Britain, man your TVs and iPlayers!Great Britain might be a small island but it has a huge history and, every year, hundreds of excavations bring lost treasures up to the surface. Presented by Dr Alice Roberts, ‘Digging For Britain‘ joins these excavations in a new BBC Twohistory series.
‘Digging for Britain’ is produced by 360 Production (a look behind the scenes) and follows ayear of archaeology around the country, revealing and contextualising some of the newest finds, research and social history.
Its four episodes focus onfocus on the Roman, Prehistoric, Anglo-Saxon and Tudor eras.
Preview: Habledon Villa Human Remains (360 Production)
‘The Romans’ episode also investigates the mystery of a man buried face down on a bed of meat in rural Dorset and the extensive excavation project at the Fort of Vindolanda.
Digging up Prehistory
The further back in time we go, the more rare those glimpses into our ancestors become and, with no written records, the pieces of evidence pulled from the ground are the only clues about the mysterious world of pre-historic Britain.
At Happisburgh in Norfolk, Dr Roberts follows the discovery of seventy flint flakes showing clear evidence of having been worked by humans a find that pushes back the earliest known human occupation of Britain by at least 200,000 years. The discovery of these tools challenge the conventional belief that the earliest human species would not have been able to survive in northern Europe.
Digging for Britain’sPrehistory episode also uncovers a 3,000-year-old tragedy at sea, the earliest rock art ever uncovered in Britain and what is potentially the earliest metal working site discovered in Britain.
Digging for the Anglo-Saxons
At Bamburgh, on the North East coast, skeletons excavated by the Bamburgh Research Project (blog) offer insight into the illnesses and conditions the aristocratic Anglo-Saxons suffered, and hold clues about the societies in which they lived clues that are somewhat at odds with the stereotypical, warlord Anglo Saxon people have come to know.
There are thousands of grave goods to clean and conserve at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in Sittingbourne in 2008.Dr Robertslearns about a unique way of dealing with the sheer volume of material a pioneering project in the heart of Sittingbourne that’s engaging the whole community.
The programme would not be complete without a glimpse at the richest ever Anglo Saxon find in Britain: the Staffordshire Hoard, discovered by a metal detector last year and a visit to Sutton-Hoo which is still revealing new insights more than 70 years after it was first discovered.
‘Digging for Britain’ (video preview) is a four-part series. ‘The Romans’ airs this Thursday August 19, 9pm on BBC Two. (Prehistory August 26, Anglo-Saxons September 2, Tudors September 9)
PASE Domesday, a database of Domesday Book linked to mapping resources, has been launched online today, ahead of tomorrows Domesday special to be broadcast on BBC Two (preview video ‘The Domesday Inquest’). In the documentary, Dr Stephen Baxter seeks to prove that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes, arguing that it is about something far more important than money. According to Dr Baxter, its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England.
The Domesday Book
The Domesday Book is the product of a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror and completed in 1086, twenty years after the then Duke landed with his 7,000 soldiers (Top 10 Norman Conquest Facts). It was written in Latin, and is England’s earliest surviving public record, a thorough survey of the who owned every piece of land and property in the the kingdom.
The making of Domesday Book was a huge logistical exercise. Commissioners set out across the country to attend intimidating local inquests. These established who owned what both in 1066, before the Norman Conquest, and in 1086, after 20 years of Norman rule. The results of these inquests were then collected, edited and written up, by one scribe. It consists of two independent works, the Little Domesday covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and the Great Domesday, covering the rest of England, with a few omissions such as Anglo-Saxon London.
Domesday records the trauma of the Norman Conquest the greatest social and political upheaval in England’s history. It confirmed that land once owned by the English was now legally in the hands of the Normans. This was a revolution in land ownership. It was given the name Domesday Book by Anglo-Saxons (How does that sound? Anglo-Saxon Aloud for your iPhone!)who felt that its authority was as final as The Day of Judgement.
PASE Domesday Online Database
PASE Domesday (Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon EnglandDomesday)makes it possible to list, map and quantify the estates of the landholders named in the survey of conquered England and is the first database of Domesday Book linked to mapping resources to be made freely available online.
Video: The Domesday Inquest BBC Two (Dr Stephen Baxter)
Thedatabase will form the basis of a new two-year research project on the aristocracy defeated by the Normans in 1066, Profile of a Doomed Elite.
