Category: sean-williams - Part 7

Torah without the Bora: The Living Torah Museum, New York

The likes of the British Museum, Louvre and Metropolitan may get the lion’s share of publicity, artefacts and controversy, but small museums are the staple of any dedicated culture lover. And while meandering through the interweb I came across Brooklyn’s Living Torah Museum, one of New York’s quaintest collections.

While its illustrious downtown neighbours are afforded giant beaux arts buildings, the Living Torah Museum is in a private home in Borough Park, 1601 41st Street. Its surroundings may not be as epic as most museums, but its collection is not to be sniffed at: since its inception curator Rabbi Shimon Deutsch has amassed over 900 artefacts worth a combined $14m (9.1m).

Its surroundings might not be epic, but it boasts a fearsome collection

Among the items, astonishingly, is the oldest copy of the Ten Commandments in the world, dating back around 2,500 years. Ancient pottery from the times of King Hezekiah and a 3,500-year-old toy chariot are other highlights. In total the collection is divided into four sections: ‘Torah Times’; ‘Talmud Times’; ’39 Melahos’ and ‘Great Torah Personalities’. Rabbi Deutsch also frequently gives lectures on the history of the Jewish faith.

The vast majority of visitors to the museum are Jewish, but its collection alone is impressive enough for anyone interested in biblical history – and according to the Biblical Archaeology Review it’s the only museum in the US solely dedicated to the archaeological history of the sacred text. It’s certainly a hidden gem, something we’re constantly finding during our Ancient World in London video series – places like the Maunsell Sea Forts and the Petrie Museum. If anyone has visited the Living Torah Museum, let me know !

Ancient Astronomy: The Mad Greek Myth of the Milky Way

According to Thesaurus.com, ‘moo-juice’ is a valid synonym for milk, a term soon to enter my local pub’s lexicon. I was trying to find something snappy for the title of this blog, on one of the best ancient myths I’ve ever heard. ‘Mad’ will do.

Our next Ancient World in London video homes in on ancient astronomy, featuring famed astronomer Paul Murdin. Paul gave a special HKlecture on his book Secrets of the Universe last month, catching up with me afterwards for a chat on camera. And while the 25,000-year-old Ishango Bone might just be my favourite-ever ancient artefact, a certain Graeco-Roman myth Paul mentioned is up there with the best, like the tale of Horus and Seth we discovered at the Petrie Museum.

How we and our galaxy came to be is one of the simplest and earliest questions. Today we’ve got the Big Bang, but over two thousand years ago the world’s first democracy had a more colourful way of seeing creation.

It’s a common problem: you’re a god, your son was born to a mortal and you need him made immortal

It’s a common problem: you’re a god, your son was born to a mortal and you need him made immortal. This was the issue facing Jupiter, god of the sky and thunder, and his son Hercules. What could Jupiter do? The only thing he could do, clearly, and have his son suckle on the breast of his wife Juno. While she was asleep. An uphill task but Jupiter managed it, having Hera become the world’s most unwitting wet nurse.

Yet Jupiter’s plan took a celestial twist when some of Hera’s breast milk spurted out into the sky, creating the Milky Way: there must have been some pressure on that breast. A great story, right? The irony is that for all we know about the outer limits of the galaxy today it might as well be true. There’s much more to the video than moo-juice, though: check it out to find out some of Stonehenge’s deepest secrets.

The Ishango Bone – The World’s Greatest Ancient Artefact?

While creating the next instalment of our Ancient World in London video series on ancient astronomy, we came across an odd little artefact called the Ishango Bone. Exotic-sounding, it’s little more than a knobbled baboon’s fibula, but the 25,000-year-old notches along its length are much more than a caveman’s conquests.

Discovered in the then-Belgian Congo by Jean Heinzelin de Braucourt in 1960, the bone was first thought to be around 10,000 years old. Yet later tests pushed its date back another 15,000 years, around 20 millennia before the first-ever civilizations sprang from the Middle East. Today it remains on display at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels.

“This person was making astronomical observations 25,000 years ago.”

