Tag: Visit

Unique Iron Age Hoard goes on display at Ipswich Museum

The Iron Age gold coins discovered at Wickham Market, and their container. - Image courtesy of Suffolk Archaeological Unit From May 3rd until June 10th, the Ipswich Museum is hosting a free sneak preview of 2,000-year-old Iron Age gold coins once belonging to Boudicca’s Iceni tribe. The 200 coins on display are part of the Wickham Market hoard, discovered in 2008.

The Wickham Market hoard consists of 840 Iron Age gold coins which makes it the largest the largest hoard of its type found in Britain since 1849 (and is featured in our Top 10 Metal Detector Discoveries). Almost all of the coins belong to the Iceni tribe but five of them were ‘issued’ by a neighbouring tribe from Lincolnshire, the Corieltauvi. The hoard dates from between 20 BC and AD 20 about 40 years before queen Boudicca led her famous revolt against the Romans, which saw the destruction of the Roman towns of Colchester, London and St Albans.

It is thought that the coins were buried by members of the Iceni tribe whose kingdom covered Norfolk, north Suffolk and parts of Cambridgeshire. It is unknown why they buried the coins. Possibly the 840 coins were an offering to the gods, yet more likely is that the treasure was buried for safe keeping in troubled times. In that period, Cunobelin, leader of the Hertfordshire based Catuvallauni, had already taken over the Trinovantes tribe of south Suffolk and Essex and were looking to expand into Iceni territory. His attempt was unsuccessful but it may have been enough to worry people living near to the tribal borders.

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Episode 6: Boudicca, Celtic Warrior Queen

The Romans hated her, the Celts fought for her and now she is immortalised with a statue in Westminster. But who was Boudicca?

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The Iron Age coins would not have been not used like money is today. The coins were a form of portable wealth, likely given to loyal warriors who served their tribal leaders. Each Iron Age tribe produced its own coins, complete with their own designs. Nowadays, archaeologists are able to plot tribal territories and understand the political landscape of Britain on the eve of the Roman invasion by tracking the spread of coin.

Caroline McDonald, Curator of Archaeology at the Ipswich Museum, is particularly excited by the ancient coins’ arrival.

Suffolk earth has revealed some of the nations most outstanding treasure finds in recent decades. The amazing Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, the stunning silver Roman dinner service found at Mildenhall during World War II and more recently the Hoxne hoard of Roman coins and artefacts found in the 1990s. All of these finds are now in London at the British Museum. The opportunity to purchase the Wickham Market coin hoard is the first time we could retain a national treasure in Suffolk, she points out.

It will be far better appreciated and understood here and gives everyone in the county something to be proud of.

The Iron Age gold coins discovered at Wickham Market, and their container. - Image courtesy of Suffolk Archaeological Unit

The Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service has until the end of June to raise 300,000 to purchase the hoard from the Crown, and began the fund-raising process by applying to the countrys major funders of heritage and the arts. However, Caroline urges everyone to come and see the coins while they are on display at the Ipswich Museum.

Colchester and Ipswich Museum has an outstanding record for fund-raising but until we raise all of the money this may be the only chance to see some of the hoard on display in Suffolk. This is our history at its finest so come and share in the excitement.

Ipswich Museum, located in High Street, is open Tuesday to Saturday 10-5pm and visiting is free of charge. Currently, the museum isn’t formally asking the public to contribute towards the purchase of the Wickham Market hoard, but if you do wish to help save this outstanding archaeological treasure for the nation and people of Suffolk, you can make a donation at the front desk.

Petrie Museum celebrates the extraordinary life of Amelia Edwards

On March 8th, International Woman’s Day is celebrating its centenary, and the Petrie Museum is joining in by honouring Victorian writer Amelia Edwards, for without her, there may have never have been a ‘Petrie Museum’.

Amelia Edwards was a novelist and travel writer, as well as an Egyptologist. After visiting for the first time in Egypt 1873, she wrote a vivid account of her adventure in A Thousand Miles up the Nile. She was the driving force behind the establishment of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the EES) in 1882 to promote the scientific exploration of Egypt and its monuments.

