A sophisticated fraud is beginning to unravel. The scandal has provoked anxiety about every artefact supposedly from Biblical times that has come from sources or dealers unknown. Could they all be forgeries? Yuval Goren has checked scores of items that museums and collectors have acquired on the market. He has concluded that almost all of them are fake. ibid.
So it was inevitable that attention would return to that priceless object in the Israel Museum, the Ivory Pomegranate … Experts have discovered it wasn’t actually made of elephant ivory, but came from a quite different beast … ‘the tooth of a hippopotamus’. ibid.
Then he [Goren] turned his attention to the inscription ... He noticed that the grooves cut by the engraver appeared to stop short of the break … ibid.
In the 1970s the black market in religious artefacts had exploded into a multi-million-dollar industry. The war-torn island of Cyprus was being picked clean. This is the story of how a sophisticated ring of smugglers ripped a sacred mosaic from the walls of a church then tried to hawk it on the open market. Little did they realise that their greed would trigger a global for its recovery that would culminate in a daring police raid which uncovered $40 million in stolen artefacts and change the trade in antiquities for ever Art of the Heist s1e5: Den of Antiquities
The theft had all the hallmarks of a professional smuggling ring. ibid.
Inside the crates were fragments of a young Christ, Matthew, James and the archangel that had so captivated her [Peg L Goldberg]. ibid.
Judge Noland ruled that the mosaics belonged to the Church of Cyprus. ibid.
It was an elaborate swindle: disguising precision Egyptian antiquities as tourist souvenirs so they could be smuggled out of the country. Art of the Heist s2e2: The Pharaoh’s Head
They belonged in the government store in Egypt. ibid.
Ancient Egyptian artefacts began to flow freely from where they were discovered to collections in the West. ibid.
Jonathan Tokeley-Parry ... A reputation as a brilliant antique restorer. ibid.
They plundered thousands of ancient artefacts: treasures and holy relics. Nazi Temple of Doom: Revealed, Channel 5 2012
Declaration of Independence: The Holy Grail of missing historical artefacts. Brad Meltzer’s Decoded: Declaration of Independence, H2 2013
The Staffordshire hoard’s intricate and beautiful artefacts display the skills of Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths at their very best. Time Team: Secrets of the Anglo-Saxon Gold, Channel 4 2012
The Treasury Valuation Committee later priced the hoard at over £3,000,000. ibid.
Sutton Hoo: an undisturbed magnificent royal ship burial and a whole series of spectacular artefacts. ibid.
Garnets weren’t mined in England so where on earth did the Anglo-Saxons get their gem stones? ibid.
In July 2009 one lucky find lifted the lid on a long lost world: an astonishing treasure-trove of gold and silver hidden in a field in Staffordshire in the Midlands. Dan Snow, Saxon Hoard: A Golden Discovery, BBC2 2012
This is the story of the greatest find in generations. ibid.
7th century England, about the time when the Staffordshire Hoard was hidden ... An Anglo-Saxon settlement of the 7th century. A thriving community with more than sixty buildings. ibid.
When the Anglo-Saxons built they used wood ... They didn’t leave too many clues behind them. ibid.
The find of a lifetime ... The true extent of the Hoard soon became clear. ibid.
In 1939 as Britain prepared for war a team of archaeologists were preparing to excavate an Anglo-Saxon burial site at Sutton Hoo in East Anglia. What they found astonished them. It was a long-boat eighteen metres from stem to stern, and inside it was full of precious artefacts, the like of which no-one had seen before. Dr Janina Ramirez, Treasures of the Anglo Saxons, BBC 2010
These pieces show us just how sophisticated and international the Anglo-Saxons were. ibid.
The tunnels were re-excavated at the end of the nineteenth, the beginning of the twentieth century, by Lieutenant Warren of the Royal Engineers. And he found Templar artefacts scattered about throughout the tunnels. Dr Tim Wallace-Murphy
Objects must come from archaeological excavation. Done by archaeologists. Then they are genuine; there is no question about them. Then they are OK; we can use them for historical research. Whatever comes on the market is a forgery unless otherwise proven. Professor Israel Finkelstein, Tel Aviv University
Many of the stories of Africa are told here – the British museum in London. This is where thousands of artefacts collected, bought and taken the continent ended up. When they were first discovered objects from the ancient kingdoms of West Africa stunned the world … They’re 16th century casts in cooper-rich alloys of brass and bronze. Gus Casely-Hayford, Lost Kingdoms of Africa s1e4, West Africa, BBC 2010
On September 11 2001 more than 3,000 people in Pennsylvania, Virginia and New York City were killed in an unforgettable act of terrorism … This is the story of the quest to find relics from the rubble of September 11th. Relics from the Rubble, History 2002
From tiny items like these incinerated eye-glasses to forty-ton fragments of the Tower’s structural steel, these are the things that can be touched by future generations to help them understand what happened here. ibid.
‘It takes thousands of degrees to bend steel like this.’ ibid. steel worker with box-beam U-bend
One of the more unusual artefacts to emerge from the rubble is this rock-like object that has come to be known as the Meteorite. ibid.
A sad picture of lives cut short … There’s some $75,000 in cash and coins. ibid.
In Kensington Minnesota 1898 a Swedish immigrant Olof Ohman found a stone with runic inscription. Now this rune stone came to be known as the Kensington Rune Stone, and it became one of the most controversial artefacts in history. The year 1362 is carved on the rune stone along with an inscription of a Viking journey, suggesting that Europeans were here way before Christopher Columbus. But scholars have declared it a hoax. Secrets of the Viking Stone I: Rocks Don’t Lie, Peter Stormare reporting, History 2021
So what does it say? … 8 Goths and 22 Norwegians upon a journey of discovery from Vinland westwards. We had camp by two skerries one day’s journey north from this stone … 1362. Secrets of the Viking Stone II: Skeletons in the Closet
The inscription on the stones speaks of a massacre of ten men, one day’s journey north, which could be where those skeletons were found in the Ashby gravel pit. ibid.
Vinland, west of Greenland, Helga and Ann Ingstad in 1960 a Norwegian couple … used these sagas to navigate around Newfoundland and they eventually found a Viking settlement that was dated to the year around 1,000. This changed everything. ibid.
The Vikings went almost everywhere in Europe … They settled on whatever islands they could find in the north Atlantic. Secrets of the Viking Stone III: Viking Confidential, historian
The fur trade was exactly what would have brought a group of Norsemen to Kensington, Minnesota, in 1362. ibid.
Elroy and I continue to search for an archaeologist who would be willing to hear us out about the Code Stone. Secrets of the Viking Stone IV: One Two Three, Archaeology!
‘The DNA testing worked very well’ … We had a suspicion it might be Native American … Since the skull was Native, we had to figure out a way to get the skull back to the Native Americans. Academics have a hard time believing that the Vikings came to Minnesota, but some are open to the idea L’Anse aux Meadows wasn’t the final stop. ibid. expert
L’Anse aux Meadows: ‘It looks like it had the materials you needed to repair ships: that’s why there’s so many rivets found there, and also a place where you could make rivets.’ ibid. Dr Anders Winroth
Whoever did this, that’s the person I would like to meet. It’s the last runemaster. Secrets of the Viking Stone V: Don’t Worry, Be Happy, Dr Winroth