I’ve heard that lots of Sumerian antiquities disappeared during the looting of Iraq. Is it possible the Black Rock of Cybele was one of them?
I can assure all of you that it did NOT disappear in the looting of Sumerian antiquities after the commencement of the war in Iraq. I’ve traced the journey of the Black Rock from ancient Babylonia where it later found its way to Persia but was given to the Anatolian explorer Strabo as a gift for the emperor Tiberius. When Tiberius died, some of his possessions languished in poor storage, owing to his unpopularity as a ruler. We have a record of the neglect which occurred in Suetonius’ biography of Tiberius:
“The people were so glad of his death, that at the first news of it some ran about shouting, ‘Tiberius to the Tiber,’ while others prayed to Mother Earth and the Manes to allow the dead man no abode except among the amend. His possessions languished and the great statue the Apollo of Temenos was toppled and his legacy was scattered among his heirs and the public alike.”
Zoinky will recall that an anti-Tzombi graffiti was found near the site of Tiberius’ death. Alas, we have no record of what happened to the Black Rock in particular.
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…from the San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2003.
TRASHING HISTORY
“The mourning becomes unbearable,” writes Piotr Denisovich, a professor of Near East Studies at the University of Michigan, to other scholars.
“At my desk I keep a photo of a woman’s head made of marble, whose empty eyes have stared back since I first took this post. This amazing mask has survived for more than 5,000 years. Now, approximately 170,000 objects—vases, figurines, stele, statues, cups, diadems, and clay tablets—have been savagely ripped from their shelves and have very likely disappeared forever. Who is going to replace them?”
Though there may not be a direct answer to Denisovich’s question, a current investigation directed by the Hague has called a few to account, among them billionaire Ivo Kashoggian, who has been accused of purchasing antiquities from looters.
Though Kashoggian could not be reached for comment, a spokesperson issued the following statement: “Nine-tenths of the world’s antiquities have been acquired through non-traditional means. Every collector from the Medicis to the British Museum has, at one time or another, whether deliberately or mistakenly, acquired an antiquity through illegal means.”
Kashoggian is only the highest-profile of those who have been placed under investigation by the Hague. The course of his trial will no doubt set a precedent for the manner in which those who have been connected to antiquities looting will be brought to justice.
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