I’m not Egyptologist, I’m not archaeologist, but I want my own bequest, my money to go somewhere, where I could have studied myself

With the help of Flinders Petrie, she started her own private Egyptology teaching collection. I’m not Egyptologist, I’m not archaeologist, but I want my own bequest, my money to go somewhere, where I could have studied myself, she said.

When she died in 1892, Amelia Edwards left her large collection to UCL, as at the time, it was the only university to award degrees to women. These items, several hundred Egyptian antiquities, as well as her library of books, photographs and other documents concerning ancient Egypt, now form the core of the Petrie Museum. She also left funds to create Britain’s first professorship in Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at UCL, held first by Flinders Petrie.

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Stephen Quirke on Amelia Edwards and The Petrie Museum

Heritage Key enters the Petrie Museum in London to talk to the curator Dr Stephen Quirke, who explains the importance of one of the co-founders of the Egypt Exploration Society – Amelia Edwards.

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To honour Amelia Edwards contributions, on March 8th, the Petrie Museum will install a bust of Amelia Edwards, and an image of her study, at its entrance. This will be followed by a performance in the museum of ‘Hers was the Earth…’, a one-woman show by Kim Hicks about the extraordinary life of Amelia Edwards.

The Petrie Museum might just be London’s best concealed treasure, so why not combine celebrating women’s achievements with your own little adventure and discovering (hint!) a hidden gem?

‘International Womens Day the Petrie Museum honours Amelia Edwards’ starts at 6 pm, on Tuesday March 8th 2011. Tickets are 10 for Friends and 12 for non-Friends. To book, and for more information, see the Petrie Museum website, or mail the PMF’s secretary at janpicton@ijnet.demon.co.uk.

Directions: I strongly advice against starting at the UCL main entrance at Gower Street and trying to find your way through the university building(s), unless you want to ‘discover’ the two Coptos Lions brought from Egypt by Flinders Petrie. The lions can be found before the Provost’s Office at University College London, near the embalmed body of Jeremy Bentham (to then get to the Petrie museum,follow these instructions, from (5) to (7)). But the quickest way to access the museum, is definitely via Torrington Place.

New Clues to Welsh Origins of Stonehenge Bluestones

Map of the UK, showing the location of the Preseli Hills and Pont Saeson, in Wales, and Stonehenge. The source of Stonehenge’s bluestones a distinctive set of stones that form the inner circle and inner horseshoe of Stonehenge has long been a subject of fascination and considerable controversy.

In the early 1920s, one type of bluestone, the so-called spotted dolerite, was convincingly traced to the Mynydd Preseli area, in north Pembrokeshire. However, the sources of the other bluestones – chiefly rhyolites (a type of rock) and the rare sandstones remained, unknown.

Now geologists at Amgueddfa Cymru, the National Museum Wales, have further identified the sources of one of the rhyolite types.

The find also provides the opportunity for new thoughts on how the stones might have been transported to the Stonehenge area.

Dr Richard Bevins, in partnership with Dr Rob Ixer, University of Leicester and Dr Nick Pearce of Aberystwyth University, have been working on the rhyolite component of the bluestones, which leads them to believe it is of Welsh origin.

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A Druid Priest explains Stonehenge

Meet Kim Payne, a druid priest and listen to his explanations of the history of one of the world’s most enchanting and mysterious monuments. How did the stones get there? What are the issues with accessing it?

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For their research, the team used standard petrographical techniques, as well as sophisticated chemical analysis using laser ablation induction coupled mass spectrometry in which the rock’s microscopic crystals are vaporised, with the chemical composition of the resulting gases unique for each form of rock.

They tested samples from Stonehenge and north Pembrokeshire, and matched one particular rhyolite to an area north of the Mynydd Preseli range, in the vicinity of Pont Saeson (ordenance survey map).

Matching up the rock from Stonehenge with a rock outcrop in Pembrokeshire has been a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack but Ive looked at many if not most outcrops in the Mynydd Preseli area, says Bevins.

We are however, confident that we have found the source of one of the rhyolites from Stonehenge because weve been able to make the match on a range of features not just a single characteristic. Now we are looking for the sources of the other Stonehenge volcanic and sandstone rocks.

