While creating the next instalment of our Ancient World in London video series on ancient astronomy, we came across an odd little artefact called the Ishango Bone. Exotic-sounding, it’s little more than a knobbled baboon’s fibula, but the 25,000-year-old notches along its length are much more than a caveman’s conquests….
- Part 38
Roman Gladiator Costumes and Weapons on Display in Colosseum Exhibition
Question: What does a gladiator wear on a night out? The answer, of course, is that he puts on his glad rags! Apologies for the terrible joke, but for those who want to know what a gladiator would really have worn, not on a night out in ancient Rome, but…
Ancient British Language Discovered: Pictish Symbols are Scotland’s Hieroglyphs
New research has shown that the symbols used by the ancient Picts were an actual written language not symbology. The Picts lived in Scotland from AD 300-843, and were a society ruled by kings. Historians know of them through the artefacts they left behind and via the writings of the…
Meet in St Louis: Archaeological Conferences For Missouri, California and Alberta This April
Its that time of the year again. School is almost out, archaeological field seasons are about to begin and what comes in between? Huge conferences of course! Over the next month there will be three major archaeological conferences taking place in Canada and the US. The American Research Center in…
AWiL Video Series: Defending London – Richborough, Maunsell Seaforts, Thames Barrier & Tower of London
London is under attack! But don’t be alarmed, this is no April Fool: London’s always been under attack. For over two thousand years the city has been invaded, burnt, bridged and bombed. But while Boudicca, Caesar, Cnut and Hitler have been some of the city’s biggest enemies, today it’s the…
Tonight in London! Win Prizes at our Ancient London Pub Quiz
The promise of the four-day-long weekend and the neverending silly April Fools’ Day jokes have got us all in a relaxed happy mood, and wondering what’s on in London to entertain us. What better way to kick of the Easter weekend than with a pub quiz down the local? We…
3D Aliens land at Stonehenge Virtual
5,000 years after they’ve helped construct the gigantic stone circle, aliens return to Stonehenge. Early this morning, the tourists standing in line to access the stones had a strange encounter:a little, green almost-human shaped extraterrestrial skipped the queue – the outrage! – and was the first thread on the almost…
Buddhas of Bamiyan Exhibit in Toronto: an Artists’ Perspective on Taliban Destruction
In April 2008 visual artists Khadim Ali and Jayce Salloum travelled from Karachi Pakistan to Kabul Afghanistan, and then into Bamiyan the region famous for its giant Buddha statues that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. We spoke to them about their unique experiences of the site. Ali is…
Roman Emperor Octavian Augustus Named as Egyptian Pharaoh on Philae Victory Stele
A new translation of a Roman victory stele, erected in April 29 BC, shows Octavian Augustus’s name inscribed in a cartouche (an oblong enclosure that surrounds a pharaoh’s name) – an honour normally reserved for an Egyptian pharaoh. Octavian’s forces defeated Cleopatra and Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. His forces…
Lead Coffin Discovered in Gabii Contains Roman VIP
Very unusual and very intriguing is how Nicola Terrenato from the University of Michigan describes a Roman-era lead coffin that has been uncovered in the ancient city of Gabii, 11 miles east of Rome. The professor of classical studies is the leader of an archaeological project to excavate the site….