Heritage Key has learned that the Terracotta Warriorsexhibition, whichiscoming to Toronto in June, will be the largest one ever seen in Canada or the United States. Right now the warriors are at the National Geographic Museum in Washington DC. That show, containing more than 100 objects (including 15 terracotta figures), is billed on its website as being the largest display of terracotta figures and tomb artifacts ever to travel to the US. Dr. Dan Rahimi, of the Royal Ontario Museum, dropped Heritage Key a tantalizing nugget of information today in an interview. In response to a question he said that…
-
-
There is exciting news breaking right now in Egypt. An archaeological team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass has discovered several new tombs that belong to the workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre. This is the first time to uncover tombs like the ones that were found during the 1990s, which belong to the late 4th and 5th Dynasties (2649-2374 BC), said Dr. Hawass in the press release. When we think of Giza we tend to think of the Giza Pyramids. However, while the pyramids were under construction, there was an extensive city to the south that supported…
-
About a week backHeritage Keypublished a story about the discovery of a massive, one ton, statue of Taharqa that was found deep in Sudan. Taharqa was a pharaoh of the 25th dynasty of Egypt and came to power ca. 690 BC. The pharaohs of this dynasty were from Nubia a territory located in modern day Sudan and southern Egypt. When Taharqa came to power, he controlled an empire stretching fromSudan to theLevant. The Nubian pharaohs tried to incorporate Egyptian culture into their own. They built pyramids inSudan even though pyramid building in Egypt hadnt been practiced in nearly 800 years.…
-
The media preview for Fakes and Forgeries: Yesterday and Today was held today. It will be opening at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto Canada, this Saturday. It’s a much smaller exhibition than the King Tut and Dead Sea Scrolls shows that have hit Toronto recently, and will potentially be dwarved by the very large China show that may or may not include the Terracotta Warriors this June. But Fakes and Forgeries offers some strong lessons about the world of fakes and the experts who try to out them. How the ancient section of the exhibit works is that there…
-
A dying ancient culture, strange visitors from a far away land and a changing climate that helped bring them together. Whether you believe Dr. Patricia Sutherlands research or not, you have to acknowledge one thing she tells an incredible story! Its a tale of how two dynamic, but ultimately doomed, cultures co-existed together the Greenland Norse and the Dorset of the Canadian Arctic. Dr. Sutherland is a curator at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa Canada. She has been conducting Arctic archaeology research for more than 30 years. The Norse and the Dorset The Norse people hardly need an…
-
The Globe and Mails Patrick Martin (the papers former Middle East Correspondent), is reporting that Jordan is asking the Canadian government to seize the Dead Sea Scrolls on display in Toronto Canada. The Royal Ontario Museumis currently displaying seven of them as part of an exhibit on the scrolls.Thelast day of the exhibit isJanuary 3. Summoning the Canadian charg d’affaires in Amman two weeks ago, Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories, in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls,…
-
Mastodons, Woolly Mammoths and bears – one thing is for sure, the first people to cross into North America certainly were not timid hunters! At a lecture at the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre a few weeks back, Parks Canada archaeologist Daryl Fedje told a crowd that his team has found evidence that people were engaged in bear-hunting, on the Queen Charlotte Islands, as far back as 13,000 years ago. This is the point where humans were just crossing into North America. The Queen Charlotte Islands are located off the coast of British Columbia, a western province in Canada that…
-
One remarkable tale from ancient history is that of the site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos on the southeast coast of Cyprus. It existedfor only 50 years, at a time of devastation throughout the ancient world. Trying to make sense of this site is difficult and the story reminds me, in some ways, of the ill-fated 16th century AD English colony of Roanoke in North Carolina. A few weeks back Professor Dimitri Nakassis, of the University of Toronto, presented the latest research on the site at an event at the Royal Ontario Museum. In the following days Heritage Key did an extensive interview…
-
A massive one ton granite statue of the pharaoh Taharqa has been found in Dangeil, deep inside Sudan. Taharqa was a pharaoh of the 25th dynasty of Egypt. This was a period of Kushite rule, which means that Taharqa and his fellow rulers were from Nubia and drew their power-base from there. Update: Further information on the statue of Pharoah Taharqa discovered at Dangeil and a confirmation that – indeed – no statue of a pharaoh has ever been found further south of Egypt than this one in Owen’s follow up blog. You’ll also find photographs of the statues and…
-
The first visitor numbers are in for the number of people visiting the King Tut exhibition. The Art Gallery of Ontario, which is hosting King Tut and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, announced that more than 100,000 tickets have been sold to date That works out to at least $3.2 million in sales (Canadian currency). The exhibit has only been open for one month. Now I should caution that tickets have been available for three months (you could buy them in advance). I should also add that it doesnt appear as if Tutankhamun will top the 750,000 visitors it…