It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Lightsabre from 'Star Wars' sells for almost $5 million at auction
13.11.2026
Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire/dpa
A lightsabre from the "Star Wars" film series has been sold at auction in the United States for almost $5 million, Heritage Auctions said in a press release on Thursday.
This was the highest value ever achieved worldwide for a "Star Wars" prop, the auction house said.
Darth Vader, the iconic villain played by David Prowse, wielded the lightsabre in two films. It can be seen in "The Empire Strikes Back" from 1980 and "Return of the Jedi" from 1983.
According to the auction house, the sword bears clear signs of wear, including a tear and scratches - evidence that it had been used on set.
"Star Wars," created by screenwriter, producer and director George Lucas, is one of the most successful film series in cinema history. The first film in the saga, "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope", came out in cinemas in 1977.
Tiny fingerprints, big discovery: Children helped shape clay art 15,000 years ago
New study of 154 Natufian clay figurines reveals the earliest known clay figurative tradition in Southwest Asia, pushing the timeline back by up to 3,000 years and showing that both children and adults took part in creating symbolic objects.
The 15 Natufian figurines depicting gazelles (A-B), humans (C-D) and birds (E-O), modelled in clay between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago, discovered at the sites of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley) and Hayonim Terrace (Lower Galilee).
Could tiny clay figurines hold the key to understanding how prehistoric communities passed down knowledge and traditions? A new study reveals that children and adults worked together to create miniature figures, with ancient fingerprints offering rare evidence of hands-on learning across generations. The discovery of 154 clay artifacts dating back as far as 15,000 years challenges the belief that sophisticated symbolic expression emerged during the end of the Paleolithic, suggesting that at that time they were far more artistically innovative than previously thought.
Long before the emergence of farming villages and the invention of pottery, people living in what is now Israel were already shaping clay into miniature figures of birds, animals and humans. A new study has uncovered evidence of a 15,000-year-old artistic tradition, challenging longstanding assumptions about when early societies began using clay for symbolic expression.
The research identified 154 clay figurative artifacts from three archaeological sites in Israel, including 15 recognizable figurines and 139 cylindrical fragments believed to have formed parts of figures. The findings provide the earliest evidence of an established clay figurine-making tradition in Southwest Asia, suggesting that artistic innovation and complex symbolic practices emerged well before the establishment of farming communities.
The artifacts were created by members of the Natufian culture, communities that lived in the region approximately 15,000 to 11,650 years ago. These communities were the first in Southwest Asia to establish permanent or semi-permanent settlements. Until now, researchers generally believed that the widespread use of clay for symbolic figures developed alongside agriculture during the Neolithic period.
The study was led by Dr. Laurent Davin, Prof. Leore Grosman and Prof. Anna Belfer-Cohen from Hebrew University in collaboration with Prof. Mina Weinstein-Evron, Prof. Reuven Yeshurun, Prof. Daniel Kaufman of the University of Haifa, Dr. Marion Sindel and Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily from the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem and and Dr. François R. Valla from the CNRS and Centre de recherche français à Jérusalem.
"These discoveries change how we understand the beginnings of artistic expression in this region," said Davin. "Thousands of years before agriculture emerged, people were already using clay to create figures, as part of their beliefs and knowledge of the natural world. What is particularly fascinating is the evidence that children were involved in making these objects, suggesting that creativity and cultural knowledge were shared across generations."
Ancient Fingerprints Reveal Children at Work
One of the study's most remarkable findings concerns the people who created the figurines. Using microscopic analysis of fingerprints preserved in the clay, the researchers found evidence that both adults and children participated in shaping and decorating the objects. Some fingerprints belonged to children likely younger than ten, offering rare insight into childhood and learning in prehistoric societies.
On one human-shaped figurine, researchers identified two overlapping fingerprints, one left by a young adult or adult woman and another by a child who had not yet reached puberty. Their placement suggests that the object may have been passed between an older individual and a child during its creation, providing possible evidence of hands-on learning across generations.
The children's fingerprints were not simply accidental marks. Their placement indicates that children actively participated in shaping and even coloring the objects, suggesting that figurine-making may have helped transmit artistic skills and cultural knowledge.
Birds, Animals and the Beginnings of Storytelling
Among the 15 identifiable figurines, birds were the most common subject, accounting for 11 examples. The remaining figures included representations of a mammal, a gazelle and two human forms.
Some birds were represented through simple shapes, while others displayed carefully marked wings, tails and feathers. Several appear to depict ducks and geese, while others may represent birds of prey. Interestingly, certain figurines show birds with their heads tilted downward and turned to the left, a posture researchers suggest may represent courtship displays observed among ducks during the breeding season.
This raises the possibility that the figurines were more than decorative objects. They may have conveyed knowledge about animal behavior, seasonal changes and the natural world, potentially playing a role in storytelling and cultural traditions.
Researchers also discovered traces of red coloring on several figurines, including evidence of engobe, a technique involving the application of a thin layer of colored clay. One figurine, dated to 15,000 years ago, provides what the study identifies as the earliest known evidence of this coloring technique.
