Category: sean-williams - Part 12

Dr Kara Cooney Holding her Own on Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show

Some people might look to Dr Zahi Hawass, bedecked in Indiana Jones denim shirt and Stetson hat, for a paragon of archaeological cool. Others could point to Kathleen Martinez, currently hunting for the tomb of Cleopatra at Taposiris Magna, as the epitome of a dynamic modern adventurer. But how many Egyptologists could realistically hold their own on long-running US chat show TheLate Late Show, hosted by Scottish funnyman Craig Ferguson? I’m struggling to think of any – much less anyone who’s done it three times. It must have been child’s play when the lovely Dr Kara Cooney spoke to me about her recent series Out of Egypt. Enjoy: there aren’t many times you’ll catch an Egyptologist chatting about ‘dirty wet parts’ (of a mummified body, ahem) on prime-time television.

We’ve got interviews with some of the ancient world’s biggest names here at Heritage Key. Take a look at some of these:

Gay Roman Porn, Please: We’re British

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 AD. The controversial cup comprises two highly-charged homosexual acts.

Side A shows a young man (the passive participant, or eromenos) lowering himself onto an older man (the active erastes) with a rope. A third man watches on voyeuristically from behind a door, most possibly a slave. Side B contains a similar scene, with two younger men engaging in anal sex. Two handles would have been stationed at the rim of the cup, probably a banqueting centrepiece, but have been lost over time.

The lush background and decorative furniture on both sides of the cup suggest Greek craftsmanship. It is thought to have first been discovered near Jerusalem, a hoarded casualty of the First Roman-Jewish War, though it’s a story without much historical clout. Whatever the truth is, 19th century American collector Warren, a staunch advocate of Greek homoeroticism, purchased the cup in 1911 for 2,000 and promptly hid it from view. Just like homosexuality at the time, the Warren Cup was to be a clandestine affair, held in privacy to hide its ignominy.

This would be the cup’s lot for most of the 20th century, mirroring attitudes to homosexuality across the western world. In the 1950s the cup was even refused entry to the US. The British Museum refused a purchase, thinking it unexhibitable. Yet it would be the 1980s, when opinions first swayed against homophobia, that the cup would re-emerge into the public eye.

And in 1999 the British Museum took one of its biggest leaps (and U-turns) in recent history, when it made the Warren Cup its most expensive single item. Since then it has joined many other racy relics in sexual exhibitions across the country, extolling the libertine sexual values of our Roman forebears.

The Warren Cup may just be the ancient world’s perfect polemic for modern attitudes to homosexuality. Just as western society has opened up, so the cup has crawled out from under a blanket of finger-pointing and outrage to become one of the BM’s highlight artefacts. Incidentally the Romans had no word for homosexuality, seeing it as an act rather than a label. There are many things the Romans taught us. Sadly this is something we forgot.

Manhattan of the Middle East: Shibam, Yemen

Think skyscrapers and you’ll no doubt imagine shimmering towers of glass and steel, reaching ever closer to the heavens, whilst slowly turning most cities into a homogenised equaliser of stickle-bricks. But it’s always been this way, hasn’t it? At least, it has been for the residents of Shibam, a Yemeni town of about 7,000 people rising out of the arid Arabian desert.

At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking Shibam was some Brooklyn suburb, but look closer and you’ll find cracks, paintjobs and plasterwork that mark its mud-brick buildings out as the oldest of their type in the world. The city itself is thought to date from the 2nd century AD, but most of its high-risers shot up in the 16th century. Its closely-wedged toybox appearance owes more to its enemies than efficient planning: the tortoise-shell design prevented attacks from Bedouin tribes. The closest the ancient world gets to modern cityscapes are arguably the great Roman cities, like Rome itself, Constantinople and Leptis Magna. The pyramids of Giza are as close as Egypt ever got.

Over 500 of the city’s buildings reach between five and 11 stories, top 100ft (30m) in height, and are so tightly packed that no traffic can pass through: thus strangely the world’s first skyscraper city is also one of its cleanest. However it does suffer more pitfalls than your average urban sprawl. Floods and rain ravage its infrastructure on a weekly basis, with the city’s inhabitants well-versed in efficient running repairs. The most recent deluge came in 2008, when foundations were swept away and buildings fell apart.

