Derry Brabbs is one of Englands finest heritage and landscape photographers. He has published more than 25 books, including collaborations with reknowned rambler Alfred Wainwright. His book England’s Heritage, a project in conjunction with English Heritage, featured more than 600 photographs of sites that have shaped England’s past. He is both author and photographer of his latest book, Hadrian’s Wall. The book traces the Wall from west to east, from the Solway Firth to Wallsend on Tyneside, taking in places of historical significance along the way. Brabbs has been photographing Hadrians Wall since his first assignment along the Roman frontier…
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Fancy pitting your powers of perception against some of historys masters of deception? Then heres your chance. Art and Illusions: Masterpieces of Trompe l’il from Antiquity to the Present Day, the first major exhibition on visual illusion to be held in Italy, is on at Florences Palazzo Strozzi until January 26. Visual illusion has been used in art for thousands of years to trick and deceive us. This exhibition is designed to chart this fascinating story of trompe lil, or optical deception; the story of the tug-of-war between reality and its simulation. The show places optical illusion not only in…
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A new exhibit that will look at forgery in ancient and modern art is going to be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this January. The museum released details about it in a press release today. It’s called Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today and it runs from January 9 to April 4, 2010. There are going to be four sections that will examine the ancient world: Egyptian Antiquities will examine why the west is so interested in Egypt and how this led to so many fake Egyptian antiquities being created. Among the examples is an authentic relief of the…
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The exhibit Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul has been on at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, in Ottawa Canada, since October 24. For that entire time nearly 400 workers (including education staff and tour guides) have been on strike. The news only gets worse. As Heritage Key has previously reported talks broke down nearly two weeks ago with the union believing a settlement to be impossible. The union wants the museum to agree to binding arbitration. So far the museum has said no. People who want to see the exhibit have had to cross picket lines to…
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A new exhibit that will look at forgery in ancient and modern art is going to be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this January. The museum released details about it in a press release today. Its called Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today and it runs from January 9 to April 4, 2010. There are going to be four sections that will examine the ancient world: Egyptian Antiquities will examine why the west is so interested in Egypt and how this led to so many fake Egyptian antiquities being created. Among the examples is an authentic relief of the…
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Unseen photographs by Flinders Petrie are now on temporary display in the Petrie Museum in London in an exhibition called Framing the Archaeologist: Portraits and Excavation. The photos were taken by Petrie on site in Egypt, featuring himself, his wife and the excavation workers, and offer a remarkable view of the early years of archaeology. To mark the exhibition, the museum hosted an informal talk between Stephen Quirke and documentary maker Ayman El-Kharrat, entitled Workers and/or Archaeologists: In Conversation, questioning the status of Bedouin workers involved in early excavations in Egypt. You can watch Dr Quirke in this video interview…
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Today’s religious folk may be gearing up for the pious festive season, but it seems the ancient world just keeps on getting filthier: alongside gay Graeco-Roman pornography and rude Roman graffiti, one Athens museum has decided to celebrate all things raunchy in Ancient Greece. Starting today and ending on the 5th April next year, “Eros: From Hesiod’s Theogony to Late Antiquity” at the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art will treat visitors to a cornucopia of ancient smut, from orgies and prostitution, to paedophilia and even beastiality. And while it may seem at loggerheads with today’s relatively constrained society, museum director…
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A Polish archaeological team has discovered a decorated clay vessel containing dozens of gold coins at a lost monastery in Egypt. The find was made in a room of the Archangel Gabriel monastery (Deir Malek Gubrail) in Naqlun, in the Fayum Oasis, by the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of Warsaw University. SCA chief Zahi Hawass says the hoard’s 18 coins and 62 coin fragments are dated to Egypt’s Abbasid Period, which ruled northern regions between 750 and 1258 AD. Team leader Wlodzimierz Godlewski says the monastic complex of Naqlun was built at the beginning of the 6th century AD.…
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Researchers have announced the discovery of a huge ancient city, lost beneath the Caribbean Sea. Yet despite possibly predating the pyramids at Giza, its finders insist their breakthrough is not the legendary city of Atlantis. Satellite images of the city – which is not the same as the underwater site off the coast of Cuba proposed by Russian experts in 2001 – appear to show a pyramid, platforms and ruined buildings. And the project’s leader, who wishes to remain anonymous, is conviced they’re no fluke of nature. “We’ve found structure: what appears to be a tall, narrow pyramid; large platform…
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Geoff Holder is an extensively-published author with books that cover Earth mysteries, archaeology, witchcraft and a lot more. His books are an authoritative mix of extensive historical study combined with diligent field research. They are often geographically-based, with titles such as The Guide to Mysterious Glasgow and The Guide to the Mysterious Lake District. He describes himself as a Fortean, which means he’s interested in all things strange and weird, even if they’re not true. Archaeology features large in his books, with a particular emphasis on stone circles, henges and other neolithic ritual and funerary sites. His most recent book is…