$250K for parking -- and it's not even year-round

This Sun Valley story comes from the NY Times:

In Ketchum buying a condo at the Edelweiss has become known as purchasing a "ski locker." Such "lockers" sell for $250,000 and up, and are not for sleeping in. They are for parking in front of and then walking away from, toward the powder.

"It's the same old story," said Mickey Garcia, a shuttle-bus driver who stops directly opposite the coveted Edelweiss parking spots and would happily deliver the wealthy to the lift free, were they willing to drive from their multimillion-dollar mansions elsewhere in the valley to the park-and-ride lot and spend eight minutes on the crowded bus with other skiers. "The rich are getting richer, and the rich are willing to pay for their convenience," Mr. Garcia said.

Don't know what the taxes and upkeep are like, but the condos might not be a bad investment, especially if they could be rented out during the off season. Not that I'm rushing out to buy one -- I'd rather just have my driver drop me off.

Welsh tsunami

IT WAS around 9am on the "20th January 1607" (although in the modern calendar this is the January 30 1607) when the flood struck. The event is recorded on plaques in a number of churches, including those in Monmouthshire at Goldcliff, St Brides, Redwick and Peterstone.

The idea that the 1607 flood was due to a tsunami was first put forward by us in a scientific paper published in 2002 in the journal Archaeology in the Severn Estuary.

A number of historical documents exist that describe the event and its aftermath. An area from Barnstaple in north Devon, up the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary to Gloucester, then along the South Wales coast around to Cardigan was affected, some 570 km of coastline.

The coastal population was devastated with at least 2,000 fatalities according to one of the contemporary sources.

Read more here.

Fake "Aztec" crystal skulls

I'm not sure if this is really fresh info; European fakers turned out quite a few "Aztec" crystal skulls in the 19th century:

A CRYSTAL skull revered by New Age followers for its perceived ancient mystical powers is likely to be a fake, an academic said yesterday.

The almost life-sized skull, which was sold to London's British Museum in 1897, was thought to have been a relic from the Aztec civilisation in Mexico.

However, research by a Welsh professor has added weight to the theory that it was probably made in 19th-century Europe from a lump of poor quality Brazilian crystal.

Professor Ian Freestone, of Cardiff University, examined the skull and now believes it was cut and polished with a wheeled instrument. The Aztecs never used the wheel. Furthermore, the type of crystal used is common in Brazil but has never been found in Mexico.

Full story here.

UPDATE: A nice article that fills out the picture a bit more in the March 29th Washington Post, profiling the work of Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh.

Mozart's last portrait

A portrait of Mozart which lay anonymously in the cellars of the Berlin State Museum until an amateur art buff identified it has gone on display in the run-up to the composer's 250th birthday next year.

The picture was painted shortly before Mozart's death in 1791 and has been confirmed as the last known portrait of the Austrian composer.

The museum bought the picture, by Johann Georg Edlinger, in 1934 for the modest sum of 650 reichsmarks without realising it was one of only 10 Mozart portraits in existence.

Full story in the Guardian. More on Mozart portraits here; the BBC writeup has a photograph.

Boston Tea Party chest

As family legend tells it, the morning after the Boston Tea Party, a teenage patriot named John Robinson was looking for souvenirs from the lively events of the evening before. He found an empty tea chest and plucked it from the shores of the harbor, hauled it home and hid the contraband away.

More than two centuries later, city and museum officials showed off the tea chest on Wednesday on the site where colonists threw crates of tea into Boston Harbor on Dec. 16, 1773.

From the Boston Globe. A few more details over at Reuters.

Right or not? We'll see -- a lot depends on that family tradition, and if it's purely oral . . .

In any event, don't forget that Rhode Islanders beat the Boston boys to the punch with the burning of the Gaspee.

PS Also note the recent case of the fake banner bought by Gettysburg -- a fantasy piece made two years ago by a contemporary folk artist that made its way into the antiques trade, gaining value each time it changed hands. Iconic pieces have a way of commanding belief, whether deserved or not.

Viking find in Cumbria

Archaeologists in Cumbria say they have discovered what could be the country's most important Viking burial site. Experts are so excited about the find and its wealth of treasures, they are keeping its location a secret so they can work undisturbed. All that has been revealed is that it is near Barrow and contains artefacts dating back to the 10th Century.

Another burial site has been uncovered in Cumbria, close to Cumwhitton village, near Carlisle. Both sites were found by metal detector enthusiasts.

From the BBC.

Do dictatorships or democracies produce better soldiers?

Noteworthy exchanges recently prompted by Max Hastings' Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944-45 -- in particular, the claim that the Allies' citizen-soldiers were less effective than the soldiers of totalitarian states, and were less effectively (because less profligately) used.

