Eight ancient glass vessels shattered in the 2020 Beirut explosion are going on display at the British Museum today, walking visitors through the painstaking international project to piece them back together.

The vessels, from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods, were reconstructed at the world-famous museum’s conservation laboratories, and will be shown as part of its “Shattered Glass of Beirut” showcase, before returning to Lebanon later this year.

“(It) tells a story of near destruction and recovery, of resilience and collaboration,” said Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum.

The vessels were among 74 contained within a case at the American University in Beirut (AUB). The case fell over when the shockwave of the port blast, which occurred three kilometres away on August 4, 2020, hit the building, smashing the glass objects inside.

A team of experts had the daunting task of sorting every shard of glass, deciding if it was part of an ancient vessel, rather than display case, and which vessel it belonged to, Duygu Camurcuoglu, a senior conservator at the British Museum, said.

“It’s all pretty much done by hand or by eye — brainwork basically. You have to know certain techniques to be able to carry out this work,” she added.

Once the pieces had been sorted, the conservators began the mammoth jigsaw-puzzle exercise of reassembling the vessels.

“It’s a case of using an adhesive to reconstruct the vessels,” said Camurcuoglu. But they could not just use anything.

“We don’t use superglue, we don’t use UHU,” she joked.

The most challenging vessels were the “large dish and the Byzantine pitcher,” Camurcuoglu recalled.

Eighteen of the vessels have so far been conserved as part of an emergency recovery campaign in Beirut, along with the eight vessels at the British Museum and two that emerged unscathed from the fall. Experts hope that at least half of the remaining 46 objects in Beirut can be conserved soon too.

The collaborative project between the British Museum and the AUB’s Archaeological Museum began last year, following an offer of help from the London institution.

Conservators agreed early on to make the vessels structurally sound but leave imperfections caused by the shattering visible, bearing witness to the explosion. The exhibition will take visitors on the journey undergone by the glass vessels, from the moment of the blast to their display in the famous London museum. Lighting will be used in the display to illuminate cracks and gaps in the glass.

“We really wanted to highlight the damage these objects went through, so we can all look at the scars, and remember how they were revived together,” Camurcuoglu said.

The vessels are considered important in telling the story of the development of revolutionary glass-blowing techniques in Lebanon in the 1st century BC, enabling the mass production of glass objects and making them available for common use. Their restoration, and the teamwork involved, is a source of pride to the conservators, Camurcuoglu said.

“We all individually felt that, I think, we contributed to something by working on these objects — by sharing this pain, these emotions.

“So it’s not only about the conservation ... but also the working together and achieving something together,” she added.

In case anyone was still wondering, US policy on Taiwan’s status is simple: the status of Taiwan is unresolved. It’s been that way since April 28, 1952, when the San Francisco Peace Treaty came into effect and Japan terminated its formal sovereignty over Taiwan. Since the treaty does not award that sovereignty to any power, it remains unresolved in international law. The US thus “acknowledges” but does not “recognize” China’s claim. This policy is followed by other nations, including Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. US policy on Taiwan’s status may be simple, but it remains concealed behind

Aug. 22 to Aug. 28 Max Liu (劉其偉) wanted to become a pirate when he was young. After reading Treasure Island, he dreamed of commanding a great ship and exploring the vast world, writes Yang Meng-yu (楊孟瑜) in Liu’s biography, Ever Changing Max Liu (百變劉其偉). Such aspirations are mere childhood fantasy for most people, and although born into a wealthy family, Liu’s turbulent early life left him struggling to make ends meet. Upon retiring in 1971, however, Liu became a full-time artist and amateur anthropologist, traveling to the less-developed areas in Borneo, Africa, Central America and other places where he developed

For more than 50 years, telescopes and the needs of astronomers have dominated the summit of Mauna Kea, a mountain sacred to Native Hawaiians that’s also one of the finest places in the world to study the night sky. That’s now changing with a new state law saying Mauna Kea must be protected for future generations and that science must be balanced with culture and the environment. Native Hawaiian cultural experts will have voting seats on a new governing body, instead of merely advising the summit’s managers as they do now. The shift comes after thousands of protesters camped on the mountain

Blueberry bison tamales, harvest salad with mixed greens, creamy carrot and wild rice soup, roasted turkey with squash. This contemporary Native American meal, crafted from the traditional foods of tribes across the US and prepared with ketapanen — a Menominee expression of love — cost caterer Jessica Pamonicutt US$976 to feed a group of 50 people last November. Today it costs her nearly double. Pamonicutt is the executive chef of Chicago-based Native American catering business Ketapanen Kitchen. She is a citizen of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin but was raised in the Windy City, home to one of