King Tutankhamun would have approved of the exclusivity of it all: members of the Denver Art Museum can now buy advance tickets at a special low price for the upcoming show opening July 1, Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs, which runs through Jan. 2, 2011. With Egyptomania still in full swing, it’s pretty clear already that this show, hailed by the Museum’s publicity as a “Rocky Mountain exclusive” will be a blockbuster. Considering it is his Colorado “debut”, I’m sure the Boy King will be glad they’re giving first dibs to his serious fans. “Early-bird” tickets for…
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Planners and construction workers are hard at work building new Byzantine and Roman galleries at the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto Canada. The galleries will be completed some time in 2011. For now I thought I would show a picture of a key artefact that will be featured in the Byzantine Gallery. Its a mosaic that dates to the time when the city of Constantinople was being founded (AD 325-350). Curator Paul Denis said that its 12 feet by 20 feet and will be a key part of the Byzantine gallery. He added: its got geometric patterns around the border…
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Tutankhamun has always captured popular imagination, and been a major draw for museums. The British Museum’s 1972 exhibition of artefacts from his tomb smashed all expectations in the box office, drawing over 1.6 million visitors over its nine month duration. The pharaoh nicknamed ‘King Tut‘ has been the source of more speculation, satire and popular culture references than any other male king of Egypt. Last week pathologists announced the results from their studies into the genetic relationship of eleven mummies from the Egyptian New Kingdom (mid 16th to early 11th centuries BC), including those of the legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun. The…
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A multi-national team of Egyptian and European archaeologists excavating at the site of Amenhotep IIIs enormous funerary temple in the Kom El-Hettan area of Luxors West Bank have uncovered the 3,000-year-old head of a massive statue of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh, the king of Egyptian kings, whom DNA testing has recently proven was Tutankhamuns grandfather. The find made by the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project was announced on Monday by Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni. Measuring 2.5 metres, made from solid red granite and depicting Amenhotep III wearing the Upper Egyptian white crown, it has been…
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Snow-weary Toronto residents are set to get some Aegean relief this Saturday. The Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto Canada, will be hosting Ontario Aegean Archaeology Day. Nine speakers from universities in Ontario and New York State will present their research on the ancient Aegean. The event is free if you have a museum membership – non-members will have to pay the usual museum admission fee. The event will be held in the Eaton theatre, and is sponsored by the museum, the Hellenic Republic of Greece, Greek Communities of Canada and the Archaeology Centre at the University of Toronto. Don’t Miss…
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Normally as white as a bleached bone, the Ara Pacis, the emperor Augustus’s altar to peace, is being restored to what could have been its original colours for a series of evening openings from tonight, until April. The famous monument represents the Augustan golden age of the early empire and was excavated from several metres under Rome’s busy main shopping street, via del Corso, during Italy’s Fascist era in the 1930s. The fragments were reassembled and finally housed in a wooden structure in piazza Augusto Imperatore. A new structure to house the monument was opened in 2006. Designed by Richard…
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Key People Key People: Trajan Just outside Tower Hill tube station is a statue of who is believed to be the Roman Emperor Trajan. It stands outside one of the last remaining pieces of the London Wall. The wall was built by the Romans to surround and protect Londinium. Trajan was the 13th Roman Emperor who reigned from 98 until his death in 117 AD. Trajan is best known for his extensive public building programme, which reshaped the city of Rome and left multiple enduring landmarks such as Trajan’s Forum, Trajan’s Market and Trajan’s Column. His major campaigns as emperor…
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This Sunday tutters at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), in Toronto Canada, will attempt to set a world record for the most people tutting at one time. The art gallery is hosting the exhibit King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs. Heritage Key has a preview ofit here. The dance is a form of hip hop dance inspired by Ancient Egypt. It was epitomized by comedian Steve Martin in the 1970s on Saturday Night Live. The Gallery has already signed up more than the 250 dancers needed to set the record, said the AGO in a news…
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Caravaggio was not a man of his time. As gay icon, father of modern painting and enigmatic artistic rebel, he speaks volumes to 21st century audiences visiting his current exhibition in Rome. The realism and drama that he transmitted onto canvas seem surprisingly fresh, while also connecting us with the feel and detail of life in the early 17th century. But his portraits of youths – again, not typical of the early 1600s – seem to hark back to an era more than 1,000 years before his time. His sensuous appreciation of the male form, which scandalised his 17th century…
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My recent travels in India took me to Ajanta, about two hours’ drive outside of Aurangabad, in the Indian state of Maharashtra (where they’re making perfectly drinkable wine these days, by the way). The nearby small town of Ajanta gives its name to the collective of 29 caves carved out of a sheer wall of rock in a horseshoe-shaped river canyon, completed in the period 200BC to 500AD in the name of Buddhism. Several are temples, but most are dormitories originally built for temporarily housing Buddhist monks, as well as travellers and itinerant spice traders. The spice route passed through…