Latest news with #Sumerian
Shafaq News
5 days ago
- General
- Shafaq News
Erbil Citadel shines again with weekly public access
Shafaq News/ Erbil's historic citadel reopened to the public for one day a week as its large-scale restoration project approaches completion. The Head of the Citadel Rehabilitation Commission, Falah Hassan told Shafaq News that 1,200 cubic meters of the citadel's flooring have been paved over the past six months, along with the rehabilitation of the main street connecting the Ahmadia Gate to the Grand Bazaar Gate. The restoration of Erbil Citadel is entering its final phase, with technical issues set to be resolved within days, and work on the electrical, sewage, bathhouse, and mosque nearing completion, Hassan said, confirming that the site is now illuminated and open weekly for public visits while restoration continues in other areas. He further pointed out that the management of the UNESCO World Heritage landmarks was officially transferred from Erbil's provincial authority to the Kurdistan Regional Government's Cabinet in recent months. The move streamlines decision-making and allows requests to be submitted directly to the Council of Ministers. Erbil Citadel was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2014 for its unique architectural significance. Historical records trace its origins through multiple civilizations, including the Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, Islamic, and Ottoman eras. The site includes three main neighborhoods, traditional homes, mosques, Sufi lodges, and public baths. Its distinctive circular wall is among its most prominent features, known for its durability and design.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Ram in the Thicket: A 4,500-year-old gold statue from the royal cemetery at Ur
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Name: Ram in the Thicket What it is: A gold and lapis lazuli statuette Where it is from: The Royal Cemetery at Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar, Iraq) When it was made: Circa 2550 B.C. Related: Oseberg tapestry: Viking Age artwork from a boat burial that may depict the Norse tree of life What it tells us about the past: Found a century ago in a mass grave in the desert of southern Iraq, this 4,500-year-old statuette may depict the daily ritual associated with destiny and the birth of the universe in ancient Mesopotamia. Archaeologist Leonard Woolley discovered two nearly identical statuettes, which he named "Ram in the Thicket," in the Great Death Pit at the Royal Cemetery at Ur in 1928. This burial of one royal Sumerian individual around 2550 B.C. also involved the sacrifice of 68 women and five men. Woolley discovered the statuettes broken and crushed. Now reconstructed, they measure 16.7 inches (42.5 centimeters) and 18 inches (45.7 cm) tall. The smaller one is on display at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, while the larger one is housed at the British Museum in London. According to the Penn Museum, the statuettes may represent markhor goats, a type of Central and South Asian mountain goat with fantastical spiral horns. But Woolley called them "rams" because they reminded him of the biblical story of Abraham sacrificing a ram instead of his son Isaac. The heads and legs of the goat statuettes are wood, covered in gold leaf, as is the thicket or flowering bush. Their ears are copper, and their bellies are silver. Lapis lazuli, a semiprecious deep-blue stone, was used for their horns and fleece. Each goat stands on its hind legs on a rectangular base decorated with a mosaic of shells, lapis lazuli and red limestone in a diamond pattern. Experts are unsure what function this pair of goat statuettes served, but they may have been used as offering stands to support small bowls that did not survive, according to a team of Penn Museum researchers who published an analysis of the objects in 2020. MORE ASTONISHING ARTIFACTS —Hatnefer's heart scarab: An exquisite ancient Egyptian gold necklace inscribed with the Book of the Dead —Hårby Valkyrie: A 1,200-year-old gold Viking Age woman sporting a sword, shield and ponytail —Apulian rhyton: A 2,300-year-old Spartan-hound-shaped cup that was likely used at boozy bashes These researchers view the thicket or bush as a representation of the Mesopotamian cosmic tree that connects heaven and Earth. Rosettes on the tree symbolize heaven, while the leaves signify Earth. The diamond pattern on the statues' bases may represent mountains — specifically those on the eastern horizon of Ur where the sun rises. Daily sunrise was very important in ancient Mesopotamia. It was connected to the idea of destiny and associated with the birth of the universe. Rituals for the sun god Shamash often involved the sacrifice of sheep or goats and were made between sunset and sunrise. Because the "ram in the thicket" statuettes evoke sunrise — the time and place where heaven, Earth and the netherworld meet in Mesopotamian belief — they were likely seen as "suitable furnishings" for a royal tomb, the researchers wrote in their analysis.
