Here is a summary focusing on key nuggets from the provided text, especially relating to the Elgin Marbles controversy, and offering insights for your future archaeological practice:

**Elgin Marbles Controversy Summary and Insights:**

- **What are the Elgin Marbles?

**
  The Elgin Marbles are ancient Greek sculptures and architectural fragments originally part of the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis of Athens.

They were removed by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in the early 19th century and eventually sold to the British Museum, where they remain on display.

- **Source of the Controversy:**
  The central dispute revolves around questions of legality, ethics, and cultural heritage.

Greece argues that the Marbles were taken without proper consent during a time of foreign occupation and has called their removal an act of cultural theft, demanding their return since its independence in the 19th century.

The UK and the British Museum assert that Elgin acted with the permission of the Ottoman authorities then in control of Greece and that the Marbles have been legally acquired.

- **Cultural Respect & International Debate:**
  The case highlights the tension between sharing world heritage for global education (as the British Museum claims) and the rights of nations to possess and interpret their own cultural property (as per Greece's position).

It has become a significant example in debates about restitution and ethical stewardship in archaeology.

- **Modern Developments & Potential Resolutions:**
  - *Advocacy for Return*: Greece has built the Acropolis Museum with facilities specifically designed to house the Marbles and regularly makes diplomatic appeals for their return.

- *Public Perception & Technology*: Recent approaches include using augmented reality (AR) technology to “reunite” the marbles digitally, attempting to bridge the gap symbolically when a physical return is not achieved (as referenced in the collaboration between the British Museum and tech companies to create virtual experiences of the Marbles in situ).

- *Changing Ethical Standards*: The last decade has seen increasing calls from museum professionals, archaeologists, and the public worldwide for the repatriation of contested objects, not only the Marbles but also other artifacts held by major museums such as the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

- *Legal Talks & Diplomacy*: There have been ongoing cultural and diplomatic discussions, with occasional speculation about a negotiated compromise: possible long-term loans to Greece, reciprocal exhibitions, or eventual repatriation under shared stewardship agreements.

- **Lessons for Archaeologists:**
  The Elgin Marbles case demonstrates the importance of considering both the scientific value and the cultural/religious/emotional significance of artifacts to source communities.

It illustrates how archaeological discoveries should be reported and interpreted in ways that respect local and descendant communities, legal frameworks, and evolving international norms for cultural property.

- **Key Takeaway for Your Practice:**
  As a future archaeologist, keep in mind the need for transparent provenance research, open communication with all stakeholders, respect for local and indigenous voices, and ethical stewardship of discoveries.

Be aware that what is legally permissible may not always be ethically justifiable in the long term.

These points synthesize the ongoing debates, possible avenues for resolution, and their broader significance for budding archaeologists.

**Summary Nuggets (Elgin Marbles controversy context):**

- **Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Ethics:** The discoveries highlighted (dolmens in Sochi, mounds in Kazakhstan, artifacts in Sweden and Egypt) reflect intense local connection to heritage, underlining the emotional and territorial significance people place on ancient monuments and artifacts.

Statements like “This is our territory, our ancestors lie here” underscore that, for many communities, such remains are more than objects; they embody ancestral connection and identity.

- **Historical Context and Site Significance:** The dolmens in Sochi, believed to possess ritual or spiritual energy, and the “mustache" mounds of Kazakhstan, erected for complex ancestral and land-right reasons, exemplify the archaeological challenge of respecting both the scientific and cultural value of sites.

The mounds, for example, are not just graves but are tied to rights over land, social memory, and ritual practice—issues that resonate with claims to ownership over disputed antiquities.

- **Problems with Artifact Removal:** The observation that “A thing taken out of context can be admired if it is beautifully made, but nothing more” is particularly relevant to the Elgin Marbles debate.

Removing artifacts from their original cultural and geographical context can strip them of meaning to descendants and distorts scholarly interpretation.

- **Disputes Over Preservation and Display:** The fate of Ramesses II's statue in Hermopolis (whether to leave it in situ or display it in a museum) echoes wider debates like that over the Elgin Marbles—should heritage items remain in their original setting or reside in foreign museums for preservation and broader viewing?

- **The Value of Archaeological Context:** The importance of understanding context, as in deciphering the charred scroll, is vital.

Context aids in reconstructing not only the object's history but also the social, ritual, and spiritual life around it—a core argument for the return of artifacts like the Elgin Marbles to their place of origin.

- **Local Custodianship and International Collaboration:** The accounts reveal that both local attachment and scholarly investigation must be balanced in site management.

Locals often act as stewards, with traditions and knowledge that enrich archaeological interpretation.

International debates, such as that of Greece and the UK over the Marbles, often center around which party can best ensure conservation and sharing of heritage.

- **Potential for Resolution in the Elgin Marbles Case:** These global archaeological controversies suggest that resolutions should recognize descendants’ connections, the importance of context, and shared stewardship.

Proposed solutions for the Marbles have included loans, joint curation, or full repatriation to Greece, mirroring approaches that value both universal access and local significance.

**In summary**, the extracts illustrate why the controversy over the Elgin Marbles is so enduring: the conflict is not merely about ownership, but about cultural identity, the integrity of historical context, and respect for the descendants and modern nations connected to ancient civilizations.

Potential resolutions must navigate these ethical, emotional, and scholarly demands—ideally fostering collaboration rather than competition over the world's cultural heritage.

**Summary of Extracts (focused on themes of heritage, cultural preservation, and controversies about artifacts like the Elgin Marbles):**

- The text discusses a complex global landscape shaped by conflicts and movements for liberation, both for specific peoples (e.g., Palestinians) and for humanity more broadly.

There is the notion that present actions (like destruction in Gaza) can erase both history and future possibilities for cultures under threat, reminding us how violence can obliterate heritage.

- The preservation of *local heritage* is highlighted through examples: Abu Dhabi's support for preserving clay architecture and the discovery of ancient (7,000+ years) rock sculptures in the Saudi desert, carved by shepherds.

Such findings underscore the value and importance of in-situ conservation for understanding and sustaining cultural identity.

- There is an emphasis on *archaeological ethics*, including issues of illicit excavations, as seen in northern cities where criminals are caught excavating for buried valuables.

These stories reflect continuing struggles over who “owns” the past and the risks of lost heritage through unregulated removal, mirroring the Elgin Marbles controversy.

- The text cautions against the impulsive removal of monuments and artifacts, debating the merits of erasing memories of particular regimes by destroying or relocating their symbols.

The author argues preserving monuments—to learn from history—is more valuable than their removal, aligning with arguments for retaining controversial artifacts in their original contexts.

- The issue is further complicated by political processes and government actions, where appointment of officials and cultural governance may not always serve preservation goals but be dictated by power structures (“the deep state”).

- An underlying theme is the risk of civic disengagement: citizens may not distinguish between what is a public or a personal legacy, leading to indifference or mismanagement of heritage.

**Relation to the Elgin Marbles Controversy:**
- These extracts collectively highlight the complexity of heritage stewardship: the tension between preservation, rightful ownership, and the consequences of removing artifacts from their context.

Like the Elgin Marbles, which were removed during a period of foreign domination and whose stewardship is now contested between Greece and the UK, the text urges respect for local cultures and the ethical dilemmas of relocating cultural property.

**Potential Resolution:**
- While no specific solution is discussed, the narrative suggests that the fairest approach would be respecting the claims of source communities and prioritizing preservation in situ whenever possible.

Education and international cooperation—acknowledging both the value to ‘universal’ museums and the identity needs of the originating cultures—could lead to more equitable solutions, such as shared stewardship, loans, or return of major pieces.

Certainly!

Here is a summary focusing on key nuggets from the provided text, especially relating to the Elgin Marbles controversy, and offering insights for your future archaeological practice:

**Elgin Marbles Controversy Summary and Insights:**

- **What are the Elgin Marbles?

Title:

Content: News, Views and More

Could Snapchat have a solution to the Elgin Marbles dispute? | Science and technology news

The developers of the popular app that most people associate with wearing silly filters specialize in culture and art, offering museum visitors new ways to experience history in some of the world's most famous museums and galleries.

From Tom Acres, technology reporter

Saturday 2 December 2023, 2:50am, UK

Rishi Sunak is known for loving technology. So could it offer him a way out of his unpleasant diplomatic dispute with Greece over the Elgin Marbles?

Augmented Reality (AR) is exciting Snap think it could.

The developers of the app that most people associate with wearing silly filters specialize in culture and art, offering visitors new ways to experience history in some of the world's most famous museums and galleries.

Snaps AR has been used to reinvent exhibitions Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, Miami's trendy Art Basel fair, London's Design Museum and most recently the legendary Louvre in Paris.

The museum's Egyptian Antiquities Department now offers 3D reconstructions of long-lost works of art and other historical monuments, viewable via QR codes or the Snapchat camera on mobile phones.

If it's good enough for the Louvre, could it be good enough for the British Museum and enable the return of the Elgin Marbles? Greece?

Read more:
What are the Elgin Marbles and why are they in the British Museum?

What is the Elgin Marbles dispute about?

History in your hands

“We started conversations,” jokes Donatien Bozon, head of Snap’s AR studio in Paris.

Its 14-person team was founded last year with a mission to bring AR to arts, culture and education and prove that Snapchat's technology can go far beyond giving your friends virtual dog-ears.

Cultural institutions expressed interest in tapping into the app's 750 million user audience and offering new experiences to regular visitors – all without requiring additional physical space.

“We felt confident that we could leverage not just the front camera of the phone,” he says, pointing to Snapchat’s common use case as a selfie-driven messaging app, “but also the back camera.”

“You can expand the world,” he adds. “And it opens up so many possibilities.”

Also in the Louvre is a digital twin of the 222-ton granite Luxor Obelisks. Built during the reign of Ramses II for the Egyptian Luxor Temple, one was later moved to the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

However, a spot in the Louvre's courtyard was originally considered. And so, in its own attempt to rewrite history, the museum worked with Snap to “remove the constraints of physics” and have one installed virtually.

Point your phone's camera at the spot where it might have been standing and this is how it appears.

Picture:
A Luxor obelisk stands in the Louvre and uses augmented reality technology. Image: Snap

Where tradition meets technology

Not that AR could ever really replace the original.

“It’s in the name,” says Bozon. “It enhances the experience, not replaces it.”

Probably not a truly satisfactory solution to the Elgin-Marbles dispute.

But the British Museum has dabbled in AR. Aimed primarily at children, it allows guests using Samsung tablets to take AR-controlled tours of the Roman Empire and Parthenon.

The British Library has also used the technology for your own exhibitionsas some of the world's oldest institutions are proud of their traditions and try to keep up with the times.

Qi Pan, director of computer vision at Snap, says AR allows them to “do things that weren’t possible before.”

Its London team is responsible for how the company's technology actually works, both on phones and in a hypothetical future where millions of us walk around wearing futuristic glasses.

“Nowadays, a lot of AR happens on mobile devices, where we are limited by the view of a small rectangle,” he says.

“With AR glasses you can see it directly in the world around you.”

Unfortunately, as this is a limited version of the story, this content is not available.

Open the full version

Accessible artwork

Despite previous attempts with such lenses from people like Google And Snap yourself Pan is confident that AR is on the cusp of a “hardware paradigm shift” as it has failed to achieve mainstream breakthrough.