But what makes the Ishango Bone so special is that it might be the world’s oldest astronomical record. Or so thinks famed astronomer Paul Murdin, who told me after a Heritage Key talk on his latest book Secrets of the Universe(read a review here). “It’s thought that the lengths of the scratches represent the phases of the moon,” said Paul. “As the moon gets bigger, the scratches get larger until the full moon.

“Maybe the owner was a woman who was keeping track of her menstrual cycle, but this person was making astronomical observations 25,000 years ago,” Paul adds. It’s amazing to think of the people all those unimaginable years back, gazing at the sky with the same wonder we all do now.

The Ishango Bone might just be the greatest ancient artefact in the world – greater, even, than the Golden Death Mask of Tutankhamun. It connects us to our ancient ancestors so much simpler than other relics, because it typifies a primal thirst for knowledge we all still cling onto today. Look out for our video on ancient astronomy this week and see if you agree – we’ll also be discovering Stonehenge’s best-kept secrets.

AWiL Video Series: Defending London – Richborough, Maunsell Seaforts, Thames Barrier & Tower of London

London is under attack! But don’t be alarmed, this is no April Fool: London’s always been under attack. For over two thousand years the city has been invaded, burnt, bridged and bombed. But while Boudicca, Caesar, Cnut and Hitler have been some of the city’s biggest enemies, today it’s the turn of climate change to have London scrambling her defences with the impressive Thames Barrier.

Today the barrier’s iconic row of ‘sandals’ protect over a million Londoners from the perils of El Nio. But it’s just one of the places we visited as part of our defences tour down the Thames, a 12-hour trip from the edge of the North Sea to the heart of ancient London.

The Maunsell Sea Forts might just be the Second World War’s best-kept secret. Sprouting out of the Thames Estuary some six to 12 miles offshore, the extraterrestrial towers are among the city’s oddest sights. From 1942 until the end of the war men stationed on them shot down 22 German aircraft and over 30 doodlebug rockets, saving countless lives from the relentless terror of Blitzkrieg.

Today the forts’ future hangs in the balance, having been abandoned since the ’60s, when they were used as pirate radio stations. It’d be a tragedy to lose such a unique episode in British history, especially as the forts were pivotal in the making of modern oil rigs. You can help save the forts by visiting Project Redsand’s homepage.

If London was under attack, what would you save from destruction?

But London was defended thousands of years before the Nazis rained down on its skies. Richborough, on the Kent coast, is largely thought to be the site of Emperor Claudius’s 43AD invasion, who galvanised his new frontier as he strode toward the Thames. Roman London would take until 200AD to get its own defensive wall, a full 140 years afterBoudicca tore through the city with her Celtic rebels. Today the wall still stands in fits and starts around the capital, though the only Celts to defend from nowadays are Rangers fans and Daniel O’ Donnell.

At the end of our trip stands one of London’s most iconic landmarks. Built almost a thousand years after the Roman wall, the Tower of London still looms fiercely over the river, its central White Tower a masterpiece of Norman architecture. But as William the Conqueror took hold of England following his famous victory at Hastings in 1066, he built the Tower to fend off his own people rather than outside aggressors.

“The castle, really, is a place where the military aristocracy can protect themselves,” says expert Eljas Oksanen. “It very much secured an iconic royal presence in this potentially rebellious Anglo-Saxon city.” Makes the massive queues to get in a little ironic, don’t you think?

HD Video: Episode 9 – London’s Defences

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Learn more about the bloody battles and defences of London with our other great Ancient World in London videos. Get involved in bloggers’ challenges, real-world events like our pub quiz or just learn more about the city’s ancient past. Heritage Key – Unlock the Wonders.

AWiL Video Series: Stonehenge Spring Equinox and the Druids

Each year up to 40,000 pour into Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice, banging drums, singing songs and generally having a wild time (here’s a guide on taking photographs at Stonehenge). But it’s just one of four times each year that the stone circle is open to the public, the other three being Winter Solstice and the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.

