Category: sean-williams - Part 11

Dust, Damp and Doters Damaging King Tut’s Tomb, Say Getty Institute

The tomb of Tutankhamun is one of the world’s most famous ancient spots. Yet spots are precisely what are causing the decay of its beautiful wall paintings. The US-based Getty Conservation Institute have been drafted in to help mend the murals, but have been finding it an uphill struggle in the face of fierce desert weather and the onslaught of eager tourists.

Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities chief, has long bemoaned the damage tourists are doing to tombs at the Valley of theKings; the necropolis of ancient Thebes near modern Luxor. Dr Hawass has even mooted the idea of a replica Tut’s tomb to cater for a burgeoning demand for the boy-king. Whether tourists will be satisfied without a trip to the real thing is debatable to say the least (have you say here).

And our composite picture (below), combining an original snap from Harry Burton and a recent shot by Sandro Vannini, clearly shows the brown spots have been in the tomb since Carter and Carnarvon first burst in over 80 years ago. So how much of its deterioration is due to tourism? Getty spokesperson Melissa Abraham tells us: “(The brown spots) have indeed been there since the tomb was discovered, and have never properly been analyzed, so that will be part of the GCI’s task. The visitor impact on the site is a separate issue that also will be looked at.”

Team director Jeanne Marie Teutonico is equally perplexed by the enigmatic spots. “They’ve been there since Carter excavated, but some people think they’re growing,” she says. “And no one knows what they really are. Could they be fungus? Bacteria? Are they still alive? Can they cause harm? We need to find out.”

Right now the Getty project is in its planning stage. Yet team member Shin Maekawa agrees with Dr Hawass that humidity from the swell of visitors could be having a fatal effect on the tomb’s wonderful paintings. “The amount of visitors affects humidity inside,” she says. “It’s a small space, maybe 100 metres square, and each person in it will emit roughly 100ml of water vapour in an hour and produce the same amount of heat as a 100-watt bulb. We’ve been monitoring humidity levels inside, and they can range from 20 to 70 per cent. In the past it got up to 90. At higher levels, we get seriously worried about fungi activity.”

“There is an incredible presence, this incredible feeling of time passing. It’s an evocative place.”

But the damp is far from the only danger facing Tut’s tomb. “There’s also a problem with dust,” adds Maekawa, “you can’t vacuum the tomb because it would damage it, so it has never been properly cleaned. But dust comes in through visitors’ skin, hair and lint, so we need to work out what to do about it all.” The less-than-ideal conditions have meant surveying the tomb with X-ray machines has been a laborious and long-winded affair. “Some of the technical imaging we recently did had to happen in the dark,” says Ms Teutonico. “We had to get special permission to stay after the tomb was closed. It’s completely black, completely silent, and very hot.”

An uphill struggle indeed. But the team is also briefed with making the tomb a better experience for its many admirers. Six million people a year visit the Valley of the Kings; the vast majority of whom crowd several rows deep to get a glimpse of King Tut’s final resting place. Yet most leave underwhelmed: nearly all of Tut’s treasures are now in the Cairo Museum (and KingTut Virtual), except for his mummy and just one of his four coffins. Brand-name aside, there’s little to entertain or educate the visitor on their trip to the tomb.

2011 will see the Getty’s focus shifting to cater these issues. “We could certainly improve on the visitor’s experience,” adds Ms Teutonico. “It’s not great. We’ll look at the lighting, installing railings on the stairs, and work on helping the presentation of the whole area. It also needs some kind of ventilations scheme: it’s hot, and the air exchange is not very good.” The Valley is fast being left behind in the world of cultural tourist draws, with the likes of Athens’ New Acropolis Museum and Oxford’s Ashmolean offering truly 21st century experiences of the ancient world.

