Ancient theatre in Perge to be restored

The ancient theatre in Perge, which is believed to date back to the second century and had a capacity of 13,000 people, will undergo restoration for the first time in its history.

DHA Photo

Located in the ancient city of Perge, which was the capital of many civilizations especially in the Pamphylia era, the ancient amphitheatre in the southern province of Antalya’s Aksu district is as magnificent as the theatres in Ephesus and Aspendos.

The Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums provided 3 million Turkish Liras for the restoration project to be carried out by the Antalya Directorate of Surveying and Monuments.

Antalya Director of Surveying and Monuments Cemil Karabayram said the ancient theatre had not been restored so far, adding that excavations started in the 1980s under the leadership of Professor Jale İnan and continued until 1990s. He said lots of old sculptures and historic artifacts had been unearthed in the theatre since then and were being displayed at the Antalya Archaeology Museum.

Karabayram said 2018 was declared “Perge’s year” in Antalya and the idea for its restoration came up during visits by the Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş to the ancient city. “With the initiative of the Surveying and Monuments director Yalçın Kurt, the problem of allocation for the restoration project has been solved,” he added.

Karabayram said work had begun on the restoration project.

“This is a very important development because the ancient Perge theatre has never been considered for restoration. All original materials of the structure still remain. It will be restored with its original materials. The Perge theatre was closed to tourism for some time due to security reasons. As a result of works, some fields were taken under protection with safety lines and the rest was open to visitors. Tourists can visit the theatre at the moment,” he said.

The director said once the project was done, operations would start by the end of the year.

“The ancient Perge theatre will regain its magnificence at the end of this restoration. Also, an academic committee is being formed for the project and the application,” he added.

The ancient theatre is made up of three main sections, the cavea (seating sections), the orchestra and the stage. The area for the cavea and orchestra is a bit wider than a half circle. It is known that gladiator and wild animal fights were organized in the orchestra pit.

The lower part of the theatre has 19 tiers and the upper part has 23 tiers for seats. The orchestra pit surrounded with rails shows us that gladiator shows were organized there. Relievos featuring the life of Dionysos, the goddess of wine, are seen on the stage, which has five doors that lead to the backstage.

Even though most of these relievos were damaged when the stage collapsed, the parts depicting the life of Dionysos have survived until today.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [February 24, 2018]

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Over 41 000 artefacts seized in global operation targeting the illicit trafficking of cultural goods

Over 41 000 cultural goods such as coins, paintings and drawings, furniture and musical instruments, porcelain, archaeological and paleontological objects, books and manuscripts and sculptures were seized all over the world as a result of coordinated law enforcement actions. These seizures were made during the first Global Global Customs-Police Operation, codenamed ATHENA and organised by the World Customs Organisation (WCO) in cooperation with INTERPOL, and during the regional Europe-focused Operation PANDORA II, coordinated by the Spanish Guardia Civil and Europol.

Credit: Europol

Both operations took place from October to early December 2017, with a common action phase from 20 to 30 November 2017, and saw the involvement of customs and police forces from 81 countries. Both, ATHENA and PANDORA II, focused on the illicit trafficking of cultural objects, theft, looting as well as internet sales. Most of the actions were developed and coordinated jointly between Customs and Police on the national level with the support and participation of the experts from the Ministries of Culture and other relevant institutions and law enforcement agencies.

Apart from seizures, there have been tens of thousands of checks and controls in various airports, ports, other border crossing points, as well as in the auction houses, museums and private houses. As a result, more than 200 investigations were opened and 53 persons arrested.

Credit: Europol

Given the global nature of this crime, operation coordination units working 24/7 were established by Europol on one side, and the WCO and INTERPOL on the other, to support the exchange of information as well as disseminate alerts, warnings and perform cross- checks in different international and national databases.

Internet as a facilitator for the illicit trafficking of cultural goods

Internet has changed, as in many other fields of our society, the traditional chains of the illicit trade of cultural goods. It is a new challenge for law enforcement authorities especially for the specialized cultural goods crime units. Now the criminals can reach the collector’s (anywhere in the world) without any intermediate, and out of the traditional channels.

