• sean-williams

    AwiL Video Series: The Age of Exploration

    From the bloody rebellion of Boudicca to the fearsome Norman invasion, London had always been under attack in its ancient past. Yet successes during the Middle Ages allowed the city and nation to branch out, conquering new lands and forging trade links all over the world. 1683 saw Oxford play host to the world’s first museum, the Ashmolean, allowing a new generation of explorers to quench their thirst for adventure. And just a few decades later London’s great archaeologists and antiquaries would spread their wings proper, globetrotting to far flung corners of the planet in search of great discoveries and…

  • Ann

    Finally! Tickets to Amenabar’s Agora Film This Weekend in London

    I’m pretty sure that this is probably the worst intro written to a blogpost ever, but: ‘W00t!’ Alejandro Amenbar’s big film Agora on the life (and death) of philosopher and mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria will (finally) be released ‘at cinemas nationwide’ (that’s UK) on April 23. I’ve been saying (and typing) for the last nine months that I want to really, really see this English-language movie by Amenbar. Meanwhile, Ive been forced to (not) watch it being released in Spain – where the historical drama earned over $10.3million in four days, becoming 2009’s highest-grossing local film – and the USA…

  • meral-crifasi

    New! Live Music and Amarna Area in King Tut Virtual

    We’re always busy at Heritage Key striving to bring you exciting new activities and more places to explore. If you have been to King Tut Virtual before you might have had a visit to the Amarna area by the Nile. We have been really extending that area to give you a sign of how life was by the Nile around 1350 BC. If you come along to the Amarna area now, we’ll offer to dress your avatar as an Egyptian from head to toe, and even get you to dance like an Egyptian. Also, to celebrate the launch of this…

  • owenjarus

    Massive Third Church Discovered at Bawit Depicts Local Hermit Saint Apollo

    A large new church, monastic burials and a vaulted room filled with Coptic wall paintings – new excavation work at the Monastery of Saint Apollo at Bawit is yielding a wealth of remarkable finds. One of the team members, Dr. Ramez Boutros of the University of Toronto, discussed some of the finds at a recent lecture and Heritage Key followed up with an interview. The Monastery of Saint Apollo was founded by the saint around 385-390 AD. Its slightly north to the site of Asyut, which can be seen on the map below. Saint Apollo was a hermit of sorts…

  • malcolmj

    Switzerland returns Pharaoh Akhenaton’s toe to Egypt

    Switzerland today signed an agreement for the repatriation of all illegally-obtained antiquities of Egyptian origin currently within their borders, according to a press release circulated by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). It represents a major victory for Egypt in its battle against global artefact theft, since many stolen treasures from Egypt are smuggled via Switzerland. The agreement is the latest of 16 such treaties Egypt has reached with foreign nations since 2002. The SCA press release adds that Secretary General of the SCA Zahi Hawass is currently in the process now of forming agreements with other countries. The…

  • Ann

    Tomb of Ken-Amun is First Ramesside Tomb Discovered in Lower Egypt

    The first ever Ramesside period tomb has been found in Lower Egypt. The 3300-year-old tomb – belonging to Ken-Amun, a government official – has been discovered by an SCAmission at Tell el-Maskhuta. The excavations have also revealed 35 Roman tombs. Click the images for a larger version. In a statement released by the antiquities council, Dr Zahi Hawass reported that the tomb is of very high quality, and beautifully decorated and inscribed with scenes known from the Ramesside Period. It dates to the 19th Dynasty (1315-1201 BC) and is constructed of mud brick and consists of a rectangular room with…

  • Ann

    Mummy Frenzy with Joyce Filer – Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt… and King Tut!

    Great news for anybody* who missed out on the previous ‘Mummy CSI’ study days with Joyce Filer, as there is another one coming up. A bonus – on top of the normal forensic aspects of ancient Egypt schedule – is an entire day dedicated to the remains of King Tut and the results of the recently published Tutankhamun DNAstudy. The findings from the King Tut study have been widely covered and debated since they were published (some interesting responses on the lineage results on Kate Phizackerley’s and Dylan Bickerstaffe’s blogs, and discussion of Tut’s foot on Em Hotep!) but if…

  • images

    Sandro Vannini’s Photography – Wall Paintings of the Tomb of Montuemhat (TT34)

    The original excavation of TT34 – The Tomb of Montuemhat – was carried out by archaeologist Zakaria Gomein, upon the pressure unfortunately got the better of him and resulted in suidcide in a fascinating tale recounted by Dr Zahi Hawass (Watch the video).The project lead is now Dr Farouk Gomaa who is searching TT34 for the burial chamber of the diplomat Montuemhat, and explains his progress in a Heritage Key video (Watch the video). Egyptology photographer has been busy across Thebes, and TT34 has been just one of many of the tombs in the area where he has taken his…

  • Ann

    Fourteen Graeco-Roman Tombs Discovered at the Bahariya Oasis, Egypt

    A collection of 14 Graeco-Roman tombs, artefacts and a mummy dating to the third century BC have been discovered in a cemetery in the Ain El-Zawya area of Bawiti, a town in the Bahariya Oasis, Egypt. The find is early evidence of a large Graeco-Roman necropolis at the site. The tombs were found during excavation works ahead of the building of a local youth centre in the area, about 260 miles southwest of Cairo. Dr. Mahmoud Affifi, director of Cairo and Giza antiquities, said that the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has halted construction and has started legal procedures to…

  • Ann

    Archaeological Collections Administration – Egypt’s SCA Expands to Facilitate New Antiquities Protection Law

    Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities is to expand, with the addition of a new department for archaeological collections. Among its duties will be the registration of privately owned artefacts, as well as supervising the transfers of ownership on these items. The Archaeological Collections Administration is established to facilitate the execution of the newly amended Antiquities Protection Law. The announcement comes only days after Egypt held its first conference on the repatriation of artefacts, showing that Egypt’s focus is not just on retrieving looting antiquities from foreign collections, but mapping and saveguarding those ‘at home’ as well. Farouk Hosni, Egypt’s Minister…