Year: 2009

Mithras in the News

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

A couple of items of interest relating to the worship of Mithras. First, remains of a Mithraeum have been found in Iraq’s Duhok province. Here’s the incipit of a piece (ultimately from Bloomberg, it turns out) in St. Louis Today:

A temple built by followers of Mithraism, a mystery cult that flourished throughout the Roman Empire from the second to third centuries A.D., has been discovered in Iraq’s northern Duhok province.

The temple, which consists of three parts, lies in the Badri Mountains in eastern Duhok, and includes a place for prayer facing the sun, the province’s antiquities director, Hassan Ahmed Qassim, said in a statement to the website of President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party.

“This discovery is important in helping to understand and learn the region’s history, and the important stages it passed through,” Qassim was quoted by Aswat al-Iraq newspaper as telling a news conference at Duhok University.

The other big news regarding Mithras was the recovery, by Italian police, of a very impressive relief depicting the divinity. The incipit of the AdnKronos coverage:

An 2000-year-old marble monument featuring the pagan god Mithras has been found outside Rome by Italian police who believe it was to have been illegally sold abroad. The large marble bas-relief which dates from the 2nd century AD was recovered by authorities in a house north of the capital, according to a report in the Italian daily, Il Messaggero.

Police said the monument was to be sold to China or Japan and transported via the United Arab Emirates.

The relief, made of white Carrara marble and weighing 1,500 kilogrammes, comes from Vejo – a former Etruscan city that flourished in the 5th century BC – and shows the god Mithras slaying a bull.

Agents from the Italian tax police or Guardia di Finanza said the piece was recovered from an old house in the Roman countryside.

According to a statement by Italian tax police, the operation “allowed us to also discover an archaeological site previously unknown to authorities.”

Police said the tomb robbers were four Italians who planned to ship the piece to the UAE and then sell it on the Chinese or Japanese black market.

Oddly enough, the only decent photo of the relief is in a Finnish newspaper:

from Suomen Kuvalehti
from Suomen Kuvalehti

Semper Aliquid Novi ex … Bulgaria

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 2 Comments

Still in catchup mode, over the past few weeks there have been several items reported in the Bulgarian Press varying amount of detail/clarity. We’ll begin, though, with one that just popped into my mailbox last night — the discovery of a second Peperikon-like sanctuary (hmmmm). Here’s the coverage from Standart:

Bulgarian speleologists have discovered a second Thracian sanctuary that may outshine the one at Perperikon, Mr. Evgeni Koev, chairman of the Dervent Speleology Club, broke the news.
“We have discovered a cave with four-meter-tall human statues and tombs inside. The whole complex is very well preserved and has a diameter of several kilometers. The site is close to the Danube, but its exact location is kept secret to prevent raids by black Archaeologists.
“I am ready to go and inspect the site immediately, although the comparison with the ancient Thracian sanctuary near Kurdzhali town has become very popular recently,” Prof. Nikolai Ovcharov told the Standart.
“If what these speleologists say is true, Bulgaria may have another cultural monument of global significance,” the professor stated.

We’ll assume that ‘black Archaeologists’ is some sort of bad translation of ‘illicit diggers’. Elsewhere:

The discovery of a tomb beneath a previously-looted tumulus near Dolno Izvorovo.:

A previously-unknown Roman settlement dating to the second/third century on the Black Sea Coast near Varna:

An “intact” Thracian settlement from the fifth century B.C. (or thereabouts) near Nova Zagora:

A “unique” Thracian tomb from Gagovo:

Plans to dig near Sliven:

Greek Street

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ 2 Comments

Came across this while waiting for my Sirena to heat up for espresso … Greek Street is a very interesting looking comic which, to judge by descriptions all over the internet, reimagines Greek myths/tragedies as modern ‘street stories’. Newsarama has an interview with its creator — Peter Milligan (the guy who brought us John Constantine) — which includes this incipit:

The premise to Greek Street seems pretty straight forward – classic Greek dramas retold in modern-day London. How would you describe the series and what fans can expect?

PM: The premise might be straight forward enough. The reality of the comic is anything but. Greek Street is a very strange beast. I think of it as The Long Good Friday meets Agamemnon. A way of using those fantastically rich stories from Greek Tragedy to take a look at our world, and to explore some of the things I think about this world. I hope readers aren’t put off, thinking that this is somehow going to be dry or demand that they are well versed in Greek literature. The book is very sexy. IT has beautiful girls, beautiful boys, guns, tension, and the supernatural. The aim, or trick, is to forge something new. Something that refers to and echoes Greek Tragedy but that is also modern, new.

NRAMA: What drew you to retelling these greek legends?

PM: I’ve always been interested in the Greek Tragedies. A few years back a re-read a translation of the The Oresteia and that stayed with me, and slowly this idea of using some of those old legends and plays to tell a new story about modern urban life began to form.

There’s a preview of the first issue (and others) at Facebook, where one will see that this comic probably is ‘for mature audiences only’. The covers are definitely interesting … will have to track this one down.

This Day in Ancient History

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kalendae quintilis

  • rites in honour of Juno
  • rites in honour of Felicitas
  • 69 A.D. — Vespasian hailed as emperor in Alexandria
  • 70 A.D. — Titus attacks the walls of Jerusalem
  • 1614 — death of Isaac Casaubon

Criminalita from the Italian Press

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

I’ve got a major backlog of items from Italian sources, so I’ve decided to break them up a bit and treat all the ‘busts’ in a single post — besides being an organizational principle, it does highlight how the marketing of illicit antiquities continues to be a major problem in Italy, despite recent successes (some of these date back to May). Ecce:

We’ll begin with an item detailing the outcome of four major operations which resulted in the recovery of some stolen Byzantine frescoes stolen from Caserta in 1982, the return of some 250 items from Switzerland (apparently out of goodwill by a pair of dealers whose names aren’t given), a pile of items recovered from a villa, and some Egyptian-related items which some tombaroli had taken (value – some 3 million euros):

Not sure if this is the same as the ‘pile of items recovered from a villa’ mentioned above; a pair arrested at Salerno:

A man from Orta Nova was found in possession of 18 coins dating to the 3rd/4th centuries, as well as a pile of amphorae and other antiquities with a value of some 400 000 euros:

Brief/vague item on the recovery of a pile of fourth century items:

Brief/vague item on the recovery of some amphorae from some villas (not sure if this is the same as mentioned in the first piece):

700 items found in various tombaroli homes in Foggia after some information from Germany (not sure if this is connected to the Orta Nova thing above)

Discovery of a 50m long tunnel at Pompeii and the arrest of a tombarolo who was apparently using it are raising concerns about the security of antiquities there:

Arrests in Taranto arising from attempts to sell ancient/medieval coins and jewelry on the Internet:

An ongoing archaeological dig was hit by thieves in Montebello:

Police at Messina recovered five amphora taken from an unknown (nearby?) shipwreck:

A couple of metal detectorists were found working on the archaeological site of Torre Mordillo:

A seventy-year old at Torino was arrested with a pile of ancient coins:

… and another 70-year-old from Ivrea was similarly arrested with a pile of ancient coins:

… while a seventy-two-year-old from Frosinone was arrested with a couple of hundred Etruscan artifacts:

I guess they need to keep a closer eye on the pensioners in Italy … what’s sad, of course, is that the above only represents those who managed to get caught …