Stolen Fragments

Stolen Fragments
Author: Roberta Mazza
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2024-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1503640329

In 2012, Steve Green, billionaire and president of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores, announced a recent purchase of a Biblical artefact—a fragment of papyrus, just discovered, carrying lines from Paul's letter to the Romans, and dated to the second century CE. Noted scholar Roberta Mazza was stunned. When was this piece discovered, and how could Green acquire such a rare item? The answers, which Mazza spent the next ten years uncovering, came as a shock: the fragment had come from a famous collection held at Oxford University, and its rightful owners had no idea it had been sold. The letter to the Romans was not the only extraordinary piece in the Green collection. They soon announced newly recovered fragments from the Gospels and writings of Sappho. Mazza's quest to confirm the provenance of these priceless fragments revealed shadowy global networks that make big business of ancient manuscripts, from the Greens' Museum of the Bible and world-famous auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's, to antique shops in Jerusalem and Istanbul, dealers on eBay, and into the collections of renowned museums and universities. Mazza's investigation forces us to ask what happens when the supposed custodians of our ancient heritage act in ways that threaten to destroy it. Stolen Fragments illuminates how these recent dealings are not isolated events, but the inevitable result of longstanding colonial practices and the outcome of generations of scholars who have profited from extracting the cultural heritage of places they claim they wish to preserve. Where is the boundary between protection and exploitation, between scholarship and larceny?

The Word Volume 8: 1993-1998

The Word Volume 8: 1993-1998
Author: Elizabeth Clare Prophet
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2020-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1609883713

Jesus Christ is the avatar of the ages-the same yesterday, today and forever. We knew him when he walked the streets of Atlantis and Lemuria. We also knew him in eras of darkness, when he sought to lead men to the light. His message did not begin with the Bible, nor did it end with the Book of Revelation. He has never stopped speaking to his own. Two thousand years ago, he foretold a time of tribulation-the end of an age. That time has come. It is the era when the mystery of God should be finished, when the Two Witnesses should prophecy "a thousand two hundred and threescore days." And so Jesus once more delivers his Word to a world in transition. As always, the message is one of judgement to the fallen angels, admonishment to those who would walk in the light, hope for all who are striving on the path, and the vision of golden age to come. This volume includes dictations by Jesus Christ through Elizabeth Clare Prophet given from 1993 to 1998.

A Passion for Egypt

A Passion for Egypt
Author: Julie Hankey
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2001-09-27
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0857715550

The biography of Arthur Weigall, the British Egyptologist who was involved in the exploration and conservation of the monuments and antiquities of a region stretching from Luxor to the Sudan border. At a time when Egypt was being ransacked by private collectors and the agents of Western museums, it was said that, without Weigall, much more would have been lost altogether - most notably, the wall paintings in the Tombs of the Nobles. The enthusiasm and energy of the man and of the books and articles he wrote played a large part in popularising Egypt and Egyptology, and in promoting the then radical view that Egypt's antiquities belonged to the Egyptians. When, in 1922, Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered by his old colleague Howard Carter, Weigall came into open conflict with Carter's patron, Lord Carnarvon, for his handling of the question of rights in the tomb, and for his sale of information from it to the London Times. Following Carnarvon's premature death in Egypt, it was Weigall's remarks to the press that led to the notorious story of the 'Curse of the Pharaohs': a myth that persists to this day. Weigall had many talents: he also designed theatre scenery, made films and wrote novels. But his real legacy derives from his passion for Egypt, both ancient and modern - a passion that informs the whole of his compelling story.

Persepolis

Persepolis
Author: Ali Mousavi
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2012-04-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1614510334

Persepolis: Discovery and Afterlife of a World Wonder presents the first full study of the history of archaeological exploration at Persepolis after its destruction in 330 BC. Based in part on archival evidence, anecdotal information, and unpublished documents, this book describes in detail the history of archaeological exploration, visual documentation, and excavations at one of the most celebrated sites of the ancient world. The book addresses a broad audience of readers ranging from students of the archaeology, history, and art history of ancient, medieval, and modern Iran to scholars in Classical Studies and Ancient Near Eastern Studies.

Fragments

Fragments
Author: Jean Baudrillard
Publisher: Verso
Total Pages: 164
Release: 1997
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781859841235

"Fragmentary writing is, ultimately, democratic writing. Each fragment enjoys an equal distinction. Even the most banal finds exceptional reader. Each, in turn, has its hour of glory. Of course, each fragment could become a book. But the point is that it will not do so, for the ellipse is superior to the straight line ... " This latest work in the Cool Memories series is culled from Baudrillard's notebooks in the period when he was composing The Illusion of the End and The Perfect Crime. It is a work of meditations and poetic musings which alight briefly and tantalisingly on: the silent wisdom and wit of objective processes, of the world and the emptiness of our political, artistic and scientific scenes; Europe, the Eastern bloc, Australia and New York; life, the universe and the stubborn non-meaning of everything.

The Rustle of Language

The Rustle of Language
Author: Roland Barthes
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1989-01-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780520066298

The Rustle of Language is a collection of forty-five essays, written between 1967 and 1980, on language, literature, and teaching—the pleasure of the text—in an authoritative translation by Richard Howard.

Art as Demonstration

Art as Demonstration
Author: Sven Spieker
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2024-02-06
Genre: Art
ISBN: 026204871X

How artists wield demonstration to question the status quo both aesthetically and politically, marshaling art and education as powerful agents of change. Demonstration, in short, says: See here. It is the practice of pointing to something in order to explain or contest it. As such, Sven Spieker argues that demonstration has helped reshape art from the height of the Cold War to the late twentieth century, reformatting our understanding of how art and political engagement relate to each other. Focusing on Western Europe (especially Germany), Eastern Europe, and the United States, Art as Demonstration expands on contemporary discussions of art-as-protest, activism, and resistance. Spieker shows how a closer, more historical look at art’s connection with demonstration reconnects us with earlier efforts, notably by the early twentieth-century avant-garde, to marshal art for the purpose of instruction and engagement. Art as Demonstration reconceives the history of postwar art in Eastern and Western Europe from the perspective of demonstration, understood formally (as a technique for showing and pointing) as well as politically (as protest, resistance, etc.). Close analyses of individual artworks reveal how the deployment of demonstration has changed over time. Spieker shows how “protest” and “resistance” organize art and artists not only politically but also and especially formally and aesthetically—a development of particular importance in the Cold War art and politics of Eastern Europe. The book illustrates how from the 1960s onward demonstration radically changed the way artists thought about art: no longer as an object but as a form of education.

Sistina

Sistina
Author: Brian Kenneth Swain
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2014-11-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1491747099

Come and look upon these things, so that you may understand and believe. Sistina, Brian Kenneth Swain's gripping and thought-provoking new novel, is a story two thousand years in the making. The events set in motion following Christ's crucifixion build to a crescendo during the Italian High Renaissance and will test the faith of the story's historical and modern-day characters, as well as that of readers. When a violent earthquake damages Michelangelo's magnificent frescoes, a team of experts undertakes the Vatican's most important restoration in centuries, only to discover a perplexing secret hidden for five hundred years beneath the chapel's plaster ceiling. The message, both cryptic and incomplete due to the rash actions of a tourist at the time of the quake, baffles the team and awakens the attention of a small group of powerful men?men who have waited centuries in the shadows, hoping for the elusive clue that will lead them to Christendom's ultimate artifact. It is a tale of murder, revenge, ecclesiastical connivance, and ancient secrets?all constructed on an elaborate foundation of religious history, political intrigue, and technological wizardry. Sistina, Swain's most controversial novel to date, will leave you breathless.