Tag: Historical Sites

The Return Of Devil’s Island

That time again….my little history lesson and beyond.

Did you see the movie Papillon?

If so then that was about the penal colony for France in South America.

Devil’s Island, its true name Cayenne, is a penal colony of French Guiana with a haunted history. Here lie the crumbled remains of a prison opened in 1852. Infamous for housing French political prisoners cast out of France by Emperor Napoleon III, it eventually became home to tens of thousands of hardened criminals. It even served as the backdrop for the 1973 action-thriller film Papillon. Nestled among the palm trees and tropical setting hides a turbulent past truth.

Prisoners were subjected to strict and inhumane treatment, making Devil’s Island aptly named. Kept in dark cells and forbidden to talk, read or even sit down throughout the day, the prison guards made the criminals’ lives a nightmare. Talking to a guard could end in severe punishment.

When details of the inhumane conditions of the prison were leaked, a public outcry led to the system’s end in 1938. But the penal colony did not close until after World War II, finally shutting down in 1946. Since its abhorrent history as a terrible prison, others have tried using the island for other means. From a police station to a shark fishing factory to a summer camp to a plant oil factory, none succeeded. Eventually, the island was abandoned, and nature took over the buildings.

I brought up this bit of history because news has broken that France will open a prison near the original location.

Deep in the Amazon jungle, France plans to open a $450 million high-security prison to isolate drug lords and radical Islamists—turning a notorious former penal colony into a fortress for modern criminals. French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin on Sunday announced the plan to build the high-security prison in the overseas territory of French Guiana, to open as early as 2028, per the BBC. The facility will sit deep in the Amazon near Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, the site of the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony, where 70,000 convicts from mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954. The site inspired 1973’s Papillon, starring Steve McQueen, per CNN.

Designed for about 500 inmates, the prison will include a wing reserved for the most dangerous prisoners. Darmanin said the prison will enforce a strict protocol intended to disrupt contact between powerful criminal figures and their networks, especially drug lords “at the beginning of the drug trail.” The remote location was chosen in part to prevent inmates from communicating with outside networks. The announcement follows a wave of violence targeting prisons and staff in France, incidents the government links to its crackdown on organized crime.

French Guiana serves as a “strategic crossroads” for drug trafficking, particularly from Brazil and Suriname, and the new prison is part of broader efforts to control organized crime. Gangs have pushed the territory’s homicide rate to 18.4 per 100,000 people, compared to 1.2 per 100,000 in mainland France, per CNN. Recent government action also includes tough new laws, a dedicated prosecutors’ branch for organized crime, expanded investigative powers, and special protected status for informers. As French authorities face ongoing challenges such as widespread smuggling of mobile phones into prisons, stricter control over visitation and communication for high-risk prisoners is planned.

Fascinating…..will it become as infamous as the original?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Biden On D-Day

As usual the American president made his way to Normandy to celebrate the invasion and what has been called ‘the beginning of the end’……

An as usual the president stepped up to the sound system to make his speech.

President Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday by saying “we will not walk away” from the defense of Ukraine and allow Russia to threaten more of Europe. “To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable,” he said during a ceremony at the American cemetery in Normandy. “If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches.” D-Day was the largest amphibious assault in history, and Biden called it a “powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances make us stronger,” the AP reports. He said that was “a lesson that I pray we Americans never forget.”

