I am now going offline for three months to work on the writing a Monograph about the ‘Mediation of Cultural Heritage Disputes’, for publication in 2026.

See the ‘Mediation of Cultural Heritage Disputes’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk.

In the Monograph, I will also discuss IOMed, see the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation.

The working title of my next book is – ‘Art Civilization & Law’ – see the ‘Art Civilization & Law’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk.

My next live Zoom webinar to be presented to members of the Standing Conference of Mediation Advocates worldwide in 2025 is entitled – ‘Mediation of International Cultural Heritage Disputes – Part 1: Introduction & Overview.’

This is scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday 11 November 2025.

See also:

‘Secret of the Incas, unveiled …. William Sullivan’ – Episode 1: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Secret+of+the+Incas%2c+unveiled+….+William+Sullivan+(1)+youtube&mid=55709439A16719FCCC0155709439A16719FCCC01&mcid=E3A4608B75EC4867937DA6C4896474B7&FORM=VIRE

‘Secret of the Incas, unveiled …. William Sullivan- Episode 2’: https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=william%20sullivan%20upaide%20down%20invisible%20inca%20pyramid%20secret%20of%20the%20incas%20book&mid=0DE81CC73FA2E2B5AA1C0DE81CC73FA2E2B5AA1C&ajaxhist=0

Look out for the ‘optically’ invisible Inca Pyramid hidden in Ollantaytambo, the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Another interesting book to possibly add to your summer reading list is – ‘The Secret of the Incas: Myth, Astronomy, and the War Against Time’ by William Sullivan, who holds a BA from Harvard College and a doctorate from the Centre of Amerindian, Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of St. Andrews.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Incas-Myth-Astronomy-Against/dp/0517888513

‘At its peak, the Inca empire was the largest on Earth. Yet in the year 1532, it was conquered by fewer than 200 Spanish adventurers. How could this happen? Approaching the answer clue by clue, William Sullivan decodes the myths of the Incas to reveal that they embody an astoundingly precise record of astronomical events.

In the 15th century, the Inca priest-astronomers read the sky and saw signs of an apocalypse. So the Incas took a desperate gamble: If events in the heavens could influence those on Earth, perhaps the reverse was true. In The Secret of the Incas, Sullivan shows that the Inca rituals of warfare and human sacrifice were nothing less than an attempt to stop time, to forestall the cataclysm that would sweep away their world. This is a work of rare erudition and imagination that will reshape our understanding of the past.’

Anecdotally – I briefly met Graham Hancock at a lecture, after returning to the UK from working for two years in Paris in the mid 1990’s. Throughout my time in Paris, I was a member of The Société des Amis du Louvre, and visited the museum at least once a month. On my visits I also bought books in the Louvre shop, including one which when translated is entitled, ‘The Passage to Eternity.’ This contained detailed photographs of what was discovered on the walls of Egyptian Temples in the Nile Delta by two French amateur archaeologists who were also keen photographers. I mentioned to Hancock that I was puzzled, because the book contained pictures of several images of what appeared to me to be either scribes or priests, who had distinctly East Asian features. This remains an enigma to me, but he had made the same observation elsewhere. What were people from East Asia doing appearing on the walls of an Egyptian Temple on the banks of the river Nile? I still do not know the answer?

See also ‘How Were the Ancient Civilizations of Egypt and China Similar?’: https://historypeak.com/how-were-the-ancient-civilizations-of-egypt-and-china-similar/

For Ark aficionados see also – ‘Hancock proposes that the ark was removed from Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem by temple priests during the reign of the evil King Manasseh of Judah around 650 BC, and then it spent about 200 years in a purpose-built temple in Elephantine, Egypt. It was removed around 470 BC to Ethiopia via tributaries to the Nile River, where it was kept on the Jewish island of Tana Qirqos for about eight hundred more years as the centre of a strong Jewish community there. It finally came into the hands of the young Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the 5th century, who took it to their capital of Axum, where it supposedly remains there to this day in the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion. The Ethiopian Church believes that the Ark is indeed held today in that church, but as opposed to the book, they believe that it was brought to Ethiopia by Menelik I, stolen from Solomon’s Temple during the reign of King Solomon himself, some 200 years earlier than the events proposed by the book.’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sign_and_the_Seal

