By Paola Busta.

In 1904, the pioneering Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli cracked open a tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. The crypt, which had been lost for millennia, showed signs of long-ago disaster.

New research confirms the mummified fragments in a Turin museum likely belong to ancient Egypt’s beautiful and revered queen.

Nefertari was the royal wife of Pharaoh Ramses II, and her beauty was unmatched. So was her tomb—the walls are painted with beautiful images of the queen and a starry sky on the ceiling. But the contents of the cavern were in disarray when archaeologists first opened the tomb in 1904.

That’s why a team of international archaeologists decided to take a closer look, publishing their analysis in the journal PlosOne. According to Stephanie Pappas at LiveScience, the researchers examined the mummified remains currently housed at the Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy. X-raying the three pieces of leg confirmed the presence of a pair of human knees, with pieces of a femur, a partial tibia, a fibular bone, as well as the patella. The bones corresponded to a woman who died between age 40 and 60, and there were some indication of arthritis in the legs. This corresponds with what is known about Nefertari.

ABU DHABI, 30th November 2016 (WAM) — Presidents, heads of states, formal delegations and representatives from over 40 countries have confirmed their participation at the Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage conference, taking place on 2nd and 3rd December at the Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi.

The global conference, launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Francois Hollande, President of France, as a global partnership between the UAE and France.

The conference aims to support the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO’s global mandate to protect cultural heritage during armed conflicts, and to safeguard historic sites and monuments that represent civilisations dating back millennia from systematic destruction or looting – like in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Mali, and throughout the world.

On Wednesday November 24, and during a seminar on “The place of clay works in Iranian arts and architecture, coviened by te invitation of Azad University of Dezful, Mr. Habib Asefi, the governor of Dezful, in southern Iran, announced that the old parts of this historic city, covering 200 acres, is being demolished.
Dezful is an ancient city that contains some of the unique and beautiful samples of pre-Islamic and especially Sassanid period of Iranian history. Mr.Nasser Khorrami, the dean of the Azad University, while presenting some of more famous historic sites of the city, including a 1700 years old bridge, water mills, and the Choghamish Hill (where is recognized as the birth place of written texts), told the seminar that if these unique sites would not be preserved, the county would lose some important parts of its historical identity.
The Historical Heritage Organization has announced that it has is no budget for preservation of the old sections of Dezful city and needs the contributions of the private sector. This is parallel to the fact that the same organization has spent large sums of money to repair the mosque and preserve Shiite sites, creating a clear discrimination against pre-Islamic period of the country’s history. Thus, with the lack of any budget to save the historic sections of Dezful, the demise of such historic sites had gain an ever-increasing speed.

Earlier this month a team of archaeologists from the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) at the University of Tübingen announced that they have uncovered a large Bronze Age city not far from the town of Dohuk in northern Iraq.

The team reported that the excavation work has shown that the settlement, which is now home to the small Kurdish village of Bassetki in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, was established in about 3000 BC and was able to flourish for more than 1200 years. The archaeologists have also discovered that the settlement layers dating back from the Akkadian Empire period (2340-2200 BC). The Akkadian empire is regarded as the first world empire in human history.

The 30 member team of archeologists are headed by Professor Peter Pfälzner from the University of Tübingen and Dr. Hasan Qasim from the Directorate of Antiquities in Dohuk. The team conducted the excavation work in Bassetki between August and October 2016 and was able to preempt the construction work on a highway on this land as reported by CNN and Past Horizons website.

The former significance of the settlement can be seen from the finds discovered during the excavation work. The archeologists can tell that the city already had a wall running around the upper part of the town from approx. 2700 BC onwards in order to protect its residents from invaders. Large stone structures were erected there in about 1800 BC. The researchers also found fragments of Assyrian cuneiform tablets dating from about 1300 BC, which suggested the existence of a temple dedicated to the Mesopotamian weather god Adad on this site. There was a lower town about one kilometre long outside the city centre. Using geomagnetic resistance measurements, the archaeologists discovered indications of an extensive road network, various residential districts, grand houses and a kind of palatial building dating from the Bronze Age. The residents buried their dead at a cemetery outside the city.

The settlement was connected to the neighbouring regions of Mesopotamia and Anatolia via an overland roadway dating from about 1800 BC.

Bassetki was only known to the general public in the past because of the “Bassetki statue,” which was discovered there by chance in 1975. This is a fragment of a bronze figure of the Akkadian god-king Naram-Sin (about 2250 BC). The discovery was stolen from the National Museum in Baghdad during the Iraq War in 2003, but was later rediscovered by US soldiers. The archaeologists have now been able to substantiate their assumption that an important outpost of Akkadian culture may have been located there.

The team reports that although the excavation site is only 45 kilometres from territory controlled by the IS, it was possible to conduct the archeological work without any disturbances due to the fact that there is a great deal of security and stability in the Kurdish autonomous areas of Iraq.

It has been a very difficult year for Italy as the country experienced several earthquakes and after-shocks since this past August.  In late October and again in early November, central Italy was hot again by more earth quakes.  On November 3^rd, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck central Italy in the early hours of the morning in the same region hit by strong quakes in late October. This one was centered 32 miles (51.5 km) southeast of Perugia. In the hours after the quake, loss of life and security of people living in the region are of utmost important. 

However, as it became more obvious, the looters and thieves had other ideas in mind.  In the village of Nottoria, near Norcia, a small church was looted and a famous painting was stolen. The painting titled The Forgiveness of Assisi, was taken from a damaged church and was painted in 1631 by a French artist, Jean Lhomme, who also produced works for the then pope, Urban VIII. The theft of the painting was not the first case as more looting had been done after the previous earthquakes.  In fact, the Italian government is reporting that many of the churches, chapels and other monuments affected by the earthquake are in isolated areas and there are fears that more works of art could be targeted by looters and thieves.

After the several reports of thefts and looting, the Italian government has now deployed Italian soldiers to the mountainous region hit by the earthquake to guard against looters.  In fact, it has been reported by the news agencies that the patrols of the area are to increase, with soldiers joining forces with police and the paramilitary Carabinieri. Around 500 soldiers were deployed to the quake-hit zone, as reported the Italian defense ministry said.  Police are also searching churches, monasteries and convents damaged in the quake in order to recover precious artifacts.  The paintings, statues, crucifixes and reliquaries are being stored in a warehouse rented by the cultural heritage ministry.  In addition, fire fighters have erected large tarpaulins over the remains of the 14th century Basilica of St Benedict in Norcia, the most notable of the monuments damaged in the mountain town. It has been reported that the fire service used cranes to lift monumental oil paintings from inside damaged churches. 

The local people, who have already been traumatized by a number of earth-quakes, have seen destruction and loss of over 300 lives.  Early November’s quake was the biggest to strike Italy in the last 36 years, but caused no deaths.