Museums and ethics

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington is facing calls to cancel a planned exhibition of Chinese artifacts salvaged from a Tang-era shipwreck as they were recovered by a commercial treasure-hunter rather than by academic, archaeological methods.
Read more in this article from the online New York Times  

From Hellenism to Islam: book review

Published by Cambridge University Press in 2009, "From Hellenism to Islam: cultural and linguistic change in the Roman Near East" (edited by Hannah Cotton)  explores the "constantly shifting blend of languages and writing systems, legal structures, religious practices and beliefs in the Near East" in the 800 years between the Roman and Islamic conquests.

Read a review by Christian Hogel (University of Southern Denmark) in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review ("an impressive and very readable publication")

Find the book in SOAS Library at NB417 / 732888

The two eyes of the Earth: book review

Matthew Canepa's 2009 book "The two eyes of the Earth: art and ritual of kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran" is reviewed in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review by Dr. Peter Edwell of Macquarie University, Sydney.

The book is based on the author's PhD thesis at the University of Chicago. Professor Canepa is currently  at the Department of Art History at the College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota
Dr. Peter Edwell is based in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, Sydney

SOAS Library has a copy of this book at NT935 / 741958

Antiquities : is it possible to "collect" them with a clear conscience?

Article from the Huffington Post on the legality of collecting "antiquities" and the problems faced by museums where items in their collection, or that they wish to acquire, are of dubious provenance

Jerusalem: archaeology and rival histories

Article from the online edition of the Smithsonian Magazine explores the complex history of the Temple Mount and the fraught nature of archaeology on the site as "ancient history inflames modern-day political tensions"

Medieval Islamic courtyard at New York's Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is reconstructing a medieval Maghrebi-Andalusian courtyard as the centre-piece of its extensively remodeled Islamic art galleries.
Read a report from the New York Times on the Met's multi-million dollar project

Treasures of Afghanistan exhibition

Two reports published in connection with the British Museum's latest major exhibition "Afghanistan: crossroads of the ancient world", which opens today (3rd March) and runs until 3rd July

"The hill of gold" - article by Peter Thonemann from the Guardian (Saturday 21st February) looks at the historical background to the treasures, in particular the Tillya Tepe hoard

"Karzai opens London show of rescued Afghan treasures" - report from Reuters by Stefano Ambrogi (2nd March) on the opening of the exhibition and how the artifacts were saved for posterity.