Idanthyrsus

Two photographs of the sides of trenches, separated into stratigraphic layers and annotated with numbers.

NEW Stratigraphy from two of the 51 Aketala sites in the Tarim Basin of north-western China. The westernmost Bronze Age settlements discovered in China to date, they indicate cultural connections across Central Asia c. 4000 years ago.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Destruction in the Heart of Old Samarkand Forced evictions began in the spring in the neighborhood adjacent to the modest al-Maturidi mausoleum. Then the demolition began.

The Uzbek gov't has spent decades destroying Uzbek heritage without any consequences, and continues to do so. UNESCO may complain but they will do nothing, just as they did nothing when Karimov gutted Shahrisabz's UNESCO-designated old city—a useless organization. thediplomat.com/2025/11/dest...

Great news for open source art crime researcher: The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR)'s publications are now digitized & free at the Internet Archive.

Congrats to our MOLA colleague Lisa Zeballos and team on this important preservation effort!

The Directorate-General for Antiquities and Museums (DGAM);
has published photos of the six stolen artefacts taken during a weekend burglary at the National Museum of Damascus. All of the six small marble statuettess, are representatives of the goddess Venus, the Classical deity of beauty. 1 of 2

Screened this film about the repression of Uyghurs last night at Cornell. A powerful and tragic account of how the colonial project in northwest China continues to destroy lives www.allstaticandnoise.com

More terrible news in a terrible year for museums. Especially disheartening given how hard Syrian museum authorities worked to protect the collections throughout the entire Syrian Civil War.

I hope the thieves are quickly caught and the statues returned.

France mourns its stolen crown jewels as their uncomfortable colonial past returns to view The theft of the Louvre's crown jewels has increased calls for the museum to be more transparent about the colonial origins of the treasures it displays.

The problem of the decolonial lens the scholars in this article use is not only is it based on no evidence, it minimizes the agency of those it champions. The gem trade in Eurasia was thriving for millennia before the 19th century and did not need Europeans to develop it.
apnews.com/article/jewe...

Nakadai's unmatched acting talent drove so much of Japan's great post-war cinema. "The Human Condition" trilogy, "Harakiri," "The Sword of Doom," "The Face of Another," "Kagemusha," "Ran"; the list goes on and on. A true legend of cinema has passed.

Renowned Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai dies at 92 The actor was best known for his role as an aging warlord in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran.”

Renowned actor Tatsuya Nakadai, best known for his role in Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran,” has died at the age of 92.

The article concludes with demands for more social history. Yet none of the scholars quoted engage with social history that does not fit into their preconceived beliefs or even with any facts about the provenance of the gems. Discussion where the conclusion is already fixed is no discussion at all.

The decolonial lens here obliterates the Eurasian precious stone trade before, during, and after colonialism. European colonialism was a brief moment in the trade's long history. The focus on Europeans in that trade is ironically the same form of Eurocentrism that imperial chauvinists held.

Was this trade exploitative? Undoubtedly so, mineral extraction has always been and expanded demand led to expanded exploitation, as was seen in the Gulf State pearling industry in the late 19th century. Yet this exploitation was not an invention of European colonizers.
oxfordre.com/africanhisto...

An 1849 depiction of a "Ceylon Pearl-Merchant"

Colonialism did not destroy these networks but rather expanded their reach. Many gems that ended up in Europe in the 19th century were not products of colonialism but of long-standing networks co-oped or centralized by colonial rulers (after the Louvre jewels production), or left on their own.

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

Sketch of the uncut Hope diamond

It was already existing Indian and Middle Eastern gem trade networks by which precious stones reached Europe.

Indeed, it was in this market that Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, as a private merchant, was able to acquire some of the finest gems to sell to European nobility in the 17th century.

Map of Trade in the Indian Ocean 15th-16th centuries.

I think a larger problem is that the 'experts' quoted have no expertise in the subject matter and lack knowledge on the Louvre gems. The entire analysis here is that the gems come from areas colonized in the 19th c. and therefore are result of "imperial networks." Yet the gem networks are far older.

France mourns its stolen crown jewels as their uncomfortable colonial past returns to view The theft of the Louvre's crown jewels has increased calls for the museum to be more transparent about the colonial origins of the treasures it displays.

The problem of the decolonial lens the scholars in this article use is not only is it based on no evidence, it minimizes the agency of those it champions. The gem trade in Eurasia was thriving for millennia before the 19th century and did not need Europeans to develop it.
apnews.com/article/jewe...