A more sinister threat engulfed the city earlier this year, when it was the focus for a deadly al-Quaeda attack which left four South Korean tourists dead and many more injured. Add to that the constant threat of abandonment as residents seek easier lives elsewhere, and it’s a wonder Shibam is still standing. But it is. And with a spot on the UNESCO world heritage list, here’s hoping Shibam can continue breaking boundaries, long after today’s bloody tribes have bitten the dust.

Image sources from Wikimedia Commons – Manhattan, New York City and Shibam Wadi Hadhramaut, Yemen.

Lost Pictish Throne Brought to Life by National Museum of Scotland Team

Scottish history lovers can get a unique view of their country’s heritage at the National Museum of Scotland (NMS) – a team of experts has rebuilt a Pictish throne. The wooden giant was created by master furniture maker Adrian McCurdy, who took his lines from ancient stone carvings. Picts ruled Scotland north of the Firth of Clyde from the 4th to 9th century AD. But they are best known for their mysterious rock art, which still baffles experts today.

The throne was commissioned by the museum alongside distillers Glenmorangie. It will go on display next Tuesday (December 1st) at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre, before moving to the Glenmorangie Distillery in Tain, Ross-shire, next year. It will visit a number of locations across the country thereafter. A new book exploring Scotland’s ancient past will be published in a book to be published in 2011.

“We’ve learnt so much about the design, manufacture and use of these thrones.”

David Clark, the NMS’ archaeology keeper, hailed his researchers and the uniqueness of the throne. “There are no surviving examples of thrones from early historic Scotland,” he tells the BBC, “and during the process of recreating this piece we’ve learnt so much about the design, manufacture and use of these thrones. It’s very exciting to see this type of throne brought to life for the first time in over a thousand years.”

Scottish heritage has been frequently hitting the Heritage Key headlines for the past few months. The long sought-after Lewis Chessmen will be coming back to the NMS on loan; Torc Iron Age gold has been found worth 1million; a rare Bronz Age burial has been discovered in the Highlands; and prehistoric rock art has been found in Perthshire.

We still prefer King Tut’s throne – which you can still see right here at Heritage Key, thanks to the amazing photography of Sandro Vannini!

Would you visit the reproduction throne? Would you go out of your way to visit any replica artefact?Join the debate and have your say here at Heritage Key!

Maltese Expert ‘Discovers Hieroglyphs from Legendary Land of Yam’

A Maltese explorer claims he may have solved one of Egypt’s oldest mysteries. Mark Borda and Egyptian accomplice Mahmoud Marai, an adventure holiday planner, have discovered a large rock in the Western Desert, some 450 miles west of the Nile Valley – inscribed with a king’s cartouche, royal images and hieroglyphs. Ancient Egyptians are thought never to have strayed past Dakhla Oasis, located around 200 miles from the river.

Mr Borda will not disclose the location of his find to protect it from prying eyes. He immediately sent details of the text to compatriot and Egyptologist Aloisia De Trafford, based at University College, London, who passed it onto ancient languages specialist and colleague Joe Clayton. Mr Borda reports that the results have been astonishing, linking by trade the Egyptians to exotic, distant lands. “In the annals of Egyptian history there are references to far off lands that the pharaohs had traded with but none of these have ever been positively located,” he tells the Malta Independent.

“The script we found is from the fabled land of Yam, a mysterious source of tropical woods and ivory.”

“It turns out that the script we found states the name of the region where it was carved,” Mr Borda adds, “which is none other than the fabled land of Yam, one of the most famous and mysterious nations that the Egyptians had traded with in Old Kingdom times; a source of precious tropical woods and ivory. Its location has been debated by Egyptologists for over 150 years but it was never imagined it could be 700 kilometres west of the Nile in the middle of the Sahara desert.”

If true – and it’s far from certain right now (read on…) – Mr Borda’s could be one of Egypt’s biggest recent discoveries. Not only would it push ancient Egyptian culture around 400 miles west of what many believed to be their western limit, but it would also confirm the legendary land of Yam; alluded to in several texts but never found in modern times.

Yet we’ll have to wait for confirmation from the Supreme Council of Antiquities before believing Mr Borda fully: just take a look at the Castiglioni brothers’ Persian Army exploits in the same area earlier this month – discredited by the SCA within days.

However Mr Borda does have previous in the field, having assisted Carlo Bergmann’s 2003 excavations along the Abu Ballas Trail, near Gilf Kebir. That time Bergmann’s team found pottery dating to the 28th Dynasty, and its location became the westernmost border of the Ancient Egyptian Empire – until now, Mr Borda claims: “(Carlo Bergmann’s trip) caused a sensation as it extended the activities of the Pharaonic administrations an unprecedented 80 kilometres further out into the unknown and waterless Western Desert. The find we just made is some 650 kilometres further on! Egyptologists will be dumbstruck by this news.” Will Mr Borda’s claims be confirmed? We’ll keep you posted!