The SCA has only recently pulled through a PR scare, when Dr Hawass offered stern words to Egyptian officials preventing tourists from taking external photographs of the country’s heritage sites. 2010 could be make-or-break for Egypt, with fights over the Rosetta Stone and Bust of Nefertiti reaching diplomatic levels, and the search for Cleopatra’s tomb at Taposiris Magna reaching boiling point. Yet saving the tomb of King Tut, the biggest discovery in archaeological history, could just be at the top of Dr Hawass’ list. MsTeutonico certainly sees the tomb’s allure: “there is an incredible presence, this incredible feeling of time passing. It’s an evocative place.”

Would you be happy visiting a replica King Tut tomb? Do you feel tourism in general is having an adverse affect on our world heritage? Who’s problem is it anyway? Get involved and have your say at Heritage Key by visiting our discussion page here.

Interview: Troy Collins of the Franklin Institute on its Upcoming Cleopatra Exhibition

Next June, Cleopatra comes to Philadelphia. Not content with staging the most attended exhibition in American history, Tutankhamun And The Golden Age of The Pharaohs, the city’s Franklin Institute will play host to a world of treasures from the palaces, cities and monuments of the last queen of Egypt, entitled Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt. One of the biggest characters of the ancient world, Cleopatra stole the hearts and minds of leaders, and oversaw her 3000-year-old empire’s destruction.

With excavations for her tomb (watch the video) ongoing at Taposiris Magna, can Cleopatra capture the American public like King Tut continues to? What is America’s fascination with Egypt, and how difficult is it to bring some of the empire’s freshest artefacts across the Atlantic? Heritage Key speaks to Troy Collins, the museum’s Marketing Senior VicePresident, about the upcoming show.

HK: How long has the concept of the Cleopatra exhibition been in the pipeline?

TC: This idea has been in the hopper for at least the last 24 months.

HK: How did it begin?

TC: It’s interesting because the conglomeration that is making up the producing group, and that includes American Exhibitions International, the Egyptian government and Zahi Hawass, National Geographic and now this French underwater explorer called Franck Goddio, really came together. And because of our success in premiring the King Tut exhibit and still maintaining the world attendance record for that exhibition we were the first organisation they approached when they had the concept in terms of launching this tour.

The exhibition from a storyline standpoint is beginning to take place, and it really focuses on Cleopatra herself, her beauty, the legend behind her history. And then it expands into the stories of Alexandria then, and recovering the ruins of Alexandria now as well as several underwater cities and ruins and artefacts that have been recovered from those underwater sites in the bay. Then it further goes on to talk about the search for the tomb, how that’s going, how it’s done and all the mysteries that surround that search. And an actual dig site for the little ones who will be touring the exhibition.

HK: How easy has it been to liaise with the Egyptian authorities?

TC:You know what they’ve been wonderful people, they’ve been wonderful partners. Everybody has their ways of doing business. We tried to experiment with King Tut in 2007 and it worked out beautifully, and we’re thrilled to be partners with the same folks again because we know we’re going to get a quality product, a beautiful product and a historically and culturally significant product. And we know that our audiences here will greatly appreciate it when we bring it.

HK: How did the Franklin Institute first get involved with King Tut? It’s not a traditionally ancient history-based museum.

TC: Traditionally we’re a science museum. However, we’re the most visited museum in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania here in the United States, and we feel an obligation to do two things: one is to inspire the learning of science and technology, and certainly bringing in an ancient history exhibit and developing scientific concepts and interactives that show the progression of science is within the scope of our mission. And secondly, as the most visited museum in Pennsylvania it’s really our duty to provide a forum for these types of exhibitions. We’re one of the few museums with the physical means to do that.

HK: Were you surprised with the attendance for the King Tut exhibit?

TC:I wasn’t here then but I know we expected big things out of it. But I think I’d be speaking in turn when I say I think everyone was very pleased how well the exhibition ended up doing. So when you look at the statistics there its 1.2million people coming to the King Tut exhibit, and for the museum in total visitation was about 1.7million so everybody was very very happy!

HK: Why do you think America is so besotted with Ancient Egypt?