Rethinking the Origins of Human Artistic Expression
The discoveries were made at three Natufian sites: Eynan-Mallaha in the Upper Jordan Valley, Hayonim Terrace in the Galilee and el-Wad Terrace on Mount Carmel. Researchers examined previously overlooked clay fragments, identifying fingerprints, tool marks and traces of coloring that revealed deliberate artistic work.
Unlike carving figures from stone or bone, working with clay allowed people to gradually build, reshape and decorate their creations, representing an important technological and artistic development.
The findings challenge the longstanding view that major advances in symbolic expression emerged alongside agriculture. Instead, they suggest that early hunter-gatherer communities were already developing sophisticated artistic traditions in the first villages of humanity, sharing knowledge across generations and finding new ways to represent the world around them.
These tiny clay figures offer a rare glimpse into the creativity and everyday lives of some of the region's earliest settled communities, thousands of years before the agricultural revolution.
This study is part of a broader research project exploring the emergence of the symbolic use of clay in Southwest Asia. The project has already led to the discovery of the earliest known figurine depicting a human–animal interaction, found at Nahal Ein Gev II (PNAS), and the earliest known clay ornaments outside Europe (Science Advances).
A Natufian figurine depicting a stylised human body modelled in clay 15,000 years ago, discovered at the site of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley). The back of the clay figurine bears the fingerprint of an adult, covered by a child's fingerprint. This sequence of gestures in the wet clay, when the figurine was being modelled, is a rare direct testimony of inter-generational knowledge transmission in a hands-on apprenticeship.
Natufian figurines depicting waterfowls, a bird of prey and a human-bird (woman-goose) interaction, modelled in clay 15,000 years ago (left) and 12,000 years ago (right), discovered at the sites of Eynan-Mallaha and Nahal Ein Gev II (Upper Jordan Valley).
Newly discovered artifacts are evidence of the earliest known example of a tradition of making clay figurines in the Middle East — and challenge long-held beliefs about when and how clay began to be used for symbolic purposes in the region, according to a study published November 11, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Laurent Davin from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and colleagues.
These artifacts, originally excavated from three sites in modern-day Israel, date back between about 15,000 and 11,500 years ago. Some appear to represent birds, mammals, and humans, and some show traces of orange or red coloring — such as one fragment that may have depicted the facial pattern of a mountain gazelle.
At the time, this region was inhabited by Natufian communities, a sedentary hunter-gatherer culture. While archaeologists have previously found figurines from the Natufian period, most have been made from bone or stone, and it has been believed that clay figurines only become common in this region alongside the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic age, beginning around 11,500 years ago.
But, the authors of this paper say, these new findings show that Natufian figures were more varied and complex than we once thought — and suggest that the seeds of the region’s Neolithic culture were sown well before the agricultural revolution.
Dr. Davin adds: “These discoveries change how we understand the beginnings of artistic expression in the first villages of humanity. Thousands of years before agriculture and pottery emerged, people were already using clay to create figures, as part of their beliefs and knowledge of the natural world. What is particularly fascinating is the evidence that children were involved in making these objects, suggesting that creativity and cultural knowledge were shared across generations.”
In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/3UtmOO2
Citation: Davin L, Sindel M, Weinstein-Evron M, Yeshurun R, Kaufman D, Grosman L, et al. (2026) Modelling symbols among the first-sedentary communities: Emergence of clay figurines in Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia. PLoS One 21(11): e0360388. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0360388
Modelling symbols among the first-sedentary communities: Emergence of clay figurines in Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia
Article Publication Date
11-Nov-2026
Fragment of a Natufian figurine depicting a gazelle head with horns made of perishable materials (e.g., twigs) modelled in clay 12,000 years ago, discovered at the site of Eynan-Mallaha (Upper Jordan Valley). The head was painted red with engobe (a mixture of liquid clay and ochre) to depict the gazelle's eyes and fur pattern.
The explosion occurred when a crane lifting a boiler collapsed into a large industrial furnace, causing a huge fire.
The blast happened at midday local time, when a crane lifting a replacement boiler collapsed and fell into a furnace used during the liquid steel casting process.
The fire at the HABAS plant in Aliaga, Izmir province, claimed at least 17 people's lives and also injured 13 people, two of them critically, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised address following a scheduled Cabinet meeting.
"The circumstances surrounding this tragic incident, which has deeply saddened our nation, including how and why it happened, whether there was any negligence and who bears responsibility, will be established," Erdogan said on television.
According to eye witnesses, the explosion "felt like an earthquake".
Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay said on X that rescue teams were "continuing their work to remove the collapsed platform" and that those affected were factory workers.
EU president Ursula van der Leyen has expressed her condolences
HABAS is a privately owned group and one of Turkey's top steel producers. The plant was established in 1987 and can produce 4.5 million tons of steel annually, according to the company’s website.
Workers' groups said there was a long record of safety issues at HABAS.
Major explosion at Turkish steelmaker Habas’ Aliaga plant kills at least six
The noise and smoke caused by the explosion at the plant were observed across Izmir. / social media footageFacebook
At least six workers were killed, with dozens more injured or trapped, following a major explosion on November 9 that took place around noon (local time) at steelmaker Habas’ plant in western Turkey, the Izmir governorate said in a press release.