Credit: Europol

Facing this threat, the involved law enforcement agencies monitored thousands of market places, internet announcement has in order to detect and seize looted or stolen cultural goods. Only in this area, 63 new criminal investigations have been opened and more than 6 000 cultural objects have been seized.

In a single successful investigation in Spain, Guardia Civil seized more than 2 000 cultural objects. Most of them were coins from Roman and other Empires and archaeological objects made of ceramic, metal and stone. In addition, 88 pieces of ivory were seized during the searches, including a carving of Christ valued at EUR 6 000 , and 39 firearms of different classification, from historical weapons, such as rifles and shotguns, swords, swords, katanas and a crossbow, revolvers and pistols. The investigation started with the checks of various internet pages dedicated to the sale and purchase of objects of historical value, and is still ongoing.

The Hellenic Police conducted a fruitful investigation in the framework of PANDORA II: during the searches in two residences and in two businesses of a national entrepreneur, they found 41 archaeological objects, for which the collector did not have a corresponding license. Additionally, from a legal collection of 1 133 coins of silver, bronze and gold of the 2nd century B.C. until 200 A.C., 15 coins were missing, and from a legal collection of 105 ancient objects, 26 objects were missing. All the possessed objects of archaeological and cultural value were confiscated, namely 1 252 cultural goods.

Source: Europol [February 23, 2018]

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Ancient crown seized in Istanbul

A 2,200-year-old crown and silver bowl have been seized by police in Istanbul during a hotel raid against historical artifact smugglers.

Credit: Hurriyet Daily News

The police’s Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Branch pushed the button for the operation on Feb. 20 after finding that suspects had tried to sell a number of historical artifacts.

Undercover police initially got in touch with the suspects by pretending to be interested in buying the artifacts, representing themselves as antique dealers. The suspects attempted to sell the bowl and the golden crown for $1 million, finally making a deal for 500,000 liras.

Police teams organized a meeting with the suspects at a hotel in Fatih and seized the four suspects during the operation.

The golden crown, which dates back to the Hellenistic era, a broken silver bowl and a golden ring were seized in a bag in the raid.

The artifacts have been sent to the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums for further examinations.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [February 22, 2018]

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2,300-year-old road destroyed to make way for villagers’ olive groves in SW Turkey

Four kilometers of a 2,300-year-old stone road, which connects the ancient cities of Alinda and Herakleia (Latmos) in the western province of Aydın’s Söke district, have been destroyed by villagers to make way for their olive groves.

Credit: DHA

The Association of Ecosystem Protection and Nature Lovers (EKODOSD) has initiated work for the registration and protection of the road by the Aydın Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board.

Villagers have bulldozed four kilometers of the road in an attempt to make room for their olive groves in Söke’s Tekeler neighbourhood. Upon complaints, members of the EKODOSD have examined the area with environmental engineer Haydar Coşar from the protection board, archaeologist Süleyman Özgen and Aydın Archaeology Museum’s archaeologist Songül Erbay.

Credit: DHA

The team has detected some parts of the road have been completely destroyed and some parts have been filled. Works have been initiated to bring the ancient road under protection.

EKODOSD president Bahattin Sürücü said the construction of the stone road was at a great expense by the ancient city of Herakleia’s founder Pleistarkhos. The road connects the ancient cities of Myus, Alinda, Alabanda, Tralleis to each other, as well as the Menderes Valley to the Marsyas Valley.

Credit: DHA

“Locals and trekking aficionados still use the stone paved roads that can be seen from almost everywhere on the Latmos Mountains. These roads, which have served for centuries, have been damaged by natural causes due to rains. It was used as a border wall in some regions. The best and most striking part of the ancient road is in the Kazıkaya Tunnel, located between Bozalan and Herakleia. It is really sad that a road that has survived for 2,300 years has been damaged in the last six months,” he said.

Sürücü said the ancient road should be protected for future generations.