  • “The autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine,” Biden said, per the BBC. Ukraine, he said, “has been invaded by a tyrant,” he added, per CBS News.
  • Speaking about the American troops that stormed Normandy’s beaches on June 6, 1944, Biden said “let us be worthy of their sacrifice,” adding, per the AP: “We must remember that the fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us of what we have to do today. Democracy is never guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it, and fight for it. That’s the test of the ages.”
  • Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky and his wife were applauded when they arrived at the event, the Guardian reports.
  • Before Biden’s remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron told US veterans that “you came here because the free world needed each and every one of you, and you answered the call,” per the AP. Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to several of them, and he kissed them on each cheek as he pinned on their medals. Biden followed with handshakes and embraces.
  • Earlier, Biden and first lady Jill Biden met with more than two dozen American veterans near Omaha Beach, where the fiercest D-Day fighting took place.
  • Biden told a veteran that “you saved the world.” The president led the audience in singing “Happy Birthday” to another. Steve Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the Hollywood heavyweights behind movies and television shows about World War II, were nearby. When Army veteran Robert Gibson approached, the first lady clutched his arm to help him stand next to the president as they shook hands. “Don’t get old,” the 100-year-old man from New Jersey joked to the 81-year-old president, who was a toddler on D-Day. The BBC notes that Biden “will likely be” the last US president to have been alive during the operation.
  • In an interview with the AP a few days ago, Gibson said he was “living on borrowed time” but wanted to see the beach again. He was in the second wave of troops that landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. “Terrible. Some of the young fellows never ever made it to the beach,” he said. “It was so bad that we had to run over [them] to get on the beach. That’s how bad it was.”

His words were excellent to the vets that made the long trip…but I have a problem with using comparisons….the day was about the men that stormed the beaches of Normandy….the speech should have been totally about that and the sacrifices made….I bet the vets could care less about Ukraine on this day.

The surrender thing was dumb…the US surrenders to bullies and autocrats….i e Saudi Arabia, Israel….the US surrenders to their cash and influence.

I am sorry but this speech should been about the day of the invasion….make your brownie points later.

So far I have not seen any mention to the vet that died on his way to Normandy…..so I shall do it….

An American veteran of World War II died after traveling to Europe to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion by Allied troops, reports the New York Times. Robert Persichitti, 102, suffered a medical emergency on Friday while aboard a ship headed for Normandy, France, and died later at a hospital in Germany, reports WHEC 10, a TV station in his hometown of Rochester, New York. “He died peacefully, and he did not die alone,” said Richard Stewart, president of the vets’ group Honor Flight Rochester.

A friend traveling with him, Al DeCarlo, tells 13WHAM that the doctor treating him played Frank Sinatra, Persichitti’s favorite singer, on her phone for him as he died. Persichitti served in the Navy during the war, and he witnessed the iconic raising of the flag at Iwo Jima from the deck of his ship, the USS Eldorado. He served as a radioman on the ship in Okinawa and Guam as well as Iwo Jima, according to Stars and Stripes. Persichitti’s medical emergency was not specified, but he had a history of heart trouble.

May he now Rest In Peace and thank you for all you did for this country and the world.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ancient Erotica

Warning:  There are some explicit images in this post…..these may offend some if so then please do not read this post.

History has always fascinated me….since as a young boy my grandfather use to talk about the lives and the history of Egypt and Mesopotamia…..of course it was not the erotica stuff but rather the buildings and warfare……

When I was in college I was exposed to a couple of fins in the sands of the Middle East……and these were what we call erotica…..

To begin the finds in Mesopotamia   

More images of the finds…..

View at Medium.com

Then on to Egypt and the  finds….which today are displayed in Turn, Italy…..

Since its discovery, it underwent a lengthy period of censorship. During the Victorian era, women were banned from looking at it and even men had to get explicit permission with a very good reason behind it in order to take a peek.

The papyrus was discovered in the 19th century near the valley of the kings within a fragile pot and in very bad shape. Researchers have however since managed to fully rebuild it. Its content is exhilarating: The papyrus depicts a set of 12 ordinary men and women engaging in all sorts of sexual positions.

View at Medium.com

Even our distant ancestors knew the joy of sex…..and it seems that they enjoyed a varied approach to the act.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Monument News–2020

Monuments dedicated to the ‘heroes’ of the Confederacy have been coming down at a steady pace…..even some vandalism as well…..even my state is coming into the 21st century….there will be a vote on removing the state flag that displays the Rebel battle standard……….Donald the Orange has been fuming over these assaults on ‘heritage’…..and watch he sees as disrespect…….and as he always does he has opened the bottomless pit he calls a mouth…..