TC: We do a lot of focus groups and audience testing, and there are some timeless topics that exist and Egypt continues to be one of them. Especially when you look at a nation that’s only 200-and-something years old, compared with Europe and Asia which have such a deeper history, Egypt has always held a mystique here. The creation of the pyramids, the ancient history, its ties to Biblical history there’s a lot of fascination. And there’s simply a thirst for more knowledge.

HK: Do you ever see it dissipating?

TC: I don’t see it dying down. It has been part of American culture and American pop culture, in television and motion pictures for generations now. And I think with each new generation of children especially if ancient history is covered in their curriculum, people will continue to find it fascinating and mysterious. If we can get young people engaged in that interest and get them passionate about learning, then we’re happy to do that.

HK: Do you think Cleopatra can bring in the same crowds as King Tut?

TC: I don’t know and we’re still in the process of developing our audience expectations. I don’t know if it will perform at the level of King Tut, but we certainly expect an extremely strong show.

HK: What is the draw with Cleopatra?

TC: It’s the mystique, it’s the legend, it’s her beauty, it’s her history, it’s the story with Antony, it’s the story of what the Roman Empire did following her reign that was so different than what happened after King Tut’s death. It’s all of those factors intertwined.

HK: There are still quite a few projects ongoing at Alexandria and Taposiris Magna. Have you got any contingency plans if something springs up between now and exhibition time?

TC: In terms of something going wrong? Or something going right?

HK: Something going right!

TC: Yes, we’ve thought about it. And unlike King Tut, where the expectation was the majority of the artefacts would be found in a single location, we all know that the expectation here is not that, and that the search is a lot more challenging and could go on for a very long time. So listen we’re keeping our fingers crossed! And we’re prepared to implement any surprise discoveries that might be found. But on the other hand we’re also being practical and saying the likelihood of that happening is not great.

HK: Do you hope this and King Tut will get the ball rolling with the Franklin presenting the ancient world to the city’s people?

TC: Absolutely. And in many ways that’s continued: we had an exhibition here which was another worldwide premiere of Galileo’s equipment, where once again we were able to tie ancient history to science.

HK: Many of the Tutankhamun treasures have been held back this time around because Egypt says they’re too fragile to travel. Do you think it’s bad for world heritage, or do you think it’s good that they are staying in their home country?

TC: Listen I’m not the Egyptian government or Zahi. And as someone who isn’t an expert on these artefacts I would certainly say it’s the Egyptian government’s right to do what’s best to protect that material. On the other hand, regardless of the reason, yes it is a shame that other people won’t be exposed to those objects. But there could be very good reasons I’m not familiar with. And obviously their care, protecting and stewardship is paramount.

Have a Roman Christmas at the British Museum

Did you know Christmas dates back to Roman times? Want to find out more? You could do worse than head down to the British Museum this Sunday (Dec 6) then, where popular children’s writer Caroline Lawrence will head up a day of Roman fun based around the ancient festival of Saturnalia, aptly named ‘A Roman Christmas‘. Visitors can get stuck into music, quizzes and prizes – and enjoy a talk and book signing from the author of Roman Mysteries, which has also been made into a CBBC series.

Tickets are priced at 5 for the event which starts at 1pm in the museum’s BP Lecture Theatre, with Young Friends getting in for just 3.50. According to the museum Roman dress is welcome, so don’t be surprised if you spot a few centurions wandering the streets of Bloomsbury that afternoon! The Roman Mysteries book series has been a hit with readers and reviewers across the nation since its first outing in 2001.

Don’t be surprised if you spot centurions round central London this Sunday!

Stories take place in the Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Titus, and are largely based in Ostia, a port town of Rome – but other mysteries take place in Pompeii, Egypt, Turkey and other ancient cities. Riddles are solved by four children named Nubia, Flavia Gemina, Jonathan ben Mordecai and Lupus. So far there are 17 books in the series.

