Category: bija-knowles - Part 4

From Medici to Italy: Repatriation for Boscoreale Fresco and Corinthian Vase

A precious Roman wall painting, stolen from the site of an ancient villa near Pompeii, has been returned to Italy, after 12 years circulating on the nebulous antiquities market.

The fragment of plaster fresco originally came from a Roman villa at Boscoreale, just outside Pompeii, and was reported stolen from an archaeological warehouse at Pompeii in 1997.

The fresco is a typically Pompeian scene showing a woman dressed in green carrying a dish or tray against a cream background, surrounded by a deep red frame. Another part of the fragmented wall fresco, depicting Dionysos, was recovered from a London art gallery in 2008, according to this report on PR Newswire. The villa at Boscoreale was abandoned in the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius.

A 2,600-year-old Corinthian vase was also repatriated, having been recovered from Christie’s auction house in New York. The vase dates from the sixth century BC and is thought to come from an Etruscan rock-cut tomb near Rome. The large column vase was originally used to mix wine and water and is decorated with black-figure animals on the lower band, with human figures on the upper band.

The two objects were due for auction in New York earlier this year before they were recognised as being of dubious provenance. Customs officials seized them in June. Associated Press reported that an Italian representative welcomed the antiquities back into the country last Wednesday, 2 December.

The Medici Conspiracy

It is thought that the vase may have found its way onto the antiquities market via convicted arts trafficker Giacomo Medici (sentenced to 10 years in jail in Rome in 2004). Medici was responsible for selling hundreds of illegally-obtained Greek, Roman and Etruscan objects on the art market. In 2006, his dodgy dealings were the subject of a book The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museum, by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini.

“It is a matter of concern that two auction-houses – Christie’s and Bonham’s – have been willing to offer material from sales that are known to have contained material supplied by Medici and his associates.” – David Gill

How the two objects ended up at the New York auction is a matter of some concern. As David Gill, a classics scholar from the University of Wales, Swansea, notes in his Looting Matters blog, prominent auction houses have been known to list items subsequently found to have non-legitimate origins.

He writes that: It is a matter of concern that two auction-houses – Christie’s and Bonham’s – have been willing to offer material from sales that are known to have contained material supplied by Medici and his associates. Why did their due diligence processes fail to identify the potential problem with this particular “provenance”? Auction-houses need to be very wary of antiquities that first appeared at Sotheby’s in London during the 1980s and 1990s.

The return of the Corinthian vase and the Boscoreale fresco comes at a time when the legality of more high profile artefacts is also being questioned. Dr Zahi Hawass of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is in negotiations with German officials to discuss the future of the Bust of Nefertiti, currently housed at Berlin’s Neues Museum, while he has also invited officials from Italy and Greece to join a conference on the return of antiquities. Last month, the BBC reported the passing of the Holocaust (Stolen Art) Restitution Act, which has set a new precedent in allowing art institutions and museums in Britain to return objects that were looted by the Nazis during the Second World War.

Photo by Alex Segre on Creative Commons licence.

Grunts From the Front: From Roman Tablets to Army Blogs

Humans have always fought each other, but the written narrative of warfare begins about 6,000 years ago with documents detailing a conflict between Elam and Sumer (modern-day Iran and Iraq). Since then military history has been dominated by the official story of leaders and their strategic political and military decisions. Wars have rarely been narrated by the ordinary foot soldier, pilot or sailor.

A notable exception to this is the fragmentary records from Vindolanda, some of which give us a soldier’s eye view of army life at a Roman fort between 90 and 120 AD. Information that we can glean from the tablets includes the fighting tactics of the Brittunculi (that’s what the Romans used to call us Brits), as well as details about the daily diet, the cold and messages to far-away families and friends. Other examples of letters written by soldiers in the Roman army have been found at Doura-Europos (modern-day Salhiye in Syria) and Oxyrhynchus and Karanis (Kom Aushim) in Egypt.

It is likely that Roman soldiers would also have been fighting in the area of modern-day Iraq, or Mesopotamia, which was occupied by the Parthians until the second century AD. The emperor Trajan sought to expand the empire into much of Parthian Mesopotamia in 116 AD, but Hadrian relinquished some territory in 118 AD, realising that the empire’s defences were stretched. To this day, the occupying forces in Iraq also have to deal with the fragile heritage dating from the Babylonian empire – although not always with much success. So from the earliest records of fighting in Elam and Sumer some 6,000 years ago, we come full circle to the most modern war narratives – this time the soldier’s personal point of view through the soldier blogs from modern-day Iraq.

Sending Messages Home: Then and Now

The Vindolanda ‘postcards’ were written on thin veneers of local British woods using Roman-style ink. They were probably sent through army convoys: a far cry from the near-instant and global messages that modern-day soldiers are able to send to their families and friends, or even to complete strangers. But despite the vast difference in communication between now and 120 AD, some of the messages aren’t so different to those of US and UK soldiers stationed in Iraq since 2003. While the Roman soldiers were eager to hear news of their families and friends, the soldiers on duty in Iraq also posted messages emphasising how important family ties are to them.

