'Gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh'

The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, brought by the Magi to the newborn Jesus, were symbolic of his role as a king, a priest, and a human who would suffer and die. Gold as a symbol of a king, frankincense (an incense traditionally burned in the temple) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death.

In the Bible, the wise men “saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.” Frankincense and myrrh had been in use for thousands of years and were extremely expensive in ancients times - as much or more than gold. Frankincense was mixed with various spices to form incense, and myrrh was used by the ancient Egyptians as an embalming agent. Both substances are produced from the resin of trees in the Burseraceae family. An incision is made in the trunk of the tree and the resin is drained and dried.

Frankincense comes from Boswellia trees, myrrh from Commiphora trees.

The frankincense-producing Boswellia sacra is native to Oman, Yemen and Somalia. As the source of high quality frankincense, it has been widely over harvested into modern times. Myrrh is collected from Comiphora wightii, which is native to parts of Pakistan and India. It is critically endangered due to over-harvesting.

Rare ancient gold brings top dollar

A rare Gaius (Caligula) (AD 37-41), with Agrippina Senior. AV aureus NGC AU 4/5 – 4/5 soared to a record $216k. Another ancient that reached six figures was an unpublished Stater of Menelaus, King of Cyprus that closed at $114k. Exceedingly rare with no examples in sales archives, and apparently unknown as a full stater.

A Star Mint State Julius Caesar Aureus that ended at $78k. Mint State ancient coins with a star designation for superior eye appeal are strong performers. An Otho (15 January-16 April AD 69). AV aureus NGC Choice VF 4/5 – 3/5 made $72k. Gold aurei like this example are rare and coveted as the "key" coin in any set of the '12 Caesars'.

A Michael III "the Drunkard" (AD 842-867), with Theodora and Thecla. AV solidus (19mm, 4.42 gm, 7h). NGC MS★ 5/5 – 5/5 reached $66k. A Provincial gold Proof Pattern Ducaton (Silver Rider) 1672 PR63 NGC closed well above estimates at $180k. This coin is the only certified example known.

Expensive ancient coins

The record holder for an ancient Greek coin is the facing portrait gold stater of Pantikapaion, which brought $3.2m in a 2012 New York auction. Pantikapaion on the Black Sea coast of Crimea grew wealthy shipping grain from Ukraine’s fields to feed Greek cities. Weighing 9.12 grams, the coin was struck between 350 and 300 BCE. On the reverse a griffin stands over an ear of wheat, surrounded by the first three letters of the town’s name. The obverse shows the bearded head of a satyr.

Syracuse Tetradrachm of Kimon. Greek cities of Sicily during the fifth century BCE brought the art of coin die engraving to levels that would not be seen again for 1300 years. Cities like Syracuse, Akragas, Leontinoi and Naxos competed to celebrate their deities on large silver ancient coins. $3m a record for a Greek silver coin. Akragas Dekadrachm. Until it was sacked by the Carthaginians in 406 BCE, Akragas (now Agrigento) was one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the Greek world. $2.4m

Dekadrachm of Athens. With only around 40 genuine examples known (and many convincing fakes), the silver dekadrachm of Athens struck c. 467-465 BCE is one of the most desired ancient coins. The obverse depicts the helmeted head of the goddess Athena. The reverse shows an owl, wings outspread. At 42.5 grams, the coin is so large that it pushed the limits of hand-hammered minting. $ 850,000

Gold Stater of Athens. A handful of gold staters and fractions were struck as an emergency wartime issue in 406-407 BCE. Four examples of the 8.6 gram gold stater are known, three of them in museums. The fourth brought $783k in 2008.

Vapheio Gold Cups

The pair of cups, which were created over 3,400 years ago, were the product of advanced Creto-Mycenaean metalwork. Called the “Vapheio Cups,” they are considered masterpieces of ancient Greek art.

Vapheio is an ancient site in Laconia, Greece, on the right bank of the Eurotas, some five miles south of Sparta. It is famous for its tholos or "beehive" tomb, excavated in 1889 by Christos Tsountas. The pottery in the tomb dates to around 1500 to 1450 BC, but the gold and carved gem seals might have been old when buried. Grave goods include a large number of carved gem seals and amethyst beads, together with articles in gold, silver, bronze, iron, lead, amber and crystal. Many of the seals and rings found in the tholos have strong affinities in style and subject matter with Minoan seals.

