On March 13, Hadrian’s Wall all of it will be lit by gas beacons, a once-in-a-lifetime event called Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall. From Wallsend in the east, to Bowness on Solway, approximately 500 beaconsspaced every 250 metres will cover the 84 miles of the Hadrian’s Wall. The first beacon will be…
- Part 52
The Temple of Mithras at the Heart of Roman London
Like any major western city, modern London encourages its residents to live a lifestyle focussed upon the secular. On the surface, finance, business, fashion, the career and socialising outwardly seem to be the major concerns of Londoners as they rush around town. However, one does not need to look far…
Sandro Vannini’s Photography – King Tutankhamun’s Senet Game Board
Four Senet boards were found inside the tomb of King Tutankhamun and suggests that the boy king was a keen player of the ancient game. In Ancient Egyptian society, senet was regarded as much more than just a game, however – it was a matter of life or death. The…
What is an Avatar? Creators Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer Trace the Ancient Roots of the Latest Buzzword
Blue aliens with cat-like faces might first come to mind when one hears the word avatar, now that James Camerons latest sci-fi flick has become the top grossing movie of all time. But the box-office hit film is just the latest medium to popularize the word avatar, an ancient religious…
Daily Flickr Finds: Robinho’s Apamea, Syria
Black and White photography is an artform unto itself – it’s so much more than just clicking “Greyscale” in Photoshop, which will oftentimes just give a bland result. Several adjustments and the right lighting is required to make a black and white image work, and in Robinho’s image of Roman…
Vacation in Varanasi: Seeing in the New Year in the Oldest City
A trip to India with my photographer husband, Tim, found us celebrating the New Year in Varanasi, India. There’s actually almost nothing physically ancient in what claims to be the oldest continually inhabited city on earth. The city was once ruled by King Ashoka, but the Moguls, who invaded from…
The Warrior Emperor and China’s Terracotta Army Exhibition at the ROM – Full Details
News of this exhibit has been leaking out in bits and pieces for weeks. But today the official announcement of it was made and full details have been released. The exhibit will be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada starting in late June. The precise exhibition start/end dates…
Cracking the Codex: Long Lost Roman Legal Document Discovered by Researchers at University College London
Dr Simon Corcoran and Dr Benet Salway of the history department at University College London have found fragments of an important Roman law code that previously had been thought lost forever. Its believed to be the only original evidence yet discovered of the Gregorian Codex a collection of constitutions upon…
Italo Gismondi’s Model of Ancient Rome
After a recent visit to Rome, Jon dropped off some images to me from the Museo della Civilt Romana in EUR (Esposizione Universale Roma) of one of the most beautifully crafted architectural models I’ve ever seen of Ancient Rome. As a bit of an architecture buff, and having spent 5…
Discovering Tut – Lord Carnarvon: The Media, The Politics and The Curse
Last week we told the first part of the story of Lord Carnarvon, one of Britain’s greatest explorers: his love of cars, planes, travel, and – most importantly – his obsessive passion for finding Tutankhamun‘s treasures. But what became of the cavalier adventurer, and why is there not a single…