Saturnalia was a Roman festival to celebrate Saturn, the god of agriculture and the harvest. Beginning on December the 17th and running for an entire week the festival was notorious for its heavy drinking, eating and reversal of social roles, in which slaves were supposed to become masters. The dating of the festival has meant it has been linked by many scholars to the Christian day of Christmas, when Jesus’ birth is celebrated. Yet these theories have never been fully substantiated. Still, it’s a good excuse for a yuletide party at the BM, eh?

Stonehenge tops Google Street View Poll

This summer marked a number of triumphs for Stonehenge: not only did it gain a nextdoor neighbour in newly-discovered Bluestonehenge, but the stone circle topped a poll of British landmarks to be inaugurated in Google’s Street View campaign.

The July poll saw 35,000 Brits cast their votes for the nation’s favourite spots. And Stonehenge came out on top of a final shortlist of six that includes: the Millennium Stadium; Angel of the North; Loch Ness; Eden Project; and Warwick Castle. Northumberland’s Bamburgh Castle was picked as a ‘wildcard entry’ by co-organisers Visit Britain. It’s not even the first poll Stonehenge has topped this year: October saw it crowned the king of Britain’s tourist sites, according to a Travelodge childrens’ survey.

“Was Stonehenge a place of sun worship, a sacred burial site, or something different altogether?”

Stonehenge Head of Visitor Operations Stuart Maughan cites the megalith’s mystery as its winning quality: “The question mark over Stonehenge’s origins and purpose continues to fascinate people in the UK, and our hope is that its appearance on Google Street View will help encourage people to visit themselves, and decide whether Stonehenge was a place of sun worship, a sacred burial site, or something different altogether.”

As you can see from this picture, it’s a great chance to get close to the famous megalithic complex – though not quite as good as our very own Stonehenge Virtual, coming soon to Heritage Key. Wessex Archaeology may have something to say about their own 3D Stonehenge landscape, too. Google’s PR assures us the Street View Trike is “an 18 stone mechanical masterpiece comprising three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry.”

Looks more like a voyeuristic ice cream cart to us, but then who’s anyone to argue with Google? Sightings of Google Street View cars are becoming commonplace in Britain’s towns and cities, despite public outcry as to its implications for home security – I just hope they haven’t photographed my dodgy front room window…

Making Megalithic Music: Malta’s Ancient Temples

Remember the story we reported about three months ago, about the Mayan pyramids being giant musical instruments? The idea seems to have struck a chord with experts based in Malta, who – either by design or jealousy – have heralded the acoustic talents of their own megalithic landmarks. The tiny Mediterranean island was once home to a highly developed civilisation, who between the fourth and third millennia BC created some of the world’s most striking ancient architecture. Listed as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, the huge temple complex is a majestic wonder which predates Stonehenge by up to a thousand years.

Yet Linda Eneix, President of the island’s Old Temples Study Foundation (OTSF), thinks there’s more to Malta’s megaliths than meets the eye. And she claims the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, a dense complex of caves and chambers, holds the key. The hypogeum’s Science Officer Joseph Farrugia explains further: “There is a small niche in what we call The Oracle Chamber, and if someone with a deep voice speaks inside, the voice echoes all over the hypogeum. The resonance in the ancient temple is something exceptional. You can hear the voice rumbling all over.”

“Standing in the hypogeum is like being inside a giant bell.”

“Standing in the hypogeum is like being inside a giant bell,” adds Eneix. “You feel the sound in your bones as much as you hear it with your ears. Its really thrilling!” Research shows most Maltese temples resonate at a frequency of between 110 and 111 hertz. This has no small significance: UCLAscientists have shown how a resonance frequency of 111hz can have huge effects on the human mind, including a switch from the left to the right, more emotional side of the brain.

Architects have long seen Malta’s megaliths as the natural successor to cave-dwelling, and Eneix claims their resonances were specifically designed to mimic those of the island’s natural shelters. “Once you know what you are looking for, you can see these same ceiling curves in natural caves in Malta,” she says. “Its logical that the ancient temple builders observed the echoes and sound characteristics in the caves and came up with the idea of recreating the same environment in a more controlled way. Were they doing it intentionally to facilitate an altered state of consciousness? There is a lot that we are never going to know.”