My War: The Soldier Blogs and Personal Views of War

One of the most well-known soldier blogs to come out of the Iraq war was Colby Buzzell’s My War (Killing Time in Iraq), written in a witty, Bukowski-esque style. Buzzell, an American infantry soldier, began writing about his experiences of fighting in Mosul in 2004 and his reports quickly became one of the most popular soldier blogs written during that conflict. One of the early entries alluded to the danger of working in a combat zone:

I can hear small arms fire right now coming from outside the wire as I write this entry From a cement shelter I observed three very large dust mushroom clouds from right outside the wire from where the explosions took place. You could feel the concusion of the explosions from where I was standing. No word yet what just happened. The craziness begins… [24 June 2004]

Other blogs from the multi-national troops posted in Iraq have also been flying around the blogosphere. Many of them mention the hard conditions that the soldiers are living in for example this post from American Soldier (written by an anonymous soldier in the US army):

I can say that I live in probably the shittiest and most dangerous part of Iraq. The barracks are cramped, the season is cold but when it comes to missions all is forgotten. I dont care what you read, the insurgency is consistent. Every day my FOB gets mortared. We send our counter fire out and square them away but they are at it again the next day. [23 January 2006]

Other non-official voices from the Iraqi conflict have included several Iraqi bloggers as well including a teenage girl going by the name of Najma Abdullah, writing in her blog A Star from Mosul. Her blog gives a frank perspective of civilian life during the conflict:

We reached school, the first thing I saw was a classmate crying, I hurried asking what happened and she told me “I saw him dying there! We couldn’t do anything.” [18 December 2004]

Towing the Line

modern soldiers are relatively free to express their opinions about the validity of their operations and their leaders provided they have the anonymity of a blog, as American Soldier acknowledges

Many of the bloggers are supportive of their mission in Iraq and some are also supportive of the Bush administration that instigated the conflict although in some cases this support seems to wane as the war progresses. One infantryman known as Kevin, wrote in his blog, Boots on the Ground:

100+ people kidnapped in broad day light from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS. This is just so outrageous. Someone needs to do something about this, the situation is TOTALLY out of control. I am so furious about this, is this the kind of crap me and my close buddies put our lives on the line for!? I can’t believe how bad things have gotten, this is just incomprehensible. I think it is time to pull our troops out, they’re doing the best damn job they can, but it is incompetence all the way to the top and our presence does not improve things at all.[17 November 2006]

Despite strict US Army rules on communications, modern soldiers are relatively free to express their opinions about the validity of their operations and their leaders provided they have the anonymity of a blog, as American Soldier acknowledges. In contrast, infantry in the Roman army may have been less likely to criticise their leaders or their mission. The practice of decimation, in which every tenth soldier would be beaten to death by the other soldiers was used during republican times up until the Augustan era. It was chosen as a method of punishing a cohort or group of soldiers for cowardice and, while it was a brutal punishment, it was chosen by commanders as an alternative to killing the whole group.

Sometimes it’s Better to Type

While blogs on the internet are certainly the way to go when it comes to getting your personal message across from remote locations, some prominent people today are still dipping their pen into ink to write their thoughts down on paper. However, it’s an ages-old technique that didn’t work too well for UK prime minister Gordon Brown, who got into trouble recently for penning an apparently almost illegible letter of condolence to the mother of Jamie Janes, a 20-year old guardsman killed in Afghanistan in October. While Gordon Brown’s intention was to convey his condolences to the grieving mother, Jacqui Janes took exception to the apparent mis-spelling of her son’s name as well as the messy handwriting.

Photo by the U.S. Army on Creative Commons.

The Virtual Ruins of Pompeii: Visit Them Now on Google’s Street View

First of all google sent a man on a bicycle around Stonehenge to capture the ancient site in virtual mode for Street View. Now it’s the archaeological site of Pompeii that’s online, allowing Internet users to take a 360-degree tour of the ancient Roman town destroyed by Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 AD.

The town’s statues, temples and theatres, as well as close-up views of individual houses and shops are all now visible on Street View, allowing armchair tourists – if that is you, did you try King Tut Virtual already? – to satisfy some of their curiosity about the site without falling prey to the hot Campanian summer days.

The Italian director of cultural heritage promotion, Mario Resca, was quoted by Ansa as saying “The opportunity to take a virtual stroll through the marvels of Pompeii, is a powerful way of promoting Italian tourism, as well as being a stimulus to many potential tourists to come in person to visit the two archaeological centres.

From a conservation point of view it is now obvious to a larger number of the public how much the site has suffered despite recent efforts.

The new addition to google’s Street View was also noted on Blogging Pompeii, a blog site for people working at the site (many of them archaeologists).

One blogger noted that Street View might publicise the deteriorating condition of the ruins: From a conservation point of view it is now obvious to a larger number of the public how much the site has suffered despite recent efforts.

According to Digital Urban blogspot, google is also investigating city modelling techniques, which could create automated architectural landscapes for historical cities such as Rome and Pompeii. The CityEngine demo shows what Pompeii could have looked like before 79 AD.

Roman Baths and Luxury Roman Houses Open to Public Beneath Palazzo Valentini

The red carpet was rolled out yesterday at one of Rome’s more unusual archaeological sites, while a discreet police presence also surrounded the visit of the president of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano to Palazzo Valentini. President of the Province of Rome, Nicola Zingaretti, called it an historic day, as Palazzo Valentini prepared to open its doors to visitors to the Roman archaeological complex and multi-media museum beneath it opening today for a limited time to the public.