Credit: DHA

“This type of stone road should not be damaged; its stones should not be removed and vehicles should not be driven on these roads. This way, they can be protected for future generations. Ancient roads are a very important part of our cultural heritage. It should be everyone’s mission to protect them. Thousands of years for a road in an ancient city is a big richness for eco-tourism activities in this region. A true project will contribute to the economic development of locals, Aydın’s tourism and the protection of the road,” he said.

Credit: DHA

“The ancient era roads in our region have been detected by Dr. Anneliese Peschlow during research in and around Herakleia. Thanks to the stone road from the western part of Herakleia to the top of the mountain, Peschlow has made many discoveries and has made a great effort to reveal the oldest stone road in Anatolia. Along with geographer and cartographer Volker Höhfeld, they were able to measure the historic 300-kilometer road even before the existence of GPS,” said the EKODOSD president.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [February 22, 2018]

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Philip II’s palace at Aigai to open to the public in May

Work is proceeding at a fast pace to prepare the magnificent palace of Aigai in the region of Pella, northern Greece, for its opening to the public in May, with its walls restored to a height of 1.6 metres and the rich mosaics uncovered on the hall floors.

Credit: ANA-MPA

The palace, constructed during the reign of Philip II (359-336 BC), father of Alexander the Great, is three times the size of the Parthenon and belongs to a complex that includes royal burial clusters and a fortified town. The complex is in a strategic location defined by two rivers and the Pieria mountains.

Stonemasons have been working on the palace reconstruction, slowly reassembling the nearly 30 columns in the palace’s peristyle (a colonnade surrounding the main court), on the facade and elsewhere.

Credit: ANA-MPA

Sixteen columns of the peristyle’s southern section and the frieze will be reconstructed, to a height of eight metres. “This will allow us to get a comprehensive view of the building,” as archaeologist Angeliki Kottaridi, also head of the antiquities ephorate in the region of Imathia, explained to Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA).

Another 7,000 stone-cut blocks – measuring 1m long by a maximum 0.70m wide and 0.50m in height – are being prepared to augment original ones and to shore up the massive buttress on which the palace foundation rests. The surfaces of these stones are hand-carved, using tools like those of ancient stonemasons.

Credit: ANA-MPA

The floor mosaics, which will be visible in May, include the mythological theme of the rape of Europa and scenes of nature.

“The palace of Philip II was destroyed in the middle of the 2nd century BC, following the conquest of Macedonia by the Romans. Many of its architectural stone parts were used in constructing other buildings,” Kottaridi told ANA. “It’s characteristic that many of the stones from the building uncovered by the French excavators in the 19th century were used to build homes housing [Greek] refugees in the nearby village of Vergina,” she added.

Credit: ANA-MPA

Meanwhile, part of the upper floor at the palace’s entrance way (propylon) and a 30m part of a colonnade have been set up inside the new museum at Aigai, because they could not be reconstructed in situ. Kottaridi said the museum will be ready to open fully by the spring of 2020.

Funding for the project comes from the EU’s NSRF business programme on “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, which will provide 10 million euros in total for the reconstruction, expected to be completed by end-2022.

Credit: ANA-MPA

The increased funding from EU and Greek state sources will help support the wall the ancient Macedonians started building and to stabilize the eroded hillside, Kottaridi said.

“The reconstruction of the Aigai palace complex is particularly significant, as it will provide Macedonia with the most important example of classical-era architecture in the whole of northern Greece,” she concluded.

Source: The Greek Observer [February 21, 2018]

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Restoration works in the Room of Achilles at Nero's Golden House completed

After a five-month-long restoration, parts of the Room of Achilles at Skyros in the Domus Aurea (Golden House in Latin), the vast palace built by Emperor Nero after the great fire of 64 AD in the heart of ancient Rome, are back to their original splendor. The work was carried out thanks to the sponsorship worth 100,000 Swiss francs, or nearly 90,000 euros, provided by the Foundation Isabel & Balz Baechi.

Credit: ANSA

The foundation has previously donated money for renovation work at the sanctuary Sacro Monte di Varallo and at Rome's Villa Farnesina.

The partial restoration started at the Domus Aurea provides an insight into what the palace will look like when more work has been completed, said Alfonsina Russo, the new director of the archaeological area of the Colosseum.