“The breakthrough has been made possible by the wonders of modern technology, in selecting and arranging the data, in generating the maps, and in presenting the possibilities,”says Professor Simon Keynes, of the University of Cambridge’sDepartment of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and a co-director of the PASE project. “One can then begin to detect the patterns and to make the informed judgements which will help to produce a significant result.”
Yet, the new online database is not solely aimed at scholars. It is designed with abroader audience in mind.
Ever wondered who owned your town or village at the time of the Norman conquest? Its now possible to find out at the flick of a button, explains Dr Baxter, a Reader in Medieval History at King’s College London, and one of the projects co-directors.
Having done so, you can create maps and tables of the estates held by the same lords elsewhere in England. Results are delivered quickly, and the scale of the dispossession of the English by Norman billionaire-like barons comes vividly to life.
In this programme on the Domesday Book, Dr Stephen Baxter willreveals the human and political drama that lies within the parchment of England’s earliest surviving public record. Most historians believe that Domesday is some kind of tax book for raising revenue, but Baxter has his own theory. He seeks to prove that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes and he argues that it is about something far more important than money. Its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England.
Ever thought about a job that takes you across the length and breadth of Egypt, exploring the desert sands to find treasures and valuable artefacts that haven’t been touched in thousands of years?A career which gives you responsibility for some of the most famous and significant finds in history (as well as trying to get back others)?A vocation which earns you the nickname “Pharaoh” for your control over who gets to uncover the antiquities still to be found amidst the heat. And lets not forget starring in your own History Channel TV show!
Dr Zahi Hawass, the Director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities is such the man, known in the archaeology world as “The Pharaoh” for this tough style. His TVshow “Chasing Mummies” has recieved mixed reactions, but nevertheless, it can’t be denied that Dr Hawass holds one of archaeology’s most inspiring jobs.
Though the History Channel’s take on Zahi may leave audiences confused on the amount of actual archaeology they’re learning about, Heritage Key can offer you more of an Egyptology insight from Zahi Hawass, and we have several videos and images to show it!
HD Video: The Discovery of an Intact Tomb at Saqqara (ft. Dr. Hawass)
Check out the map below to see some of our collection of videos featuring Dr Hawass as he shares his knowledge of Ancient Egypt and explores some of the tombs hidden away in the Sahara, and be inspired by the amazing treasures still being uncovered today!
The full list of Heritage Key videos featuring Dr Zahi Hawass:
Dr Harry Sidebottom is a Fellow of St Benets Hall and lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art. He has an international reputation as a scholar, having published widely on ancient warfare, classical art and the cultural history of the Roman Empire. Harry is also a presenter on Ancient Discoveries for The History Channel and the best-selling fiction author of the Warrior of Rome series.
With his first two novels in the Warrior of Rome series (Fire in the East and King of Kings), set in the fragmenting Roman Empire of the later third century AD, Harry Sidebottom shot into the charts. The mix of heroes, treachery, political chicanery, and brutal warfare, combined with a fine literary style and and a sound academic background, made these two blockbusters the kind of books that truly deserve the clich page-turners.
On the publication of the third in the series, Lion of the Sun, Roger Michael Kean interviewed Dr Harry Sidebottom, asking about his influences, his real and fictional characters, writing techniques, and the genesis of his historical hero, the Romanized barbarian Ballista.
In the first place, as an academic, what made you turn to historical fiction?
Since a child I have always enjoyed reading historical fiction I grew up reading Alfred Duggan, Mary Renault, and Graham Shelby, and a lot of others and also writing it. It just took me a long time to get my courage up and try and get it published.
You have said that Ramsay MacCullens Enemies of the Roman Order showed you that history should be ideas-led. Could you clarify what you meant by that, and do you think it should also apply to fiction?
Too many students of the Classical world define the parameters of their research on the lines of I will study X body of evidence and see what turns up. Now there is a place for this. But I find MacMullens approach, where you ask a question (or come up with a model, or hypothesis, or whatever you want to call it) and then test it against the evidence we have, much more fun.
All fiction is better if there is some sort of big moral or philosophical idea in play. Each of my Warrior of Rome novels tries to raise a question that both was important in the ancient world and is still of relevance today.
I started out as an archaeologist, and think there is no substitute for boots on the ground.
I think the division between the two is far from total. Historians and historical novelists do many of the same things: you choose what you will read/look at for research, excerpt the bits you want to use, string them together in a certain order, nuance them to try to nudge your reader to the conclusion you want. In some ways the barriers between the two are more fluid now than they have been since the end of the nineteenth century. Several leading academic historians have been experimenting with novelistic forms. See the late Keith Hopkins, A World Full of Gods; also Simon Schama, Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations; and Jonathan Spence, The Question of Hu.