Zingaretti said: It is a unique place, where cultural heritage comes together with a structure in every-day use. The occasion for Napolitano’s visit was the opening of an area between the two Roman houses underneath Palazzo Valentini and the area of Trajan’s Column.

The site, a stone’s throw from Trajan’s Column and the Roman Forum, is an underground archaeological complex of two luxurious Roman houses and baths, which have been re-opened to the public today following four years of excavation. The site was first discovered beneath the 16th century Palazzo Valentini in 2004 during building work.

The site was originally opened in late 2007 after the initial phase of excavations, and attracted some 45,000 visitors. The second phase of excavations began in March 2009 and have uncovered new areas of the thermal baths, named ‘Trajan’s Small Baths’ (Piccole Terme di Trajano), including a frigidarium with a large cold-water bath.

The site’s archaeologists believe that the houses and baths are evidence of an exclusive residential area behind Trajan’s Forum. Two large walls have also been found in the complex, which archaeologists believe to have been part of a large public building. They think this could be the temple to Divus Trajan, which is cited in historical sources, but has never been located.

Luxury Roman Houses

The first domus found at the site dates from 150 AD, which is probably when the first domus was built (although it would have been subsequently developed). The second domus was build during the time of emperors Commodus (176-192 AD) and Septimius Severus (193-211 AD). The two Roman houses show signs of several stages of development until the fifth century.

The most remarkable thing about the houses is their luxury marble flooring. The expensive marble sheets would have been imported into Rome from various parts of the empire, including Africa, and have been cut into geometric shapes to form a colourful tessellated pattern, using the ‘opus sectile’ technique. The marble used for the floors of the complex include porphyry, serpentine, ‘giallo antico’ (a yellow-coloured marble) as well as African marble. The precious marble used is thought to have been reclaimed marble from other sites.

Large sculptures have also been found at the site. The archaeologists working on the site are in no doubt that these were the houses of some of Rome’s elite citizens possibly even senators or other dignitaries.

Professor Eugenio La Rocca, an archaeologist involved in the site and museum, emphasises that the two houses were certainly the abode of some important Roman citizens. He said: Probably a prefect of the city would have lived here because it’s so near the forum. We are still examining the relationship between Trajan’s forum, the Roman houses and the roads that connect the sites. This is an opportunity to evaluate the excavation and is a unique site, really exceptional.

End Days: From Luxury Domus to City Dump

So what happened to these sumptuously decorated Roman houses, with their spacious rooms, luxury flooring and views over Trajan’s Column? There are signs of two natural disasters, either of which could have spelled the end for the rich patrician families living there. There are signs of a violent earthquake seen in the cracked marble flooring, which is consistent with earthquake damage rather than other kinds of wear-and-tear. There is also evidence of a large fire during late imperial times. It is believed that the fire would have been the final event that drove the inhabitants from the house.

The houses were transformed from highly-desirable patrician homes, into a city rubbish dump, with the consumer waste of the day ending up piled inside the walls of the house

The end of the Roman era saw the two luxury domus fall into disuse. It was also a time, according to Professor Eugenio La Rocca, when the population of Rome was shrinking, from a city of about one million inhabitants, it is thought to have dwindled to about 10,000 after the collapse of the Roman empire.

The two domuses were abandoned during the fifth century AD and from the end of the fourth century to the seventh, the area became slowly buried with daily waste material. The houses were transformed from highly-desirable patrician homes, into a city rubbish dump, with the consumer waste of the day ending up piled inside the walls of the house. The rubbish itself provides a fascinating insight into consumer habits of the day. It includes amphorae from Africa, Calabria, Sicily, as well as bottles, glass and preserved foodstuffs. Building materials were also dumped at the house, as well as pieces of marble statue a marble head was found among the rubble and has been left in its place of discovery. The site was even used as a burial at one stage.

Palazzo Valentini: A Building with History

Palazzo Valentini, built in 1585, is named after the Prussian banker, Vincenzo Valentini, who bought the building in 1827. He lived there and also carried out architectural improvements, while also housing his art collection there. Since 1873, Palazzo Valentini has been the headquarters of the local authority, Provincia di Roma.

An air-raid shelter was built underneath Palazzo Valentini in 1939, to protect the employees of the Provincia di Roma from allied bombs during the Second World War. Since Palazzo Valentini is near Piazza Venezia and only about a 100 metres or so from Mussolini’s headquarters at Palazzo Venezia, it was thought that it could be a target.

The bunker now forms part of the exhibition space and is on the visitor’s route from the main archaeological site to the view of Trajan’s Column.

Zingaretti also added that the archaeological complex beneath Palazzo Valentini is very near to works for the new metro line in Rome.

Don’t Miss it: Open 4 December to 6 January

The archaeological area and museum will be open between 4 December and 6 January, from 10am to 5pm. Visitors will be admitted in groups at 15 minute intervals booking ahead is advised by phoning +39 06 32810 (there is a booked fee of 1.50). Tickets costs 6.50, or 4.50 for those aged 6-25 years or over 65, or for those with a Provinz card. Free entry for children under 6 and for people with a disability and their carer. The site will be open from 10am to 1.30pm on 24 and 31 December and will be closed on 25 December and 1 January.

