Authorities say Hobby Lobby's Gilgamesh tablet is stolen, must go back to Iraq

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 20, 2020, 6:00 AM UTC

kapilvt wrote: post #156

luckydata wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

gee, who would have thought that a super rare artifact well known for being in a specific museum in a specific country ravaged by war and all of a sudden showing up at auction would be stolen. They must have done a hell of a job with their due diligence.

compared to the 99% of the rest of museums in dc, which are publicly funded, the Bible museum was private and needed to show return on investment which was covid interuppted, especially after it just opened and took over newseum real estate (capital prime).

Post by randyrand » Wed, May 20, 2020, 6:05 AM UTC

MikeKusold wrote: post #10

> "Whenever looted cultural property is found in this country, the United States government will do all it can to preserve heritage by returning such artifacts where they belong," How does this tablet differ from any other artifact in a museum? Couldn't it be argued that any ancient artifact from another culture is stolen?

Post by randyrand » Wed, May 20, 2020, 6:12 AM UTC

wl wrote: post #21

slg wrote: post #5

>"Whenever looted cultural property is found in this country, the United States government will do all it can to preserve heritage by returning such artifacts where they belong" So what is the definition of "looted" here? Museums are full of things that fit various definitions of that word.

There are a few clear lines you can draw. Many institutions built their collections through a practice known as partage or division of finds. They would go to a government and offer their services as archeologists in exchange for a portion of their finds. While this practice is rare post-1970, there's not any serious debate about the legitimacy of cultural heritage exported under this regime. Purchases from the antiq…

Post by Mirioron » Wed, May 20, 2020, 6:17 AM UTC

User23 wrote: post #119

IkmoIkmo wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is quite different... north africa flourished for hundreds of years after the Arab conquest, particularly during the time of Andalusia which lasted almost 700 years. Even after, North Africa held quite some power from its pirating entities. It was very much a hub, controlling important sea routes. It wasn't until European colonialism that it really turned into a backwater and lost all prominence. At…

> It was very much a hub, controlling important sea routes. That’s an interesting way of saying they were pirates and slavers who raided Europe and abducted slaves for centuries.

Post by tomjakubowski » Wed, May 20, 2020, 6:44 AM UTC

brigandish wrote: post #130

nemo wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>in Egypt, the Great Pyramid was once covered with gleaming white limestone, but this was removed and used to build mosques This is a very misleading distortion of history. The limestone casing on the Great Pyramid was destroyed in an earthquake in 1308 CE. The limestone rubble was pulled from the base of the pyramid and repurposed for building though much of it was also burned in kilns for lime like the marble of ma…

If that "Golden Age" includes the destruction of Nalanda[1], then forgive me if I agree with the person you're replying to, it was an incredibly destructive empire that aggressively expanded and destroyed anything that deemed heretic. As such, it's not exceptional in either sense. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nalanda#Decline_and_destructio... Edit - As I can't reply to stuff like this (it deserved to die) but in…