Apple's upcoming mixed reality headset might prove him right, although at a price of £2,800 probably not.

The appeal of AR artworks, for now, lies in their accessibility — not just to users who only need a phone to experience them, but also to the creators behind what they see.

By teaching himself how to create AR art at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, British artist Doddz managed to earn a six-figure salary after struggling at school.

Traditionalists may cry foul, but his success seems to be evidence of a new interpretation of artwork that people can view and take with them wherever they go.

Bozon says, “Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have bet that being a YouTuber was a real job.”

“In ten years, building in AR will be a real job for thousands of people.”

Let's hope the series of marbles is over by then.

**
  The Elgin Marbles are ancient Greek sculptures and architectural fragments originally part of the Parthenon and other structures on the Acropolis of Athens.

They were removed by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, in the early 19th century and eventually sold to the British Museum, where they remain on display.

Title:

Content: Vincentians are being urged to familiarise themselves with the locations of the nation’s petroglyphs and other heritage sites.

 The call comes from Vincent Reid, who has been commissioned by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust to map all historical sites in St. Vincent.

“It pains me as a Vincentian to know that a lot of these things go largely unnoticed; people hardly pay any attention to them,” said Vincent Reid, who has been commissioned by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines National Trust to map all historical sites in St. Vincent. The current project is funded by UNESCO through the Post Disaster Needs Assessment under the Heritage Emergency Fund Project whereby the SVGNT is coordinating the effort.

So far, Reid has mapped 54 sites, including petroglyphs; buildings; natural features, such as Rabacca; salt ponds, historical structures, such as the Orange Hill and Fitz Hughes Aqueducts, and stone pillars in the schoolyards in Fitz Hughes and Evesham.

“People hardly pay any attention to them but they are there and they tell a story. They say to us this is where you came from,” Reid said on Saturday during an activity to clean volcanic ash from the “cup holes’ at 13 Stones Petroglyph in Petit Bordel.

“I want people to be aware of the petroglyphs, to be aware of our historical and cultural heritage sites, and to understand that they speak to us,” Reid said.

“They tell us that there was someone before us. They were our forefathers. They were there before us and it is important that we respect and try to preserve what they left as a record of their existence,” Reid said.

He said that respecting historical sites is akin to All Souls and All Saints observances on November 1 and 2, in memory of departed loved ones.

“That’s you showing respect for them, for their memory. These people came before us and left a record of their passing and we need to respect that.”

Reid said:

“Vincentians need to get on board and look at these cultural heritage sites, these petroglyphs and all these other buildings that speak of our first existence, of our history, and respect them and have pride in knowing where they are, what they mean and do everything that they can to preserve it.

“Get up, Vincentians; it is time enough that we do this, it is time enough that we look at where we’ve come from. It always paves the road to where we are going.”

He said that petroglyphs are public property but some occur on private land.

“But the private owners [of the land] are aware of them and know that they belong to the nation and not to them specifically.”

Reid said that there are petroglyphs in Colonarie and Buccament Bay that are on private property whose owners have protected the artefacts but have not tried to restrict public access to the sites.

Reid explained the importance of petroglyphs:

“They are records of the people who came before us. In some cases, they are ceremonial sites. In other cases, they are calendars, they are work stones, they are boundaries, and they send messages.  We may not necessarily understand the language but they are there, deeply incised in the rocks and we know they were made by someone way before our time.”

Taiwan National Day Celebration

- **Source of the Controversy:**
  The central dispute revolves around questions of legality, ethics, and cultural heritage.

Greece argues that the Marbles were taken without proper consent during a time of foreign occupation and has called their removal an act of cultural theft, demanding their return since its independence in the 19th century.

The UK and the British Museum assert that Elgin acted with the permission of the Ottoman authorities then in control of Greece and that the Marbles have been legally acquired.

- **Cultural Respect & International Debate:**
  The case highlights the tension between sharing world heritage for global education (as the British Museum claims) and the rights of nations to possess and interpret their own cultural property (as per Greece's position).

It has become a significant example in debates about restitution and ethical stewardship in archaeology.

Title:

Content: Making Archaeology for Everyone

Written by Gabi Daniels, SCDNR Archaeology Intern, 2023.

When you initially hear the term ‘archaeologist’ you may think of brave adventurers wielding whips and big hats working to uncovering ancient artifacts made of gold and precious gemstones. However, this common misconception is often a by-product of popular media and a lacking educational structure for archaeology and anthropology in our schools.

So, how do we go about trying to eliminate this misunderstanding? Public archaeology! During my six-week internship with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) Archaeology team, I became well acquainted with the idea of public archaeology and how the future of our field relies on it.

Public archaeology refers to the outreach and education of archaeology to the general population. Archaeology at its fundamental level is for people, as everything we unearth and interpret weaves a larger tapestry of human history. This directly coincides with how we all understand our own heritages and how we understand people who have a different background than we do. By educating the public to archaeology and how it can be significant to their own lives, we can give a voice to histories which have been lost to time and facilitate an environment of open dialogue about our pasts.

Often, though, this can be a rather daunting task. Archaeology is full of jargon, data, and scientific processes that are not simple to understand unless you are another PhD in the field. This, however, makes public archaeology even more vital! Knowledge of community members is fundamental when interpreting sites and artifacts. It is important for us to break down these barriers with public archaeology to make our work more accessible.

But how exactly do you engage the public with archaeology? Well, luckily for us, there are just about an endless number of opportunities!

SCDNR archaeologist Lelia Rice introduced my cohort of interns to how public archaeology can be utilized with students and young children. She initially began the demonstration of her work with an activity called ‘Pottery Re-fit’ which tasked children with decorating a small garden pot, smashing it, and meticulously piecing it back together with Elmer’s glue just like an archaeologist might.

Activities such as this one engages a student by allowing them to be creative but also introduces them to how an archaeologist would think—letting them become a mini archaeologist! As I decorated my own pot during the exercise, I found myself appreciating the work and craftsmanship of potters and the patience of archaeologists even more than I had before.

Furthermore, I also volunteered one day to participate in the agency’s engagement program for children in which we handed out mini excavation units. These units consisted of crumbly plaster blocks with one or two sherds of pottery inside. It was wonderful to work with the children as they (somewhat) carefully dug away at the plaster and pulled out sherds. From there, we encouraged them to imagine how the different pieces might have fit together and what kind of vessel it may have come from. This activity sparked a lot of questions as well as excitement, and it was wonderful to be able to see the parents and guardians light up just as much as the kids! I was especially exhilarated by how the kids would theorize whether or not they had discovered a piece of a bowl or cup.

Hopefully, as public archaeology is entering the spotlight more than ever now, we can all continue working to engage the public and create a better environment for people to be involved in their own histories and the histories of the global population through material culture.

This story originally appeared on the South Carolina Wild blog.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed on South Carolina Wild are solely those of the authors, and do not reflect official policies, positions, or endorsements of activity or products by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.

- **Modern Developments & Potential Resolutions:**
  - *Advocacy for Return*: Greece has built the Acropolis Museum with facilities specifically designed to house the Marbles and regularly makes diplomatic appeals for their return.

- *Public Perception & Technology*: Recent approaches include using augmented reality (AR) technology to “reunite” the marbles digitally, attempting to bridge the gap symbolically when a physical return is not achieved (as referenced in the collaboration between the British Museum and tech companies to create virtual experiences of the Marbles in situ).

- *Changing Ethical Standards*: The last decade has seen increasing calls from museum professionals, archaeologists, and the public worldwide for the repatriation of contested objects, not only the Marbles but also other artifacts held by major museums such as the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

- *Legal Talks & Diplomacy*: There have been ongoing cultural and diplomatic discussions, with occasional speculation about a negotiated compromise: possible long-term loans to Greece, reciprocal exhibitions, or eventual repatriation under shared stewardship agreements.

- **Lessons for Archaeologists:**
  The Elgin Marbles case demonstrates the importance of considering both the scientific value and the cultural/religious/emotional significance of artifacts to source communities.

It illustrates how archaeological discoveries should be reported and interpreted in ways that respect local and descendant communities, legal frameworks, and evolving international norms for cultural property.

- **Key Takeaway for Your Practice:**
  As a future archaeologist, keep in mind the need for transparent provenance research, open communication with all stakeholders, respect for local and indigenous voices, and ethical stewardship of discoveries.

Be aware that what is legally permissible may not always be ethically justifiable in the long term.

Title:

Content: Lessons of Troglodyte Living: What Caves Can Teach Us About Sustainable Design

Lessons of Troglodyte Living: What Caves Can Teach Us About Sustainable Design

Contemporary architecture's approach to space is fairly linear: enveloping a specified volume within some form of material construct. But if we take a look at humanity's first intentional dwellings, it becomes clear that they were much less premeditated.

Rather than manmade areas to be furnished with pride, our earliest homes were naturally occurring cave lairs that offered hunter-gatherers temporary protection from the elements and potential predators. It wasn't until the appearance of agriculture that our ancestors took permanent, built residences. To this day, troglodytism — or cave living — continues to be connected to ideas of societal disassociation and a hermetic desire to exist outside of orthodox architectural norms. And yet, from Northern China to Western France and Central Turkey, hundreds of millions of people still choose to spend their lives at least partially underground.

+ 4

We take a look at examples of troglodyte architecture from around the globe and explore what this vernacular way of life can teach us about sustainably designing our future.

Related Article

From Underground Slum to European Capital of Culture: Matera, the Subterranean City of Caves

According to recent archaeological discoveries, humanity first started making use of caves as long as 1.8 million years ago. Primarily occupied during winter or other adverse weather conditions, these initial dwellings were short-term shelters that offered natural protection and a safe environment that minimized the risk of wildfires. They were also sites of artistry. As Bernard Rudofsky observes in The Prodigious Builders:

The creature whom we label, carelessly, a caveman (a vulgarism that usually stands for upper paleolithic man), was actually an outdoor type, hyperbolically husky, sweaty in an artistic way... his painterly vision was Michelangelesque — a preference for the entanglement of supple, albeit brutish, bodies. Indeed, there is nothing facetious about calling Lascaux the Sistine Chapel of prehistory; the famous caves, it has been inferred, were shrines rather than ordinary dwellings.

The wall paintings of the French cave in question, Lascaux, though predated by its arguably more well-known Spanish counterpart, are indeed early signs of a trend that would take hold throughout the history of troglodyte architecture: the idea of caves as sacred spaces and areas for quiet, solitary reflection. This is as true for Greek mythology as it is for the Indian Bhaja Caves, a group of 22 rock-cut Buddhist prayer rooms located in Maharashtra's Pune District. Though wildly different in terms of architectural finesse and forethought, the more primitive crypts and grottos of Ancient Greece still enclose their visitors with the same sense of otherworldly calm inspired by Bhaja's chaitya hall.

What both have in common with other manmade cave structures around the world is that they are often transformed through what we now recognize as vernacular means of design. By employing an area's local topography and materials to their advantage, early builders would adapt preexisting cavities to suit their specific needs or dig holes into the ground to create examples of troglodyte living — increasing individual well-being and establishing a symbiotic relationship with the environment.

Even today, there are several advantages to this type of architecture: the earth's thermal masses are natural insulators and make heating as well as cooling almost completely unnecessary in temperate climates. Taking advantage of naturally occurring structures is much more efficient than the modern building process of creating them from scratch, and upkeep is minimal in comparison. In a 2006 study that dealt with the Chinese cave dwellings in the country's Shaanxi province (which, to this day, houses over 30 million people), researcher Jiang Lu found that the underground habitats were in line with much of contemporary sustainable design principles that urge for a minimal impact on the environment.