Photos by Provincia di Roma.

Roman Wales: Can Discovery of Ceredigion’s First Roman Villa Shed New Light on Welsh Heritage?

Historians and archaeologists are having to rethink the history of Roman Wales, as the foundations of what is very likely to have been a Roman villa have been discovered at Trawsgoed, about eight miles from Aberystwyth.

As many as 21 Roman villas are known in south Wales, but until now archaeologists didn’t believe that the Romans had built villa-sized dwellings as far north as Aberystwyth, in Ceredigion.

In fact, this could be Ceredigion’s first Roman villa, according to the archaeologists working for the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales (RCAHMW). The realisation was made this summer during the filming of the series Hidden Historiesfor BBC2 Wales.

The First Roman Villa of West Wales?

The discovery is hugely exciting according to archaeologist Toby Driver. He said: After a long hot day in the field we were very surprised to see the buried floor plan of a substantial building on our computer screen. It has all the hallmarks of a classic Roman villa with three main rooms, two projecting wings and a corridor or verandah at the front. We will not know whether or not the building is definitely Roman until we excavate.

The outlines of the probable Roman villa were first seen in aerial photography during a dry summer in 2006 these pictures showed rectangular foundations near Trawsgoed Roman fort, which is now underneath the current Trawsgoed Estate.

Roman Villas in Wales

Toby Driver told Sally Williams in the Western Mail: The building has all the hallmarks of a small Roman villa of a type which flourished from the mid-second to the fourth century AD.

If so, it lies well away from the main block of known Welsh villas in lowland Gwent and the Vale of Glamorgan with a thin spread into south Carmarthenshire and south Pembrokeshire.

However, there are scattered but well-appointed villas occupying the upper Usk Valley and at Llys Brychan near Llangadog in the Tywi Valley, Carmarthenshire.

There are more than 260 sites in the UK where Roman villas are thought to have once stood, according to online-archaeology. The vast majority of these are in central England, with just one, Illogan Roman villa, in Cornwall, and none further north than Middlesbrough. There are nine Roman villas listed in Wales:

Llantwit Major Roman villa, South Glamorgan
Moulton Roman villa, South Glamorgan
Whitton Lodge Roman villa, South Glamorgan
Croes-Carn-Einion Roman villa, South Glamorgan
Ely Roman villa, South Glamorgan
Llys Brychan Roman Villa, Carmarthenshire
Maesderwen Roman villa, Powys
Castle Trump Roman villa, Gwent
Little Hadnock Roman villa (listed as in Hereford and Worster, but according to the map on the Monmouth side of the border).

A further 12 sites in Wales have been identified as containing the remains of possible Roman villas. These are: Castle Tump (Caerwent, Monmouthshire); Dan-y-Graig; Five Lanes Villa, Llanvaches (Caerwerit); Ford Farm Roman Villa; Llandough; Llanbethery; Lower House Farm West (Llantwit Major); Llanmihangael Pen-y-Bryn Farm; New Mill Farm (Monknash); Portskewett; Stoop Hill Roman Villa; Wyndcliff (Porthcasseg).

Roman Villa at Caermead, Llantwit Major

Very little remains of the known Roman villas in Wales. Most are little more than foundations. Caermead villa north of

The Romans never fully made themselves at home in Wales. This was mainly through choice the Welsh terrain was deemed too mountainous and inhospitable

Llantwit Major, on the south coast, is perhaps the most well-known villa in Wales.

The villa is built around an ‘L’ shaped courtyard and there are several buildings of different sizes for various domestic and agricultural purposes. The villa was discovered in 1888 but it wasn’t excavated fully until 1938-48.

This artist’s impression (from the National Museums & Galleries of Wales) shows what the Roman villa at Caermead may have looked like in the fourth century.

There is evidence of neolithic or Iron Age humans at Llantwit Major, but archaeologists believe that the Roman villa dates from the first century AD, while the foundations of the stone structures were put down during the second century. The villa is notable for its mosaic floors. The villa was abandoned during the fourth century.

The Romans in Wales

Most of the known Roman remains in Wales are from military camps and forts. There were large legionary bases at Isca Augusta (modern day Caerleon) and across the modern Welsh border at Deva Victrix (Chester). Segontium (Caernarfon) and Moridunum (Carmarthen) were also large military forts. They built roads to access these forts, as well as several mines, such as the Dolaucothi gold mines near Carmarthen.

Several tribes lived in the area of modern Wales at the time when Romans invaded much of the UK in the first century AD. The main tribes in Wales were the Ordovices in central and north-west Wales, the Silures in the south east, as well as the Deceangli in the north east.

Publius Ostorius Scapula, a governor of Britain under the emperor Claudius, attacked and overcame the Deceangli in 48 AD. He fought against the Silures and the Ordovices, but they put up more resistance, led by the Celtic king Caratacus. The Ordovices were subdued by Ostorius in 51 AD.

The Silures on the other hand, despite attempts by Paulinus to defeat them on Anglesey in 61 AD (he was distracted by Boudica’s revolt), weren’t fully overcome until Sextus Julius Frontinus mounted an attack in 78 AD. Agricola also defeated the Ordovices for a second time in 79 AD and Wales came more or less fully under Roman control.