Shafaq News
23-05-2025
- Shafaq News
Stolen artifacts head home: Met repatriates Iraqi art
Shafaq News/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently announced that it will return three ancient sculptures to Iraq, dating from 3rd to 2nd millennium BCE. They are estimated to be collectively worth $500,000. The items are a Sumerian vessel made of gypsum alabaster (ca. 2600–2500 BCE) and two Babylonian terracotta sculptures (ca. 2000-1600 BCE) depicting a male head and a female head, respectively. The museum said it was making the return in 'cooperation with the Manhattan DA's office,' and that the return had come after the Met had 'received new information' amid the investigation into Robin Symes, a dealer accused of being a member of a network that traded in looted artifacts. A press release from the DA's Office said that the Symes investigation has resulted in the seizure of 135 antiquities valued at more than $58 million. The release also noted that two of the items were seized by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit (ATU) earlier this year. The two Babylonian ceramic sculptures are thought to be from Isin, an archaeological site in Iraq, and were looted in the late 1960s. The Manhattan DA's office noted that Head of a male was then smuggled out of Iraq and was in Symes's possession in London by 1971. The next year, Symes sold the sculpture to the Met; it remained in the institution's collection until it was seized by the ATU. Vessel supported by two rams was first offered to the Met in 1956 by Switzerland-based antiquities dealer-trafficker Nicolas Koutoulakis, 'who informed the museum that the Vessel had been found at a site near the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur. The Vessel then passed through multiple private collectors and dealers, including Symes, before permanently entering The Met's collection in 1989,' according to the Manhattan DA's office. The museum's press release said the vessel was gifted to the museum in 1989 by the Norbert Schimmel Trust, named after a longtime trustee who died in 1990. The museum noted that 'it appeared on the Baghdad art market, was purchased by Swiss dealer Nicolas Koutoulakis by 1956 and later acquired by Cecile de Rothschild.' 'The Met is committed to the responsible collecting of art and the shared stewardship of the world's cultural heritage and has made significant investments in accelerating the proactive research of our collection,' Max Hollein, the Metropolitan Museum of Art's director and CEO, said in a press statement. 'The Museum is grateful for our ongoing conversations with Iraq regarding future collaborative endeavors, and we look forward to working together to advance our shared dedication to fostering knowledge and appreciation of Iraqi art and culture.' 'We continue to recover and return antiquities that were trafficked by Robin Symes,' District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said in a press statement. 'That is a testament to the hard work of attorneys, analysts and investigators who are committed to undoing the significant damage traffickers have caused to our worldwide cultural heritage.' H. E. Nazar Al Khirullah, Ambassador of the Republic of Iraq to the US, described the leadership of the ATU as 'instrumental' in the recovery of his country's looted heritage. 'We also appreciate our strong and ongoing partnership with The Met, whose commitment to cultural preservation complements our shared mission to safeguard the world's antiquities,' he said in a press statement. Symes's legacy of trafficking antiquities includes 351 antiquities returned to Greece after a 17-year legal battle, two antiquities worth $1.26 million returned to Libya, 750 artifacts recovered by Italy, a limestone elephant returned to Iraq, and an alabaster female figure returned to Yemen, all in 2023. Symes was convicted of contempt of court for lying about antiquities he held in storage locations around the world in 2005. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but only served seven months. He died in 2023.
Hindustan Times
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
What came before the UN?: In Egypt, China, ancient bids to administer the world
We've been trying to work around borders more or less since we first invented them. Often, this wish came from a drive for power. Ancient kingdoms, over and over, imagined they would 'rule everything under the heavens'. A bid to prosper and endure drove such campaigns too, since prospering and enduring have always been difficult to do alone. Here are three of the earliest attempts at a unified world order. A first effort: Akkadian Empire, Mesopotamia (2300 BCE) This is the earliest known multinational empire. At its peak, it consisted of a range of city-states that stretched from parts of Iran in the east to the Levant (modern-day Syria and Israel) in the west, and from Anatolia in modern-day Turkey in the north to parts of the Arabian desert. Called the Akkadian Empire, it was set up by King Sargon (2334-2279 BCE), who ascended the throne in an unusual way. Unlike his predecessors, he did not claim to represent the gods. Instead, he projected himself as a self-made leader. In a sense, he had to. He was not born of 'royal' blood. In fact, it was said, in the contemporary lore about him, that Sargon was an orphan who was set adrift in a reed basket along the Euphrates, before being discovered and raised by a gardener. (Isn't it interesting how so many of our legends and myths echo and back and forth through time?) He was, at some point, appointed cup-bearer to the Mesopotamian king Ur-Zababa. He rose, over time, to the position of general in his army. Then he overthrew his king. Using anti-incumbency to his benefit, he spread word that he was as distanced from the lineage of kings as could be, and could do things differently as a result, and usher in a golden age. As kingdom after kingdom pledged fealty to what was now becoming the Mesopotamian Empire, he conducted military campaigns as shows of strength, and to annex the unwilling. Sargon's sons Rimush and Manishtushu held the vast kingdom together after his death. The