Latest news with #artifacts
CNET
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CNET
Relooted Is a Heist Game About Returning African Artifacts to Their Home Countries
One of last year's biggest games, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, revived a hero from a bygone era -- known for retrieving precious artifacts and delivering them to Western museums. At Summer Game Fest, I got to try a game that flips this script. Relooted is all about a team of African specialists liberating artifacts from museums to bring them back to their home countries. Relooted is a 2D puzzle-platformer which tasks players to pull off increasingly complex heists. There's a basic loop of planning -- entering a museum after hours to prepare an escape route and then picking up the artifact -- which triggers a mad dash to the exit (in my demo, a van waiting to spirit my character away). "The vision was making a really fun heist game that is also an invitation to learn about African culture, history, ethnicities and countries, as well as learn about these real-life artifacts that exist in Western museums," said Ben Myres, creative director on Relooted and co-founder of Nyamakop, a game studio in Johannesburg, South Africa. Returning art and artifacts back to their countries of origin has been a huge conversation in Africa for a long time, Myres noted. He first came up with the idea for Relooted during a family trip to London in late 2017, when his mother spent a day at the British Museum and was shocked to find the Nereid Monument -- a fourth-century BCE structure taken from modern-day Turkey in the 1800s. Furious, she told Myres to make a game out of returning something like the Nereid Monument -- and though extracting entire buildings proved difficult to adapt, Nyamakop dialed the scope down to repatriating artifacts and art pieces. Relooted isn't exactly anti-Tomb Raider or anti-Indiana Jones, Myres clarified, since those heroes often take artifacts from long-lost cultures. In contrast, Relooted includes artifacts taken from living civilizations -- including ones with royal lineages that still exist today. Nyamakop uses real African artifacts, many of which are present in Western museums, in the game as a cool way for players to play out the fantasy of returning them. "There are artifacts in this game that you can go see in the Met Museum in New York," Myres said -- including the Dahome silver buffalo. Nyamakop One artifact in the game highlights the injustice Myres and Nyamakop want players to help set right. The Pokomo people of Kenya once used a massive, sacred drum -- the Ngadji -- to gather the community and celebrate the enthronement of a new king. Believed to have been destroyed in 1910, the drum was actually taken years earlier by the British and now sits locked in a storeroom at the British Museum (presumably this item), according to Open Restitution Africa. The first Kenyan person to see it in a hundred years was the Pokomo prince in 2016, but there's no indication it will be returned to its people. Relooted's rescues focus on artifacts that likewise are locked away in museums and private collections, which aren't even presented publicly for their people to visit. Nyamakop is a diverse studio, and the Relooted team is entirely African -- with a dozen members from countries including Zambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana and others. Myres, who hails from South Africa, acknowledged the complexity of being a white man working on a game about rescuing African artifacts -- which itself reflects the rich historical complications that Relooted is designed to help players understand. At Summer Game Fest, Nyamakop creative director Ben Myres demoed Relooted to attendees. David Lumb/CNET "In terms of being a white guy working on this, it wasn't Black people who stole artifacts at the end of the day. If you make it a Black person problem, you sort of wash your hands of essentially what Europe and the US and your ancestors did in terms of the repatriation of these artifacts," Myres said. "So these artifacts are cool and important and interesting, and I also think it's our shared responsibility to repatriate them to where they belong." Myres presented the game solo at Summer Games Fest, after another Relooted team member was denied a visa over immigration concerns, as Aftermath reported. Nyamakop I'm putting a team together: Art heists in Relooted The game's creators set out to create a team of specialists that each have a role in Relooted's heists. Every member is from a different country, region and ethnicity based on heist archetypes, Myres said, and players will acquire new members based on specific needs for the next job. But making a heist game was a challenge to design. "There's not a lot of great gameplay reference for non-violent heist games in the vein of films like Ocean's 11," Myres said. "The really great heist films aren't always that violent. There's these plans that go off without a hitch, and so trying to figure out how to do that gameplay was really, really tricky." Few games resembled what Nyamakop aimed to create, though the team drew