The archaeological site at Herculaneum is opening a new exhibition space this Thursday, 16 July, according to Blogging Pompeii, a blog written by archaeological experts currently working on excavation zones in the Bay of Naples. On display for the first time will be a boat and other nautical equipment, carbonized and discovered along the ancient shoreline near the ancient town. Herculaneum (present day Ercolano, a small Neopolitan suburb at the foot of the volcano that wiped it out over 1,900 years ago) is one of four towns that were destroyed when Vesuvius erupted in August 79 AD. Pompeii is today…
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It’s a tantalizing story that’s been taught as fact for nearly 50 years. It goes like this: Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves, was a monastic settlement, dating from the end of the 2nd century BC to the time of the revolt against the Romans (68 AD). The area was inhabited by a group called the Essenes. They were male, celebate, and lived their lives according to a strict interpretation of Jewish law and religion. They wrote most, if not all, of the Dead Sea Scrolls and carefully stored them away in caves for…
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London may be one of the world’s greatest cities with a plethora of stunning heritage and monstrous museums, but no visit to England is complete without seeing some of the south of England’s incredible green scenery. Beginning on the south-eastern top of Greater London and stretching all the way down to the English Channel, Kent is not only one of England’s largest counties but one of its most beautiful. Luscious rolling hills and miles of green expanse give some parts of the area a Middle-Earthly look, and its villages and hamlets are among the nation’s most picturesque. Kent is also…
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Not even a month after 4 brave mummies left the Brooklyn Museum to have themselves scanned, and ‘Lady Hor’ proved to be a male mummy – “scrotum and penis pretty well preserved”, another round of mummy CSIuncovered yet another case of ‘transgender’ behaviour amongst mummies. The Birmingham Museum took three mummies to the Stafford Hospital in a bid to understand how these ancient Egyptians, whose bodied were later mummified, died. One of the mummies, from the Namenkhetamun of the 26th Dynasty (664-525BC), was described as ‘the daughter of Amunkhau’ on the coffin lid. But the scan has revealed the mummy…
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Ancient wall paintings were discovered in northern China in a 1,400-year-old royal tomb found during the construction of one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects, a national water transport system. The detailed frescoes found in the tomb in Cixian county in Beijing’s neighbouring Hebei province depict honour guard officials from the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577), the report said. The tomb itself had belonged to Gao Xiaoxu, the male heir of an emperor in the Qi, archaeologists told the agency. The intricate images, painted on the walls of a 15-meters long passage, will prove useful in the study of the escort…
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Continuing the Google Earth Tours here at Heritage Key, which have so far covered Rome, Athens and London, this week’s tour looks at Ancient sites across the historically rich nation of Egypt. An ancient civilisation which boasts some of the most famous relics in the world, such as The Great Pyramid of Giza and the Temple at Thebes. By bringing together aerial photography with 3D virtual environments, we can use Google Earth to scan across the surface of Egypt and see the sites and relics that remain of this great civilisation. This tour is complete with those clickable Heritage Key…
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Over the past five weeks two new studies have been released that are giving scholars new clues as to how leprosy became a global scourge. The first, and most dramatic, find came out at the end of May and reported on the analysis of a 4,000 year old skeleton from the site of Balathal, a Harappa site, in India. The analysis detected the presence of leprosy, making it, by far, the oldest case known. (For comparison the next oldest cases date to nearly 2,500 years ago) This study means that the troops of Alexander the Great might well have spread…
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Wookey Hole Caves, is planning to bring its ancient history to life by hiring a resident witch to live in the caves and teach tourists about their history and craft. Hours are seasonal, but this is no pocket money summer job the owners of the caves are offering 50k (pro rata) for the right witch. The original Wookey Witch is thought to have lived in the caves during Britains Dark Ages, and put a curse on a local romance, before being turned into a stallagtite in return. The Dark Ages are thought to have begun when the defeat of the…
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A young boy peers out of the doorway in the Chinese province of Kashgar, where days of rioting have left the area in a state of fear. The tensions between two ethnic groups have led to the recent violence, with the Uighars campaigning for independence from the Chinese government. The Chinese Government recently announced plans to demolish a vast majority of this ancient city, in favour of more modern and earthquake proof buildings. This defies the wishes of the Uighari people, who would lose the culture in the old city. Additionally, they believe the Chinese Government has alterior motives for…
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The UCLA team creatingand updating a virtual model of Qumran, the site where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in caves, have now released free photos and videos of their work, which are now available to view and download from their website. Their project started in 2005 and has been continuing ever since,adding new archaeological information as it comes along. It includes a number of photos, and short videos which you can watch in high definition on their site, or on youtube. The main aim of the project is not to bolster any one theory on how Qumran, or the…