Stonehenge Close Up - Ann

Much of the archaeology in recent years has been based upon the assumption that Neolithic Age man had a reason for transporting bluestones weighing up to four tonnes all the way from west Wales to Stonehenge and the technical capacity to do it.

“This recent discovery is very significant as it potentially provides us with new clues for understanding how and possibly why the Welsh bluestones were transported to the Stonehenge area, explains Dr Richard Bevins, Keeper of Geology at the National Museum Wales.

It has been argued that humans transported the spotted dolerites from the high ground of Mynydd Preseli down to the coast at Milford Haven and then rafted them up the Bristol Channel and up the River Avon to the Stonehenge area.

However, the outcome of our research questions that route, as it is unlikely that they would have transported the Pont Saeson stones up slope and over Mynydd Preseli to Milford Haven.

If humans were responsible then an alternative route might need to be considered. However, some believe that the stones were transported by the actions of glacier sheets during the last glaciation and so the Pont Season discovery will need appraising in the context of this hypothesis.

Stonehenge-researcher Mike Parker Pearson called the discovery hugely significant.

It forces us to re-think the route taken by the bluestones to Stonehenge and opens up the possibility of finding many of the quarries from which they came, added Parker Pearson, Professor of Archaeology at Sheffield University.

Its a further step towards revealing why these mysterious stones were so special to the people of the Neolithic.

The findings are published in the March 2011 edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science, as ‘Stonehenge rhyolitic bluestone sources and the application of zircon chemistry as a new tool for provenancing rhyolitic lithics‘.

Some Egypt Tour Operators Offering Full Refunds

UK travel company Bales Worldwide which runs specialist Egyptian package holiday operator Ancient World Tours says it is following industry practice andis offering full refunds for a limited timeas the situation in Egypt changes.

The British Foreign & CommonwealthOffice (FCO) is advising to avoid any non-essential travel to Egypt as well as urging people to leave the country via commercial transport. Check the latest FCO advisory here.

British Airways is also offering refunds and exchanges:

“Even if your flight is operating, the following options are available to you if you are due to travel to or from Cairo and purchased your ticket on or before 28 January 2011. If you are due to travel on or before 3 February 2011, you can: 1)Change the date of travel to a later date up to 28 February 2011. 2)Cancel your booking and obtain a refund to the original form of payment. 3)Use the value of your ticket towards the purchase of a new ticket to any other destination. or 4)If you are due to travel in or out of Cairo you may choose to travel in or out of Sharm El Sheikh. See the latest BA details here.

On the site of STA Travel however, they are showing their policy that will not give any refunds for what they call “changes beyond our control”.

They further explain:”Compensation will not apply if a significant change is made for reasons beyond our control. These include: war, threat of war, riots, civil disturbances, terrorist activity, industrial disputes, natural and nuclear disasters, fire, epidemics, health risks, changes due to rescheduling or cancellation of flights by an airline…”

You might find that your tour operator has additional conditions regarding refunds.

Also,check your travel insurance or credit card coverage to see what might be protected. ABTA the travel association offers some steps for resolving complaints with its member tour operators.

More than 1.3 million people visited Egypt from the UK in 2009.Tourism in Egypt is reported to be 7.3 billion a year in 2009 and employing 12% of the population.

New lighting system at Valley of the Kings means longer visitor hours for ancient Egyptian tombs

Dr Hawass said the new lighting system will aslo provide a beautiful and a dramatic scene at night for the pedestrians walking along the Nile cornice on the east bank in Luxor Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, announced that with a total of 922 units the installation of the new lighting system on Luxors west bank has been completed, allowing for people to visit the tombs in the evening.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said that the aim of this project is to preserve the tombs and temples located on Luxors west bank.

The thousands of tourists that daily visit the heritage site will now be distributed throughout the day, from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm.

This, he continued, will reduce the level of humidity inside the tombs, which negatively affect its paintings.

The humidity and fungus generated through breath and sweat is gradually eroding the soft stone chambers, and slowly destroying the ancient paintings and carvings.

