A cave containing the bones of hundreds of pygmy hippos has turned a long-held belief about the fate of these miniature creatures on its head. The cave is at the site of Akrotiri-Aetokremnos, on the southern tip of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and archaeologists in the past have generally accepted the idea that the pygmy hippo must have died out before neolithic man first set foot on the island in around 10,000 BC. However, a team of experts who excavated the site has strong evidence to suggest otherwise. They argue that the animal bones are from the same era…
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A team of international archaeologists have begun to investigate the existence of a Roman town partially submerged in a lake 20km outside stanbul. The excavation has started at Lake Kkekmece, a small inlet west of Turkey’s largest city, which is now believed to be the location of the ancient city of Bathonea. Little is known about Bathonea, but the site is thought to have been inhabited by humans for many millennia before it became a Greek settlement, which the Romans then built upon as they expanded their empire eastwards. It is near to the Yarmburgaz cave, which is already known…
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In his August 7th, 2009, interview with Heritage Key, Zahi Hawass revealed that the Supreme Council of Antiquities was gathering evidence regarding the illegal appropriation of the bust of Nefertiti by the Altes Museum in Berlin. I will reveal [the evidence] in October when I write the letter to the Berlin Museum for the return of the piece, because it left Egypt illegally, Dr. Hawass stated. In a new article published in Al-Ahram Weekly (Queen of Egypts heart), Dr. Hawass reveals that his wish is for the bust to be placed in the Museum of National Heritage at Giza in…
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Like the ancient world? Like early civilization? Like pyramids? I’m guessing if you’re reading this you probably do, so you might enjoy a new documentary series airing on the Discovery Channel next Monday evening. Out of Egypt examines the links between ancient cultures, our modern fascination with them, and the myths and legends which have endured thousands of years. Fronted by glamorous Egyptologist Dr Kara Cooney, the first episode, ‘Relics’, sees the team travelling to Mexico, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to ask just how powerful a part relics have played in the world’s most famous cultures. Dr Cooney explores the…
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A third-century AD house from the Roman period has been uncovered at excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem. The building covers about 1,000 square metres and has emerged during a dig that is being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Dr Doron Ben-Ami is the excavation director on behalf of the IAA, and he believes that the house was centred on a large open courtyard encircled by columns. He said: Galleries were spread out between the rows of columns and the rooms that flanked the courtyard. The wings of the building rose to a height of…
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Tourism is a massive industry in Egypt, thanks to the countrys venerable past it accounts for 11% of GDP, and creates jobs for around 12% of the total national workforce. Chief among Egypts antiquarian attractions are the tombs of the pharaohs, the vast network of lavishly decorative burial chambers for its ancient rulers spread across the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, such as KV62 the final resting place of Tutankhamun. So why, then, is the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities calling for them to be closed? The Council have been faced with an almighty catch-22. The tombs are extremely…
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Cherchen Man, who died around 1000 BC, appears to be as Scottish as square sausage tall, dark-haired, clad in a red tunic and tartan leggings and sporting a beard as ginger as a burning fox. His DNA attests to his Celtic origins. So why on earth, then, was his mummified corpse discovered buried in the barren sands of the Taklamakan Desert, in the far-flung Xinjiang region of western China? Its a question that still has experts scratching their heads, especially since Cherchen Man is just one of hundreds of ancient desiccated corpses of European origin found in the Tarim Basin…
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Today, Zahi Hawass and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities are celebrating the completion of five major projects in the city of Luxor, which have totalled of 127 million Egyptian Pounds (13.9 million). They include work to restore and develop the famous ancient sites of Luxor Temple and Deir el-BahriTemple of Queen Hatshepsut, as well as the more recent attractions of Abul Hagag El-Loxori Mosque and Howard Carter‘s rest house. The 1286-built Abul Hagag Mosque had been in need of restoration, as its walls and foundations were beginning to crack and take water under the strains of time. Now, after 14…
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The public are being invited to have their voices heard at an open session in Newcastle, England of a major congress of experts in the field of Roman history and archaeology, on the subject of the frontiers of the Roman Empire. Titled ‘Presenting the Roman Frontiers Communicating the Evidence’, it’ll take place at Newcastle University on August 21. Newcastle lies just south of the line of Hadrians Wall, the huge fortification built across northern England and southern Scotland by the Romans in the 2nd century AD at the northernmost extreme of their empire, to keep out marauding Picts. International specialists…
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Israeli authorities are raging this week, after what they perceive to be their deliberate exclusion from a World Archaeological Congress on Wednesday. The conference, which concerned ‘overcoming structural violence’ and the negative impact of politics on archaeology, was held in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. The Israeli Antiquities Authority is outraged on three fronts: that their experts weren’t informed of the event; that it was held in Palestine, which has a notoriously bad record on preserving ancient remains; and that the WAC conducted a tour of the Temple Mount and City of David Archaeological Park – even though both currently…