Birthday Candles and Controversy Every year on the 21st of April, Rome celebrates its own beginnings with historical re-enactments and musical events. Since the city was founded 2762 years ago it has almost constantly been the scene of political power struggles and conflict. So it seemed appropriate that, this year, the birthday celebration was itself dogged by controversy and accusations. The highlight of the celebrations was a music and light show dubbed ‘Romagnificat’ by its organisers. To begin with, the four-lane road that Mussolini built through the Forum area was closed to traffic and, as darkness fell, the surrounding street-lights…
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Have you ever wondered how a gladiator might have felt waiting in the wings of the Colosseum, ready for his turn to fight? Or what it might have been like to live in a Roman apartment block, with its claustrophobic corridors, precarious steps and cool marble floors? Visitors come to Rome with all sorts of expectations but it’s hard to get a feel for life 2,000 years ago when you’re competing for camera space with hoards of fellow tourists. Of course many visitors to Italy’s capital have got different ideas of what makes a good trip. Last week 67,000 football…
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Few people would ever have called Saddam Hussein a god; not even many of his most vehement supporters. But the vainglorious way in which he rebuilt many of Iraq’s most coveted ancient sites seems to suggest he saw himself as some sort of Babylonian deity along the lines of the Egyptian heretic king Akhenaten. However a great number of Saddam’s beloved monuments have fallen into the hands of the US Army since the war in 2003. How are the Americans looking after Saddam’s Mesopotamian masterpieces? And what modern uses are these sites, spearheaded by the vast Ziggurat of Ur, currently…
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There may be well-known pyramids in Egypt, Mexico and even Bosnia – and ancient wonders across the globe – but not many know about the ancient architecture located right on their doorstep in London. Step forward Nicholas Hawksmoor: architect, freemason and all-round ancient religion nut. Born to a poor family in the British Midlands, Hawksmoor became one of the most revered architects of his time. And his London churches are some of the capital’s strangest landmarks, stepping wildly away from the Baroque time in which they were conceived. Hawksmoor had already built, and helped build with his mentor Sir Christopher…
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Various exhibitions featuring the photography of Harry Burton the man responsible for shooting the iconic photographs of the investigation of the tomb of King Tut in the 1920s are currently making their way around the US and Europe (or some of them are about to at least). Theres a small showing at the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, the Semmel Replicas Exhibition is in Munich (it will also visit Barcelona, Hamburg, Budapest and Warsaw) and AEI King Tut exhibitions are upcoming in Indianapolis and San Francisco. In case anyone is looking for advice on how to shoot Tut-related relics…
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She may not be to everyone’s taste, but don’t knock her – this tiny mammoth tusk temptress is looking good for her 35,000 years. Discovered last year in the southwest German cave of Hohle Fels, the somewhat ironically-named Venus is believed to be the earliest form of figurative art – made by the first homo sapiens to settle in Europe. It predates other finds by up to 5,000 years, bringing Europe further in line with engravings found in Africa, which still predate the find. Dr Nicholas Conard of Tubingen University, Germany, told pre-eminent journal Nature that the discovery ‘radically changes…
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Shes an enduring symbol of feminine beauty, and one of the most iconic and replicated images of ancient Egypt. But is Queen Nefertitis bust discovered in the ruins of Amarna by Ludwig Borchardt in 1912 actually a fake? Apparently so, according to leading Swiss art historian Henri Stierlin. He claims that the painted limestone and plaster sculpture is not the original, carved in the workshop of the Egyptian artist Thutmose 3,400 years ago, but actually a copy, created a century back by an artist commissioned by Borchardt. The historian alleges that when the copy went on display in December 1912,…
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Egypt hasn’t always been controlled from Cairo – in fact the city only took on its capital city mantle in 969 AD. The ancient Egyptian empire went through over a dozen capital cities in its history, the most notable being Memphis, Thebes, Amarna and Alexandria. But how did power shift between these bustling ancient hubs? And what was life like as a resident of an ancient Egyptian capital? A Divided Land Before the empire was united in 3118 BC, it consisted of two separate kingdoms: Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt consisted of the valley regions of the south, taking…
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Attribution: Peter Mattock Donore Ireland Key Dates Newgrange was built between 3300 and 2900 BC, and was a focus of ceremonial activity throughout the Neolithic period. New monuments were progressively added to the site – timber circles were built and a free-standing circle of stones was erected to circle the mound. It wasn’t until the 17th century that Newgrange was discovered. Excavation and restoration took place 1962-1975 under the supervision of the University of Cork Archaeology Department’s Professor Michael J O’Kelly, the first person to witness the winter solstice from within the mound. During the excavation, the remains of five…
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Saqqara, located 40km south of Cairo, was a vast, 6km-long necropolis for the ancient capital of Memphis during the 1st and 2nd dynasties. It is most famously recognised for its step pyramid, built for the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser (2635 – 2610 BC) – but houses thousands of ancient burial sites, with many more submerged beneath the unerring depths of the desert. It stands as not only a memoriam to the time in which it was developed, but also as a yardstick against which all future Egyptian funerary ceremony would be placed. The City of the Dead Saqqara was originally…