To what degree do you believe historical fiction should be faithful to the historical events and, indeed, to what degree do you think the historical sources are themselves accurate (at what point do historical sources become fiction or, at least, biased?)
Unsurprisingly, I think historical novelists should respect history. In the Warrior of Rome novels the surface story of Ballista and his familia is almost entirely invented (what little we know about the historical Ballista is all in the third novel, Lion of the Sun). But the background, the political events as well as the social history of the time, both the externals the food, weapons, clothes etc and the attitudes and values, are as real as I can make them. I think it is important, when you deviate from history to let the reader know in the Afterword or somewhere.
All sources have an agenda and need careful analysis; that is a large part of the pleasure of doing ancient history.
The Historia Augusta (which I suspect has influenced many later historians) shows Gallienus in the worst possible light: Gallienussurrendered himself to lust and pleasurecontinuing in luxury and debauchery, gave himself to amusements and revelling and administered the commonwealth like a boy who plays at holding power At the battle outside Mediolanum in Lion of the Sun, you appear to give him credit for being a much better person, but can you indicate how his character in the book will develop in The Caspian Gates?
Gallienus is fascinating. The Latin sources, including the Historia Augusta, portray him as a degenerate, ineffectual tyrant, while the Greek sources see him as an essentially good emperor struggling against adversity. Possibly the former were influenced by how very badly he got on with the Senate. In the novels I want to blend the two images into one. Gallienus plays a major role in the next three Warrior of Rome novels. His growing closeness to the divine needs watching.
You refer to the Historia Augusta as being (by the mid-third century) free historical fiction and untrustworthy, and yet, with so little else to go by, how much did you use its narratives in constructing your own version of events?
The Historia Augusta is one of my all time favourite texts from antiquity (Doing my first research under Tony Birley, one of the great experts probably had an effect). Why did an unknown author some time around AD400 write a series of imperial biographies pretending to be six different individuals writing about one hundred years earlier? Why, about half way through the life of Heliogabalus, did he give up any serious pretensions to be limited by historical fact? In my novels I use it more for characters than narrative. I like the idea of taking ancient fiction and using it for modern ends.
The Historia Augusta paints the elder Macrianus as an upright, virtuous Roman of the old kind; in this you deviated from the source in as much as your Macriani are delightfully loathesome. How much of this characterization was derived from your own research/belief and how much is it a plot ploy?
Macrianus the Elder is an upright Roman in the Historia Augusta, but the Historia Augusta is fiction. In Eusebius, History of the Church, Macrianus is a devious, murderous schemer, but Eusebius History is propaganda. In the novels, mainly for plot-driven reasons, I went with the propaganda image, and then added some.
In the first two books particularly, your view of early Christianity and Christians comes across as mixed; how do you feel about the faith at this period (particularly bearing in mind middle-American sensitivity to any criticism)?
Learning a lot about early Christianity (or maybe better Christianities the heretics are just the sects that lost) was one of the keenest pleasures so far of writing the novels. The early Christian martyr acts are wonderful, atmospheric propagandist novellas. The Christians seem to have gone out of their way to make themselves as weird as possible in pagan eyes; not just denying the existence of the pagan gods, but being pacifists, downplaying the importance of the biological family, undermining conventional social status, consuming the body and blood of their god, meeting in the dark, and voluntary martyrdom; all that shouting I am a Christian, and I want to die!
The mid-third century is an obscure period to most readers. What drew you to place your story at that time?
A mix of reasons. It is a period of fast change but poor sources, so intrinsically interesting to a historian. I had studied it for years. Very few novels have been set in the period. The lack of good evidence, and the absence of modern popular preconceptions, brings a certain freedom.
You are clearly well placed to undertake literary research for the novels, but how much physical research do you do, trekking around the archaeological sites?
I started out as an archaeologist, and think there is no substitute for boots on the ground. I take at least one research trip a year for the novels. Last year, for Lion of the Sun, I went to Cyprus and Mersin province Turkey (ancient Cilicia).
Has the local geography or the topography of a place you have visited ever influenced any plot lines or made you alter a previously planned situation?
