Stop Press

A compilation of media articles on heritage topics. Obviously, these all reflect the viewpoints of the authors.

31 August

• DNA of girl from Denisova cave gives up genetic secrets
  BBC, United Kingdom
  The DNA of a cave girl who lived about 80,000 years ago has been analysed in remarkable detail.

• Des peintures murales antiques découvertes au pied de la cathédrale de Strasbourg
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  Les fouilles de l’INRAP à Strasbourg ont révélé deux peintures murales sur le site d’un ancien camp romain de la VIIIe légion Auguste, au pied de la cathédrale.

30 August

• Mayan theater, used by elite characters of Mayan society approximately 1,200 years ago, discovered
  Art Daily
  A Mayan theater, that was most likely used by elite characters of Mayan society approximately 1,200 years ago, was found in the archaeological site of Plan de Ayutla, in Ocosingo, Chiapas, by investigators of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH – Conaculta); according to the specialists, this place was used by the high ranking members of society to make themselves legitimate through political plays before important minority groups in the region.

• While digging a highway, Israeli archeologists find two figurines from the New Stone Age
  Art Daily
  Two figurines from the New Stone Age (Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) were discovered in excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is currently conducting at the Tel Moza archaeological site, prior to work being carried out on the new Highway 1 from Sha'ar HaGai to Jerusalem by the National Roads Company.

• Conservationist differ with experts on Lansdowne Building stability
  The Times of India, India
  Experts in civil engineering are not too confident of the structural stability of the 120-year-old monument, which the conservationist Govindan Kutty of the Indian Cities Heritage Network Foundation, which is associated with Unesco, has different view. "The building can be restored and it can last even over 100 years provided technologies for conservation are adopted," Kutty stressed.

• Corrosion protection for metal artifacts
  PhysOrg, United Kingdom
  The Mediterranean region is home to numerous museums and historical sites housing metal objects that provide an invaluable window into the past. EU funding enabled development of state-of-the-art corrosion protection and monitoring.

29 August

• IMA Conservation Science Laboratory unveils original state of van Gogh painting
  Art Daily
  Using scientific techniques and cutting-edge equipment, researchers at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Conservation Science Laboratory have recently solved mysteries about paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Giorgio de Chirico. Since opening in early 2011, the Conservation Science Laboratory has undertaken multiple projects that have provided the museum world with new research, techniques and advances in the field of conservation.

• Furor builds over pagoda restoration
  VietNamNet Bridge, Viet Nam
  The Tram Gian (One-hundred-compartment) Pagoda would be restored to its original state, a representative from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's Cultural Heritage Department said yesterday, Aug 28

• UNESCO urges Libya to protect cultural heritage
  China Daily, China
  The UN educational and cultural body on Tuesday called upon the government and people of Libya to "exercise their responsibility to protect cultural heritage and sites of religious significance for future generations.

28 August

• Protecting Cultural Treasures: Lessons From the Syrian Conflict
  The Huffington Post, United States
  The humanitarian tragedy that is unfolding in Syria also has a deep cultural dimension. From the beginning of the conflict, rebels have taken refuge in strategic places, including ancient hilltop citadels, and the Syrian army has not hesitated to fire on them.

• Lidar archaeology shines a light on hidden sites
  BBC, United Kingdom
  If you think archaeologists spend all the time with trowel in hand in a muddy ditch then it’s time to think again. More and more are using sophisticated aircraft-mounted lasers, and it is opening up a new age of discovery.

• Archaeologists discover a sculpture representing a jaguar estimated to be 2,000 years old
  Art Daily
  A monolithic sculpture representing a jaguar lying down, weighing about a ton was discovered recently in the pre Hispanic site of Izapa, in the Soconusco region of Chiapas. The engraved sculpture, estimated to be about 2,000 years old, was found in a riverbed and because of its weight it was not taken out immediately, but until a few days ago. The maneuvers –made by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH – Conaculta)– needed to rescue the piece required more than seven hours.

27 August

• Italie : mobilisation contre une privatisation rampante de la Pinacothèque de Brera
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  Plusieurs acteurs du monde culturel dénoncent dans une lettre envoyée au Président la République italienne une « privatisation » de la Pinacothèque de Brera. Le gouvernement tente de calmer les esprits, en expliquant les modalités d'un tel changement, nécessaire selon lui, dans une conjoncture économique difficile.