While some see it as a chance to get up close and personal to one of the world’s best-known landmarks, or just to have a party, to others Stonehenge is a spiritual centre, an ethereal round table from which to honour mother nature. I’m talking, of course, about the Druids (Watch our video with the Druids).

Say what you like about the Druids – and plenty have – Stonehenge remains the focal point for their pagan worship, which they claim has continued for millennia. Yet Spring Equinox is still a scientifically important date, being the midpoint between summer and winter. “Because the Earth leans over at a funny angle,” says Stonehenge Druid Frank Somers, “at summertime we’re leaning towards the sun, in winter we’re leaning away. Halfway between the two, there’s equinox.”

But how do pagans, druids and revellers see in the date at Stonehenge? Our day begins in darkness, as we drag ourselves out of bed at 4.30am. Much yawning and head-scratching later, we’re out on Salisbury Plain with around 4,000 others. Drums are beating and chants echo across the plain as we begin a procession through the visitor car park to the stone circle.

“Stonehenge is the epicentre of the system of ancient sacred monuments in Britain.”

Being Britain in March, there’s little chance of actually seeing the sun rise, and true to form it drizzles on our parade from start to finish; the only sign of sunrise being a shift from dark to light grey. But no matter: we’re here to investigate, and we do so by sending Nicole off to join in festivities, which largely consist of chants, blessings and eulogies. By 8.00am it is all over, English Heritage throwing us off the site to indulge in some much-needed hot chocolate. But why Stonehenge?

“It’s the most powerful place we could ever be in to celebrate equinox, really – it’s the epicentre of the whole system of ancient sacred monuments in Britain,” says Glastonbury Druid Rollo Maughfling. There’s no doubting Stonehenge has a special aura about it when you get inside the stone circle: Frank thinks it connects us all to our distant past. “There’s a connection between you today and standing in that place, to the ancestors who’ve done that right back through the millennia,” he says.

The Druids claim humanity has lost its way in recent times, focusing more on ourselves than the planet. And while we don’t need giant sarsen stones to tell which day it is any more, Frank feels Stonehenge still has a role to play in allowing us to understand the earthly traditions of our forebears: “Even though today we have TV sets and radios and iPods and phones, we like to keep the old traditions and wisdom going.” I’m not quite a pagan convert yet, but looking out of the office window on a smoggy Thursday morning, I can see the point.

HD Video: Episode 8 – Spring Equinox at Stonehenge

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Why some of King Tut’s Treasures should be in the British Museum

When I’m strolling through the British Museum’s Egyptian Sculpture Gallery taking in its ancient statues, stelae and scriptures, it’s hard not to think something’s missing. For among its rows of exotic artefacts, nothing on display relates to Egypt’s most famous king in modern times, Tutankhamun. And I think Britain deserves to have kept hold of at least some of the ancient world’s greatest pieces.

Firstly I think I need to set the record straight: I’m not some postmodern British colonialist, sipping on Pimm’s while the servants polish my Blunderbus. Tutankhamun’s discovery was made by an Englishman, funded by an Englishman and exclusively reported by the British press back in 1922. The BM historically nabbed a lion’s share of treasures from adventurers like Layard and Woolley – so why couldn’t Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon bring Tut’s treasures home?

The answer, as ever, is politics. Lord Carnarvon, ever the soothing presence between an increasingly capricious Carter and the nationalist Egyptian government, died suddenly aged 56 in 1923, the victim of an infected mosquito bite. Carter continued squabbling with the Egyptians, refusing their media outlets access to the tomb, and even storming off and closing it in early 1924.

I’m not some postmodern British colonialist, sipping on Pimm’s while the servants polish my Blunderbus.

The latter indiscretion was to prove fatal for Britain and the Carnarvon estate’s chances of housing Tutankhamun’s artefacts. By closing the tomb Carter voided his original concession, and only after the British government cracked down on the increasingly nationalist Egyptian government (British soldiers would remain in Egypt until 1956) could Carter return to his baby. Yet a new concession meant the Carnarvons had to relinquish their claim to the treasures: save for exhibitions in 1972 and 2009 London has never seen the relics, almost all of which are in Cairo.

