• Ann

    ‘Atlantis – The Evidence’ with Bettany Hughes to air on BBC Two

    Historian Bettany Hughes will star in Timewatch Special ‘Atlantis: The Evidence’, to premire on BBC Two next week. She’ll be tracing the origins of the Atlantis myth and presenting evidence that the Thera eruption inspired Plato’s account of the mystical land. 2,400 years ago Greek philosopher Plato wrote of an ancient island civilisation of unparalleled wealth and splendour, which was struck by earthquakes and floods and was swallowed up by the sea in one grievous day and night. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in…

  • Ann

    Bring Them Back Campaign Takes Big Ben Clock Hostage in Exchange for Elgin Marbles

    I you go sightseeing in London after a night out, stare up at Big Ben to find its clock missing, you might conclude you’ve overdone it on the Metaxa. But no: according to the new campaign video from bringthemback.org, Britain’s best-known clock was taken by Greek multi-millionaire Aristotle Elginiadis. In a month’s time the video – a call for the return of the Elgin Marbles (what else) –  has amassed nearly half a million YouTube views, with little sign of its popularity waning. The campaign video kicks off with a breaking news report: Big Ben’s clock has been stolen! Avid…

  • Ann

    Gold Umayyad Coin with Kufic Inscriptions Discovered in Egypt

    Egypt announced today that a gold Umayyad coin was unearthed last Thursday during an excavation at the Monastery of St. John the Little, in the desert west of the Nile Delta. In a statement Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the SCA, said both sides of the well-preservedcoinare decorated with Kufic inscriptions, the oldest calligraphic form of the Arabic script. One side of the coin bears the name of Allah. The second side is inscribed: in the name of God the Merciful. The coin’s edge is decorated with the year it was minted. It dates to the year 103 of…

  • Ann

    Four Ancient Egyptian Cemeteries Discovered at El-Lahoun in the Fayoum

    Archaeologists last week discovered 45 ancient Egyptian tombs at the site of El-Lahoun, in the Fayum. In a statement issued by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni claims that a sarcophagus holding a mummy has been found in in each of the tombs, located about 70 miles from Cairo. One of the tombs unearthed during the dig is from the 18th dynasty (1550-1295 BC), and contains at least 12 wooden sarcophagi stacked on top of each other. Each of these sarcophagi is thought to hold a mummy covered in cartonnage. The mummies are decorated with religious…

  • Ann

    Digitally Enhanced Images of New Pyramid Discovery Reveal Ancient Smurf

    We all know that a surely proud couple from a village populated by irreducible Gauls still resisting the Roman invaders in 50BC gave birth to Asterix. But where do the Smurfs smurf from? Are they all Peyo’s imagination, or did a tribe of small, little blue men ever exist? One is inclined to think that those cute creatures, dated to the early Spiroe Age, are just a silly invention of a genius comic book writer. Or are they? Their primitive grammar seems to suggest a more ancient origin, and new evidence recently surfaced that Smurfs started smurfing back in ancient…

  • Ann

    Terracotta Army Will Visit Stockholm in August

    At the end of August the Terracotta Army will visit Sweden, and the soldiers will bring with them the story of China’s birth. In a unique location,the Terracotta Warriors and a collection of never-seen-before objects from simular gravesites will tell the story of how the vast Chinese empire was built on the idea of eternal power. This idea – stretching both space and time – was given shape through momumental burial sites and buildings, and the unification of China. The sophisticated empire that was established would last over two thousand years. A selection of Terracotta Army statues and recent archaeological…

  • Ann

    The Lost World of Old Europe and Prehistory Month at the Ashmolean

    Today the ‘The Lost World of Old Europe The Danube Valley, 5000-3500BC’ exhibition opens at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. When visiting you can expect to see the famed goddess figurines which have triggered intense debates about women’s roles in Old European society; the oldest major gold treasure found (in the earliest known male elite burial); and more exuberant (and suprisingly ‘modern’) art and pottery from Europe’s first civilisation. Having only previously visited New York, it’s a must-attend exhibition containing objects on loan from over 20 museums in Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova. It’s a chance to learn about a relatively…

  • Ann

    Stonehenge Apocalypse – British megaliths to star in action disaster film

    If you like apocalypse films, orare not satisfied by Dr Who’s visit to Stonehenge, you may consider yourself lucky: production for the ‘Stonehenge Apocalypse’ film has ended, and it will soon premire on TV. The plot? Opposed to what was previously believed (burial site, astronomical calculator and GPS for aliens) Britain’s most famous stone circle is actually… a dooms day device. The film directed by Paul Ziller (who previously directed films with striking titles such as ‘Snakehead Terror, Beyond Loch Ness, Ba’al Android Apocalypse and Bloodfist IV: Die Trying) sports the very original tagline An ancient device is awakened… the…

  • Ann

    ‘Nefertiti Stays in Berlin!’ Germany Confirms Once More

    Germany has made a firm response to last week’s announcement by Zahi Hawass that Egyptian government will officially demand the return of the Bust of Nefertiti. Minister of Culture Bern Neumann today made it clear once again that the bust is going nowhere: Nofretete stays in Berlin! Hawass claims the bust of Nefertiti Nofretete in German was smuggled out of Egypt illegally and should be returned. According to Egypt’s head of antiquities, archaeologist Ludwig Borchard intentionally lied to Egyptian officials about the value of the bust. Bernd Neumann, also board member of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees the…

  • Ann

    Do no harm to the dead, urges new thesis on ethics of human remains

    In philosophy there is a long-running discussion on whether or not the dead can be wronged. Our human or primate intuition seems to be that the dead can indeed be harmed. The philosopher Aristotle pointed out we’d better wait to call a person fortunate until some decades after his death: For it seems to some extent good and evil really exist for a dead man, just as they may exist for a man who lives without being conscious of them, for example, honours and disgraces, and generally the successes and failures of his children and descendents. Nowadays, it seems the…