Online hostilities opened with Andrew Sullivan citing Hastings in attacking the argument that democracies are inherently more formidable in war than dictatorships. This prompted a worthy response from Brad DeLong, who pointed out that Allied military performance in WW2 hardly indicated an unwillingness to take casualties, and that in any event, the willingness to take casualties is by itself no guarantee of military effectiveness (there's more, of course -- I do expect readers to follow these links for themselves, ahem!). Which in turn elicited more good commentary from Steven Sailer, who contradicted DeLong in pointing to evidence that German soldiers were indeed more effective than Allied, while ending up supporting DeLong's larger point by arguing that the greater German effectiveness had nothing to do with the nature of the Nazi state and everything to do with the greater egalitarianism (!) and cohesiveness within units and across ranks in the German army.

100 oldest domains

List here. Hat tip to Dennis Josefsson at Sänd mina rötter regn (which just goes to show you how stuff gets around).

Roman chariot racing in Colchester

ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe that they may have unearthed the world’s biggest Roman chariot-racing track outside Italy.

Excavations of part of the garrison in Colchester, Essex, Britain’s oldest recorded town, have revealed traces of a track that are being examined by English Heritage. The garrison is the home of the 16 Air Assault Brigade and is the longest-established garrison in the country. . .

Up to 2,500 homes are being built on the 209-acre redevelopment site. Colchester, which was first mentioned by Pliny the Elder in AD77, was sacked by Boadicea and her Celtic army . . .

Philip Wise, of Colchester Museums Service, said that if the find was verified, it could stop the housing development plans.

Full story here.

Israel forgery ring roundup

The activities of the group behind some high-profile "biblical" objects (the James ossuary, the Joash tablet, the ivory pomegranate, among others) have been much in the news lately. To cut through the smoke, take a look at the coverage at Paleojudaica (including posts here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, with more undoubtedly to come). Other Paleojudaica-recommended sites to follow: Ralph the Sacred River and Serving the Word.

This Guardian link gives some idea about what is at stake:

Hundreds of biblical artefacts in museums all over the world could be fakes, it has emerged after Israeli investigators uncovered what they claim is a sophisticated forgery ring.

Four men have been charged with the faking of some of the most important biblical discoveries in recent years. . .

The indictment against the men in Jerusalem says: "During the last 20 years many archaeological items were sold, or an attempt was made to sell them, in Israel and in the world, that were not actually antiques. These items, many of them of great scientific, religious, sentimental, political and economic value, were created specifically with intent to defraud". . .

Doubts about the artefacts emerged after Israeli police began to hear rumours of an Egyptian craftsman living in Israel who would boast of his part in the forgeries while drinking in Tel Aviv. Detectives launched an investigation two years ago which rapidly became a global exercise.

Note that at least some of the artifacts were previously questioned quite on their own demerits.

The indictment lists 124 witnesses, including antiquities collectors, archaeologists, officials from Sotheby's auction house and representatives of the British Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.

The four men indicted are a Tel Aviv collector, Oded Golan, owner of the James ossuary and the Yoash tablet; Robert Deutsch, an inscriptions expert who teaches at Haifa University; Shlomo Cohen, a collector, and Faiz al-Amaleh, an antiquities dealer.

A fifth indictment has now been announced, which would appear to be Rafael Braun -- former head of the Israel Museum's laboratories, now a prominent antiquities dealer.

Martin Robertson obit

Martin Robertson was a giant in the study of the art and archaeology of Ancient Greece, and a much-loved friend of many in the field. His magisterial A History of Greek Art (1975) still holds prime position 30 years after publication for its breadth of learning and deep understanding, and assures his place at the forefront of scholars of classical art and archaeology.

Read the rest in the Independent.

ADDENDUM: The as-thorough-as-expected Times of London obit has finally appeared here.

South Australian wreck identified

The wreck of one of Britain's most significant 19th century ships has been identified off the coast of Lundy by a group of deep sea divers.

Divers from the Ilfracombe and North Devon Sub Aqua Club had known about the wreck, described as the "QE2 of its age", for several years, but it was only within the last week that they were able to positively identify it as the South Australian.

The wreck lies in about 150ft of water around ten miles off Lundy. The ship sank on February 14 1889 after the cargo she was carrying became loose, causing her to list.

Full story here. Disconcertingly, the article begins to refer to the ship as a "boat" after the above excerpt.

New henge discovered

Well, not exactly new. . .

WILTSHIRE may have Stonehenge but now Cheshire has a wooden henge after archaeologists made the discovery near Chester.

Researchers working at Poulton, on the Duke of Westminster's land, were amazed to find the Bronze Age burials they had been investigating were preceded by a much earlier 'ritual' presence.

