New research suggests some of Egypt’s most famous ancient temples charted the heavens in much the same way as Stonehenge, with many built to align with various stars as well as the sun and moon. One of the country’s most recognisable landmarks, Luxor‘s Karnak Temple, was constructed so that New Year coincided with the midwinter sun hitting its central sanctuary. An article in New Scientist reports that Many of the temples, some dating back as far as 3,000 years, would have been precisely aligned so that their people could set agricultural, political and religious calendars by them. Experts have long…
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Exciting news for fans of HBO’s Rome series: it looks like a film is currently in development, with script writer Bruno Heller penning the project. The film, whose working title is Bona Dea, is due to start filming in Summer 2010 and is scheduled for release in 2011. For those of you who remember Vorenus, played by Kevin McKidd, on his deathbed at the end of the last series, the good news is that the stalwart centurion is already being written into the script for the new film. In an interview given to Associated Press, now on youtube, McKidd explains…
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It’s a question that’s bamboozled archaeologists for centuries – just where did the Moai of Easter Island get those big red hats? The answer, two British experts have claimed this week, is one of sacred quarries, iconic top-knots and volcanic highways. Sounds a bit too far-fetched for reality? Bear in mind these are the thousand-plus statues which line the world’s remotest inhabited island, in a corner of Polynesia not even touched by Europeans until the eighteenth century, and the truth may seem a little easier to stomach. The University of Manchester’s Colin Richards and Sue Hamilton from University College London…
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The Heritage Key office may be bristling with excitement at the prospect of our own Virtual Stonehenge – the progress of which you can see right here each week.. errr.. starting next week. But the anticipation has clearly proved too much for this online architect, who thought he’d have a go at the megalithic masterpiece himself. Andreas Trunk’s Stonehenge reconstruction is the first in a series exploring circular buildings of the ancient world, the next being Delphi’s famous Marmaria, and we reckon this is a pretty good first shot. Taking the stones as they are today, Trunk attempts to explain…
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A century-old case may have been closed – DNA evidence appears to show Europe’s first farmers were not related to their hunter-gatherer forebears. Teams from the University of Mainz, Cambridge University and University College London have been comparing the genetic make-up of central and northern European hunter-gatherers with ancient farmers and even today’s central Europeans. Their results show that hunter-gatherers share very little of their DNA with the farmers, and just 18 per cent with modern Europeans. Though relatively muted in comparison with other recent finds, the research provides the answer to a question that has mystified thinkers for over…
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The Golden Mask of King Tutankhamun may just be the most stunning artefact from ancient times that archaeologists have ever excavated. The fact that King Tut was a mere minor Pharaoh leaves the funerary gifts offered to the great ones up to our imagination, insofar as imagining such splendour and richness both in value and craftsmanship. As the golden death mask is too fragile to travel, there is no way to see the famous mask unless you travel to Cairo – or is there? The closest you’ll get to experiencing the real thing online is a collection of amazingly detailed…
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The designation KV is part of the naming convention used for tombs in the Valley of the Kingsinthe necropolis across the Nile from Luxor. Tombs discovered in the Kings Valley are given a KV number, in the order of their discovery, and tombs found in the West Valley receive a WV number. The most recent royal tomb, KV62, is that of King Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. So why do we skip from KV62 to KV64? That can be chalked up to an embarrassing lesson on how early one should summon the international press, detailed below. The story…
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Lord Byron has been described as “mad, bad, and dangerous to know”, but there is an other reason – besides his regular escapades – why the British may have deemed this famous poet to be ‘wicked’. Byron was a bitter opponent of Lord Elgin’s removal of the Parthenon marbles from Greece, and “reacted with fury” when Elgin’s agent gave him a tour of the Parthenon, during which he saw the missing friezes and metopes. He penned a poem, the Curse of Minerva, to denounce Elgin’s actions. Although Byron never intended to publish this poem, a copy was stolen from him…
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A team of archaeologists using sonar technology to scan the seabed have discovered a graveyard of five pristine ancient Roman shipwrecks off the small Italian island of Ventotene. The trading vessels, dating from the first century BC to the fifth century AD, lie more than 100 meters underwater and are amongst the deepest wrecks discovered in the Mediterranean in recent years. Part of an archipelago situated halfway between Rome and Naples on Italys west coast, Ventotene historically served as a place of shelter during rough weather in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The ships appear to have been heading for safe anchorage,…
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Digital Digging – run by Henry Rothwell – is a resource for anyone with an interest in archaeology, history, cartography and … digital reconstructions! Digital Digging’s ‘Model Room’ is where they store their virtual reconstructions, created especially for you to explore yourself using Google Earth. It holds a selection of the timber and stone circles of Wessex and Somerset, including Durrington Walls South Circle, Woodhenge, Stanton Drew and the Sanctuary at Avebury. You can look at the image page of each reconstruction or download the associated .kmz file and download the model into Google Earth, where you can get inside…