An illegal Roma gypsy camp might be one of the last places you’d expect to find yourself on an expedition in search of an ancient Roman bridge. But this is what happened to Professor Hans Bjur and his colleagues as they were researching their project on the historical and modern context of one of Rome’s oldest roads. As they made their way through a more neglected corner of Rome’s Ponte Mammolo suburb, they followed the directions to where the bridge should have stood, only to find themselves in the midst of a temporary settlement. While the Swedish researchers were the…
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Three ritual beds were found inside the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62), made up of four pieces of gilded wood and bound together with hooks and staples. Assembly instructions were painted on the beds in black paint, with each bed representing a different animal deity. The ritual beds are on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where Dr JaniceKamrin explains the purpose and history behind them in a video for Heritage Key (You can watch that video by clicking here). Each bed was photographed by the renown Egyptology photographer Sandro Vannini, of which the images are brought to the…
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Attribution: Amazon The Medici Conspiracy The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums by Peter Watson, Cecilia Todeschini The Medici referred to in the title of this book isn’t the famed Florentine family of the Renaissance, but rather Giacomo Medici, international art dealer – jailed for 10 years in 2004 for illegal antiquities trafficking. The narrative opens with a botched robbery and an ensuing police chase, followed by the discovery of eight Apuleian vases from the fourth century BC in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. Even better than the antiquities…
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Fancy pitting your powers of perception against some of historys masters of deception? Then heres your chance. Art and Illusions: Masterpieces of Trompe l’il from Antiquity to the Present Day, the first major exhibition on visual illusion to be held in Italy, is on at Florences Palazzo Strozzi until January 26. Visual illusion has been used in art for thousands of years to trick and deceive us. This exhibition is designed to chart this fascinating story of trompe lil, or optical deception; the story of the tug-of-war between reality and its simulation. The show places optical illusion not only in…
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A new exhibit that will look at forgery in ancient and modern art is going to be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this January. The museum released details about it in a press release today. It’s called Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today and it runs from January 9 to April 4, 2010. There are going to be four sections that will examine the ancient world: Egyptian Antiquities will examine why the west is so interested in Egypt and how this led to so many fake Egyptian antiquities being created. Among the examples is an authentic relief of the…
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The exhibit Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul has been on at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in Ottawa Canada, since October 24. For that entire time nearly 400 workers (including education staff and tour guides) have been on strike. The news only gets worse. As Heritage Key has previously reported talks broke down nearly two weeks ago with the union believing a settlement to be impossible. The union wants the museum to agree to binding arbitration. So far the museum has said no. People who want to see the exhibit have had to cross picket lines to…
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A new exhibit that will look at forgery in ancient and modern art is going to be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this January. The museum released details about it in a press release today. Its called Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today and it runs from January 9 to April 4, 2010. There are going to be four sections that will examine the ancient world: Egyptian Antiquities will examine why the west is so interested in Egypt and how this led to so many fake Egyptian antiquities being created. Among the examples is an authentic relief of the…
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Today’s religious folk may be gearing up for the pious festive season, but it seems the ancient world just keeps on getting filthier: alongside gay Graeco-Roman pornography and rude Roman graffiti, one Athens museum has decided to celebrate all things raunchy in Ancient Greece. Starting today and ending on the 5th April next year, “Eros: From Hesiod’s Theogony to Late Antiquity” at the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art will treat visitors to a cornucopia of ancient smut, from orgies and prostitution, to paedophilia and even beastiality. And while it may seem at loggerheads with today’s relatively constrained society, museum director…
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No Christmas would be the same without many a wasted hour spent buried in the couch wiped-out on a bellyful of turkey and stuffing, or nursing a hangover after a Herculean nights mulled wine consumption flicking the channels in a dozy haze. It’s a Christmas tradition (although we can’t guarentee that it dates back as far as some other ancient seasonal rituals) This year you can spare yourself all those awful festive films and Christmas music videos youve seen a million times, by keeping Heritage Keys handy guide to ancient world-themed Christmas TV close at hand. All the old-school three-hours…
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A precious Roman wall painting, stolen from the site of an ancient villa near Pompeii, has been returned to Italy, after 12 years circulating on the nebulous antiquities market. The fragment of plaster fresco originally came from a Roman villa at Boscoreale, just outside Pompeii, and was reported stolen from an archaeological warehouse at Pompeii in 1997. The fresco is a typically Pompeian scene showing a woman dressed in green carrying a dish or tray against a cream background, surrounded by a deep red frame. Another part of the fragmented wall fresco, depicting Dionysos, was recovered from a London art…