A circle of holes indicated the existence of the wooden henge together with a large hole in the centre which was potentially a form of 'totem pole'.

Full story here.

Historic submarine wreck update

A prototype submarine which sank off the Sussex coast has been given protected wreck status.

The Holland number five was the last of five submarines built by the British Admiralty in the 1890s to test the potential of the submarine as a weapon. It was launched in 1902 and foundered off the East Sussex coast in 1912. . .

The Holland number five - and its four predecessors - were built by the Holland Torpedo Company and it contained one of the first periscopes ever designed.

From the BBC.

Banning the Browning

Today's NY Times has a piece on California's ban on rifles that use .50 Browning MG ammo. Some rather bad writing, however, in terms of both grammar and research:

Manufacturers say the rifle is accurate at a range of up to 2,000 yards, more than a mile. It fires bullets five and a half inches long described as powerful enough to rip through armor, much less the thin aluminum skin that covers commercial airliners.

"Much less"? And the writer seems to be confusing the dimensions of the cartridge with that of the bullet, which is still pretty big at around 2.27 inches.

The merits of banning super-large-caliber rifles will undoubtedly be debated at length elsewhere, so I will just comment that it seems pointless to enact such bans state-by-state if the intent is to keep such weapons out of the hands of terrorists and other well-organized outlaws.

Imperial curators face end of the line

FOR five generations the Liang family have worked quietly and diligently, their dedication to China’s priceless cultural heritage one of the few constants in a century and a half of turmoil.

Their loyalty to the breathtaking collection of paintings, calligraphy, porcelain and rare books that make up the treasures of the Imperial Palace Museum in Beijing’s Forbidden City spans 150 years and tens of thousands of miles.

But with the retirement after 28 years of Liang Jinsheng, the manager of the collection, that extraordinary link will break. For his son, Liang Jun, is the unintended victim of a Chinese government campaign to wipe out corruption and nepotism in its enormous public service.

New regulations ban anyone with relatives already working in the museum to join its staff. So Liang Jun cannot carry on the family business, although he still works in the Forbidden City as a tour guide.

From the Times.

Dirty @#*!& tourists

Months after a painstaking and costly clean-up of [Michelangelo's David], experts at Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia found dust and humidity brought in by streams of tourists had begun to tarnish their top crowd-puller again.

"The tourists carry in heaps of dust from outside. Dust may sound innocent, but the city grime contains lots of chemicals. They also bring in humidity when it's raining," museum director Franca Falletti told Reuters.

Falletti said one possible solution was to have air blowing out from behind the five-meter (15 foot) marble statue, reversing an existing draught . . .

Other options include . . . asking tourists to rigorously brush off before entering the museum.

Full story here.

Old photographs online

Let's start off the first week of the New Year with a couple of sites I've been meaning to mention for some time.

The first, Chronophotographical Projections, is devoted to early motion photography. Good historical information, complete with animation.

The second is a great living-memory time machine: the Charles W. Cushman archive at Indiana University, "14,500 Kodachrome color slides . . . [that] bridge a thirty-two year span from 1938 to 1969, during which time [Cushman] extensively documented the United States as well as other countries." It's funny how different it is to see all those old street scenes and slice-of-life shots in color, though I wonder if future generations will so strongly and unconsciously associate memory with monochrome. In any event, the old Kodachromes look great, and well repay the browsing time.

V&A thefts: it's nothing new

As shocking as the recent thefts have been, do-it-yourself deaccessioning has a long history at the Victoria and Albert:

A series of thefts by an attendant at the Victoria and Albert museum went unnoticed for around two decades, according to National Archive records.

The thief, a man called Nevin, stole 2,544 items from the museum, prompting a security report in 1954.

A subsequent stock-take revealed about 5,000 objects were missing, although not all were attributable to Nevin. No stock-taking had taken place for 16 years - not since 1937 - prior to the discovery of the thefts.

Details of the thefts came to light in files now released by the National Archives at Kew, in London.

Objects taken included musical instruments, ceramics, prints, oil paintings, lacquer boxes and 98 Japanese swords. Nevin also managed to take two imitation 18th century French tables.

Read more here. Some hundred items were so badly damaged as to be beyond repair; Nevin was ultimately sentenced to all of three years in prison.

Not so many millionaires in Turkey

A new currency for the New Year:

Under the new system, 1,000,000 Turkish lira, about 75 cents, is equivalent to 1 new Turkish lira -- the price of about three loaves of bread. . .

The old currency boasted the world's largest bank note -- 20,000,000 lira, worth only about $15. The move comes as the government has made important progress in reducing inflation, which ran in the double digits for decades.

Full story here. It's been over ten years since I was last in Turkey, but I do recall how one could often get better prices by paying in dollars or Deutschmarks.