artefact

Reminding us that archaeologists – for all their undoubted intelligence, ingenuity, industry and general egg headedness – don’t always have the answers, experts from the Canterbury Archaeological Trust (CAT) have this week been forced to put up their hands and admit they remain unsure as to the purpose of a Saxon artefact discovered two years ago.

The tiny circular silver, bronze and wooden disk was found in a Saxon burial ground at The Meads in Sittingbourne, Kent, in 2008. It was part of a cache of some 2,500 Saxon artefacts. CAT researchers have peered at the small object through a microscope and X-rayed it to little avail. Since the artefact was found next to a sword, some kind of decorative form of mount is the best guess they’ve come up with so far.

I'm sure, given you're the sort of person who comes to Heritage Key, that like me you've walked around your local or national museum and thought to yourself:

“Hmm, that bust of Diocletian would look lovely on my fireplace”, or “That middle kingdom Sarcophagus would really set off the  dining room wall paper.” Sadly for most of us, in these convalescent economic times, we must make do with Ikea.

Indeed, the recession hit collectors across the board, and unsurprisingly, with big spenders spending less, the recession hit auctioneers hard, and in 2009 Christie's announced significant job cuts.

But let's escape from these times of frugality, back to the days when antiquities were fetching record prices in the glamorous auction rooms of the world, with a this compilation of great sales from the rich history of Christie's auction house:

Zahi Hawass tells BusinessWeek that the touring exhibits including the King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs exhibition have netted Egypt $100 million USD since 2005. Considering that none of the major coffins or the ultimate, iconic piece the Death Mask are included in these shows (click here to see where they're hiding) it is quite an impressive yield for brand Tut and Egypt Inc. (King Tut's contracts are worth about as much as the world's most highly paid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo).

Ontario’s Minister of Culture, Aileen Carroll, was tossed out of cabinet today as part of a larger shuffle.  She will now become a backbench member of the legislature.

The decision caught members of the media off-guard. The National Post said that, “Ms. Carroll's demotion is perhaps the most surprising. A former federal minister, the Barrie MPP was considered a high profile candidate in 2007.”

The Toronto Star writes that she may have made a decision not to run in the next general election. In Canadian politics it is not unusual for retiring ministers to get dumped from cabinet before they actually retire. Her replacement is going to be Michael Chan, who is moving from the Citizenship and Immigration post.

Two powerful Bronze Age figures laid to rest with special reverence; two large ritual complexes in places of kingly significance; each in a bend of a river valley; two burials with remarkably well-preserved contents; and two impressive daggers.

The quartz-handled dagger of King Tutankhamun is part of probably the most famous treasure hoard excavated from the dry, dusty desert of Egypt by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon 87 years ago; the dagger excavated by teams from Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities in Forteviot in August 2009 is still being conserved after being freshly lifted from a cist burial in the rich agricultural soil of lush, rainy Perthshire in Scotland.

Calcite was a popular material used in ancient Egyptian times as the stone's cool surfaces meant that the contents, such as perfumed fats and unguents, would be better preserved. However, perfumed fats were a luxury item and popular with grave-robbers in ancient times as they were easy to carry, and difficult to identify as being from a tomb. The Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62) was believed to have been raided of about 350 litres of perfumed fats and unguents, according to an estimate by the famous explorer Howard Carter!

The Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62) contained many calcite jars and vases, but most were located in the antechamber and the annexe. However, the Cosmetic Jar with Recumbent Lion was found between the walls of the first and second shrine of King Tut, in the burial chamber, suggesting it may have had more significance.