Its hard to imagine that anyone could have once lived on the Gilf Kebir, an arid, remote, desolate sandstone plateau the size of Switzerland, located in the far southwest of Egypt. Yet, as we discover in an exclusive new Heritage Key video report by Nico Piazza, around 10,000 years ago water, and with it vegetation and animal and human life, once ran through the barren land Egyptians today call the Great Barrier. This long-forgotten prehistoric civilization that once called Gilf Kebir home left their mark in the form of cave paintings and other forms of rock art, in locations such…
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It was announced last week that the hotly disputed Lewis Chessmen are to be reunited for the first time in 150 years, when a number of the bulk of pieces held by the British Museum in London arrive for a tour of Scotland, the country where they were discovered, throughout 2010 and 2011. They aren’t the only historical artefacts of Scottish origin that the Scots stake a fierce claim to, or have had to fight to get back. Calls for repatriation have been made over all from the Safe Conduct letter – written by the King of France and taken…
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The MilwaukeePublic Museum is going to be the site of a major Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition starting January 22, 2010. The exhibition will feature the recently discovered Jeselsohn Stone, which only came to light recently. The stone is estimated to be about 2,000 years old. It was acquired by a collector, David Jeselsohn, about 10 years ago. Where it was found is unknown, although Jordan has been suggested as a probable location. Its partially legible and, as such, onlychunks of the inscription can be made out. It appears to be written by someone named Gabriel (it has the words I…
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Every great king has a throne from upon which he rules, and King Tutankhamun was no exception with the Golden Throne which is one of the finest pieces of royal furniture ever created. With web-exclusive photography of this breathtaking artefact by world class photographer Sandro Vannini, we can see that this was one chair that is definitely fit for a king! Sure, there are other expensive chairs around in Egypt at the moment, but the beauty of the Golden Throne of King Tutankhamun outshines the many chairs throughout time! On display as a treasure of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, (as…
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This week China celebrated the 2,560 birthday of Confucius. And soon, the famous philosopher will also have his own film. Titled Confucius, the movie will star Chow Yun-Fat as the famed Chinese thinker. Last month, a trailer for the film was released, with the movie set to premiere early next year. Living from 551 to 479 BC, Confucius is renowned for his philosophies on morality and values. These ideas have shaped Chinese society and governance through the millennia, while also influencing other countries across Asia. News articles, however, have noted a recent resurgence of the scholar in China, after his…
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One of the largest oracle bones ever found will be feature in a rare exhibition of the bones at the National Library of China in Beijing. Long before satellite imaging and Doppler radar came along, using a cow bone was once seen as a dependable way to predict the weather. More than 3,000 years ago, kings in China relied on such animal bones to foretell future events. Through the ages, fragments of these oracle bones have survived, offering archaeologists early glimpses into the countrys history, as well as its writing system. Storing about a quarter of the discovered oracle bones…
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Horrible Histories is a fascinating series of books for children, covering all such niceties as the Rotten Romans, the Savage Stone Age, and of course the err… Awful Egyptians. With over 20 million copies sold, the series was that much a success, that the CBBCturned it into into a series, which might just be even more horribly original than the books. The Tudors and Victorians were that popular they got their own theatre show and the Ruthless Romans made it into a computer game, available for PC, Wii and Nintendo. And then there’s the Terrible Treasures game online, which enlightens…
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The second day of Moscow’s ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology‘ was characterised by a biting cold, thanks to heating problems. But the topics being discussed certainly helped warm up proceedings. The first lecture of the day was given by the British Museum‘s Nigel Strudwick, who focused on the interaction of of tourists and local inhabitants at Luxor and the main historical monuments at Thebes, and the challenges facing archaeologists to carry out meaningful research in a modern environment. Dr Strudwick attempted to resolve some of the issues facing the city, and to reconcile the necessity of tourism to the…
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The first day of the ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology‘ conference was full of new discoveries, though it started on a typically soggy Moscow day. After participants arrived at the Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences on comfortable buses, they went in and received a slightly altered conference program – containing lecture lists and ‘Return to Egypt’; a book about the history of Russian Egyptology. The conference started with an opening speech by vise-president of Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander D. Nekipelov, dedicated to the history, development and achievements of Russian archaeology in Egypt, from the research of Vladimir…
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To say that archaeologist Sarah Milledge Nelson has had a productive career would be a gross understatement. The University of Denver archaeologist has held the John Evans professorship. A position that every faculty member, at her university, competes for, but only one person gets each year. She wrote the book on Korean archaeology – literally – and has written or co-written somewhere in the neighbourhood of a dozen books, as well as numerous articles. She’s done fieldwork throughout Korea and extensive work at Niuheliang, a Neolithic site in China. She even pens works of historical fiction. Right now she’s working on…