inspiration from sources as far afield as the parkour movement in Mirror's Edge and the TV show Leverage -- one of the few heist stories that isn't just about stealing money. They found inspiration in Teardown, a 2022 physics-based destruction game where players have unlimited time to plan, but once the action begins, a countdown starts -- a gameplay loop they saw as a perfect fit for their own project. "Specifically we wanted to make it feel like you're in a heist montage for a movie of your own plan," Myres said. Put simply, every level is made up of five to 15 simple puzzles that you have to pre-plan solutions for to escape. You're essentially removing resistance, Myres said. The game places as much importance on planning a route as it does executing it in a parkour-heavy rush to escape. "Every level is like a broken Rube Goldberg machine that you have to solve so you can flow through it," Myres said. Nyamakop Some of those solutions involve gadgets from the near-future, and I asked if that would qualify the game as being Afrofuturist, a science fiction subgenre encompassing works from Sun Ra to Octavia Butler to Marvel's Black Panther. But as Myres pointed out, Afrofuturism is a collage of African cultural references in a made-up place or invented country (like Wakanda). Instead, Relooted is African Futurism, which deals in real people, places and cultures set in the future. The between-missions hideout lies in a Johannesburg 80 years in the future, and other countries in Africa are realistically represented. In a twist on the Western habit of using monolithic stand-ins for Asia and Africa, in Relooted you can visit parodies of Europe and America, called the Old World and the Shiny Place, respectively. "Often when Africa is represented, you see it either in the past as very tribal, or as three mud huts and someone that needs to be saved," Myres said. "Africans don't get to see themselves set in the future. They don't get to dream and imagine a utopia. So this is one of the few examples of real places in Africa imagined in the future."
Mail & Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mail & Guardian
Mythical Museums: Curating artifacts from forgotten realms
Step into the dusty halls of a museum that never existed—until now. Imagine walking past a shattered crown from a sky kingdom that never touched Earth, or gazing at a musical scroll that only plays in moonlight. With Dreamina's So what do you put in a mythical museum? Whatever you can imagine. A phoenix feather encased in ice. A chessboard worn smooth by centuries in which every man is a captive soul. A volcano-forge sword for a war that reshaped destiny. These are not mere fantasy costumes—that they are stories to be visualized, catalogued, and put behind magical glass. Echoes of forgotten eras Designing your own mythic museum is an exercise in world-building. Every artifact you create has a history: who wielded it, what it symbolized, where it was discovered, and why it is important. Was it pilfered from a drowned repository defended by intelligent jellyfish? Was it abandoned when an empire vanished in mid-sentence? Here's where Dreamina comes in. With AI, you can bring form to artifacts from parallel timelines, missing dimensions, or heavenly planes that hardly intersect with ours. You can: Temper shattered amulets reputed to quiet gods. Ilustrate radiating spheres that hold dead languages. Craft sarcophagi composed of bone-embedded marble, inscribed with lost constellations. Ilustrate the haunted beauty of masks donned by tellers of truth in invisible cities. As you stroll through the virtual galleries of your own creation, you're not merely creating visuals—you're reauthoring mythic history. Dreamina's 3-step curation process Let's turn your artifact concepts into museum-quality visuals using Dreamina's silky process. Set your mind to work and unlock the vaults of your created history. Step 1: Write a text prompt To start, go to Dreamina's 'Image Generator.' This is where you bring your artifact to life with words alone. Consider the material, age, purpose, and enigma of your object. Be precise, even lyrical. For instance: 'Ancient golden astrolabe from a lost sky kingdom, inscribed with star charts that no longer correspond, suspended a little above its stone plinth, enveloped by weak magical aura.' This prompt becomes your gateway to the visual reality of the artifact. Step 2: Tune parameters and generate Once your prompt is set, fine-tune the details to align with your vision. Choose the appropriate model style—perhaps one that leans toward realism if you're going for museum-photo vibes, or something more surreal for myth-soaked aesthetics. Set the aspect ratio to match the size of the piece and adjust resolution for clarity. Then, hit ' Generate ' and watch your relic take form. Step 3: Customize and download Now that your image is before you, it's time to fine-tune. Dreamina's customization features allow you to delve deeper into your imagination. Employ 'inpaint' to include inscriptions or eliminate contemporary elements. 