Michael Press
@MichaelDPress
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Researcher and editor | writings on cultural heritage, antiquities trade @TheTLS @HistoryToday @aeonmag @hyperallergic @ChicagoMag @TAReviewofBooks
Joined April 2014
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.
cambridge.org
Constructing Provenance with Old Collections: The Case of Cumberland Clark - Volume 31 Issue 3
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RT @ireallyhateyou: "Was it worth it to rebel?. They fought for national pride. to be free, to be independent. for the right to live h….
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And yes, if anything, the actual number is probably higher than 83%:.
Probably much higher than 83%, considering the facts that the concept of "terrorist" has an extremely broad definition within the Israeli security establishment, and that we've barely seen any footage released by the IDF of them killing actual Palestinian fighters. According to.
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Genocide-denying Holocaust historian, in interview published yesterday: claim that 72% of deaths in Gaza are women & children is vastly inflated. Israeli military database, leaked today: at least *83* % of deaths in Gaza are civilians.
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RT @AliAbunimah: Why have we stopped hearing calls for "democracy" in Syria? There's no democracy there, nor even the prospect of democracy….
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Last week, Haaretz celebrated the linguistic history of Israel's name for its unprovoked attack on Iran.
haaretz.com
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Instead, the press release quotes Israel's Minister of Heritage insisting that this is a pagan artifact borrowing a Jewish symbol -- because he appears to insist bizarrely that ancient Jews were the originators of lion symbolism.
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But this connection is missing in the press release -- perhaps because a connection to an ancient Iranian religion wouldn't be fitting at a time when Israel had just attacked Iran. (Some of the news articles do mention it, however.).
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In the journal article, the excavators tie the lion-headed discs to Mithraism, a Roman religion inspired in some way by the Zoroastrian god Mithra. While that connection is not generally seen by scholars as being very strong, the authors highlight it.
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Why the delay? The IAA's press release gives a possible reason. IAA director Eli Escusido is quoted making a direct link to Israel's attack on Iran, which had just concluded 2 days earlier.
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The announcement was based on the publication of a scholarly article in the latest issue of the IAA's journal Atiqot. But the timing was odd: the academic journal article had been published two months earlier, on April 27.
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On June 26, the IAA announced the discovery of 4 bronze discs with lion heads; the news was soon picked up by outlets in Israel and beyond.
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The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has spent years promoting gimmicky, misleading tie-ins, timing announcements of finds for various holidays. But in June they apparently reached a new low: linking a discovery to Israel's unprovoked attack on Iran.
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RT @ireallyhateyou: 🚨Important testimony - PLEASE READ. T. is a 21-year-old Jewish anti-Zionist activist, an autistic person, diagnosed wit….
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An additional thought: just as Gaza marks the death of international law, it also marks the death of the current international cultural heritage regime. The rhetoric is so obviously phony, the institutions powerless (or worse), is it even worth preserving?.
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It is not surprising that this is happening at a time of the rise of the far right over much of the world, as the failures of decades of the neoliberal order become harder and harder to deny.
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Gaza is the clearest example, but for a quick illustration watch this clip of the European Commission president insisting that protestors in Finland have free speech, whereas in Moscow they would be in jail in 2 minutes -- as a protester is being arrested.
tiktok.com
243 likes, 44 comments. “Euroopan komission puheenjohtaja Ursula Von der Leyenin vierailu keräsi mielenosoittajia Helsingin Narinkkatorille. ”Meet and greet on aivan turhaa, Ursula tukee kansanmurh...
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In a sense the powerful have always been above the law, but 1 thing that has changed is the illusion: the gap between rhetoric & reality, between symbolism & action, is now so obvious and extreme that the illusion has been openly shattered. (From June).
theguardian.com
The long read: A growing number of scholars and lawyers are losing faith in the current system. Others say the law is not to blame, but the states that are supposed to uphold it
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RT @ireallyhateyou: This broadcast of the Moriah & Berko talk show on Channel 13, from July 27, is a perfect example of the grotesque, geno….
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AI news analysis system promoting the work of AI in scholarship 🤔.
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