President Trump called people who tear down or deface monuments “terrorists” on Thursday and promised there would be “retribution.” The president addressed the subject during a socially distanced town hall event in Wisconsin with Fox’s Sean Hannity, the Hill reports. “Every night we’re going to get tougher and tougher, and at some point there is going to be retribution because there has to be,” Trump said. “These people are vandals, but they’re agitators, but they’re really, they’re terrorists in a sense.” The president, who plans to sign a “very strong executive order” protecting monuments, said there would not have been unrest, including the toppling of a statue, in Madison this week if the state had elected a Republican governor in 2018.

Trump said people who want to have monuments like statues of Confederate leaders removed should go through the proper channels. “You know, we can take things down, too,” he said, per the AP. “I can understand certain things being taken down. But they ought to go through a process, legally. And then we take it down, in some cases put ’em in museums or wherever they may go.” The president spoke to Hannity in front of around 50 supporters and took questions from the audience for 30 minutes, the first of which was the softball: “What do you think is your greatest accomplishment, in your eyes?” CNN reports that Trump didn’t provide an answer when Hannity asked him what his top priority items for a second term are.

In a true racist way Donald has shown his true colors by signing an EO on the monuments thing…..

The order, which basically authorizes the attorney general to enforce the already existing Veterans’ Memorial Preservation Act, gives the AG the ability to “prioritize” within the DOJ cases involving the damaging of monuments, with a penalty “of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.” The order also notes that states and law enforcement agencies that don’t adequately protect statues and monuments risk losing federal grants.

“Jurisdictions’ recent abandonment of their law enforcement responsibilities with respect to public monuments, memorials, and statues casts doubt on their willingness to protect other public spaces and maintain the peace within them,” the order states, per the Wall Street Journal. After the signing, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the order signified that “President Trump will never allow violence to control our streets, rewrite our history, or harm the American way of life,” per CNN. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, talked to Wolf Blitzer on CNN Friday night and lamented the president’s focus, saying he thought Trump should be concentrating on recent spikes in coronavirus cases around the country. “I wish he cared more about living Americans instead of dead Confederates,” Inslee said, per Politico.

This is a waste of time and energy….those so-called monuments have seen their day and will be coming down….I do not agree with the destruction of them for that will do nothing to to erase their history.

Like it or not, Confederate symbols have been appropriated by white supremacists and now represent the most shameful part of our past — a past of slavery, lynching, Jim Crow and segregation. Those who argue differently need only to look at the words of Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, in which he stated that compared with the United States, “Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/what-to-do-with-relics-of-the-civil-war/2020/06/25/da78299c-b4aa-11ea-9a1d-d3db1cbe07ce_story.html

Give these statues a spot with disclaimers all around of who and what they are….I mean there is a museum for the Holocaust….history needs preserving even the shitty history of slavery and the Civil War.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

 

 

Archeology In The News

The weekend and the virus stuff is still hanging around so why not pass the time with IST (an FYI blog)……this time it is the archeology that has made the news.

Let me start with a popular sage…..the War with Troy…..we all know this story…..after ten years the Greeks leave a giant horse as a tribute with soldiers hidden inside….and the rest is history….or is it?

One reason the Trojan War has struck such a chord is that, besides being an excellent story, it has long been suspected to have actually happened.

…

In antiquity, even respected historians were willing to believe that this war actually happened. In the second half of the 5th Century BC, Herodotus, the so-called ‘Father of History’, placed the Trojan War almost 800 years before his own time. Eratosthenes, a mathematician, was more specific, dating the war at 1184/3 BC. Modern scholars, however, have tended to be more sceptical. Did the Trojan War happen at all?

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200106-did-the-trojan-war-actually-happen

Seems that all the “facts” about indigenous peoples of North America may be wrong……

Archaeologists estimate when a given indigenous settlement was active based on the absence or presence of certain types of European trade goods, such as metal and glass beads. It was always approximate, but became the conventional history.