Zahi Hawass on the SCA’s Projects at Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser

might be one of Egypt’s oldest archaeological sites, but it’s certainly one of the hottest right now. And the omnipresent Zahi Hawass has been enlightening fans on the latest breakthroughs and theories circulating the ancient necropolis. The first of these centres on the giant Step Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt’s first pyramid. Eleven burial shafts have been excavated, homes to each of the Old Kingdom pharaoh’s daughters. As such it was the only Old Kingdom pyramid built for the king’s family.

Yet there’s another shaft, soon to be studied, which Dr Hawass (coming to London soon!) feels may be the final resting place of the legendary architect and polymath Imhotep, adviser to Djoser, designer of his pyramid and worshipped as a god on his death. Inscriptions of his name alongside the king show he was highly valued. Why could he not have earned a place in his most famous creation? “Since he designed the pyramid for the king and his family, and he may have been as close as family to the king,” writes Dr Hawass in his blog, “it could be a possibility that he was allowed to be buried within the pyramid.”

The second of the SCA’s Saqqara projects is in its early stages. Yet it promises to be filled with excitement, as experts dig on the west side of the Step Pyramid, somewhre that’s never been excavated before. Not only may the work lead to yet more exciting discoveries in the area, it will also clean out the area so conservation work can begin on the 4,600-year-old monument.

Could Imhotep be buried in the Step Pyramid?

This will include a comprehensive project in the pyramid’s burial chamber, work which will take plenty of care. “We will put plastic bags full of sand underneath Djosers sarcophagus, and cover the surface with sand, in order to protect it while we erect the scaffolding inside the chamber,” Dr Hawass writes. “Once the steel scaffolding is in place, we will begin the work of restoring the 29 meter tall burial chamber, and will leave the scaffolding permanently in the burial chamber to support it.”

So that’s three major projects under way, all of which under the watchful eye of Dr Hawass. Add to that the quest for Cleopatra at Taposiris Magna, work preserving the Sphinx and Austrian revelations at Tel El-Daba and the world’s most famous archaeologist has got plenty on his plate right now. Consider that Egypt stretches over 650miles from north to south, and you’d be forgiven for thinking Dr Hawass has added teleportation to his ever-growing list of discoveries.

The third of Dr Hawass’ projects will be the restoration of Saqqara’s famous Serapeum, a chamber dedicated to the Apis Bull. Dr Hawass says he has endured opposition from those who don’t want to see scaffolding erected inside the chamber, but feel it is the only way to preserve one of the necropolis’ greatest assets. “We have put iron scaffolding in all of the niches for the huge sarcophagi of the sacred Apis bulls,” Dr Hawass writes, “except for one on the very end that is very well preserved.This phase will be finished around the beginning of the new year, and then we will initiate Phase II, to conserve another tunnel.We are hoping that the restoration will be completely finished in the next two years.

Dr Hawass: Climate Change is Threatening Egypt’s Landmarks

With the UN’s Climate Change summit taking place in Copenhagen next month, it seems everyone’s minds are adjusted to the environment. Zahi Hawass is no different. The sands of time and weather pose a serious threat to many of his famous Egyptian landmarks, and the antiquities chief has set up several projects to combat the forces of nature on some of man’s greatest achievements.

Though the rising tides of the Nile have been threatening Egypt’s monuments for millennia, the 20th and 21st centuries have no doubt posed their biggest problems. Man has hardly played a positive role in this: take the construction of the Aswan High Dam and its flooding of Nubia, the subsequent relocation of Abu Simbel temple and undoubted loss of a massive number of ancient artefact, as the showcase point in hand. Rising ground water levels in general are of particular concern to Dr Hawass. “The objects and buildings that are currently underwater are being eroded by the salty water and the monuments are being destroyed,” he writes on his blog.

“These projects are preserving Egypt for the world.”

But when you’re talking about a country largly covered in sweeping desert, wind and exposure will inevitably play their considerable parts. Equally air pollution is a rising issue, especially in a country swept up in fierce industrialisation. The pyramids, sitting on the verge of caustic Cairo, are first in the pollution firing line. Yet all city-dwelling monuments, such as Karnak Temple at Luxor, will be facing trouble as the surrounding air deteriorates.