There are, of course, downsides to cavernous living: the lack of ventilation and natural light can have disastrous impacts on individual and collective health, as exemplified by the Italian village of Matera. The area’s Sassi caves were used as a natural shelter from the harsh climate as early as 10,000 BC, but led to collective illness and poverty down the line — causing the 16,000-strong population to be evicted in a 1950s government program.

And yet, there are urban planning lessons to be taken from a look at our ancestral abodes. A recent exhibition at New York City's Noguchi Museum entitled In Praise of Caves resurrects examples of Mexican Organic architecture that argue for a return to the cave as a sustainable, safe, and low-cost alternative to contemporary buildings.

Most notable among them is the work of Mexican architect and public official Carlos Lazo, who oversaw Mexican state infrastructure projects from 1952–55. His Cuevas Civilizadas project dug 110 low-income homes into a canyon wall in the Belénde las Flores neighborhood of Mexico City. Though unfinished due to the architect's untimely death at 41, the project is a prime example of a kind of hybrid troglodyte architecture that could help solve many of our contemporary and future housing issues.

As explained by the museum's Senior Curator Dakin Hart:

(It) was essentially a public housing project idea... to build very efficient, but very modern homes that didn't require a lot of maintenance, and didn't require a lot of expense in upkeep for working people.

Along with contemporary examples like Spain's Granada cave homes, China's sunken courtyard residences, or Tunisia's troglodyte structures, Lazo's revived work proposes an alternative to global architectural trends that, in addition to its vernacular design principles, underlines the importance of connecting with nature as a source of lasting comfort. "It's about happiness in the end", Hart elaborates. "Putting space into boxes hasn't made us content — so what if the answer lies in the ground itself?" Despite the prejudice tied to the idea of living surrounded by naked rock, a reevaluation of troglodyte architecture may thus be well overdue. Rather than looking to the skies for the designs of our future — whether it'd be in the shape of a flying car or dizzying high-rise — gazing down (and inward) may create architectural solutions much better suited to a world threatened by climate change and war.

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Cite: Claire Brodka. "Lessons of Troglodyte Living: What Caves Can Teach Us About Sustainable Design" 08 Feb 2023. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/996063/lessons-of-troglodyte-living-what-caves-can-teach-us-about-sustainable-design> ISSN 0719-8884

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These points synthesize the ongoing debates, possible avenues for resolution, and their broader significance for budding archaeologists.

**Summary Nuggets (Elgin Marbles controversy context):**

- **Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Ethics:** The discoveries highlighted (dolmens in Sochi, mounds in Kazakhstan, artifacts in Sweden and Egypt) reflect intense local connection to heritage, underlining the emotional and territorial significance people place on ancient monuments and artifacts.

Title:

Content: History and archaeology: The mystery of the mysterious Solovetsky labyrinths, or was there a common civilization for Northern Europe
Ancient labyrinths laid out of stones are scattered in large numbers along the coast of the White Sea.
These mysterious megalithic figures are like part of some plan that we, modern people, do not know.
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Statements like “This is our territory, our ancestors lie here” underscore that, for many communities, such remains are more than objects; they embody ancestral connection and identity.

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“This is our territory, our ancestors lie here ”: why nomads erected“ mustache ” mounds
Siberian archaeologist Grishin told about the discovery of mysterious “mounds with whiskers ”
In the autumn of 2022, scientists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences published an article about the discovery of new burial mounds of a relatively rare species in Western Siberia.
From their central structure depart two long earthen ramparts, so that from above the structure resembles a mustache or a giant claw.
Gazeta.Ru spoke with one of the authors of this study, senior researcher, candidate of historical sciences Artem Grishin.
He told, when in the world there were mounds, why they were built by ancient nomads and what are “mounds with mustaches ”.
— Kurgans were erected by many peoples for thousands of years, starting from antiquity to the late Middle Ages.
Who was the first person to create such a funeral?
- Such structures are known from an era earlier than antiquity - at least from the time of the Neolithic and Eneolithic.
The prototype of the mound is an earthen hill of more modest size - that is, the simplest gravestone structure, which probably appeared in the Neanderthals of the Paleolithic.
At the same time, a wide variety of ritual actions also arose.
Gradually, a small mound in some cultures evolved into large structures.
It is worth mentioning that “kurgan ” is an archaeological term.
Under it are hidden the remains of heterogeneous structures, different in internal structure and in appearance.
If we talk about our Siberian region, then in it the mounds of the era from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages are also completely different.
For example, small Neolithic mounds often appeared as multi-act burials, which gradually changed during the funeral of new people.
We see it as a single low hill.
— As I understand it, most of the mounds in our country are associated either with the Scythians or with the medieval Turkic population, which borrowed them from the Scythians?
- Most likely, it is, but I am not ready to vouch for statistical accuracy, since there are still mounds of the Eneolithic and Bronze Age.
Siberian tombstone mounds really were created mainly by nomads, but, again, despite the similarity of appearance, the Scythians they are alone in internal structure, and the medieval population others.
For example, during the construction of some “royal ” Scythian mounds, a central burial was performed before the embankment was created, then a wooden multi-chamber structure was created inside the designated circle, the ritual site.
Ritual objects, sacrifices and other human graves were placed in this structure, then the complex was closed - the mound was filled.
Buildings of another tradition, including the “ordinary ” Scythian mounds, look much more modest.
So, often during the construction of medieval Turkic complexes, the allocated territory was limited by a circular moat and one passage was left.
Inside the moat, funeral rites were performed and the complex was closed.
Medieval mounds are not so complex and relatively small, the ritual also becomes more modest.
And if the basis of the burial mounds of the Scythians are wooden or stone structures, then they are not inside the medieval ones.
At the same time, geography also dictated the rules of construction.
For example, in our region there is no stone, and therefore in some cases, in particular, for mounds of the early Iron Age, it is known that the embankments initially had the appearance of a truncated pyramid formed from large blocks of turf, taken somewhere on the side, in humid areas.
That is, it is erroneous to consider the mounds as if they were dumped in a pile of earth, this is an organized space.
It reaches modern people in the form of a hill, sometimes barely distinguishable and inexpressive, but the task of the archaeologist is to understand the structure of its ritual space.
— The barrows of nomads of the steppes of Eurasia are similar in many respects.
What is the meaning of these peoples invested in the construction of large burial mounds?
– The main goal was to create a landmark in the steppe, visible from afar, but its meaning is twofold.
On the one hand, the mound marked the place where the representative of the family was buried, and it was there that the family periodically came to commemorate him.
On the other hand, this is the marking of the territory, the way of land development by a group of people – “this is our territory, where we roam, our ancestors lie here. ”
The fact that a relative is buried there is in many ways a source of the right to this territory.
And this can be seen in the ethnographic data on much more modern nomadic peoples, who either recently moved away from traditional farming, or left a corresponding trace in written sources.
For the above reasons, the sites of the mounds are linked to the places of seasonal nomads of the population.
Sometimes even the family did not bury a person if he died outside the area of   permanent nomadism.
They reached their places and erected a mound there, an additional complex of rituals, for example, mummification, which is present in the Scythian burial tradition, could be associated with this.
- The grave visible in the steppe has a serious disadvantage - it is robbed.
This is a worldwide trend, and many, such as the ancient Egyptians, tried to prevent it.
How did the nomads fight the robbery of the graves of their relatives?
- It is clear that the easiest way to protect the grave from robbery is not to erect a mound.
In this regard, we can recall the legend of the burial of Genghis Khan.
So that his grave was not plundered, the circumstances and the place of burial were classified, up to the killing of the performers.
And until now, no one knows where this politician is buried – precisely because they took measures, buried without a mound or other external structure.
But when the mound was still erected, a number of actions were performed during the ritual, which symbolically closed the grave, including from the penetration of robbers.
It is clear that these measures act only in the minds of people, and a person from another culture does not read these symbols and calmly acts as he wants, even without knowing about the “magical protection ”.
In some cases, the bottom of the grave pit was masked.
Roughly speaking, it looks like a bottom, but in fact it is a layer of soil, specially laid on top of the burial chamber, which is located below.
There were poboi - burial pits with a small niche in one of the side walls, but they are associated not with protection from robbers, but with the features of the ritual.
However, a person from another culture, a later inhabitant of the territory, could climb into such a grave, do not understand and count that he was deceived.
Despite the above, on the territory of our country, the mounds were robbed almost by one person, some of them many times.
As a rule, they rob the central part - even the funnel remains there.
But this does not mean that the mound is lost for archeology, you can extract a lot of information from it.
Only a complete study of the embankment can give reliable scientific data on it.
Special damage is done by black archaeologists, modern grave robbers.
They hunt for notable metal things, but even if they offer them to a museum, science is useless.
Modern archaeology understands the find only when it is in context, regardless of material value, and carefully records all observations.
The layer in which it lies, the terrain and the archaeological context are important, only then does it begin to “speak ”.
A thing taken out of context can be admired if it is beautifully made, but nothing more.
It was silent, as was the monument from which it was taken.
— How were the mounds with “mustaches ” found in the Kulundinskaya steppe, which you talk about in a recently published article?
- Initially, our colleagues from the regional service of protection of monuments suggested that they exist in this territory, in the interfluve of the Ob and Irtysh.
Initially, scientists doubted that they had found this type of structure.
Their closest analogues are in Kazakhstan, more than 300 kilometers from our territory.
In addition, the “mounds with whiskers ” of Kazakhstan are made of stone, and we do not have stone in the region.
Therefore, our mounds are dirt, which is why these days are barely noticeable on the ground.
They rise no more than 20-30 centimeters.
- How did they get noticed?
- In the service of protection of archaeological sites there is such a procedure - certification, during which a specialist travels to a certain area and checks the condition of known objects and looks for new ones.
During such an event, the specialist of the service Oleg Valerievich Sofeykov and went to these embankments.
He saw them, or rather, felt with his feet a “mustache ” 30 centimeters high and a width of one and a half meters.
The situation is complicated by the fact that these mounds are in a flooded floodplain overgrown with high grass.
Therefore, Oleg Valerievich was not sure that he discovered the "mustache" of the mound, it was difficult to distinguish them from the natural elevation - and this despite the fact that the two mound itself, from which the "mustache" depart, were known before, even stood guard.
So the first mounds “with whiskers ” in our region were opened in the early 2000s, but this fact was not officially recorded.
Now there are many other possibilities, for example, the decoding of space images, which we took advantage of.
However, even from space, swirling soil mounds are not visible well, you have to go through many photos of different years and seasons.
— How many mustache mounds have already been opened in your region?
- In space images, we found about 20 such structures.
For six of them made accurate topographic plans – that is, went there, photographed, measured, put on guard.
We determined the exact location, fixed the appearance, but the excavations were not carried out.
We visited four more, but due to vegetation or water we could not remove the topographic plan.
- Who built these mounds in Kulund?
– Versions vary, but, most likely, this is the Turkic-speaking medieval population, with the advent of which “mounds with mustaches ” and appeared.
In general, this type of monuments is very common in the territory from the Irtysh to the Southern Trans-Urals along the steppe strip, in total there are more than 600.
The time of their creation is determined in different ways: from the era of the early Iron Age to the Middle Ages.
Accordingly, there are several versions of the bearers of this tradition.
Having discovered monuments of this type on the territory of the Kulunda steppe, we expanded their range to the northeast by 300 kilometers.
Does this mean that there was one of the points of the route of the nomads?
- Most likely, this was the end point of the seasonal nomadic cycle, according to our Ural colleagues, it was visited in the summer.
I must say, the Kulunda steppe was used by the Kazakh population for nomadic cattle grazing until the 20th century.
This was prevented only by Russian settlers, who drew the boundaries of land plots, which reduced distant nomads to naught.
— What is the shape of the “mound with mustache ”?
— In Kulund, the central structure is an earthen platform.
Sometimes there are several, located in a chain.
It is the platform, not the mound, round when viewed from above.
The height is different, but above 50-60 centimeters we have not yet fixed.
From the central structures, as a rule, in the east direction, arcuate shafts are erected - "whiskers" with a length of several tens of meters to 100-200 meters.
It's like a claw on top.
What was this place intended for?
– Not only the site, but the entire complex of structures.
Initially, it was believed that they were burial mounds, and the "mustache" marked the boundary of the site for burial and memorial rituals.
Part of the "mustache" or mounds with "mustache" is on the territory of earlier burial grounds.
However, then the complexes began to be excavated, and it turned out that in the central embankments are not so common burials of people.
There are few finds at all - that is why it is so difficult to identify the builders, the time of construction and the purpose.
Mainly detect ceramic vessels installed in additional pits.
There are traces of the sacrifice of domestic animals: sometimes the whole skeleton, sometimes parts of the carcass, sometimes individual bones.
Most often it is the bones of a horse, a ram.
There was a big fire in some places.
Burials of people in monuments of this type are rare.
I would even say that if an ordinary mound without a grave is a rarity and, as a rule, a consequence of a robbery, then this is not the case for “mustache mounds ”.
So, most likely, the mounds of this type were not tombstones at all.
Sometimes they were attached to an ancient (already for the builders of the mound) grave in order to symbolically appropriate a foreign ancestor, that is, to mark the territory.
This happens very often in traditional culture.
The people who lived before you become your ancestor when you go there.
Probably, the builders of the “mound with mustache ” did not even know anything about the buried and his people, only the fact that this is an ancient grave.
Accordingly, after almost a hundred years of studying mounds of this type, a theory arose that this is not a burial complex, but a ritual platform for large tribal or intertribal holidays.
Maybe calendars.
Let me remind you that these complexes are mainly oriented to the east and to the southeast, where the sun rises at our latitude.
Probably, these complexes visited periodically.
Unfortunately, nothing more precise can be said yet, but there are a lot of assumptions.
Carrying out mass rituals there would explain the scope of the mustache.
Our Ural colleagues estimated the labor costs for their construction: it turned out that this required the work of an average nomadic collective (dozens of people) for several weeks.
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- **Historical Context and Site Significance:** The dolmens in Sochi, believed to possess ritual or spiritual energy, and the “mustache" mounds of Kazakhstan, erected for complex ancestral and land-right reasons, exemplify the archaeological challenge of respecting both the scientific and cultural value of sites.