However, despite the subjugation, it seems that the Romans never fully made themselves at home in Wales. This was mainly through choice the Welsh terrain was deemed too mountainous and inhospitable.

Hidden Histories

The second TV series of Hidden Histories, which follows the archaeological survey work of the RCAHMW, is available on iPlayer (for those within the UK) and a book based on the first series is available from Amazon.

Photos by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales.

The Curse of King Tut – A Video Guide to Avoiding it

Tutankhamun, or King Tut as he’s affectionately known, was the boy king who ruled Egypt during the New Kingdom’s 18th dynasty, from 1333 to 1324 BC. In life he wasn’t the most important or memorable of Egypt’s pharoahs, but in death he’s become the one pharoah everyone’s heard of. His death at the age of 19 has been the topic of much discussion (You can watch last week’s video on the mystery of King Tut’s death here) and he was buried in the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor (ancient Thebes). His tomb KV62 is one of the most famous archaeological discoveries ever and has generated not only a whole new body of knowledge about the young king’s life, but also one of the most intriguing mysteries surrounding the necropolis at Thebes.

The Curse of Tutankhamun’s Tomb (KV62)

The explorers who found KV62 on November 4th 1922 found an inscription at the entrance that seemed to say that all those who enter will be killed. But was this a curse or just a severe warning to tomb raiders? Within a year of the tomb being opened, Lord Carnarvon, one of the initial exploration party, died in a hotel in Cairo at the age of 57. The cause was possibly a mosquito bite, which became infected. Howard Carter lived on until 1939, when he died of cancer aged 64. So is the curse real and does it pose a danger to all those who enter KV62? You would think not, but according to one man who knows, the jury is out.

Does this stairway into KV62 lead to a cursed life? Image Credit - Supreme Council of Antiquities. Dr Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities isn’t the kind of chap to be scared off by a little superstition in fact his team of Egyptian archaeologists discovered eight baskets of doum fruit in KV62 in 2007. Dr Hawass has since worked at the site and personally accompanied the corpse of Tutankhamun when it underwent a CT scan. In this video he describes his initial scepticism about the curse, pointing out that the curse inscription was mis-translated by a reporter. Hawass says it is much more likely to be a simple (and commonplace) warning to tomb-robbers, rather than a mystical curse of the pharoahs.

Tips to Survive King Tut’s Curse

The excavatory techniques used in the early 20th century are also slightly dubious. Hawass says archaeologists were over-eager to enter the newly discovered tombs. Much of it comes down to common sense: if a tomb has been sealed for 3,000 years, and it contains a mummified body, as well as other organic material, then the air inside may contain unpleasant gasses and bacteria.

Is 21st century technology also prone to 3,000-year-old magic curses?

Hawass, who has been excavating for 35 years and has worked inside many tombs, reveals in this video his own tricks for staying healthy while examining ancient Egyptian mummies and other artefacts from tombs. They include:

Always open the tomb but never enter straight away. Leave it open for one day, so fresh air can circulate.
Don’t shave. Hawass believes that shaving can leave a man’s face with small abrasions that can leave him open to infection.

An Odd Series of Events: Curse or Coincidence?

Is the curse of King Tut affecting modern medical equipment? Image Credit - Supreme Council of Antiquities. However, Hawass also reveals that he is not entirely without his superstitious side. He himself experienced an odd series of events surrounding his own examination of the body and tomb of Tutankhamun. Last year, as he drove from Luxor to the Valley of the Kings, his car nearly ran over and killed a small child, he then received a phone call telling him his brother-in-law had died. Shortly afterwards, as he finished giving a TV interview, storm clouds gathered over the Valley of the Kings and it rained torrentially a pretty rare event in the parched desert around Luxor (which has average annual rainfall of less than one inch per year, compared to London with about 24 inches).

One final inexplicable incident seems to have left Dr Hawass with a suspicion that the famed curse of Tutankhamun might just be true after all. As his team scanned the Egyptian king’s mummified body in a CT scanner, the brand new machine inexplicably stopped working for an hour. Is 21st century technology also prone to 3,000-year-old magic curses? Or perhaps even sophisticated scanners gets the jitters in the presence of such a famed boy-king? There is certainly some doubt in Dr Hawass’s mind.

HDVideo: King Tut – The Curse of the Mummy (feat. Zahi Hawass)

(Click here for the transcript of this video)

Don’t miss the other great videos on Heritage Key, including these The Death of King Tut: Murder or Accident? (feat. Dr. Zahi Hawass), the Search for the Tomb of Cleopatra (Featuring Dr. Kathleen Martinez) and Dr Zahi Hawass explaining the Ancient Mummy Recipe. We’re publishing new videos all the time, so keep an eye on our video page, or sign up to our RSS feeds to keep up to date with the latest releases on HK.

Lewd Latin and Beastial Busts: Erotic Art and Poetry of the Romans

The first century BC Roman poet Catallus has been making the headlines this week more than 2,000 years after he penned his erotic body of work known as the Carmina. One poem from the Carmina, Catallus 16, begins with the explicit line Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo – literally translated by The Guardian (who go on to question the BBC’s reluctance to offer a translation and send the reader to check out the full text on wikipedia instead) as “I will bugger you and stuff your gobs.”