Usually I plan the scenes carefully before I travel; so I know where the characters will go, and thus where I will take the notes and photos. Sometimes I leave it more open. For example for the battle of Sebaste in Lion of the Sun, all I knew was that Ballista had fought the Persians there, so I left it until I was exploring the modern village of Ayas before plotting the chapter.
Does that mean that your characters are also carefully plotted before writing, or do you allow the story and characters to develop, as it were, under their own steam?
I try to get the main plot/time lines in place before I start. As the series goes on the main characters are becoming ever more real to me, almost taking on a reality independent of me; sometimes they say and do things that surprise me.
Ive pointed out in reviews that you deliver a geographically ordered framework in the big battle scenes so often a failing in novels, leading to reader confusion. How do you set out to write a battle?
Like a general I draw scale maps, cut out bits of cardboard of the frontages of units, move them about all very carefully choreographed. The thing is to get the big picture over to the reader, even if the characters only see a small, confused part.
Very little is known about the real Ballistas background, even his nationality (although theres no reason why he shouldnt have been one of the earlier Teutons like Bauto, Arbogast, Ardaburius, Stilicho, Aspar et al to rise to military power in later decades) but was the choice of his being an Angle a conscious decision to make him more appealing to a British readership, or was there a deeper meaning behind his nationality?
There were various reasons for making Ballista Germanic. As an academic I wanted to play with the ideas advanced by a friend of mine, Hugh Elton. In an excellent book, Warfare in Roman Europe AD350-425, he argued that barbarian generals like Stilicho et al were more or less completely Romanized. I wanted to explore how true that was likely to be would a man completely forget the culture of his early life? As a novelist, I wanted Rome observed by a (semi-)outsider. Ballista is an Angle because I have long had an interest in the Saxon Shore Forts. The first of these were built in the late third century AD. I would not be surprised if Ballista ends up defending or attacking them.
Have you any wish to write about a Roman (or other) period where there is a great deal more contemporary source material extant, or would this be more of a hindrance than a help?
HS: I want to write about the period just after the death of Alexander; his generals have helped him conquer most of the known world, now they have to work out what to do with it. I would also like to write modern thrillers. I suspend my judgement whether more source material will help or hinder.
RMK: How important to you are maps in the books?
The maps are vital to my books. Ever since I was a kid reading Tolkien, I have loved maps in a book. In mine they help the reader know what is happening, and maybe learn a bit of geography, just like I did when researching them.
Did you suffer second-book nerves, and was King of Kings more difficult to write than the first, Fire in the East? (I had the feeling that, owing to the historical framework, Ballista had to be found work to flesh out the central section, not that this was uninteresting far from it but it meant the driving narrative force of the first book was more subdued in book two until the climactic ending. Lion of the Sun has, again, a more linear drive from start to finish.)
Fire in the East had a deliberately simple plot. With King of Kings I wanted to write a more complex novel. The central section of King of Kings, the persecution of Christians in Ephesus, was conceived as the heart of the story. It is the big moral question the novel raises: how is a good, but basically irreligious man to act in the face of religious extremism?
I may be wrong, but I had thought the Warrior of Rome series was to be a trilogy; thats obviously not the case, with The Caspian Gates coming next year. I see the titles The Nomad Sea and The Amber Road are also slated. Are these in the Warrior of Rome (Ballista) series as well?
The Warrior of Rome novels were always seen as an ongoing series I jotted down rough plans for no fewer than seventeen initially but (and here is a very pretentious, Oxford Classics Don bit) influenced by Tacitus in the Annals, I wanted each three books to form a trilogy within the whole. From Fire to Lion we are in the Near East. With The Caspian Gates, The Nomad Sea, and The Amber Road, we move via the Black Sea to the north.
You say in your notes that you admire the work of Bernard Cornwell and Alfred Duggan did you ever read Wallace Breems Eagle in the Snow? In many respects, it would seem in a similar vein to Warrior of Rome.
I read Eagle in the Snow at school, and very much enjoyed it. When Breems other Roman novel, The Legates Daughter, was re-released a few years ago, I enjoyed that as well.
Other than Cornwell and Duggan, do you read novels of the period by other authors (eg: Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden, Manda [M.C.] Scott, Ben Kane, Lindsey Davis et al)?
No unless I am reviewing them for the TLS, I tend not to read novels set in the classical world. I want my fiction based on my reading of the primary evidence and modern scholarship, and I do not want other novelists ideas getting in the way.
I read somewhere that you do not rate the Roman novels of Colleen McCullough (Masters of Rome series), would you care to explain why?
