Mexico City pyramid discovery redates Aztec chronology

Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought. . .

The pyramid, found last month as part of an investigation begun in August, could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signalling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed.

"We have found the stairs of this, much older pyramid. The (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised," archaeologist Patricia Ledesma said at the site on Thursday.

From Reuters.

Santa denial forbidden in Russia

The Russian government has banned a television advertisement for denying the existence of Father Christmas.

The ad for Eto electrical stores stated Father Frost, Russia's version of Father Christmas, did not exist.

The Federal anti-Monopoly Service said the ad had broken rules for advertisers not to discredit parents and teachers.

From the BBC.

"Templar" cave in danger

The Royston Cave, believed to date back to the 13th Century, is being damaged by the weight and vibration of excessive heavy lorry traffic. . .

The cave is a man-made cavern in the shape of a beehive, with a small aperture at the top for ventilation.

Inside are wall carvings representing the Crucifixion, the Holy Family and several saints, including St Katherine, St Laurence and St Christopher.

Local historians have said the wall carvings suggest the cave may have been used by the Knights Templar.

From the BBC.

France and Bangladesh at odds over museum loan thefts

A row has erupted between Paris and Dhaka after the theft of two ancient statues led to the cancellation of a ground-breaking exhibition of Hindu artefacts. Bangladesh scrapped the exhibition at the Guimet Museum, amid claims that France could not be trusted with some of the country's finest cultural treasures.

French officials pointed out, however, that the 1,500-year-old statues were stolen amid insufficient security controls in Dhaka, and claimed that the exhibition had fallen victim to a plot involving art-traffickers and opponents of the Bangladeshi regime.

The terracotta artworks disappeared from Zia international airport, Dhaka, at the weekend before they could be loaded on to an Air France aircraft for Paris, where the first important international exhibition of Bangladeshi relics was due to open next month. Police in Dhaka said yesterday that they had arrested eight members of a criminal gang in connection with the thefts and had raided premises in search of them.

Detectives also questioned cleaners who claimed that they had found the objects, broken and in a rubbish dump.

The theft of the two representations of Vishnu, a supreme Hindu deity regarded as the lord of peace and truth, sparked a political crisis in Bangladesh and prompted the resignation of Ayub Quadri, the Cultural Affairs Minister. . .

Bangladeshi commentators said that the French authorities were legally responsible for transporting the artefacts to Paris and were therefore to blame for the security lapse.

With the controversy over the loss of the statues increasing in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi Government withdrew authorisation for 143 remaining relics to leave the country and asked the Guimet Museum to return the 42 objects that had already arrived safely. . .

French authorities believe that the thefts were organised by corrupt Bangladeshi officials colluding with art-traffickers and government critics.

In a statement, the French Embassy in Dhaka pointed to "a conspiracy to embarrass France and Bangladesh". . .

The exhibition of statues, paintings, manuscripts and coins dating from the 3rd century BC to the 19th century had already provoked fierce debate in Bangladesh, where opponents attempted to stop the loan of the artefacts with legal action.

From the Times of London.

Stolen sculptures saved from the scrapyard

With metal prices high, thefts of copper have become epidemic -- sculpture included. I can't but wonder how complicit scrapyard operators are in all this. Or are they just monumentally ignorant?

Three people have been arrested for stealing bronze sculptures worth an estimated $1 million from an artist after some of the artwork turned up at at least two scrap metal yards.

Vermont State Police arrested Joshua Staples, 18; Anni Wells, 26; and Roger Chaffee, 29, of the Troy and Newport areas on Dec. 24.

The three were charged with possession and sale of stolen property after 23 sculptures were recovered from a scrap metal yard in Hinesburg, which paid more than $4,000 for them, police said. More sculptures were being returned from North Adams, Mass., police said Wednesday.

Full article here.

Excavation in the museum

Why bother with auctions and the like when there's so much already in the basement?

AT FIRST glance they have little in common except their antiquity and being buried away for too long in dusty cupboards and basement storage boxes.
But the Royal Museum of Scotland has now "rediscovered" a range of national treasures that are going to be put on display to the public.

They include an antelope net used by Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone during his travels in Africa and a rare "hobby horse" bike that was the plaything of the 19th-century aristocracy.

Other extraordinary finds include a fossilised tree, around 250 million years old and linked to the great Scottish naturalist John Muir, and an 18th-century illustrated guide to Scotland.

The objects are among the four million items collected by the museum, in Edinburgh's Chambers Street, since it opened in 1868. But its curators have only been able to put a fraction of its treasures on display at any one time.

Full article here. The hobby horse is particularly interesting:

The biggest item is the hobby horse, or draisine -- named after its German inventor Baron Karl von Drais -- which was made for the 13th Earl Of Eglinton in Ayrshire around 1822. . .

The last time it was seen in public was in a parade in 1897. Then it was found by an estate worker in a shed in the 1930s and was donated to the museum.

Gallic hoard in Brittany

The largest treasure trove of pre-Roman, Gaulish money ever to be found has been discovered in central Brittany.

The 545 coins -- each worth thousands of euros to collectors but priceless to historians and archaeologists -- could overturn much of the received wisdom about the complexity, and wealth, of pre-Roman Celtic society in France.

Full article here.

Copyrighting the Pyramids

How long should copyrights run? According to the Egyptians, millennia:

Egypt's MPs are expected to pass a law requiring royalties be paid whenever copies are made of museum pieces or ancient monuments such as the pyramids.

Zahi Hawass, who chairs Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the BBC the law would apply in all countries. . .

Mr Hawass said the law would apply to full-scale replicas of any object in any museum in Egypt. "Commercial use" of ancient monuments like the pyramids or the sphinx would also be controlled, he said. "Even if it is for private use, they must have permission from the Egyptian government," he added.

Full article here. I wonder if they are going to try to get retroactive royalties from the heirs of all the Egyptian revival architects and designers through history and their patrons, from Caius Cestius on. And what about that pirated pyramid on the Great Seal of the United States? Watch out, Louvre.

Oldest ice skates?

The world's first skaters are likely to have taken to the ice about 4,000 years ago on the frozen lakes of Finland, according to a UK-based research team.

They seem to have used skates made out of horse bones, Dr Federico Formenti of Oxford University, co-author of a paper on the subject, told the BBC.

His team tested replicas of bone-skates from the British Museum over several years at an Alpine location.

He said the skates were fun to use and compared well with modern equivalents.

From the BBC.