Since the first known commercial fur trading missions were in the 1580s, archaeologists date initial regular appearances of scattered European goods to 1580-1600. They call these two decades Glass Bead Period 1. We know some trade occurred before that, though, since indigenous people Cartier met in the 1530s had previously encountered Europeans, and were ready to trade with him.

https://theconversation.com/archaeologists-have-a-lot-of-dates-wrong-for-north-american-indigenous-history-but-were-using-new-techniques-to-get-it-right-129422

There is some new info on the ancient trade route known as the “Silk Road”……

Our little band of backpackers was searching for something to excite our domed-out senses. When we hit the panoramic desert, the horizon flattened. Slowly, the three austere mountain fortresses of Ayaz Kala rose from the badlands in the distance, wild protrusions from history’s depths. They’d been abandoned in the seventh century A.D. after more than a millennium of sporadic inhabitation.

In the roughly 1,200 years before their rediscovery by Soviet archaeologists, they’d towered above a people forsaken by the erratic, ever-shifting waters of the Amu Darya. These and other kalas, desert fortresses dotted across the northwest of Uzbekistan, are the last remnants of Khorezm, an ancient civilization that flourished for a millennium in the Amu Darya’s delta, between the sands of the Kyzyl Kum and Kara Kum. This was the deep history we’d missed in the medieval cities, clues left by a mysterious civilization most of us had never heard of. And the fortresses at Ayaz Kala are the most extreme example, the most remote and rugged structures built by the Khorezmians. In winter, they are covered in ice and snow, battered by cold desert winds. In summer, temperatures reach into the high nineties. The winds blow on, and the fortresses stand still.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-mysterious-desert-towers-of-uzbekistans-lost-civilization

Some new info about the Fall of Rome and the empire…..

An ancient graveyard containing dozens of skeletons with deformed elongated skulls is showing how people lived during the trouble and turmoil sparked by the Fall of Rome.

Known as the cemetery of Mözs-Icsei-dűlő, the fifth-century CE burial ground can be found in present-day Hungary. The site was first excavated in the 1960s, followed by later digs throughout the 1990s, which revealed the skeletal remains of at least 96 people. Archaeologists from Curt-Engelhorn-Center for Archaeometry in Germany and Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary have recently used isotope analysis and biological anthropology techniques to get deeper insights into the dozens of lives laid to rest here.

https://www.iflscience.com/editors-blog/cemetery-full-of-deformed-long-skulls-reveals-the-chaos-after-the-fall-of-rome/amp.html

Reports in the world of Archeology that have been overshadowed by the fight against the Covid-19 beast…..but now you know.

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I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Thinking Of Albania

I have at least one visitor from Albania and this person is a regular so keeping with my tradition I want to post on the country of Albania…..to help others understand.

First for those not sure where Albania is located……

Map of some south eastern countries in Europe | Arnavutluk, Haritalar
A little about the nation from the World Book…..

Albania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, but was conquered by Italy in 1939 and occupied by Germany in 1943. Communist partisans took over the country in 1944. Albania allied itself first with the USSR (until 1960), and then with China (to 1978). In the early 1990s, Albania ended 46 years of isolated communist rule and established a multiparty democracy.

…

Albania has made progress in its democratic development since it first held multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. Most of Albania’s post-communist elections were marred by claims of electoral fraud; however, international observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997. Albania joined NATO in April 2009 and in June 2014 became an EU candidate. Albania in April 2017 received a European Commission recommendation to open EU accession negotiations following the passage of historic EU-mandated justice reforms in 2016. Although Albania’s economy continues to grow, it has slowed, and the country is still one of the poorest in Europe. A large informal economy and a weak energy and transportation infrastructure remain obstacles.


Now that I have introduced my readers to this Balkan nation I would like to do what I do best…..revert to the history of the region and of ancient Albania…..

Albania is located at the crossroads of the eastern Adriatic and was known as Illyria and Epirus throughout the Classical era. It played a strategic role in ancient times and was a point of contact between Illyrian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. Even though Albania is off the mainstream tourist trail, the country is now emerging as one of the most enchanting corners of Europe.

Dubbed the “Pearl of the Balkans”, Albania offers a captivating journey through time, with 3,000 years of untouched archaeological heritage.

Archaeological sites such as Apollonia, Antigoneia, and Byllis hide a wealth of historic value, while the Butrint National Park, famed for its ruins and beauty, was recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1992 CE. If you happen to travel to the lands of Southern Illyria and Northern Epirus, read on for some unmissable destinations.

https://www.ancient.eu/article/1522/illyria—exploring-ancient-albania/

A fascinating look into the history of Albania…..

