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Ever wondered what was in the Vatican Secret Archives or the Pope’s Treasury Collection? “Baldwin’s Treasure” is the premier collection of sacred antiquities made of silver and precious gems from all over Byzantium. These include the finest works in ivory and enamel, jade, gold leaf, and glass. Has anyone ever heard of this? Probably not, but those who have been in the company of an elite few. This article is about a mysterious and enigmatic collection of ancient, rare objects belonging to Christian and Jewish heritage. A little backgrounder, though, is necessary. First, when was the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire...

After posting two disconcerting re-blogs yesterday about the culture of rape enjoyed by our Islamist brethren and about the extent to which Englishmen have been deprived of their freedoms in order to appease increasing numbers of violent Islamists infesting England, I awoke this morning in need of a restorative. I had dreamed about it -- this -- last night: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZRS482qXaQ?feature=player_detailpage] I can't embed the video here, so here is a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZRS482qXaQ&feature=player_embedded Civilized people can behave that way with each other and when they do it is beautiful. I do not for even a split nanosecond mean to suggest...

BASRA — Iraqi Security Forces recently uncovered hundreds of historical artifacts during two raids in northern Basra. The 228 ancient artifacts included Sumerian and Babylonian sculpture, gold jewelry and other items from ancient Mesopotamia.“This is my favorite item,” said Iraqi Col. Ali Sabah, commander of the Basra Emergency Battalion that led the operation, holding a piece of gold jewelry. “It’s gold from the Babylon ages and about 6,000 years old. It doesn’t have a price.”“I’m very happy because this is my civilization’s heritage,” he said.The Basra Emergency Battalion led raid operated from tips that smugglers intended to remove the...

2,000-year-old treasures tell wild storyNEELY TUCKER; The Washington Post Published: May 25th, 2008 01:00 AMThis sculpture likely depicts a supervisor of Greek athletics. It was unearthed in Afghanistan.Pendants showing the Dragon Master, a mythical nomadic man holding dragons by the leg, date back to the days of Christ.PHOTOS BY THIERRY OLLIVIER/MUSEE GUIMETA detailed ivory statuette of a woman probably adorned a piece of furniture in the 1st or 2nd century.An exhibit in Washington, D.C., reveals gold, intrigue and jewelry once buried in Afghanistan. The finds have survived looters and wars. WASHINGTON – You can go see Indiana Jones and the...

Alpine guardians try to put treasures on ice Richard OwenApril 17, 2008 Prehistoric treasures unearthed in the Alps as melting glaciers recede are under threat from looters who are removing many of them. Such is the concern for the newly revealed objects - which include weapons, clothing and tools - that a task force of archaeologists, anthropologists, mountain climbers and Alpine rescue teams has been formed in an attempt to salvage them. Franco Nicolis, an archaeologist from Trento, said: “We must be ready to intervene as if we were dealing with a public calamity.” He said that mountain climbers and...

VENTURA, Calif. - The spot where a pair of outhouses stood 130 years ago is proving to be a treasure trove for archaeologists who braved the lingering smell in the dirt to uncover some 19th Century artifacts — and a mystery. The one-time site of privies for men and women has been built upon repeatedly. Recently, crews demolished a former school bus barn on the 3.5-acre downtown site in order to build a condominium complex and a parking garage. But first, archaeologists were called in. Beginning in late May, they started digging into the ground in a discovery process that...

Cash-strapped Communists hawk treasures By Kim Willsher in Paris, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:56am BST 10/06/2007 It was once France's biggest political party, feared by the bourgeoisie and the CIA alike as a red menace with the power to spark another revolution. The party is considering selling Mona Lisa with Moustache Nicolas Sarkozy's sweeping victory in last month's presidential election, however, and the prospect of another landslide for his party in the parliamentary elections - with the first round today - have spelled disaster for the French Communist Party. So bad were the presidential election results that the "people's" party...

Iran's rich architecture and rare treasures threatened by possible US strikes · Many ancient remains are close to nuclear plants · Archaeologists anxious to avoid repeat of Iraq chaos Maev Kennedy Monday March 5, 2007 The Guardian (UK) Tourists visit Persepolis, which lies within 50 miles of the Ardakan and Fasa uranium processing plants. Photograph: Vahid Salemi/AP In his quiet office at the British Museum, among the portraits of long-dead explorers and copies of 3,000-year-old inscriptions, one of the greatest experts on the archaeology of the Middle East has a series of maps of Iranian nuclear installations spread out across...

ROME - Work on Rome's Palatine Hill has turned up a trove of discoveries, including what might be the underground grotto where ancient Romans believed a wolf nursed the city's legendary founders Romulus and Remus. ADVERTISEMENT Archaeologists gathered Tuesday at a conference to save crumbling monuments on the Palatine discussed findings of studies on the luxurious imperial homes threatened by collapse and poor maintenance that have forced the closure of much of the hill to the public.While funds are still scarce, authorities plan to reopen some key areas of the honeycombed hill to tourists by the end of the year,...

