The Wiltshire police has announced there will be a large police presence at Stonehenge for this year’s Summer Solstice. Because the celebrations fall over the weekend and fine weather is predicted, bigger crowds than usual are expected and Wiltshire police have said they will clamp down heavily on antisocial behaviour. The police operation will involve an unmanned drone and horses. Also drugs sniffer dogs will be launched at Stonehenge tomorrow as huge crowds descend on the ancient site for the summer solstice. The Guardian reported on visitors of the Stonehenge fearing a repeat of the escalations at the recent G20…
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Thanks to being fenced off by English Heritage to much druidic chagrin, Stonehenge is now largely the preserve of sedate tourist visits. Yet four times a year – during both equinoxes and solstices – the great stones are opened to the public in order to celebrate the ties between Britain’s most famous prehistoric monument and the heavens. This Sunday on June 21, the summer solstice welcomes a whole host of druids, hippies and revellers to marvel at the giant megaliths – which many claim to have been an ancient temple to the sun. Last year some 30,000 foolhardy fun-lovers braved…
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Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a fragment of a Neanderthal man’s skull in the North Sea, dating back around 60,000 years. The Leiden-based boffins believe the find to be the first human remains ever dredged from the sea bed. Chemical isotope readings have shown the man to have been carniverous – and the area would certainly been rife with potential dinners in his day. For most of the past 500,000 years, the North Sea’s level has been sustantially lower, with many parts forming a sort of archipelago stretching from the British Isles to the European mainland. ‘Only a Matter…
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South of Corso Still on the trail of some of the lesser-known Roman sites, at the weekend I found myself wandering around a quiet area south of via del Corso. Testaccio is still very much a people’s neighbourhood. Old men gather on benches in shady piazzas, constantly gabbling away about who-knows-what (hotly debating the government’s latest PR disaster or contesting who won the last game of boules, it’s difficult to tell in their Romanaccio dialect), while children play with the pigeons. There aren’t many tourists to be seen, even though the area holds a couple of attractions. I stop short…
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Before you answer that question, let me just point out that Monte Testaccio is actually both, being possibly the oldest Roman rubbish dump to have been excavated and studied in depth. Admittedly an open-air land fill site might not fit in with your idea of a cultural tourist destination and it probably won’t tick the boxes if you’re thinking about glamorous ruins where emperors and senators once set out the course of history. But this pile of old rubbish, as I affectionately like to call it, can tell us a surprising amount about the inner workings of the Roman empire.…
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Iraq has had – shall we say – a colourful recent history. Wars with Iran, Kuwait, the US and the US again; insurrections, intifadas, genocide and rebellion have left a land which, while rich in natural resources, is one of the most shattered civilizations on the planet. Most would blame Saddam Hussein and his egotistical bigotry for Iraq’s current plight; others point the finger at the remnants of the Cold War, which left Iraq fighting an impossible proxy conflict with their Iranian neighbours – arming Saddam’s bloodthirsty Ba’athists in the process. Yet whatever your stance on the country’s twisted fate…
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Key Dates The earliest record of Nineveh is around 1800 BC. It was captured by the Assyrians in the 14th century BC. It was sacked and razed in 612 BC. The Arab conquest of 637 AD meant Mosul effectively became Nineveh incarnate. Key People King Ninus, the semi-mythological Persian king on whose name Nineveh is based. Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who built most of Nineveh’s legendary landmarks – including its palace. Nineveh has come to be something of a legend of the Near East; a symbol of the ancient civilization of Assyria and the marauding tribes of Mesopotamia. Located in…
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Where and when? The term Neolithic refers to the period in ancient European history when characteristic Neolithic technology became prevalent – certain types of farming implements, tools, pottery and weapons. Encyclopedia Britannica describes the Neolithic period as a whole as the “final stage of technological development or cultural evolution among prehistoric humans.” The Neolithic era originated in South East Asian villages such as the famous Banpo in China, circa 9000 BC, artefacts from which are displayed in Xi’an‘s Banpo Museum. It then gradually spread west. It lasted from approximately 7000 BC (around the time of the first farming societies in…
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Early Roman Texts to be Sent Back to Vindolanda Roman soldiers based at Vindolanda, the Roman fort and settlement at the coldest extremity of the Roman Empire, were not so different to modern Britons. While they had a job to do in maintaining order and control of the north western border (along Hadrian’s Wall, although Vindolanda was inhabited before Hadrian built his frontier), they also ensured they weren’t out of pocket for their troubles. Discovered in 1973, the Vindolanda Tablets are wooden message boards dating back to 85 AD. Their messages include an invitation to a birthday party as well…
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If I told you a story about the eighth king of Rome, the clever ones among you might notice that something doesn’t quite add up. Your minds might start whirring, scanning the memory for facts about early Roman history… way back when, before the Republic even. And then you remember: of course! Ancient Rome was a city built on seven hills… and it had seven kings. Seven: no more no less. You might well be thinking: ‘Anyone who tries to tell me about the eighth king is either a joker or just sadly misinformed!’ Well, in that case the joke…