Month: May 2020

17th c. artillery weapon found in Croatian fortress

Modern(ish)

A rare bronze artillery weapon has been discovered in the 14th century fortress of Nečven in Croatia’s Krka National Park. The mačkula was found during conservation work on the remains of the hexagonal tower to the right of the fortress entrance. It is in excellent condition.

The mačkula is a mortar-launcher that holds great significance in Croatia’s cultural history. While military technology has long since left it behind, the mačkula is still used today in heritage events, particularly the Sinjska alka, a descendant of knightly jousts held in the town of Sinj to commemorate the unlikely victory of a tiny band of a few hundred Croats and Venetians against an overwhelmingly huge Ottoman force of 60,000 on August 14th, 1715.

In the event, which was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2010, horsemen race at a full gallop and drive a lance through an iron hoop (the alka) mounted 11 feet from the ground. The ring is made of two concentric circles connected by three spokes in a Y-shaped configuration. Points awarded depending on which opening the lance goes through. If it goes through one of the bottom two segments left and right of a spoke, the rider earns one point. If it goes through the top wedge, he gets two points. Driving the lance through the tiny central circle earns the horseman three points.

Every time a competitor drives his lance “u sridu” (in the middle) of the alka, a shot is fired from a mačkula. Multiple mačkula shots ring out after the tourney when the winner is proclaimed.

“The mačkula is another valuable finding that will complete the Krka NP archaeological collection and contribute to the valorisation of the cultural and historical heritage of our region,” Nella Slavica, director of the Public Institute of Krka National Park said.

Slavica says that the conservation of the Nečven fortress is a long-lasting project to preserve heritage along with preparatory activities for the future construction of a 462-metre pedestrian suspension bridge over the Krka River connecting Nečven and Trošenj fortresses.

You can hear the shot and see the smoke from a mačkula being fired at the Sinjska alka in this video at the 1:33 mark.

Little but luminous in Basel

Museums, Renaissance

The Kunstmuseum Basel reopens on Tuesday, May 12th, allowing visitors to enjoy a little-known aspect of Renaissance art: small-format stained glass paintings created by Old Masters like Hans Holbein the Younger. Very few of these works survive today, but for a brief period in the 16th century they were wildly popular in Switzerland and southern Germany, donated by organizations and prominent individuals to adorn civic buildings, monasteries, churches, universities and guildhalls.

Beyond its immediate artistic appeal, the genre is of great interest in both a historical and a sociocultural perspective. Stained glass paintings were commissioned by institutions such as the estates of the Old Swiss Confederacy (today’s cantons), monasteries, and guilds as well as individuals. Donating such a work was a common and widely recognized act of social communication, lending lasting expression to alliances, friendships, and honors. That is why virtually every stained glass painting prominently features the donor’s coat of arms. The imagery surrounding this central element varies widely and includes depictions of religious themes as well as personifications and allegories, representations of professions, and motifs and scenes from Swiss history.

The Kunstmuseum Basel has more than 20 of these rare stained glass paintings in its permanent collection, and close to 400 of the preparatory drawings used to create the glass pieces. For the Luminous Figures: Drawings and Stained Glass Paintings from Holbein to Ringler exhibition, curators selected 20 of the most significant paintings and 70 preparatory drawings. Other museums — the Victoria and Albert in London, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, and the Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, Zurich — loaned works for the exhibition as well.

On display are the earliest surviving preparatory drawing for a glass painting (dating to around 1470/80) and striking pen-and-ink prep drawings by Hans Holbein the Younger and other masters. The museum was able to pair up a few of the preparatory drawings with the finished glass paintings, bringing them back together again for the first time in five centuries.

As usual with museum exhibitions, there are a number of associated events on the calendar where people can learn more about stained glass in general and this very specific and localized expression of the medium. One extremely cool event really sets the “luminous figures” in their precise historical and cultural context. It’s a guided tour of Basel Town Hall (built between 1504 and 1514) and the Schützenhaus (the firing range built in the 1560s by Basel’s Riflemen guild that was in continuous use until 1899 and is now a restaurant that I very much want to patronize) which still have their original stained glass paintings in situ.

