Ancient Egyptian limestone relief recovered from Paris

Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities officially received today an ancient Egyptian limestone relief, which has been recovered from France, during a ceremony held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in Cairo.

Shaaban Abdel-Gawad, the general supervisor of the ministry’s Antiquities Repatriation Department, says that the relief was on display at a Paris auction house. The ministry took all the necessary procedures to stop the sale of the relief and have it withdrawn from the auction.

Abdel-Gawad said that the relief was stolen from a temple at Saqqara necropolis during the 1900s and smuggled out of the country.

The relief, which is dated to the 30th Dynasty during the reign of King Nakhtenbo II, is about 44X50 cm in size and weighs about 80kg. Read more.

Digging the Secrets of Ancient Maya Gardeners in the Yucatan

Known as el Mayab before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Yucatán in Mexico was populated by the ancient Maya and perhaps best known for great ancient Maya cities such as Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. But it was not a naturally friendly place for farming. Its shallow soil composition and expansive natural foundation of karstic limestone bedrock made it, to say the least, a challenging environment for gardening and agricultural production.

Something called a rejollada likely made a significant difference, however. That’s what Kate Leonard, a young Canadian archaeologist who recently excavated in them, discovered in April of 2016.

“A rejollada is a large circular sinkhole in the natural limestone bedrock that often contains deep moist soil,” says Leonard. “They’re actually quite large. I was surprised when I walked down into my first one. They do vary in size but the ones we were excavating could fit a soccer field in them. They are large enough that it is difficult to indicate in a photograph that you are in a deep depression.” Read more.

Palmyran limestone funerary plaque of a mother and daughter. Syria, first half of the 2nd century A.D.

~Hasmonean

Cypriot Limestone Votive Pine Cone, Hellenistic, 3rd-1st Century BC

Pine cone symbolism is consistently found across many ancient cultures. The ancient Greeks and Assyrians viewed the pine cone as a symbol of masculinity because of its phallic shape. It formed the apex of the Greek thyrsus staff, which was associated with Dionysus and represented fertility and prosperity.  Assyrian winged deities with pine cones represented the power of regeneration and immortality.

As the emblem of Artemis, it represented feminine purity. It was also the emblem of the Roman goddess Venus (Aphrodite). And, from ancient Egypt on some of the papyri illustrating the entrance of the souls of the dead into the judgment hall of Osiris, the deceased person had a pine cone attached to the crown of his head, which is thought to represent wisdom and immortality.

Mosaic floor from Villelaure with Diana and Callisto surrounded by hunt scenes

Villelaure, France, 3rd century A.D.

colored marble, limestone, and glass tesserae 

LACMA

Mosaic floor from Villelaure with Diana and Callisto surrounded by hunt scenes

Villelaure, France, 3rd century A.D.

colored marble, limestone, and glass tesserae 

LACMA

Fragmentary head of a worshiper

Period: Early Dynastic IIIa

Date: ca. 2600-2500 B.C.

Geography: Mesopotamia, Nippur

Culture: Sumerian

Medium: Limestone

Dimensions: H - 6 in.

Classification: Stone

Provenance: 1960–61, excavated on behalf of the Joint Expedition to Nippur (Baghdad School of the American Schools of Oriental Research and The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago); acquired by the Museum in 1962, as a result of its financial contribution to the excavations.

Dendritic Limestone

This beautiful piece of limestone contains fern-like images that are actually not plants, but the result of a branching growth pattern of mineral deposits called dendrites. The growth of these types of dendrites takes thousands of years and are an elaborate example of the beauty of nature. The face of the stone is in its natural state; the back and sides have been smoothed by hand. Mined in Germany. 

The Ancient Ones:  Oldest Living Organisms on Earth

The trees of the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, in the White Mountains near Bishop, California, are the oldest living recorded organisms on Earth. Many of the trees are over 2,000 years old, with the “Methuselah” tree dated at more than 4,773 years old. It was previously thought that this was the oldest tree in the world, but was superceded by the discovery of another bristlecone pine in the same area with an age of 5,063 years, giving it a germination date of 3051 BC.

These trees were young and growing at the time stone axes were being used in Europe, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) was being built, and cuneiform clay tablets were being used in northern Syria.

source 1, 2, 3

Israeli archeologists find 9,500-year-old figurines that shed light on stone age

JERUSALEM — Israel’s Antiquities Authority says archeologists have unearthed two 9,500-year-old figurines near Jerusalem that help shed light on religion and society during the stone age.

It says archaeologists unearthed the two rare figurines last week in Tel Motza between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv during a dig ahead of the expansion of a major highway in the area.

One of the objects is shaped like a ram and made of limestone. The other depicts an ox and is made of dolomite. Both are 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) long.

Wednesday’s statement says the figurines could have been either good luck hunting icons or a representation of the animal’s domestication. (source)

The Royal Game of Ur (Replica)

Also called the ‘Game of 20 Squares’, this game was first unearthed in 1927 from the first dynasty Royal Tombs of Ur, found with a few other scattered belongings of a king that lived before 2600 BC. Much of the tomb had been looted by thieves, but the board game (decorated with fine inlays of shell, bone, lapis lazuli, and red limestone) was overlooked and left behind.

The Stele of the Vultures is a monument from the Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 BC) in Mesopotamia celebrating a victory of the city-state of Lagash over its neighbour Umma. It shows various battle and religious scenes and is named after the vultures that can be seen in one of these scenes. The stele was originally carved out of a single slab of limestone but only seven fragments are known today. The fragments were found at Tello (ancient Girsu) in southern Iraq in the late 19th century and are now on display in the Louvre.

Neolithic limestone mask to be auctioned by Christie’s New York.

(via http://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2012/05/rare-neolithic-mask-to-go-under-hammer.html)

Romanesque architectural frieze from Cluny, Burgundy, France, c. 1125-1150. Image taken from ARTstor.