Tuesday, December 26, 2017

‘Turkey busts massive artifact smuggling ring’

“Istanbul police have recovered 26,456 ancient artifacts and arrested 19 people in the biggest anti-smuggling operation in Turkish history.

“’Among the items recovered were a golden queen’s crown with an inscription of the Hellenistic god, Helios, a bust dedicated to Alexander the Great’s conquest of India and a statue of a goddess dating back to the Hittite era 3,000 years ago.

“’The 26,456 objects recovered also included Egyptian-origin statues and Phoenician-type teardrop vials.

‘The retrieved artefacts are… more valuable than the artefacts in the inventory of an average size museum,’ Istanbul police said in a statement.

“One of the seized artifacts is a rare bird: a 3,000-year-old Mycenaean sword ostensibly owned by the hero Achilles himself. It’s not rare that some random object would be attributed to a hero of Troy — that kind of faux relic was venerated in temples for hundreds of years — but very few of them have survived in any recognizable form.”

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/49960

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