Category: sean-williams - Part 18

Check out Stonehenge with this Awesome Blender Reconstruction

Stonehenge Blender - Still from the Video The Heritage Key office may be bristling with excitement at the prospect of our own Virtual Stonehenge – the progress of which you can see right here each week.. errr.. starting next week. But the anticipation has clearly proved too much for this online architect, who thought he’d have a go at the megalithic masterpiece himself. Andreas Trunk’s Stonehenge reconstruction is the first in a series exploring circular buildings of the ancient world, the next being Delphi’s famous Marmaria, and we reckon this is a pretty good first shot. Taking the stones as they are today, Trunk attempts to explain how the existing fragments would have looked in their original positions (we wouldn’t want to get caught beneath one!), and how the stones align with the sun and moon, leading to a fascination which continues to this day. Visually Trunk gets it just right – if his narration isn’t exactly from the David Attenborough top drawer of voiceovers. So (druidic) hats off to Mr Trunk; he certainly knows his Stonehenge facts a bit better than some of the Clonehenges we’ve encountered here at Heritage Key.

For those of you of a technical persuasion, just listen to the man himself: “In the case of Stonehenge I had infos about every single stone. Their exact shape, size and position was created first in AutoCad and then transfered into Blender. The landscape came from a land surveyor. I took the file into Autodesk Revit to create the mesh and then up to Blender as usual.” Enjoy.

First Farmers Didn’t Hunt or Gather

A century-old case may have been closed – DNA evidence appears to show Europe’s first farmers were not related to their hunter-gatherer forebears. Teams from the University of Mainz, Cambridge University and University College London have been comparing the genetic make-up of central and northern European hunter-gatherers with ancient farmers and even today’s central Europeans.

Their results show that hunter-gatherers share very little of their DNA with the farmers, and just 18 per cent with modern Europeans. Though relatively muted in comparison with other recent finds, the research provides the answer to a question that has mystified thinkers for over a hundred years. Humans traveled to Europe around 45,000 years ago, after which they foraged their way through the last ice age, which ended around 9,700 BC. Agriculture from the Near East then took hold from around 7,000 BC, which increased food potential 100-fold. The group’s results appear to prove once and for all that the farmers almost solely flocked from Mesopotamia, and weren’t indigenous to Europe.

So if we’re not related to the Stone Agers, and not the Near East farmers – who are we?

However, as much as the team have shaken off one doubt, another even stranger conundrum has appeared in its place. For not only are modern Europeans different from their Stone Age compatriots alone, but neither are they the sole descendents of the Near Eastern farmers who spread across the region either. As population geneticist Mark Thomas puts it, “This is really odd.” The researchers have asserted that the Carpathian Basin, which straddles nearly all central European nations, as the genesis for European agriculture. “It seems that farmers of the Linearbandkeramik culture immigrated from what is modern day Hungary around 7,500 years ago into Central Europe, initially without mixing with local hunter gatherers,” says Barbara Bramanti, the study’s first author. “This is surprising, because there were cultural contacts between the locals and the immigrants, but, it appears, no genetic exchange of women.”

New Toys! Playmobil’s Egypt Set

Are you a huge fan of the pyramids? Read all the books, got the t-shirt, watched The Mummy too many times to know (it had better be the original)? Contemplate running away from home because you never got any Egypt-based toys for Christmas? Well worry no more, for long-running kids’ stalwarts Playmobil have come up with their latest incarnation: the sparkling new Egypt range.

Ever wondered what was between the Great Sphinx‘s legs? What about the catacombs of Khufu‘s Pyramid? Playmobil have got all these bases well and truly covered with the toys, though Dr Hawass might have something to say about the handy mezzanine level peering over the pyramid’s edge (could make a tidy little flat, actually).

Take a look at these tasty pics and tell me you don’t already feel like you’re in the Egyptian desert:

Brilliant, I’m sure you’ll agree – better crack out the Christmas gift list asap. If this rocks your boat, you might also want to ask Santa for some pyramidal Lego, or perhaps a pack of duty-free Nefertiti cigarettes.

Images courtesy of Playmobil UK.

Last Chance to See Dr Zahi in ‘The Secrets of the Pharaohs’

There are only five day left if you want to see the mysteries of the mummies come to life on the big screen – Mummies: The Secrets of the Pharaohs ends its two-year run at IMAXcinemas across the world next Monday. But you won’t just want to see it for the breath-taking sights, epic storyline and endless line of experts – the film stars none other than our favourite Egyptologist, Dr Zahi Hawass! The antiquities chief gives his best Indiana Jones impression, as the illustrious movie takes viewers on a technicolour tale through in time. First they can see the methods, techniques and beliefs which made a civilization preserve their dead as time capsules; frozen for thousands of years. Then the film leaps ahead to the late 19th century and the earth-shattering discoveries of the mummies of Ramesses the Great, Seti I and his son. Unearthed a full forty years before the glittering arrival of Tutankhamun‘s tomb, the find is widely regarded as the greatest in history, and provides a perfect apothee for modern Egyptology, which the film explores in detail.