• Hidden depths of Iraq and mankind's majestic past
  The National, United Arab Emirates
  In 1978, during a bitterly cold winter on Jabal Hamrin, a hilly ridge in central-eastern Iraq, a young British archaeologist was investigating a mystery. Dr Robert Killick, 23, was part of the British archaeological expedition excavating a 2300BC Bronze Age grave believed to belong to a chieftain.

• Archeologist saves cultural treasures with cards
  Deutsche Welle, Germany
  Ancient cultural treasures are common casualties in military conflicts. But an international team of archeologists is working together with soldiers all over the world to protect valuable cultural artifacts.

• Mysterious tablet’s secrets revealed
  The Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
  A tablet found at the Ziyarettepe excavation area has stirred excitement among scientists and archaeologists. The tablet, which belongs to third century has writings in unknown language. Currently, scientists are working on it.

• Archeological treasures face destruction in Syria
  Deutsche Welle, Germany
  With Syria engulfed by war, the destruction of numerous archeological excavation sites may appear insignificant. But important historical evidence of ancient civilization is threatened with destruction.

25 August

• Archaeologists find 15 burials with complete human skeletons thought to be 850 years old
  Art Daily
  In the seventeenth building of the Tancama Archaeological Zone, 12 kilometers (17.8 miles) from the municipality of Jalpan de Serra in the Sierra Gorda of Queretaro, archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH – Conaculta) found 15 burials with complete human skeletons, which are estimated, in a preliminary manner, to be about 850 years old.

• Nigeria's Antiquities Abroad Must Return
  AllAfrica.com
  A very large number of Nigeria's priceless artefacts left Nigeria's shores long before the country came into being as an independent nation. The high point was the infamous assault on Benin in 1897. Dispossessing Nigerians of their heritage went on throughout the period of colonial domination and more recently it has been rearing its ugly head through looting of heritage archaeological sites and museums.

24 August

• Rembrandt lost in post by gallery in Norway
  BBC, United Kingdom
  A Norwegian art gallery has admitted losing a Rembrandt etching worth up to £5,400 in the post, after trying to save money on a courier and insurance.

23 August

• Lesson from Spain’s botched painting: Leave art restoration to the experts
  The Star, Canada
  If one lesson comes from the now-viral story of an 81-year-old woman who turned a damaged fresco on a church wall in Spain into an international joke, it’s that this is the kind of work you should probably leave to the experts.

22 August

• Amazing ancient bronzes given up by Calabrian sea
  The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom
  Three divers have discovered ancient bronze artefacts, believed to be Greek or Phoenician, off the coast of Calabria, in southern Italy. The finds include two statues and the remains of an ancient ship. The site is around 50km south of the spot where the Riace Bronzes were discovered 40 years ago, in 1972.

• Florence to return art treasure to public view
  BBC, United Kingdom
  Alan Johnston reports on the renovation of Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise".

• Brick 'recycling' threatens Bangladesh ancient city
  The Bangkok Post, Thailand
  When Abdus Sattar built his house in Mahasthangarh village in northern Bangladesh, he used materials that once laid the foundations of one of the world's oldest and greatest cities.

21 August

• Saving culture in war zones with a deck of cards
  Deutsche Welle, Germany
  Archeologist Laurie Rush is leading a charge to teach armed forces around the world about preserving archeological sites and ancient artifacts in conflict areas. She believes doing so can be essential for safe missions.

• En Espagne, la restauration d'une peinture du Christ fait hurler
  Le Huffington Post, France
  CHRIST DE BORJA - "Un travail de cochon", titre le quotidien El Heraldo de Aragón ce mardi 21 août, faisant référence à ce qui pourrait bien être la pire restauration artistique de l'histoire.

20 August

• Saving Syria
  The Wall Street Journal, United States
  Many tragedies have followed the start of the Syrian uprising 18 months ago, but one that deserves more attention is the destruction of Syria's cultural patrimony.

• Earliest human evidence in Southeast Asia
  ABC, Australia
  Parts of a skull found in a cave in Laos are the earliest skeletal evidence for modern human occupation in Southeast Asia, report researchers.

