About a mile away from Stonehenge, at the end of the ‘Avenue’ that connects it to the River Avon, archaeologists have discovered a smaller prehistoric site, named – appropriately, after the colour of the 27 Welsh stones it was made of – Bluehenge. The newly discovered stone circle is thought to have been put up 5,000 years ago – which is around the same time work on Stonehenge began – and appears to be a miniature version of it. The two circles stood together for hundreds of years before Bluehenge was dismantled. Researchers believe its stones were used to enlarge…
-
-
Other than Stonehenge and the newly discovered Bluehenge, there are other henges across the lenght and breath of Great Britain, as Ann Morgan explained in her post a couple of months back. What does it take to be a Henge?Henges are at least 20 metres across in size, and have a single raised bank with one, two or four entrances set in strategic positions. Usually in a flat, circular or oval shape, excavations have revealed pottery and bones, fuelling speculation of ancestor worship (or travel by GPS, but that’s a whole other story). Interesting to note is that Stonehenge is…
-
This week China celebrated the 2,560 birthday of Confucius. And soon, the famous philosopher will also have his own film. Titled Confucius, the movie will star Chow Yun-Fat as the famed Chinese thinker. Last month, a trailer for the film was released, with the movie set to premiere early next year. Living from 551 to 479 BC, Confucius is renowned for his philosophies on morality and values. These ideas have shaped Chinese society and governance through the millennia, while also influencing other countries across Asia. News articles, however, have noted a recent resurgence of the scholar in China, after his…
-
One of the largest oracle bones ever found will be feature in a rare exhibition of the bones at the National Library of China in Beijing. Long before satellite imaging and Doppler radar came along, using a cow bone was once seen as a dependable way to predict the weather. More than 3,000 years ago, kings in China relied on such animal bones to foretell future events. Through the ages, fragments of these oracle bones have survived, offering archaeologists early glimpses into the countrys history, as well as its writing system. Storing about a quarter of the discovered oracle bones…
-
The discovery of a unique amphitheatre and other structures at Rome’s ancient maritime port is putting the archaeological site of Portus on the map. For decades it’s been a much over-looked site next to Fiumicino’s international runway and scholarly attention has focused on neighbouring Ostia Antica, but experts now believe it is a unique site that should rank alongside monuments such as Stonehenge or Angkor Wat. I spoke to Professor Simon Keay, director of the Portus Project and leading expert in Roman archaeology at the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome about the findings of the excavation,…
-
Attribution: _oriana.italy_ Moscow Russia Key Dates The museum opened on May 31, 1912. On May 31, 1923, the museum ceased to be a subordinate of the University of Moscow. In 1937 it got its current name. Key People Alexander Pushkin, the poet after whom the museum was named. professor Ivan Tsvetaev founded the museum. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, which incidentally has no ties whatsoever to the famous poet after whom it is named, is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, Russia. Since its inception in 1912 it has been one of the country’s foremost exhibitors of…
-
A handful of shallow caves near Summer Lake, a large alkali bed in south central Oregon, have yielded human remains in the form of coprolites (fossilized feces) that return carbon dates of between 12,750 and 14,340 calendar years before present (y.b.p.). This finding appears to finally wield a death blow to the “Clovis first” school of thought that has ruled the chronology of settlement of the Americas since the mid-20th century. Looking out across the arid sagebrush-dotted landscape of southeastern Oregon – referred to as “the empty quarter” by some – makes a person wonder if there’s anyone really out…
-
Horrible Histories is a fascinating series of books for children, covering all such niceties as the Rotten Romans, the Savage Stone Age, and of course the err… Awful Egyptians. With over 20 million copies sold, the series was that much a success, that the CBBCturned it into into a series, which might just be even more horribly original than the books. The Tudors and Victorians were that popular they got their own theatre show and the Ruthless Romans made it into a computer game, available for PC, Wii and Nintendo. And then there’s the Terrible Treasures game online, which enlightens…
-
There are over 800 tombs in the Theban Necropolis, scattered across the hills of El Qurna. Only a handful of their decorations has survived centuries of floods, storms and decay – and of course the destructive effects of man. At present, around a dozen tombs are open to the public. The others can only be accessed for research purposes by applying for a permit. Many of these have not been opened for years, and are now completely covered in a thin layer of dust. To begin, I have made surveys of all these tombs, to check the state of conservation…
-
The Roman walls of Chester are being restored by a team of the city’s archaeologists. A section up to 30m long collapsed in April 2008 and has been closed to visitors ever since. According to Cheshire West and Chester Council, piecing the wall together could take up to one year, but in the meanwhile visitors can watch the archaeologists at work from a temporary walkway. The rebuilding of the wall should be quite ‘authentic’ the project team, including specialists from English Heritage as well as other specialists, has researched Roman wall-building techniques and hope to reconstruct something faithful to the…