Ancient shipwreck discovered intact at bottom of Black Sea

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Ancient shipwreck discovered intact at bottom of Black Sea | An Anglo-Bulgarian team of archaeologists has found what they believe to be the most ancient intact shipwreck ever discovered, the Guardian reports. The 23-metre vessel, complete with mast, rudders and rowing benches, is thought to have remained undisturbed at the bottom of the Black Sea off the coast of Bulgaria for more than 2,400 years. Professor Jon Adams, the principal investigator with the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project, has noted a similarity between the form of the discovered ship and that of a trading vessel depicted on an Attic vase known as the ‘Siren Vase’ (c. 480–470 BC), currently in the British Museum.

Norman Foster withdraws from Saudi tech-city project | The British architect Norman Foster has temporarily suspended himself from his role on the advisory board of NEOM, a £382bn Saudi project for a fully automated city to be built over 10,000 square miles of desert. Foster’s move comes after the death of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the Architects’ Journal reports. In an announcement made by NEOM on 9 October, the architect had been named as one of a group of ‘global experts’ acting as advisors on the project. However, a statement from Foster + Partners says that Foster stepped back from the project last week, notifying the board that ‘while the situation remains unclear, he has suspended his activities’.

Museum of the Bible reveals Dead Sea Scrolls fragments are forgeries | The Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. has announced that five of its 16 fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls are forgeries and will be removed from display, the Guardian reports. The fragments, which were bought by the museum’s founder Steve Green, were analysed by researchers in Germany, who concluded that five of them showed ‘characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin’. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940s by Bedouin shepherds, and include passages from the Old Testament that are more than 2,000 years old.

Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev wins Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence | Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, the current director of the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, has won the 2019 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, presented annually by the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York. In recent years, Christov-Bakargiev has curated the 2015 edition of the Istanbul Biennial and the 13th edition of Documenta in 2012, while from 2002 to 2008 she was chief curator at Castello di Rivoli. Previous winners of the prestigious Irmas award, which comes with a $25,000 prize, include Harald Szeemann and Thelma Golden.