• Restoring ancient monuments at Cambodia's Angkor Wat
  BBC, United Kingdom
  Sasha Constable is admiring the carvings of the Apsara nymphs on the walls of Cambodia's most famous ancient temple, Angkor Wat. Every year, millions of visitors do much the same. The bas reliefs at this 900-year-old monument are remarkably well-preserved.

19 August

• Bornais finds shed light on Iron Age and Viking life
  BBC, United Kingdom
  Powerful figures from the late Iron Age through to the end of the Vikings were drawn to a sandy plain on South Uist, according to archaeologists.

17 August

• Opening secret tomb of China's first emperor waits for science
  NBC, Unites States
  Buried deep under a hill in central China, surrounded by an underground moat of poisonous mercury, lies an entombed emperor who's been undisturbed for more than two millennia.

• Abhayagiriya: The conservation of an archaeological edifice
  The Island, Sri Lanka
  The first ever major conservation in its fullest of the Abhayagiriya Stupa, since it was built by King Walagamba in 89 BC, which commenced in 1982, will be completed after 30 years at the end of the year.

• Mexican archaeologists discover the burial of a high-ranking Zapotec individual
  Art Daily
  The burial of a high ranked individual of the ancient zapotecan society, accompanied by an offering, was discovered by archaeologists of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH – Conaculta), on the third tomb of the Aztompa Archaeological Zone in Oaxaca.

16 August

• Picasso piece rediscovered after 50 years in Indiana museum storage
  The Guardian, United Kingdom
  Glasswork has been hidden from view after cataloguing error mistaking artist's name for the medium in which it was made.

• Book written in DNA code
  The Guardian, United Kingdom
  Scientists have for the first time used DNA to encode the contents of a book. At 53,000 words, and including 11 images and a computer program, it is the largest amount of data yet stored artificially using the genetic material.

• Harry Ransom Center announces modern cartography now visible online and in detail
  Art Daily
  The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has introduced an online database for its entire Kraus map collection.

14 August

• Tourism boom threatens China's heritage sites
  CNN, United States
  A team of archaeologists has uncovered the remains of 'hundreds' of ancient warriors at a Danish bog known as Alken Enge.

• Alken Enge: Danish Bog Excavation Reveals Remains Of Hundreds Of Ancient Soldiers
  The Huffington Post, United States
  In a quiet corner of southern China's Pearl River Delta, hundreds of abandoned watchtowers dot a landscape of water-logged rice paddies, lush bamboo groves and ancient villages.

13 August

• Güvercinkaya excavation site sheds light on Anatolian life
  The Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
  An excavation at the 7,000 year old Güvercinkaya tumulus in Aksaray Province has discovered the fossilized remains of such animals as lions, panthers and two species of horses, indicating that these species once lived in Cappadocia.

• Stedelijk Museum to reopen in September after ambitious renovation and expansion project
  Art Daily
  Ann Goldstein, Director of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, announced that this leading international institution of modern and contemporary art will celebrate its opening ceremony on Saturday, September 22, 2012, and will begin welcoming the public on September 23, following the completion of the most ambitious renovation and expansion project in its history.

• Flag Fen hosts 'crowdsourced' Bronze Age archaeology dig
  BBC, United Kingdom
  A first-of-its-kind "crowdsourced and crowdfunded" archaeological dig at Cambridgeshire's Flag Fen has finished.

• New research raises doubts about whether modern humans and Neanderthals interbred
  PhysOrg, United Kingdom
  New research raises questions about the theory that modern humans and Neanderthals at some point interbred, known as hybridisation. The findings of a study by researchers at the University of Cambridge suggests that common ancestry, not hybridisation, better explains the average 1-4 per cent DNA that those of European and Asian descent (Eurasians) share with Neanderthals. It was published today, 13 August, in the journal PNAS.

12 August

• Bamiyan Buddhas: Should they be rebuilt?
  BBC, United Kingdom
  The destruction of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhas in 2001 led to global condemnation of the Taliban regime. But the decision by Unesco not to rebuild them has not put an end to the debate about their future.

