Submitted by Mary Harrsch on Mon, 01/25/2010 - 18:28
When I was asked to select ten of my favourite images from the Flickr photostream of Heritage Key photographer Sandro Vannini, I wasn't sure how I would be able to choose just ten from a collection of images that are each so breathtaking.
However, I discovered that his photostream at present only contains 88 images so my task was a little less daunting. However, they are all such exceptional images I would not even begin to know how to rank them in any particular order so please don't assume I found image number one more pleasing than number 10! Here are my joint top 10 favourite images by Vannini.
Dr Janice Kamrin takes a tour of the alabaster lifestyle ornaments in the final part of this series on the treasures of the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62), which are now housed in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Explaining how the perfumed ointments were considered a better target than the vases that contained them by tomb robbers, Dr Kamrin also gives a fascinating insight into the importance of food and drink in the burial process.
Submitted by veigapaula on Tue, 12/29/2009 - 11:21
In this Heritage Key video, Dr. Janice Kamrin, head of the EgyptianMuseum Database Project, shows and discusses some of the lifestyle objects found in Tutankhamun’s tomb by Carter in 1922, and now housed in The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Board games, and containers for perfumes, cosmetics and unguents, are amongst the objects shown in this video that give an insight into the livestyles of the rich and famous ancient Egyptians.
The Canopic Chest of King Tut was recently featured in a video with Dr Janice Kamrin, as she walks around the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and explains what this beautiful artefact would have been used for (Skip to the video by clicking here). As one of the treasures of the Cairo Museum, it was photographed in stunning detail by the established Egyptology photographer Sandro Vannini, and the images are bought to the Internet by Heritage Key.
As we described in our recent handy guide to how to make a mummy, the ancient Egyptians went to great and grizzly lengths to ensure that every last bit of a body was efficiently preserved. The internal organs had to be removed in order to effectively dry out a corpse. They would then be individually wrapped and preserved separately in canopic vessels.
Dr Janice Kamrin takes us on a trip through the Egyptian Museum, Cairo and shows the spectacular Canopic Shrine - a golden and intricately decorated container flanked by four figures of gods. Inside this stunning shrine was the Canopic containers, which held the vital organs of the mummified body. Made from solid blocks of alabaster, the individual viscera containers were themselves protected inside gold coffinettes.
This alabaster relief depicts a banquet scene, one of the most traditional and revisited scenes in Early Dynastic art. It is thought to represent a ritual of fertility between the king and the goddess Inanna.
This relief depicts cavalrymen in full armour crossing rough terrain near a river. This particular fragment is given a surreal, even dreamlike quality by virtue of the cavalrymen superimposed on top of a river-like background. This relief, carved into alabaster, is defined by its array of different textures, and it is a fragment of a larger slab located in the British Museum.
This is one of several alabaster reliefs found at the Palace of Sargon II in Khorsabad. This particular relief features a groom holding a whip. It is obvious both form his hairstyle and skinned cloak that he was not Assyrian. The fine details are carved into the alabaster attentively and with great care. Absent of colour, the relief is rendered dynamic by virtue of the myriad of textures making up its composition.
This figures from Central Asia is part of a group of stone female figures seated or squatting on a platform.
She is wearing a decorated robe which some suggest is imitating a sheep's fleece.
The figure is made of soft green chlorite or steatite, with a white limestone head. The body is armless and legs are represented by a protruding ledge.
This type of figure has been found in sites in Margiana in southern Turkmenistan, indicating it was possibly a centre for their production.
There have been numerous similar seated females on cylinder seal impressions found in southwestern Iran. Some think they to depict royal figures.
When I was asked to select ten of my favourite images from the Flickr photostream of Heritage Key photographer 