These Latin words were written in an email by a London business man, to a young woman working in his office. This could have been a mis-judged jest on his part – but it’s one thing to read a bit of ‘burlesque’ ribaldry from a very dead Roman poet. It’s a bit more disconcerting to read the words written in an email from your boss.

The businessman, Mark Lowe, is on trial on a charge of unfair dismissal this week and debate about his choice of words (can we call it a chat-up line?) have been filling column inches of Britain’s dailies.

In his article headlined Sexus Maximus! (even if you’re not a Daily Mail fan, you have to give them credit for the catchiness of their headlines), Tom Holand refers to the the sheer reservoirs of filth contained within Roman literature generally. If ever there were an incentive to learn Latin and start studying the classic writers, this could be it. Apart from Catallus, you could also read Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (a poem about the art of finding, seducing and retaining a woman) or Sextus Propertius’s romantic elegies.

Erotic Roman Sculptures

But it wasn’t just the Roman poets who were perfectly comfortable with depicting the grittier side of love and sex. Roman sculptors were also at one with the idea of portraying people, gods and even animals at their most intimate moments.

An Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) lecture at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, last week gave students an insight into the world of erotic Roman sculpture. The lecturer, Professor Elizabeth Hartman, explained to her audience that much can be inferred about Roman culture and attitudes to sex by erotic statues and more importantly, the context in which these statues were displayed.

According to the Dogstreet Journal, one sculpture referred to in her lecture was the marble composition of the god Pan having an intimate moment with a bemused-looking goat this statue is part of the Herculean group now on display at The Naples Archaeological Museum.

As Professor Hartman pointed out, while the Greeks may have thought it acceptable to display an erotic statue in public, the Romans were more likely to keep them within a private house although she adds that it would not necessarily be kept in a bedroom. Pan and the Goat was displayed in a private villa in Pompeii beside a pool in full view of the main dining area.

Plenty of other erotic statues, frescoes and mosaics have been found at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Some of them were deemed so shocking that King Francis I of Naples ordered them to be locked up in 1819.

Other erotic Greco-Roman statues include Leda and the Swan, an original by fourth century BC Greek sculptor Timotheus (in Madrid’s El Prado Musuem). A Roman-era likeness of this statue is held in the Capitoline Museum’s Palazzo Nuovo. The museum also holds a statue of Cupid and Psyche kissing, as well as the Capitoline Venus, a Roman-era statue made in the likeness of an artwork by Praxiteles.

Hartman also pointed out that some erotic artworks could be a deterrent, warning people not to behave like the deviant satyrs, rather than encouraging them to follow suit. She also noted that erotic art could stimulate discussions and debate about sex and more to the point controlling one’s passions, rather than simply being a green-light to going ahead and indulging in them.

For more ancient erotic verse, check out the racy poems of Ancient Egypt, and a preview of the program Sex in the Ancient World – Egyptian Erotica, which details the Turin Erotic Papyrus on display in the Turin Museum.

Roman Domus Discovered Near Stabiae – But Will There be Funds to Excavate?

In the small town of Casola di Napoli, about three miles south of the archaeological site of Pompeii, sheer chance has brought to light an archaeological discovery as well as some unanswered questions. A lorry driver was manoeuvring his van when he managed to cause some subsidence in part of a car park between two residential buildings. A hole opened in the ground revealing a stone arch and some walls.

Experts believe the structure revealed is a Roman domus built maybe 2,000 year ago when the area just east of Stabiae would have been largely agricultural and dotted with country villas. The discovery was made in the residential area of Monticelli, where a small stretch of Roman road was already known to exist. Local residents reported having seen a torrent of water coming out of the ground at this site when it rains heavily, according to stabiachannel.it. This could well have been caused by previously unseen underground chambers and channels built by the Romans, which would have filled with water.

The well-preserved domus could be a sign that a large Roman settlement also existed in the area. The problem is that it is right next to two blocks of residential flats. If there are further archaeological structures in the vicinity, they could well be nestling right underneath the homes of dozens of Neapolitan families. However, stabiachannel.it reports that so far there has been little sign that the Roman domus is of any interest.

Building work is currently under way to build a third residential block at Monticelli the work has been put on hold since last week’s find. Domenico Elefante, the building site’s manager, admitted his surprise at the discovery. He said it was particularly strange because two council blocks had been built there during the 1980s, and there had been no reports of archaeological finds at that time. Elefante fears that a lack of funds will mean the discovery may not be excavated properly. The site is also near to an illegally-constructed building that has already been pulled down. The problem of houses built without permission (known as ‘edilizia abusiva’) is endemic throughout Italy, particularly in the south.

In contrast, a Roman house was discovered beneath a theatre in the UK earlier this month. It was in such bad condition that preservation won’t be possible.

Photo by Gaius Caecilius, from the Heritage Key Flickr photo pool.

