The book of human history will need a slight redraft, if a remarkable claim by a prominent Georgian anthropologist and archaeologist – on the basis of human remains recently excavated at a site not far from the Georgian capital Tbilisi – is true. The skulls, jawbones and fragments of limb bones dug up between 1991 and 2007 near the medieval village of Dmanisi in the foothills of the Caucuses are, according to Professor David Lordkipanidze – Director General of the Georgian National Museum – indisputably the oldest human fossils found outside of Africa, at around 1.8 millions years of age.…
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Attribution: hsivonen Key Dates 75 This helmet was probably used in processions at the gladiatorial games at Pompeii, and was made shortly before the destruction of the city by Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD. The shape of the visor is typical of the period. It was given by Ferdinand IV of Naples to Napoleon, then First Consul, in 1802, and was transferred to the Louvre in 1892. This gladiator’s helmet is made of bronze, decorated with embossing and with silver-plating; it shows a griffin on the crest, and a Gorgon’s head on the front of the helm. It has a…
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Egyptologist 11 November 1942 Dr Rolf Krauss is a renowned German Egyptologist who – prior to retiring in 2007 – last worked as a researcher at the Berlin Museum of Prehistory and Early History, and as a lecturer at Humboldt University. He has produced a number of important studies into ancient Egyptian chronology and astronomy. Born in Heidelberg in 1942, Dr Krauss studied at the University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin from 1975 to 1981, gaining his PhD in Egyptology from the latter institution. He went on to work at the Egyptian Museum in the National Museums…
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by Justin Hardy, Peter Harness Channel 4 Television (2009) 7/10 It’s tempting to toss this two-part Channel 4 dramatisation of the events of the most famous year in English history straight on the tall pile of low-rent British historical docu-dramas, full as it is of Z-list actors, tomato-ketchup-for-fake-blood, and epic battle scenes featuring up to 30 people. Indeed, after sitting through two-and-a-half hours of Ian Holm’s hammy, sub-Lord of the Rings voiceover – which reaches for added Shakespearean effect by the cunning ruse of beginning every other sentence “oh” or “and so” – it’s tempting to frisbee the thing straight…
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The New Acropolis Museum is arguably the most high-profile building to go up this decade (since we in New York are still peering into a big hole in the ground that is supposed to produce a new World Trade Centre). Essentially a smack in the face of the British Museum’s argument that Athens has no suitable venue in which to house the Elgin Marbles, it’s also the most controversial. I spoke to Bernard Tschumi, the outspoken architect who designed this extraordinary building. Replacing the smaller old Acropolis Museum, the purpose-built new museum ensures that architectural treasures too delicate to be…
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Geoff Holder Author and forteana expert Geoff Holder is the author of more than a dozen books on everything mysterious, paranormal, strange, gothic and grotesque. His books are an authoritative mix of extensive historical study combined with diligent field research. They are often geographically-based, with titles such as The Guide to Mysterious Glasgow and The Guide to the Mysterious Lake District. Holder is primarily interested in ‘forteana’ – the world of the odd, the curious, the wondrous, the allegedly paranormal – and its fractious and informing relationship with the so-called mundane world. What do people do when they have too…
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Attribution: Photo by Maggie Bryson Garry Shaw Egyptologist and writer 7 April 1981 Dr. Shaw studied archaeology at the University of Liverpool from 1999 – 2002, and then stayed on in Liverpool to study for an MA (2002 – 2003) and PhD (2004 – 2008) in Egyptology, only taking a year off to go explore China. His main area of research has been elite life and architecture in Egypt’s New Kingdom, with the extent of the pharaoh’s personal authority in day-to-day political affairs being the subject of his first book, published in 2008. Subsequently he has written academic articles on…
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Attribution: Heritage Key Cairo Egypt Key Dates This item is dated from the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Key People The triad depicts King Menkaure, the last Great Pyramid builder. The 17th Nome of Upper Egypt and the goddess Hathor are pictured to the left and the right of Menkaure respectively. In the Triad of Menkaure, King Menkaure is depicted in the foreground wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt. Hathor, the goddess of music and love, is shown to the right of Menkaure, holding his hand. To the left of Menkaure is the 17th Nome of Upper Egypt.…
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Exhibitions Currently running Venue Title Area Start End Ara Pacis Museum Lineamenti. Volto e paesaggio Rome 16 Jun 2010 19 Sep 2010 Arkansas Arts Center World of the Pharaohs: Treasures of Ancient Egypt Egypt 25 Sep 2009 5 Jul 2010 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford The Lost World Of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 BC (Ashmolean Museum) World 20 May 2010 15 Aug 2010 Blu Palazzo d’Arte e Cultura Lungo il Nilo/Along the River Nile Egypt 28 Apr 2010 25 Jul 2010 Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets at the Brooklyn Museum of Art Egypt 19 Nov 2009 2 Oct 2011 California Science Center Lost Egypt – Ancient Secrets Modern Sciences Egypt 13 Apr 2010…
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Key Dates The temple dates to between 307-310 AD. It was discovered in 1954. London United Kingdom Key People Mithras The Temple of Mithras, or London’s Mithraeum, is a large Roman temple, built between 307-310 AD, dedicated to Mithras, the Persian god of light and the sun (who many believe to be the actual identity of Christ). It is low-built, as it would have represented the cave in which Mithras is thought to have slain the primordial bull. Mithraism emerged as a serious rival to Christianity in the Roman Empire around the second century AD, and was a men-only cult…