The ancient Maya civilization of Central South America apparently understood acutely how their fate was inextricably linked with that of the forest around them. New research at the site of Tikal in modern Guatemala, by a team from the University of Cincinnati led by paleoethnobotanist David Lentz, has discovered that during the Classic period (c. 250 AD to 900 AD), the Maya practiced a form of forest conservation. Further, the team have speculated that when the practice ceased, it may have had grave consequences for Maya society. They were not allowed to cut down what were calling the sacred groves,…
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The Festival of British Archaeology takes place across the UK throughout the summer. North of the border, it has a separate incarnation in the shape of Scottish Archaeology Month, which runs from August through September. Scotland is, after all, home to many of Britains finest archeaological treasures from Skara Brae to the Antonine Wall so it seems only appropriate. SAM aims to make archeology as accessible as possible with a programme of mostly free events celebrating Scotlands rich antiquarian heritage. You dont need to be Indiana Jones to get involved folks of all ages and abilities are invited, right down…
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Nowhere in the international arts does the classic meet the modern quite as head on as at the Epidaurus Festival – Athens’ annual celebration of contemporary creativity and performance, which has undergone a radical rebirth in recent years. Once a stuffy institution revolving exclusively around classic Greek dramas staged in ancient venues, under the stewardship of director Yorgos Loukos since 2005, Epidaurus has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and now showcases the cutting edge of fresh and vibrant theatre, music, literature, dance and performing arts – both national and international – in the Greek capital throughout…
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The ancient world has long been lucrative business at the box office, ever since the original Fred Niblo-directed version of Ben-Hur burst onto the big screen in 1925, in a flurry of shameless promotional activity (the films strapline was: The Picture Every Christian Ought to See!) and famously brutal chariot crashes (some cast and crew were seriously hurt in the pictures spectacular climactic smash a genuine on-set accident that was ruthlessly left in the final cut). At a cost of $4 million by modest estimates, itremains the most expensive silent movie ever made, one that proved a $9 million box…
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(Mostly) fictional English rock band Spinal Tap made a much-anticipated come back at the Glastonbury music festival last weekend, followed swiftly by their 25th anniversary One Night Only World Tour show at Londons Wembley Arena on Tuesday. The bands magnum opus remains Stonehenge, their mystical hard rock mini-opera tribute to Salisburys millennia-old Neolithic masterpiece, “Where a man’s a man, and the children dance to the pipes of pan.” A performance of the song made for a memorable scene in the movie This Is Spinal Tap, featuring midgets dancing around – and threatening to crush – an 18 inch high megalith,…
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Stone Age man in a cave in south-west Germany 35,000 years ago really knew how to party it seems. Not only has an example of pre-historic porn been found in the cave of Hohle Fels, near the town of Schelklingen in the region of Swabia, but now too a portion of a thin rudimentary flute carved from bird bone which experts are calling unambiguously the oldest musical instrument in the world. Its not the first such example found in the cave, which is an ongoing source of spectacular archaeological finds dating from the Aurignacian culture of the Upper Paleolithic period.…
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Think of Stonehenge and it immediately conjures up a number of strong visual images the huge, iconic sarsen stone trilithons, naked hippies at summer solstice, weird druid guys with big hoods and a legendary scene from This Is Spinal Tap. But what did it actually look like in its day? Its widely assumed that Stonehenge once stood as a magnificent ‘complete’ monument, but we need to bear in mind that this cant actually be proved about half of the stones that should be present are missing, and many of the assumed stone sockets have never actually been recorded through excavation.…
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They weren’t asking for the costs of duck houses, moat-cleaning, helicopter landing pad-maintenance or even dry rot-treatment, but Roman officials in Britain made their own inflated expenses claims on the taxpayers’ pound, 2,000 years before The Telegraph newspaper sparked the scandal currently gripping the United Kingdom over MPs’ perceived fleecing of the public purse. A handful of the 400 tablets found in 1973 at Vindolanda – a Roman encampment on Hadrian’s Wall – detail the hundreds of items chiefs at the settlement expected to be reimbursed for. They include exciting things like ears of grain, hobnails for boots, bread, cereals,…
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A Flint Michigan ex-construction worker with too much time on his hands has solved a 5,000 year old conundrum by proving how it was possible for Neolithic man to erect with nowt but his bare hands, gravity and a lot of patience Stonehenge. Well, sort of. The appropriately named Wally Wallington, who apparently has a passion for moving heavy items, is presently building his very own replica of the legendary standing stones in his back yard. Hes doing it using a variety of elementary techniques that he believes prove Stonehenge could have been built in far less time than modern…
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Various exhibitions featuring the photography of Harry Burton the man responsible for shooting the iconic photographs of the investigation of the tomb of King Tut in the 1920s are currently making their way around the US and Europe (or some of them are about to at least). Theres a small showing at the Michael C. Carlos Museum in Atlanta, the Semmel Replicas Exhibition is in Munich (it will also visit Barcelona, Hamburg, Budapest and Warsaw) and AEI King Tut exhibitions are upcoming in Indianapolis and San Francisco. In case anyone is looking for advice on how to shoot Tut-related relics…