• bija

    Excavations at the Mamertine Prison Find Evidence of Pre-Christian Cult and the Cult of Saint Peter

    On Tuesday this week public offices in Rome shut down as the city celebrated the feast-day of two of its patron saints, Peter and Paul. So it was an appropriate time for Rome’s archaeological superintendency to announce some of the findings of an archaeological investigation at the Mamertine prison, in which Peter and Paul were allegedly imprisoned during the first century AD. The recent excavation established that the Carcer Tullianum was the site of a religious cult from the fifth century BC, according to Dr Patrizia Fortini, an archaeologist from the Superintendency for Archaeological Heritage in Rome, who worked on…

  • sean-williams

    ‘Rock Drawings were Prehistoric Movies’ – Most Obvious Archaeology Ever?

    My award for archaeology’s equivalent of an IgNoble prize goes to boffins at Cambridge University and Austria’s Sankt Poelten University, who have triumphantly announced that rock engravings from the Copper Age in Europe were ancient movies (as opposed to doodles). Was this not a hopelessly obvious conclusion? Not to Cambridge’s Frederick Baker yesterday (June 29): “The cliff engravings…in our opinion are not just pictures but are part of an audiovisual performance.” “There was still no moving image but (the pictures) created sequences like in animation,” adds Baker. “This was not just a treat for the eyes but also for the…

  • sean-williams

    Chocolate Terracotta Warriors to Tour Taiwan

    Taiwan will get a taste of China’s Terracotta Warriors this Saturday, as 400 chocolate miniatures make their way from a popular show in Beijing. ‘World Chocolate Wonderland’, at Taipei’s National Taiwan Science Education Center, also features a chocolate-hewn Great Wall of China. It attracted over 400,000 visitors in the Chinese capital, not least for the pint-sized ancient warriors, who measure just 35cm each. Each exhibit at the show must be kept in temperature-controlled rooms to avoid melting. Taiwan baker Lee Kyo-yi battled fine margins to create his chocolate Taipei 101, Taiwan’s, and at one point the planet’s, tallest skyscraper. “The…

  • owenjarus

    Chinese president Hu Jintao may kick-off Terracotta Warriors show in Toronto

    A Toronto newspaper is reporting that Chinese President Hu Jintao may kick-off the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, at the Royal Ontario Museum, on June 26. It will be the largest Terracotta Warriors show ever displayed in North America featuring 250 artefacts in total including 16 human terracotta figures. It’s opening day coincides with the start of the G20 summit in Toronto, which the president will be attending. The Toronto Starreports that the president and his wife Liu Yongqing have been formally invited by the museum. Were hoping, but we know there are lots of things on their agenda, exhibit curator Dr.…

  • bija

    Earliest Paintings of Jesus’s Apostles Uncovered in Roman Catacomb

    It was announced at a press conference yesterday in Rome that the oldest known images of the apostles Peter, Andrew and John have been uncovered in one of the city’s Christian catacombs. The images date from the late fourth century AD and were found in the underground chambers of the catacombs of Santa Tecla, in the south of the city near San Paolo Fuori le Mura on via Ostiense. Professor Fabrizio Bisconti, a university professor at lUniversit Roma Tre and an expert in christian and medieval iconography, told me: Last year the earliest image of Saint Paul was discovered at…

  • sean-williams

    25ft Steel Ancestor Celebrates Solstice at Stonehenge

    Stonehenge summer solstice 2010 is to be marked by the debut of a 25ft-high steel statue. ‘The Ancestor’, created by local sculptors Andrew Rowlings and Michelle Topps with help from Druids and the local community, will sit 70m from the stone circle and provide an alternative focus of revelry and worship at sunrise, easing congestion within Stonehenge itself. The Ancestor is as tall as a double-decker bus, and weights a huge seven tons. It has been shrouded in secrecy until today to prevent a further swell of people visiting the already overcrowded event in Wiltshire, which tonight is thought to…

  • owenjarus

    Australian Museum Curator Janet Carding New CEO of Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum

    Canadas largest museum has picked a curator from down under to lead them into the next decade. Janet Carding has been Assistant Director, Public Programs & Operations at the Australian Museum inSydney, since 2004. She also teaches the Museums and Galleries administration segment of the University of Sydneys Museum Studies program. She will be taking over as CEO and Director of the Royal Ontario Museum after William Thorsell, the museums current leader, retires in August. Like the ROM the Australian Museum has a collection that stretches into ancient times. In particular it has a large collection devoted to the aboriginalcultures…

  • bija-knowles

    i-MiBAC: Free iPhone App Guide for Italy’s Archaeological Sites and Museums

    An iPhone application that will provide information, ticketing and itineraries for the 40 most visited museums and sites in Italy is to be launched on 1 July. Released by Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (known in Italy as MiBAC), ‘i-MiBAC Top 40’ is the first of a series of free apps produced by the Italian ministry dedicated to Italy’s heritage sites and museums. In both English and Italian, it will initially be available for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, but will soon be made available for smartphones too. According to MiBAC’s press release, the application will available on…

  • site

    Cathedral of Magdeburg

    Attribution: Dirk Michael Boche Key Dates September 21, 937 – First church constructed 1207 – Destruction of the cathedral by fire 1209 – Start of the construction of the current cathedral Magedeburg Germany Key People Otto I, who ordered the construction Queen Eadgyth (‘Edith of England’) who was buried in the Cathedral The ‘Magdeburger Dom’ as it is known in German (full: ‘Dom zu Magdeburg St Mauritus und Katharina’) is located in the city of Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.  It is home to the grave of Emperor Otto I the Great, Holy Roman Emperor, and the remains of his wife Queen Aedgyth (‘Edith of…

  • owenjarus

    Calling all west-coast Egypt fans – King Tut event to take place in Vancouver!

    While the golden kings exhibition has left Canada for southern climes, those in Vancouver will have an opportunity to learn more about him and more specifically how his artefacts reinforced his position as pharaoh. Professor Katja Goebs research looks at Egyptian pharaohs and the artefacts that cement their hold on power. Her most recent book Crowns in early Egyptian Funerary Literature: Royalty, Rebirth, and Destruction, examines the white and red crowns ofUpper and Lower Egypt. They possess a wide-ranging symbolism that transcends the terrestrial sphere to encompass the divine and the cosmos, death and rebirth, she wrote in the book…