A new exhibit that will look at forgery in ancient and modern art is going to be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this January. The museum released details about it in a press release today. It’s called Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today and it runs from January 9 to April 4, 2010. There are going to be four sections that will examine the ancient world: Egyptian Antiquities will examine why the west is so interested in Egypt and how this led to so many fake Egyptian antiquities being created. Among the examples is an authentic relief of the…
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A new exhibit that will look at forgery in ancient and modern art is going to be hitting the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) this January. The museum released details about it in a press release today. Its called Fakes & Forgeries Yesterday and Today and it runs from January 9 to April 4, 2010. There are going to be four sections that will examine the ancient world: Egyptian Antiquities will examine why the west is so interested in Egypt and how this led to so many fake Egyptian antiquities being created. Among the examples is an authentic relief of the…
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Today’s religious folk may be gearing up for the pious festive season, but it seems the ancient world just keeps on getting filthier: alongside gay Graeco-Roman pornography and rude Roman graffiti, one Athens museum has decided to celebrate all things raunchy in Ancient Greece. Starting today and ending on the 5th April next year, “Eros: From Hesiod’s Theogony to Late Antiquity” at the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art will treat visitors to a cornucopia of ancient smut, from orgies and prostitution, to paedophilia and even beastiality. And while it may seem at loggerheads with today’s relatively constrained society, museum director…
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No Christmas would be the same without many a wasted hour spent buried in the couch wiped-out on a bellyful of turkey and stuffing, or nursing a hangover after a Herculean nights mulled wine consumption flicking the channels in a dozy haze. It’s a Christmas tradition (although we can’t guarentee that it dates back as far as some other ancient seasonal rituals) This year you can spare yourself all those awful festive films and Christmas music videos youve seen a million times, by keeping Heritage Keys handy guide to ancient world-themed Christmas TV close at hand. All the old-school three-hours…
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The news is awash with Barack Obamas plan to surge roughly 30,000 US troops into the country on a short-term basis. Some consider it a necessary measure to protect American security, while others think hes leading the United States into the next Vietnam. It’s an important debate. He might have just made the most important foreign policy decision of his presidency. Ever since the news broke I havebeen thinking about what lessons ancient history has to teach us about making a choice like this. In ancient times much of Afghanistan was known as “Bactria” and played a significant role in…
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Cyprus that great crossroads of the ancient world is going to be the focus of a special event happening this Sunday at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada. Five archaeologists will give talks about their research and how it is changing our understanding of the island. Heritage Key will be at the event and will publish reports. Cyprus was truly a crossroads of the ancient world. Greeks, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Romans and the Sea People all left their mark on the island. They did it by way of trade, migration, settlement and conquest. Just a month ago Heritage Key reported…
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Controversy bred outcry; debates raged on radio shows, broadsheets and television up and down the country. But all the British Museum had done was buy a small, silver Roman cup – a beautiful cup at that, with its finely-etched details having been kept in great condition. What was the public’s problem? Why did so many people object to their national museum stumping up 1.8m for a stunnning piece of ancient art? The answer lay in the cup’s decoration. The Warren Cup, named after its best-known modern owner Edward Perry Warren, is a Roman skyphos (drinking cup), dating from between 1-20…
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The ‘birthplace of drama’ – the Theatre of Dionysus, located on the south slope of the Acropolis – is to be partially restored in a 6 million project that is set for completion in 2015. The ancient open-air theatre in Athens saw the premire of many of the great dramatic works written during the ‘golden age’ of Greek Tragedy. Famous ancient playwrights – such as Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes – took part in competitions staged twice yearly at the Dionysus theatre; the City Dionysia festival during the spring and the Lenaia in wintertime. The limestone and marble version of…
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Thanksgiving is one of the most ‘famous’ American holidays known to us in Europe, and when it’s mentioned a turkey instantly springs to mind. The turkeys sacrificed to the stomach-gods during this ‘harvest festival’ might be native, but many of the other habits were brought over from the Continent. Take the cornucopia – the ‘horn of plenty’ – for example, a common symbol food and abundance all over the world, dating back to the 5th Century BC and for which we need to thank the Greeks. The cornucopia is one of the typical symbols for a harvest festival. A horn…
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Underwater archaeology may still be in its relative infancy, but that hasn’t stopped it making some of the world’s biggest recent discoveries. From Cleopatra to ancient plonk, there’s plenty more under the sea than a load of old shipwrecks – though they can be pretty spectacular too. Even Egyptological legend Zahi Hawass is getting a piece of the action, scouring the Nile for ancient treasure. So we thought we’d strike while the iron’s wet and bring you a top ten of the world’s underwater archaeology sites. If you think we’re talking rot, or if there’s anywhere we’ve missed, don’t hesitate…