The Four Corners Tragedy

Perhaps 52 year old Utah antiques dealer Ted Gardiner felt the end justified the means and hey a couple hundred thousand dollars in Ted's pocket all sounded sweet so Ted and his F.B.I. buddies began their two year sting. The sting was meant to stop the destruction of archaeological sites and the illegal trade in native American artifacts particularly in the four corners area of the western United states.

So Ted sets up the video and recording devices and the marks rolled in, over a period of 2 years the F.B.I watched as Ted participated in criminal acts including robberies of Native American graves earning his $7500 a month plus expenses that the Feds were paying him. In 2009 the jig was up with the F.B.I rounding up 26 people charging them with felony indictments and removing truck loads of suspected artifacts from their properties.

People who knew Ted were aware of his love of archaeology and native American culture though one wonders if they noticed the extra money on him? The day after the indictments went down it all began to fall apart when defendant physician James Redd killed himself by carbon monoxide poisoning with defendant Steven Shrader killing himself shortly after that.

When one looks at the list of those indicted we see not only people as old as to be in their sixties or even seventies but also that they are mostly locals.  Locals who's families complained of heavy handedness by the police and Ted became a traitor and an outcast amongst his associates.

The suicides left Ted with guilt over his actions, the part he played and the next suicide would be Ted himself leaving the prosecution without their star witness. The F.B.I.'s case is weakened but with the recordings is probably strong enough to convict the defendants/survivors.

This past week a key player in the case whom the police had removed five truckloads of artifacts from his home defendant Colorado artifacts dealer Carl "Vern" Crites(75), took a plea deal though the terms of the deal have not been reported.

Samaritan Synagogue found.

The Israeli Antiquities Authorities announced that they have discovered a synagogue of the late Byzantine era. The Synagogue was found during clearance work ahead of a residential expansion south of Bet She'an.

The archaeologists found a large rectangular hall with five rectangular niches in the walls of the hall which may have held wooden benches. The hall faces Southwest towards Mount Gerizim, a mountain sacred to the Samaritan's.

The floor of the hall is decorated in geometric mosaics with a Greek inscription that reads in part " This is the Temple". It is believed the Synagogue was built some time at the end of the 5th century CE running up to the Muslim conquest in 634CE.
 

Aristotle's Lost School

Excavations for a new Museum of Modern Art in 1996 in downtown Athens revealed the lost school where Aristotle taught unfortunately at the time there were no funds to restore the site. Fourteen years later and the project is to turn the school into a tourist destination including a museum and building a translucent roof over the site.

Aristotle who lived between 384-322bc left his aristocratic family around the age of eighteen continuing his education at the Plato Academy where he remained for almost twenty years. At the Macedonian royal court he was tutor to Alexander the great, king Cassander founder of the Macedonian Antipatrid dynasty and king Ptolemy founder of Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty.

Liberace Museum to Close

 Liberace was the most flamboyant pianists of the twentieth century and not surprisingly he left a giant legacy including a museum containing all his pianos, cars and clothes. When opened in April of 1979 the Liberace museum was the only thing to do on the Las Vegas strip besides gambling but sadly after thirty one years in operation the Liberace foundation that runs the museum has decided to close it on October 18 of this year.

As a teenage boy I once worked in a restaurant when one night the restaurant shut early and most of the staff sent home other than me and a waiter. In came Liberace his large blond male friend and his entourage of about eight people. Liberace was very kind unlike a number of members of his entourage who acted stuck up to us but we just laughed at them and were left with a nice memory of a great man.

The closing of the museum is a financial decision though there is talk of a travelling tour of some of the museums pieces.

Photo Courtesy: Alan Light

Young Man of Chan Hol

Here are some more pictures of the underwater cave and the young male skeleton found far back in the cave just off the Yucatan peninsula. The skeleton is believed to be ten thousand years old, the last time scientists believe his body could have been placed that deep in the cave before the melting ice caps of the last ice age flooded and submerged the cave.

Wheres Dr. Gachet?

Every once in a while I have to ask, Wheres Dr. Gachet?

