As an experimental archaeologist and independent researcher, I’ve spent the last 30 years investigating the eating habits of ancient civilisations – including their ancient Christmas dinners. Here are some tips and recipes for the perfect xmas dinner that I’ve collected along the way. I use a technique that I’ve developed over the years to explore the practical aspects of the daily lives of prehistoric Europeans. The approach is based on the theory that the inherent skills and ingenuity of prehistoric European is still latent in the people of Europe today. But the skills of surviving in the northern European landscape…
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Although there is copious evidence for the Egyptian kings statues, huge depictions on temple walls, stelae the actual reality of the day-to-day work and personal authority of these individuals is often ignored in favour of discussions of divinity, art and ideology. There is good reason for this. Despite the extensive amount of evidence available to scholars, everything is shrouded in a thick layer of ideological presentation that masks the reality of the situation. This makes it difficult to separate fact from fiction: what are we to envision the king did every day? Initially, just for fun, it is interesting to…
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When someone tweeted “Follow penis symbols to find ancient brothel!” in reply to the news of Pompeii being the next – after Stonehenge and parts of the Wall of China – world heritage site to be available for ‘armchair tourism’ on Google Earth, this reminded me of some of the ancient graffiti found at Pompeii. Because – guess what – apparently the Roman inscriptions did not differ that much from the graffiti, scribbling and tagging that you can find on a contemporary toilet wall (or for the web 2.0 generation: Facebook). Some are thoughtful and offer valuable advise – “the…
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Women invented metallurgy! This extraordinary revelation was made in a lecture last night at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (which has an unfortune acronym pronounced eyesore) by David Anthony, Professor of Anthropology at Hartwick College and Guest Curator of the exhibition currently on view at ISAW until April 25, 2010: “The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000-3500 BC.” In his talk, entitled “The Rise and Fall of Old Europe,” Anthony delved into the mysteries of the highly sophisticated and populous culture that sprang up 7,000 years ago along the banks of…
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We, sitting comfortably in front of our computers here in the 21st century, a mocha-choca-frappe-latte possibly close at hand, like to complain a lot about stress. Balancing the demands of work, family, health and the full range of entertainment offered our by multi-channel digital TV package, is after all a trying daily endeavour. Its blissful to believe that life was somehow calmer and simpler in the quaint days of ancient history. But the findings of some new studies have suggested that that firmly was not the case. High levels of the stress hormone cortisol have been detected in the hair…
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With the current King Tut exhibition on show in Toronto at the moment (check out our preview here) the city has been gripped by Egyptomania. Everybody’s talking about the Boy King, and the buzz permeates the whole city. But what is Egyptomania, and how did it start? Simply put Egyptomania is a fascination with ancient Egypt – its culture, artefacts, architecture, religion and language. The term tends to refer to activities that took place in the 19th and 20th centuries, but a careful look at history will reveal that the phenomenon dates from earlier times. Mummy Parties The first Egyptomaniacs…
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The news is awash with Barack Obamas plan to surge roughly 30,000 US troops into the country on a short-term basis. Some consider it a necessary measure to protect American security, while others think hes leading the United States into the next Vietnam. It’s an important debate. He might have just made the most important foreign policy decision of his presidency. Ever since the news broke I havebeen thinking about what lessons ancient history has to teach us about making a choice like this. In ancient times much of Afghanistan was known as “Bactria” and played a significant role in…
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Did you know Christmas dates back to Roman times? Want to find out more? You could do worse than head down to the British Museum this Sunday (Dec 6) then, where popular children’s writer Caroline Lawrence will head up a day of Roman fun based around the ancient festival of Saturnalia, aptly named ‘A Roman Christmas‘. Visitors can get stuck into music, quizzes and prizes – and enjoy a talk and book signing from the author of Roman Mysteries, which has also been made into a CBBC series. Tickets are priced at 5 for the event which starts at 1pm…
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Remember the story we reported about three months ago, about the Mayan pyramids being giant musical instruments? The idea seems to have struck a chord with experts based in Malta, who – either by design or jealousy – have heralded the acoustic talents of their own megalithic landmarks. The tiny Mediterranean island was once home to a highly developed civilisation, who between the fourth and third millennia BC created some of the world’s most striking ancient architecture. Listed as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, the huge temple complex is a majestic wonder which predates Stonehenge by up to a thousand years.…
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A prehistoric settlement, which could date back 11,000 years, has been discovered near in England’s East Midlands region. The site, unearthed by a University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) team, was excavated in advance of building works at Asfordby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire. The team’s experts believe the site would have been inhabited by hunter-gatherers, who journeyed to Britain over the icy remnants of a giant super-river we reported yesterday (sadly they weren’t quite around at the time of Stone Age GPS). Britain would only become an island thousands of years later, when the final chills of the last ice…