Music has long been thought to have played a part in some of the ancient world’s most recognisable structures. The Oracle at Delphi is said to have spoken in guidance to Greek priestesses. Even Stonehenge, Britain’s most famous Stone Age monument, is claimed to have been an ancient concert hall.

University Team Finds Prehistoric East Midlands Settlement

A prehistoric settlement, which could date back 11,000 years, has been discovered near in England’s East Midlands region. The site, unearthed by a University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) team, was excavated in advance of building works at Asfordby, near Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.

The team’s experts believe the site would have been inhabited by hunter-gatherers, who journeyed to Britain over the icy remnants of a giant super-river we reported yesterday (sadly they weren’t quite around at the time of Stone Age GPS). Britain would only become an island thousands of years later, when the final chills of the last ice age subsided.

The dig’s first work found flint blades embedded in Mesolithic soil, buried by much later ploughsoil. Thanks to the intact prehistoric soil, the group were confident they could find a wider range of objects, casting a light over the Midlands’ earliest residents.

Work then began on a 10m patch of land, which produced startling results. A charcoal-rich former hearth was found, alongside postholes and arcs of stone which suggest tent-like structures. Yet it was the worked flint haul which provided the team with their biggest coup. Over 5,000 chunks of the stone were recorded, including those used as tools, blades, flakes, scrapers, piercers and arrowheads.

Further work is scheduled at the site, which promises to delve deeper into the domestic and hunting lives of the Mesolithic residents of Leicestershire.

Bones excavated will be examined, allowing us a unique insight into the diets of our prehistoric British ancestors.

The origins of Europe’s earliest settlers is one of anthropology’s hottest topics. Some reports suggest modern Scandinavians are the descendants of Stone Age immigrants, and recent DNA evidence claims Europe’s first farmers weren’t related to hunter-gatherers or the farmers of the Cradle of Civilization.

As the above map shows, routes and landmasses throughout Europe have changed dramatically over the past few thousand years – Neanderthals have even been discovered at the bottom of the North Sea, widely believed to have been an ancient super-highway through the continent’s northern climes.

Cleopatra Comes to Philadelphia (Well, some of her Treasures)

Just as Cleopatra’s tomb could be discovered at Taposiris Magna, some of her greatest treasures will be winging their way to the States. Next June Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt will be showcased at Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute for six months, before heading to three other US cities on a massive tour.

The exhibition will bring together some of the best-known artefacts and freshest discoveries from Cleopatra’s city of Alexandria.

The Institute’s senior vice president of marketing, programs and business development Troy Collins says the show’s treasures are coming from two major sources: “Land sources from the famous explorer Zahi Hawass, as well as some new outstanding and visually stunning objects that have been recovered from under the Bay of Alexandria by explorer Franck Goddio.”

The show will highlight objects found found above and below water in and around Alexandria

VIDEO: Search for the Tomb of Cleopatra (Featuring Dr. Kathleen Martinez)

Dr Hawass and Dominican expert Kathleen Martinez‘ search for Cleopatra’s tomb will be featured at the exhibition. You can see two videos on the ongoing saga here: an interview with Dr Hawass and a look at the pioneering dig with Dr Martinez. The Institute is no stranger to blockbuster Egyptian exhibitions, having been home to Tutankhamun And The Golden Age of The Pharaohs in summer 2007. King Tut’s relics are still touring north America, visiting Toronto on the latest leg of their journey.

French underwater archaeologist Goddio made headlines by discovering Cleopatra’s palace, and two sunken cities lost beneath the Mediterranean, in 1996. Cleopatra is one of the ancient world’s most enigmatic characters, ruling Egypt from 51-30 BC. Her reign ended in disaster, when Egypt was swallowed up by the Roman Empire.

Look out for an interview with Troy Collins on the treasures of Cleopatra, coming soon to Heritage Key!

