Alexandria's founded by Alexander

Alexandria's founded by Alexander the Great (by year BC): 334 Alexandria in Troia (Turkey) - 333 Alexandria at Issus/Alexandrette (Iskenderun, Turkey) - 332 Alexandria of Caria/by the Latmos (Alinda, Turkey) - 331 Alexandria Mygdoniae - 331 Alexandria (Egypt) - 330 Alexandria Ariana (Herat, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria of the Prophthasia/in Dragiana/Phrada (Farah, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in Arachosia (Kandahar, Afghanistan) - 330 Alexandria in the Caucasus (Begram, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria of the Paropanisades (Ghazni, Afghanistan) - 329 Alexandria Eschate or Ultima (Khodjend, Tajikistan) - 329 Alexandria on the Oxus (Termez, Afghanistan) - 328 Alexandria in Margiana (Merv, Turkmenistan) - 326 Alexandria Nicaea (on the Hydaspes, India) - 326 Alexandria Bucephala (on the Hydaspes, India) - 325 Alexandria Sogdia - 325 Alexandria Oreitide - 325 Alexandria in Opiene / Alexandria on the Indus (confluence of Indus & Acesines, India) - 325 Alexandria Rambacia (Bela, Pakistan) - 325 Alexandria Xylinepolis (Patala, India) - 325 Alexandria in Carminia (Gulashkird, Iran) - 324 Alexandria-on-the-Tigris/Antiochia-in-Susiana/Charax (Spasinou Charax on the Tigris, Iraq) - ?Alexandria of Carmahle? (Kahnu)

Thursday, April 9, 2015

More misery of war: looted antiquity are funding IS wars.

This is not new; we know looting is happening in Syria and in Iraq but our daily news focuses primarily on the many innocent civilians which are being murdered instead. Well, it may be debatable what is most important but that is not the point. Depriving a country of its history and ancestry is a crime also and an irreversible one for that matter.


In any case, I find it heartwarming to read in The Independent Newspaper that Tory PM Robert Jenrick found this situation alarming enough to mention that the present looting is on the greatest scale since WW2. Yet nobody does anything about it or, let me rephrase, nobody can do anything about it.

The International Council of Museums has established a Red List of looted artefacts. That list is quite frightening as for Syria it includes cuneiform tablets from the early Bronze Age; 8,000 years old terracotta statuettes of women, apparently fertility goddesses; and more than 5,000 years-old bone and alabaster “eye idols”. As for Iraq, the list holds 4,000 years-old terracotta chariot models; gold bowls from the Royal Cemetery at Ur from 2,500 BC; and typical “scarlet ware” jars from around 3,000 BC.


The black market must be thriving and people with the money buy these ancient treasures as a “must-have” to be added to their collection. They don’t care that these artefacts are taken out of their context and that they never will be incorporated in their rightful historical location and function again.

No comments:

Post a Comment