It’s the month of love, as our wealth of Valentine’s-inspired articles and contests testify (including dinner at Stonehenge Virtual and the top ten ancient romances), so from the murky history of theLondon Stone, we’ve delved into the mucky world of love and sex in the ancient world. A quick glance on the net will show you February has been linked with love since the Classical Period: Lupercalia, celebrated from the 13th to 15th, hailed fertility – while Gamelion worshipped the marriage of Zeus and Hera. But there’s a seedier side to Greco-Roman relations. And if you’ve ever seen the erotic…
-
-
I’m so old I’ve lost my Marbles a little bit. Not unlike Greece in that respect…I can’t remember my own age. There aren’t really any records of me pre middle ages, yet you humans think I’m Roman!” Maybe the stone was punch-drunk 2,000 years back, by being beaten into shape by Trojan hero Brutus. “Brutus? Well, the chap was mythical yet I’m very much here. But I do like the legend.”When you’re talking to a famous stone, an obvious question to ask (other than ‘why am I talking to a stone?’) is what it makes of its more famous rocky…
-
Ever thought you’d been speaking to a brick wall day? Well now’s your chance to try it out for real, as we hook up with the London Stone on Twitter on Monday for what promises to be the masonry equivalent to Frost vs Nixon. And though you can get a huge dose of the stone’s history in our inaugural Ancient World in London video, this is a web event not to be missed. Learn all about one of London’s weirdest treasures at 7pm Monday! As arbiters of ancient info, Heritage Key has managed to bypass the artefact’s hefty entourage for…
-
The Ancient World in London is in full swing: we’ve got events, competitions, quests, articles and interviews going up by the day, packing your lucky brains with fascinating info and exciting adventures. And hot on the heels of all this is the Ancient World in London video series, the first episode of which you can see right here, right now. Each video will feature amazing places, strange artefacts and intriguing experts – as we take our three intrepid explorers on no fewer than 25 adventures in and around the capital. We’ll be meeting mysterious druid priests, famous historians and avid…
-
When you think of King Tut, do you see a young boy, struggling with the enormity of his power; a slender adolescent in control of the world’s greatest empire? Of course not, because you’re like me: you see the magnificent death mask, the coffins, shrines, shabtis, daggers, beds, decrepit mummy(with or without penis) et al. We ancient world-lovers are just magpies with laptops really. But do you ever wonder why, when Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvonburst into the tomb in 1922, they could see so many ‘wonderful things’? Why wasn’t Tutankhamun’s funerary procession made ancient swag, like those of nearly…
-
Last week we told the first part of the story of Lord Carnarvon, one of Britain’s greatest explorers: his love of cars, planes, travel, and – most importantly – his obsessive passion for finding Tutankhamun‘s treasures. But what became of the cavalier adventurer, and why is there not a single one of his finds in Britain? By the time Carter and Carnarvon had broken into the tomb of Tutankhaum, Carnarvon was already a frail man. His leg badly disfigured in a car accident in Germany, the aristocrat had only originally come to Egypt on his doctor’s advice, to escape the…
-
“There’s a passing on of knowledge for over 1,500 years spanning the whole Bronze Age, between our Stone Age ancestors who built Stonehenge and our Druid ancestors who wrote down folklore that we now take from Ireland, Scotland and Wales,” says Stonehenge Druid Frank Somers. “And that means that folklore has earlier origins going right back.” We’re stood outside a stately Wiltshire manor on a blustery winter’s morning, self apparent in the unruliness of Frank’s flowing locks. Barely yards away lies Bluestonehenge, a stone circle even older than Stonehenge itself: 2009’s biggest discovery. But Frank sees it more than an…
-
“There is a bit of an Indiana Jones style to that portrait of my great-grandfather, and it rather sums up his character.” George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon looks up at the image of his namesake forebear admiringly. A dashing 5th Earl of Carnarvon looks playfully down the barrel of a cigarette, rogueish grin etched upon his face. No wonder he’s smiling: George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon is an archaeological legend – the man who alongside Howard Carter unlocked the 3,200-year-old secrets of Tutankhamun, Egypt’s boy-king. Adventure, it seemed, was in Carnarvon’s blood. Born into immense…
-
The Arabian peninsula has been suffering recently. Yemen has been accused of harbouring terrorists by the West, and the gargantuan Burj Tower in Dubai was unveiled last week amid a haze of economic uncertainty. Yettiny Qatar, an outcropwith a population barely toppingone million,continues to buck its diminutive stature with world-beating business and heady ambitions. And the Museum of Islamic Art in capital city Doha may just be Qatar’s most impressive structure. In this Heritage Key video, Museum Director Dr Oliver Watson shows us some of the treasures of the museum, and explains the far-reaching importance of Islamic art. The striking…
-
Two large tombs have been discovered at the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara – one of which is the largest ever found at the site. The 26th Dynasty tombs, likely robbed during the Roman era, are nonetheless filled with important arefacts including coffins, skeletons, pottery and mummified eagles. The tombs, discovered by an Egyptian archaeological mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities, are at the Ras El Gisr area of Saqqara, near the landmark’s entrance. Both tombs are cut into the hills of the region: the larger first tomb is hewn from limestone while the other is mud-brick. The larger…