Free Republic

Ukraine has recovered 14 archaeological items allegedly stolen by a Russian man who was stopped at a U.S. airport on suspicion of illegally importing artifacts, Ukrainian officials said Friday. Ukraine’s acting Minister of Culture Rostyslav Karandieiev said the man stole the artifacts from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory and then tried to transport them into the U.S. At a news conference in Kyiv Friday, Karandieiev showed some of the artifacts to journalists, along with the documentation that Ukraine received. The recovered items include various types of weaponry, such as axes of different sizes, and date back to periods ranging from the Neolithic...

A bronze artifact salvaged from an ancient Greek shipwreck, recognized as the world’s oldest computer, may hold the secrets of the universe.When we talk of the history of computers, most of us will refer to the evolution of the modern digital desktop PC, charting the decades-long developments by the likes of Apple and Microsoft. What many don’t consider, however, is that computers have been around much longer. In fact, they date back millennia to a time when they were analog creations. Today, the world’s oldest known “computer” is the Antikythera mechanism, a corroded bronze artifact which was found at the...

This rare cuneiform tablet is inscribed with a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh A federal court has ordered that a small ancient fragment depicting a portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh be forfeited by the Museum of the Bible two years after federal agents confiscated the artifact. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ordered the forfeiture of the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, which was purchased by Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. in 2014 to be displayed at the Museum of the Bible. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division explained...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday brought home a 2,700-year-old Persian artifact the US administration gave him as ?a special gift" to Iranians, media reports said. ?The Americans contacted us on Thursday and said 'we have a gift for you',? Rouhani told reporters upon arrival at the airport in Tehran, the ILNA news agency reported. ?They gave it back as a special gift to the Iranian nation.? Rouhani was speaking of a 7th century BC silver Persian drinking cup in the shape of a winged Griffin, a legendary creature with the head of an eagle and body of a lion....

The United States returned to Iran a 2,700-year-old silver drinking cup, looted from a cave in Iran and seized by US Customs officials a decade ago, NBC news reported. The cup is valued at a million dollars at least. … The cup, cast in the shape of a winged griffin, has been stored in a New York warehouse, since authorities seized it from an art dealer who was arrested trying to sell it. For years, US officials have been saying they couldn’t return it to Iran until diplomatic ties with Tehran were normalized. …

This violin was unsinkable. A rosewood violin played by bandmaster Wallace Hartley on the Titanic deck as the ship sank has been confirmed as authentic by investigators, and could soon be brought to auction. The cracked, water-damaged instrument is easily one of the most significant artifacts from the century-old tragedy. Hartley led seven other band members in hymns to calm passengers as they lined up for lifeboats. He and the other musicians went down with the ship while performing “Nearer, My God, To Thee.” “When we first saw the violin, we had to keep a lid on our excitement, because...

Archaeologist suing makers of Indiana Jones, claiming their Crystal Skull is too accurate Can a fantastical movie be too historically accurate? Dr. Jaime Awe, director of the Institute of Archeology of Belize, has filed suit against Lucasfilm and Paramount Pictures claiming that the prop skull from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull bears a striking resemblance to one of the "real" Crystal Skulls originally discovered in Belize. So why is that a problem? Well, according to Awe, the skull was stolen, and the filmmakers are profitting off of ill-gotten goods. The Hollywood Reporter broke the news of...

A silver cross regarded as one of the most important early Christian artifacts found in Britain is a modern fake, scientists confirmed Thursday. The Chi-Rho Amulet, which bears an early Christian symbol incorporating the first two letters of Christ's name in Greek, was found in a 4th-century Roman grave near the Somerset town of Shepton Mallet in 1990.

A bone splinter forms the eyes A flint object with a striking likeness to a human face may be one of the best examples of art by Neanderthal man ever found, the journal Antiquity reports. The "mask", which is dated to be about 35,000 years old, was recovered on the banks of the Loire in France. It is about 10 cm tall and wide and has a bone splinter rammed through a hole, making the rock look as if it has eyes. Commentators say the object shows the Neanderthals were more sophisticated than their caveman image suggests. "It should...

Washington, DC – Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty complained today that an article in the Washington Post about the clothes worn by Supreme Court nominee John Roberts’ children was “unfair and disappointing.” Mrs. Lafferty said in a letter sent to Post Editor Leonard Downie, Jr. that the Post has now set a new pecking order for “unfair journalism which ignores substance and slides right into chortling about form.” “If you can’t come up with something disgusting about the actual nominee or his wife then rough-up the kids some and see what happens,” Mrs. Lafferty said today. Post fashion...

<p>JERUSALEM (AP) — An ancient burial box purported to have held the bones of Jesus' brother, James, is a fake, Israel's Antiquities Authority said Wednesday. The ossuary, which bore the inscription "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," had been touted by some scholars as the oldest archaeological link to New Testament figures.</p>

MISSING ANTIQUITIES Loss Estimates Are Cut on Iraqi Artifacts, but Questions Remain By ALAN RIDING BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 30 — Even though many irreplaceable antiquities were looted from the National Museum of Iraq during the chaotic fall of Baghdad last month, museum officials and American investigators now say the losses seem to be less severe than originally thought. Col. Matthew F. Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting and is stationed at the museum, said museum officials had given him a list of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But since then, 4 items — ivory objects from...