@mokersel

Archaeologists dig in against antiquities bill aiming to deepen Israel’s hold on West Bank A push to shift oversight of excavations in the territory to a civilian authority sparks worries of creeping annexation, with researchers fearing they'll bear brunt of any backlash

🏺“Israel and the settlers whom you have joined have weaponized archaeology in Jerusalem and the West Bank, using it as a lever to dispossess Palestinians,” www.timesofisrael.com/archaeologis...

✒️🏺new special thematic issue - Caring for Culture. #openaccess #archaeology #heritage www.cambridge.org/core/journal... 🏺👏

Despite requests from Indigenous leaders, HBC artifacts will not be returned Those interested in the items have been required to sign non-disclosure agreements

@jebarr.bsky.social ricochet.media/indigenous/d... I'm sure you are watching this contemporary "department store" sale

Good read

“Laws are living documents that should change with the times,” write Tess Davis & @helenaarose.bsky.social.

In AAP’s latest FirstView piece, they examine the roles of the CPIA in combating the #illicittrade & propose strategies to improve current practices for safeguarding #culturalheritage.

Antiquities Face More Red Tape | Artnet News New import regulations in Europe are compounding an already confusing trade landscape. Plus, what are the art hot spots this summer?

If this article is accurate, the EU does not sweat the "small stuff", viz., antiquities that are worth less than 18,000 euros and are 200 years or older and not produced within the EU.. Most plundered objects fall under this value exception. Ergo...
news.artnet.com/multimedia/a...

As war rages in Gaza, archaeological looting in the West Bank has spiked Economic collapse in Palestinian territories has led to illegal digs at prominent Bronze Age site, new study finds

Archaeological looting is a common consequence of war. Recently I spoke with several experts to better understand this relationship at Khirbet Keila, a 4,000-year-old archaeological site in Palestine’s West Bank.

New at @science.org 🧪🏺

#Archaeology #Gaza #Paleosky #AntiquesTrafficking #Heritage

Tunguska-Like Event May Not Have Inspired Biblical Tale Of Sodom and Gomorrah After All The idea made for a hard-to-resist story, but the claims were built on sand in more ways than one.

“more is at stake than just this paper. Many of the authors of the work on Tall el-Hammam were involved in a 2007 paper, also published in a leading scientific publication, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”

www.iflscience.com/tunguska-lik...
www.iflscience.com/tunguska-lik...

Happened on community archaeology in Greenwich Park @uclarchaeology.bsky.social

Walked the path of the ancient river Fleet

Sodom comet paper to be retracted two years after editor’s note acknowledging concerns The authors’ reconstruction of what the blast’s impact area may have been. Source Scientific Reports will retract a controversial paper claiming to present evidence an ancient city in t…

Retraction Watch just announced the pending retraction of the Comet Research Group's Sodom & Gomorrah pseudoarchaeology paper. The authors are not taking it well. retractionwatch.com/2025/04/23/s...

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the return of 12 antiquities to Cyprus and a 6th-century Silver Medallion to Spain, recovered through investigations into illegal antiquities trafficking, including the case of convicted dealer Robin Symes.

Read full story here: bit.ly/4jelHbx

Laundering looted antiquities through the use of an old collection? Forged provenance documentation? I investigate the case of Cumberland Clark, a forgotten early 20th-century collector who has become relevant again
doi.org/10.1017/S094...

Using antiquities as decor. With a little Plato thrown in.

Cool

Will pass this along!

Today my students wanted to know if you all will be bringing shards back to Chicago. We were talking about storage and partage

Tokens, also interesting and definitely a possibility

We might label them as stoppers or lids in the Chalco/EB

Go see this film

Further normalization of occupied archaeology. arch-js.co.il?page_id=781&... imagine presenting a keynote on Iraq and Syria in this context. #archaeology 🏺

Checking out Athena at Wrightwood659

@mokersel.bsky.social and @pgerstenblith.bsky.social survey the legal changes since ISIL’s looting of cultural heritage sites in the 2010s and find that cultural heritage protection remains trapped in an inconsistent and reactive, rather than proactive, framework.

Greek painted vase broken into fragments

Just dropped: major article on the outrageous "fragments scheme" whereby (evidence suggests) D. von Bothmer, curator @metmuseum1870.bsky.social conspired with antiquities traffickers like Giacomo Medici & Robert Hecht to get around export laws by BREAKING INTACT ANCIENT VASES INTO FRAGMENTS ... 1/3

MAPRA - The Mediterranean Antiquities Provenance Research Alliance

Provenance friends at #AIASCS, there is non-stop provenance next Saturday from 11-5! Both workshops 5B and 6B will be hybrid and I will be around to applaud my MAPRA colleagues - come say hi! Learn more about MAPRA here:

www.mapralliance.org

Year zero is a common marketing plot in the antiquities market!! Big sales

Sotheby's sells 10 Commandments to the highest bidder for $4.2 million USD.