Credit: ANSA

The restoration is "a taste of what we will be able to find at the Domus Aurea", said Russo, referring to work planned for all of the 30,000 square meters of painted surface at the palace. "This palace was a great laboratory of experimentation".

"Here worked architecture masters, painters like Fabullo who had Greek painting as great examples".

Credit: ANSA

Russo also said that the specific restoration work carried out so far has revealed the use of precious materials like the golden leaf, a symbol of the "ostentation and luxury that 'Princeps' Nero loved to surround himself with". Specifically, restorer Claudia Fiorani said that only by cleaning the room's tassels - one on a vault and another on a wall - "the results are surprising".

"We were able to bring back to life characters and anatomic details that surely inspired Renaissance masters", she said.

Credit: ANSA

"This room truly showed all of Nero's luxury", not only "for the extensive use of gold" but also because one of the figures that is not yet entirely visible is shrouded in mystery and has raised the interest of art historians, the restorer explained.

"It is surely a woman and very important because of the use of purpurrissumum to paint her, a very precious and expensive pigment made by crushing millions of mollusks", also said Fiorani, adding that her identity is yet to be discovered.

Credit: ANSA

The partial restoration so far carried out, said the director of the renovation work Maria Bartoli, "is also useful to get an idea on the timing and cost" of the work necessary on the entire building.

Alessandro D'Alessio, the scientific director of the monument, said the past year has been "difficult" but there is hope restoration work will gain new momentum with the appointment of the new director.

Credit: ANSA

"So far we have secured 80% of the painted walls, which was urgent".

The culture ministry has already allocated 13 million euros for more restoration work expected to start by the end of the year, including on the vaults of Trajan, which collapsed in 2010, said D'Alessio.

Credit: ANSA

The director said additional work is already being planned for all of the "16,000 square meters of ceiling surface", possibly with more private sponsors.

Source: ANSA [February 21, 2018]

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1,700-year-old altar found in Turkey's Afyonkarahisar stolen

An invaluable ancient altar from the Roman period discovered in western Turkey's Afyonkarahisar province during sewage works last year has been stolen, reports said Monday.

Credit: HaberTürk

Authorities have issued warnings for museums and border crossings to prevent the smuggling of the artifact, HaberTürk daily reported.

The 1,700-year-old altar had been discovered in November 2017, when municipal workers were carrying out sewage works near the Organized Industrial Site and was covered afterward.

When archaeologists arrived at the site to unearth the altar, they carried out an excavation but were unable to find the artifact, which had been stolen.

The provincial cultural and tourism directorate immediately took action and warned museums and auctions regarding the incident.

Border officials have also been notified, reports said.

Source: Daily Sabah [February 19, 2018]

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Iraq foils smuggling of USD13 million antiquities smuggling to Turkey

Iraq has foiled an attempt to smuggle antiquities worth millions of dollars to Turkey, its interior ministry said on Saturday.

A destroyed artifact is seen at a museum, where Islamic State militants filmed themselves destroying priceless statues
and sculptures in 2015, during a battle against the militants in Mosul, Iraq, March 11, 2017
[Credit: Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani]

The ministry’s general inspector said in a statement, quoted by Alforatnews, that ministry teams in Kirkuk blocked the transfer of scriptures and antiquities worth USD13 million to Turkey, which were in the possession of two people.

Those, the statement revealed, included scriptures and a bust.

It added that the suspects confessed to agreeing with another party in Turkey on the handover of the pieces. They said they were also expecting to receive more items while waiting at the Turkish borders, including jewelry belonging to the wife of late president Saddam Hussein worth millions of dollars.

Iraq’s archaeological sites sustained severe damage when Islamic State militants occupied a third of the country to proclaim a self-styled Islamic “caliphate”. The militants had filmed themselves axing down priceless statues in Mosul and other areas as they considered statues as pagan representations at odds with their extremist religious codes. However, later reports told that militants turned to selling antiquities to fund the group’s operations.

Author: Mohamed Mostafa | Source: Iraqi News [February 18, 2018]

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