Like in so many historical novels which pretend to be set in Rome, her characters are modern western people in fancy dress; utterly anachronistic in attitudes and values. Also, the one I reviewed, The October Horse, was just far too long.
Finally, can we look forward to a deliciously lurid portrait of Zenobia?
Most def (as characters say in The Wire). Not sure how lurid it will be I need to do a lot of reading/thinking about her before I make up my mind. So far, in Lion, what little we know of her ambitious in unwomanly areas of politics and war, keen on culture, uses sex as a way of controlling her husband comes via Bathshiba, so might be wrong. But she has provided Odenathus with a new heir; which might prove awkward, as he already has one from his previous marriage.
The BBC has officially announced its TVschedule for this autumn and winter, promising its audience a big focus on history, with new programmes and new presenters. What to expect from the Beeb this autumn and winter, when the rain and cold keeps you locked into your home?
The autumn & winter 2010/2011 programming includes ‘Behind Closed Doors’ with Amanda Vickery, ‘The Do-Gooders’ with Ian Hislop and programming to mark the Battle of Britain’s 70th anniversary, with a drama-documentary based on Geoffrey Wellum’s book, First Light.
Ancient history specials served on these coldand dark winter nights will be ‘Pompeii’with Mary Beard, ‘Ancient Worlds’ with Richard Miles, Neil Oliver’s two-part ‘History of Ancient Britain’ and a look at Holy Land archaeology.
In the West, the term “civilisation” has been consigned to the museum display case. Embarrassed by its chauvinistic and elitist connotations, we have increasingly taken refuge in more politically correct and soft-focused terms such as “culture” to explain human origins. ‘Ancient Worlds’ seeks to rescue civilisation from its enforced retirement and celebrate such a hard-fought invention. Expect stunning locations and bold propositions about the origins of human society.
In ‘History of Ancient Britain’ he embarks on an epic quest through thousands of years of ancient history to tell the story of how Britain and its people came to be.
The first part of the story takes him from the glacial wasteland of ice-age mammoth hunters, through the glories of the Stone Age, to the magnificence of international Bronze Age society. Neil travels the length and breadth of the British Isles exploring some of its greatest wonders and revealing how science is solving mysteries while getting hands-on experience of ancient technology.
Tapping into the latest discoveries and experimental archaeology, History Of Ancient Britain Part I gets under the skin of this mysterious world, the lives of the people who inhabited it, and the tipping points that changed their lives and made ours. History Of Ancient Britain Part II will continue the story through the Iron Age and the Celtic kings to the Romans.
In a dark cellar in Oplontis, a suburb of ancient Pompeii, the remains of more than 50 victims of the eruption are put under the microscope of forensic science. The remains are submitted to a barrage of tests that, together with a fresh look at other finds in the city, unlock a valuable scientific snapshot of Pompeiian life and there are some surprises in store.
The programme features a visit to bars, baths, brothels,dining rooms and an ancient cesspit, where viewers can see what really went through ancient digestive tracts and learn about Roman hygiene: We can see ever so clearly where the water comes into the pool, but there isn’t a single place where it can go out. Make sure you don’t go to the baths if you have an open wound. You are likely to die of gangreen if you do.
‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’ with Francesca Stavrakopoulou
Hebrew Scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou examines how recent archaeological discoveries are changing the way stories from The Bible are interpreted and how these, in turn, are forcing a re-assessment of the understanding of the legacy of Judaism, Christianity and Islam both in the Middle East and in the West.
In thenew three-part series ‘The Bible’s Buried Secrets’, Francesca travels to major archaeological digs throughout the Middle East to investigate the origins of the story of the Garden of Eden, the emergence of the worship of one God and the historical context of King David – and his wondrous kingdom.
She also visits Khirbet Qeiyafa (a fortified city in Judah from the time of King David), the ancient city of Ugarit in Syria (considered to be the single most important biblical archaeological discovery of the last century) and the Tell es-Safi/Gath excavations (blogging here).
Following Francesca on her journey through some of the world’s most beautiful but inaccessible landscapes, The Bible’s Buried Secrets aims to place some of its most iconic stories into a new historical context.
