Three new ancient egyptian tombs dating back almost 3500 years have been discovered near Luxor by an archaeological mission lead by Dr. Zahi Hawass. One of the newly discovered tombs belonged to Amun-Em-Opet, Supervisor of Hunters and dates back to shortly before King Akhenaten’s reign. Entrances to 2 undecorated tombs have been found to the north-west of Amun-Em-Opet’s. The newly discovered were unearthed at the necropolis of Dra Abu el-Naga, on Luxor’s west bank. Amongst the items discovered in the 3 tombs: seven funerary seals bearing the name Amenhotep-Ben-Neferm, Supervisor of the Cattle of Amun. seals bearing the name of…
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Most of the original Seven Wonders of the World are best known for their incredible construction techniques by inspired architects whose names have justly gone down in the annals of ancient history for their achievements. The Temple of Artemis (also known less precisely as Temple of Diana) has the unfortunate legacy of being most famous for its pointless destruction, at the hands of history’s original attention seeker. Built – in its most famous phase – around 550 BC at Ephesus (near modern day Selçuk, in Turkey) the shrine to the Ephesian goddess of fertility Artemis was a masterpiece of its…
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Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a fragment of a Neanderthal man’s skull in the North Sea, dating back around 60,000 years. The Leiden-based boffins believe the find to be the first human remains ever dredged from the sea bed. Chemical isotope readings have shown the man to have been carniverous – and the area would certainly been rife with potential dinners in his day. For most of the past 500,000 years, the North Sea’s level has been sustantially lower, with many parts forming a sort of archipelago stretching from the British Isles to the European mainland. ‘Only a Matter…
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South of Corso Still on the trail of some of the lesser-known Roman sites, at the weekend I found myself wandering around a quiet area south of via del Corso. Testaccio is still very much a people’s neighbourhood. Old men gather on benches in shady piazzas, constantly gabbling away about who-knows-what (hotly debating the government’s latest PR disaster or contesting who won the last game of boules, it’s difficult to tell in their Romanaccio dialect), while children play with the pigeons. There aren’t many tourists to be seen, even though the area holds a couple of attractions. I stop short…
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Before you answer that question, let me just point out that Monte Testaccio is actually both, being possibly the oldest Roman rubbish dump to have been excavated and studied in depth. Admittedly an open-air land fill site might not fit in with your idea of a cultural tourist destination and it probably won’t tick the boxes if you’re thinking about glamorous ruins where emperors and senators once set out the course of history. But this pile of old rubbish, as I affectionately like to call it, can tell us a surprising amount about the inner workings of the Roman empire.…
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Charging In In the 1830’s British colonel Howard Vyse explored the Pyramids of Khufu and Menkaure using a rather destructive method – dynamite. The colonel, along with John Perring, an engineer, blasted his way into four stress-relieving chambers in Khufu’s pyramids. As the name suggests the chambers were built for engineering reasons and the colonel didn’t find any objects. He did, however, find some ancient graffiti saying, according to John Romer’s book, The Great Pyramid: Ancient Egypt Revisited, “Khufu is pure! Khufu is bright!” And “May the White Crown of Khufu strengthen the sailing!” They had more luck in Menkaure’s…
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Iraq has had – shall we say – a colourful recent history. Wars with Iran, Kuwait, the US and the US again; insurrections, intifadas, genocide and rebellion have left a land which, while rich in natural resources, is one of the most shattered civilizations on the planet. Most would blame Saddam Hussein and his egotistical bigotry for Iraq’s current plight; others point the finger at the remnants of the Cold War, which left Iraq fighting an impossible proxy conflict with their Iranian neighbours – arming Saddam’s bloodthirsty Ba’athists in the process. Yet whatever your stance on the country’s twisted fate…
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Description http://drhawass.com – Join Zahi Hawass at the temple of Taposiris Magna near Alexandria, where he and Dominican scholar Kathleen Martinez are searching for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony! Credits Filmed and edited by Sandro Vannini Transcription The search of the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony is very exciting. We are now in temple of Taposiris Magna, located about 50 kilometers west of Alexandria. And we are inside the chamber, that is located about may be 7 meters under the ground. And this chamber is a perfect location to make us believe that Cleopatra and Mark Antony…
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Key Dates The earliest record of Nineveh is around 1800 BC. It was captured by the Assyrians in the 14th century BC. It was sacked and razed in 612 BC. The Arab conquest of 637 AD meant Mosul effectively became Nineveh incarnate. Key People King Ninus, the semi-mythological Persian king on whose name Nineveh is based. Sennacherib, the Assyrian king who built most of Nineveh’s legendary landmarks – including its palace. Nineveh has come to be something of a legend of the Near East; a symbol of the ancient civilization of Assyria and the marauding tribes of Mesopotamia. Located in…
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Where and when? The term Neolithic refers to the period in ancient European history when characteristic Neolithic technology became prevalent – certain types of farming implements, tools, pottery and weapons. Encyclopedia Britannica describes the Neolithic period as a whole as the “final stage of technological development or cultural evolution among prehistoric humans.” The Neolithic era originated in South East Asian villages such as the famous Banpo in China, circa 9000 BC, artefacts from which are displayed in Xi’an‘s Banpo Museum. It then gradually spread west. It lasted from approximately 7000 BC (around the time of the first farming societies in…