate professor of anthropology and the University of Mississippi, said he and a team of archaeologists used radar sensors that send signals into the ground to locate anomalies in the soil.
During this study, Boudreaux said he was able to pinpoint where one of the mounds might be, and after some digging found marble-like patterns in the dirt that resemble areas where natives may have dislocated earth from one area and dumped it in a new location — which they would have done to construct a mound.
“We think we have found the northernmost missing mound,” Boudreaux said.
Harris said The Grand Village is fundraising to expand its facility to better accommodate visitors and tell the story of the original Natchezians as some of the information that the center currently displays has changed.
“We plan to use this information,” Harris said. “It’s not just something we’re going to take and stick on a shelf somewhere, talk about it every now and again and then forget about it. That is not the case at all. We have some exciting plans for the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians.”
Harris said the Grand Village is working on an approximately $6 million development plan that would increase the visitor capacity for the museum and auditorium, revamp welcome signs leading into the Grand Village and perhaps re-create structures that once stood on top of the mounds.
After further studies at the Grand Village, Harris said ghost mounds, or markers, could be used to depict where the missing mounds were located.
A new virtual reality exhibit could open later this year, Harris said, which would also depict missing features on the site.
“There are powerful, powerful stories here,” Harris said. “The story of colonization and the story of conflicts with the French colonists sits right here at the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians. It’s an exciting story that I’m looking forward to telling in the future.”
International Day of Friendship
The original idea for a day of friendship came from Hallmark cards in the 1930’s. Originally celebrated on 2nd August, the day was largely viewed cynically by the public as a money making exercise, sales of friendship day cards did not take off in Europe and by the mid-1940’s the day had faded into obscurity in the USA. The idea of a day to honour friendship was, however, adopted by a number of countries in Asia where it remained a popular custom to reserve a day for celebrating friendships and the exchange of gifts between friends.
World Friendship Day was proposed for 30 July 1958 by the World Friendship Crusade, an international civil organisation that campaigns to foster a culture of peace through friendship. Many years later, in 2011, the 30th July was declared as the International Day of Friendship by the General Assembly of United Nations.
World Friendship day and International Day of Friendshiponline as well as with community activities in local communities aimed at bringing those of different backgrounds together.
UNESCO labels Sundarbans of Bangladesh “World Heritage in Danger”
The World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared largest mangrove forest on earth, the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, as a “World Heritage in Danger” site. UNESCO also discussed the future of this World Heritage site during their meeting in Azerbaijan.
The List of World Heritage in Danger is compiled by UNESCO through the World Heritage
Committee according to Article 11.4 of the World Heritage Convention, which was established in 1972 in order to designate and manage World Heritage Sites. Entries in the list are threatened World Heritage Sites for the conservation of which major operations are required and for which “assistance has been requested”. The list is intended to increase international awareness of the threats and to encourage counteractive measures by the officials of the country and/or other international experts. Threats to a site can be either proven imminent threats or potential dangers that could have adverse effects on a
site.
In the case of natural sites, determined dangers include the serious decline in the population of an endangered or other valuable species or the deterioration of natural beauty or scientific value of a property caused by human activities such as logging, pollution, settlement, mining, agriculture and major public works. Established threats for cultural properties include serious deterioration of materials, structure, ornaments or architectural coherence and the loss of historical authenticity or cultural significance. Potential dangers for both cultural and natural sites include development projects,
armed conflicts, insufficient management systems or changes in the legal protective status of the properties. In the case of cultural sites, gradual changes due to geology, climate or environment can also be potential dangers based on description of UNESCO.
Some other sites on this list include Ancient cities of Aleppo and Bosra which have experienced major destruction during years of war and conflict with the so called Islamic State and Syria’s civil war.
You can learn more about these sites on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger page
UNESCO Adds 29 New World Heritage Sites
In 2018, the United Nation’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) inscribed 20 new sites to its World Heritage List. However, early this month, July 2019, more sites were added to the list. UNESCO added 29 more to the list of global landmarks deemed to have “outstanding universal value”.
