• bija-knowles

    The Ara Pacis As You’ve Never Seen it Before

    Normally as white as a bleached bone, the Ara Pacis, the emperor Augustus’s altar to peace, is being restored to what could have been its original colours for a series of evening openings from tonight, until April. The famous monument represents the Augustan golden age of the early empire and was excavated from several metres under Rome’s busy main shopping street, via del Corso, during Italy’s Fascist era in the 1930s. The fragments were reassembled and finally housed in a wooden structure in piazza Augusto Imperatore. A new structure to house the monument was opened in 2006. Designed by Richard…

  • britain

    Statue of Emperor Trajan

    Key People Key People: Trajan Just outside Tower Hill tube station is a statue of who is believed to be the Roman Emperor Trajan. It stands outside one of the last remaining pieces of the London Wall. The wall was built by the Romans to surround and protect Londinium. Trajan was the 13th Roman Emperor who reigned from 98 until his death in 117 AD. Trajan is best known for his extensive public building programme, which reshaped the city of Rome and left multiple enduring landmarks such as Trajan’s Forum, Trajan’s Market and Trajan’s Column. His major campaigns as emperor…

  • owenjarus

    Syria’s Stonehenge: Neolithic Stone Circles, Alignments and Possible Tombs Discovered

    For Dr. Robert Mason, an archaeologist with the Royal Ontario Museum, it all began with a walk last summer. Mason conducts work at the Deir Mar Musa al-Habashi monastery, out in the Syrian Desert. Its still in use today by monks. The finds at the monastery date mainly to the medieval period and include some beautiful frescoes. I went for a walk into the eastern perimeter, he said – an area that hasnt been explored by archaeologists.What he discovered is an ancient landscape of stone circles, stone alignments and what appear to be corbelled roof tombs. From stone tools found…

  • owenjarus

    World Record Attempt for Tutting to be Made this Sunday

    This Sunday tutters at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), in Toronto Canada, will attempt to set a world record for the most people tutting at one time. The art gallery is hosting the exhibit King Tut: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs. Heritage Key has a preview ofit here. The dance is a form of hip hop dance inspired by Ancient Egypt. It was epitomized by comedian Steve Martin in the 1970s on Saturday Night Live. The Gallery has already signed up more than the 250 dancers needed to set the record, said the AGO in a news…

  • bija-knowles

    Caravaggio: Gay Icon Born Too Late?

    Caravaggio was not a man of his time. As gay icon, father of modern painting and enigmatic artistic rebel, he speaks volumes to 21st century audiences visiting his current exhibition in Rome. The realism and drama that he transmitted onto canvas seem surprisingly fresh, while also connecting us with the feel and detail of life in the early 17th century. But his portraits of youths – again, not typical of the early 1600s – seem to hark back to an era more than 1,000 years before his time. His sensuous appreciation of the male form, which scandalised his 17th century…

  • sean-williams

    AWiL Video Series: A Trip round Roman Londinium, Part 2

    In our previous Ancient World in London video, history enthusiast Ian Smith showed adventurer Nicole Favish round the Thames and London Wall on the first leg of their Londinium tour. This stop sees them dive right into the heart of the ancient city, to the church of St. Peter-upon-Cornhill. “This is the original site of Christianity in Britain,” says Ian outside the 17th century church, which is allegedly the spot where Romans paid their respects from the 2nd century AD. But there’s much more to the area than religion: this is also the site of the Roman Basilica and Forum.…

  • nick-gilbert

    Who Were the Saxons, Jutes, Angles and Vikings? Know Your Dark Age Germanic Peoples

    Fellow residents of our Early-Medieval Britannia! Many of you will have become aware of strange men coming from oversees to our green and pleasant island home. You may be wondering who these people are, what they have come for and how long they plan to stay. To we Britons, their barbarian and guttural languages all sound very much the same… but let me inform you that in fact these visitors actually come from different places and each have different cultures- though they share many traits, they will be offended if you should accidentally confuse them for one another. So how…

  • sean-williams

    The World’s First Chat-up Line was Gay

    A panel of Japanese experts recently revealed what they considered to be the world’s greatest chat-up line, based upon reams of psychological and sociological research. The result? “This time next year, let’s be laughing together.” Apparently the sure-fire phrase is based on keywords guaranteed to get the romantic juices flowing. I’m not convinced: it’s hardly Shakespeare, barely even Barbara Cartland. Still, you might be surprised to learn that the world’s first chat-up wasn’t from a man to a woman, but from man to man. Yes, that’s right folks: the world’s first chat-up line is gay. The Tale of Horus and…

  • helen-atkinson

    India’s Ajanta Caves Are Simply Stunning

    My recent travels in India took me to Ajanta, about two hours’ drive outside of Aurangabad, in the Indian state of Maharashtra (where they’re making perfectly drinkable wine these days, by the way). The nearby small town of Ajanta gives its name to the collective of 29 caves carved out of a sheer wall of rock in a horseshoe-shaped river canyon, completed in the period 200BC to 500AD in the name of Buddhism. Several are temples, but most are dormitories originally built for temporarily housing Buddhist monks, as well as travellers and itinerant spice traders. The spice route passed through…

  • bija-knowles

    Hidden Londinium: What Will be the Next Big Find From Roman London?

    Roman London is mostly intangible, hidden and largely forgotten. Today it’s buried under tons of concrete and glass in the shape of the City of London London’s financial district with its busy streets, packed offices and underground networks. It’s not surprising that getting a peak at the remains of the Roman city founded soon after 43 AD is not easy, but archaeologists have excavated several large areas, often when construction projects and post-war reconstruction have provided opportunities to open up the ground. However, areas remain that have yet to be studied by a professional archaeologist, so what Roman structures could…