The three ritual beds of Tutankhamun are a very serious proposition, guarded by some of the ancient world’s fiercest chaperones. King Tut’sAnubis Shrine, fashioned in the seventh year of Akhenaten’s reign, was something to be carried processionally during the final movements of the king’s mummy. Dr Janice Kamrin (watch a video of Dr Kamrin exploring the lost tombs of Thebes with Zahi Hawass here) points out that Anubis “is in the form of a jackal, or as we Egyptologists like to say a ‘super-jackal’, because he’s not quite a jackal: he’s a better form of the jackal.” Anubis certainly cuts…
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The Canopic Chest of King Tut was recently featured in a video with Dr Janice Kamrin, as she walks around the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and explains what this beautiful artefact would have been used for (Skip to the video by clicking here). As one of the treasures of the Cairo Museum, it was photographed in stunning detail by the established Egyptology photographer Sandro Vannini, and the images are bought to the Internet by Heritage Key. Discovered in the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62), it is one of several Egyptian alabaster artefacts that were found by famed explorer Howard Carter.…
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Controversy bred outcry; debates raged on radio shows, broadsheets and television up and down the country. But all the British Museum had done was buy a small, silver Roman cup – a beautiful cup at that, with its finely-etched details having been kept in great condition. What was the public’s problem? Why did so many people object to their national museum stumping up 1.8m for a stunnning piece of ancient art? The answer lay in the cup’s decoration. The Warren Cup, named after its best-known modern owner Edward Perry Warren, is a Roman skyphos (drinking cup), dating from between 1-20…
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Britain Loves Wikipedia is a scavenger hunt and free content photography contest that will be held in museums and cultural institutions across the UK, with the aim of increasing the number of pictures available to illustrate Wikipedia articles and inspire new articles. The event will kick off with a launch event at the Victoria and Albert Museum on Sunday 31 January 2010, followed by a series of events each weekend at locations around the UK. Museums looking for more visitors and exposure are still welcome to sign up. The event runs throughout February 2010, with members of the (Wikipedia) public…
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Following on from Herb Schmitz’s visit to the stunning Roman ruins of Leptis Magna (you can watch Heritage Key’s video interview with Herb on his visit to Libya here), one of the most prominent members of Heritage Key’s Flickr group has also recently visited the North African site and shot some videos of the various ruins. Rafa Vjajes is a Spanish photographer who often visits heritage and cultural sites around the world, and you can find many of his photographs in Heritage Key’s Flickr pool and see his stunning shot of the Roman Theatre at Sabratha which I featured as…
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It looks as if picket lines will be up for awhile yet at the Ottawa showing of Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. The blockbuster exhibition has been at the Canadian Museum of Civilization since October 23. There has been a strike on at the museum for that entire time. Nearly 400 workers, including educational staff and tour guides, have been manning picket lines. News is just breaking that the latest attempt to reach a negotiated settlement has failed. The union now believes that a negotiated settlement is impossible. PSAC advised the Minister of Labour after the vote…
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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…
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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…
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Scottish history lovers can get a unique view of their country’s heritage at the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) – a team of experts has rebuilt a Pictish throne. The wooden giant was created by master furniture maker Adrian McCurdy, who took his lines from ancient stone carvings. Picts ruled Scotland north of the Firth of Clyde from the 4th to 9th century AD. But they are best known for their mysterious rock art, which still baffles experts today. The throne was commissioned by the museum alongside distillers Glenmorangie. It will go on display next Tuesday (December 1st) at the…
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Tutankhamun, or King Tut as he’s affectionately known, was the boy king who ruled Egypt during the New Kingdom’s 18th dynasty, from 1333 to 1324 BC. In life he wasn’t the most important or memorable of Egypt’s pharoahs, but in death he’s become the one pharoah everyone’s heard of. His death at the age of 19 has been the topic of much discussion (You can watch last week’s video on the mystery of King Tut’s death here) and he was buried in the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor (ancient Thebes). His tomb…