The incident occurred at the industrial group’s primary manufacturing complex in the Bozkoy neighborhood on the Aliaga peninsula, an industrial heartland and key shipping hub located north of Izmir on the Aegean coast.
According to preliminary assessments released by the governorate, the blast was triggered during a liquid steel casting operation when an overhead crane failed and plummeted directly into an electric arc furnace.
Initial reports from regional officials confirmed three fatalities at the scene and 14 injuries with several victims transferred to nearby medical facilities in a critical condition. In a subsequent statement issued later in the afternoon, the governorate updated the death toll to six after one critically injured worker succumbed to injuries in hospital and search-and-rescue teams recovered two additional bodies from wreckage.
Emergency crews remain deployed at the site where search-and-rescue efforts continued to reach workers feared trapped beneath heavy industrial debris.
Habas, one of Turkey’s biggest steel producers, also operates extensive production facilities for industrial gases and heavy manufacturing. Its Aliaga complex serves as a crucial node in the country's metal export supply chain, producing long products and billets for international markets.
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Monday, November 09, 2026
The Impact Of Martial Law On Philippine Education, 1972-1986: Foregrounding Teachers’ Perspectives – Book Review
"The Impact of Martial Law on Philippine Education, 1972-1986: Foregrounding Teachers’ Perspectives" by Dr. Michael D. Pante
Dr. Michael D. Pante’s book, launched 26 October 2026, is the first national-scale historical account of Philippine education under Martial Law (1972–1986) that centers teachers’ experiences in both public and private institutions.
It documents how the Marcos regime’s professionalization and curricular reforms coincided with plummeting education budgets, low pay, overwork and the proletarianization of teaching, prompting teachers to organize for economic and political rights.
The work frames education history as labor history and links past contradictions to present challenges under EDCOM II, including heavy workloads and chronic underfunding.
Ferdinand Marcos Sr. once held up the professionalization of teaching as a mark of national development. Yet this recognition rang hollow as the state failed the very people expected to carry forward and benefit from its education agenda. In one of the Martial Law period’s starkest contradictions, a regime that promised to elevate the profession actually presided over its decline.
“We owe it to Marcos Sr. for the professionalization of the teaching profession. But then again, by the end of the Marcos era, teaching had lost its prestige as an occupation. Teachers, beginning with the Martial Law period, were severely underpaid, extremely overworked,” said Dr. Michael D. Pante, associate professor at the Department of History of the Dr. Rosita G. Leong School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University.
Pante examines this contradiction in his book, The Impact of Martial Law on Philippine Education, 1972-1986: Foregrounding Teachers’ Perspectives , launched last October 26 at an event jointly organized by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) and the Ateneo de Manila University.
Dr. Pante’s book is the first published historical account of Philippine education during the Marcos years to examine both public and private institutions, from basic to higher education, on a national scale. Drawing on teachers’ experiences, Pante places the labor behind education at the center of a history often told through government policies and institutional changes.
Written with a grant from the NHCP, the book underscores the history of education as a history of labor: of who bears the cost of education policy, whose working conditions are undervalued in reform efforts, and the mass resistance of teachers that followed.
He examines how the Marcos dictatorship’s education reforms—from sweeping curricular changes to the professionalization of teaching—reshaped classrooms, knowledge production, and teachers’ roles in society. Despite these, education’s share of the national budget plummeted, salaries remained inadequate, and working conditions deteriorated. As their profession became increasingly proletarianized, teachers organized alongside blue-collar workers to fight for their economic and political rights.
“Ang mga guro ang unang nakapansin sa mga nangyayari sa ating lipunan noong panahon ng Martial Law… Ang aklat na ito’y hindi lamang tungkol sa nakaraan. Ito rin ay tungkol sa ating kasalukuyan. Hinahamon tayo nitong isipin kung para saan nga ba talaga ang edukasyon. Ito ba ay isang karapatan para sa lahat ng Pilipino o isang kalakal na maaaring bilhin lamang ng may kakayahan?” (“Teachers were the first to notice the social upheavals of Martial Law… This book is not only about the past. It is also about our present. It challenges us to think about what education is really for. Is it a right shared by all Filipinos or a commodity that can only be bought by those who can afford it?”), shared former ACT Partylist Representative Teacher France Castro in a review of the book.
“Mike Pante has given us not only an essential history, but a moving tribute to the great awakeners and keepers of our collective conscience,” said academic Dr. Caroline S. Hau of Kyoto University.
Its release comes as the country continues to reckon with the state of its education system under the presidency of Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. via the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM II): in its final report, released in January 2026, the body highlighted persistent problems in Philippine education, including heavy teacher workloads and chronic underfunding.
More than four decades after the dictatorship ended, Pante’s book calls for a reckoning with the promises made in the name of educational progress. Any effort to reform Philippine education must confront not only what the state promises, but what it owes the people who make education possible.
The Impact of Martial Law on Philippine Education, 1972–1986: Foregrounding Teachers’ Perspectives is available through the Official NHCP Bookstore Portal or at the NHCP Central Office Bookstore located on T.M. Kalaw Street, Ermita, Manila.