And thank you for your visits.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Saturday Archeology

My readers know that I am a history buff and that I enjoy the archeology that helps us understand history…..so on this Saturday I want to post on a few new discoveries…..

A couple of new discoveries have been found thanks to low water because of the worldwide drought…..not the best way to discover new sites.

We all know of the English tourist attraction, Stonehenge, and now a similar site has been discovered in Spain…

After 50 years out of sight beneath the waters of a manmade lake in western Spain, the 7,000-year-old megalithic monument known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal is finally back on dry land — emphasis on dry. 

As new imagery taken from NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite shows, the reappearance of the ancient monument is owed to very low water levels in Spain’s Valdecañas Reservoir following a summer of record heat and drought across Europe (and most of the rest of the planet.)

Sometimes labeled the “Spanish Stonehenge,” the Dolmen of Guadalperal is a large circle of about 150 standing stones, some more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall, arranged around a central, open oval. Archaeologists speculate that the structure was built in the 4th or 5th millennium B.C. (possibly making it thousands of years older than Stonehenge in England). The mysterious megalith may once have supported a massive stone cap that enclosed the space for ritual uses. 

https://www.livescience.com/Spanish-stonehenge-dolmen-de-guadalperal.html

I studied Middle East history in college so this next story was of interests to me…..

A new site for the mostly unknown empire of the Middle East, the Mittani, has been discovered thanks to the drought that is gripping the region….

When a drought dried up the water in Iraq’s Mosul Dam reservoir, it exposed ruins from an ancient city dating to the Bronze Age.

The city included a palace with walls preserved to heights of 22 feet (7 meters); inside were chambers that had once been decorated with painted murals, archaeologists recently said in a statement.

The scientists dated the site — named Kemune — to the time of the Mittani Empire, a kingdom of the Near East that ruled portions of Syria and northern Mesopotamia from the 15th century to the 14th century B.C. Only three other sites from this period contain Mittani palaces, and all of them were found in the outer reaches of the empire. Kemune alone offers insights into life at the center of the kingdom, according to the statement.

https://www.livescience.com/65850-bronze-age-palace-iraq.html

This discovery is of a major interests to us Middle East fans since this empire was a mighty one and is little unknown…hopefully this discovery will add to our knowledge of these people.

“I Read, I Wrote, You Know”

MoMo is staring at me….walk time and she will NOT be ignored…LOL

Image

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Sunday–09Sep18 #2

I like to think that I am a foodie but I do not indulge in “food porn”….in case you are not familiar with the term…..taking mouthwatering pictures of delicious foods and proliferating them throughout various social media websites as status updates, thus tempting all those not even currently hungry into getting a food hard-on and getting food-horny and blowing all of their heroic dieting efforts to hell.

One of my favorite dining experiences is in a traditional American diner and that is where we pick up this post…..there is something magical about the taste of food prepared on an old flat grill……now for a cultural look at the American diner from the Smithsonian….

On page and on screen, few settings carry the cultural weight of the humble American diner. Inviting us in with slick chrome and blinking neon, the diner is coolly seductive. It appeals to our baser impulses with outsized portions of high-cholesterol breakfast and pie, wins us over with chatty waitresses and classic jukebox jams, and reminds us, in a fundamental yet inscrutable way, that America itself isn’t always what it seems.

A diner is where Pumpkin and Honey Bunny make their move in Pulp Fiction; where Tony sits down for his final meal on The Sopranos; where the adrift young men of American Graffiti gather to discuss their futures; where Danny and Sandy’s date gets crashed in Grease. Diners suffuse the writings of hard-boiled authors like Jack Kerouac and James Ellroy. In “Twin Peaks,” the otherworldly Washington State locale dreamed up by David Lynch, the Double R is a community mainstay.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/mystique-american-diner-jack-kerouac-twin-peaks-180964680/

For the musical interlude try Tom Waits’ look at the American Diner……

AS long as I am doing the food thing this day….how about a  farm….an underwater farm and NO it is not algae……fruit and veggies…..