The repatriation of ancient artefacts is a hot topic, and has largely centred on the ‘Famous Five’ artefacts Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass wants back in their ancestoral home. The British Museum seems to have survived another media storm surrounding the Rosetta Stone after a Dr Hawass visit in December. But what about sending artefacts the other way? Surely as the country that bankrolled and discovered the boy-king’s tomb, Britain deserves some of his pieces on display?

Egypt claims that as the motherland it should keep its most spectacular ancient assets. I’m not about to carry on about Egypt’s modern genetic makeup compared to that of its ancient forebears:how much of a resemblance do us Brits bear to the guys who built Stonehenge almost 5,000 years ago?

The Carnarvon estate was all-but evaporated funding the Tutankhamun expedition. By the time the pharaoh was found nearly all of Carnarvon’s properties had gone and he was dead. As the present-day Lord Carnarvon confides, “There would have been no guarantee that Tutankhamun would have been discovered to this day had (Carter and Carnarvon) not found it.” 21st century cock-ups with ground-penetrating radar go some way to backing his claim.

Tutankhamun is a global phenomenon, a rock star of the ancient world, loved just as much in the US and Europe as Egypt, if not more so. Dr Hawass’ assertion that the artefacts are too frail to travel seems to fall flat when you consider his willingness to let many go if the price is right. Attendance figures for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, which has toured North America for several years, has broken visitor figures in almost every city it has been.

The Australian Museum, Sydney, were forced to pull out of the same tour after Dr Hawass demanded 10 million Australian dollars (6.1 millon). As a guardian of these global treasures, Egypt has an obligation to loan its prized assets away for extended periods, whether it’s making a profit or not.

I’m not asking for everything at once, just a recognition of Carter and Carnarvon’s exploits (not the British occupation). Before you mention, I agree the British Museum should also loan out its ancient masterpieces: the Elgin Marbles, Rosetta Stone, Assyrian Lion Hunt et al. In an age when it takes less time to send a message to New Zealand than next-door, surely we can globalise the world’s heritage? Tut’s treasures are our sparkling touchpoint into one of the world’s greatest cultures, and the world, including the country which found them, deserves a piece of that.

Boudicca, Boadicea or Queen Victoria? What to Call the Warrior Queen

“What’s in a name?” opined a portly Englishman recently, whose entire family had been handed ASBOs for verbally abusing their neighbours. This sort of stoic ignorance blights the English, much like bad hair or David Cameron, and it’s been going on for centuries.

Boudicca was a Celtic warrior queen, a bloodthirsty battle-axe who massacred her way through Colchester, London and St Albans in 60AD (see a video on Roman Colchester here). By the time she’d been defeated at the mysterious Battle of Watling Street a year later, all three cities lay in tatters, and 80,000 were dead. Not a forgettable character really, and one whose credentials as a British poster-girl have come under considerable scrutiny.

Yet so much remains unknown about Boudicca – like, for example, how she died, where she’s buried now (beneath Kings Cross station?) or the whereabouts of her epic defeat. However, I’m happy to clear up one issue right now: she’s definitely not called Boadicea.

There’s only one Iceni warrior queen, and her name’s Boudicca

“Boadicea is wrong, it should be Boudicca,” says Mark Hassall, a retired archaeologist and orator in our latest Ancient World in London video on the Iceni queen. “Manuscript readings of the Roman historians say Boudicca. But in the course of transmission the ‘u’ turned into an ‘a’, and the second ‘c’ turned into an ‘e’. So that’s why we get Bow-ah-diss-eyah.” A quick glance at the web confirms what Mark is quick to point out: Boudicca’s name comes from the Celtic word ‘bouda’, meaning ‘victory’, which means that she’s actually called Queen Victoria!

HD Video: Episode 6 – Boudicca, Warrior Queen

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Boudicca may not ring as romantically to our Latinised ears as Boadicea, and there may be a road in London called Boadicea Street, but as Wyclef Jean says, two wrongs don’t make a right. So remember: there’s only one psychopathic Celtic warrior queen in British history, and her name’s Boudicca. Incidentally what would you burn down if you were Boudicca? .

