The Embarrassing Realism of "Obscure" Emperors

Oops ... reality has a nasty habit of surfacing in the most appalling ways and on the awkwardest of moments!

Here's another golden embarrassment for Ummah revisionism ... what now with the meme that historically no one has any business in the Middle East but the Dar-al-Islam? Oh, wait ... it must be a Zionist plant!

CNN: "Israeli archaeologists find rare gold coins"

Some Israeli archaeologists are having a particularly happy Hanukkah, thanks in part to a British volunteer who took time off from her job to work on a dig.

The Israel Antiquities Authority reported a thrilling find Sunday -- the discovery of 264 ancient gold coins in Jerusalem National Park.

The coins were minted during the early 7th century. (...)

The 1,400-year-old coins were found in the Giv'ati car park in the City of David in the walls around Jerusalem National Park, a site that has yielded other finds, including a well-preserved gold earring with pearls and precious stones.

They were in a collapsed building that dates back to the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period. The coins bear a likeness of Heraclius, who was the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. (...)

The authority said that while different coins had been minted during this emperor's reign, the coins found at the site represent "one well-known type."

In that style, the emperor is clad with military garb and is holding a cross in his right hand. On the other side is the sign of the cross.

Authorities said the excavation of the building where the hoard was discovered is in its early stages. They are attempting to learn about the building and its owner and the circumstances of its destruction. (...) >>>

The History of Rome II

Art Daily: "Royal Academy of Arts Announces Ground-Breaking Exhibition Devoted to Byzantium"

From October 2008, the Royal Academy of Arts will host a ground-breaking exhibition devoted to Byzantium. Highlighting the splendours of the Byzantine Empire, the exhibition will comprise around 300 objects including icons, detached wall paintings, micro-mosaics, ivories, enamels plus gold and silver metalwork. Some of the works have never been displayed in public before.

Byzantium 330–1453 will include great works from the San Marco Treasury in Venice and rare items from collections across Europe, the USA, Russia, Ukraine and Egypt. The exhibition begins with the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great and concludes with the capture of the city by the Ottoman forces of Mehmed II in 1453. This will be the first major exhibition on Byzantine Art in the United Kingdom for 50 years.

- Caption: Byzantine Empire in 1265 (more maps on Historical Maps Viewing Space Over Time) -

Byzantium 330–1453 will follow a chronological progression covering the range, power and longevity of the artistic production of the Byzantine Empire through a number of themed sections. In this way the exhibition will explore the origins of Byzantium; the rise of Constantinople; the threat of iconoclasm when emperors banned Christian figurative art; the post-iconoclast revival; the remarkable crescendo in the Middle Ages and the close connections between Byzantine and early Renaissance art in Italy in the 13th and early 14th centuries. (...)

- Caption: The Ships of Lesvos - The Byzantine empire used both sails and rowers. Circa 1100 AD -

Up to the end of the Byzantine Empire, with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, manuscripts, micromosaics and metalwork demonstrates the virtuosity of its artists. (...) >>>- Caption: Eyecon Art - The Empress Theodora, 547 AD - mosaic in San Vitale, Ravenna

Related:

- The Lighthouse: "Celebrating to Conquest of Byzantium"

- My Greek Odyssey: "Celebrating Western Civilization," by Professor David Mulroy

- ANSA: "Tomb reveals ancient trade network - Adriatic coast linked with Mideast, North Africa and Greece"

Hadrian's Fateful Consolidation

Art Daily: "The British Museum Presents Hadrian: Empire and Conflict Exhibition in London"

The British Museum presents Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, on view through October 26, 2008. The Roman Emperor Hadrian (117 to 138AD) is best known for his passion for Greek culture, interest in architecture, his love for Antinous, and of course the eponymous wall he built between England and Scotland, then Caledonia. (...)

- Caption: Bronze head of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (117–138) AD found in the River Thames at London Bridge in 1834. The head comes from a statue, one-and-a-quarter life-size, that may have been erected in a public space in London in AD 122 to commemorate Hadrian's visit to Britain. -

Incorporating recent scholarship and the latest spectacular archaeological discoveries, the exhibition will feature over 180 objects from 28 lenders from Italy to Georgia, from Israel to Newcastle. Loans of dramatic sculpture, exquisite bronzes and architectural fragments will be brought together and displayed for the first time in the UK, alongside famous objects from the Museum’s own collection such as the iconic bronze head of Hadrian and the Vindolanda tablets. (...)

By the time of Hadrian’s accession, the Roman Empire covered much of Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. (...) His first act on coming to power was to withdraw the Roman forces from Mesopotamia, present- day Iraq. Another example of this consolidation was the wall he had built in the north of England to mark the furthest reach of his empire. Hadrian was remarkable in that he travelled extensively across his empire, meeting more of his people than any other emperor before him. Hadrian was a man of great contradiction in both his personality and reign (...) >>>

Hail, details of Caesar!

EURSOC: "Bust Of Caesar Fished Out Of Rhône"

France's cultural minister has announced an "archaeologist's dream" - a marble bust of Julius Caesar, sculpted in the Roman's lifetime, has been found in Arles, several metres below the surface of the Rhône river.

It is thought to be the oldest portrayal of Caesar yet found, and as it dates from a period when realism was prized by sculptors and their clients, it may give the closest portrayal yet of the great man.

Caesar himself is said to have founded Arles in 46 BC; the bust is believed "undoubtedly" to date from this time. It shows Caesar aged, with visible wrinkles, though his hairline is rather more flattering, as contemporary reports claim that he was bald. Caesar was assassinated just two years after - French archaeologists believe that the bust may have been dumped in the river after news emerged of his death.

The same excavation also found a later 1.75m marble statue of Neptune and two Hellenic Greek satyrs.

Fragments of mosaics and columns were also fished from the river, in what the French ministry is calling a revelation of the richness of Arles' culture and history. (...) >>>