The finest of the grave goods are a pair of golden cups decorated with scenes in relief, showing two different methods of capturing bulls.Some believe that the first cup is Minoan, while the other is Mycenaean.

Eureka

"Eureka" comes from the Ancient Greek word εὕρηκα heúrēka, meaning "I have found (it)" It is an interjection used to celebrate a discovery or invention. It is a transliteration of an exclamation attributed to Ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes. He reportedly proclaimed "Eureka! Eureka!" after he had stepped into a bath and noticed that the water level rose. He suddenly understood that the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged. The volume of irregular objects could be measured with precision, a previously intractable problem. He is said to have leapt out of his bathtub and run through the streets of Syracuse naked.

Archimedes' insight led to the solution of the problem of measuring gold's purity. Hiero of Syracuse suspected, correctly, he had been cheated by a goldsmith removing gold and adding the same weight of silver to a crown he commissioned. Equipment for weighing objects with good precision already existed, and now that Archimedes could also measure volume, their ratio would give the object's density, an important indicator of purity. The answer was now a simple one ... balance the crown against pure gold in air, and then submerge the scale with crown and gold in water to see if they still balance.

Alexander the Great tetradrachms

When Philip II rose to power in 359 BCE, he recognized the importance of coinage. Philip’s coins became very popular throughout the ancient world. His son, Alexander the Great refocused the silver mintage on a tetradrachm based on the Athenian weight standard that could be used throughout Greece. For more than two hundred years, Alexander the Great tetradrachms would be minted at a prolific rate, sourced from mines in Thrace and Macedonia as well as the new bullion from the Persians.

Primary design elements remained consistent. The obverse depicts Herakles (Hercules to the Romans). Herakles was Zeus’ son and was able to attain divine status through 12 labors. The coin represents the first of those labors, the slaying of the Nemean Lion. The reverse shows Zeus wearing a crown.

A single coin represented about four day’s pay for a laborer, so Alexander also minted bronze coinage for smaller transactions.

Europe's most ancient battlefield - Tollense Valley

The Gross Raden Archaeological Open Air Museum is presenting an exhibition featuring artifacts, many of them found on the site of a battle which took place in the Tollense Valley, in the northeast of Germany.

The discovery of the battlefield in the Tollense Valley provides much to consider.

Since 2007, over 10,000 human bones have been found. A series of bronze weapons, such as lances, arrowheads and knives were found. A few wooden clubs which were used for battle as well as the remains of horses have been found.

The violence wasn't random. The Tollense battle demonstrates a clearly organized form of violence. It was required to be able to assemble such a large group of young men and issue orders. It demonstrates that power was conditional for such a large, violent conflict.

This man did not see death coming his way 3300 years ago. A bronze arrow tip pierced the back of his head. The bronze arrow tip is still stuck in the skull.

The warriors were exclusively men, mostly between the ages of 20 and 25. The bodies on the battle site that were accessible were looted. They had no metal left on them – although they must have been wearing metal, since bronze was part of men's dress during the period. The remains of those who fell in the river are different, as metal objects have been found on them. Less than 10% of the site has been excavated.

Getty Museum told to hand over 'Victorious Youth' by Italians, again

A naked youth stands with his weight on his right leg, crowning himself with a wreath, probably olive. The olive wreath was the prize for a victor in the Olympic Games and identifies this youth as a victorious athlete. Found in the sea in international waters, the statue is one of the very few life-size Greek bronzes to have survived. The statue, believed to have been recovered from the Adriatic Sea in 1964, has long been at the center of a legal and cultural battle between Italy and the Getty Trust, with Italy demanding its return under claims of illegal export. In 2021 the Italian senate approved a resolution that could pave the way to restitutions as politicians call for return of the ancient Greek bronze also known as Atleta di Fano.

