3,000 yo gold signet ring back in Greece

The gold Mycenaean ring from Rhodes, decorated with two facing sphinxes, was returned by Swedish officials. The ring, from about the 3rd millennium BC, was discovered in 1927 in a Mycenaean grave near the ancient city of Ialysos on Rhodes. It now returns to the museum of Rhodes.

Mycenaean Greece: The legendary world of Agamemnon

The Schloss Karlsruhe Museum hosted the exhibition "Mycenaean Greece: The legendary world of Agamemnon" in 2018. Over 400 exhibits were loaned from Greece, many of which are shown for the first time outside of the country.

Mycenae Lion Gate

Paris, the son of king of Troy, Priam, kidnapped Helen, incurring the wrath of the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon. The events depicted in Homer's Illiad led to the Trojan War, which took place from circa 1260 to 1180 BC.

Button from the 16th century BC

Gold cup was found by Heinrich Schliemann in one of the shaft graves of Mycenae.

“Eyes of Agamemnon” mask.

Mycenaean Earring

Salt mining

Halite rock salt (NaCl)

Salt is a mineral made up of cube-shaped crystals composed of two elements, sodium and chlorine. It is translucent, colourless, and odourless. For centuries salt had a permanent place in the life of human beings. Salt was considered sacred, a gift from the Gods; it was used to confirm oaths and sacrifices. Salt served as money at various times and places, and the quest for salt has been the cause of warfare. Offering bread and salt to visitors is a sign of hospitality.

This made salt a valuable commodity throughout history.

Prior to industrialization, it was expensive and labor intensive to harvest the mass quantities of salt necessary for food preservation and seasoning. Mining salt caused rapid dehydration. Other problems related to accidental excessive sodium intake.

Entire economies were based solely on salt production and trade.

The 'Man in Salt' greets visitors at the Salzwelten Hallstatt Mine, Austria. In 1734 a corpse preserved in salt was discovered in the deposit.

At the Chehrabad Salt Mine, Iranian miners recently uncovered the 6th salt man to be found in the last 15 years. Salt men are ancient corpses killed or crushed in the cave and mummified by the extreme conditions. Hair, flesh and bone are all preserved by the dry salinity of the cave, and even internal organs have been found intact. The first salt man, dated to 300 A.D., was discovered in 1993, sporting a long white beard, iron knives and a single gold earring. In 2004 another mummy was discovered 50 feet away, followed by another in 2005 and a "teenage" boy later that year. The oldest of the salt men found is truly ancient and has been carbon dated to 9550 B.C.

Egyptians may have been the first civilization to preserve fish and meat with salt. Food that could be preserved was highly valuable. Recognizing the worth of preserving food, Egyptians turned to trade. The Egyptians did not export salt by itself, it was bulky and difficult to transport, but rather food that was salted, which transported easily without spoiling and had a value added. Ancient Egypt's trade started a 4000 history of trade involving salt and food.

Boiling brine into pure salt in China.

In the Iron Age evaporated salt was obtained by boiling seawater or brine in clay pots over a fire. Roman salt making entailed boiling seawater in large lead-lined pans. In ancient Rome, salt on the table was a mark of a very rich patron; those who sat nearer the host were "above the salt," and those less favored were "below the salt". Roman salt mining was often done by slave or prison labor, and life expectancy was low.

Malta Roman salt flats

Ancient Roman Glass Salt Dishes

The Roman historian Pliny the Elder stated as an aside in his Natural History's discussion of sea water, that "[I]n Rome ... the soldier's pay was originally salt and the word 'salary' derives from it ..."

Roman Salt Pans in Hortales.

Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World

An exhibition at the Getty Villa in Los Angeles is entitled "Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World". Achaemenid relief with a lion and bull, dated to between 359 and 338 BC.

Achaemenid earrings with inlays, dated to between the late 400s and early 300s BC.

See ----->https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/persia/index.html

Greek Armor

Surviving bronzes from Greece’s classical period are rare, with knowledge based on Roman marble copies. Functional items such as 4th century BC cavalry armour—helmet, cuirass and greaves, all highly decorated ... are rare survivals. As combat in ancient Greece was mainly hand to hand, armor was light and allowed for free movement. In 2017 an ancient Greek Corinthian helmet was found in a 5th century BC grave in the Taman Peninsula. Corinthian helmets appeared in Greece around the 6th century BC.

Greek Attic helmet of domed form, circa 300 BC, hammered bronze. Estimate £60,000-£90,000. In 2007 a well-preserved ancient Greek helmet was found near the Israeli city of Haifa. Crafted in the sixth century B.C., this helmet was likely used during the Persian Wars, which pitted Greek city-states against the Persian Empire in a series of clashes between 492 and 449 B.C.

Ancient Egyptian Sculpture at Sotheby's

$ 60k to $ 90k

Sotheby's sale of Ancient Egyptian Sculpture and Works of Art 2018 totaled a strong $8,986,500, over the high pre-sale estimate. The top lot was the monumental Granite Figure of Sekhmet, which sold for $4.17m. Highlights included a fine small-scale basalt bust of King Tuthmosis III, an imposing over-lifesize fragmentary red granite head of King Amenhotep III from the last ten years of his reign, and an elegant steatite statuette of the Lady Iset , priestess of the god Sobek, dating to the early 19th Dynasty.

Black Basalt Head Of Tuthmosis III, 18th Dynasty, 1479-1426 B.C. $250k

Wood mask with inlaid eyes, 25th/26th Dynasty. $ 1.4m

Limestone mask, 30th Dynasty/early Ptolemaic Period. $200k to $ 300k

Granite enthroned figure of the goddess Sekhmet. $ 4.1m

Statuette of the Lady Iset , priestess of the god Sobek, dating to the early 19th Dynasty. $760k

A record for an ancient Egyptian work of art was set at Christie’s in 2012 when a 29 inch sculpture of the goddess, Isis, dating from the Late Period Dynasty, c 664 - 525 BC, sold for £3.7 million.

A 30-inch statue representing the god Sekhemka broke the world record for highest auction price of an Egyptian artwork in 2014. The statue was estimated to sell for $7 to $11 million, but sold for $27 million.

An Egyptian Green Peridotite Head of a Man Egyptian blue-glazed steatite figure of Taweret, goddess of childbirth

Block statue of a man and the sacred baboon of Thoth, Egyptian, serpentine, 26th/30th Dynasty, 664-342 B.C. Sold for $856k in 2006

Sphinx of Egyptian queen, green porphry, Roman Imperial, circa A.D. 81-96. $5.2m.

Egyptian steatite figure of Sobek

Djehuty-Mose (Tothmes), polychrome limestone ushabti, 1292-1190 B.C. $1.3m.

Black granite or basalt relief fragment from the 30th Dynasty/Early Ptolemaic Period, reign of Nectanebo II /Ptolemy I, 360-282 B.C. $211k in 1998

Limestone figure of lion, 30th Dynasty/Ptolemaic Period, 380-30 B.C. $154,250 in 2001.