The mounds, for example, are not just graves but are tied to rights over land, social memory, and ritual practice—issues that resonate with claims to ownership over disputed antiquities.

- **Problems with Artifact Removal:** The observation that “A thing taken out of context can be admired if it is beautifully made, but nothing more” is particularly relevant to the Elgin Marbles debate.

Removing artifacts from their original cultural and geographical context can strip them of meaning to descendants and distorts scholarly interpretation.

Title:

Content: smi.today
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The scale of predatory excavations in recent years has increased tenfold
The task of archaeology is to study the ancient and medieval history of the Far East, to restore the periods that have sunk in.
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- **Disputes Over Preservation and Display:** The fate of Ramesses II's statue in Hermopolis (whether to leave it in situ or display it in a museum) echoes wider debates like that over the Elgin Marbles—should heritage items remain in their original setting or reside in foreign museums for preservation and broader viewing?

Title:

Content: In Egypt, archaeologists have unearthed the upper half of the statue of Pharaoh Ramesses II, the bottom of which was found almost a hundred years ago
The discovery was made during the study of the ruins of the ancient city of Hermopolis
CAIRO.
A team of scientists led by a researcher of classical literature from the University of California, Boulder, excavated the upper part of a huge ancient statue of the pharaoh Ramesses II, the lower half of which was discovered in 1930, according to the online publication Phys.org.
Ramesses II was immortalized in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ozymandias.
In 1930, German archaeologist Günther Röder excavated the lower half of a huge statue depicting Pharaoh Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great, the ruler of Egypt who reigned around 12 centuries BC.
Almost a century later, an Egyptian-American archaeological team led by Yvona Trnka-Amrain, an assistant professor in the Department of Classics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, discovered the top of a huge statue while exploring the ruins of the ancient city of Hermopolis, about 150 miles south of Cairo.
The top half, 12.5 feet long, depicts a seated pharaoh wearing a double crown and a headgear topped with a royal cobra.
The researchers determined that at the time of construction, the complete statue was about 23 feet tall.
“We knew it might be there, but we didn ’ t specifically look for it, ” says Trnka-Amrain, who collaborated with Basem Gehad, an archaeologist at Egypt ’ s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.
Trnka-Amrain, papyrus specialist, PhD.
After completing her dissertation at Harvard University, she researched a "virtually lost Greek novel" about the pharaoh.
She has sought to conduct research in Egypt since studying papyri at Oxford University as a graduate student.
In 2022, Gehad offered her access to a papyrus study that turned out to include 98 lines containing "substantial passages" from the two lost works of the Greek playwright Euripides.
Soon, Trnka-Amrain invited CU Boulder Classics professor John Hibert, a specialist in tragedy, to further investigate this unusual find.
After they met, Gehad asked her to lead a group of field explorers in Hermopolis.
Gehad submitted a proposal and obtained all the necessary permits to begin work on the facility.
It was the first major excavation at the site since the British Museum in the 1980s.
“Hermopolis is the second most productive place for finding Greek papyri, ” says Trnka-Amrein. –“ In addition to research, our goal is to preserve this place and make it a viable part of the Egyptian economy. ”
Trnka-Amrain was in the United States awaiting the birth of a child when the sculpture was found upside down in January.
She and her fellow explorers were delighted, but they had to temper the excitement in anticipation of further excavations.
“One of the problems with Hermopolis is that it is near the Nile River.
After the construction of the Aswan Low Dam, the groundwater level became a huge problem.
There was no guarantee that the stone would be all right.
Sometimes sandstone is found.
But, in fact, it ’ s just sand or degraded limestone, ” says Trnka-Amrain.
Additional excavations have shown that the Pharaoh ’ s face is remarkably well preserved.
The team even found traces of ancient blue and yellow pigment, which can be analyzed to better understand the period of time and circumstances of the creation of the statue.
“It would be very interesting to do a scientific analysis of the pigment, ” says Trnka-Amrain, noting that soil mixed with paint will also be scrutinized for“ clues to the history of Egypt. ”
Ramesses II is one of the few Egyptian pharaohs widely known to non-specialists in the Western world.
He was the inspiration for Percy Bysshe Shelley ’ s famous poem “Ozymandias ”, played by Yul Brynner in Cecil B. DeMille ’ s film“ The Ten Commandments ” and voiced by actor Rafe Fiennes in the animated film “The Prince of Egypt ”.
The lower half of the statue remained in place, and Gehad presented a proposal to reunite the two parts, which Trnka-Amrain expects will be approved.
It is not known what will happen to the re-assembled statue, but it is likely to remain in place or be placed in a museum, she says.
Meanwhile, a team of researchers is continuing an intensive study of the statue, and Trnka-Amrain hopes they will publish an article about their work sometime this year.
Trnka-Amrain says he hopes to attract more CU Boulder graduate students to the project.
“I came to the University of California after receiving my PhD because the Department of Classical Literature is a really beautiful place where everyone is ready to think outside the box; it is less canonical than the typical departments of classical literature, ” she says.
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- **The Value of Archaeological Context:** The importance of understanding context, as in deciphering the charred scroll, is vital.

Title:

Content: Scientists managed to decipher part of the text of the ancient blackened scrolls
14.10.2023, 0: 50, Misc
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Scientists were able to decipher part of the text of one of the ancient charred scrolls, opening a door to the past.
This unique breakthrough opens up opportunities for a deeper exploration of the historical events and cultural aspects of these ancient civilizations.
The ancient charred scrolls are of immeasurable value, as they allow us to penetrate a lost world to which we have limited access.
The importance of this discovery lies in the fact that the deciphering of the text is connected with our understanding of the history and culture of those times.
To trace the history of mankind is a huge challenge, as there are often not enough archaeological finds and documents to get a complete picture of the past.
Most of the information about those times was inappropriately written on scrolls, which over time either collapsed or were lost, which makes deciphering the text of the ancient scrolls a real feat.
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Context aids in reconstructing not only the object's history but also the social, ritual, and spiritual life around it—a core argument for the return of artifacts like the Elgin Marbles to their place of origin.

- **Local Custodianship and International Collaboration:** The accounts reveal that both local attachment and scholarly investigation must be balanced in site management.

Locals often act as stewards, with traditions and knowledge that enrich archaeological interpretation.

International debates, such as that of Greece and the UK over the Marbles, often center around which party can best ensure conservation and sharing of heritage.

Title:

Content: Encyclopedia of Techniques
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The discovered objects caused heated disputes between experts because they acted as direct evidence of the existence of a highly developed civilization.
Not so long ago, a group of archaeologists found some interesting artifacts.
The objects found caused heated discussions among experts because they are direct evidence of the existence of a highly developed civilization.
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- **Potential for Resolution in the Elgin Marbles Case:** These global archaeological controversies suggest that resolutions should recognize descendants’ connections, the importance of context, and shared stewardship.

Proposed solutions for the Marbles have included loans, joint curation, or full repatriation to Greece, mirroring approaches that value both universal access and local significance.

**In summary**, the extracts illustrate why the controversy over the Elgin Marbles is so enduring: the conflict is not merely about ownership, but about cultural identity, the integrity of historical context, and respect for the descendants and modern nations connected to ancient civilizations.

Potential resolutions must navigate these ethical, emotional, and scholarly demands—ideally fostering collaboration rather than competition over the world's cultural heritage.

**Summary of Extracts (focused on themes of heritage, cultural preservation, and controversies about artifacts like the Elgin Marbles):**

- The text discusses a complex global landscape shaped by conflicts and movements for liberation, both for specific peoples (e.g., Palestinians) and for humanity more broadly.

