Exorbitant taxes, rising bankruptcy and angry protesters. No, not central London today but the ancient Greek city of Rhodiapolis, some 1,700 years ago. A new excavation of the coastal settlement, located in the Kumluca district of the modern Turkish city of Antalya, has revealed much about the previously little-known maritime hub. Yet the most fascinating artefact thrown up by the project is a large stone tablet, on which the city’s inhabitants had etched their dismay at rising taxes to the then-Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. Assistant Professor Isa Kizgut has led the excavations by Akdeniz University’s science and literature faculty. He…
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He’s been legless for millennia – in fact he’s been missing everything from the neck down. But this week saw an ancient Akkadian statue’s head, dating from between the 21st and 23rd centuries BC, united with a replica of his body in Iraq’s Baghdad Museum (also known as the National Museum of Iraq). The head, discovered in the ruins of the ancient city of Ashur in 1982, has been conspicuously bodiless – until Berlin’s Pergamon Museum agreed to send its own replica body, which was itself found in 1905. The deal also sees a copy of the head move in…
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There are currently two* ‘explorer robots’ active in Egypt:the Japanese robot researching the Osiris Shaft – it got as far as it could though, and a ‘snake robot’ might be needed to explore further – and the Leeds robot taking a more thorough look at the shafts in the the Great Pyramid of Cheops. Although the ‘Leeds robot’ just began the actual investigation of the secret doors last week, Dr. Hawass revealed at his lecture that on the 31th of July the Leeds team already had a major breakthrough. But that was all information Dr. Zahi was willing to share…
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An archaeological team, led by University of Toronto professor Tim Harrison, has uncovered a cache of tablets in a temple thatwas built duringthe ‘Dark Age’ period, after the collapse of several Bronze Age civilizations. The temple is at the site of Tayinat in southeastern Turkey. Tayinat has a long history, which stretches from the early Bronze Age (nearly 5,000 years ago) to the end of the Iron Age, about 2,500 years ago. The ‘Dark Age’ is a period that begins around the 12th century BC It sees the simultaneous collapse of several civilizations in Europe and the Middle East. In…
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“Mummy.. are we there yet?!”…“Mummy.. are we there yet?!”…“Mummy.. are we there yet?!”…“Mummy.. are w..”*Cue muffled sounds as a hand covers my mouth* I’ll admit that I’ve never grown up. Life’s far too short to do something silly like that – I’ll forever be a big kid who fantasises about climbing up honey waterfalls and jumping off Pterodactyls. Whilst Sean may be off looking at big people movies which show global landmarks being destroyed, I’m perfectly happy flicking through my collection of Disney classics on a quiet night in. The movie release I’m going to share is called “Despicable Me”…
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A recent interview by Lyn with author of North Africa:The Roman Coast, Ethel Davies, inspired me to take another look at Roman archaeological finds across this somewhat forgotten continent. When most people think of the Roman Empire, they immediately envision the temples, statues and amphitheatres spanning across Europe. But the vast coastal border of North Africa was controlled by the Romans too, and they certainly left their mark! Ethel Davies listed her top ten sites across North Africa, which I’ve compiled into an easy to navigate Google Earth Tour, which will whisk you across the continent in just minutes! It’s…
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More than two thousand Egyptophiliacs lined up outside Clowes Memorial Hall for what Director of Operations Karen Steele informed me was a sold-out house. Even as funding for the arts is being cut, an event like this sells out in days.” It would not be too much of an exaggeration to say Zahi Hawass’s lecture, The Mysteries of King Tut Revealed, had the feel of a rock concert. We were there to see a star. What secrets would he reveal tonight? What announcements would he make? The evening began with a brief introduction by Mark Lach, Senior Vice President of…
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If you were planning on including a bit of Roman heritage in your Summer travel plans, then it’s worth bearing in mind that you don’t have to make the trip all the way to Rome to see something as impressive as the Colosseum. South eastern France was annexed by the Romans as early as 125 BC and the region is rich with a wide variety of monuments dating from the empire that brought it aqueducts, villas, wine and roads more than 2,000 years ago. Here is a look at some of the main Roman heritage sites to discover in the…
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The treasures of King Tut are currently making their rounds of the US and Canada in one of the most eagerly-anticipated tours in recent years. In an exclusive interview for Heritage Key, I caught up with Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, after his lecture in Indianapolis on Friday, where the exhibition Tutankhamum: The Golden King and the Great Pharoahs is currently running. We got some very special insights into current issues in Egyptology, including the newly opened tomb of Horemheb, the legacy of King Tut, and Dr Hawass’s own plans for book releases and retirement.
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You know something’s in vogue when it pops up on The Onion, the world’s best-known satirical newspaper. And so it was this week that immortality-seeking First Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang made the grade following the ‘discovery’ beneath Disney World in Orlando of a “legion of terra-cotta Mouseketeers”. According to the spoof article which was kindly sent to us by one of our Heritage Experts, Ethel Davies a Disney World maintenance crew discovered more than 8,000 ‘Mouseketeers’ underneath Cinderella Castle. The statues were thought to date back to 300BC. It was likely constructed during the Pre-Eisnerian period, one of…