The movie’s final third concerns itself with the DNA work of the present which is delving deeper into the secrets of the mummies. A decade ago, Dr Bob Brier of Long Island University, USA was the first person to attempt a modern Egyptian mummification. Now, his creation may hold clues to a myriad enigmas, including why pharaohs ground up mummies to cure disease. Billing itself as ‘part historic journey and part forensic adventure’, Mummies brings together the ancient and the modern with all the glitz of an IMAX epic. Starring Brier, Dr Hawass and featuring the voice of Christopher Lee – who played the lead role in the 1959 film The Mummy – the movie tries to bring together both the beliefs of the present and the ancient past, and the changes in the way mummies are examined. It promises to be an intriguing into the study of mummies in the age of high-tech forensics.

But hurry up if you want to catch it – the Lost Egypt exhibition, at the Centre of Science and Industry, Columbus, Ohio, finishes on 7th September. Tickets are $7.50, with reductions for COSI members.

Buried Alive? The World’s Oldest Leper Found in India

It’s a sombre tale; one of death, disease and live burial. But the body of a man found in Rajasthan, India reveals much more than an ancient horror story. The disovery in the town of Balathal, 40km north-east of Udaipur, is tying together some of the mysteries surrounding the tribes of the Indus Valley, who lived in the shadows of the mighty Harappans.

The unfortunate man is thought to have been aged between 25 and 45, and predates the earliest-known human leprosy case by around 2,000 years. The previous oldest was an Egyptian dating to 400-250 BC, though the Ebers Papyrus mentions the disfiguring disease as early as 1,550 BC.

The man, who belonged to the agricultural Ahar-Banas culture, may also have met a gruesome ritualistic end. Though bodies in the Harappan region were usually cremated, diseased frames were consigned to the earth – and it was frequent practice to bury those with afflictions alive. The man was buried in the cross-legged samadhi yoga posture, which appears to uphold this morbid notion.

So there’s the death and disease – what of the leper’s little-known tribal provenance? Rarely anything is found from the Ahar-Banas group, and they are regularly confused with their much more illustrious Harappan contemporaries from the twin cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.

Yet they were much more than jealous next-door neighbours. Converting from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture around the mid-fifth millennium BC, the Ahars had pottery and copper by the fourth millennium BC, and had created complex road, housing and fortification systems by 2,500 BC. They are even the proud owners of the world’s first burned brick, found in Gilund in 2001.

“Gilund is emerging as an urban centre of the Aharites,” Vasant Shinde of Deccan College told India Today. “The Harappans did help them flourish but the farmers retained their culture intact,” says S.P. Gupta, Chairman of the Archaeological Society of India. The skeleton shows that as well as the Harappans, the Ahars took cultural lines from their neighbours in south and central India. Cow dung ash found in his pit are believed to have come from mounds towards south Deccan and north Dharwar. How much more do you want from one skeleton?

Tel Bet Yerah Plaque Reveals Ancient Egypt-Israel Highway

An exciting new discovery is changing the way archaeologists view ancient Egypt’s first ties with the Levant. A four centimetre-long stone plaque fragment from Tel Bet Yerah features Egyptian symbols, and is believed to date back to around 3,000 BC – or the start of the country’s dynastic era. Rare enough in Egypt, Bet Yerah stands where the Jordan River meets Lake Kinneret (or the Sea of Galilee). And though links between the two areas are already known, this discovery shows ties may have been a lot stronger than previously thought. The find comes as a joint project between Tel Aviv University (TAU) and University College London (UCL) draws to an end. The first of its kind found anywhere outside Egypt, the plaque’s symbols comprise an arm and hand clasping a scepter and early ankh sign. And the quality of the fragment is as good as any found on the first Egyptian royal cosmetic palettes. And now the plaque’s locale, along an ancient highway between the two regions, is likely to see experts from across the globe flocking to its scenic shores in search of more treasures. It could even ease tensions between modern Egypt and Israel – though this is probably about as likely as finding another Great Pyramid under the City of David.

The find hugely enhances ties between the people of early dynastic Egypt and the Jordan Valley.

