Part of the Nubian Monuments, Abu Simbel is an ancient site home to two rock temples in the south of Egypt. A beautiful tribute build by Pharoah Ramesses II to his queen Nefertari, they had the alterior motive of commemorating the Battle of Kadesh, as well as the added bonus…
- Part 110
Reconstructing Thermopylae
Thermopylae is the site where a group of a few thousand Greeks held off a Persian army for three days (including a desperate last stand made on Kolonos Hill, led by the Spartans,on the third day of battle). Historians still debate whether the battle was necessary, but in any event…
Ancient Raving: The Egyptian Festival of Drunkenness
Us in the ‘modern world’ tend to think we’ve got the market cornered for most things, and partying is no different. Clubs, drugs, drink and casual sex may be frowned upon even by our elders at times, but it seems those in the ancient world had rather less stringent morals…
UNESCO’s Final Report on Damage Assessment in Babylon
After 4 years of research – at a quite ‘sensitive’ and not-so-safe area, Imust admit – UNESCOfinally released it’s Final Report on Damage Assesment in Babylon by the International Coordination Committee for the Saveguarding of the Cultural Heritage of Iraq. Be the report not that world-shocking, we all know by…
CSI Ancient Greece – Who chiseled what?
From ‘Mummy CSI‘, we jump to ‘CSIAncient Greece’. At least, according to the NewScientist. There Ewen Callaway reports on how Stephen Tracy – Greek scholar and epigrapher – makes good use of human intelligence and machine’s computing power to attribute 24 ancient Greek inscriptions to their individual masons. Together with…
Hidden Rome: The Stadium Underneath Piazza Navona
Go to Rome’s Piazza Navona on a Saturday night in July and you’ll find yourself having to pick your way through the crowds of locals and tourists, some standing in large semi-circles watching a unicyclist juggle with fire or a guitarist play his Led Zeppelin back catalogue, others perusing the…
Roman Boat Goes on Display at Herculaneum
The archaeological site at Herculaneum is opening a new exhibition space this Thursday, 16 July, according to Blogging Pompeii, a blog written by archaeological experts currently working on excavation zones in the Bay of Naples. On display for the first time will be a boat and other nautical equipment, carbonized…
In and Around Ancient and Prehistoric London: Kent
London may be one of the world’s greatest cities with a plethora of stunning heritage and monstrous museums, but no visit to England is complete without seeing some of the south of England’s incredible green scenery. Beginning on the south-eastern top of Greater London and stretching all the way down…
‘Transgender’ Mummy Discovered in Birmingham Museum Collection
Not even a month after 4 brave mummies left the Brooklyn Museum to have themselves scanned, and ‘Lady Hor’ proved to be a male mummy – “scrotum and penis pretty well preserved”, another round of mummy CSIuncovered yet another case of ‘transgender’ behaviour amongst mummies. The Birmingham Museum took three…
Ancient Chinese frescoes found in Qi dynasty tomb
Ancient wall paintings were discovered in northern China in a 1,400-year-old royal tomb found during the construction of one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, a national water transport system. The detailed frescoes found in the tomb in Cixian county in Beijing’s neighbouring Hebei province depict honour guard officials from…