A promising menu for those dark winter evenings, don’t you think? Hot choco and BBC iPlayer, here I come! No need to wait until winter for excellent history documentaries in the UK.For this month’s rainyevenings, you can settle down in front of the TVandswitch to‘King Arthur’s Round Table Revealed’, whichpremiers on History ChannelJuly 19th. For a truly historical docudrama, trytuning in toChasing Mummies. Really, the destruction of Atlantis isn’t nearly as devestatingly shocking asZahiHawass’ rage: “Nobody talk! Nobody talk! NOBODYTALK!!!”Just quoting! We’re happy for you tochat, and look forward to your opinions on theBBC’s upcoming ‘authorative history’ programmes. Everybody talk, ! 😉
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, the multi-millionaire musical impresario, has expressed a wish to purchase Highclere Castle, near Newbury, Berkshire. The Victorian castle has been the family seat of the Carnarvons since the 1670s, and was home to the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, who funded Howard Carter’s discovery of Tutankhamun‘s tomb (watch the video).
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s offer came after the current Earl applied for permission to sell pieces of land on the fringes of the Highclere estate in the hope of raising 11 million to fund badly-needed repair works to the Victorian mansion.
In a letter sent to the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon, as well as to the borough of Basingstoke and Deane, Sir Lloyd Webber wrote: I could provide a secure future for the castle without any development of this kind.
In the letter, seen by The Basingstoke Gazette, he says he would use the castle to display his large art collection, and plans to keep it open to the public. I am longing to provide a permanent home for my art collection. The combination of Sydmonton and Highclere would provide exactly that.
Video: Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter
The 8th Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert and his wife, 8th Countess of Carnarvon, Fiona Herbert, talk to Heritage Key about their ancestor Lord Carnarvon and the archaeologist he funded, Howard Carter.
According to the Telegraph, the Carnarvons are definitely not intending to sell. They quote Lady Carnarvon saying:
We value the estate hugely. My husband and his family have invested money, time, love and passion on it for centuries. I heard he wanted somewhere to hang his paintings. But it is definitely not for sale. We have every intention of being here for the next 150 years.
We all know that a surely proud couple from a village populated by irreducible Gauls still resisting the Roman invaders in 50BC gave birth to Asterix. But where do the Smurfs smurf from? Are they all Peyo’s imagination, or did a tribe of small, little blue men ever exist? One is inclined to think that those cute creatures, dated to the early Spiroe Age, are just a silly invention of a genius comic book writer. Or are they? Their primitive grammar seems to suggest a more ancient origin, and new evidence recently surfaced that Smurfs started smurfing back in ancient times.
The discovery of a 1,400 year-old pyramid in Peru seems to imply that the ancient Moche culture already smurfed blue-coloured antropomorph creatures as decoration on their walls. Digitally enhanced images of the mural found in the newly excavated pyramid suggest Moche artists drew rudimentary smurfs onto their buildings walls. The storyline might not have fully evolved, but on this computer enhanced image, the Smurf is definitely there.
Researchers aren’t quite sure yet what this early depiction of the ‘Schtroumphs’ (that’s what the indigenous call them) means, and why the Smurf normally considered peaceful is carrying something that looks like a club. Scholars are still looking for evidence of female Smurfs, in comic book legend referenced as ‘Smurfettes’.
Its possible they were sacrificed but we dont know.
The Moche settlement does seem to have many features in common with the Smurfs, not at least their financial system. The researchers said it is possible that the settlement without city walls or any defence system was ruled by what might have been considered lords (Papa Smurf) or a corporation of say co-operative but high status practitioners.
The Spiroe-era Smurfs are famous for their sense of community, a form of cooperation without currency, where each Smurf contributes to Smurf society as he or she can.
Mystery still enshrouds the disappearance of the Smurf civilisation from record until their re-appearance in ‘Johan et Pirlouit’ in 1958. Legend has it they lived in a part of the world called ‘Le Pays Maudit’ (the cursed land), which could only be reached by using magic or travelling through dense forests and a high mountain range, quite similar as to the environment in Peru. In an interview with Owen, Professor Swenson of the University of Toronto excavation team smurfed: Its possible they were sacrificed but we dont know.
Disclaimer: This is obviously, I hope a parody story but the ‘Smurf’ is original. At least, the non-digitally enhanced image. But the Moche warrior just looked so much like a smurf, we had to see what happened if we added a little colour. We’re hoping someone will smurf us ancient graffiti of Gargamel next! 😉
I was asked to gather a heap of data for our timeline-testing, and figured King Tut would make the most interesting case. Why?His history is one that contains a combination of ‘estimates’, undecided parentage and debated dates – and causes of death, as a matter of fact – with very few exact facts and dates for the era in which Carter and Carnarvon dug him out. The ‘split’ makes it a good test-case as well. There’s a huge gap between (circa) 1350BCand 1922 during which Pharaoh Tutankhamun was more or less left in peace. Tut’s tomb did not get robbed because the tombs on top of KV62 collapsed (Ramesses VI, as explained in this video by Dr Hawass), saveguarding the Boy King’s burial site until Carter and Carnarvon arrived in Egypt.
