CBBC, the BBC’s children’s broadcaster, has announced a brand new kids’ quiz show, in which six contestants will pit their wits again guards and ‘ghosts’, as they spend a night in the British Museum unlocking the secrets of its most famous treasures. Relic will see the children dodging security and…
- Part 107
Italy Update: Roman Shipwrecks and Berlusconi Found in Deep Water
The Ongoing Silvio Saga That Berlusconi is involved in a tangled web of political scandal and lurid details about his private life is nothing new. To date he’s been accused of bribery, an impropriety with an under-age girl, as well as involvement with the mafia, all with impunity (which makes…
Ancient Advertisement – Nefertiti Cigarettes
Although traces of nicotine and even of cocaine have been found on Egyptian mummies that date as long as 3000 years back -French scientists examining the stomach of the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II‘s mummy found fragments of tobacco leaves most likely used in the embalming process – and discussion is…
Egyptian Exhibition opens at Lord Carnarvon’s Highclere Castle
Lord Carnarvon, the man who funded the discovery of KV-62 – the tomb of Tutankhamun – and died five months later in mysterious circumstances before he could actually see the mummy’s face, was a superstitious man who wore the same lucky bow tie all his life. Such anecdotes are part…
Five Quick Questions for Classicist Mary Beard
Mary Beard is professor of Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, and Classics editor of the Times Literary Supplement. Her academic work mainly focuses on aspects of Roman and Greek culture and she claims to be ‘particularly interested in the reception of Classics in the modern world’. This is borne out…
New Finding: Tuscans are not Etruscans
New research suggests that there is no genetic link between the inhabitants of modern-day central Italy and the civilised race who lived there well before the rise of the Roman empire. Despite the fact that the Etruscans were never physically wiped out by the Romans, experts have concluded that for…
Forest Conservation Practiced by the Ancient Maya?
The ancient Maya civilization of Central South America apparently understood acutely how their fate was inextricably linked with that of the forest around them. New research at the site of Tikal in modern Guatemala, by a team from the University of Cincinnati led by paleoethnobotanist David Lentz, has discovered that…
Exhibition Preview: The Road Through the Forum
Via Dell’ Impero An exhibition opening today at the Musei Capitolini in Rome shows the building of the city’s infamous via dei Fori Imperiali (previously via dell’ Impero), which also tore through the forums of Nerva, Augustus and Trajan, with little regard for the ancient Roman constructions that lay beneath….
Map Game: Seven Ancient Wonders of the World
In my ever-long quest to be innovative and interactive with how Heritage Key presents information, I thought I’d take a moment out to have a little fun and games! So using mapping software from umapper,I’ve devised a little map quiz. Here’s how it works – you’re presented with a map…
Daily Flickr Finds: Lou Rouge’s Misterioso Palenque
In the deep south of Mexico, there lies a mysterious and enchanting temple in ruins, a relic of a Mesoamerican past. Lou Rouge’s photograph beautifully captures the mystical aura of this tomb in a fantastic capture which portrays the mood perfectly. The mist and dark lighting creates the sense of…