Treasures from King Tut’s Tomb – The Animal Gods explained by Dr. Janice Kamrin

The three ritual beds of Tutankhamun are a very serious proposition, guarded by some of the ancient world’s fiercest chaperones. King Tut’s Anubis Shrine, fashioned in the seventh year of Akhenaten’s reign, was something to be carried processionally during the final movements of the king’s mummy. Dr Janice Kamrin (watch a video of Dr Kamrin exploring the lost tombs of Thebes with Zahi Hawass here) points out that Anubis “is in the form of a jackal, or as we Egyptologists like to say a ‘super-jackal’, because he’s not quite a jackal: he’s a better form of the jackal.”

Anubis certainly cuts a fearsome figure, sitting astride his gessoed and gilded wooden box with a steely glare that stresses his importance in guarding the Pharaoh’s mummy. Anubis was also the god of mummification, and priests would wear Anubis masks when performing vital ceremonies, like the opening of the mouth.

This gessoed Anubis sat at the entrance to Tut’s treasury, and wore a floral collar when Howard Carter first found him over 80 years ago. His stoic eyes are inlaid with calcite and obsidian, and his claws are inset with silver. The shrine would have represented the triumphant fifth magic brick in King Tut’s tomb, protecting it from intruders.

“She’s a hippo-lion-croc – they put together these three very dangerous creatures.”

Next in this second of four special videos on Tut’s Treasures, Dr Kamrin focuses on the king’s three ritual beds. It’s not known exactly what they were used for, but most scholars agree they held the royal mummy at various stages of its preparation for the afterlife. Each bed’s side panels are made in the form of a specific deity.

The first Dr Kamrin comes across is wrought in the image of a lion, called ‘Menhit‘; the third a cow named ‘Mehit-Weret’. Yet Dr Kamrin switches their names according to the popular-held opinion that the two inscriptions were actually confused by their makers. All three beds are made mostly of gilded wood, though small touches have been made with other materials. The lions’ eyes are fashioned from clear quartz; their tears from blue glass.

King Tut's Lion Bed was used as part of the mummification process. Image Copyright - Sandro Vannini. Next up is the bed of Ammut, a strange mythical creature known to devour the hearts of evildoers at the weighing of the heart ceremony in the afterlife. Ammut has the head of a hippo, lion’s legs and the body of a crocodile. “She’s a hippo-lion-croc,” Dr Kamrin says, “they put together these three very dangerous creatures.” She certainly looks the part; a manic expression and slathering ivory teeth rounding off her menacing figure.

The third and final ritual bed is that of Mehit-Weret, “the great cow of the heavens and the flood,” says Dr Kamrin. “Between her horns she’s wearing the disc of the sun, and one of her jobs was to carry the reborn sun-god (ie Tut) to the heavens.” She’s the most striking of the three: her patchwork skin, adorned with blue paste, represents the starry sky. “There’s all sorts of symbolism put together,” Dr Kamrin says. Bedding the king hasn’t been this complicated since Henry VIII hit puberty.

HD Video: Animal Iconography of Tutankhamun’s Burial Treasures

(Read the transcript on the video page)

Look out for the third part in our ‘Tut’s Treasures’ series with Dr Zahi Hawass, coming soon! You can receive instant notification of the arrival of future instalments of King Tuts Treasures by signing-up to Heritage Keys RSS feed. Doing so will also give you an immediate heads up when we post other top videos on the site recent gems have included Zahi Hawasss insights into the death of King Tut, a look at Kathleen Martinezs hunt for the tomb of Cleopatra and a chat with Lord Norwich on history’s great cities. Check out Heritage Keys video page for all our videos to date.

English Channel Carved out by Ancient Super-River

Brits might scoff at the suggestion they’re from the same continent as their mainland European neighbours. But a new report claims the two masses are linked by a low-lying range of hills that flooded over thousands of years, leaving the English Channel that separates England and France today.