Hawass added that the new lighting system will also provide a beautiful and a dramatic scene at night for the pedestrians walking along the Nile cornice on the east bank in Luxor.

The new lighting system is one of various measures taken in a bid to preserve the tombs, which include tomb closures, and maybe even the reconstruction of a 'Replica Valley of the Kings'.

Dr. Sabri Abdel Aziz, Head of the Pharaonic Antiquities at the SCA, said that that the project included the lighting of the mountains located on the west bank, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the noblemens tombs, the northern side of Al-Qurna, and Hatshepsuts temple.

The project, carried out by the SCA in collaboration with Egypts Sound and Light organization and the French lighting company Architecture Lumire, had a budget of 56 millions LE about 6.2 million, or almost ten million USD.

The installation of the ‘cool lighting’ system is just one of many steps taken to preserve the royal tombs.

Dr Hawass earlier announced that, in a bid to encourage tourists to visit the less popular tombs, some of the most famous tombs in the Valley of the Kings would be closed to those on a moderate budget.

“Whoever wants to visit the original tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Nefertari must pay a huge amount of money,” he commented then.

Eventually, Dr Hawass hopes to create a ‘Replica Valley’, containing identical replicas of the three tombs for tourists to visit, as with Lascaux II has been successfully done for the caves of Lascaux.

These replica tombs will be based on laser scans and high-resolution photographs of the burial chambers and sarcophagi. These would incorporate missing fragments of the tombs that are now held at foreign museums. With King Tut’s replica mummy already looking scaringly real, and Sandro Vannini’s fabulous images of the tomb paintings as examples of what can be achieved with the right combination of equipment and knowledge, I have high hopes for the reconstruction results.

Until the physical replica of KV62 is finished, you can still have a look at a 3D replica of the tomb based on Sandro Vanninis photographs using Heritage Key Virtual, or visit a ‘real life’ – and truly astonishing – replica of how Howard Carter found King Tut’s tomb, at the travelling exhibition ‘Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures’ currently visiting Manchester. Watch a preview and learn how the replicas were made in this video.

Video: Replica King Tut Treasures offer Real Discovery at Manchester Exhibition

Last week I visited the ‘Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures’ exhibition in Manchester with Mary-Ann Craig (video), and well… saw wonderful things, and everywhere, the glint of gold. The moment I marvelled at the recreation of the set-up used to remove Tutankhamun’s sarcophagi from his tomb, any doubts still left about the power of replicas disappeared, and I would strongly suggest you visit the touring exhibition before it leaves the UK.

Yet, if you want an expert opinion the matter (as well as a great introduction to your visit), watch our Heritage Key video with Robert Partridge, editor of ‘Ancient Egypt‘.

As any good exhibition (especially one with many students, young and old, in its audience) should, ‘Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures’ starts by putting King Tut in context geographically, and most important on a timeline. Fast-forward to 1922, Valley of the Kings, where we join Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon for the most important archaeological discovery of all times KV62, or Tutankhamun’s tomb.

When Carter started clearing the tomb, he recorded each artefact (more than 5,000 in total), and made sure the most important treasures, and their location, were captured on glass plate (no film yet) by photographer Harry Burton. It is these detailed records and amazing black-and-white captures, that have allowed for ‘Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures’ to be produced, and when entering the recreation of Tut’s tomb chambers, you truly feel you are allowed a peek through Carter’s eyes. (See Burton’s images and the recreation of the chambers in the video below.)

Video: King Tut’s Replica Treasures with Bob Partridge & Mary-Ann Craig

Transcription of the video.

To my surprise, it was not the reproduction of the tomb scenes ‘as was’ that fascinated me most. Most enthralling was the life-size depiction of how Carter managed to, despite the limited space in the tomb, lift the heavy, golden coffins out of the sarcophagus something that is terribly hard to convey in just images or text.

After the recreation of Harry Burton’s pictures as Bob points out, in full-colour and 3D you see high-quality replicas of the pharoah’s burial shrines, his coffins and golden death mask (see King Tut’s mask in 3D and take the quiz to test your knowledge), the canopic shrine and chest, one of Tutankhamun’s gilded chariots and many of the Boy King’s grave gifts the famous ones, as well as some very personal ones. From these, my favourite must be the tiny wooden chair used by the pharaoh when he was just a little child; an object I would have definitely overlooked, were it not for Bob.

