• Ann

    Ancient Door of Hatshepsut Vizier User Discovered at Karnak

    An Egyptian excavation team has made a new discovery at Karnak during routine excavation works. A large red granite false door belonging to the tomb of Queen Hatshepsuts vizier User and his wife Toy has been unearthed in front of the Karnak Temple. Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the door is 175 cm tall, 100 cm wide and 50 cm thick. It is engraved with religious texts, as well as different titles of the vizier User, who took office at the time of the fifth year of Queen Hatshepsuts reign, circa 1474…

  • Ann

    The Mysterious Adventures of MacMummy – Mummies for the Return of the Rosetta Stone

    Help! In just twenty-four hours, my mummy has developed a will of his own and became politically active. MacMummy refuses to open his coffin until the Rosetta Stone is returned to Egypt, and is even rallying other mummies to join in on the protest and urging them to become a member of ‘Mummies for the Return of the Rosetta Stone’. I’m not quite sure if it is a blessing to have the most enterprising mummy ever, as he’s now… on strike. How did Ilet it get so far out of hand? We were admiring the pictures of the massive Anubis…

  • Ann

    The Mysterious Adventures of MacMummy – Birth, Burton Style

    Should you start panicking when your colleague donates you the mummies that their kids are too grown-up for to play with? Of course not! (or so I kid myself.) Thanks to Meral I now am the proud owner of my first ever mummy, which we named ‘MacMummy’ because of his provenance (and utter failure to decipher the hieroglyphs on his coffin). I managed to capture him in this shot early this morning, when MacMummy was just waking up to the smell of freshly made coffee in a setting that strangely resembles KV62, albeit it a little out of scale (The…

  • Ann

    Anglo-Saxon Aloud – Add some Old English to your iPhone

    I believe I’ve found the ideal solution to ‘what music will we play in the office’. As we never seem to be able to reach agreement on the channel (really? Brit pop? Sounds from outer-space?), for tomorrow, I suggest we tune in on ‘Anglo-Saxon Aloud’, a website by Michael Drout that contains daily* readings of the entire Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records – which includes all poems written in Old English. Professor Michael DCDrout (an American teaching English at Wheaton College, blogs at Wormtalk and Slugspeak, and *has a dog named Lancelot that likes lfric a lot – or not at all)…

  • Ann

    Mummies, Pterodactyl and Occultism! The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Dry-White

    Good news for all fans of ‘light’ historical films such as The Mummy, Return of the Mummy and 10,000 BC. Even greater news for fans of the – sublime – comic (although BD, ‘bande dessine’ is more correct) series by Tardi. ‘Les Aventures Extraordinaires d’Adle Blanc-Sec‘ has been made into an adventure movie by Luc Besson (Taxi, Kamikaze, Leon, The Fifth Element), which will star lots of Mummies, at least one Pterodactyl and enough demon worshippers and mad scientists to keep the film going. Indiana Jones, beware emancipation! 😉 Set in 1912, before the Great War, the adventure starts when…

  • Ann

    The Secret of Kells – An Illuminated Animation Film

    In these times, who would make an animated movie that was intentionally two-dimensional? Deflated and only minorly shaded, but visually ravishing. Flat, but filled with ancient swirls and Celtic knots. And who would have thought such a film would become a major hit? ‘The Secret of Kells’, a spirited retelling of the provenance of one of Irelands most cherished artefact, the Book of Kells, was a success in Irish, French and Belgian cinemas alike, got an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature Film and is now well on its way to conquering the United States of America. It is also…

  • Ann

    Tutankhamun’s Funeral – A New King Tut Exhibition at New York’s Met

    In 1908, more than a decade before the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, American retired lawyer and archaeologist Theodore Davis made a remarkable discovery. While excavating in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, he unearthed about a dozen large storage jars. Their contents included broken pottery, bags of natron, bags of sawdust, floral collars, and pieces of linen with markings from years 6 and 8 during the reign of a then little-known pharaoh named Tutankhamun. The significance of the find was not immediately understood, and the objects entered the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art as a mystery. It…

  • Ann

    Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall – Top 10 Flickr Photographs from the Light Up

    If you didn’t make it to the Illumination of Hadrian’s Wall (for instance, because you were attending the AD 410 – Then End of Roman Britain conference at the British Museum) you can (after you’ve read Sean’s and Sam’s tweet updates live from the light up of the Wall) still marvel at the sight of the Illumination by browsing the images that are one by one (processing takes time) posted to Flickr. Here’s my preliminary Top 10 of Hadrian’s Wall Light Up Flickr Images – in no specific order. Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall – Cell 22 An awesome shot of the…

  • Ann

    The Valentine Contest’s Winner – Who gets the books & AWiL points?

    “Young man, well connected, in possesion of fig leave and spare rib is looking for young lady with an apple and a hunger for knowledge to get humanity started. Pets no objection.” Which famous person from (biblical) history just placed a personal on Heritage Key? No doubt you’ll recognize the aspiring lover in the winning entry for our Valentine’s Day contest as Adam, looking for Eve. Congratulations to Loki Popinjay, who with this win earns an extra 50 Ancient World in London Points, ANDgets to chose two books from the Thames &Hudson catalogue. Loki, let us know in the comments…

  • Ann

    Queen Behenu’s burial chamber discovered at Saqqara

    A French archaeological team digging at Saqqara has discovered the burial chamber of 6th Dynasty Queen Behenu, wife of either Pepi I or Pepi II. The burial chamber was revealed while the team was cleaning the sand from Behenu’s pyramid in the area of el-Shawaf in South Saqqara, west of the pyramid of King Pepi I. The burial chamber uncovered by the French mission is badly damaged, apart from two inner walls which contain engraved Pyramid Texts. Those texts were widely used in royal tombs – carved on walls as well as sarcophagi – during the 5th and 6th Dynasties (circa 2465-2150BC). Pyramid…