empire grew to be so vast that it is believed to have birthed one of the earliest bureaucracies. Hundreds of surviving seals and tablets show how the administrators documented state affairs, preserved blueprints of major structures, drew maps of canals, and kept meticulous accounts of livestock, fish, barley, cloth, gems and beer. All-in-all, it lasted about a century. Most records attribute the fall to in-fighting between the Sumerian city-states, and the lack of a dominant central leader. Gains and loss: Ancient Egypt (2613-1425 BCE) The key to this majestic empire lay in a single word: maat. In Ancient Egyptian belief, this was a term for cosmic order and a state of harmony between gods and the world. It was the Egyptian king Sneferu (2613–2589 BCE) who first associated maat with politics. Governance, in this period, became linked to the welfare of the soul. Pharaohs, their ministers and bureaucrats prioritised the building of temples, offerings to gods, and the expansion and protection of the borders. That last bit soon took on a dominant role. Egypt began a phase of furious annexation, until the kingdom stretched from Nubia (parts of Egypt and Sudan along the Nile Valley) into the Sinai Peninsula, encompassing Syria and the Euphrates. These borders would fluctuate, under successive pharaohs. Yet, for all its grandeur, this land would eventually come to be ruled by a succession of foreign powers for over 2,500 years, starting with the Assyrians from Ancient Mesopotamia in the 7th century BCE, followed by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and the British. When Gamal Abdel Nasser took over as the second President of Egypt in 1954, he was the first Egyptian to rule Egypt since the pharaohs. (The first president of the modern republic was Mohamed Naguib, originally of Sudan.) All under heaven: China, 221 BCE-220 CE In China, an ambitious king united warring kingdoms in 221 BCE by promoting the Chinese ideal of tianxia, literally, 'all under heaven'. As Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BCE) crafted the first Chinese imperial dynasty, he had a little help from the long-gone-but-rather-immortal Confucius (who lived in the 5th and 6th centuries BCE). Closely linked to the idea of tianxia was an idea that philosopher had espoused, called Da Tong, or the Great Unity. This belief system envisioned a world government that ruled not by force but by attraction. This would be a government so selfless in its service to the people that the world would simply coalesce around it. Using this ideal of 'stability in unity' as a propaganda tool, the Qin launched massive military campaigns to expand into parts of Central Asia and Vietnam. The Qin dynasty was followed by the Han, which ruled for over 400 years, from 206 BCE to 220 CE. They continued the military expansion, eventually dividing the empire into inner and outer realms. Inner territories came under direct control of the Son of Heaven, the emperor. The outer realms were controlled via tributes and alliances. Bonus: The Perpetual Peace doctrine of Immanuel Kant (1795) In his essay Perpetual Peace, the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed a radical idea: a federation of free, self-governing republics bound not by conquest but by a shared commitment to autonomy and peace. Kant was 71 at the time. Europe was living through the bloody horrors of the French Revolution (1789-99), and the wars that followed between Revolutionary France and the monarchies of Austria and Prussia. Against this violent backdrop, Kant imagined a world in which peace wasn't just a pause to war but a permanent condition that nations committed to uphold. The six 'preliminary articles' he laid out were a mix of prescience and idealism. In order for there to be peace, he said, diplomacy would need to be transparent; standing armies should be gradually abolished; national debt should not be raised in order to fund wars; states must not interfere in each other's internal affairs; acts of hostility that destroy trust must be banned; and peace treaties must be designed to end wars permanently, not merely defer them. Some of these ideas remain at the heart of international relations, and are echoed in the framework of the United Nations. What they run up against, of course, is a world underpinned by ancient fears and insecurities. As the philosopher Thomas Hobbes put it, more than a century before Kant: The natural state of man is war.
Iraqi News
21-05-2025
- Iraqi News
Iraq recovers 3 artifacts from New York
Baghdad ( – The Iraqi Embassy in Washington, DC, has successfully retrieved three rare items from New York that had been confiscated by Manhattan's district attorney's antiquities trafficking unit. The Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed on Monday that it is returning three artifacts to Iraq. The three pieces are a Sumerian vessel made of gypsum alabaster and two Babylonian ceramic sculptures depicting the heads of a male and a female. The artifacts date from the third to the second millennium BCE. The return of the objects comes after the Metropolitan Museum of Art launched its Cultural Property Initiative, which includes a thorough evaluation of its collection. In 2024, the museum began the repatriation of a third-millennium BCE Sumerian sculpture to Iraq after an origin study by museum academics determined that the art perfectly belongs to Iraq. The vessel and the head of a female were gifted to the museum in 1989 by the Norbert Schimmel Trust, a prominent collector of ancient art and antiquities, and the head of a male was purchased by the museum in 1972. The sculptures of a male and a female are likely to be from the archeological site of Isin in Iraq, while the vessel is not known to be related to a specific location in Iraq; it initially showed up on the Baghdad art market in 1956 and was purchased by a Swiss dealer. Following the museum's collaboration with the Manhattan District Attorney's office and as a consequence of its investigation into Robin Symes, the museum recently obtained fresh information indicating that the pieces should be repatriated, resulting in a positive settlement.