19,000 trafficked artifacts seized in worldwide busts

Ancient, Looting, Modern(ish)

A massive joint international law enforcement effort has resulted in the arrest of 101 suspects in the traffic of antiquities and the recovery of more than 19,000 works of art and archaeological artifacts. The investigations involved Interpol, Europol, the World Customs Organization and national police forces from 103 countries all over the world, including Spain, Colombia, Romania, Argentina, Chile, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Afghanistan and Italy.

This intricate global cooperation launched 300 individual investigations in a coordinated crackdown that focused on taking down organized crime networks that loot archaeological sites and museums and pillage  war-torn countries.

Spanish police busted three traffickers and recovered precious objects smuggled out of Colombia. The most unique among them is a gold mask made by the Tumaco people on the Pacific coast near what is now the border between Colombia and Ecuador. They thrived in the area between the 1st century B.C. and 1st century A.D. and are renowned for their goldwork, especially their 3-dimension gold figurines made of sheet gold. Tumaco figurines and finely decorated jewelry were among the confiscated objects. Another nine suspects were arrested in the Spanish operation and Roman archaeological materials  — a carved limestone lion, a architectural frieze and three columns — recovered.

While the busts were going down at Madrid’s Barajas airport and elsewhere in the country, police in Colombia worked the investigation on their end. Raids in Bogotá recovered another 242 pre-Columbian artifacts. It is the largest seizure of cultural patrimony objects in Colombia’s history.

In Argentina, the Federal Police Force seized 2,500 ancient coins by investigating one single online sale. The Latvian State Police took second place in the coin seizure stakes by confiscating 1,375 of them. Customs officers in Afghanistan intercepted and seized 971 cultural objects just before they were smuggled out of the country destined for Istanbul.

Law enforcement officers paid particular attention to the monitoring of online market places and sales sites, as the Internet is an important part of the illicit trade of cultural goods. […]

During what was called a ‘cyber patrol week’ and under the leadership of the Italian Carabinieri (Arma dei Carabinieri), police and customs experts along with Europol, INTERPOL and the WCO mapped active targets and developed intelligence packages. As a result, 8,670 cultural objects for online sale were seized. This represents 28% of the total number of artefacts recovered during this international crackdown.

“The number of arrests and objects show the scale and global reach of the illicit trade in cultural artefacts, where every country with a rich heritage is a potential target,” said INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock. “If you then take the significant amounts of money involved and the secrecy of the transactions, this also presents opportunities for money laundering and fraud as well as financing organized crime networks,” added the INTERPOL Chief.

“Organized crime has many faces. The trafficking of cultural goods is one of them: it is not a glamorous business run by flamboyant gentlemen forgers, but by international criminal networks. You cannot look at it separately from combating trafficking in drugs and weapons: we know that the same groups are engaged, because it generate big money. Given that this is a global phenomenon affecting every country on the planet – either as a source, transit or destination, it is crucial that Law Enforcement all work together to combat it. Europol, in its role as the European Law Enforcement Agency, supported the EU countries involved in this global crackdown by using its intelligence capabilities to identify the pan-European networks behind these thefts,” said Catherine de Bolle, Europol’s Executive Director.

Sinkhole in front of Pantheon reveals Hadrianic pavers

Ancient, Modern(ish)

A sinkhole that opened up in the piazza in front of the Pantheon has revealed seven pavers from the second century A.D. The travertine slabs are about 30 x 35 inches wide and one foot thick and located seven feet under the current street level. They are intact, in good condition and in their original alignment, preserved from centuries of city build-up by a layer of fine pozzolana, volcanic ash that the Romans used to make their famously indestructible cement that could set under water.

