• owenjarus

    Egyptomania! Why the World Went Mummy-mental and King Tut-Crazy

    With the current King Tut exhibition on show in Toronto at the moment (check out our preview here) the city has been gripped by Egyptomania. Everybody’s talking about the Boy King, and the buzz permeates the whole city. But what is Egyptomania, and how did it start? Simply put Egyptomania is a fascination with ancient Egypt – its culture, artefacts, architecture, religion and language. The term tends to refer to activities that took place in the 19th and 20th centuries, but a careful look at history will reveal that the phenomenon dates from earlier times. Mummy Parties The first Egyptomaniacs…

  • malcolmj

    Treasures of King Tut – Tutankhamun’s Jewellery and the Love of a Queen

    When Howard Carter said he spied wondrous things upon cracking open the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, he wasnt joking. KV62 was filled with probably the most fantastic collection of ancient treasures ever discovered in one place all from beautiful golden coffins, to giant statues, canopic shrines and a golden throne. Tuts own body was literally stuffed with precious jewellery. In the third instalment of our four-part video series King Tut Revealed filmed by Nico Piazza, and featuring still photography by Sandro Vannini Dr Zahi Hawass, who you can watch in this video revealing the cause of Tuts death and…

  • owenjarus

    Cypriot archaeology day hits Toronto this Sunday

    Cyprus that great crossroads of the ancient world is going to be the focus of a special event happening this Sunday at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada. Five archaeologists will give talks about their research and how it is changing our understanding of the island. Heritage Key will be at the event and will publish reports. Cyprus was truly a crossroads of the ancient world. Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans and the Sea People all left their mark on the island. They did it by way of trade, migration, settlement and conquest. Just a month ago Heritage Key reported…

  • sean-williams

    Cleopatra Comes to Philadelphia (Well, some of her Treasures)

    Just as Cleopatra’s tomb could be discovered at Taposiris Magna, some of her greatest treasures will be winging their way to the States. Next June Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt will be showcased at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute for six months, before heading to three other US cities on a massive tour. The exhibition will bring together some of the best-known artefacts and freshest discoveries from Cleopatra’s city of Alexandria. The Institute’s senior vice president of marketing, programs and business development Troy Collins says the show’s treasures are coming from two major sources: “Land sources from the…

  • sean-williams

    Treasures from King Tut’s Tomb – The Animal Gods explained by Dr. Janice Kamrin

    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…

  • images

    Sandro Vannini’s Photography – The Canopic Chest

    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.…

  • sean-williams

    Gay Roman Porn, Please: We’re British

    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…

  • Ann

    Britain Loves Wikipedia: Wikimedia seeks underexposed UK Museum

    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…

  • prad

    Videos from Leptis Magna: Rafa Vjajes visits the Roman Jewel of Libya

    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…

  • owenjarus

    Afghan treasures still being picketed: Talks break down in Canadian Museum strike

    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…