Thousands of layers of sheet (ice)

An Anglo-French study (would you believe it) has revealed that the hilly range ran between Kent and Artois, in northern France, some half a million years ago. Yet ice ages beginning 450,000 years ago coated northern Europe in thick layers of ice, trapping water in a giant lake between Kent and France’s Artois region.

Many of the region’s great lakes, such as the Thames and Rhine, flowed into this massive lake, which overflowed, sending vast torrents of water and sediment crashing down towards the Atlantic Ocean. The water, which scientists have named ‘Fleuve Manche’, carved a path through the chalky rock as it went. Eventually the river, and rising tides, would tear Britain from France permanently, creating ‘La Manche’ or ‘The Sleeve’ – the French name for the Channel.

The Door to Prehistoric Britain

“This provides the final piece in the puzzle.”

Using sedimentary deposits, the team have been able to calculate when the Fleuve Manche had existed during three ice ages: 450,000, 160,000 and 90-30,000 years ago. Each time the surge of debris into the Bay of Biscay increased, showing how the Channel – and no shortage of national stereotypes – were literally being cut deeper into the European landmass.

Professor Phil Gibbard from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Geography says the work could be a vital clue in understanding how Britain was populated. “Essentially we are talking about the colonisation of the British Isles,” he tells the Daily Mail. “One of the things that arises from this study is our ability to understand what arrived in Britain and when.”

“It provides the final piece in the puzzle,” Prof Gibbard adds, “forming a complete record that reconstructs the dramatic events that cut Britain off from Europe and gave it its island status.”

The early population of Britain and Europe has been one of anthropology’s biggest questions for decades. Recent DNA evidence seems to show the continent’s first farmers, in central Europe, weren’t related to Stone Age hunter-gatherers or Near Eastern Neolithic revolutionaries (though Scandinavians are thought to be Stone Age immigrants).

Recent studies have shown that the North Sea was a prehistoric highway for our early ancestors some 60,000 years ago. Yet this report drives deeper into the divisions separating Britons from their French neighbours for thousands of years. Why, for example, Hugh Grant is perpetually employed; or why some feel it’s ok to reach the World Cup by cheating shamelessly. Les petits ruisseaux faissent les grand rivieres – ‘the smallest streams make the biggest rivers’ – as they say a few dozen miles from here.

Iran Urges UNESCO to Step in Over Lost Persian Army in Egyptian Desert

Remember the ‘groundbreaking discovery’ of Cambyses’ lost Persian army a few weeks back, in the Western Desert of Egypt? Almost as soon as it had been announced, Zahi Hawass’ Supreme Council of Antiquities were all over it, rejecting the Castiglioni brothers’ claims they’d found the legendary fleet near Siwa Oasis.

Yet any doubts as to the brothers’ credibility have been lost on Iranian officials, who have branded Dr Hawass’ rejection of the discovery as politically motivated, and have urged UNESCOto step in to save the army’s remains. The request by Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Toursim Organisation (ICHHTO) was made yesterday. Spokesman Hassan Mohseni tells Fars news agency: “Egypt’s chief archeologist Zahi Hawass has recently rejected the discovery of the army in his personal weblog due to political pressure.”

“Zahi Hawass has rejected the discovery due to political pressure.”

It’s an odd twist in a growing saga which promises to run for some time yet. Various cyber-sleuths have succeeded only in shrouding the story in even more mystery, digging up conflicting claims from sources as far back as 2004. Cambyses’ 50,000 men are said to have vanished in a huge sandstorm some 2,500 years ago, whilst on their way to Siwa’s Temple of Amun. The Castiglioni brothers have supposedly found large numbers of human bones and Persian artefacts just outside the remote oasis.

Yet almost immediately the web was awash with comments, rumour and controversy thanks to the SCA’s response to the ‘find’. “I need to inform the public that recent reports published in newspapers, news agencies and TV news announcing that twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni have unearthed the remains of the Persian army of Cambyses, are unfounded and misleading,” wrote Dr Hawass on his personal blog. We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments as soon as they happen.