The MilwaukeePublic Museum is going to be the site of a major Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition starting January 22, 2010. The exhibition will feature the recently discovered Jeselsohn Stone, which only came to light recently. The stone is estimated to be about 2,000 years old. It was acquired by a collector, David Jeselsohn, about 10 years ago. Where it was found is unknown, although Jordan has been suggested as a probable location. Its partially legible and, as such, onlychunks of the inscription can be made out. It appears to be written by someone named Gabriel (it has the words I…
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Every great king has a throne from upon which he rules, and King Tutankhamun was no exception with the Golden Throne which is one of the finest pieces of royal furniture ever created. With web-exclusive photography of this breathtaking artefact by world class photographer Sandro Vannini, we can see that this was one chair that is definitely fit for a king! Sure, there are other expensive chairs around in Egypt at the moment, but the beauty of the Golden Throne of King Tutankhamun outshines the many chairs throughout time! On display as a treasure of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, (as…
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Virtual DressUp You have made it to King Tut Virtual? Then now it is time to experiment with customising your avatar. In King Tut Virtual, we give you many options to choose from. You can wander around in casual clothes, or decide to really play the part as an adventurer kitted out with accessories, or an Egyptian goddess from the Amarna era. In this guide to virtual fashion, I will focus on some of the glamorous ancient Egyptian dresses and jewellery. These dresses and jewellery were designed by Avagardner Kungler, a very well known virtual fashion designer in the metaverse.…
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There are over 800 tombs in the Theban Necropolis, scattered across the hills of El Qurna. Only a handful of their decorations has survived centuries of floods, storms and decay – and of course the destructive effects of man. At present, around a dozen tombs are open to the public. The others can only be accessed for research purposes by applying for a permit. Many of these have not been opened for years, and are now completely covered in a thin layer of dust. To begin, I have made surveys of all these tombs, to check the state of conservation…
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Hi. I’m one of the builders of King Tut Virtual. My job is taking historical sites and artefacts and reproducing them in an immersive environment that you can explore. This artificial world is only one aspect of Heritage-Key’s large multi-faceted online presence. As virtual worlds are a bit novel, I’ve been asked to explain what we did, how we achieved it, and tell you a bit about the rationale of our approach. More general information about the virtual world is covered in other articles. What is Heritage Key Virtual? HK Virtual allows you to explore a 3D reconstruction of historical…
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The second day of Moscow’s ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology‘ was characterised by a biting cold, thanks to heating problems. But the topics being discussed certainly helped warm up proceedings. The first lecture of the day was given by the British Museum‘s Nigel Strudwick, who focused on the interaction of of tourists and local inhabitants at Luxor and the main historical monuments at Thebes, and the challenges facing archaeologists to carry out meaningful research in a modern environment. Dr Strudwick attempted to resolve some of the issues facing the city, and to reconcile the necessity of tourism to the…
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The first day of the ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology‘ conference was full of new discoveries, though it started on a typically soggy Moscow day. After participants arrived at the Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences on comfortable buses, they went in and received a slightly altered conference program – containing lecture lists and ‘Return to Egypt’; a book about the history of Russian Egyptology. The conference started with an opening speech by vise-president of Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander D. Nekipelov, dedicated to the history, development and achievements of Russian archaeology in Egypt, from the research of Vladimir…
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This week the ‘Achievements and Problems of Modern Egyptology’ conference takes place in Moscow, Russia. The colloquium – organized by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences – is the first international Egyptological conference ever held in Russia, organized by the Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is organized to celebrate the centenary of acquiring the Egyptian collection of the famous Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Golenischev by the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and spans all ranges of Egyptology but also has a clear focus on new methods and technologies in…
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The Museo delle Antichit Egizie (Museo Egizio) in Turin is currently undergoing a makeover that is set to change the layout and design of the venue that is home to the biggest collection of Egyptian artefacts outside Egypt. In an interview yesterday, Alain Elkann, president of the Fondazione Museo delle Antichit Egizie, gave Quotidiano Arte a idea of what we can expect to see at the new-look museum. A Trip up the Nile One of the innovations is that visitors can expect to be taken through a reconstruction of a Nile environment by an escalator linking the four floors of…
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Unrolling a papyrus (without destroying it) is an expensive and complicated process. How do you do it without causing the whole thing to crumble into unintelligable flakes? Well, last year the Royal Ontario Museum unrolled a Book of the Dead that had long been in their collection, which dated back to ca. 320 BC, the early Ptolemaic period. And they also made a cool video about how it was done. A group at the ROM called, Friends of Egypt, financed the project. A language expert and specialized conservators were brought in. The book was mounted, and, at the beginning of…