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…
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Ancient Egypt has provided the inspiration for a whole host of screen hits over the years, from the good (Cleopatra and Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) to the bad (The Mummy, installments one through three), to the downright very bad (I Was A Teenage Mummy!). Among the most celebrated fictional tales set in the age of the pyramids is Giuseppe Verdis opera Aida, which was adapted into a hugely successful rock opera by Elton John and Tim Rice in association with Disney in 1998. Rumours are circulating that a long-threatened Disney big-screen adaptation of the story…
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Stanford photo scientists are out to reinvent digital photography with the introduction of an open-source digital camera, which will give programmers around the world the chance to create software that will teach cameras new tricks.If the technology catches on, camera performance will be no longer be limited by the software that comes pre-installed by the manufacturer. Virtually all the features of the Stanford camera focus, exposure, shutter speed, flash, etc. are at the command of software that can be created by inspired programmers anywhere. The premise of the project is to build a camera that is open source, said computer…
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Are you a huge fan of the pyramids? Read all the books, got the t-shirt, watched The Mummy too many times to know (it had better be the original)? Contemplate running away from home because you never got any Egypt-based toys for Christmas? Well worry no more, for long-running kids’ stalwarts Playmobil have come up with their latest incarnation: the sparkling new Egypt range. Ever wondered what was between the Great Sphinx‘s legs? What about the catacombs of Khufu‘s Pyramid? Playmobil have got all these bases well and truly covered with the toys, though Dr Hawass might have something to…
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There are only five day left if you want to see the mysteries of the mummies come to life on the big screen – Mummies: The Secrets of the Pharaohs ends its two-year run at IMAXcinemas across the world next Monday. But you won’t just want to see it for the breath-taking sights, epic storyline and endless line of experts – the film stars none other than our favourite Egyptologist, Dr Zahi Hawass! The antiquities chief gives his best Indiana Jones impression, as the illustrious movie takes viewers on a technicolour tale through in time. First they can see the…
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It’s a sombre tale; one of death, disease and live burial. But the body of a man found in Rajasthan, India reveals much more than an ancient horror story. The disovery in the town of Balathal, 40km north-east of Udaipur, is tying together some of the mysteries surrounding the tribes of the Indus Valley, who lived in the shadows of the mighty Harappans. The unfortunate man is thought to have been aged between 25 and 45, and predates the earliest-known human leprosy case by around 2,000 years. The previous oldest was an Egyptian dating to 400-250 BC, though the Ebers…