Ancient choices made by Egyptians digging burial tombs may have led to today’s problems with damage and curation of these precious archaeological treasures, but photography and detailed geological mapping should help curators protect the sites, according to a Penn State researcher. “Previously, I noticed that some tomb entrances in the Valley of Kings, Luxor, Egypt, were aligned on fracture traces and their zones of fracture concentration,” said Katarin A. Parizek, instructor in digital photography, department of integrative arts. “From my observations, it seems that tomb builders may have intentionally exploited these avenues of less resistant limestone when creating tombs.” Fracture…
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The Nefertiti’s Bust – attributed to the sculptor Thutmose from whom’s workshop it was recovered in 1912 – is world famous. Thutmose must have been one lucky sculptor, being asked to capture for eternity the ravishing face of the Queen who’s ancient name meant A Beautiful Woman Has Come. The Queen Nefertiti – wife of Akhenaten and known in Germany as Nofretete – Bust is an icon of the Amarna period art and one of the most valuable items in the collection of the gyptisches Museum Berlin (to much frustration of the Egypt, which demands its return). She first went…
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It doesn’t happen all that often that the battle over ‘mere tomb paintings’ makes headline news – why would they, when they have the highly debated return of the Elgin Marbles to the Acropolis Museum to write about? But the whole world was shocked last week, when Dr. Zahi Hawass accused France’s most famous museum of theft. Or at least, of purchasing looted artefacts and then refusing to return them to Egypt. Dr. Hawass hit back by refusing to let the Louvre’s Saqqara team dig in Egypt. The Louvre stated that it was forced to wait for permission to return…
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The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) have today released video footage of the newest Henge discovered in Britain, at the River Avon and less than a mile away from the world most famous stone circle. Bluestonehenge (or Bluehenge as it was originally called by the press) was named after the famous Welsh blue stones that are also incorporated – or maybe even reused – in the nearby Stonehenge. Dr Josh Pollard, co-director of the research project, explained: “This is an incredible discovery. The newly-discovered circle and henge should be considered an integral part of Stonehenge rather than a separate…
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Egypt has decided to suspend all archaeological cooperation with the Louvre, after the French museum refused to return fragments of a Theban Tomb. The news was confirmed today by Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities department. The artefacts were excavated in a tomb near Luxor, and according to Dr. Hawass were stolen by the French. This decision endangers planned conferences at the Louvre, as well as the French team’s current excavations at Saqqara, the ‘city of the dead’. A boycott of the Louvre‘s Egyptological activities also ensures no archeological expeditions sponsored by the French museum could go ahead in…
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About a mile away from Stonehenge, at the end of the ‘Avenue’ that connects it to the River Avon, archaeologists have discovered a smaller prehistoric site, named – appropriately, after the colour of the 27 Welsh stones it was made of – Bluehenge. The newly discovered stone circle is thought to have been put up 5,000 years ago – which is around the same time work on Stonehenge began – and appears to be a miniature version of it. The two circles stood together for hundreds of years before Bluehenge was dismantled. Researchers believe its stones were used to enlarge…
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Horrible Histories is a fascinating series of books for children, covering all such niceties as the Rotten Romans, the Savage Stone Age, and of course the err… Awful Egyptians. With over 20 million copies sold, the series was that much a success, that the CBBCturned it into into a series, which might just be even more horribly original than the books. The Tudors and Victorians were that popular they got their own theatre show and the Ruthless Romans made it into a computer game, available for PC, Wii and Nintendo. And then there’s the Terrible Treasures game online, which enlightens…
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While Turkey has managed to reclaim some major historical artifacts smuggled from Turkey to the US and the UK, it is still unable to implement effective measures against the smuggling of new ones. According to the “Cultural and Natural Assets Smuggling Report” prepared by the Culture and Tourism Ministry based on figures provided by the KOM – the Anti-smuggling and Organized Crime Bureau of the police department – Turkey sees higher statistics related to the smuggling of historical artefacts every year; in 2008, when authorities seized 42,073 historical artefacts and detained 4,077 suspects in 1,576 operations. In 2003 security authorities…
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This week the ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology’ conference takes place in Moscow, Russia. The colloquium – organized by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences – is the first international Egyptological conference ever held in Russia, organized by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is organized to celebrate the centenary of acquiring the Egyptian collection of the famous Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenischev by the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and spans all ranges of Egyptology but also has a clear focus on new methods and technologies in…
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Anyone who has visited the ancient ruins of great civilizations can appreciate the difficulty of visualizing the buildings at their peak. Today’s visitor to the British Museum can see structures of the Aztecs, thanks to one professor’s research into the ancient architecture that served as the center stage of Aztec ceremonial life, combined with an ultra-modern electronic digital modeling process. Antonio Serrato-Combe, professor of architecture at the University of Utah, has spent decades bringing the ancient structures of the Aztecs into focus. His work is now the basis for a new British Museum exhibition ‘Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler,’ exploring the power…