• world

    Capturing Images Worth a Thousand Words: A Practical Guide to Museum and Heritage Site Photography

    I have been interested in history since I was a child and love to share my interest through my photography. Over the years, I have shot thousands of pictures of historical art and architecture at archaeological sites and in museum galleries around the world and uploaded them to Flickr for other history enthusiasts, teachers, and researchers to enjoy and use in their educational activities.  If you would like to do the same, you may find some of the following tips helpful. Photography in Museums and Galleries Many museums allow photography of artwork in their permanent collections.  However, few museums permit…

  • owenjarus

    Surprise Findings From Toronto’s Egypt Symposium

    The Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, and the Royal Ontario Museum,kicked off a three day symposium in Toronto. Im going to be filing more detailed blogs at the end, once I have the time to do a proper write-up of all the research. For now here are some news-briefs that I want to fill you in on. –The Seila Pyramid is flat! No it is not a step pyramid. It is a true pyramid. Professor Kerry Muhlestein of Brigham Young University, presented the latest research. A team of engineers, using GPS equipment, completed a3D model of the pyramid…

  • sean-williams

    The Ashmolean Museum’s Top Five Treasures

    The oldest museum in the world, opens its doors to the public after a mammoth five-year revamp tomorrow. And the curators of Oxford’s famous Ashmolean will be hoping a new 61million building will help visitors enjoy and understand an envious collection of artefacts from the cradle of civilisation onwards. The collection certainly has an esteemed pedigree, having been added to by archaeological greats like Arthur Evans, discoverer of the Palace of Knossos in Crete. So on the eve of one of its biggest days, what are the Ashmolean’s best objects? 1. The Jericho Skull This skull, from 7,000 BC Jericho…

  • sean-williams

    Ashmolean, World’s Oldest Museum, Reopening this Weekend

    The oldest museum in the world reopens its doors tomorrow, after a mammoth five-year revamp. Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum has enjoyed a 61million cash injection into its ageing building, recasting all but its Victorian Cockerell building facade. Rick Mather’s new creation allows the museum’s myriad treasures much more space, adding 39 galleries and 10,000sq metres of exhibition space. The museum, founded in 1683, has been closed to the public since December last year, as the final pieces have been put in place. Funding has come from a number of high-profile sources, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, Linbury Trust (Lord Sainsbury’s charity)…

  • bija-knowles

    Test Your DNA as Part of National Geographic and IBM’s Unique Genographic Project

    When it comes to our roots, most of us think we know where our early ancestors came from the continent if not the country. Most people have clear ideas on their nationality and they see it as a defining part of themselves and their identity. The Genographic Project, launched by National Geographic, IBM and scientist Dr Spencer Wells, seeks to challenge what we think we know about our very distant past – and our very notions of who we are. Studies of DNA have suggested that all humans today are descended from one group of ancestors who lived about 60,000…

  • owenjarus

    Three Day Egypt Symposium Hits Toronto Today

    Athree day Egyptian symposium starts, in Toronto,in a matter of hours. The Scholars’ Symposium (or Scholars’ Colloquium) is curated by The Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities (SSEA), and brings together a stella lineup of speakers. Todays session will be at the Royal Ontario Museum, and tommorows will focus on Egypt and the Bible and willbe held on the University of Toronto campus. The temperature is hovering at around 0 degrees celcius – not exactly what you would find at Giza! As I talked about in previous posts an update on research in the Sinai desert and at the…

  • meral-crifasi

    Virtual King Tut Flickr Photo Contest

    Both photos taken by Prad Prathivi at Heritage Key King Tut Virtual We want to see your best high resolution photos taken in King Tut Virtual, and will reward the most sublime shots with non-virtual cash. King Tut Virtual is part of the Heritage Key Grid – running on OpenSim with some extra magic added to it – and shows ancient Egypt, the Valley of the Kings and the treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb. It is easy to register and have a look at what we have created, an area well worth of ‘snapshotting’. Taking good, quality, high-resolution photographs anywhere in…

  • charlotte-booth

    Framing the Archaeologist Exhibition at the Petrie Museum, UCL

    Amidst the charming Victorian cases of jewellery along the walls of the larger room in the Petrie Museum is the Framing the Archaeologist exhibition (follow their blog here); a series of framed photographs from 1880 1900 categorised into excavation sites of Petrie; Giza 1800-1883, Delta sites 1883-86, and Al Arabar Al Madfunda (Abydos) 1899-1900. Each framed image is accompanied by a quote from a contemporary report or letter, giving some insight into the people depicted and their activities. One of the first pictures in the exhibition is the fabulous image of a young Petrie leaning casually against the wall of…

  • helen-atkinson

    Interview: Barbara Racker on Neighbourly Relations Between Nubia and Egypt

    The Nubians get short shrift when it comes to recognition of significant ancient cultures. A new exhibition at the Clay Center in West Virginia, US, hopes to rectify that. It is cleverly entitled: Lost Kingdoms of the Nile, but the artefacts are all Nubian, not Egyptian. (The subtitle is: Nubian Treasures from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.) The exhibition runs from Sept. 12, 2009 to April 11, 2010. Part of the problem for the Nubians, of course, is the rock-star quality of their neighbors, the Ancient Egyptians, who persistently dominate the imaginative landscape when it comes to ancient things.…

  • veigapaula

    Archaeovideo: Digging in the Nile – Underwater Archaeology in Egypt

    Ever wondered what ancient histories might be waiting to be discovered underwater, or dreamed about diving in the Nile and looking for treasures? Well, check out this new video from Heritage Key, featuring Dr. Hawass and teams of Egyptian divers excavating underwater relics near Aswan, Egypt. Experience almost first-hand that feeling of adventure that surrounds Zahi Hawass and his team as they search in the greenish basin of the Nile for precious items. The success of Mediterranean underwater archaeology has led divers and Egyptologists to re-consider the the Nile as an attractive archaeological site. Already, the river has yielded some…