A team of international archaeologists have begun to investigate the existence of a Roman town partially submerged in a lake 20km outside stanbul. The excavation has started at Lake Kkekmece, a small inlet west of Turkey’s largest city, which is now believed to be the location of the ancient city of Bathonea. Little is known about Bathonea, but the site is thought to have been inhabited by humans for many millennia before it became a Greek settlement, which the Romans then built upon as they expanded their empire eastwards. It is near to the Yarmburgaz cave, which is already known…
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In his August 7th, 2009, interview with Heritage Key, Zahi Hawass revealed that the Supreme Council of Antiquities was gathering evidence regarding the illegal appropriation of the bust of Nefertiti by the Altes Museum in Berlin. I will reveal [the evidence] in October when I write the letter to the Berlin Museum for the return of the piece, because it left Egypt illegally, Dr. Hawass stated. In a new article published in Al-Ahram Weekly (Queen of Egypts heart), Dr. Hawass reveals that his wish is for the bust to be placed in the Museum of National Heritage at Giza in…
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From the shimmering death mask of King Tut to the swinging penile replacements of 50 Cent, Gold and silver have been as staple pursuits of humanity as food, drugs and celebrity gossip. But while the dripping opulence of the ancient world may not seem a million miles away from the crass overindulgence of our own ‘enlightened’ age, you might be surprised to find that the two metals have almost exactly the same value now as they did then. According to economist Jeff Clark, that is. When faced with the notion gold was a dead investment, Clark looked at historical valuations…
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Like the ancient world? Like early civilization? Like pyramids? I’m guessing if you’re reading this you probably do, so you might enjoy a new documentary series airing on the Discovery Channel next Monday evening. Out of Egypt examines the links between ancient cultures, our modern fascination with them, and the myths and legends which have endured thousands of years. Fronted by glamorous Egyptologist Dr Kara Cooney, the first episode, ‘Relics’, sees the team travelling to Mexico, Vietnam and Sri Lanka to ask just how powerful a part relics have played in the world’s most famous cultures. Dr Cooney explores the…
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It’s more than 4,000 years since people have stood around this grave-site unified by such an electrifying sense of awe and anticipation. Here in the tiny hamlet of Forteviot, nestled in a bend of the River Earn in the floor of a lush agricultural valley six miles southwest of Perth, the lid is about to be lifted on what archaeologists hope is a burial cist in one of the biggest Neolithic monuments in Scotland. We wait in chorus-line fashion, arrayed along the peak of the spoil-heap at the south edge of the trench cut into the ditch of a 250m-diameter…
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A third-century AD house from the Roman period has been uncovered at excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem. The building covers about 1,000 square metres and has emerged during a dig that is being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Dr Doron Ben-Ami is the excavation director on behalf of the IAA, and he believes that the house was centred on a large open courtyard encircled by columns. He said: Galleries were spread out between the rows of columns and the rooms that flanked the courtyard. The wings of the building rose to a height of…
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There’s no shortage of Stonehenge replicas in the States: cars, foam and even fridges have made the journey from household commodities to prehistoric pretenders across the Atlantic, with Americans seemingly fixated on Britain’s most famous megalithic site. Yet thus far we’ve seen no Clonehenges that look quite as delicious as this. Just take a look at the obesity-inducing beauty, courtesy of Stateside gourmet ‘Gimmyyummy‘, and tell me you don’t want to rip off one of its juicy megaliths for some munchies. Traditionalists might complain the edible monument doesn’t quite match the dimensions of its 5,000-year-old forebear – but no-one could…
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Tourism is a massive industry in Egypt, thanks to the countrys venerable past it accounts for 11% of GDP, and creates jobs for around 12% of the total national workforce. Chief among Egypts antiquarian attractions are the tombs of the pharaohs, the vast network of lavishly decorative burial chambers for its ancient rulers spread across the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, such as KV62 the final resting place of Tutankhamun. So why, then, is the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities calling for them to be closed? The Council have been faced with an almighty catch-22. The tombs are extremely…
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Cherchen Man, who died around 1000 BC, appears to be as Scottish as square sausage tall, dark-haired, clad in a red tunic and tartan leggings and sporting a beard as ginger as a burning fox. His DNA attests to his Celtic origins. So why on earth, then, was his mummified corpse discovered buried in the barren sands of the Taklamakan Desert, in the far-flung Xinjiang region of western China? Its a question that still has experts scratching their heads, especially since Cherchen Man is just one of hundreds of ancient desiccated corpses of European origin found in the Tarim Basin…
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A Scottish castle ransacked by government soldiers after the Battle of Culloden has been rebuilt in the online virtual reality domain Second Life. Virtual reality tours are now being offered of Invergarry Castle, in Glengarry in the Highlands, which has been cloned in two different forms the intact 1740 version, and the modern ruined remains, which are in such a state of disrepair theyre almost inaccessible. The project is a publicity initiative by the My Glengarry Conservation Trust an organisation who are attempting to raise money for the preservation of the Glengarry area, by selling off legal deeds to plots…