The project also revealed ties between Bet Yerah and the distant north of Israel. A type of ceramic specific to the area, known as ‘Khirbet Kerak Ware’, and portable ceramic hearths were found, all of which breathes new insight into the ancient people of the Levant: “The hearths are very similar to objects found in Anatolia and the southern Caucasus,” Raphael Greenberg of TAU tells the Jerusalem Post, “and most were found in open spaces where there was other evidence for fire-related activities. The people using this pottery appear to have been migrants or descendants of migrants,” Greenberg adds, “and its distribution on the site, as well as the study of other cultural aspects, such as what they ate and the way they organized their households, could tell us about their interaction with local people and their adaptation to new surroundings.” As if all this wasn’t enough, the teams also focused attention on the foundations of the early Islamic Umayyad Palace of al-Sinnabra – described by influential biblical archaeologist as “the most remarkable Bronze Age site in all Palestine.” The project led to the palace’s marvellous mosaic floors being unearthed fully for the first time. Cracks and depressions in the foundations also indicated the palace could have succumbed to a huge earthquake of 749 AD, which razed much of the Jordan Valley.

A Hundred new Terracotta Warriors? Better Make it Ten

China’s media will be scratching its collective head this week, as a cache of 100 new Terracotta Warriors it claimed to have been unearthed may be ten at best. The embarrassing shortfall comes two months into excavations of ‘pit three’ of the First Qin Emperor‘s Mausoleum in Xi’an. And while officials at the (officially named) Xi’an Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum are keeping tight-lipped about their discoveries, they admit the haul is nowhere near state-controlled Xinhua’s predictions. “It is impossible, the pit is only 200sq m,” says Chao Wei. “If you were here and saw the site you would see it was not possible to have a hundred figures in the pit. Potentially there are maybe ten figures, but work has only just begun.” The museum’s vice director gave a similar response: “We are not allowed to discuss this too much with outside sources,” says Liu Zhancheng. “I think there has been a discovery, but there is no way there are so many figures.” An estimated 5,000 warriors and horses are still thought to be hidden in the mausoleum, which was attacked following the emperor’s demise.

Anticipation has been at fever pitch since the dig began in late June. Team leader Xu Weihong told Xinhua at the time that the greatest discovery thus far was an officer figurine; a rarity among the myriad archers, infantrymen and charioteers which were supposed to accompany Qin Shi Huang into the afterlife. Yet despite working with a German group on ground-breaking methods to preserve the warriors’ colours, Xu said the officer had barely retained any of his former lustre: “The original colours have faded after more than 2,000 years of decay, but a corner of the officer’s robe suggested it was in colours other than the greyish clay.”

The double-whammy of disappointing news isn’t likely to go down well with Xi’an transport chiefs, who this year announced plans to build a special underground station outside the museum. 30km long, the journey from the city to the museum will be cut from an hour to 50 minutes. The museum saw over three million tourists last year, with more expected in the near future.

If you live in America but can’t make it to China, you can catch a Terracotta Army exhibition this year, first at Houston Museum of Natural Science (22 May – 18 Oct) then Washington D.C’s National Geographic Museum (19 Nov – 31 Mar ’10). You could even catch a glimpse of Chi Chang – the human warrior – if you’re lucky.

Egypt’s Oldest Church to Reopen this Year

Egypt’s oldest church will finally reopen its doors this December, after Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass announced that a project to save it from harmful air is coming to an end. The 3rd century AD Hanging Church has been decaying sharply over the past few hundred years, with much of its ornate imagery and wooden iconography in danger of disappearing forever.

The plan first involved installing security and fire alarms, and redecorating much of the famous building’s exterior. An Italian team has since been drafted in to relieve the church from the pressures of hot air with precise cooling equipment. The task has been made more difficult by the constant burning of incense, which is taking its own toll on some of the country’s most treasured coptic relics. Hawass confirmed that as the project has received the blessing of the church’s priest Father Marqus Aziz, and has been green-flagged by the Permanent Committee for Islamic and Coptic Monuments. The project follows the recent reopening of Horemheb’s tomb at the Valley of the Kings, after similar work. Likewise, many famous Luxor monuments have recently been restored in an effort worth an estimated 127 million Egyptian Pounds (13.9 million).

The Hanging Church is Coptic Cairo’s most important building, and the basis for several high-profile legends

The Hanging Church is the oldest church in Egypt’s capital, and rests in the Old Cairo district in an important Coptic region called Religion Compound. It is so called because it rests partly upon the 2nd century AD Babylon Fortress; a vital Roman stronghold built by Emperor Trajan to compound his dominance of the north African coast. The church has seen a myriad restoration projects in its time, the major of which include 8th century work commissioned by the Abassid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, and Pope Abraham’s 10th century overhaul. As well as its 110 precious icons, the church is the final resting place of a number of high-profile patriarchs. It is also widely thought to be built upon the ruins of a place where the Holy Family stayed during their exile from the Holy Land. Some people even claim it to have been constructed on the chamber of a mysterious reclusive monk, who worshipped there alone. Its restoration will surely provide more firepower for the election of Egypt’s minister for culture Farouq Hosni to Secretary General of UNESCO.