'Expand' can assist in setting your artifact in a display case or dramatic setting. Employ 'retouch' to age the image, brighten glow effects, or darken the atmosphere. When your object is complete and resembles having been subject to millennia of myth and magic, press the ' Download ' icon and save your new addition. Assigning your museum a mythic identity Every museum needs a name and emblem that stay in the head. Step in Dreamina's Perhaps your mythic museum is: A time-stopped interdimensional repository accessible only on lunar eclipses. A hidden treasury curated by dreamwalkers who gather artifacts from sleeping brains. A roving exhibit housed in a sentient whale that swims between timelines. Once you've settled on your lore, describe it in the logo prompt. Dreamina will return icons that feel like ancient seals or cosmic stamps. This isn't just branding—it's the first clue visitors get that they've entered another realm entirely. The curator is the creator Conjuring mythical museums is an art of depth-of-story. Every visual detail—the shape, condition, glow, or deterioration—suggests an even greater one. And the more objects you build, the more defined your world is. Are your things haphazard or meticulous? Baroque or spare? Vintage or timeless? With Dreamina, you can grow your collection over time. Begin with one artifact and build around it. Create galleries sorted by forgotten civilizations, magical wars, or relic categories. And before long, you'll discover that your museum is more than just a sequence of images—it's an active repository of stories. Collectibles from your museum shop Let's be realistic. Every good museum has a gift shop—and yours is no different. That's where Dreamina's Make your relics into: Glowing digital sticker packs with runes and relics. Interactive QR sticker codes that lead to short fictions about each item. Merch-ready artwork featuring your museum logo, staff badges, or time-traveler passports. It's a great way to extend your exhibit into zines, portfolios, or digital art collections—especially for fantasy enthusiasts starved for immersive worldbuilding. One museum, infinite worlds What starts as a single artifact turns into a gateway to a whole mythos. The AI image generator assists in crafting the visual vocabulary of each work. The AI logo generator puts your museum's identity into context. And the sticker maker allows you to share pieces of your lost world with others, one enigmatic relic at a time. So go ahead—open your first exhibit case. Radiate light onto a dagger that kills lies or a bell that rings for only lost names. Your mythical museum waits for its curator. And that curator is you.
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Yahoo
Netherlands returns 119 looted artifacts to Nigeria
Netherlands on Saturday officially handed over 119 looted artifacts, including human and animal figures, plaques, royal regalia and a bell, to Nigeria. The artifacts, known as the Benin Bronzes and mostly housed in a museum in Leiden, were looted in the late 19th century by British soldiers. (AP Video: Dan Ikpoyi)
Arab News
21-06-2025
- General
- Arab News
New campaign urges Saudis to safeguard artifacts
RIYADH: The Heritage Commission launched the 'Aadat' national awareness campaign to enhance public understanding of the importance of Saudi antiquities. The campaign underscores the vital role of artifacts in reinforcing the Kingdom's cultural and national identity, reflecting the succession of civilizations across its land over millennia. It is part of a broader series of initiatives by the commission to spotlight Saudi antiquities and raise awareness of threats they face, such as encroachments and illegal trafficking. The campaign promotes the idea that protecting antiquities is a shared responsibility, rooted in a deep appreciation of their role in the nation's cultural heritage. The campaign promotes the idea that protecting antiquities is a shared responsibility, rooted in a deep appreciation of their role in the nation's cultural heritage, the Saudi Press Agency reported. It adopts a comprehensive approach using various media and outreach tools, including field campaigns in public areas, markets, malls, and universities across multiple regions. The commission also plans to introduce interactive pavilions to showcase key archaeological sites and highlight the Kingdom's geographical and cultural diversity. It stressed that the campaign continues its ongoing efforts to safeguard artifacts, which are rich in symbolic and cultural meaning. Each artifact, the commission noted, tells a story from the past, and its preservation is essential to maintaining the national memory for future generations. The commission announced last week that 744 new archaeological sites have been added to the National Antiquities Register, raising the total to 10,061 across the Kingdom. This milestone underscores the richness and diversity of Saudi Arabia's cultural heritage and reflects the commission's ongoing commitment to documenting and preserving these sites. The newly registered sites are spread across several regions: Riyadh (253), Makkah (11), Madinah (167), Qassim (30), Eastern Province (13), Asir (64), Tabuk (72), Hail (13), Northern Borders (2), Jazan (23), Najran (86), and Jouf (10). Stressing the importance of community involvement in heritage preservation, the commission urged citizens and residents to report unregistered sites via the Balagh platform, social media, or the Unified Security Operations Center at 911.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Boise history unearthed in archaeologists' own backyard, thanks to Idaho students