Title:

Content: The War on Gaza and the Issue of Humanity ’ s Liberation
With nervous nerves and troubled souls, I claim that millions, especially in the Arab and Islamic world, are following the events of the revenge massacre, primitive and brutal on Gaza, that besieged enclave, which has become necessary to describe as a campaign of genocide or ethnic cleansing and a new Nakba project. Israel is destroying the present and trying to kill the future.
Since this war is revealing, as we have said before, perhaps the first thing I have revealed is the depth of the feeling of humiliation and oppression felt by the Arab and Islamic masses towards the Zionist entity, and the longing for victory, pride and dignity. The sources of their identification, whether national or religious, or even purely human, or a mixture of all these, lie deep in the souls of these masses under the rubble of dullness and repeated frustrations, even those whose governments have made peace agreements (or are in the process of doing so), and perhaps especially those masses, who have watched with indifference the efforts of these regimes and their accelerated steps towards normalization. Closer and warmer with the Zionist entity and the growing bet on it, as an entry point to the corridors of Congress and the White House and then American satisfaction and support and little by little influence and ability to influence it.
Then came the flood of Al-Aqsa to reveal not to us and the masses, but to the regimes themselves and to Israel and the West how fragile these arrangements are, they are built in the air, not based on any solid ground and could not take root, despite decades of systematic corruption of consciousness by authoritarian regimes. Attempts to normalize or integrate the Zionist entity into this authentic Levantine Arab environment, regardless of the motives of this rejection identity in what we will not address here, and it is enough to determine its firm existence and its active role.
Demonstrations not only aim at the liberation and dignity of the Palestinian people, but also open the way for the resurgence of a movement for the liberation of humanity from a world order that crushes human beings, but professionally, remotely and behind the scenes.
In the past, when we wrote about this instinctive, or “visceral ” rejection, we were accused of exaggeration, utopia and romantic ideas, but now, in the midst of manifestations of solidarity despite the repression of regimes, and far from proving the correctness of our views and avenging our convictions, we see the overwhelming practical evidence of the sincerity of our premises.
Since the outbreak of the battles, I have been convinced, and I am still more convinced, day by day, that this tour is established and will shape the features of the coming era, and indeed inaugurates it, just as it has left deep scars and wounds in the psyche of our peoples and in the Arab collective consciousness, and that we will discuss its results for years to come. From the calculations of the loss of life, how much the resistance will suffer from the losses and how the formula of the settlement (which I know is temporary and is bound to explode in another round of conflict inevitably), I think it is necessary to draw attention to the broader humanitarian and cosmic impact that the resistance has had, mostly without calculation or planning, such as any explosion or volcano that it cannot predict its effects and the expansion of its circles.
We have seen and heard the bias of the Western media towards Israel in covering the events and adopting its narrative, but the observer does not see it dealing with the Palestinian martyrs as human beings or victims, but only numbers, and many of us have commented on the terrible, shocking and miserable professional fall of this media, which many of us until yesterday praised and cited on our decadent and exposed media, just as we have seen how Western governments rushed to condemn and support unconditional. The Zionist Jan, Blinken even rushed through Arab capitals after Israel, where Arab presidents (Sisi is a prime example) did not show what was expected of them, but each looking for his interests and issuing inescapable statements in front of an angry and agitated audience eagerly waiting for the storm to pass.
We have seen mass demonstrations in the capitals of Western countries, even though they are against official positions, and despite the ban in the case of France, for example, in a blatant assault on freedoms, in a country that pays lip service to them as if they were his daughter or his own property.
Is there a link between the reaction of these regimes and street movements?
This is the most important conclusion and the fundamental question in my opinion, and one of the most dazzling Sunni revelations of the Great Flood.
Life in our modern world is full of details, and the media with its powerful means and infiltration increases the complexity of things, and add a misty yield by faking awareness of the chaos of ideas, and perhaps the great niqab of the flood of Al-Aqsa is that it cured the structure of the relations of states and Western capitalism, removed all impurities and crowds and noise, and left only what is basic, and old in fact, The left (and its wider movement in fact) for its brilliance, and for our rulers ’ panting behind the West, they have been ignoring it: Israel is nothing but a piece of the West.
It is an advanced fortress that does not differ much from the Crusader kingdoms, and thus protects not only their interests, but the entire set of arrangements that shape the economic and international relations that shape our world today, including the sovereignty and control of capital. These capitalists enrich themselves by fueling conflicts and talking about human rights, and they make their financial surpluses from deadly arms sales.
These demonstrations not only aim at the liberation and dignity of the Palestinian people, but they also open the way for the resurgence of a movement for the liberation of humanity from a world order that crushes man, but professionally and remotely behind a curtain, until such a battle comes and reveals its ugliness, injustice and bloodshed.
The flood of Al-Aqsa exposed the falsehood and hypocrisy of these Western regimes, and that world in which capital controls and draws its maps and policies with rivers of blood, and exposed the Western media with its blatant bias, and exposed the wasting and recklessness of Arab regimes, and revealed that the peoples, despite impoverishment, even starvation, neglect and marginalization, are still fine and pure and original.
But we haven ’ t seen it all yet, and as a rock thrown into a stagnant pool, we will see the aftershocks and effects of the Great Flood for decades to come, and other results will unfold, albeit for the rest.
Egyptian Writer
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There is the notion that present actions (like destruction in Gaza) can erase both history and future possibilities for cultures under threat, reminding us how violence can obliterate heritage.

- The preservation of *local heritage* is highlighted through examples: Abu Dhabi's support for preserving clay architecture and the discovery of ancient (7,000+ years) rock sculptures in the Saudi desert, carved by shepherds.

Title:

Content: Gulf News / UAE News
Abu Dhabi Tourism supports the preservation of the heritage of clay architecture
Abu Dhabi - Saif Al Yazid - The Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi led a series of successful training programmes and partnerships in 2023, as part of its mission to preserve, disseminate and promote the emirate ’ s cultural and heritage heritage.
In this context, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi has collaborated with the So-Hath Foundation for Building Craftsmen to implement a training program in the field of mud construction for its workers entitled “Re-learning ”.
This program has helped 42 artisans of different levels and experience to hone their conservation skills to preserve the clay heritage sites in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
This training program supports the strategic objectives of the Department by enhancing the expertise, skills and knowledge of artisans working in the field of preserving and preserving the heritage of clay architecture in the region.
The program, which included several lectures and workshops, contributed to the creation of three guidebooks for the preservation of cultural heritage in four languages: Arabic, English, Urdu and Hindi, which include the principles, techniques and traditions of clay construction.
Jaber Al Marri, Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi ’ s Historical Environment Department, said: “Preserving historic buildings and training craftsmen is critical to protecting our emirate ’ s cultural heritage and urban heritage. We are committed to working with partners to support and nurture artisans, workers and professionals through training programmes that ensure the transfer of traditional building practices and the sustainability of clay heritage. ”
In 2023, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi collaborated with Dabbagh Architecture, the architectural design studio in the United Arab Emirates, to design a special installation for the second edition of the Sharjah Architecture Triennial, which concluded in March 2024.
The artwork, “From Dust to Dust, ” explores the close relationship between memory and material elements, and is constructed using clay blocks without any structural supports.
The creation of this work was based on the experience and skills acquired by the Department's craftsmen from the clay construction training programme.
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Such findings underscore the value and importance of in-situ conservation for understanding and sustaining cultural identity.

Title:

Content: European study advises attention to peaceful coexistence and religious freedoms in Mosul
Translated by Hamed Ahmed
A European study called for attention to culture, peaceful coexistence and religious freedoms within the reconstruction efforts of Mosul, stressing the importance of restoring the ability of social components to return to the practice of their activities.
According to a Swedish study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on post-war reconstruction efforts in Mosul and the Nineveh Plains, “promoting and reviving the aspect of culture, agriculture, social coexistence and the practice of religious customs among the different communities of the people of Mosul is very necessary and must be focused on in conjunction with the reconstruction of buildings, houses and infrastructure of the city. ”
“Considering the unprecedented rate of destruction, it will take many years and huge resources before Nineveh and its people can recover from the painful experience of what they experienced during the occupation of Daesh terrorist gangs, ” she added.
“Massive reconstruction and reconciliation efforts are needed to address the cumulative social, cultural and economic impacts on different ethnic and religious communities in Nineveh. ”
“Post-war reconstruction efforts should not focus solely on the aspect of physical reconstruction and the re-establishment of economic architecture. ”
“Efforts should also attach equal importance to restoring the ability of the social components to return to their cultural and religious activities and traditions and to reform and restore the relations of coexistence and social integration, ” she said.
“This trend in Nineveh may call for the restoration of agricultural activities as an integral part of reconstruction efforts, ” the study said.
She pointed out that "these efforts are of both economic and cultural importance and at the same time carry implications for internal societal coexistence."
“The restoration of agricultural activities is important to address other current challenges such as the impacts of climate change and water scarcity. ”
According to the study, 216 individuals, including tribal leaders, civil society activists, farmers, villagers and displaced people, were surveyed on the extent to which different cultural, religious, economic and agricultural aspects of the Nineveh Plain interact to help rehabilitate economic and living activities, restore cultural and religious practices and promote community harmony.
She stressed that "the survey included interviews of 892 farmers and villagers in Hamdaniya, Talkef and Bashiqa," follow-up, that "the conclusions showed that farmers made strenuous efforts to recover agricultural activities because of the lack of financial resources to enable them to buy materials that support agriculture such as equipment, seeds and fertilizers."
The study went on to say that "the decline of rain and drought added to them have a limited ability to introduce irrigation systems, in an area where agriculture depends on rain for irrigation has been lost, resulting in a significant decline in the financial income of the people with economic difficulties."
“Restoring people ’ s ability to integrate into cultural and religious practices is vital for the post-war era, ” she said.
The study continues, "The conclusions showed that the ability to integrate cultural and religious practices have a great connection with the identity of people and their sense of belonging to their region and to Iraq in general, for many people is a motivation to return to their areas after the stage of displacement."
“Issues related to identity, religion and culture are vital to efforts to promote community harmony and ease internal tensions between different communities in Nineveh, ” she said.
“The restoration of agricultural activity and the re-establishment of religious and cultural practices are key areas requiring assistance, and in these efforts it is necessary to recognize the strong links between the economy and culture and between agricultural activities and cultural dimensions. ”
Focusing heavily on the cultural and social importance of agricultural practices allows reconstruction agents to identify effective ways to address multiple aspects of local needs and pave the way for the restoration of life in Nineveh.
She stressed that “these findings in the Nineveh Plain and the trends and concerns of local people can be harnessed to support post-war reconstruction efforts, which include taking into account the needs of the affected people in order to restore their living standards in accordance with the facts on the ground and restore their ability to integrate with their cultural and religious practices and strengthen cooperation and community coexistence. ”
“Reconstruction efforts should be seen as an opportunity to address problems and issues that are not directly related to the war but are vital to strengthening the recovery side, as well as an opportunity to promote resilience and tolerance over the long term. ”
The study continued, "A three-year occupation period under the control of ISIS left deep wounds in the province of Nineveh."
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions forced to leave their homes to seek refuge elsewhere inside or outside Iraq.
The study continues, “These conditions have caused the destruction of the living conditions of communities and communities, the effects of which are still present today. ”
She added that "joint estimates of the World Bank and the Iraqi government estimated the cost of the destruction of historic religious buildings to the extent of 56.2 billion Iraqi dinars ($47 million)."
"The destruction of religious monuments has caused deep sadness and suffering for local people because of its symbol stuck in their minds and representing their identity and belonging," the study said.
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- There is an emphasis on *archaeological ethics*, including issues of illicit excavations, as seen in northern cities where criminals are caught excavating for buried valuables.

Title:

Content: Accidents
The search for treasure...
The crimes of enrichment
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These stories reflect continuing struggles over who “owns” the past and the risks of lost heritage through unregulated removal, mirroring the Elgin Marbles controversy.

- The text cautions against the impulsive removal of monuments and artifacts, debating the merits of erasing memories of particular regimes by destroying or relocating their symbols.