Celebrate St. Patrick’s by Visiting Loughcrew for Spring Equinox

Some of you, like us, may be visiting Stonehenge for this Saturday’s Spring Equinox celebrations (see event listing here). Yet I suspect a fair few more of you will be sinking pints of Guinness in homage to Saint Patrick tonight, staggering home wearing a green top hat which looked oh-so-cool a few hours ago.

But if you’re going to be on the Emerald Isle this weekend, why not combine the two, by visiting Loughcrew, Ireland’s best-known megalithic cairn. At the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, Loughcrew’s cairn T is bathed in light, and the sun symbols on its back chamber can be seen in their full glory.

As you can see from the picture and video here, it’s an occasion well worth watching, especially as entry to the 5,000-year-old landmark is free. Here’s a video of last year’s Spring Equinox at the site.

While we’ll be wrapping up in about every item of clothing we own to visit Stonehenge this weekend, Loughcrew’s organisers stress you’ll need warm clothes and stout shoes to safely navigate the cairn’s steep sides. Only half a dozen people will be allowed inside the cairn at one time, and visits inside will be limited to a few minutes at a time. If you’re heading off to the cairn, please – we want to see your pictures and video!

Of course if you’re not willing to freeze your proverbials off to see the sun rise over Stonehenge, or Loughcrew come to life, I wish you all a happy St. Patrick’s Day – I can’t say the same for tomorrow morning…

AWiL Video Series: Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall at the Edge of the Roman Empire

What’s 84 miles long, 1,888 years old and marked the edge of Roman rule in Britain? Hadrian’s Wall of course – and the landmark got a spectacular makeover this weekend with a line of beacons stretching its entirety. The event, named ‘Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall’, marked the 1,600th anniversary of the end of the Roman occupation in Britain, and needed no fewer than 1,100 hardy volunteers to brave the harsh winds of northern England to make it happen.

We know it’s a far cry from London – about 300 miles, in fact – but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance (make that once-in-about-250-lifetimes) to see one of Britain’s most important ancient landmarks lit up to show its true magnitude. Check out this live blog to see photos and tweets from the event.

As the sun goes down we all hop in a cab, whose driver has predictably never heard of the press area at Steel Rigg. Much confusion and several stops later, we’re up in the Cumbrian hills wishing we’d all worn an extra pair of socks. But there can’t have been a better spot from which to see the illuminations: miles of winding Roman wall snaking off into the distance, beside lakes, cliffs and…cows.

It’s a stunning sight as sun set, and we’re lucky to meet Linda Tuttiett, chief executive of Hadrian’s Wall Heritage, who are planning an eco-revamp of the site. “The Emperor Hadrian realised he needed to contain the borders of the Roman Empire,” she says. Yet the traditional view of the wall keeping out mad Picts and Brigantes, fierce Celtic warriors, may be a little too simple: “It could be that the Romans were protecting the (area’s) valuable mineral deposits…it must have been a critical part of defending the Roman Empire.”

There can’t have been a better spot: miles of winding wall snaking off into the distance, beside lakes, cliffs and…cows.

It was also home to Vindolanda, a huge Roman fortress town and home to the incredible Vindolanda Tablets – ink-written Roman postcards from the frontline that lend fascinating insight into the daily lives of the wall’s Roman residents.

With the sun disappearing over our shoulders, it’s time to put on the lights, and there’s a palpable sense of tension as we see one, then two, then three, four and five beacons lit in the distance. Helicopters whizz past us (catch aerial footage in the video) and camera flashes flood the night sky. Yet there’s a frantic few seconds on our flare as the illuminators fail to get it going straight away. Disaster soon averted, we’re all left to bask in the wall’s enormity.

Kids are running round cheering, people are drinking tea and hot chocolate (lucky) and there’s a general sense of achievement in the air. For while we might never see Hadrian’s Wall at its 2nd century might (except in reconstructions), the illuminations are a great doff of the cap to the Romans and their legacy in Britain and beyond.

