Lately sometimes I feel my brain is quickly deteriorating as I get older. But what about a 5,000-year-old teenage girl’s brain? An archaeological expedition exploring a cave in south-eastern Armenia claims to have found the remains of the world’s oldest human brain. Alcohol kills braincells? Quite the opposite, as the team says that at the same site it has found evidence of what may be history’s oldest commercial winemaking operation. Take that, France! Due to our obsession with Mummy CSI we know quite a bit about old brains, but Dr. Boris Gasparian – one of the excavation’s leaders – is kean…
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As artists and photographers, we are constantly striving to see the world through different eyes… always looking for another perspective of the beauty we behold everyday. There is always something else to see, another angle to try, another ray of light casting shadows on a prospective work of art. Let me tell you something I ask myself every time I take a photo: Is there another way to see this picture? When taking photos of people, perspective is going to be something you will have to toy with quite a bit. The angle of your shot contributes to a certain…
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I dropped my phone last week and it stopped working. As the daughter, sister, and wife of engineers, I generally regard most broken things as a challenge and I am quite often able to fix them, so I gathered tiny screwdrivers and a good light source and prised the handset open. Inside was a world mostly unknown to me, of miniature circuit boards, teeny candy-striped transistors, and delicate little welds. I identified the problem, but it was beyond repair, so I went out and bought another phone with a renewed respect for the intricacies inside the things we use every…
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In the age of video games, board games might not be the popular pastime they once were. But they have a venerable history. Board games originate thousands of years ago as a spare-time preoccupation of the upper-castes of civilizations from South America to China, Egypt and northern Europe. Each ancient civilization had their own board game of choice. In the Egyptians case it was senet, a complex contest of chance that dating from as long ago as 3500 BC represents the oldest board game in history. The most famous senet board yet discovered comes from the tomb of the legendary…
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Although Viagra was launched onto the market in 1998 as the new wonder drug for virility, what the makers didnt realise is that its actually been around naturally and has been used since the time of the pyramids. In ancient Egypt, the blue lily was linked to fertility and sexuality and now, thanks to the recent chemical analysis by the Egyptian section of Manchester Museum, it appears there is a scientific reason for this link – the chemical make-up of this plant contains phosphodiesters, the active ingredients of Viagra. The blue lily wasnt the only libido-booster used by the ancient…
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An illegal Roma gypsy camp might be one of the last places you’d expect to find yourself on an expedition in search of an ancient Roman bridge. But this is what happened to Professor Hans Bjur and his colleagues as they were researching their project on the historical and modern context of one of Rome’s oldest roads. As they made their way through a more neglected corner of Rome’s Ponte Mammolo suburb, they followed the directions to where the bridge should have stood, only to find themselves in the midst of a temporary settlement. While the Swedish researchers were the…
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Three ritual beds were found inside the Tomb of King Tutankhamun (KV62), made up of four pieces of gilded wood and bound together with hooks and staples. Assembly instructions were painted on the beds in black paint, with each bed representing a different animal deity. The ritual beds are on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where Dr JaniceKamrin explains the purpose and history behind them in a video for Heritage Key (You can watch that video by clicking here). Each bed was photographed by the renown Egyptology photographer Sandro Vannini, of which the images are brought to the…
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by Jeffrey Spier, Mary Charles-Murray, Johannes G Deckers, Robin M Jensen, Steven Fine, Herbert L Kessler Yale University Press (2008) It is impossible to imagine European art without the procession of Crucifixions and Madonnas, Baptisms of Christ and Christs in Majesty that have been produced over the centuries; nor to imagine a European city without at least one building that testifies to the overawing power and wealth of the medieval church: a Durham or Cologne cathedral, a Hagia Sophia. Western art and Christianity go hand in hand. So it comes as a shock to discover that there is another Christian…
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Attribution: Amazon The Medici Conspiracy The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities from Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums by Peter Watson, Cecilia Todeschini The Medici referred to in the title of this book isn’t the famed Florentine family of the Renaissance, but rather Giacomo Medici, international art dealer – jailed for 10 years in 2004 for illegal antiquities trafficking. The narrative opens with a botched robbery and an ensuing police chase, followed by the discovery of eight Apuleian vases from the fourth century BC in the swimming pool of a German-based art smuggler. Even better than the antiquities…
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Derry Brabbs is one of Englands finest heritage and landscape photographers. He has published more than 25 books, including collaborations with reknowned rambler Alfred Wainwright. His book England’s Heritage, a project in conjunction with English Heritage, featured more than 600 photographs of sites that have shaped England’s past. He is both author and photographer of his latest book, Hadrian’s Wall. The book traces the Wall from west to east, from the Solway Firth to Wallsend on Tyneside, taking in places of historical significance along the way. Brabbs has been photographing Hadrians Wall since his first assignment along the Roman frontier…