Protesters target major new Nigerian museum embroiled in looted artefacts row Protest at Mowaa comes amid dispute over ownership of Benin bronzes looted by British colonial forces

Even a museum in Benin City not under the Oba's control is too much for his supporters. This is a result of the Nigerian State's foolish decision to give the Benin Bronzes to the descendant of slaver autocrats rather than holding them in trust for all Nigerians.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...

The average SNAP benefit per month is $177 a person.

The average ACA benefit per month is up to $550 a person.

People want us to hold the line for a reason. This is not a matter of appealing to a base. It’s about people’s lives.

And working people want leaders whose word means something to them.

It is sad, but unsurprising, that the new head of UNESCO is one who presided over intentional cultural heritage destruction in Egypt. UNESCO from Azerbaijan to China ignores heritage destruction and States should view it as having little legitimacy.

www.reuters.com/world/africa...

It's interesting that in quoted article the Egyptian government takes a more restrained view of repatriation, knowing the issues such claims face. Only the 'influencers' and grifters quoted in this article, like Bassam el-Shammaa, are making such aggressive, clueless claims.

Egypt has a gov't engaged in the destruction of disfavored heritage, in this case Islamic heritage. Perhaps el-Sisi's regime might stop destroying the heritage entrusted to it before baselessly claiming that which legally and ethically belongs to others.

www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menaso...

Indie Chinese film festival in US canceled after pressure campaign Organizer's reports of harassment echo other allegations of transnational repression

The organizer of the inaugural IndieChina Film Festival in New York said he was forced to cancel after facing a "relentless" pressure campaign, and that he may be unable to travel back to China.

"I did think it might be better here....It turns out I was wrong."

Illustration of a scene depicting a room with a large altar to one side, a large fire burning on it. To the right one individual kneels whilst three stand. They all wear long-belted garments and facemasks and have short hair and beards.

A unique fire worshipping scene for #BonfireNight 🔥
Reconstructing a wall painting from the Sogdian palace of Sanjar-Shah, Tajikistan reveals a procession of priests approaching a large fire altar, offering a rare insight into ancient fire worship.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Powerful 6.3 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan, killing 20 and damaging historic Blue Mosque A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook northern Afghanistan before dawn Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 640 others, as well as damaging the historic Blue Mosque, officials...

A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake shook northern Afghanistan before dawn Monday, killing at least 20 people and injuring more than 640 others, as well as damaging the historic Blue Mosque, officials said. https://to.pbs.org/47HUdXL

I've banged on about this a lot, see the nesting threads below. It seems insane to me that the major US lobbying org for 'protecting' heritage supports, profits from, and collaborates with the state engaged in largest heritage destruction campaigns of the 21st century.
bsky.app/profile/idan...

Cultural erasure - ASPI Tracing the destruction of Uyghur and Islamic spaces in Xinjiang This report is supported by a companion website, the Xinjiang Data Project. What’s the problem? The Chinese Government has embarked on a systematic and intentional campaign to rewrite the cultural heritage of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). It’s seeking to erode and redefine the culture of […]

Unlike the Sheffield case, intimidation isn't needed when profit is possible, and Lehr has personally profited mightily from her Chinese state connections. The same capture has been noted about the World Monuments Fund and ICOMOS, who remained silent about Xinjiang.
www.aspi.org.au/report/cultu...

This sort of complicity with the Chinese state is in culture heritage orgs too. @combatlooting.bsky.social founder and chair Deborah Lehr was advising companies on how to do business in Xinjiang as late as 2021 and still publicly endorses Chinese heritage policies in the midst of cultural genocide.

UK university halted human rights research after pressure from China Exclusive: Leading professor at Sheffield Hallam was told to cease research on supply chains and forced labour in China after demands from authorities

Sheffield Hallam University complied with Beijing demand to halt research about human rights abuses in China, leading to a major project on supply chains and forced labour being dropped. It was reinstated after threat of legal action but chilling effect remains www.theguardian.com/education/20...

US government allowed and even helped US firms sell tech used for surveillance in China, AP finds Even while warning about national security and human rights abuse, the U.S. government across five Republican and Democratic administrations has repeatedly allowed and even actively helped American fi...

US government allowed and even helped US firms sell tech used for surveillance in China, AP finds – AP: ‘China is getting around export bans on the sale of powerful American AI chips by renting them through U.S. cloud services instead.’

'A real violation.' More than 1,000 artifacts stolen from California museum in brazen heist Items stolen from the Oakland Museum of California included Native American baskets, jewelry, laptops, historic photographs and intricately carved ivory tusks.

A new heist at a far less famous museum than the Louvre, and of objects of smaller individual value, but given the scope of heritage stolen this is a terrible loss for both Oakland and California. Hopefully this theft will be treated with the gravity it warrants.

www.latimes.com/california/s...