Lord Elgin isn’t the only Brit taking the blame for removing some of ancient Greece’s greatest marble treasures – and the Parthenon is far from the only place raided by a zealous Brit in a bid to bring the ancient world to the smoggy streets of London. During an extensive dig carried out between 1857-59, Newton and his merry band of hacks travelled to the Ottoman – now Turkish – peninsula of Datca, where they began excavating the famous merchant city of Knidos – a picturesque Monte Carlo of the ancient Greek world, famous for its wealth, opulence and magnificent…
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The British Museum houses a suspiciously large stash of ancient relics, pillaged from around the world by British explorers back when there were no laws against that kind of thing. But the countries of origin of many of these treasures now want them back, and the repatriation of artefacts has become a hot potato between the UK and countries such as Egypt, Turkey and China. Image of the New Acropolis Museum by Skoobie99. The UKs argument had, in the past, been that the origin countries do not have appropriate venues to house and display the ancient artefacts. With two major…
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There may be well-known pyramids in Egypt, Mexico and even Bosnia – and ancient wonders across the globe – but not many know about the ancient architecture located right on their doorstep in London. Step forward Nicholas Hawksmoor: architect, freemason and all-round ancient religion nut. Born to a poor family in the British Midlands, Hawksmoor became one of the most revered architects of his time. And his London churches are some of the capital’s strangest landmarks, stepping wildly away from the Baroque time in which they were conceived. Hawksmoor had already built, and helped build with his mentor Sir Christopher…
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Attribution: pjink11 Delphi Greece Key Dates The earliest finds in the area of Delphi date to the Neolithic period (4000 BC). Traces of occupation are rare and fragmentary until the eighth century BC. The first temples were built in the late seventh century BC, and in the sixth and fourth centuries BC the Delphic oracle was at its peak. In the third century BC, the sanctuary was conquered by the Aetolians, and then in turn by the Romans in 191 BC. In the Byzantine age, the Slavs destroyed the precinct in 394 BC. By the seventh century AD, a new…
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Attribution: Parmino il Gioppino Samos Greece Key Dates The first, small-scale excavation of Heraion site was conducted by the doctor and botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1702. In 1879, Paul Girard discovered the statue of Hera of Cheramyes; this is now in the Louvre. In 1902 and 1903, the sanctuary was excavated by the Archaeological Society of Athens. In 1910, it was further investigated on behalf of the Koenigliche Museen of Berlin but work was interrupted by World War I. Systematic excavations were begun in 1925 by the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, but interrupted by World War II.…
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Attribution: Schumata Mykines Greece Key Dates Most of the buildings were built between 1350 – 1200 BC, in the Bronze Age. The site was abandoned around 1100 BC. The Lion Gate was cleared in 1837. The site was first excavated in 1874. Subsequent digs were carried out between 1884 and 1957. The Mycenae Comittee was created in 1999. Key People Homer was inspired by the site to record several of his epics. Pausanias mapped the area in the second century. K. Pittakis cleared the Lion Gate in 1841. Heinrich Shliemann began the first excavation of the site in 1876. The…
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Signs O’ The Times Egyptian hieroglyphs – streams of sometimes heavily stylised pictograms and letters, carved into stone or drawn onto papyrus parchment – are instantly recognisable relics of one of the world’s oldest and most famous ancient civilizations. But what on earth do they mean? And what of their place in the development of the Egyptian language, written and spoken, as a whole? Origins and Development Examples of written Egyptian date back more than 3,400 years, making it one of the earliest known languages in human history. The oldest bands of script discovered to date comprise a primitive system…
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Empire Fuel The Roman interest in conquering Egypt around two millennia ago was far more than the love interest of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in Cleopatra VII (Cleopatra). Egypt’s location as the gateway to the Middle East and Asia, together with its extremely productive agricultural sector and educated populace, satisfied some of the most pressing issues facing the Roman Empire in around 30BC. During the resulting 680 years or so of Roman rule before Egyptians once again ruled themselves, the country become predominantly Christian and lose most of its ‘old’ religious temples. It also enjoyed economic growth and played…