• sean-williams

    England’s World Cup Woe is an Ancient Affair

    Triesman slammed the Spanish, then we berated an Italian before surrendering to the Germans. But it’s a Macedonian England’s hierarchy should have studied before the country’s calamitous World Cup campaign. Alexander the Great didn’t get his name for nothing, but the way in which his empire imploded should have been a lesson to the FA long before its capitulation on Sunday. The Lesson Alexander the Great was born to be a leader. A son of Philip II of Macedon, Alexander enjoyed an unrivalled education under the tutelage of Aristotle. Aged just 19 he’d been handed the reigns of the empire,…

  • sean-williams

    Chocolate Terracotta Warriors to Tour Taiwan

    Taiwan will get a taste of China’s Terracotta Warriors this Saturday, as 400 chocolate miniatures make their way from a popular show in Beijing. ‘World Chocolate Wonderland’, at Taipei’s National Taiwan Science Education Center, also features a chocolate-hewn Great Wall of China. It attracted over 400,000 visitors in the Chinese capital, not least for the pint-sized ancient warriors, who measure just 35cm each. Each exhibit at the show must be kept in temperature-controlled rooms to avoid melting. Taiwan baker Lee Kyo-yi battled fine margins to create his chocolate Taipei 101, Taiwan’s, and at one point the planet’s, tallest skyscraper. “The…

  • malcolmj

    CSI Nemea: Alberta University Anthropologist Investigates Ancient ‘Murder’

    University of Alberta professor of anthropology Sandra Garvie-Lok is on a CSI-style hunt for answers to a 1,500-year-old crime. Her victim: John Doe, an unidentified male with severe cranial trauma, killed at the ancient Greek city of Nemea during the Slavic invasion of Greece in the 6th century AD. The verdict: murder, most likely but how and why? Robbery has already been ruled out the unfortunate soul, whose cadaver was discovered crushed in a small, graffiti-stained tunnel entrance, had cash and other possessions on him. Was he perhaps slain in battle, seeing as he appears to have been an eye-witness…

  • lyn

    Woman Filmed Dancing Topless on Uluru Causes Outrage in Australia

    Dancing semi-naked on top of Australia’s most famous ancient site isn’t the best way to ingratiate yourself with the locals, as a 25-year-old ‘exotic dancer’ has found out. French-born Alizee Sery had a friend film her climbing Uluru, stripping off and dancing in bikini bottoms, cowboy boots and a bushman’s hat. The video, which appeared on a Northern Territory news site, has sparked outrage among Australia’s indigenous leaders, who have likened Sery’s actions to someone “defacating on the steps of the Vatican”. Sery was unapologetic, claiming that her performance was a “tribute” to the traditional owners. “My project is a…

  • jon-himoff

    Better Way to Experience Virtual Online with Our Browser Viewer

    We are testing out a new way to let visitors see and explore great discoveries and artefacts online virtually. The new viewer runs right inside your browser, so there is no need for downloading a new application. You will need to add the Unity3D plug-in (sort of like Flash) to your browser unless you already have it. We are releasing this first areas “the Gallery Preview” as Alpha now and appreciate . You will need to Register/Login now to have a look, but once we get some feedback we will make the public. There is only one type of avatar,…

  • bija

    Roman Infanticide in Buckinghamshire: Unwanted Babies Linked to Brothel?

    Why were 97 new-born babies buried in the grounds of a Roman villa at Hambleden near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, during the third and fourth centuries AD? This is a mystery that has endured for almost a century, since the site was first excavated in 1912 by the naturalist and archaeologist Alfred Cocks. The sheer number of burials led the early 20th century archaeologist to conclude that it was an irregular burial, and that perhaps the babies had been buried there secretly perhaps having been murdered over a period of a century or more towards the end of the Roman occupation…

  • owenjarus

    Chinese president Hu Jintao may kick-off Terracotta Warriors show in Toronto

    A Toronto newspaper is reporting that Chinese President Hu Jintao may kick-off the Terracotta Warriors exhibit, at the Royal Ontario Museum, on June 26. It will be the largest Terracotta Warriors show ever displayed in North America featuring 250 artefacts in total including 16 human terracotta figures. It’s opening day coincides with the start of the G20 summit in Toronto, which the president will be attending. The Toronto Starreports that the president and his wife Liu Yongqing have been formally invited by the museum. Were hoping, but we know there are lots of things on their agenda, exhibit curator Dr.…

  • sean-williams

    Colchester Mummy Scan Reveals ‘Strange Bones’ in Skull

    The skull of an ancient Egyptian mummy in Colchester is packed with ‘strange bones’, a CT-scan has revealed. The scan on 2,500-year-old Lady Ta-Hathor yesterday also revealed an odd bundle between her thighs, thought to be the remains of her organs. Full results from the scan, made ahead of Ta-Hathor’s display at Ipswich Museum’s new Egyptian Gallery, are expected only after an assessment by a team in Manchester. Yet it immediately showed she was healthy with no bone defects, and had died of natural causes aged in her mid-twenties – not far off the era’s life expectancy of 30. Ta-Hathor’s…

  • Ann

    King Tut Died of Sickle Cell Disease, not Malaria

    King Tut died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria, say experts. German researchers at Hamburg’s Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) have rejected a theory put forward by Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, claiming sickle-cell disease (SCD) caused King Tut‘s early demise. A team led by Dr Hawass had said a combination of Khler disease and malaria was the primary cause of Tutankhamun’s death. Yet the German team are calling for more tests on the boy-king’s DNA, which they say will easily confirm or deny their claim. The BNI team have cast doubt on Hawass’ conclusions, after studying DNA tests…

  • sean-williams

    Newly-Discovered Roman Gladiator Skeleton goes on Display in York

    A Roman skeleton discovered recently at ‘the world’s only well-preserved gladiator cemetery’ has gone on display in York. The skeleton, one of 80 found in the city over the past seven years, went on show at the Jorvik Viking Centre on Tuesday (June 22) and promises to be a hit with visitors. The skeleton is one of the dig’s most important, bearing bite marks from a large carnivore. Experts have claimed it as proof gladiators were made to fight wild animals, such as bears and tigers, in the arena. The excavation itself has aroused huge interest across worldwide, and was…