Submitted by E P Wohlfart on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 11:58
The streets of London are the stage of a daily war. It is the worst it has ever been, newspapers frequently report. The actors are young men with guns and knives. No two commentators seem in agreement as to the object; it might be about drugs, it may be about territory, or it may be about repute. One thing is for certain: it is part of the city now. Gang warfare has created an informal geography of the city. Hackney streets are known colloquially as Murder Mile.
What the newspapers fail to mention is that London has never been a safe place to live. The city has since its earliest history seen violent clashes between opposing groups.
Caractacus, predecessor of Cunobelinus, was a British chieftain of the Catuvellauni tribe who reigned from 43 - 50 AD. Caturvellauni was a Belgic tribe of south-eastern Britain. He led the British resistance against the Romans in the Roman conquest of Britain. Claudius launched his invasion of Britain in the Summer of 43 AD. Caractacus was defeated in two crucial battles on the rivers Medway and Thames. This led to the Catuvellauni tribe being conquered by the Romans, thus Caractacus never has a successor.
Dr Mark Lehner wants to know the answer to a question that rarely gets asked - Where and how did the workers who built the pyramids live? A popular misconception is that they were slaves, when in actual fact Dr Lehner states this is far from the truth. The builders of the pyramids were well fed with copious amounts of prime-cut beef, and graffiti found at the pyramids suggests that the builders were members of various tribes and clans.
In the video, Dr Lehner explains that he is looking to find out more about the people who built the pyramids - what their diet was, how they raised livestock and gathered crops, how they lived and other questions which remain about the workers.
To uncover his answers, Dr Lehner and his team undertake a rare type of excavation - one which is not in search of treasures or riches, but one which seeks to find answers.
One of the most impressive and startling structures in the world is the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, yet the construction of it remains the subject of much debate and discussion to this very day.
Dr Mark Lehner, an archaeologist at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and Harvard Semitic Museum, has given an exclusive video interview to Heritage Key in which he explains what he and his team are doing in their latest excavation.