Title:

Content: Political sweeping and before it cleansing and fogging and dropping idols and loyalty to the homeland and the inclusion of all joints and differences
Jassar Saleh Mufti
Sources familiar with the movement within the Islamic Dawa Party said that the current leadership has so far failed to reunite itself, in light of its lack of a plan or project that can be relied on to attract public support, specifically from the young segments.
The Lebanese newspaper “Al-Akhbar ” said in its issue today, quoting those sources, that the leadership of the party was faced with three options“ bitter dreams, and will lead in one way or another, in the end, to the decline of the party star. ”
The first of these options is to call for the election of a new leadership, including members of the Shura Council (50) and the Political Council (11), provided that these 61 are young people, while historic leaders retire, advisers are retained, and then the reform process begins.
But this proposal collided with the possibility of the failure of the new leadership to promote itself, and the possibility that it will take years to achieve a breakthrough interaction in the Iraqi street.
The second option was to postpone the conference, so that the current leadership could mature its vision for the future of the party and its mechanisms of work, but the problem that emerged in this context was the possibility of failure of the stakeholders to produce a “draft vision ”, which means that the party will automatically enter a“ clinical death ”, in light of its inability to produce new leadership on the one hand, and crystallize its project on the other.
As for the third option, in which the “call ” seems to be proceeding, it is the convening of the General Conference before the middle of this year, although“ the date has not been set yet, because the preparations for it need more time, ” in the words of one of the party leaders.
According to the newspaper's information as in its report, the leadership of the "call" is expected to re-elect itself, with limited change in a number of sites in favor of young faces at the expense of current faces.
The congress will be followed by a workshop on reforms of the party ’ s organizational structure, and a paper outlining the party ’ s vision and project.
The information indicates that the latter scenario was developed after consulting regional parties that advised to maintain the unity of Dawa, which was also recommended by the circles of the supreme religious authority (Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani), which prefer to keep the map of political parties in its current form, especially within the Shiite House...
It can no longer be complicated. ”
In the midst of this, and in light of the party ’ s lack of a broad mass base that can rally around it in its ordeal believing in its principles, and not in its ability to secure jobs for those who want them, the opponents of the “call ” bet that the moment of the last“ split back ” is near.
A bet based on a number of factors, starting from the loss of the party ’ s position as prime minister, which it has monopolized for 13 years, through suspicions about its leaders regarding involvement in corruption and its generalization, to the failure of the party to promote itself on the one hand, and the formation of its historical leaders parallel parties on its banks, eat of its popularity, and invest in its street.
A few weeks ago, satellite channels and various social media circulated a scene of a lawmaker accused of corruption, trying to escape the large crowds, which were chasing him near the parliament building, and after he was arrested by the angry, he was carried and put in a garbage container.
Regardless of what this (Ukrainian) MP did, he certainly did not come to do what some of the Iraqi politicians, who sit in the chairs of responsibility and governance at the top of the pyramid?
Where the order reached some of them to be a tool of the external agenda, which wanted and want to flood Iraq with chaos and instability, and resolve sectarianism, but they were a tool of terrorism Daeshi and before him the base, by providing political and legal cover for killers and criminals, taking advantage of their access to the customary or legal immunity granted to those in the legislative or executive power.. Incubators of domestic or imported terrorism (if you will).
This is through material, moral and media support for all tendencies hostile to the political process in Iraq after the US occupation, and what happened in the sit-in squares and platforms, which preceded the Iraqi June setback in 2013.
And supported by the senior leaders of the parties in the provinces of the Sunni Arabs, to conclusive evidence of what I say, where the aforementioned squares and their platforms, which are notorious and notorious, turned into a headquarters and a corridor for the dispersion of horizons and preachers of Satan, and even to kill innocent soldiers unarmed of weapons, and under the sight and hearing of the crowds present, and amid the cries of (Takbir) Daeshi. And prepared in advance in the corridors of the intelligence of regional countries brother and friend of Iraq, to bring down the political process in it, and turn back the clock.
But by the grace of God, and the fatwas of the great references, and the energy of the honorable people of the popular crowd and the security forces, disappointed and lost their bets, and the magic turned on the magician.
The process of political sweeping must start preparing for it from now, coinciding with the liberation and cleansing of the occupied territories from ISIS.
By showing the facts and holding accountable the wrongdoer, the negligent, the corrupt, the thief and the forger, in every detail of the Iraqi state and under any title held by this violator of the law, regardless of his religion, nationality and doctrine, terrorism is not the only one that brought us to what we are in political, economic and social crises.
But it was part of a large series of mistakes, which accumulated and magnified and produced calamities and impurities on this wounded country, especially the system of (quotas), which we have suffered since the fall of the previous regime until now.
It is a call to the people of the areas hit and occupied by terrorism, in Mosul, Anbar, Salahuddin and Diyala.. To tell those who elected them and brought them to the top of the political pyramid: Stop the conspiracies, intrigues and false pretensions, which brought Iraq, especially your provinces and their inhabitants to what happened and is being destroyed and ruined. To tell the leaders there that we are part of Iraq, and that the preservation of the rights of the smaller country does not prevent the granting and preservation of the rights of the larger country.
And that they should treat their partners in the homeland as a partnership of brotherhood in destiny, not as the partnership of the merchant who threatens to break the partnership at all times, and for what reason?
Remember that a tree, no matter how high or large, is fixed by its roots, not by the length of its branches or the abundance of its fruits.
It is an invitation to the people of the center and the south to tell their leaders and representatives: Expose the corrupt and the theft of public money, expel them from their positions and jobs that you gave them, and clean your parties of some ignorant climbers and parasites who abused or abused parties that had the honor of fighting injustice and dictatorship.
It is a call for all the Iraqi people to be loyal to the blood and souls of the martyrs, which flowed every day over the holy land, the land of Iraq, to defend it and liberate it from the desecration of terrorism.
Is there a responder??
Before we look at the political sweepers that abound these days, it was necessary to consider the sweepers themselves and the extent of their ability to sweepers that they promise once they win the elections and become prime minister.
The sweep promised by its current advocates will be limited to removing the vestiges of the ruling party, the National Congress alone.
Of course, this process of sweeping will only be carried out by those who will take over the reins of power from the competing parties, and thus qualify him to sweep what he deems necessary from the ruling party, and keep what he wants.
These parties calling for sweeping others, it is regrettable that they did not reach a conclusive opinion on the way to reach power, which is not possible to achieve except through the next elections, as these parties are still in a state of continuous “rot and rot ”, whether they will accept to contest those elections or boycott them?
Every morning there is a new opinion for these parties.
The latest, the memorandum sent to the Presidency of the Republic, demanding the postponement of the elections until next November, the amendment of laws related to freedoms, the formation of a national government, and the restructuring of the National Elections Commission, and then gave the Presidency one week to respond to their demands or they will work on « Hijwa or Dbaybina », boycott the elections.
We ask these parties what is new in these demands that they have been demanding from time to time, especially the idea of the national government, which did not find the least amount of acceptance, let alone respond to any official of the National Congress, and some of them described the demand as an attempt to reach power without effort is to run elections to despair of winning them?
Therefore, we are determined from now on not to pay attention to this memorandum by the Presidency of the Republic, which will be seen as a game to waste time, which the President of the Republic, the candidate of the National Congress for the presidency, is investing in his readiness to compete in the elections, and will not waste him in words and demands that are impossible to achieve.
Moreover, the preparations for the elections have gone a long way, and have cost everyone a great deal of effort and money, which is difficult to replace or obtain again, especially for the same parties calling for the postponement of the elections, which complain to the bricks of the earth of their impotence, poverty and lack of power.
Then how do they expect that the National Elections Commission will be dissolved now, and has been patient on their part since its formation and announcement and throughout the previous period, until they discover today the lack of impartiality and bias of the National Conference that formed it, discovered « Yadoop » now and then they saw the call to dissolve and reconstitute it, without explaining who will reconstitute if not the same National Conference?
What we admire is the continued threat of these parties to boycott the elections, as if someone would care about it after it was repeated more than once and without taking action.
These parties, called more than one name, Juba parties or the parties of the alliance or the parties of the national consensus, which are still running behind the mirage, demanding all impossibilities, some of them have gone out on them and become exposed, especially as the parties that have gone out of importance so that any action they threaten in case of failure to respond to their demands will be worthless in the absence of solidarity of the parties that reject them, especially the popular movement. She calls for this, after her candidate for the presidency of the Republic has made all those strides in his readiness to run.
As long as there are large parties, such as the Popular Movement, which will not accept the boycott, or the Popular Congress, which explicitly announced that it will not boycott the elections, the threat of boycott by the alliance will become useless, but will be in the interest of the National Congress, as we have said before, because the competition will decrease, especially when competitors with heavy weight such as the National Umma Party candidate.
This is, of course, assuming that the Juba parties will indeed boycott the elections, despite their reputation for saying what they do not do, if their demands sent to the presidency of the Republic, which of course are not and will not be answered, and we fear that the decision to boycott from the end of this week, the date that was set to be taken, will move to a new date, as we are used to each time.
These parties in all this « Jihaja » talk about the idea of   sweeping the effects of the Salvation Government, although the sweep of the impact of any government must be through the election fund, so that the party gains the seats that qualify him to sit on the seats of power after the removal of his predecessor, and not otherwise, although we reject the use of the word sweeping from its basis, because it is used to get rid of dirt, and we will not make any of any of any of any of any governments no Although there is political dirt that deserves to be swept away, such as corruption, nepotism, injustice and others, the generalization of the act without discrimination greatly harmed the idea.
We heard the subject of sweeping the monuments of the regimes for the first time in 1985 after the fall of the May regime, when Imam Sadiq al-Mahdi launched the idea of sweeping the monuments of May then, and began to implement it after he came to power.
Unfortunately, the synagogue practiced by Mr. Sadiq al-Mahdi did not exceed the removal of the foundation stone of some of the buildings built by May, which is considered one of the most distinctive effects left by May, such as the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, under whose roof he continued to announce his call to remove the effects of May, as well as the People ’ s Assembly in Omdurman and many others.
We said then that to erase the effects of any system, if this idea is accepted, is only to leave what is more valuable than it and not to remove the name of the person who made it.
Monuments in all parts of the world are one of the most important things that must be preserved, without any tampering with it either in its form or content, so that this helps in the process of recording the history of the country and sequencing it without interruption for the sake of future generations.