‘Legend’ can take you on a journey to unexpected and exotic places, see – ‘The pharaoh’s daughter who was the mother of all Scots’: https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/the-pharaohs-daughter-who-was-the-mother-of-all-scots-2507668.
An item of Cultural Property, including surviving fragments of the manuscript of an ancient saga/myth, can therefore form part of a historical ‘jigsaw’ puzzle, helping us to unlock the past and reveal its hidden secrets and lessons.

Tomorrow, I am reading about a 400-year-old wooden tablet (a ‘Tabot’), sacred to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which was returned in 2003 by the St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, to a delegation of Ethiopian priests. The Tabot represents the Ark of the Covenant in which the Israelites carried the Ten Commandments.

For Ark of the Covenant aficionados, see also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_Mary_of_Zion

‘The Church of Saint Mary of Zion claims to contain the original Ark of the Covenant. … [Although some scholars believe this to be a replica].

The Ark was moved to the Chapel of the Tablet adjacent to the old church because a divine ‘heat’ from the Tablets had cracked the stones of its previous inner sanctum. …

According to pious tradition, the Ark came to Ethiopia with Crown prince Menelik I after he visited his father King Solomon in Jerusalem. …

At present, only the guardian monk may view the Ark, in accordance with the Biblical accounts of the dangers of doing so for non-Kohanim. …

The guardian monk is appointed for life … [and] is confined to the chapel of the Ark of the Covenant for the rest of his life, praying before it and offering incense.’

I thought I would share what I learned today about the return of the ‘Stone of Scone’, which is also known as the ‘Coronation Stone’, and as the ‘Stone of Destiny.’ The stone was inscribed in Latin with the words – ‘If Fates go right, wher’er this stone is found The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crowned.’ What I learned today, is the principle that a ‘patrimonial connection’ may exist through ‘legend’, and therefore that ‘mythology’ may form a ‘powerful’ part of the rich historical tapestry of an item of cultural property. In this case, legend identifies the stone with the pillow of Jacob at Bethel, the stone upon which the biblical patriarch laid his head when he had his dream about the ladder stretching to heaven. The stone was taken to Egypt by a Greek, who married the Pharaoh’s daughter Scota (from whom the name of Scotland was derived), then to Spain and Ireland and finally to Scotland, which it was supposed to have reached about 330BC. It was then taken in AD 846 by Kenneth II to Scone where it was later used in the coronation of all Scots Kings. The first known documented use of the stone for a coronation was that of Lulach the Simple, the half-witted stepson of Macbeth, who reigned for only seven months in 1057.

I thought I would share what I learned today about the return of the ‘Stone of Scone’, which is also known as the ‘Coronation Stone’, and as the ‘Stone of Destiny.’ The stone was inscribed in Latin with the words – ‘If Fates go right, wher’er this stone is found The Scots shall monarchs of that realm be crowned.’ What I learned today, is the principle that a ‘patrimonial connection’ may exist through ‘legend’, and therefore that ‘mythology’ may form a ‘powerful’ part of the rich historical tapestry of an item of cultural property. In this case, legend identifies the stone with the pillow of Jacob at Bethel, the stone upon which the biblical patriarch laid his head when he had his dream about the ladder stretching to heaven. The stone was taken to Egypt by a Greek, who married the Pharaoh’s daughter Scota (from whom the name of Scotland was derived), then to Spain and Ireland and finally to Scotland, which it was supposed to have reached about 330BC. It was then taken in AD 846 by Kenneth II to Scone where it was later used in the coronation of all Scots Kings. The first known documented use of the stone for a coronation was that of Lulach the Simple, the half-witted stepson of Macbeth, who reigned for only seven months in 1057.

See also the ‘Research Bibliography’ (23.05.2025) on the ‘Mediation of Cultural Heritage Disputes’ page at www.carlislam.co.uk