• Archaeologists cover up Afghan heritage
  Bangkok Post, Thailand
  "It's there," says an archaeologist pointing to the ground, where fragments of a Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara civilisation have been covered up to stop them being stolen or vandalised.

• Museum Defends Antiquities Collecting
  The New York Times, United States
  Over the last five years, the Cleveland Museum of Art has been at work on one of the largest building programs of any art institution in the country, a $350 million project that has been unveiled in sleek new stages and will be completed by 2013, adding 35,000 more square feet of gallery space.

11 August

• New mosaic museum underway
  The Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
  Where Sanliurfa had expected a new theme park, an archaeology museum, archaeopark and mosaic museum are being built. The world’s most valuable mosaics too delicate to be transported will be displayed there

• At Root of Italy Library’s Plunder, a Tale of Entrenched Practices
  The New York Times, United States
  For months now, the alarm has been resounding throughout the insular and competitive world of antiquarian books: beware of volumes bearing the stamp of the storied Girolamini Library in Naples. They could be hot.

10 August

• Severed right hands unearthed in ancient Egypt palace
  NBC, United States
  The archaeologists have unearthed the skeletons of 16 human hands buried in four pits. Two of the pits, located in front of what is believed to be a throne room, hold one hand each. Two other pits, constructed at a slightly later time in an outer space of the palace, contain the 14 remaining hands.

9 August

• Community unites to rebuild clock tower destroyed by earthquake
  The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom
  The Torre dei Modenesi, a 13th-century clock tower destroyed in May by the two powerful earthquakes that rocked the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, has become a symbol of the damage done to the country's heritage. Teams of volunteers from across the country have now travelled to the small town of Finale Emilia to help salvage, collect and catalogue fragments of the 32 metre high tower, with a view to restoring it to its former glory.

8 August

• Great fall of China: section of wall collapses
  The Telegraph, United Kingdom
  A section of the centuries-old Great Wall of China has collapsed due to a combination of heavy rainfall and construction works.

• New Human Species? Fossil Find 'Clearly Distinct' From Other Early Humans, Researchers Say
  The Huffington Post, United States
  New fossils from the dawn of the human lineage suggest our ancestors may have lived alongside a diversity of extinct human species, researchers say.

• Think tank to stimulate and facilitate collaboration, innovation, and global thinking in the art museum world
  Art Daily
  The Art Consortium, a new international think tank dedicated to shaping the future of art museums, is being launched this fall to stimulate collaboration, innovation, and global thinking among leaders in the art world, and to facilitate the development and application of new ideas in museums. The lead funder is Christie’s with additional support from other private donors and foundations.

7 August

• Cranach’s Madonna under the Fir Tree returned to Poland
  The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom
  Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Madonna under the Fir Tree, 1510, has been returned to the Cathedral of St John in Wroclaw, where it had hung since the 16th century.

• Use of Caffeinated Drink in pre-Columbian North America
  Sci-News, United States
  Archaeologists have discovered that people living 700 to 900 years ago in Cahokia, a massive pre-Columbian settlement near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, ritually used a caffeinated brew made from the leaves of a holly tree that grew hundreds of miles away.

• Five hundred year old Mexica burial and "sacred" tree found by Mexican archaeologists
  Art Daily
  A 500 year old burial, with the complete skeleton of an individual, surrounded by more than a thousand human bones of children, teenagers and adults, was found recently by specialists from the National Institute of History and Anthropology (INAH – Conaculta) in the Historical Center of Mexico City, close to the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan.

6 August

• Soldiers injured in Afghanistan make surprise find on UK archaeology dig
  The Guardian, United Kingdom
  An excavation on Salisbury plain has proved an unusually emotional experience for the volunteer archaeologists, as soldiers recovering from injuries received in Afghanistan have made a surprise discovery: the remains of warriors who died more than 1,400 years ago.

5 August

• Ruling on Artistic Authenticity: The Market vs. the Law
  The New York Times, United States
  Federal District Court Judge Paul G. Gardephe’s résumé includes many impressive accomplishments but not an art history degree. Nonetheless he has been asked to answer a question on which even pre-eminent art experts cannot agree: Are three reputed masterworks of Modernism genuine or fake.

• Treasures returned to Afghan museum
  The Guardian, United Kingdom
  Hundreds of looted treasures have been returned to Afghanistan with the help of the British Museum and UK police and border forces.