Tutankhamun's Treasures - Explaining how all fits together

Tutankhamun's Treasures - Robert, Mary-Ann and the little chair

Other often underappreciated treasures on display are the recreated coffins of two mummified foetuses (as they were found in his tomb, they are likely to be Tut’s), the trumpets and other music instruments, the beautiful miniature boats and a multitude of ritual figurines with their black, wooden coffins. Until I saw these statuettes all assembled, I did not realise just how many were amassed and repurposed for Tut’s burial.

There is more to be said for the exhibition than that it puts the discoveries made by Carter back in context. It is great to see Tut’s treasures, even if they are ‘mere’ recreations, given the space they deservewhich allows for looking at the artefacts from all angles, minus the annoyance of fingerprint-stained glass.

The impressive set-up does not only provide enough space for the boy king’s treasures, but also for their visitors. It is surprisingly pleasant to read* the detailed information signs without the breath of a dozen sweaty, smelly tourists on your neck.

Overall, a really gratifying visit (not the least thanks to Bob’s excellent tour), and if you are in charge of kids that need to be entertained or educated over the holiday season (or grown-up friends who could do with an introduction to ancient Egypt), DO take them to the Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures Manchester, rather than the Book of the Dead show currently on at the British Museum.

The journey through the afterlife is interesting, no doubt, but Tutankhamun’s replica treasures tell the story as well, with the addition of a personal touch and information and objects from the daily royal life in ancient Egypt.

For tickets, opening times and activity sheets for your kids to use, seetutankhamunmanchester.com. For the Christmas holidays, you can visit ‘Tut at Twilight’, have all your (ancient Egypt) questions answered by Egyptologists present in the galleries, and return home with your very own special Hieroglyphic exhibition mug.

* I am not a fan of audio guides. Although I consider a good narrative essential for an exhibition to be engaging, I do like to explore that storyline ‘at my own pace’, reading the information with objects I find interesting, skipping the parts (I believe) I already know off, or often return to a related object to take a better look. But Bob said the audio guide that accompanies the ‘Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures’ exhibition in Manchester is excellent, so please, don’t let my old fashioned ideas and inability to come to terms with new technology stop you from using it! 😉

Roman Pub Discovered Under New Luxury Hotel in London Syon Park

During excavation work in 2008 to build a new luxury hotel on the grounds of Syon Park in west London on the bank of the Thames workers encountered buried objects. The Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) department now confirms that these are Roman artefacts dating from the 1st century AD.

Thousands of artefacts have been collected during the field work including a late bronze age gold bracelet, which has no context in the Roman settlement. Additionally notes the Museum: “Human skeletons found, could have been the remains of former occupants of the settlement, although the placing of the skeletons in ditches is particularly curious and more research is currently being undertaken.”

Jo Lyon, Senior Archaeologist at MOLA says “we have collected more than 11,500 pottery fragments, some of high status as well as many coins and jewellery. It is really just someone else’s rubbish–but it is treasure to us. We can now understand daily life during the mid-Romanization of Britain period. It was the height of their empire and they were spreading out. The area was settled for a sequence of 300 years.”

“The human remains,” comments Lyon, “were not found in a cemetery, but sort of in the back garden. It is extremely casual–odd even.”

The artefacts were found very close to the surface, less than 0.5 meter deep. The artefacts are all now in the MOLA lab being studied further. Hopefully there will be more to learn from this activity still.

The location is on the road between major Roman cities of Londinium (take a video tour of Londinium with history-buff Ian Smith) and Silchester and the settlement was likely a resting point for travellers. Interesting then that a new hotel is being placed in same area thousands of years later. It is a lovely spot overlooking the river. The new Waldorf Astoria hotel is planned to open in 2011 and may show some of the artefacts on their site. Hopefully the best pieces will not be auctioned-off to a private buyer like the Crosby Garret Cavalary Helmetthat fetched 2 million. However, the artefacts are on the property of the Duke of Northumberland, one of the wealthiest men in Britain, so it will be interesting to see what he decides to do with these discoveries.