Hadrian built the Pantheon we know today around 125 A.D. on the site of an earlier Pantheon that had burned down in 80 A.D. It was rebuilt by Domitian and that one burned down too in 110 A.D. Because that first temple was built by Marcus Agrippa in honor of his and Augustus’ victory at the Battle of Actium (31 B.C.), Hadrian had the distinctly unimperial modesty to inscribe the new and improved version to the originator: M[arcus] Agrippa L[ucii] f[ilius] co[n]s[ul] tertium fecit,” meaning “Marcus Agrippa, son of Lucius, made [this] when consul for the third time.” It’s likely construction began under Trajan (r. 98-117 A.D.). The design that features what is still to this day the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world bears the hallmarks of Trajan’s genius architect Apollodorus of Damascus and some of the bricks used in the construction are emblazoned with stamps from Trajan’s time. Hadrian finished the job. We think the current Pantheon was dedicated in 126 A.D., but we don’t know for sure because Hadrian gave all the props to Agrippa.

As part of the reconstruction of the Pantheon, the square in front of it was also raised and enlarged. The travertine pavers, some of which had been rediscovered earlier before during utilities work in the 1990s, were installed at that time. Researchers were able to extrapolate the size of the piazza at the time of its reconstruction by Hadrian. It was much larger than it is today.

The trench where the pavers were found will now be handed over to the water utility for repairs and then the  archaeological investigation will continue. Earlier this week the Soprintendenza Speciale Roma, which oversees the cultural heritage of the Eternal City, resumed restoration activities on a limited basis. Next week they will expand to additional sites.

It’s nice to see a glimmer of normalcy on the horizon. This is what the Pantheon and Piazza della Rotonda looked like 10 days ago from a drone’s eye view.

Prince’s seal found at Ming battlefield site

Ex Cathedra

Archaeologists have unearthed an incredibly rare gold seal belonging to a prince of the Ming Dynasty at the site of a 17th century battlefield in Jiangkou Township, Sichuan Province, southwest China. The square seal is made of all but solid gold (95%) and is four inches square and more than an inch thick. On top is a large knob handle in the shape of a tortoise. The characters on the underside of the seal read “Shu Shi Zi Bao.” Shu is the Ming-era name for the modern-day province of Sichuan and “Shi Zi” is the title for the first son of a prince.

The Jiangkou Chenyin historic site on the banks of the Minjiang river was pilfered by looters first. In 2016, police opened an investigation after a proliferation of extremely rare gold and silver Ming artifacts began to pop up on the black market. The investigation bore rich fruit — 10 looting gangs and 70 traffickers were busted, hundreds of artifacts recovered — and the subsequent archaeological investigation bore even richer fruit. Within two months, the 2017 dig discovered more than 10,000 artifacts. The 2018 and 2019 seasons unearthed another 42,000.

Objects retrieved include earrings, finger rings, bracelets, clasps, bullion, coins, and decorative objects in gold and silver. One gold coin is a medallion bearing the name of rebel leader Zhang Xianzhong who would have gifted it to a subordinate for a military success. Some of the silver bullion is stamped with the name of the local government under Zhang’s brief rule. A Ming-era firearm discovered last year was joined this year by the discovery of lead balls of different sizes.

The gold seal of Zhang Xianzhong, the most important artifact from the site that was looted, sold to a private collector and recovered by police in 2016, was discovered in two parts. The tiger handle had broken off cleanly from the square seal. The gold seal discovered in this year’s dig, on the other hand, has multiple cut marks and was found in several pieces. The writing is also more worn than the pristine writing on Zhang’s seal. Much of the damage was likely inflicted before it fell in the river when the prince’s seal was looted by Zhang’s forces.

These rich finds are of archaeological significance beyond their artifact value because they add important information to what we know about Ming Dynasty metal craft, fiscal systems, military technology and governance during the troubled final years of its rule that gave rise to Zhang Xianzhong and the peasant revolt he joined.

This year’s dig was the last. The artifacts will be conserved and stored for now while a new museum is built to house the massive collection of precious Ming objects. Construction is slated to begin at the end of the year and is expected to be completed in three.