On an idyllic green block of downtown Boise, archaeology students were hard at work. The students from the University of Idaho, Boise State University and College of Western Idaho wielded their tools alongside volunteers in front of the State Historic Preservation Office building, carefully unearthing two rectangular hot tub-sized patches of dirt in the well-manicured lawn to uncover artifacts from Boise's buried past. The work was led by the University of Idaho during the first two weeks of June as an archaeological field school, a program students who want to practice archaeology must complete to gain real-world experience, similar to a residency after medical school. This dig has been a year in the making. In the summer of 2024, construction workers were digging across the SHPO lawn on Main Street to install fiber-optic cables at the office when they encountered gold rush-era artifacts just below the surface. SHPO officials knew they needed to extend the dig and sought students' help to continue the work, said Dan Everhart, SHPO outreach historian. 'We knew as we uncovered those items that, of course, they extended far beyond our trench, but we didn't have the time or the resources then to continue that investigation further,' Everhart told the Idaho Statesman. 'That's how we ended up coordinating the field school project with the University of Idaho.' The state archaeologists at the time identified finds like a Union General Service Button from the mid-19th century, shotgun shell caps and discarded animal bones. 'They hit a massive archaeological deposit right there,' said Zoe Rafter, an archaeologist and the public outreach coordinator for Idaho Public Archaeology, a U of I student group, as she pointed at the dig area closest to the building. 'And this being the SHPO office, they sent their archaeologists out there like, 'Oh my gosh, we found so many cool things.'' Mark Warner, a U of I anthropology professor who oversaw the project, said this second SHPO dig was much more intentional, with the added benefit of being able to teach students and test an additional area on the property. A few yards away from the first dig area at the SHPO site, archaeologists had detected something abnormal below ground with a radar survey. Excavation revealed a row of intentionally placed rocks below the surface that could have been a historic walkway, Warner said. Like with the work done last summer, many of the artifacts uncovered this summer were part of gold rush history. Everhart told the Statesman that the SHPO building was originally Idaho's first metal assay office. When 19th century miners dug up metal, they needed their finds to be assayed, a process that purifies, measures and determines the value of the material. In the 1860s, there was no assay office in Idaho, so miners would have to lug their materials to neighboring states. The federal government allotted funding to construct an assay office in Boise in response, breaking ground in 1870 and opening in 1872. Until 1932, the building performed assays with the chief assayer and his family living on the second floor, Everhart said. Accordingly, this summer's SHPO dig uncovered both metal assay materials and household artifacts. Archaeologists found hundreds of single-use assay cups known as cupels, each about the size of a golf ball and made of animal bone, ash and silica. Household items found included parts of dishes, chamber pots and dolls. The artifacts will be taken back to Moscow for further analysis, Warner said. 'We had a lot of dinner stuff and a bit more of the domestic things, which I really liked to see come out. I think those were my favorites,' said Arcelia Sciarrotta, an incoming sophomore studying anthropology at the University of Idaho. Alongside other students, she used the dig as her field school experience in pursuit of a career in archaeology. Making history accessible to students and the public was a major motivation behind the SHPO field school, Warner told the Statesman. '(We've) been invested for a long time to figure out, how do you share history, how do you highlight the prevalence of history that's everywhere, and how do you share it with Idahoans?' Warner said. 'And this is a great way for us.' Warner emphasized the contrast between the present excavation and the looming downtown construction on the block directly northwest of the site. While he noted the need for housing and development in Boise, he lamented the history likely forgotten below. 'I'd be willing to bet no one considered what was there 150 years ago,' he said, pointing at the construction. 'There's history below the ground here. There almost certainly was a history below the ground there.'
