French archaeologistDr Alain Zivie, Director of Research at the French National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS), has devoted many years to investigating the 18th dynasty rock-cut tomb of Aper-el an Egyptian New Kingdom high priest and vizier from the Amarna Period, who served both Amenhotep III and the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten. Zivie discovered it at Saqqara in 1987. In an exclusive video interview, shot by Nico Piazza, he shows Heritage Key some of the abundant treasures hes found there. As Zivie explains, since the tomb which dates from the latter part of the 18th Dynasty, around 1353-1335 BC is so…
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For the first time ever, a major Australian brand has used an ancient indigenous language as part of a mainstream marketing campaign. For a taste of how Australians sounded tens of thousands of years ago, check out the new Qantas ad screening down under. The ad sees 13-year-old Tyus Arndt sing the first verse of Peter Allens famous I Still Call Australia Home in the ancient dialect Kala Lagaw Ya, which is still spoken in the Torres Strait Islands. Tyus and his fellow choristers from the Gondwana National Indigenous Childrens Choir, the Australian Girls Choir and the National Boys Choir…
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In a bid to bring more tourists to the town of Tiwanaku – some 64km north of Bolivia’s capital La Paz – the Bolivian Andes town put at risk it’s UNWorld Heritage Site status, and even put their Akapana Pyramid in the danger of collapse. They restored their pyramid with adobe – a clay mixture – instead of stone in what some experts are calling a renovation fiasco. Jose Luis Paz, appointed to assess the damage at the heritage site, told CourierMail the that the state National Archaeology Union erred in choosing to rebuild the pyramid using adobe, when it…
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Ancient choices made by Egyptians digging burial tombs may have led to today’s problems with damage and curation of these precious archaeological treasures, but photography and detailed geological mapping should help curators protect the sites, according to a Penn State researcher. “Previously, I noticed that some tomb entrances in the Valley of Kings, Luxor, Egypt, were aligned on fracture traces and their zones of fracture concentration,” said Katarin A. Parizek, instructor in digital photography, department of integrative arts. “From my observations, it seems that tomb builders may have intentionally exploited these avenues of less resistant limestone when creating tombs.” Fracture…
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Theyve faced bombs, the Taliban and civil war, and now Afghanistans ancient treasures have a new challenge a Canadian museum strike. This Friday, the exhibit, Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, will be making its next stop in Ottawa Canada. As Heritage Keys Helen Atkinson writes, it features treasures from Afghanistans history that have survived the turmoil the country has faced for the past three decades. In Ottawa the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where it will be displayed, has been experiencing a strike by more than 400 of its workers, including guides and educational staff. They walked off the…
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At the corner of Bloor and Queens Park a security guard uses a blow-horn to yell out a warning the line-up to see the Ten Commandments is very long and theres no guarantee you will get to see it. For those who dont have a membership at the Royal Ontario Museum, but want to see the commandments anyways, the line starts here, at this Toronto street intersection. Despite asizable lobby the museum simply isnt big enough to contain the people who want to buy a ticket this Saturday afternoon (Oct. 17). I get to skip this particular line since I…
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American archaeologist specialising in cultural resource management Tom King is an American archaeologist who has gone beyond archaeology to practice in, and preach about, the evolving field of heritage or cultural resource management. His career includes the conduct of archaeological research in California and the Micronesian islands, management of academy-based and private cultural resource consulting organisations, helping establish government historic preservation systems in the freely associated states of Micronesia, oversight of US government project review for the federal government’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, service as a litigant and expert witness in heritage-related lawsuits, and extensive work as a consultant…
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by Wild-Dream Films History Channel (2009) The producers of an upcoming film for the History Channel – Sex in the Ancient World – Egyptian Erotica – claim they’ve recreated the world’s ‘earliest pornography’ – based on erotic Egyptian hieroglyphics. The hieroglyphics in question, held in the Museo Egizio in Turin, are known as the Turin Erotic Papyrus and were discovered at Deir el-Medina near the Valley of the Kings. The parchments in question are fragmented, so the film production company used computer graphics to ‘complete’ the images and – in the words of Sion Hughes, head of business affairs at…
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The Neues Museum re-establishes itself as one of the premier ancient world destination in Europe–and the world really– after being closed since 1939. The collection combined with the restored/re-imagined building delivers an experience that every real ancient world explorer needs to embrace. You need to get straight to the Main Stairs to start your exploration of the Neues. Feel the vibrations of history from the not so old Soviet bullet holes that still pepper the structural walls nearest the windows to the romanesque columns and classical castings from the Parthenon. Use the modern stairs to transport yourself across time and…
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Attribution: World Monuments Fund Batticaloa Sri Lanka Key Dates A Buddhist stupa and shatra from the Ruhuna Kingdom date back to the 1st Century BC. The Dutch developed a fort there in 1628. It was damaged in the 2004 tsunami. The Fort of Batticaloa is on a small island on the east coast of Sri Lanka, 69 miles south by south east of Trincomalee. Its local name is Mada Kalapuwa, which means “muddy lagoon” in Sinhala, after the inland lagoon over which it looks. Although the site gets its name from a Dutch settlement built there in 1628, it has…