Painted by Vincent Van Gogh in June of 1890 it is one of the pieces that comes from the doctors own collection. The painting broke a record a 100 years later when it sold in 1990 for $82 million. It was purchased by a Japanese businessman who promptly announced his desire to have the painting cremated along with his body when he died.

Spokesperson for the man said he loved the painting and always wished to have it with him, unfortunately he died 6 years later and the painting has not been seen in public since.

In the late 1990's the Metropolitan museum of art in New York put together a show on Dr. Gachet's collection with the hopes that this portrait would be the shows centerpiece. Perhaps the show was an attempt to "smoke out" the painting from its hiding place.

They were unable to locate it.

Chan Hol Man Burial

This is an excellent article on a skeleton of a young man found in an undersea cave just off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The skeleton appears to have been ritually placed in the cave when the cave was dry.

The melting of the ice after the last great ice age caused the cave to be submerged some 10 000 years ago making the journey so deep in the cave for the burial impossible after that point. This makes the skeleton now named Chan Hol man one of the oldest discovered skeletons found in the America's.

More information can be found here Surface Interval

Dead Sea Scroll Nightmare

Two scholars are in a dispute over where the dead sea scrolls were created. Professor Lawrence Schiffman who is Chairman of New York University's Department of Hebrew and Judaic studies believes they were created near the ancient settlement of Qumran while Professor Norman Golb of Chicago University believes they were created in Jerusalem and then taken to the caves near Qumran.

Professor Golb's son Raphael Golb (50) was so angry by Professor Schiffman's position that Raphael Golb is accused of setting up 70 fake email accounts and websites in a smear campaign accusing Professor Schiffman of plagiarism. Raphael Golb has pleaded not guilty to charges of identity theft and criminal impersonation. If convicted he could spend up to four years in jail.

The dead sea scrolls were first discovered by a Shepperd in caves near the ancient settlement of Qumran along the dead sea. The two thousand year old scrolls are some of the earliest surviving biblical writings including the Great Isaiah scroll.

King Herod's Royal Box

This is an article on the Herodium excavations and restoration taking place by archaeologists from Hebrew University. In the article the archaeologists are finishing up with the restoration of Herod's royal box in his theatre at the Herodium.

The article mentions that the finding of Herod,s grave and sarcophagus had been announced in 2007, though as far as I know that discovery was never backed up with any evidence other than the location of the so called grave at the Herodium which unfortunately no inscribed material was found to prove it was Herod's grave.

Photo: CBNNews.com

Stolen Caddo Pots Four Years On

This is one of twenty six pots belonging to the Caddo tribe stolen four years ago and as yet un recovered. The pots had been dug up in 1980 by the Army corp of engineers during construction of a levee and deposited with Southern Arkansas university for safe keeping until the collection could be repatriated by the leaders of the Caddo tribe.

The original collection contained not only the twenty six missing pots, which were the best preserved pieces, but also many fragments of pottery and pots which were put back together as well as bones. At the time of the robbery the collection was stored separately from the universities secure collection.

The robbery had only been noticed when archaeologist Jamie Brandon four days into his new job realised the pots were gone.

Photo: AP

Incredible Roman Helmet

A bronze Roman helmet complete with face mask is set to go to auction at Christie's in October and is expected to fetch L300 000. The helmet was found by a metal detector enthusiast who wishes to remain anonymous. The helmet is only the third found in Britain.

Photo: PA

Save Mamilla Cemetery

The Simon Wiesenthal center is going forward with it's building of a museum of tolerance on top of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem. The petition to save the twelfth century Mamilla cemetery has gone all the way to the United Nations.

Representatives of 15 of the oldest families in Jerusalem who have relatives buried in the cemetery presented their petition to the UN in Geneva. Opponents of the museum plan are upset by the thought of a museum of tolerance being built on the graves of generations of Palestinians.

Campaign to preserve Mamilla cemetery

How to Ruin the Teddy Bear Picnic

Algerian pirates recently took over the website of historic Belvoir castle in England mistaking it for Belvoir fortress in Israel which was the pirates intended target. Belvoir castles Teddy bear picnic will hopefully not be affect by the Algerian pirates.

Belvoir Castle

Belvoir Castle, Israel