• Ann

    ‘Digging for Britain’ with Alice Roberts – New Archaeology Series on BBC2

    Britain, man your TVs and iPlayers!Great Britain might be a small island but it has a huge history and, every year, hundreds of excavations bring lost treasures up to the surface. Presented by Dr Alice Roberts, ‘Digging For Britain‘ joins these excavations in a new BBC Twohistory series. ‘Digging for Britain’ is produced by 360 Production (a look behind the scenes) and follows ayear of archaeology around the country, revealing and contextualising some of the newest finds, research and social history. Its four episodes focus onfocus on the Roman, Prehistoric, Anglo-Saxon and Tudor eras. Digging the Romans In the first…

  • malcolmj

    King Tut Inc – Treasures Worth More Outside of Egypt

    According to figures quoted at an archaeological conference last week by Dr Zahi Hawass, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has generated more revenue in recent years from sending treasures of Tutankhamun abroad than it has from collections in the countrys own museums. That includes the Howard Carter collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which features key pieces from King Tuts tomb such as the Golden Death Mask (some amazing picture of which you can view here) and coffins deemed too fragile or unwieldy to travel outwith the country. The SCA has made over $100 million from its…

  • Ann

    PASE Domesday Online Database launches ahead of BBC Two Domesday Special

    PASE Domesday, a database of Domesday Book linked to mapping resources, has been launched online today, ahead of tomorrows Domesday special to be broadcast on BBC Two (preview video ‘The Domesday Inquest’). In the documentary, Dr Stephen Baxter seeks to prove that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes, arguing that it is about something far more important than money. According to Dr Baxter, its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England. The Domesday Book The Domesday Book is the product of a great survey of England commissioned by…

  • jon-himoff

    Chasing Fame and Mummies: Zahi Hawass Goes Global

    There is a billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles where Zahi Hawass is framed in the photo to look bigger than the Great Pyramid.Supposedly, it is all a matter of perspective. In the same way you can take your own view on the reality television series “Chasing Mummies” from History Channel. (If anyone in LA can snap a good shot of that billboard, please add it to the comments below.) In terms of realityTV fare on the tube, I guess this show is pretty good. It is action packed. The series has a strongstar driving the drama andmany interesting,…

  • roger-kean

    Warrior of the Pen, an Interview with Harry Sidebottom

    Dr Harry Sidebottom is a Fellow of St Benets Hall and lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art. He has an international reputation as a scholar, having published widely on ancient warfare, classical art and the cultural history of the Roman Empire. Harry is also a presenter on Ancient Discoveries for The History Channel and the best-selling fiction author of the Warrior of Rome series. With his first two novels in the Warrior of Rome series (Fire in the East and King of Kings), set in the fragmenting Roman Empire of the later…

  • site

    El Zotz

    El Zotz Guatemala El Zotz is a Mesoamerican archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located within the San Miguel la Palotada National Park in the Petén Basin region. The area has caves and swamps and is known for the hundreds of thousands of bats that fly out from under the cliffs at sunset. El Zotz is a medium sized site covering an area of perhaps 0.75 by 0.75km that includes a variety of large and small architectural remains in a style typical of the Early Classic. It has at least two ceremonial centres, one within the site core, the…

  • Ann

    Maya Royal Tomb Found Beneath El Diablo Pyramid

    Archaeologists excavating in the Guatamalanjunglehave discovered a royal tomb, filled with colourful 1,600-year-old Mayan artefacts, beneath the El Diablo pyramid. The well preserved tombis packed with carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, possibly the remains of a human sacrifice. The archaeological team, led by Stephen Houston, professor of anthropology at Brown University, uncovered the tomb beneath the El Diablo pyramid in the city of El Zots, Guatamalain May. Last week, the discovery of the tomb, dated to between 350 and 400AD, was made public. Houston said the first pointer to the discovery was something odd in the…

  • jon-himoff

    Culture Beyond Oil Spills Inside British Museum: Activism or Terrorism?

    A group of three people dressed in black veils entered the British Museum and solemnly spilled an oil substance near the iconic Eastern Island Moai statue as a form of protest against BP for the Gulf Oil spill disaster. According to blog Culture24 they choose the Hoa Hakananai because of “its fabled links with the sudden demise of reputedly strong civilisations.” BP is a major sponsor for the British Museum as well as other art institutions including the Tate and Royal Opera. Says activist Ben Cooper: “Just like the forests on Easter Island, oil represents a resource being over-exploited despite…

  • Ann

    Earl of Carnarvon tells Andrew Lloyd Webber Highclere Castle is not for sale

    Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, the multi-millionaire musical impresario, has expressed a wish to purchase Highclere Castle, near Newbury, Berkshire. The Victorian castle has been the family seat of the Carnarvons since the 1670s, and was home to the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who funded Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun‘s tomb (watch the video). Andrew Lloyd Webber’s offer came after the current Earl applied for permission to sell pieces of land on the fringes of the Highclere estate in the hope of raising 11 million to fund badly-needed repair works to the Victorian mansion. In a letter sent to the Earl…

  • Ann

    King Tut Scottish? How far can DNA theories stretch?

    When the latest Tutankhamun study was published in Jama, there were quite a few outcries that although the study looked into the direct ancestry of King Tut, it fully ignored the pointers to the pharoah’s racial ancestry, possibly hidden in the pharaoh’s DNA. As usual, Dr Zahi was accused of many things, most notable charges of ‘hiding that King Tut was black/white/purple.’ Now a retired physicist took the time to write down some of the DNA test results exposed in the Discovery Channel programme that featured the study’s results and concluded the data shown in the docu reveals Tut’s haplogroup…