A date has now been set for the return of some of the Vindolanda Tablets to the museum at Vindolanda in Northumberland, following an announcement this week that the UK’s Heritage Lottery Fund is to donate £4 million towards the costs. The date now set for some of the tablets to be housed at the Vindolanda museum is spring 2011 – they will come on loan from the British Museum for a period of five years, after which the loan can be renewed. The tablets – a collection of 1,600 documents etched on thin wooden boards – represent the earliest…
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Key Dates 1800 BC The papyrus is from the Late Middle Kingdom, between 1850 – 1700 BC. Key People Horus, god of the king, sky and vengeance in ancient Egyptian religion. Seth, aka Set, god of storms, chaos and the desert. Osiris, god of the underworld. The Tale of Horus and Seth is an ancient Egyptian myth about Horus and Seth’s rivalry for the Egyptian throne, held in the story by Osiris, Horus’ father and god of the underworld. There are several versions of the story worldwide, but this particular one, held at the Petrie Museum in London, allegedly contains…
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The ancient Egyptians weren’t the only ones that mummified their dead for the sake of posterity. In more modern times, there have been multiple examples of mummification, using a range of weird and wonderful techniques from simple embalming to submerging the cadaver in a chemical-filled preservation tank, or perfusing it with wax, effectively rendering the corpse a giant human candle. Here we examine ten of the most famous examples of modern mummies, their stories, and some of the methods used to preserve them for eternity. The deceased range from an Argentinean First Lady, a Soviet Head of State and various…
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How do you keep the Great Sphinx’s paws dry? With a lot of work, that’s how! The latest Heritage Key video clip of Dr Zahi Hawass highlights his collaborative effort with Dr Mark Lehner in protecting the Sphinx from the danger of rising ground water, an issue that is threatening Egyptian heritage sites from Nubia to the Giza Plateau. The problem is as large as global warming and as local as sewage and agricultural runoff, but the insidious threat coming from below—the changing of the water tables—requires innovation as recent as cutting-edge mining technology and as ancient as divining water…
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The Great Pyramid of Giza is one of the world’s oldest and most iconic ancient structures – a 4,500 year old mass of more than 2.3 million limestone blocks, built as tomb for Fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu. Reaching 138.8 meters into the sky, for thousands of years it was the tallest man-made structure on earth. The Great Pyramid has attracted explorers and tourists by the bus load for decades. But not all of its secrets have yet been revealed. One set of features that remains a source of bafflement to experts are the two narrow shafts – each about…
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Key Dates 1333 BC 18th Dynasty Key People Tutankhamun and his wife Ankhesenamun There were four senet sets in the tomb of Tutankhamun, some ceremonial and others for day-to-day use. One such daily set was made of solid ivory and was found in a wooden chest with many compartments. Howard Carter comments: ‘From the contents… that were found in the chest it becomes obvious that the chest was made for the knick knacks of a boy’ which could be indicative that this set was probably played with by Tutankhamun. This gaming box is particularly small and therefore portable. On the…
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For thousands of years, scientists from around the world have tried to understand how the Egyptians designed and built the Great Pyramid of Giza – the last remaining of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Now, an architect and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says he has the answer to this ancient puzzle. According to Ole Bryn, the Great Pyramid’s building grid was developed based on the prime number seven – and the core of Khufu’s 146.6 meters high monument is likely a step pyramid. Khufu’s Great Pyramid, located on the Giza Plateau, was…
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The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and 3D software company Dassault Systèmes have announced they will join forces in a partnership that aims to bring the power of industry as well as experimental 3D to the domain of archaeology. The MFA’s Giza Archives Project digital database will be “the first to benefit from the power of interactive, immersive and multi-platform 3D experiences” as the team intents to create new possibilities for the visualisation of archaeological data for both the scientific community and the general public. (preview video 1 – preview video 2) Visualisation of Archaeological Data for Education and Research…
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I have spent the majority of the last 6 years working between Egypt and London; during this time my archaeological career has changed track somewhat from working on heritage protection strategies in Luxor to assisting media production companies in producing documentaries set in the historical realm. The journey from archaeologist to televising producer has enabled me to travel both metaphorically and physically between the worlds of the media and archaeology while attempting to be part I hope of both, a sometimes difficult undertaking. Generally I spend most of the year, some eight or nine months in Egypt during the archaeological…
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I have spent the majority of the last 6 years working between Egypt and London; during this time my archaeological career has changed track somewhat from working on heritage protection strategies in Luxor to assisting media production companies in producing documentaries set in the historical realm. The journey from archaeologist to televising producer has enabled me to travel both metaphorically and physically between the worlds of the media and archaeology while attempting to be part I hope of both, a sometimes difficult undertaking. Generally I spend most of the year, some eight or nine months in Egypt during the archaeological…