The positive history of the country is not required to be recorded and overcome the negative, so as not to create gaps in that history.
If May has its mistakes, which it has like any other system of government, it does not mean that the May era of the history of the country removed that mistake, but it is required to reverse its mistakes with all the honesty and honesty required, at the same time that its positives are reflected with all honesty and honesty as well.
We have not heard of the removal of the effects of any judgment by those who follow it, except for those of us who are accustomed to the creation of adversity.
In the context of the removal of the monuments of May, some have tried to change the names of some places that bear their name, and to name them others, and this attempt is considered a political theft that should not be practiced.
But the Sudanese people, who do not miss such plots, insisted on using the real name despite the nose of change.
Moreover, the removal of any trace of the effects of May means misleading the new generation, which has not lived with it and therefore does not know the facts, and has the right to know all that surrounded it negatively or positively, and when some facts were hidden from him after their removal, what he knows of the history of Sudan and the march of governance in it becomes wrong.
The call for removal also included people who worked for, or collaborated with, the system.
Their removal was similar to the referral for the public interest practiced by the current Salvation Government, but it is amazing that the same people who were swept within the ruins of May and thrown into the dustbin of history are the same people who were used by Imam Sadiq al-Mahdi, the owner of the idea of   sweeping, and placed at the top of his institutions in the Umma Party.
Therefore, we do not find any justification to return to this slogan, was it on the part of Imam Sadiq al-Mahdi or those who took in his tradition from others, vacuuming the regime is impossible to achieve as long as the rule of that regime or Fasrat, vacuuming means removal, which is not possible to do any of the vacuums of the world.
Mr. Sadiq al-Mahdi spent most of his years of rule preoccupied with sweeping the effects of May, and did not succeed until the third democracy was completely swept by the coup of June 1989.
Therefore, we did not hope that His Excellency would repeat the same series to become the sweeping of the effects of the rescue, among the priorities of his electoral programs, although he was excluded from sweeping bridges, bridges, dams and roads of course.
And the question becomes, what will be swept away by the effects that do not include all of this?
I do not believe that it is possible to remove the effects of a rule that has been in power for two decades and more, and wherever the citizen turns, he finds a trace of its effects.
Therefore, it is desirable that the idea of   removing errors become in the style of government and some of its practices, and that everyone move away from this story of removal of monuments.
In the style of government, discrimination among citizens must be eliminated because of loyalty to the party, for example, or preference of kin over others.
The success of any party in achieving justice among citizens alone is enough.
We say this because there are some of the leaders of the other parties have started to raise the same slogan, sweeping the traces of the National Conference, and before these parties sink in the face of that slogan, we hope that they will overcome it and talk about others, as the days have proved its failure and futility.
I believe that the attempt to sweep the effects of the regimes is what encouraged some to sabotage everything that these regimes do, as this is in the field of sweeping their effects.
I was surprised today that there are “vases ” with some seedlings intended to beautify one of Bahri ’ s main streets.
Someone smashed it.
Despite the ugliness of these vases, their unsuitability for decoration, and their entitlement to removal, the one who did the smashing of them is more ugly than he did.
Such an act may be repeated in other places and for other things, and it contains conclusive evidence of the misery of our civic education, where the citizen does not distinguish between what belongs to the government and what belongs to him - as a citizen - must be preserved.
Those who sabotage on the grounds that doing so helps to remove the ruling regime, do not know that they will be the ones who will pay the cost of repairing what they sabotage and from their own money, not the money of the government, and these sabotage operations will not affect the system of government.
Surprisingly, all traces of interest and value were made during the totalitarian era, from the government of November 58, through May 69, to June 89, while none of the governments are found in the democratic era.
This may be due to the fact that military governments, especially those of May and June, continued to govern for a long time, enabling them to implement all their plans and programs, while democratic governments were too short to implement any of their programs or plans.
This may be true to some extent, but it does not negate the fact that partisan governments often waste time in political squabbling among themselves and in how to erase the effects of the military rule that preceded them until they are overrun by another.
Why should any government not seek to build on what its predecessor has built, and stop the story of erasing the traces of the other to start again, which has prevented us from catching up with the world, as long as we do not take a step forward without following it back.
Amebia, whales, black scorpions, dung beetles, the power of militias, the power of political Islam, the power of assassinations and repression, the representative of the petty bourgeois class that lives on the oppression of the masses and plunder their wealth, and it kills in cold blood peaceful demonstrators.
This authority is terrified of the masses, terrified of its revolutionary will with patience, steadfastness and the perpetuation of the uprising, terrified of losing its privileges, influence and corruption, it relied on the hardened criminals of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and mocked all their repressive organs of the security of the Popular Mobilization Forces, militias and national security headed by Faleh al-Fayyad, who is the actual coordinator between the Popular Mobilization Committee. And tried through stupid plays media escalation and military skirmishes with the United States of America and show its defense of the so-called national sovereignty when Soleimani and the engineer were killed and raised the banner of the exit of foreign forces at a time when their representatives in parliament chanted Soleimani, who killed what killed through his snipers dozens of peaceful demonstrators, and cut off the Internet in the past night and this morning As a new attempt to suppress the protests, and all those efforts to distort and distort the demonstrations and thus strike and suppress them.
This dirty power has shown that its real enemy is not America or foreign forces, but the masses that are hungry for freedom, the peaceful masses that have demanded nothing more than a decent life free of poverty and want, confronting them with live bullets, poison gas, snipers and silencers.
The power of the ruling militias in Iraq imposed itself on the masses of Iraq by the strength of their militias, and that their legitimacy is falsified par excellence, and tries to continue through killings, kidnappings, assassinations, fabricating political plays and blatant labor.
This authority is the third party that the criminal Adel Abdul Mahdi talked about in the bloodshed of the masses, and all its leaders must be brought to trial on charges of killing peaceful demonstrators in addition to dissolving their gangs under any name.
All the forces of the political process talk about the constitution, and boast of addressing the masses that they should not violate the constitution while their militias kill, kidnap and assassinate and there is no deterrent to them without asking whether they commit crimes recommended by the constitution!
Their defense of the Constitution is their defense of their fake and criminal power, a power that without killing and silencing will not last a day.
Such power must be swept away from society; without it, society will take a step towards security, stability, freedom and prosperity.
The alternative to this power is the establishment of a provisional government that guarantees freedom, security and equality.
You will be swept away, scavenged, sterilized, and replaced with his coat, and before him trim his nails and cut his tail, even if it is a cover for him, but this is the creation of God!!!
The religious establishment in Najaf closed its doors, widened its voice, distanced itself and rebuked the leaders of the deep state on more than one occasion.
The deep state is a group of interests that do not care what the homeland and the citizen suffer..?
Many suspicions of corruption gnawed the body of Iraq carried out by the deep state is to impose its will with a piece of paper imposed on Prime Minister Brother Mustafa?
The underdog on his own?
a piece of paper to turn the table because the prime minister & apos; s office is taking a cut
Appointments in important, essential and sovereign positions are imposed on the prime minister with a piece of paper from the leaders of the deep state.
When will we be free from the domination and influence of the leaders of the deep state who slaughtered Iraq by imposing their will..
solution from my point of view.
Is the liberation of minds from the influence of leaders of blocs and corrupt political parties and the dissolution of parliament and sweep the leaders of parties and political blocs corrupt and without exception..!?
The Republican presidential system of government and a courageous independent national leader who leads Iraq.
It is the best solution in imposing the prestige of the state and the rule of law, silencing mouths and freedom of opinion.
The imposition of the will of the state, the rule of law, the dissolution of parliament and a presidential system of government requires a popular movement, the liberation of minds and a massive popular revolution that obeys the corrupt political class and their deep state and the political impasse that cracked our heads.
They say, “Beware of women who talk about honor a lot, ” and by the same measure we should be wary of those who raise their voices high in love of the homeland and the fight against corruption.
The people have always threatened with warning the traitors and the fallen to throw them one day in the dustbin of history when history writes about these people and their treacherous attitudes.
Of course, the writing of history and reference to the biography of men remained dependent on the hands of the victor and those who have power and the scepter and sit on the throne and dictate what he wants from the descriptions of those rulers through pens and writings and praises of the sultans to whiten the faces of those blackened by treason, mercenarism and selling the destinies of peoples. Involved in corruption.
In Ukraine, a corrupt politician and money manipulator threw a lawmaker from the party of ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych into a garbage container. * ^ * ^ * * On Tuesday, Ukrainian demonstrators threw Vitaly Gorabsky, a lawmaker from the Party of the Regions, into a garbage container during a rally in front of the parliament in Kiev.
The demonstrators grabbed “Gorabski ”, while leaving the parliament building, and threw him in a garbage container they brought in front of the building, and the demonstrators prevented the exit of“ Gorabski ” from the container briefly, accusing him of causing bloodshed in the country, “for having played a leading role in the issuance of many controversial laws during the period of the previous government. ”
The demonstrators, who belong to the Union of Freedom for All Ukrainians and other nationalist movements, demanded to announce the content of a law granting special status to some cities in the east of the country, as well as the passage of a law punishing members of the former Ukrainian government.
I wonder how much we need in Iraq.
This is what must be done in all our parliamentarians and officials, starting from the top of the pyramid of al-Qaeda and without exception, and recover all the money stolen by them and use the International Interpol agency for that!!!!
And then to prison because they did to us double what this guy did to the Ukrainians.
This is the lesson of the Iraqi parliamentarian all corrupt and corrupt and servants of corruption, injustice and tyranny by using parliamentary immunity as well as their domination over the goods of the country by using influence and exploiting all public places and getting bribes or entering into projects with a share if you want to get the license...
Even if we get a chance to throw them away, where are the trash cans?
When the Ukrainians threw him into the container, they insulted him the most because they were civilized and everything had its rules.
But we, our parliamentarians, our government and all the layers of our society, rich and poor, are cutting the streets
Our main cities and garbage accumulated on the sides, but in the alleys it happened and there is no embarrassment and do not see containers only in the neighborhoods “high-end ” buildings, but the residents of the city, and in this sense, the containers we have a prestige and parliament do not deserve it, and even decorated with plastic packages of all colors have become part of the decor of our neighborhoods and do not want to be spoiled by one, especially parliamentarians And it rots because the landfill is relatively cleaner than them.
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The author argues preserving monuments—to learn from history—is more valuable than their removal, aligning with arguments for retaining controversial artifacts in their original contexts.