Italy’s highest court ordered the Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2018 to return an ancient Greek bronze statue. The ruling by the Court of Cassation in Rome was the latest round in a decade-long, acrimonious dispute over the ownership of the exquisite bronze figure, known as Victorious Youth or the Getty Bronze. The Getty Museum immediately rejected the judgment, saying it had no intention of giving up the fourth century BC statue. The museum bought it in 1977 for $3.95 million from a German art dealer. Italian authorities maintain that the statue was illegally taken out of the country.

A fresh dispute has erupted over the origins of the ancient Greek bronze statue known as Victorious Youth, currently housed at the Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles, with Italian cultural authorities now questioning whether the statue was created by the famed Greek sculptor Lysippos. Lysippos of the 4th century BC together with Scopas and Praxiteles, is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era. Experts suggest the famed statue is a copy of Lysippos's work.

Avenue of Sphinxes

In 2022, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities held a grand ceremony to mark the reopening of the ancient Avenue of Sphinxes in the city of Luxor. The sacred road, once named "The Path of God," connects the Temples of Karnak in the north with Luxor in the south. Paved in sandstone blocks, the 1.7-mile-long road is lined on both sides with more than 1,050 statues of sphinxes and rams. They've spent centuries buried under the desert sands, but slowly, over many years, Egypt's archaeologists are bringing them back into the light of day. The avenue that connects the temples is about 3,000 years old.

The Avenue of Sphinxes is about 2,700 meters long and 76 meters wide. Although the path was already in use during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut, it was the 30th Dynasty Pharaoh Nectenabo I (380 to 362 BC) who constructed the avenue itself. He lined it with 1350 sphinxes, all inscribed with his name.

Karnak is believed to have been built as a tribute to Amun-Ra. Many of Karnak’s sphinxes have ram heads and lion bodies and are intended as guardians to the ancient temple.

At the other end of the avenue, closer to Luxor Temple, there are also several human-headed sphinxes. Most of the surviving sphinxes date to the time of King Nectanebo, who reigned between 380 and 362 BCE. During its heyday, the avenue is believed to have been lined with 1,350 sphinxes.

Roman road unveiled beneath McDonald's restaurant

In 2022, thousands of years after legionaries tramped along its worn paving stones, a well-preserved stretch of Roman road has been opened to the public – beneath a McDonald’s restaurant. The 150ft-long stretch of basalt road has been cleared, cleaned and made into a permanent attraction at Frattocchie, south of Rome. Customers in search of cultural heritage can descend underground and view the Roman road, as well as three skeletons. The bodies are believed to have been buried in the period after the road was abandoned. The skeletons belong to three men, the oldest of whom was aged 35-40.

Customers view the Roman road, as well as three skeletons found buried in the culverts on either side.

The find came to light in 2014 when the area was excavated for a new McDonald’s. Archaeologists were summoned and the chain contributed 300k euros to the three-year restoration of the site.

The stretch of road was built in the 2nd century BC but fell into disuse by the 3rd century AD and remained buried for more than 1,700 years.

Experts say the paved road connected with the Appian Way. Named after the Roman official who conceived it, Appius Claudius Caecus, it became known as the “regina viarium” or queen of roads.

The Treasure of Nimrud

The Treasure of Nimrud consists of a hoard of 613 spectactular ancient gold and jewels. The Royal Tombs of Nimrud were first discovered in 1989. The Tomb was located in the Palace of the Ancient city of Kalkhu (modern city of Nimrud).

The city of Kalkhu was a capital of the Assyrian Empire for over 150 years until King Sargon moved the capital to Dur-Sharukin (modern Khorshabad) in 717 B.C.

Assyrian tombs have been found in the past but virtually all were plundered in antiquity. The sarcophagus in the tomb contained hundreds of items, untouched for ages.

The priceless treasures belonged to royalty from 744BC to 704BC. The treasure of Nimrud survived 2,800 years buried in northern Iraq. It then spent 12 years in a vault. It was uncertain if it had survived Saddam Hussein, U.S. missile strikes, looters, a flood and grenade attacks. The treasure was found intact in the basement of a bombed out central bank building in 2011.

The treasures belonged to: Yaba, Queen of Tiglathpileser III, king of Assyria 744-727, Banitu, Queen of Shalmanasser V, king of Assyria 726-722 and Atalia, Queen of Sargon II, king of Assyria 721-705.