I’ve supplied all of the above data (and more), but still, it wasn’t enough – I needed some contemporaneous data, for testing purposes. After further digging, these were my favourite ‘discoveries’ of data (more or less) concurrent with the era of King Tut:
The burial of the Egtved Girl in Denmark in 1370BC. She was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well-preserved remains were found in a barrow. The oak log that she was buried in is dated to the summer of 1370 BC. She must have been 16 to 18 years old when she died, and was a slim, 160cm tall girl with long blond hair and well-trimmed nails. At her feet were the cremated remains of a 5 year-old child. Meet her in this video.
The end of Minoan culture. The 15th century BC saw the end of the Minoan culture, with most of the Minoan palaces abandoned. The Palace of Knossos, however, remained in use until it was destroyed by fire in 1375 (Minoan works of Art can be found at the Hyksos capital Avaris, Egypt).
Linear B, a syllabic script that was used for writing Mycenaean Greek, was in use around Tut’s time. The fire which destroyed Knossos baked the Linear Bclay tablets hard and this disaster preserved many of the tablets. It would take the Phoenicians another (more or less) 300 years to develop their alphabet, which eventually evolved into the Greek alphabet and the one I’m using for this blogpost. 😉
The birth of cremation. While the Egyptians were entombing their pharaohs in elaborate rituals, here in Europe, we gave up on burying the dead, and, apart from the odd accidental bog-mummy, cremation became the norm. Then, as now, the Brits were reluctant to give up the practice of burying their dead, and never fully converted to cremation.
The man with the golden mask (no, not that one). About a hundred years after King Tut’s death, Agamemnon ruled Mycenae as King. But ‘his’ mask was made 400 years before that.
The female Cladh Hallan mummy in Scotland. She died circa 1300BC, and about two days later her body was placed in a bog, and left there for about 6 to 18 months, et voila… a mummy (and one of the only examples of deliberate mummification carried out in ancient times ever found in Britain). Three centuries later, she was re-buried with a 600-year-old male mummy for company.
VIDEO: The Egtved Girl
Curator Flemming Kaul of the National Museum of Denmark introduces us to the Egved Girl.
Meanwhile, there wasn’t much going on at Stonehenge. Although it was probably still in (some kind of) use, the latest construction at the stone circle dates about 250 years before King Tut’s death.
At least, by that time, in Europe, we had started mastering horse-drawn chariots, got the hang of constructing hill forts and developed the first ploughs. But we would have to wait another 100 years for serious action and the start of the Trojan War.
I’m pretty sure I’ll get a request for even more data, so for (non-spoof) events worth mentioning that took place between 1500 and 1200 BCare more than welcome! (I’ll trade you Ancient World in London points for those – I trust splendid – suggestions. You’ll get 10 out of my stash of 429 for each correct answer!)
The Ancient World in London is in full swing: we’ve got events, competitions, quests, articles and interviews going up by the day, packing your lucky brains with fascinating info and exciting adventures. And hot on the heels of all this is the Ancient World in London video series, the first episode of which you can see right here, right now.
Each video will feature amazing places, strange artefacts and intriguing experts – as we take our three intrepid explorers on no fewer than 25 adventures in and around the capital. We’ll be meeting mysterious druid priests, famous historians and avid enthusiasts as they take us round places well known and long forgotten.
Our first video shows how we hand-picked our adventurers online, and how we began exploring the ancient world in London. We wanted to begin at the point most people encounter history in the capital: the British Museum. But while Jamie and Nicole’s trip was exciting, they were itching to get out and see the parts of London no-one tells you about in school. What better place to take our intrepid trio, then, than the London Stone – a seemingly uninspiring lump of limestone whose history has been entwined in the city since Roman times.
Our adventurers explored the mysterious London Stone
Trapped into a rusty grate on one of London’s busiest streets, it took a while for our adventurers to get to grips with the stone. Nicole and Natalie were unimpressed with its murky surroundings. Yet all three could see its appeal; its mystique and legend. How about comparing it to the Rosetta Stone, asked Jamie? By sunset all three were ready for their next adventure – and so were we – but it would have to wait another day.