The SCA is all too aware of the threats posed by the environment. Projects are springing up all over the country, at some of its best-known sites. “We currently have projects on the West Bank of Luxor, at the temples of Kom Ombo, Esna and Edfu, and at different sites in Memphis, Alexandria and Abu Mina,” writes Dr Hawass. “If nothing were done, these monuments could be completely destroyed in a few decades, and all their history and significance could be lost.” Work is also ongoing drilling for water under the Sphinx (watch the video with Mark Lehner).

“These SCA projects are doing very important work to save the monuments for the future, to preserve the heritage of Egypt for the world,” Dr Hawass adds. A huge amount of work has already been done to save the tombs of the Valley of the Kings from environmental disaster. Horemheb’s tomb has been given state-of-the-art air conditioning technology. King Tut’s final resting place could be getting a replica to curtail damage by its throngs of admirers, and the Getty Conservation Institute has been drafted in to stop its paintings growing any more unsightly brown spots.

Is Egypt – and the world – doing enough to save its cultural heritage from the effects of the environment? Whose responsibility are ancient landmarks: are we all in it together? Have your say at Heritage Key – either , our discussion page, or by emailing me direct. Heritage Key – Unlock the Wonders.

Taking photos in the Valley of the Kings allowed? Stopping outside photography ‘Will be Charged’

It’s fair enough not to be allowed to snap away inside the tombs of the Valley of the Kings (unless you’re Sandro Vannini , see why here). Flash photography – and that’s what you’ll need – can have a damaging effect on the delicate tomb paintings, some of which are around 4,000 years old. But jobsworth Egyptian officials denying you a snapshot outside the tombs? According to Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, that’s not on. The SCA boss has come out this week to smash claims his men are forbidding photography outside some of Egypt’s biggest attractions including the pyramids, Sphinx and Luxor Temple.

“It is allowed to take pictures for the open monuments area,” says Dr Hawass via an Egyptian Culture Ministry statement. He adds that any guide denying open pictures will face charges, as they are a vital part of tourists’ memories of Egypt. Dr Hawass will be anxious to curry favour with Egypt’s massive tourist population. Just under 13million people visited the country last year, raking in a shade under $11billion (6.66billion). Global tourist numbers are expected to top one billion people this year, with a revenue of around $1,000billion (605billion). Egypt’s tourist guides don’t have the best of reputations, having been known to point people in the wrong direction and demand money for just about anything.

Do you think tourists should pay for photography, wherever they are? Or do you think we should all be able to snap away in and outside tombs for free? Maybe you’ve got a story about Egyptian tour guides – Have your say at Heritage Key – either via the , our contact page or by emailing me direct.

The Treasures of Egypt come to Little Rock, Arkansas at ‘World of the Pharaohs’ Exhibition

With King Tut’s road trip hitting no fewer than three North American cities in 2009/10, you’d think the continent was getting its fill of Egyptian treasures. Not so Arkansas’ capital city Little Rock, whose Arkansas Arts Center currently plays host to ‘World of the Pharaohs: Treasures of Egypt Revealed‘, a celebration of all things Egyptian.

Beginning September 25 and running until July 5 next year, the show combines ancient artefacts with a packed events calendar, comprising lectures, films and much more.

The 200 treasures on show include a spectacularly wide range of items, including a risque bead dress, funerary stelae and brightly-coloured shabti figures. A colossus of Ramesses II is sure to be popular, as will be the fine array of Egyptian jewellery, and a royal charter, the Decree of Neferirkare, shows how society ran during the empire’s Old Kingdom.

An Impressive Events Program

‘World of the Pharaohs” events program is as formidable as any exhibition anywhere in the world, enlisting some of Egyptology’s top names to shed light on the things that made Egypt great. People visiting on the weekend can enjoy a 30-minute video featuring famed archaeologist Bob Brier, who will be showing how to make a modern mummy.

Salima Ikram, Heritage Key’s favourite animal cult expert (watch the video), will also be visiting on April 27 to talk about the history and purpose of mummification in Egypt. Even the Land of Punt, the ‘god’s place’ Hatshepsut sailed to 3,800 years ago, will get an airing thanks to the expert talents of Boston University’s Kathryn Bard. Other events will touch on the Alexandria Library, pyramids, kings and a lot more.

