ceremony

The three ritual beds of Tutankhamun are a very serious proposition, guarded by some of the ancient world's fiercest chaperones. King Tut's Anubis Shrine, fashioned in the seventh year of Akhenaten's reign, was something to be carried processionally during the final movements of the king's mummy.

Next Saturday Venice will be holding its own funeral. As far as publicity stunts go, it's quite an unequivocal message that the city is on the brink. Only this time the threat is not from the rising tides and the island city's subsiding foundations; the danger comes in the form of the rapidly shrinking population – it seems that the Venetians are migrating to the mainland faster than you can say 'just one cornetto'.

According to one group of locals – members of the online community venessia.com - the population has now fallen below the threshold of 60,000 people (down from about 150,000 in 1960) and the city's inhabitants are being driven out of their ancestral homes by property, food and transport prices far higher than those on the mainland. The main reason for the soaring cost of living is the relentless flow of tourists to the small city. As a result the local Venetians are being priced out of their historical island city.

The incredible announcement that Stonehenge had a little sister named 'Bluehenge' this weekend will have shocked millions - not least the area's druid community, who for centuries have claimed Stonehenge to be their spiritual home. So it's no surprise the druidic community officially inaugurated the stone circle this week, which many believe to have been part of a huge funerary network linking its much larger neighbour to the River Avon. The ceremony, Bluehenge's first since it's recent rediscovery was performed by three druids including King Arthur Pendragon, stresses the importance of honouring the people who first built Bluehenge, and to continue paying homage to the wisdom which has made the area one of such gravity to all druids.