The way animals were worshipped in Ancient Egypt has long been one of the empire’s most vivid features. Cats, crocs and even goldfish got the mummification treatment – and the culture’s myriad gods plied their divine trade in the image of some of the region’s most iconic creatures. In this exclusive video, the American University at Cairo’s Salima Ikram shares the secrets of Egypt’s enduring animal adoration. The divinity of animals was a key part of religious belief in Egypt. Evidence of it appears as far back as the First Dynasty – some feel it started even before then –…
-
-
Archaeologists have made an amazing discovery in Mexico, which could hold the key to one of history’s enduring enigmas. Two pyramids and nine palaces have been found hidden in the jungles of the Puuc region of Mexico’s Yucatan, the birthplace of the famous Maya culture. Experts have described the incredible haul, located at the ancient site of Kiuic, as a ‘Maya Pompeii’ – and believe its sudden abandonment could unlock the mystery of the Mayas, whose highly advanced civilization suddenly imploded around a thousand years ago. The project, led by Mexico‘s National Institute of Archaeology and History, unearthed an intriguing…
-
The fight goes on for the repatriation of Australian Aboriginal remains stored in museums across the world, with two artworks now added to the list of artifacts campaigers want returned Down Under. A delegation from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre in Hobart is in the UK this week to lobby institutions among them the Wellcome Trust, and Oxford and Cambridge universities to return the skulls, bones and other Aboriginal remains held in their collections. This follows their success earlier this month in having the remains of a skull from a Tasmanian Aborigine returned to Australia from the National Museum of Scotland.…
-
A possible connection has been established between the tiny, 5,000-year-old carved figurine discovered last month at Links of Noltland on Orkney and a lintel stone found on the nearby remote islet Holm of Papa Westray. Archaeologists identified a potential correlation between the distinctive heavy, curved eyebrows and dotted eyes on the so-called Orkney Venus which is thought to be Scotlands earliest representation of the human face and markings that theyd earlier seen etched into the lintel rock, which lies inside a large chambered Neolithic burial cairn. Mike Brooks, of the Historic Scotland photographic unit, was dispatched to Holm of Papa…
-
We all get a bit ticked off when someone else uses our favourite coffee mug. But for the Jews in ancient Jerusalem, keeping their best cups sacred was apparently a matter of the gravest importance. A stone drinking receptacle dating from around the time of Jesus Christ, found recently on historic Mount Zion, has shed light on strict religious ritual when it came to mugs in Biblical times. It bears tens lines of strange script scratched into its side, which while not yet deciphered are nevertheless believed to indicate that the cup wasnt to be casually used by just anybody.…
-
The literary world is waiting for a bombshell. Controversial Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is about to release his latest historical fantasy tale – The Lost Symbol – on the public. But what does this mean for the history books industry at large, and should the work of Dan Brown be considered historical fiction at all, or merely fantasy? Judging by the healthy state of historical fiction at the moment, it could be that history pulp has helped stimulate readers’ and writers’ interest in proper historical fiction. In his review of Ben Kanes The Forgotten Legion, Roger Michael Kean…
-
Nazi Egyptology is a complex subject. As Professor Thomas Schneider said, there is no uniform ‘Nazi Egyptology’ discipline. Instead there are a number of German Egyptologists who were thrown into the academic hole of the Third Reich – who each reacted to it in their own way. An interesting story that I didnt put into the article The Real Story of Nazi Egyptology, forbrevity reasons, is that of Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing. Bissing was a professor at Munich. He is perhaps most noted for his work at Abu Ghurab, done at the turn of the century, where he excavated the…
-
Three Roman-era figurines of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, have been unearthed at an archaeological site east of the sea of Galilee in Israel. Sussita, known as Hippos to the Greeks on account of the horse’s head-shaped hill on which it was built, was a Greco-Roman town that became one of the 10 cities (the Decapolis) in Coele-Syria that were granted some independence when Pompey conquered in 63 BC. (Other Decapolis cities include Qanawat and Jerash.) It is thought that the figurines, measuring 23cm high, date from the fourth century AD a time when Constantine the Great laid out the…
-
One of the most impressive and startling structures in the world is the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, yet the construction of it remains the subject of much debate and discussion to this very day. Dr Mark Lehner, an archaeologist at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, and Harvard Semitic Museum, has given an exclusive video interview to Heritage Key in which he explains what he and his team are doing in their latest excavation. Dr Lehner wants to know the answer to a question that rarely gets asked – Where and how did the workers who…
-
One of the best preserved and most decorated tombs in the Valley of the Kings is that of Seti I, adorned with hieroglyphics and colourful paintings on every passageway and chamber wall. In this first post on the Seti I tomb, we look at stunning photography by Sandro Vannini taken in the First Pillared Hall section of the tomb. Years of archaeological excavations have damaged the tomb and as a result, it has now been closed to the public. That means the only way to enjoy the beauty of Tomb KV17 is through photography, and who better to send down…