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Turkey wants artifacts returned

07 Oct 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Speaking about marriage in the gospel, Jesus argues that “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Turkey is arguing in strong terms for the return of artifacts separated from their place of origin without permission. Major museums say they feel their collections are under attack.Turkey has launched an aggressive campaign to reclaim antiquities it says were looted. In recent months the campaign has gained the return of an ancient sphinx and many golden treasures from the region’s rich past, but it has also drawn condemnation from some of the world’s largest museums, which call the campaign cultural blackmail.In their latest salvo, Turkish officials this summer filed a criminal complaint in the Turkish court system seeking an investigation into what they say was the illegal excavation of 18 objects that are now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Norbert Schimmel collection.Turkey’s efforts have spurred an international debate about who owns antiquities after centuries of shifting borders. Museums like the Met, the Getty, the Louvre, and the Pergamon in Berlin say say the repatriation drive seeks to alter accepted practices, like a widely embraced UNESCO convention that lets museums acquire objects that were outside their countries of origin before 1970. Thievery and looting are wrong, Turkey counters, no matter when they occurred.But Hermann Parzinger, president of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation which oversees the Pergamon, has a different take: “The Turks . . . should be careful about making moral claims when their museums are full of looted treasures” acquired by the Ottomans in their centuries of conquest in the Middle East and southeast Europe.Homily hint: Just as it is wrong to covet, our Judeo-Christian moral code teaches that it is wrong to steal. Help listeners see the importance of such values in international relations as well as personal relationships. Source: An article by Dan Bilefsky for the New York Times

turkey looting metropolitan museum of art hermann parzinger antiquities artifacts museums
Temple treasure unearthed in Jerusalem

15 Sep 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

While Jesus speaks metaphorically of the search for a lost coin in this Sunday’s gospel, the real thing—and then some—has been discovered beneath the floor of a Byzantine building at the foot of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. An Israeli archaeologist called the treasure trove of gold coins and other jewelry “a breathtaking, once-in-a-lifetime discovery.”The cache contains 36 shiny gold coins, some silver and gold jewelry, and a 10-centimeter gold medallion with an etching of a traditional seven-branch menorah. The collection dates to the early 7th century.The medallion, on a gold chain, may have been designed as an ornament for a Torah scroll. The other items, including a smaller gold medallion, two pendants, a gold coil, and a silver clasp, are believed to have been intended for use as Torah scroll ornaments as well.Archaeologist Eilat Mazar believes the items may have been abandoned when Persian conquerors allowed local Christians to expel the Jews from Jerusalem. The Byzantine Empire ruled the Holy Land from Constantinople until Muslim armies conquered Jerusalem in 634.“It would appear that the most likely explanation is that the cache was earmarked as a contribution toward the building of a new synagogue, at a location that is near the Temple Mount,” Mazar said. “The treasure was abandoned, and its owners could never return to collect it.”Homily hint: The discipline of archeology has blessed us with many amazing discoveries that have deepened—and sometimes challenged—our understanding of our religious roots and traditions. The beauty of artifacts from the past is that they speak for themselves—if we have ears to listen. Source: An article by Sidney Slivko for Religion News Service

jerusalem eilat mazar temple mount artifacts byzantine empire torah scroll ornaments archaeology jewish antiquities
Archaeologists not digging Mideast conflicts

31 Aug 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“Do not conform yourselves to this age” Saint Paul urges in this Sunday’s reading from the Letter to the Romans. Far from conforming to the present age, archaeologists take pride in digging for secrets of past civilizations buried beneath the surface of current structures. The upheavals and conflicts sweeping the Middle East in recent years, however, have resulted in deep losses to the archaeological heritage of the region.In 2011, after three decades of working in Syria, the archaeologist Glenn M. Schwartz was unable to return to his dig at the Bronze Age city of Umm el-Marra. The intensifying civil war had made work in the country impossible.Like many archaeologists of the Middle East, Schwartz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, is watching the news from the region with deep concern and, he said, a feeling of impotence. “It’s heartbreaking to see what’s happened in Syria in terms of cultural heritage and more so for the country at large,” he said.Scholars can do little to stop the fighting and looting, but they have created blogs, websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts to monitor the destruction and raise awareness about it. By sharing excavation records, scholars outside the Middle East have helped their counterparts in the Arab world to compile online lists of missing or stolen objects. The Middle East lost many of its ancient treasures in colonial times, when priceless artifacts were carried off to European collections and museums. It is now witnessing “a new wave of loss” associated with wars and conflicts, said Tamar Teneishvili, a program specialist for culture at the Unesco regional bureau in Cairo. Homily hint: Archaeologists are the unsung heroes who dig into our past in order to help illuminate the present. Much of what we have learned about our biblical heritage has come from the work of such researchers. Respect for our past, and its relics, is fundamental to a civilized society. Pray that such respect be universal. Source: An article by Ursula Lindsey for the Chronicle of Higher Education

antiquities mideast conflict archeology