We know how great these videos are going to be, so sit tight and get stuck into the Ancient World in London while you wait for our next big discoveries – you’ll find there’s an entire ancient world waiting to be explored…
“There is a bit of an Indiana Jones style to that portrait of my great-grandfather, and it rather sums up his character.” George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon looks up at the image of his namesake forebear admiringly. A dashing 5th Earl of Carnarvon looks playfully down the barrel of a cigarette, rogueish grin etched upon his face. No wonder he’s smiling: George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon is an archaeological legend – the man who alongside Howard Carter unlocked the 3,200-year-old secrets of Tutankhamun, Egypt’s boy-king.
Adventure, it seemed, was in Carnarvon’s blood. Born into immense wealth, the young aristrocrat could have carved an easy life moving between mansions, estates and the family seat at Highclere Castle. “”He loved Highclere and he loved the very comfortable, Edwardian life here,” says his great-grandson. “But he also loved travel and adventure.”
“There is a bit of an Indiana Jones style to my great-grandfather, and it rather sums up his character.”
But it wasn’t just the ancient world which fascinated Carnarvon. Well versed in aviation, he helped Geoffrey de Havilland get one of his first designs off the ground in 1909. But cars were his greatest love. A lifelong petrolhead, he pioneered racers at the turn of the 20th century, travelling the continent in search of speed. It would nearly prove his end when, in Germany, he swerved, hit a pile of rocks and smashed into the scenery. Carnarvon escaped, albeit with a seriously damaged leg: doctors urged him to eschew the cold wet winters of Britain for warmer climes.
Egypt beckoned, but Carnarvon wasn’t happy with the high life of his peers: “A lot of people went out to Egypt as part of a social life in Cairo,” says the 8th Earl, “but that wasn’t his interest at all: he’d have been bored stiff if he was stuck just doing that.” The early 20th century was seeing some spectacular archaeological breakthoughs. The excitement of the technologies of the future were twinned with a fascination for the past.
Enthralled with Egypt’s rich history, Carnarvon set out to discover its hidden secrets. By this time he was accompanied by his wife Almina Wombwell: ostensibly the daughter of an army captain but really the illegitimate child of banking tycoon Alfred de Rothschild.
De Rothschild doted on his daughter, giving her and her husband the money they needed to conduct more and more adventurous digs. An early mission saw months of work rewarded with just one mummified cat. Unpeturbed, Carnarvon continued in his quest, with Almina constantly by his side. “She was his friend, partner and wife,” says Fiona, 8th Countess of Carnarvon, “who started with these huge amounts of money. And clearly it developed into a great relationship.”
The couple would soon make the greatest discovery in history. But for that, and the tragic events surrounding Carnarvon’s death, you’ll have to check in to the next in our special series. Look out for our forthcoming ‘Ancient World in London’ series, when we’ll be exploring the great names of the Age of Discovery in Britain. You can even see us exploring the great archives of the Egypt Exploration Society in London, which feature the most famous archaeologists in history, here.
HDVideo: Discovering King Tut – 5th Earl of Carnarvon – Adventurous Life
Britain, man your TVs and iPlayers!Great Britain might be a small island but it has a huge history and, every year, hundreds of excavations bring lost treasures up to the surface. Presented by Dr Alice Roberts, ‘Digging For Britain‘ joins these excavations in a new BBC Twohistory series.
PASE Domesday, a database of Domesday Book linked to mapping resources, has been launched online today, ahead of tomorrows Domesday special to be broadcast on BBC Two (
Ever thought about a job that takes you across the length and breadth of Egypt, exploring the desert sands to find treasures and valuable artefacts that haven’t been touched in thousands of years?A career which gives you responsibility for some of the 
Dr Harry Sidebottom is a Fellow of St Benets Hall and lecturer at Lincoln College, Oxford, where he specializes in ancient warfare and classical art. He has an international reputation as a scholar, having published widely on ancient warfare, classical art and the cultural history of the Roman Empire. Harry is also a presenter on Ancient Discoveries for The History Channel and the best-selling fiction author of the Warrior of Rome series.
The BBC has officially announced its TVschedule for this autumn and winter, promising its audience a big focus on history, with new programmes and new presenters. What to expect from the Beeb this autumn and winter, when the rain and cold keeps you locked into your home?
Egypt beckoned, but