- The issue is further complicated by political processes and government actions, where appointment of officials and cultural governance may not always serve preservation goals but be dictated by power structures (“the deep state”).

- An underlying theme is the risk of civic disengagement: citizens may not distinguish between what is a public or a personal legacy, leading to indifference or mismanagement of heritage.

**Relation to the Elgin Marbles Controversy:**
- These extracts collectively highlight the complexity of heritage stewardship: the tension between preservation, rightful ownership, and the consequences of removing artifacts from their context.

Like the Elgin Marbles, which were removed during a period of foreign domination and whose stewardship is now contested between Greece and the UK, the text urges respect for local cultures and the ethical dilemmas of relocating cultural property.

**Potential Resolution:**
- While no specific solution is discussed, the narrative suggests that the fairest approach would be respecting the claims of source communities and prioritizing preservation in situ whenever possible.

Education and international cooperation—acknowledging both the value to ‘universal’ museums and the identity needs of the originating cultures—could lead to more equitable solutions, such as shared stewardship, loans, or return of major pieces.

Certainly!

Title:

Content: People 's Daily Online > > Economy and Technology
(Youth Party)
Sanxingdui archeological front line of young people
Our reporter Li Changyu Wang Mingfeng
September 03, 2023 08: 23 | Source: People's Daily - People's Daily
Small number
A bronze head with a gold mask in the new museum of Sanxingdui.
Photo by Xinhua reporter Liu Kun
On July 26, the new Sanxingdui Museum opened.
The mysterious golden mask, the strange shape of the tortoiseshell grid, and the complex shape of the bronze bird foot statue... not long ago, the half-hidden in the soil of the Sanxingdui "heavy instrument" stunning appearance, the size of the huge, complex structure, the strange shape, amazing.
In 1986, the discovery of the Sanxingdui "sacrificial pit" once "awakened the world."
After more than 30 years, from 2020, the Sanxingdui site launched the excavation of six newly discovered "sacrificial pits", and more than 15,000 cultural relics such as ivory, bronze, gold and jade were newly unearthed, which once again made a sensation in the world.
In the Sanxingdui archaeological line, after 90 picked up the girder.
Nearly 200 people participated in the excavation of the Sanxingdui Archaeological Sacrifice Area, of which more than 150 are post-90s.
While inheriting old skills from the archeological predecessors, they skillfully applied new technologies and grew into talents in the field of archaeology, becoming witnesses, participants and promoters of "archaeology with Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese style".
Excavation:
Not leaving out any historical details.
The new Sanxingdui Museum is full of tourists.
In front of a bronze statue of the statue, tourists stopped to watch.
The exaggerated shapes and strange decorations of portraits bring people's thoughts back to the ancient Shu civilization thousands of years ago.
Speaking of the bronze statue, Xu Danyang, a member of the post-90s archaeology team of the Sanxingdui Institute of Archaeology of Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, was talking about an old friend.
The bronze statue, which was unearthed in the "sacrificial pit" at No. 4, was excavated by his hand.
As the "pit head" responsible for the excavation and cleaning of pit No. 4, Xu Danyang spent most of the year soaking in this pit of about 8 square meters, and every corner and corner here was dug out by him and his colleagues with a small shovel.
"Archaeological excavations are not 'excavation' for most of the time, but 'excavation'." Xu Danyang said that the soil layer contains rich information, which is an important basis for inferring the formation date and process of the ruins. "Every inch of soil should be carefully screened, and no historical details should be missed."
In order to restore as much as possible the formation process of the "sacrificial pit", at the time of the excavation, the No. 4 pit was divided into a small square of 30 × 30 cm, and everyone counted the grid, lying on the ground for a week, and only dug 10 cm deep.
Xu Danyang said that in the process of cleaning up, experts in soil environment, geology and other fields were also invited to participate in the "consultation", and even invited fire experts from the fire brigade to study whether the ashes were burned in the pit from the perspective of the fire site. Burning out of the pit again.
This process allowed him to gain a lot of interdisciplinary knowledge.
"At the excavation site, ordinary earth blocks will be bagged, numbered, and stored in a warehouse known as the 'future space'." Xu Danyang said, these small earth blocks may be wrapped in the truth of history, waiting for people to peel off layer by layer.
Of course, the most exciting part of the excavation is the moment when the artifacts are unearthed.
"At first, the statue was superimposed by ivory and other artifacts, but from a patch of copper green revealed in the gap, it was a bronze artifact," said Xu Danyang, who was not aware of the fact that the artifact was covered with copper rust when it was first unearthed. It was a bronze figure, thought to be a bird-shaped device.
But as the cleaning continued, Xu Danyang suddenly found that the exposed parts were a bit like the tip of a person's nose, and then, the eyes were also exposed, cleaning up along with the characteristics of the human body, and saw the ears and chin.
It was not until all of them were cleaned up that Xu Danyang discovered that the bronze figure was very different from the previous one: the face was more realistic, and the figure was staggered with V-shaped lines, feather crowns, and dovetail lines, which were new artifacts that had not been seen before.
"I am very excited and have a feeling of witnessing history," Xu Danyang said.
In Sanxingdui, not all archaeologists have the luck to catch up with the "sacrificial pit" excavation of such a big event.
Li Huiqing, also a member of the post-90s archaeological team, came to Sanxingdui, where the field excavation work of the "sacrificial pits" has come to an end.
The first excavation she participated in was to search for the remains of the production and life of the ancient Shu people in Moon Bay not far away.
In Li Huiqing's view, compared with the excavation of the eye-catching "sacrificial pits", the pace of work in Moon Bay is the norm for most archeologists: Dotting, laying, digging soil layers, drawing, writing work logs... The work in the fields is orderly, but there is no lack of joy.
Once, she unearthed a "bird's head spoon" pottery products, although it is nothing compared to the "heavy ware" of the "sacrificial pit", but this "strange, lovely love" artifact dug up by hand also made her happy for a long time.
"There are still many places to be excavated in Sanxingdui, and if we continue to do so, we may not be finished in this lifetime," Xu said.
As a first-line young archaeologist, he is "both looking forward and full of confidence."
Protection:
Experience the charm of scientific and technological archaeology
Unlike most of the previous archaeological excavation methods of "first excavation and later protection", a major feature of the Sanxingdui "sacrificial pit" archaeological excavation is that the protection of cultural relics is front-facing, while excavating and protecting.
In order to protect cultural relics simultaneously, the Sanxingdui Archaeological Research Institute has created an exploratory working chamber, which is equipped with a small frequency conversion environment control system and a high-pressure micro-fog humidification system.
At the same time, the excavation site also housed a row of cultural protection work "huts" full of scientific and technological elements, equipped with emergency detection and analysis room, organic cultural relics emergency protection room, inorganic cultural relics emergency protection room, etc., unearthed cultural relics can be protected and studied in the first time.
The soil environment has a great impact on the preservation of cultural relics.
Every 10 cm excavation, Xiao Qing and colleagues will do a scan and soil sample extraction, on-site detection of soil density, pH, water content and other parameters, for the subsequent extraction and protection of cultural relics to make a decision basis.
The most difficult thing is the rescue protection of unearthed ivory. "At this time, you can not work slowly, you must race with time," Xiao Qing said.
The ancient Shu people sacrificed to the gods, and ivory was one of the most precious sacrifices.
After thousands of years of burial in a humid environment, the ivory is full of water, although the appearance is still a whole root, but it is as soft as a biscuit, and it is easy to break.
Among the ivory and with the surrounding bronze artifacts and other artifacts are often interlaced and squeezed together, extraction and protection are very difficult.
"Some ivory laminated together, the most difficult to extract." Xiao Qing said, the first to use wire with cotton thread, gauze through the gap to find a good fixed stress point; and then to wrap a layer of cling film for ivory, "one side lock the water in the ivory to prevent shortening, while isolating external pollution." Then the gauze and cotton thread that passed through the ivory are tightly tied to the polymer bandage, so that the ivory can be extracted intact.
"When I took out a complete ivory for the first time, I felt like I was holding a newborn child, excited and happy," Xiao said.
This ivory extraction and protection not only uses traditional methods, but also uses new technologies such as polymer bandages for the first time, which in his view is a perfect integration of traditional crafts and modern technology.
If the whole ivory extraction test is careful, then the extraction of ivory fragments test is patience.
In the excavation of Pit No. 5, Xiao Qing's colleague Li Sifan, who is also a post-90s cultural protection worker, discovered that unlike other "sacrificial pits", there are few large objects unearthed in the small pit, which is only about 3 square meters.
"Some of the pieces are less than one centimeter long, but they are carved with exquisite patterns such as clouds and thunder, which makes it very difficult to clean and extract them," Li said.
When you successfully extract the tusks and put them under a microscope and look at the lines that are thinner than the hair, it feels like all the effort is worth it.
What makes Li Sifan feel deeply is the charm of scientific and technological archaeology.
For example, the use of 3D printing technology for large-scale bronze cultural relics to wear a silicone film made of "soft Hedgehog armor", so that it can be extracted from the excavation to avoid damage; isotope tracing technology, for the study of the source of cultural relics to open a wider perspective... "
Repair:
Let the relics shine.
During the excavation, a large gold mask was discovered in Pit 5.
The restoration of the golden mask has caused heated discussion on the Internet.
Although he is just in his early 30s this year, Lu Haizi is a veteran of gold restoration and research.
Before coming to Sanxingdui, Lu Haizi was responsible for the cultural relics protection and restoration site of Jiangkou sinking silver ruins, and participated in the orthopedic work of Jiangkou water goldware. At the end of 2020, the gold residue was found during the exploration of Sanxingdui No. 4 pit. Lu Haizi received a notice from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology to do the site.
"The restoration of cultural relics is a long process, and a lot of cleaning and research work needs to be done before the restoration can be carried out."
Lu Haizi said that after extracting the gold artifacts, the first thing to do is to sample and analyze the soil and the attachments on the gold artifacts, and then draw a map of the diseases of the cultural relics according to the damaged condition.
"Sanxingdui gold tools are very damaged, and it is basically impossible to completely determine the original shape when they are first unearthed."
Lu Haizi said that he still remembers that when the gold mask of Pit 5 was first discovered, it was crushed by mud to form a piece less than two centimeters thick and was quietly buried in the pit.
Before the arrival of experts from the National Museum, he carried out relevant preparatory work for several days, extracted the relevant components of the gold mask for testing, judged the feasibility of orthopedic, and provided basic data and technical support for the later work.
From the beginning of the orthotics to the complete unfolding of the gold mask, it took about a week for Lu Haizi and the experts of the restoration team.
"Some wrinkles may be left in the original production and processing, it can not be flattened, and it is necessary to retain its most primitive information from the perspective of archaeology." Lu Haizi said, "Looking at the gold mask from a lump of knots gradually stretch out, slowly reveal the mouth, nose, eyes, cultural relics regain their charming brilliance, pride in the heart. I feel like I'm alive."
At the Sanxingdui Museum Cultural Relics Restoration Center, about 1.5 kilometers from the site of the sacrificial area, Yang Ping, a young cultural relics restorer, is carrying out the cleaning and restoration work of cultural relics and other cultural relics under the leadership of Master Guo Hanzhong.
Yang Ping said that the restoration of cultural relics should not be rushed, before the restoration of sufficient research, to develop a perfect plan, "today anxious to repair the defective parts, who knows if the completed part, in a few years will not be unearthed original goods?" Yang Ping, for example, this time from the No. 8 pit "top snake body bronze statue" and 1986 No. 2 pit unearthed a "bronze bird foot statue" It is a relatively complete collection that spans more than 30 years.
In Yang Ping's view, the restoration of cultural relics is a delicate work of art, which requires great patience, impatience and impatience.
In the Sanxingdui Museum, he is most admired by Master Guo Hanzhong, who has been engaged in the restoration of cultural relics for nearly 40 years, and has been awarded the title of "National Craftsman".
"I have been engaged in the restoration of cultural relics for more than 10 years, and I deeply understand that every cultural relics can not be copied and irreplaceable.
Yang Ping said that the most important thing for him now is to continue to train his skills and let the Sanxingdui relics bloom in the best condition through his hands in the future, so that visitors to the museum can better appreciate the brilliant bronze culture created by the ancient Shu ancestors and feel the diversity and long history of Chinese civilization.
"Archaeology is a job that needs to endure loneliness," said Xu Danyang, who was lucky to catch up with the golden age of Sanxingdui archaeology. The arrival of this golden age can not be separated from the thunder rain of the station of Sanxingdui ruins, and the restoration of cultural relics of Sanxingdui Museum. Responsibility, perseverance and love, overcoming all kinds of difficulties, and constantly exploring the unknown, Sanxingdui civilization will be displayed in front of the world.
"As a young archaeologist, we should learn from these old people, be patient, keep the original heart, and sit on the cold bench." Xu Danyang said that the current exploration of the Sanxingdui site is far from over, he will devote himself to the archaeological research of Sanxingdui, and contribute to the exploration of the rich connotation of Chinese civilization.
Layout Design: Shen Yiying
People 's Daily (05 / 09 / 2023)
(Editor: Qiao Yiqiong, Chen Jian)
Public Number ： People 's Network Finance
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