Conserving the Terracotta Warriors with Glue

The first full Terracotta Warrior retained all of his vivid colours in 2004, just a year after boffins from the University of Munich discovered a way to stop the hues fading to grey- and it involves little more than a lick of superglue! The experts developed their breakthrough technique after discovering why the warriors‘ hues, which can range from blacks and browns to greens and purples, faded almost immediately after they are taken from the soil. “If you excavate them, they dry out instantly and in five minutes, the paint peels off,” the university’s Heinz Langhals told New Scientist. The problem results from the natural lacquer applied to beneath the fragile paint pigments. When the warriors are excavated, the dry air above the soil causes the lacquer to dry, peel off and take the paint with it.

To avoid the issue, scientists are now packing all newly-dug statues into special containers which match exactly the humidity of the soil. Then they are doused with the monomer hydroxyethylmethacrylate (or HEMA; try saying that out loud). The experts then flood the warriors with high energy electrons, which harden the HEMA, forming a glue which keeps the paint in place. HEMA, incidentally, is a common building block substance used to create many modern plastics. “Once they’re treated, you can handle them without any precaution,” claimed Langhals.

After the innovation, a Green Faced Warrior finally made his debut appearance in 2004.

Langhals and his colleague Daniela Bathelt finally realised their dream of salvaging the first fully coloured complete soldier just one year later, when a slightly less weary-looking infantryman made his debut at Beijing’s Millennium Art Museum. The 1.6m kneeling soldier has retained more of a fearsome look than his monochrome cohorts, with fiery eyes and a bright green face. The strange skin colour indicates he was supposed to be a non-Han fighter.

After the warrior‘s appearance, the museum’s deputy director bemoaned the overeagerness of former archaeologists at the famous mausoleum site, home to the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang. “The damage was caused partly because archaeologists cared more about how many sculptures were dredged up, than about preserving the coloured drawings on a warrior in the early phase of the excavation project on the mausoleum,” Wang Yudong told China.org.cn. “As the project went on and international exchanges became frequent, people gradually realized the significance of protecting all the information attached to cultural relics in the mid-1990s.”

The warrior has since returned home to the city of Xi’an, the ancient capital of China. There’s much more to the ‘eighth wonder of the world’ than you may think – check out Heritage Key’s own top ten facts for some things you might not have known.

Incas ‘Had Binary Language’

The lost Inca civilization of the Andes developed a seven-bit binary code using knotted string called Khipu, a leading American anthropologist argues. If true, the relics would have invented binary language around 500 years before the invention of the computer. The coloured textiles could have provided thousands of language permutations; around the same as the Sumerian cuneiform of 1,500 to 1,000 BC, according to Harvard University professor Gary Urton. The pre-Columbian expert’s findings could shatter the long-held belief that the enigmatic Incas, who were destroyed when the Spanish conquistadors garrotted last ruler Atahualpa in 1533, are the only Bronze Age culture without writing. Khipus have been thought to illicit information since 1923, when science historian L. Leland Locke claimed their coloured knots were used as abacuses. However, Locke’s findings only examined a tiny proportion of the 600 khipu in existence today, and Urton believes Locke to have deciphered less than half of the information on them. Urton announced his theory in 2003 – a year after beginning his Khipu Database Project, which aims to provide the world with a centralised repository of the mysterious pendants.

“Khipu were much more than mnemonic devices.”

“The most convincing evidence for this three-dimensional writing system is the khipu,” Urton tells Discovery News. “Their complexity would have been unnecessary if they were just mnemonic devices understood only by their makers.” Urton’s findings are based upon the seven different binary choices in making khipu. These include type of material (cotton or wool); direction of the knot; length of string; details on the knots and so on. A standard seven-bit code would effect 128 possibilities, but Urton believes the 24 different colours used boosts the total to 1,536 outcomes. This rivals early cuneiform, and is double that of Egyptian and Maya hieroglyphs. What Urton now needs is what he calls a ‘Rosetta khipu’, after the Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, from which experts decoded the Egyptian language. “We have a sizeable number of khipu, and we have about a dozen documents that are written up from the khipu,” Urton adds. “What we don’t have yet is a match between a document and a khipu.” Bologna University pre-Columbian scholar Laura Laurencich-Minelli agrees in part with Urton’s assumptions. “Certainly, khipu were much more than mnemonic devices,” she says. Pre-Columbian American is sure to be grabbing more headlines in the near future, as the British Museum launches its ‘Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler‘ exhibition on September 24.