• helen-atkinson

    Ashmolean’s New Block is Bright and Welcoming

    I got a jump on the Queen of England the other day, and visited the newly-opened wing of the Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology in Oxford a full week before she officially opens it Dec. 2. My parents live in Oxford, and I was visiting them unexpectedly (death in my husband’s family). They had tried to visit the Museum at the weekend, but queues that snaked round the block drove them back, so my father and I took a secondwalk over there on a quieter Wed. afternoonto see what all the fuss was about. First off, I should confess…

  • lyn

    Swedish Museums Repatriate Maori Remains

    Two Swedish museums have this month returned the remains of Maori people, believed to have been removed from New Zealand in the 19th century. The remains from five different people included a skull, a skeleton, two arm fragments and a mummified hand. A traditional Maori ceremony was held at the Museum of World Culture in Gothenburg to hand over the remains. Representatives from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the countrys national museum, and New Zealand’s Ambassador to Sweden Barbara Bridge attended. The ceremony was all about talking to the spirits and acknowledging that even though the bodies…

  • Ann

    The Acropolis Theatre of Dionysus to be Restored

    The ‘birthplace of drama’ – the Theatre of Dionysus, located on the south slope of the Acropolis – is to be partially restored in a 6 million project that is set for completion in 2015. The ancient open-air theatre in Athens saw the premire of many of the great dramatic works written during the ‘golden age’ of Greek Tragedy. Famous ancient playwrights – such as Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes – took part in competitions staged twice yearly at the Dionysus theatre; the City Dionysia festival during the spring and the Lenaia in wintertime. The limestone and marble version of…

  • sean-williams

    Maltese Expert ‘Discovers Hieroglyphs from Legendary Land of Yam’

    A Maltese explorer claims he may have solved one of Egypt’s oldest mysteries. Mark Borda and Egyptian accomplice Mahmoud Marai, an adventure holiday planner, have discovered a large rock in the Western Desert, some 450 miles west of the Nile Valley – inscribed with a king’s cartouche, royal images and hieroglyphs. Ancient Egyptians are thought never to have strayed past Dakhla Oasis, located around 200 miles from the river. Mr Borda will not disclose the location of his find to protect it from prying eyes. He immediately sent details of the text to compatriot and Egyptologist Aloisia De Trafford, based…

  • bija-knowles

    Roman Domus Discovered Near Stabiae – But Will There be Funds to Excavate?

    In the small town of Casola di Napoli, about three miles south of the archaeological site of Pompeii, sheer chance has brought to light an archaeological discovery as well as some unanswered questions. A lorry driver was manoeuvring his van when he managed to cause some subsidence in part of a car park between two residential buildings. A hole opened in the ground revealing a stone arch and some walls. Experts believe the structure revealed is a Roman domus built maybe 2,000 year ago when the area just east of Stabiae would have been largely agricultural and dotted with country…

  • sean-williams

    Zahi Hawass on the SCA’s Projects at Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser

    might be one of Egypt’s oldest archaeological sites, but it’s certainly one of the hottest right now. And the omnipresent Zahi Hawass has been enlightening fans on the latest breakthroughs and theories circulating the ancient necropolis. The first of these centres on the giant Step Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt’s first pyramid. Eleven burial shafts have been excavated, homes to each of the Old Kingdom pharaoh’s daughters. As such it was the only Old Kingdom pyramid built for the king’s family. Yet there’s another shaft, soon to be studied, which Dr Hawass (coming to London soon!) feels may be the final…

  • sean-williams

    Dr Hawass: Climate Change is Threatening Egypt’s Landmarks

    With the UN’s Climate Change summit taking place in Copenhagen next month, it seems everyone’s minds are adjusted to the environment. Zahi Hawass is no different. The sands of time and weather pose a serious threat to many of his famous Egyptian landmarks, and the antiquities chief has set up several projects to combat the forces of nature on some of man’s greatest achievements. Though the rising tides of the Nile have been threatening Egypt’s monuments for millennia, the 20th and 21st centuries have no doubt posed their biggest problems. Man has hardly played a positive role in this: take…

  • lyn

    Horrible Histories Coming Soon on Nintendo DS, PC and Wii

    Think youd make a ruthless Roman? Find out when Terry Dearys Horrible Histories books make it on to the games market in North America on January 26, 2010. Graffiti Entertainment has secured the rights to publish Wii, Nintendo DS and PC versions of Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans in North America. It has been developed by Slitherine, which released the game in the UK and Europe in August. Slitherine is also the company behind the Field of Glory and Legion Gold games. Ruthless Romans features a series of mini-games about a young boy, Rassimus, who is captured and forced into slavery…

  • malcolmj

    Preserving King Tut’s Guts: The Canopic Shrine and Jars Introduced

    As we described in our recent handy guide to how to make a mummy, the ancient Egyptians went to great and grizzly lengths to ensure that every last bit of a body was efficiently preserved. The internal organs had to be removed in order to effectively dry out a corpse. They would then be individually wrapped and preserved separately in canopic vessels. King Tuts guts in keeping with the generally lavish and wondrous spirit of his mummification and burial were given extra-special treatment, as we discover in the first instalment of the new four part video series, Tuts Treasures. Shot…

  • lyn

    Light Up! Light Up! Hadrian’s Wall to get Spectacular Light Show

    Hadrians Wall all 84 miles of it will be bathed in light for one night only in March. A spectacular line of light will run along the entire coast-to-coast Hadrians Wall Path National Trail on Saturday, March 13. Lights will be placed at 250m intervals along the route thats around 500 illuminated spots stretching from Wallsend to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria. The Romans built fortlets, known as milecastles, along the Wall at intervals of one Roman mile. Between each milecastle, and spaced one third of a Roman mile apart, were a series of turrets. The plan is to create a point…