Vampires of Volterra: The Etruscan Roots of The Twilight Saga

This week the film The Twilight Saga: New Moonis being released, fuelling vampire mania around the world. While teenagers go completely nuts over the film’s hunky vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson) one wrote ‘bite me’ on her face as she queued with 5,000 others to see him in London last week other die-hard fans of the Twilight books, written by Stephenie Meyers, are also descending on the small hill-top town of Volterra, in Tuscany, where some of the action of the film is set (even though filming actually took place in Montepulciano, 70 miles away). As a result, hordes of teenagers have been visiting Volterra a town with Etruscan roots and its own heritage of Etruscan demons, gods and goddesses associated with death, resurrection and the night.

The Twilight Saga: Vampire Mania

The Twilight Saga isn’t the only vampire story to grace our screens lately. The popular US series True Blood about a young woman in Louisiana who also falls in love with a vampire based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, also gathered cult status, adding to the growing body of vampire fiction on our bookshelves and on our screens. The nineties saw the likes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Interview with a Vampire, Bram Stoker’s Dracula as well as From Dusk Till Dawn. The 21st century has seen vampire fever take over with Van Helsing, more Buffy and now Twilightand True Blood.

In fact, Dracula is the most often-portrayed fictional character in film. So what is it about vampires? There must be something about the blood-sucking, garlic-fearing, sun-dodging demons that strikes a chord with modern audiences and indeed audiences since the early 18th century, when, following a vampire craze in the 1720s and 1730s, a poem called The Vampire, by Heinrich August Ossenfelder, was published in 1748. Vampires soon became a stock part of gothic fiction but they also had a romantic and erotic side to their personae, seducing women at night with their vampire’s kiss of death.

Ancient Blood Suckers

The ancient Greeks and Romans also had their share of supernatural figures and demi-gods, including Hecate the witch-like figure and her daughter Empusa, who sucked the blood of the men she seduced while they slept.

To this day vampires are often portrayed as being quite sexy think Robert Pattinson or True Blood‘s Stephen Moyer. However, the modern romantic vampire hero has more in common with figures from ancient mythology, rather than the vampire of Eastern European folklore (an altogether more corpse-like and unappetising kind of creature). The Incubus and the Succubus, dating back to the Sumerian kings of Mesopotamia (under the name of Lilu and Lilitu), were demons that appeared at night and seduced dreamers, often into erotic acts against their will.

Other figures from ancient mythology share some of the vampire’s traits. In ancient Egypt, Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Upper Egypt, was associated with blood-lust and with drinking blood (mythology has it that she drank a liquid resembling blood to quench her thirst for violence). The ancient Greeks and Romans also had their share of supernatural figures and demi-gods, including Hecate the witch-like figure and her daughter Empusa, who sucked the blood of the men she seduced while they slept. The Lamia was another demon in female form, renowned for sucking the blood of children and young men, while the Strixes were nocturnal bird-like creatures of Greek and Roman mythology, who ate human flesh and blood.

Etruscan Mythology the Dark Side

Closely connected with Greek and Roman mythology was the Etruscan pantheon, which also had its dark side. The Etruscans had several gods, goddesses and demons associated with death, the underworld, the night and resurrection. Some of the gods and goddesses included Artume, Vetis, Mania and Tvath. Etruscan demons of death include the Charontes, Tuchulcha (a grotesque demon from the underworld with donkey’s ears and snakes for hair and hands) and Vanth (a herald of death with eyes on her wings).

Given the rich Etruscan mythology with many figures associated with death and the underworld, it’s fitting that Volterra an important Etruscan centre, known as Velathri to the Etruscans is the setting for the new Twilight film. Volterra was a settlement since neolithic times and was then colonised by the Etruscan Velathri during the 8th century BC, while the city wall was built in the fourth century BC. It became one of the 12 important Etruscan city states but in the third century BC came under Roman control. An impressive Augustan-era amphitheatre, some fourth century AD baths as well as an Etruscan acropolis, are some of the important heritage sites in Volterra.

Photo by enrique3300 on Creative Commons licence.

Moving Capitals: Iran’s Plans to Ditch Tehran Echoed in Ancient World

Iran has taken a step closer to its goal of moving its capital away from Tehran to a new, as yet unbuilt location near the town of Qom. This seems like an extreme move but it’s one that has been repeated throughout history – as far back as the Egyptian dynasties of the Middle Kingdom, in ancient China and many times during the Roman empire.

Sometimes there are practical reasons for capital-moving. In Iran’s case it claims that Tehran, a city of 12 million people, sits on 100 seismic fault lines and is therefore a major natural disaster waiting to happen. There have been examples of relocations for practical reasons in history too. Constantine I may have chosen to build his ‘Nova Roma’ at Byzantium on the Bosphorus because it gave access to the Black Sea, and was also a good base for campaigns against the Goths. That the site of Constantinople lacked fresh water – 200km of aqueducts had to be built to provide enough – and that it was vulnerable to attack from the north west, were two weakness that Constantine overlooked.

Moving Capitals in the Ancient World

So moving a capital city isn’t always the wise thing to do. Nevertheless, leaders have been packing up their bags and moving their seats of power as far back as the Egyptian Middle Kingdom in around 3,000 BC (probably long before then too). Several millennia later, it was also a strategy that enabled Roman emperors to keep power as the empire evolved and there was a need to be nearer to areas of commerce or conflict.