We meet Matthias and Kathleen, Roman re-enactors who’ve travelled from Germany and Belgium respectively to witness the occasion – why? “It’s part of our own history,” says Kathleen. “They’re our own ancestors, so a lot of their culture has been taken by us nowadays.” It may be at the edge of England, but Hadrian’s Wall is a part of the entire world’s heritage.

HD Video: Episode 7 – Light Up!Hadrian’s Wall Illuminations

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Ancient Britain could Teach Nick Griffin’s BNP a Thing or Two

The BNP hit national headlines again last weekend, as Britain limps towards this year’s general election. After having voted to scrap their ‘whites-only’ membership policy, the far-right group introduced a measure whereby prospective members are vetted for up to two hours on whether they support the ‘integrity of the indigenous British’. We, the native British people, the party’s website valiantly claims, will be an ethnic minority in our own country within sixty years.

Thankfully Central London County Court ruled the membership move discriminatory, so Nick Griffin and his cronies will have to go back to the drawing board for another feeble attempt to drag themselves up in sheep’s clothing. But there’s something glaring I’ve found during our Ancient World in London video series Mr Griffin might want to address.

Episode 7: Hadrians Wall Illuminations

Nicole Favish takes a trip up north to see the Hadrian’s Wall Illuminations, marking 1600 years since the Romans left! Beacons, flares and torches were lit up along the length of the Roman Hadrian’s Wall, which is marked with forts, milecastles and turrets.

Nicole talks to some Roman re-enactors from Germany, and learns about the Vindalanda writing tablets, one of Britains’s most important discoveries.

Think ‘indigenous British’ and you might assume white, yet go back 2,000 years to Roman rule, and Britain was as multicultural as a Heathrow terminal. No fewer than three times in the past week have I heard ancient Britannia described as a multicultural centre; in Roman London, Fishbourne Roman Palace and Hadrian’s Wall (at this weekend’s illuminations check out the blog and video for more info).

London was a thriving trade centre following the Claudian invasions in 43AD, providing homes for foreigners as far flung as north Africa or Persia. Likewise Fishbourne was a seaport famed for Celtic client kings and a massive foreign workforce from across the empire. As the sun set on Hadrian’s Wall one organiser told me no fewer than 18,000 Roman soldiers worked on the wall, and around 15 per cent of the entire Roman army was stationed there at one point or other from all four corners of the continent and beyond. Recently at York, ancient Eboracum, evidence was found that ‘upper class’ African women made it their home during its infancy.

Did Britain’s ancient invaders and explorers not have children?

Did these ‘foreigners’ not procreate? Did they not forge cross-culture relationships and have children who themselves had children? When the Romans left in 410AD, did everyone suddenly disappear leaving ‘indigenous’ Celtic tribes to repopulate entirely?

And when the Saxons arrived from modern-day Germany and Denmark did they send all their kids back across the North Sea? What about the Scandinavian Vikings? Or the French Normans? Didn’t those cultures not assimilate dozens if not more other cultures into their own long before they reached Britain’s shores? Read Jonathan’s excellent blog on Britain’s DNA here.

I’m labouring the point, but how can one possibly preach about the rights of ‘indigenous Britons’ when this island has been explored and invaded more times than Jordan’s dignity? At what date does Mr Griffin draw the line? Will he be giving tax breaks to Italians or Scandinavians? I somehow doubt it. Ancient Britain, and London, was a humming nerve centre, where the synapses of the world flashed and banged to create a wonderful nation.

One of Britain’s greatest assets is its multiculturalism, but sadly some people choose to blame the country’s ills on immigration. Great writer Daniel Defoe summed up the situation best in his 1703 work The True-Born Englishman:

What were the English that they should make a mock of foreigners? They were the most mongrel race that ever lived upon the face of the earth. There was no such thing as a true-born Englishman.

Check out our Ancient World in London video chronicling the Illuminating Hadrian’s Wall event. You can keep up-to-date with all our quests, contests and events on the Ancient World in London homepage.