• Mass grave in London reveals how volcano caused global catastrophe
  The Guardian, United Kingdom
  Scientists search for the explosive source of a disaster that wiped out almost a third of Londoners in 1258.

• 18th-Century Mummies Help Medical Researchers Study Tuberculosis In Hungary
  Huffington Post, United States
  One wears a prim white bonnet. Another sticks out its tongue, hands resting over abdomen. A third clutches at its chest, mouth seemingly frozen in a scream. They are faces from the past, trapped in the appearance they bore when laid to rest nearly 300 years ago.

4 August

• Stripped bare and bathed: The preservation of Dali's masterworks at the Dalí Museum
  Art Daily
  The Dalí Museum announced its latest exhibition Stripped Bare and Bathed: the Preservation of Dalí's Masterworks is a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the dramatic process of preserving works of art.

3 August

• Mexican archaeologists find that Mayans may have used chocolate as spice 2,500 years ago
  Art Daily
  Archaeologists say they have found traces of 2,500-year-old chocolate on a plate in the Yucatan peninsula, the first time they have found ancient chocolate residue on a plate rather than a cup, suggesting it may have been used as a condiment or sauce with solid food.

• Thieves steal Derby Museum artefacts worth £53,000
  The Guardian, United Kingdom
  A collection of coins, medals and watches worth £53,000 has been stolen from a museum's storage facility. The 1,000 artefacts from the Derby Museum and Art Gallery's city-based storage site were stolen some time between 2 May and 19 June, Derbyshire police said. None of the items have been found.

• A hotel? An archaeology site? Or both?
  NBC, United States
  The Turkish architect Emre Arolat's vision for the Antakya Museum Hotel. According to the design plans, the archaeological site is preserved as a museum site and the hotel is situated 30 feet above.

• How rescued-terracotta exposed vunerability of Nigerian artefacts
  The Guardian Nigeria, Nigeria
  Persistent alarms being raised over illegal excavations going on in certain parts of the country as well as allegations of museum officials’ connivance with unauthorised exporters of artefacts has kept Nigeria’s cultural and artistic objects in the news constantly.

2 August

• Imperiled Legacy for African Art
  The New York Times, United States
  DJENNE-DJENNO, one of the best-known archaeological sites in sub-Saharan Africa, spreads over several acres of rutted fields near the present city of Djenne in central Mali. The ruts are partly caused by erosion, but they’re also scars from decades of digging, by archaeologists in search of history and looters looking for art to sell.

• Conservators also oppose plan to sideline Berlin's Old Masters
  The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom
  Conservators in Germany have joined the protest over plans to relocate the world-famous collection of Old Masters in Berlin's Gemäldegalerie. Under the Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz's (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation) plan.

• Amluk-Dara stupa: Excavators discover unique complex
  The Express Tribune, Pakistan
  Local and foreign excavators revealed on Wednesday that a unique part of a previously-discovered site of the Gandhara civilization at Amluk-Dara, Swat, has been uncovered jointly by Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s (K-P) Directorate of Archaeology and Museums.

1 August

• Le Sphinx et les Pyramides pourraient être menacés par le pompage de l’eau sous le Plateau de Gizeh
  Le Journal des Arts, France
  Depuis l’installation de pompes à eau sous le Sphinx pour réduire le niveau d’eau de la nappe phréatique du Plateau de Gizeh, des scientifiques ont fait part de leurs inquiétudes quant à un possible effondrement du monument. Les archéologues restent confiants.

• Test flight over Peru ruins could revolutionize archaeological mapping
  PhysOrg, United Kingdom
  Archaeological sites that currently take years to map will be completed in minutes if tests underway in Peru of a new system being developed at Vanderbilt University go well.

• Highlights Conservation of Time-Based Media Art
  Guggenheim.org, United States
  With the appointment of Joanna Phillips, Associate Conservator of Contemporary Art, in 2008, the Guggenheim joined the growing number of art museums worldwide that dedicate specialized conservation staff to time-based media art—such as film, video, computer, and audio works by Marina Abramovic, Tacita Dean, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, and others—in their custody.

updated on: 3 September, 2012