Ancient Egypt

In Egypt’s Old Kingdom, Memphis was the capital from 3,100 BC until around 2,040 BC, as well as being the capital of Lower Egypt. But Mephis lost out to Thebes when the Theban kings won a civil war and designated their home city as the capital. This shows another aspect of capital moving that goes beyond practical or strategic considerations and is also present in some modern examples: an authoritarian leader has far more power to decide to uproot a capital city and over-rule any opposition, compared to a democratic government. In fact, according to this article by Sean Williams, ancient Egypt had more than a dozen capital cities throughout its (very long) history.

During the New Kingdom period, Thebes rose to prominence but the capital was to move again – this time to Akhetaten (Amarna) during a period of political instability under the heretic king Akhenaten (1,351-1,337 BC). The new city of Akhetaten was built in honour of Akhenaten’s new-found religious cult of Aten – but the move was not well-received by the general public of ancient Egypt and in particular by the priests of Amun, who viewed Akhenaten’s new one-god religion as heretical. After Akhenaten’s death, the designated capital returned to Thebes and Memphis. By 1319 BC, just 20 years after Amarna was built, the new city was abandoned.

In 331 BC Alexander the Great and his general Ptolemy founded a new capital for Egypt: Alexandria. The city, famous for its ancient lighthouse and library, remained Egypt’s capital throughout the Roman era and until Muslim invasion 1,000 years after its foundation.

The Chinese Empire

The ancient Chinese empire also had its fair share of capital-swapping. Xi’an was the capital from the Qin to the Tang dynasties (221 BC to 904AD). Following the Qin dynasty, the Han dynasty decided to move their capital away from Xi’an to Luoyang in Henan province. There were traditionally four ancient capitals of China (Beijing, Nanjing, Luoyang and Xi’an). Kaifeng, Hangzhou, Anyang and Zhengzhou have been added to the list in the past 100 years (following archaeological discoveries) and many more capital cities have also been identified – not surprising for an empire with such a time-span and geographical reach. To this day, the choice of Beijing as capital has been questioned – with the harsh winters, lack of a nearby fresh water supply and distance from China’s main food sources cited as reasons why Nanjing would make a better capital.

The Romans

Projects of such an enormous scale are easier to pursue in the absence of democratic procedures. In authoritarian political systems, the lite might accept the enormous financial costs of such a move because they anticipate future symbolic, political, and economic gain.

During the third and fourth centuries AD, the Roman emperors moved their seats of power several times. Constantine I finally shifted power eastwards when he moved his court to Constantinople in 330 AD. The Roman empire survived intact with two capitals for another 65 years before it was divided definitively into the West Roman Empire and East Roman Empire in 395 AD.

Before Constantine I, there had been several other capitals including Mediolanum (Milan) and Ravenna. These two cities were chosen because they gave the emperor better access to central and eastern Europe. Nicomedia was also the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for a while from 293 AD. Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) and Augusta Treverorum (Trier) were both seats of power of the Gallic Empire when it broke away from Rome’s rule (260-275 AD) and Trier also became the capital of the Western Roman Empire until Constantine began building his new capital at Byzantium. The late third and fourth centuries were a time when the shape and power-balance of the empire was shifting new capitals sprung up accordingly as emperors established their new power bases or tried to dominate existing territories.

An Age-old Strategy

So relocating a capital city isn’t new by any means. In modern circumstances it can be a bad sign for democracy in a country, while some examples from antiquity show that a change of capital often signalled a political and cultural sea-change. When Alexandria became the capital of Egypt in 331 BC, it heralded the beginning of the Ptolemaic kingdom and the spread of Hellenic culture to Egypt. The rise of Constantinople 660 years later also coincided with the rise of Christianity as the dominant religion of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of the Byzantine Empire.

Some modern examples of capital relocation are more ominous. In 2005, Burma’s military junta decided to build a new capital at Naypyidaw, in a remote jungle location, far from the traditional centre Rangoon (Yangon as the generals renamed it). Four years later, reports say that Naypyidaw is still a soulless ‘ghost town’ where state officials can live in luxury a stark contrast to the rest of the country.

There have been many other capital moves in the 20th century 13 between 1950 and 1990 according to Edward Schatz, an associate professor in political science at the University of Toronto. In a 2003 paper on why states move their capital cities, Schatz wrote: Projects of such an enormous scale are easier to pursue in the absence of democratic procedures. In authoritarian political systems, the lite might accept the enormous financial costs of such a move because they anticipate future symbolic, political, and economic gain.

In 2000 Malaysia moved its capital from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya; Kazakhstan’s capital became Astana instead of Almaty in 1997; Brasilia became the capital of Brazil, rather than Rio de Janeiro, in 1956; while Nigeria chose Abuja over Lagos in 1975. The reasons vary, but often come after political changes, upheavals or power shifts (Germany’s capital Bonn moved to Berlin in 1990). Many capital changes happen under authoritarian regimes such as that of Burma.

So Iran isn’t the only modern country to toy with the idea of trying out a new capital city. In 2000 there was speculation that Russia’s then president, and present prime minister Vladimir Putin, might move the state’s seat of power from Moscow back to St Petersburg. In 2003, Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price suggested that Liverpool should be Britain’s capital, rather than London. Nothing has come of these two suggestions yet but history tells us that our capitals are not as immovable as we imagine them to be.

Photo by .faramarz on Creative Commons License.