New Viking treasures found Archaeologists have made a major discovery in Western Norway, unearthing well-preserved Viking graves from the 9th century full of riches.Glass beads covered with gold are among the items found in the Viking graves. PHOTO: JONAS HAAR FRIESTAD Workers at the excavation site are awed by what they've found. PHOTO: JONAS HAAR FRIESTAD The Viking treasures were found at Frøyland in Rogaland County. Local newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad reported Monday that items recovered from the graves indicate they belonged to wealthy Vikings of the time. In one of the graves, belonging to a woman, archaeologists found jewellery, many...

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Dec. 27 — After four years of renovations that closed two-thirds of the building, the museum housing the world’s most famous collection of Chinese art is reopening this winter and holding a three-month exhibition of its rarest works.

What happened to the 50 tons of gold, silver and sacred treasures looted from Herod's Temple following the Roman legionnaires' sack of Jerusalem on Tisha b'Av in the year 70 CE? The Arch of Titus in Rome, erected shortly after the death of Titus who reigned as emperor from 79 to 81, clearly depicts Roman soldiers bearing on their shoulders the golden candelabrum, silver trumpets and bejewelled Table of the Divine Presence which the Roman emperor Vespasian and his son Titus carted back to Rome as trophies of war. Between 75 CE and the early 5th century, the treasure remained...

Ancient gold treasures unearthed in Thracian tomb near Black Sea The Associated Press Published: September 4, 2006 SOFIA, Bulgaria A 2,200-year-old set of gold jewelry was unearthed from a Thracian burial mound on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast, the archaeologist who led the excavations said Monday. Daniela Agre said her team in late August found dozens of tiny jewelry pieces in the tomb of a woman, most likely a Thracian priestess, near the resort of Sinemorets, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) southeast of the capital, Sofia. The discovery included two earrings, crafted like miniature chariots, as well as parts of gold...

Antiquities "looted" during the colonial era are better off in western collections than being returned to Africa, according to a Kenyan curator overseeing an exhibition of artefacts loaned to Nairobi by the British Museum.Governments in Africa and other former colonies have long demanded that Europe hands back boatloads of relics plundered by explorers, anthropologists, missionaries and others before and during colonisation. But facilities to care for precious objects that may otherwise be left to rot are far better among the world's great museum houses than those in Africa, Kiprop Lagat said yesterday. Mr Lagat, 35, is running a six-month exhibition...

2,800-year-old treasures brought to light Great archaeological progress has been made in the excavation of the large-scale ruins and the tombs of noble lords of the Zhou Dynasty (771-221 BC) in Liangdai Village of Hancheng, Shaanxi Province as learned from the Shaanxi Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on Sunday in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, reports the overseas edition of People's Daily on December 19. Great quantities of various treasures with a history of more than 2,800 years have been discovered through the initial excavation of the three large graves and one chariot and horse pit. They include...

Treasures Fit For The KingsA spate of spectacular discoveries could completely change our view of the Thracians, one of history's most mysterious peoples By JUMANA FAROUKY TCVETAN TOMCHEV / AFP GOLD RUSH: Thracian artifacts, like this piece of horse's armor, reveal Bulgaria's past Sunday, May. 29, 2005 They had been digging for 12 years, 4 months a year, 18 hours a day. Since 1992, Georgi Kitov and his team have been searching through Bulgaria's Valley of the Kings, a 100-km, heavily forested region in the center of the country. The valley is dotted with ancient burial mounds erected by the...

WASHINGTON, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and Yellowstone National Park are the clear front-runners in a national survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) that asked Americans to name the top American treasures they would like to visit. Results showed a true appreciation for the nation's natural and historic sites. The top ten selections, in order, were:

What’s THE biggest media myth to come out of the Iraq? War and its messy aftermath? Forget Maureen Dowd’s attempt to trash George W. Bush by altering the president’s words. That kind of "journalism" has become just standard operating procedure at the New York Times. (" All the News Fit to Distort") No, for sheer, long-lasting stamina, we nominate the urban legend about the pillaging of Baghdad’s archaeological museum. Remember how it was supposed to have been emptied by looters? It was THE RAPE OF CIVILIZATION! The anguished comments from distinguished archaeologists sounded more like tabloid headlines. The Death of...

Treasures uncovered in Ryedale's lost village by Gazette reporters MILL SEARCH: Landscape investigator Al Oswald using GPS equipment in the newly-discovered monastic mill pond at Wharram Percy and, inset, the mill as it may have looked. RYEDALE'S famous lost village has given up another treasure for archaeologists. A long-lost water mill and farmstead at Wharram Percy, run by the "luckless" Cistercian monks of Meaux Abbey, came to light during a survey of the landscape around the wolds village, which is one of England's largest and best-preserved deserted medieval villages. English Heritage, working with the Wharram Research Project, combed through ancient...

Ancient treasures from golden age of mystery THEY may have been struck at the time of Jesus Christ, but they are scarcely marked despite the hundreds of years they spent buried in a farmer's field. The tiny gold Celtic coins are the latest in a series of finds that are becoming more common since metal detectorists and archeologists started working together. And they were used by the same tribe whose chariot burials have fascinated the public in recent months. Weeks ago archeologists revealed that they had unearthed a rare and nationally significant Iron Age burial site at Ferrybridge in West...