The Museum of London Archaeology department is quite active helping construction companies to preserve the ancient heritage while still advancing the modern skyline and new buildings.

Melbourne Museum brings ‘Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs’ to Australia

One of Tutankhamun's canopic coffinettes travelling with 'Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs' Treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamun will be seen in Australia for the first time, when the Melbourne Museum hosts ‘Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of The Pharaohs’, startingApril, 2011.

Up to 700,000 people are expected to visit the exhibition, which will feature more than 130 artefacts from Tut’s tomb and the gravesand temples of his ancestors from Egypt’s 200-year ‘Golden Age’.

Six months ago,Frank Howarth, director of Sydney’s Australian Museum, said the show’s $10 million price tag for six months, and its size were too big for Australian institutions to handle. In stead, the Australian Museum hosted the $1.5 million exhibition ‘Egyptian Treasures: Art of the Pharaohs’, from the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Austria.

Now, the Melbourne Museum entered a partnership with sports and entertainment management company IMG, Victorian Major Events Company and the State Government to bring the Tutankhamun exhibition currently running in New York, with specials suchas King Tut’s chariot andan impressive 3D replica of King Tut’s mummy to Melbourne.

Among the artefacts that will visit Melbourne are fifty treasures* that belonged to Tutankhamun including his golden diadem, the falcon collar, golden daggers and jewellery.

Other King Tut masterpieces (preview) on show are a canopic coffin, Tut’s gilded chair and a beautifully crafted board game.

These will be accompanied by eighty more treasures found in other royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings (Keith listed his Top 10 things you shouldn’t miss here).

The exhibition heading for Australia is one of two King Tut spectaculars doing the rounds, both sponsored by National Geographic. The other exhibition, ‘Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharoahs’ currently runs at the Denver Art Museum.

After Melbourne, the exhibits in ‘Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs’ are likely to return to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

* The exhibition does not include King Tut’s golden death mask and burial coffins. The image that so far has been used on all of the posters for the ‘Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs’ exhibition is from a smaller coffinette holding King Tut’s liver. Tut’s death mask is safely kept in the Cairo Museum, which it will only leave to travel to the Grand Egyptian Museum, once this is finished.

Alternatives to a visit to Egypt for marvelling at these amazing burial items are our virtual death mask and sarcophagus at King Tut Virtual (or the 3DQuiz here), or for a glimpseof the treasures set in a replica of Tut’s tomb,a visit to the Semmel exhibition ‘Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures’ (on display at Manchester until February 27th, 2011).

Tutankhamun visits Manchester, brings Tomb and Treasures

'Tutankhamun - His Tomb and His Treasures' will be at the Mancherster Museum of Museums until February 27th, 2011. King Tut’s treasures are returning to the UK, as ‘Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures’ opened this weekend at Manchester’s Museum of Museums.

Over 1,000 faithful replicas offer visitors the opportunity to look through Howard Carter’s eyes and experience the greatest discovery of all time for themselves.

The entire world is familiar with ancient Egypt’s ‘piece de resistance’, the symbol of Egyptology King Tut’s golden death mask (slideshow).

Yet, fewer people know that when Carter and Carnarvon discovered the pharaoh’s final resting place in 1922, it contained so many treasures that it was almost impossible to enter. It would take Carter ten years to catalogue the 5,398 artefacts stacked in the tomb.

The items recovered over those ten years include jewellery, cult objects, amulets, coffers, chests, chairs, weapons, musical instruments, a stunning golden chariot, the golden shrines and the legendary death mask.

‘Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures’ promises just that; to complete the experience by not just showing you truly wonderful things, but the bigger picture.

For the touring exhibition ‘Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures’, a thousand of these precious artefacts have been reproduced. The almost exact (no solid gold, though) copies are shown ‘returned’ to their rightful place in the three burial chambers, recreated based on the sketches and diary notes by Howard Carter and Harry Burton’s original photographs.