Beneath the blue waters 100m off the coast of Noli in northwest Italy lies a cluster of balloon-like pods pegged to the seabed by ropes half a dozen or so metres long. Inside a range of produce is being grown, including red cabbage, lettuce, beans, basil and strawberries.

It may sound like something you’d find in a science fiction novel, but this is the work of Ocean Reef Group. With the help of agricultural experts, the Genova-based scuba diving company is applying its knowledge and technology to finding new ways to produce food.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/aug/13/food-growing-underwater-sea-pods-nemos-garden-italy

If there is more info you would like then their home page may help…..

http://www.nemosgarden.com/

Hopefully all will enjoy your Sunday…I shall…..later my friends.  chuq

Xena– A Warrior Princess

My regulars know that I enjoy many subjects among which is archeology and history especially the history of war and there are none better than the Vikings….these warriors were feared around Europe….and everyone has an image of a large blond or red hair warrior with axe in hand, right?

Well it has been possibly proven that not all the warriors were male……

The remains of a powerful Viking — long thought to be a man — was in fact a real-life Xena Warrior Princess, a study released Friday reveals.

The lady war boss was buried in the mid-10th century along with deadly weapons and two horses, leading archaeologists and historians to assume she was a man, according to the findings published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Wrong.

“It’s actually a woman, somewhere over the age of 30 and fairly tall, too, measuring around [5 feet 6 inches] tall,” archaeologist Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson of Uppsala University, who conducted the study, told The Local.

https://nypost.com/2017/09/08/viking-skeletons-dna-test-proves-historians-wrong/

The Vikings are fascinating and as time goes by we are learning more and more…..speaking of which there is more on tap about the Vikings…stay tuned.

The Theft Of History

Closing Thought–03May18

As a history wonk and have been to many historical sites I was sadden by war and the theft of historic artifacts…..they say that ISIS is using the stolen artifacts to fund their operations ……

I think anyone that buys stolen artifacts needs to be shot for stealing a people’s history…..and one of the biggest thieves was American company Hobby Lobby….

When their Museum of the Bible was busted for having massive amount of stolen artifacts I post this post….

https://lobotero.com/2015/10/28/speaking-of-good-christians/

Now they have returned many of the artifacts in the Museum…….

Hobby Lobby’s “passion for the Bible” may have made it a bit overzealous when it came to purchasing antiquities from other lands. The arts and crafts retailer obtained thousands of illegally smuggled artifacts from Iraq in 2010—then subsequently agreed to send them back—and now that day has come. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has announced that 3,800 of the 5,500 ancient items purchased from dealers in the UAE and Israel will be sent back to Iraq on Wednesday, per NPR. The cuneiform tablets (some from the ancient Sumerian city of Irisagrig), cylinder seals, and other items are “mostly legal and administrative documents, but also include an important collection of Early Dynastic incantations and a bilingual religious text from the Neo-Babylonian period,” an ICE statement notes.

“These pieces are very important to us and they should be returned home … to Iraq, to the rightful owner of these pieces,” an Iraqi Embassy official tells NPR. The DOJ had filed a civil action complaint in July 2017 after Hobby Lobby purchased the artifacts for $1.6 million, with the intention of displaying them in the Museum of the Bible it opened last fall in Washington, DC. That purchase was made despite the company being warned by an archaeological ace that the artifacts could be stolen and that Hobby Lobby should make sure to definitively identify them. Some of the artifacts that came into the company’s possession were mislabeled on either their contents or place of origin. It’s not clear if Hobby Lobby, which said it made “regrettable mistakes” during the purchase, knew the artifacts were obtained illegally, or the status of the other 1,700 artifacts it purchased in the 2010 deal.

Will these bastards go unpunished?  They did not know they were stolen?  They spent $1.6 million and did not vet the people they were doing business with…..they knew!  Now the question is what will be their sentence for buying stolen goods?

If it were me I would be under the jail and the key thrown away….but this is a corporation and “good Christians and they will get off scott free.

Talk about BS….this is it a big pile of it.