Yesterday was an exciting day for those in Toronto who are interested in archaeology. Heritage Key learned that the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, coming to Toronto in June, will be the largestwarriors exhibitever to hit North America. No terracotta spectacle on this scale has ever come to these shores! But thats not all. Earlier in the day there was an announcement made by Canadas infrastructure minister John Baird. He said that the Canadian government will commit $2.75 million towards the construction of new Roman and Byzantine galleries at the Royal Ontario Museum.It will also be usedinrevamping thebat cave,” – a facsimile…
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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…
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Bergama, Turkey is a city in the west of the country, located near the Bakray river and is home to the ruins of the Roman city of Pergamon (or Pergamum), which lie to the north and west of the modern day site. The ancient city is believed to have had a population of around 150,000 people at its peak in the First Century AD. Thanks to GeoEye who have provided a high resolution satellite image of the region, we can see the relationship between the modern city and its ancient past. Of all the amazing sites in the area surrounding…
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Never before the Book of the Dead has been the focus of such a major exhibition as the one upcoming at the British Museum in November this year. Rumours of the exhibition started to surface (or at least, reach my ears) ever since the Colloquium on the Book of the Death last year, but was only recently confirmed. ‘Journey through the afterlife: the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead’ will focus on how the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead was thought to guide the deceased safely through the dangers of the underworld, ultimately (hopefully) ensuring eternal life. The Book…
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Many archaeological excavations are taking place across Egypt as the wonders of the Ancient World continue to reveal themselves to us. One such excavation taking place is at el-Assasif, Thebes at the site of TT34 – the Tomb of Montuemhat. The archaeological dig, led by Dr Farouk Gomaa, is searching for the yet undiscovered burial chamber of the diplomat Montuemhat. Renown photographer Sandro Vannini captured images of the excavations in progress at TT34, as well as covering many spectacular images in his publication “The Lost Tombs of Thebes: Life in Paradise” authored by Dr Zahi Hawass (Watch a video about…
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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.…
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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…
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The Arabian peninsula has been suffering recently. Yemen has been accused of harbouring terrorists by the West, and the gargantuan Burj Tower in Dubai was unveiled last week amid a haze of economic uncertainty. Yettiny Qatar, an outcropwith a population barely toppingone million,continues to buck its diminutive stature with world-beating business and heady ambitions. And the Museum of Islamic Art in capital city Doha may just be Qatar’s most impressive structure. In this Heritage Key video, Museum Director Dr Oliver Watson shows us some of the treasures of the museum, and explains the far-reaching importance of Islamic art. The striking…
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The results of the ‘What value do replicas hold?’ Heritage Key survey are in!Everybody agrees that a replica – regardless of how real it looks – can only ever be a duplicate. Yet the vast majority (79.28%) of those who took our ‘What value do replicas hold?’ survey see good use for these clones, in educations, research, protection from damage and saving on travel costs. Replica Valley of the Kings and King Tut’s Tomb:Worth a Visit? The ‘Replica Valley of the Kings’ is hot news lately, with the SCAand the Getty Institute embarking on a joint effort to protect the…
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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…