Now places like Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland and Jaipur City in Rajasthan, India, are on the list of global cultural and natural sites that includes such famous destinations as the Palace of Versailles in France and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
UNESCO held its 43rd World Heritage Committee session in Baku, Azerbaijan, from June 30 to July 10 this year. During the conference, representatives from 21 member states approved a list of 29 sites, which were nominated by their countries. Each site added must meet at least one of 10 criteria, such as containing superlative natural phenomena, representing a masterpiece of human creative genius, or a unique cultural tradition.
Here are some examples:
The picturesque hills of Italy’s prosecco sparkling wine region in Valdobbiadene
About 40 miles north of Venice, Italy’s prosecco production area in the hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene is the second wine region in the country to be recognized by UNESCO. (Piedmont was added to the list in 2014.) It is also officially Italy’s 55th site on the list, tying it with China as the country with the most UNESCO World Heritage sites. Since the 17th century, wine producers have grown grapes for sparkling wine on the area’s rugged hills in small plots of vines on narrow terraces—known as ciglioni—giving the region a unique and picturesque look.
Another site is Bagan, Myanmar, where Buddhist monks walk around the sacred Shwezigon Paya, a pagoda in Bagan. From temples and stupas to archaeological remains and sculptures, this landscape of monumental Buddhist architecture in the central plain of Myanmar is only the second location in the country to be added to the World Heritage List. (UNESCO inscribed the Pyu Ancient Cities, the remains of three walled cities in the Ayeyarwady River basin, in 2014.) Created from a variety of materials
including stone, brick, and the gleaming gold of the Shwezigon Pagoda, the area’s emples show the range that the Bagan civilization was able to build when it was at its peak between the 11th and 13th centuries.
If you are looking for a site closer to home, the 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, in the United States is among the new additions. Fallingwater house is one of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that were added as a group to the World Heritage List. In fact, the recent addition of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings to the World Heritage List marks the first time UNESCO has recognized modern U.S. architecture. Scattered across the United States from the Guggenheim Museum in New York City to Hollyhock House in Los Angeles and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, these eight sites represent some of Wright’s most important contributions to 20th-century architecture.
Here are the rest of UNESCO’s confirmed 2019 World Heritage Sites, organized by region:
Africa
Ancient Ferrous Metallurgy Sites of Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso
Asia
Korean Neo-Confucian Academies, Korea
Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City, China
Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea–Gulf of Bohai, China
Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang–Plain of Jars, Laos
Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group: Mounded Tombs of Ancient Japan, Japan
Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto, Indonesia
Australia/Oceania
Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Australia
Jaipur City, Rajasthan, India
Europe
Royal Buildings of Mafra, Portugal
Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte in Braga, Portugal
Churches of the Pskov School of Architecture, Russia
Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region, Czechia/Germany
French Austral Lands and Seas, France
A visitor to an ice cave in Vatnajökull National Park
Historic Centre of Sheki with the Khan’s Palace, Azerbaijan
Jodrell Bank Observatory, United Kingdom
Krzemionki Prehistoric Striped Flint Mining Region, Poland
Landscape for Breeding and Training of Ceremonial Carriage Horses at Kladruby and Labem, Czechia
Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria Cultural Landscape, Spain
Water Management System of Augsburg, Germany
Middle East
Babylon, Iraq
Dilmun Burial Mounds, Bahrain
Hyrcanian Forests, Iran
North America
Writing-on-Stone / Áísínai’pi, Canada
South America
Paraty and Ilha Grande, Brazil
Fire Burns Down Parts of Tehran’s Historical Areas
By K. Dana
A large storehouse caught fire in Tehran’s historic square of Hassanabad on Wednesday, July 17. Firefighters managed to extinguish the fire after it had spread to historic parts of Tehran’s Hassanabad Square.
Hassanabad resides in a Qajar Dynasty area in Tehran. Hassanabad is one of the designed urban spaces in old Tehran, located on the intersection of two main streets, Hafez and Sepah, and erected during the first Pahlavi reign (1930-1940).
According to cultural heritage experts, hundreds of historical documents have been burned over the last hundred years, in addition to the buildings.
