• Ann

    Queen Cleopatra: More than Egypt’s Sex Kitten

    The exhibition ‘Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt’ premired this weekend at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Blogs and major newspapers have been in awe about the exhibition, featuring the amazingphotographs from the underwater excavations by Franck Goddioand articles about Cleopatra’s glamour and quite disastrous – love life. There’s nothing but praise for the ‘beautiful queen’ and mass coverage on the two quests for her tomb, where she rests with lover Mark Antony. But a true must-read before visiting the exhibition is Rosemary Joyce’s critical blog entry on how we perceive the last Queen of Egypt. She…

  • egypt

    Papyrus Signed by Cleopatra

    Key Dates 50 BC The item dates from the reign of Cleopatra, around 50 BC. Key People Cleopatra, the last queen of Egypt who signed the document. Mark Antony, Cleopatra’s lover and friend of Publius. Key People: Cleopatra Mark Antony At first glance this papyrus document may seem a nondescript artefact, albeit one from the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. On closer inspection it may be one of the most significant artefacts relating to Cleopatra, the enigmatic last queen of Egypt. The papyrus is essentially a tax exemption, granting freedom from payment on the import of Roman wine to Egypt.…

  • Ann

    ‘The Curse’ by Josh Ritter – A Mummy & Archaeologist Love Story

    When you see Dr Bob Brier lecturing about mummies, there is no doubt he’s passionate about them. The same goes for Dr Salima Ikram and all kinds of animal mummies (watch the video). But actual love between an archaeologist and a mummy? That’s something reserved solely for B-movies, until now: Musician Josh Ritter chronicles the love between an archaeologist and a mummy she discovers in Egypt, on new album ‘So Runs the World Away’. Aptly named ‘the Curse’, the song is accompanied by an enchanting puppet music video. When they are on their way from Egypt to New York by…

  • sean-williams

    Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt Opens at Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

    Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute plays host to the world premiere of Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt this Saturday (June 5). The exhibition, which runs until January 2 2011, promises to be a spectacular affair, combining over 150 artefacts relating to the famous queen, and visits the archaeology that is unearthing her amazing world day by day (click here for an interview with the Institute’s Troy Collins). The show is organised by National Geographic, the same brains behind the Terracotta Warriors’ recent trip across North America. The exhibition’s showcase treasures include statues, jewellery and everyday items from Cleopatra’s…

  • wadders

    Without Evidence: Atlantis Theories, Slightly More Left of Centre

    Plato has a lot to answer for when he wrote about Atlantis. Its been the inspiration behind TV series and Hollywood films; some even made for reasonable entertainment (think Captain Nemo and Man from Atlantis), and some, well sank (think Kevin Costner in Waterworld). Even James Bond, in The Spy who Loved Me, had an Atlantis element. He saved the earth from arch-villain Karl Stromberg, a powerful shipping magnate whose scheme for world domination was to blow up the land leaving the chosen few living safely beneath the ocean. Atlantis has it all; an ancient thriving city with ambiguous plans…

  • sean-williams

    Ancient Egyptian Mummy coming to Dick Institute, Kilmarnock

    Kilmarnock’s Dick Institute is the latest museum to be hit by mummymania, as it welcomes the mummy and coffin of an ancient Egyptian High Priest to an otherworldly exhibition. ‘The Journey Beyond – Ancient Egypt and Prehistoric Ayrshire’ will compare attitudes to life and death in two very different corners of the world: Egypt and southwest Scotland. Local Neolithic, Iron Age and Bronze Age burial items from Ayrshire will show how Scotland’s early inhabitants held strong views about life after death. Yet the star of the show is bound to be the mummy and coffin of Iufenamun, a 21st –…

  • Ann

    Rivaling Atlantis? The Top 10 Submerged Cities Around the World

    It’s the kind of myth that has always had the power to fascinate people: a beautiful, wealthy and sophisticated ancient city is swallowed up by forces beyond man’s control, destroyed by the sea and earthquakes. There are examples around the world of these mythical submerged cities. We not only have Atlantis somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, but in Taiwan there’s the legend of the submerged Mudalu, in Wales there is a drowned city called Cantre’r Gwaelod and a similar story tells the tale of Ys, a drowned city off the coast of Brittany in France. They are all myths that…

  • site

    Phoebe A Hearst Museum of Anthropology

    Attribution: Martha Nell G Key Dates 1901 – The Phoebe A Hearst Museum of Anthropology was founded Berkeley United States Key People Phoebe A Hirst George Reisner The Museum was founded in 1901 by Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who also funded George Reisner’s exhibitions. Today, the Hearst houses the oldest and largest anthropological collection in the Western US, preserving and interpreting a global record of material culture as represented by more than 3.8 million catalogued objects, the largest of which are the California collections. The Hearst Museum has an extensive collection of approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts, with a special emphasis on predynastic…

  • sean-williams

    University of Hamburg Fighting to Save Egyptology Department

    The University of Hamburg’s Egyptology department is facing a last-chance vote to avoid oblivion. The department, one of Germany’s most prestigious, is facing the axe for economic reasons. But a petition organised by protesters outside the city’s Tutankhamun: His Tomb and his Treasures exhibition has gathered over 66,000 signatures, meaning the department’s future is now in the hands of an internal vote. The department’s closure would be a body blow for Egyptology in Germany, which remains popular thanks to world-renowned museums like the Neues in Berlin, and great artefacts such as the Bust of Nefertiti, the home of which has…

  • sean-williams

    Prehistoric Gilf Kebir Cave Paintings to Unlock Secrets of Ancient Egypt

    Prehistoric cave painters in the Sahara Desert gave rise to ancient Egyptian civilisation, according to a German archaeological team. The paintings in a caves in Gilf Kebir, a vast sandstone plateau near the Egyptian-Libyan border, may be over 400 miles from the River Nile. But the team claims it was once a thriving community which later spread east to create Egypt’s famous cities and landmarks. The plateau, a Martian landscape the size of Switzerland, is home to two famous caves, the ‘Cave of the Swimmers’ and the ‘Cave of the Beasts’ – Watch our amazing video of the caves and…