“This will put Arkansas on the map of the art world in a whole new way.” – Nan Plummer

Arkansas and Ancient Egypt are hardly synonymous. Yet Executive Director Nan Plummer believes the exhibition will put the south-central state firmly on the ancient world map.

“World of the Pharaohs will be the biggest exhibition ever in Arkansas and the first exhibition of Egyptian art to come to Arkansas,” she says. “The art and objects of ancient Egyptian culture are fascinating to humans all over the world. We are very pleased to offer this extraordinary exhibition.

“The Arkansas Arts Center is the only museum in Arkansas that can host an exhibition of this size and magnitude. We are excited to host this major event that will put Arkansas on the map of the art world in a whole new way.”

The exhibition ‘World of the Pharaohs’ runs until July 5 2010. Tickets are priced $22 for adults, $20 for seniors, $18 for college students, $15 for military and $14 for youths. Kids aged five and under get to visit for free.

Prehistoric Super Crocodiles, ‘SuperCrocs’, Found in Sahara

A top paleontologist has discovered the remains of five ancient crocodile species in the Sahara desert. Paul Sereno, National Geographic’s resident expert in the field, has dubbed the suite of SuperCrocs after the characteristics they share with other modern animals. The group, found on a windswept stretch of rock and dunes, are proof of an obscure era when the crocs roamed the southern land mass of Gondwana, some 100 million years ago.

The most spectacular of the five is SuperCroc itself, weighing in at a whopping 8 tons, and measuring over 40 feet. Four of the five had ‘upright’ legs which stretched out below them, rather than those of today’s species which come out from the side. The list includes such oddities as DuckCroc and the flat-faced PancakeCroc.

The full list of Sereno’s crocs:

BoarCroc: New species, Kaprosuchus saharicus; fossils found in Niger. Twenty-foot-long upright meat eater with armoured snout for ramming and three sets of dagger-shaped fangs for slicing. Closest relative in Madagascar.
RatCroc: New species, Araripesuchus rattoides; fossils found in Morocco. Three-foot-long, upright plant and grub eater. Pair of buck teeth in lower jaw used to dig for food. Closest relative in South America.

VIDEO: Salima Ikram Shares the Secrets of Egypt’s Animal Cults

VIDEO: Animal Mummies Explained by Dr Salima Ikram

PancakeCroc: New species, Laganosuchus thaumastos; fossils found in Niger and Morocco. Twenty-foot-long, squat fish eater with a three-foot pancake-flat head. Spike-shaped teeth on slender jaws. Likely rested motionless for hours, its jaws open and waiting for prey. Closest relative from Egypt. The scientific paper also names a close relative discovered by the team in Morocco, Laganosuchus maghrebensis.
DuckCroc: New fossils of previously named species, Anatosuchus minor. Fossils found in Niger. Three-foot-long upright fish-, frog- and grub-eater. Broad, overhanging snout and Pinocchio-like nose. Special sensory areas on the snout end allowed it to root around on the shore and in shallow water for prey. Closest relative in Madagascar.
DogCroc: New fossils of named species, Araripesuchus wegeneri. Fossils found in Niger include five skeletons, all next to each other on a single block of rock. Three-foot-long upright plant and grub eater with a soft, doglike nose pointing forward. Likely an agile galloper, but also a capable swimmer. Closest relative in Argentina.

“My African crocs had upright legs for bounding overland and a versatile tail for paddling in water.”

Sereno went to great lengths for the discovery, explored in a National Geographic documentary called When Crocs ate Dinosaurs which airs tommorow in the US. He and his team endured searing 125F heat, and had to live on dehydrated food for months. To understand his SuperCrocs better, Sereno also travelled to Australia, where he observed and caught freshwater crocodiles. He concluded that the secret to crocodiles’ longevity is the way they can switch instantly from running on land with powerful legs, to swimming like fish in the sea with their giant tails.

“My African crocs appeared to have had both upright, agile legs for bounding overland and a versatile tail for paddling in water,” Sereno writes. “Their amphibious talents in the past may be the key to understanding how they flourished in, and ultimately survived, the dinosaur era.”

Ancient Egyptian culture worshipped and feared crocodiles, deifying them in the creation god Sobek. So strong was Sobek’s cult in the Faiyum that the Greeks dubbed the city of Arsinoe ‘Crocodilopolis’. Sobek was also worshipped at the southern temple of Kom Ombo. Heritage Key has two great videos on ancient Egyptian animal cults with renowned archaeologist Salima Ikram – check them out here!