The Manchester stop of the tour includes a brand new display, entitled ‘Howard Carter The Discoverer of Tutankhamun’. It is curated by leading Egyptologist Dr. Jaromir Malek, Keeper of the Tutankhamun Archives at the Griffith Institute at Oxford University.

The attention which is paid to detail is outstanding, he said about the travelling showcase. This exhibition can do things which no other is able to. Its educational and information value surpasses that of the usual Tutankhamun shows. The intention to inform and to approach the topic seriously is unmistakably felt from the beginning to the end.

Click To Watch Video

Discovering King Tut – Carnarvon and the Artefacts

The 8th Earl of Carnarvon, George Herbert and his wife, 8th Countess of Carnarvon, Fiona Herbert, discuss some of the artefacts found inside the tomb of King Tutankhamun by Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter.

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Replicas; better than the real thing?

Today, most of King Tut‘s grave goods are on display at the Cairo Museum (soon they’ll be moved to the forthcoming Grand Egyptian Museum). Some of the artefacts are touring (largely, the artefacts of which they have multiple, almost similar versions) and Tutankhamun’s mummy is housed at his tomb in the Valley of the Kings (a very neat replica of the remainsis touring as well). Dr Zahi Hawass states (and I tend to believe him on this) that neither the Golden Death Mask, nor the mummy will ever be permitted to leave Egypt again. It is inevitable that KV62 (Tut’s Tomb) is closed or access to it severely limited to protect it from the damages tourists, unwillingly, inflict unwillingly, inflict on the ancient murals. To accomodate the 21st century explorers, a replica Valley of the Kings will be constructed.

So, where does that leave us mere mortals, trying to experience a bit of the magic Carter felt when he was the first person in over 2,000 years to behold such wonderful things?

I’ve been to the Cairo Museum, where Tut’s multitude of treasures is kept in glass cabinets, to together with the many other holidaymakers shuffle from wonderful thing to wonderful thing. When after five hours we left the museum, I was proud of my newly gained knowledge of All Things Ancient Egyptian; they built large statues, and had many gods, good craftsmen as well as lots of gold. But I confess, after five hours of shuffling and reading little info cards,I stilldid not have the slightest clue who Howard Carter was. There was no real narrative to catalogue what I saw, and definitely no realisation of just how major the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb was.

So maybe and in my opinion, most definitely a accurate replica put in context (or a thousand replicas, put together in Tut’s tomb) can have more value than the original. ‘Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures’ promises just that; to complete the experience by not just showing you truly wonderful things, but the bigger picture.

Tutankhamun His Tomb and His Treasures is on at Manchesters new Museum of Museums (situated at The Trafford Centre, Barton Square). The exhibition runs until February 27th, 2011. Tickets and more info at www.tutankhamunmanchester.com.

Quest Your Way to Find the Mummies

Exploring is more fun now with the new Heritage Key Virtual Quest in the Treasures region!

As you land in the Arrivals Area after logging into Heritage Key Virtual, make your way to the teleports where you will see several destinations. Selecting “Treasures” will take you to King Tutankhamun’s Golden Shrine.

One of the museum guides will give you the keys that you will need to find the mummy. This is a short quest which will take you into the Golden Shrine. You will slowly open and enter the layers of the shrine and while doing you will get real close to the life-like example of the greatest find in archaeology. Be fascinated by each close-up zoom to Tutankhamun’s Golden Coffins; the details are breathtakingly intricate and stunning. Of course, we have bought some excitement to the questing and we can assure you if you are scared of heights and dark rooms, this will definitely do the trick.

Once you reach the end and find the key where the mummy is hiding you will be rewarded with a Quest Badge. By linking your Heritage Key account to your Facebook profile, you will then be able to share your Find the Mummy Badge on your Facebook wall. There are many other quests throughout the other regions. Do visit the Valley of the Kings where there is one short but fun quest to find the Golden Mask in the Valley of the Kings. Finish all quests, explore, have fun and share the rewards with your friends in Facebook.

While you are in Valley of the Kings don’t forget to click on the driver to have your chance to win a 1,000 worth of travel with Addison Lee, the London Based minicab company. Addison Lee will provide 1000 of cab rides in and around London to one lucky winner. The closing deadline to enter is today, so be quick!