Aug 3rd, 2011 at 1:00PM:
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Tuesday that it would return 19 Egyptian antiquities that have lived at the museum for most of the last century. These artifacts, excavated from the 14th century B.C. tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut), include a sphinx bracelet, a small bronze dog, and a broad collar with beads, among other bits and pieces. Zahi Hawass, the former Secretary ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
rome posts
The world's most disputed antiquities: a top 5 list
Aug 3rd, 2011 at 1:00PM:
New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced Tuesday that it would return 19 Egyptian antiquities that have lived at the museum for most of the last century. These artifacts, excavated from the 14th century B.C. tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun (King Tut), include a sphinx bracelet, a small bronze dog, and a broad collar with beads, among other bits and pieces. Zahi Hawass, the former Secretary ...Archaeologists explore "Pompeiis" in Bulgaria and El Salvador
Jul 10th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
Pompeii is an archaeological wonder, an entire Roman town preserved by a volcanic eruption. Now archaeologists are investigating two other "Pompeiis" to learn more about the past.
In El Salvador, a team has discovered a village dating to c. 630 AD that was covered in volcanic ash. Joya de Ceren was sealed up so well that archaeologists have been able to examine corn cobs, the logs used to ...Roman bath discovered in York
Jun 22nd, 2011 at 8:30AM:
The remains of a Roman bath have been discovered in York in northern England.
Archaeologists made the find while excavating ahead of construction of the new City of York Council Headquarters. York (then called Eboracum) was an important trading center in Roman times. So important, in fact, that it had more than one bath. The image above is from the basement of the Roman Bath pub, where a ...Creepy and beautiful cemeteries around the world
Jun 20th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
Cemeteries aren't the first places most people go to while on vacation, but they can tell a lot about a culture and its history. We all have to die sometime and the way we deal with the dead says a lot about ourselves.
Some cemeteries are overgrown and covered in moss. Others are orderly and well-kept. Some are beautiful, and can inspire wonderful photographs like the one taken here by user ...New discoveries reveal life and times of the Roman Emperor Hadrian
Jun 19th, 2011 at 3:00PM: The Emperor Hadrian is one of Rome's most famous emperors, ruling at the height of the Empire from 117-138 AD. His villa just north of Rome is a popular tourist attraction, yet some Italian researchers have discovered what countless visitors never noticed: the buildings are aligned with astronomical events.
On the summer solstice (June 21 this year) light passes through an opening above a ...Gladiator died because of ref's error, says archaeologist
Jun 19th, 2011 at 12:00PM: A gladiator who fought 1,800 years ago may have died because of a bad call from a ref.
Archaeologists have long puzzled over a line in the epitaph of Diodorus the gladiator's gravestone. It reads, "After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately. Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."
The summa rudis was a referee who oversaw gladiator games. Unlike ...Ancient faces: the Fayum mummy portraits of Egypt
Jun 13th, 2011 at 10:30AM: The pyramids, Tutankhamen's gold, the massive temples of Luxor and Karnak. . .the civilization of ancient Egypt has left us an incredible legacy, yet of all of these impressive monuments and treasures none has a more personal effect on the viewer than the Fayum mummy portraits.
During the Graeco-Roman period, after Egypt had fallen first to Alexander the Great and then to the Romans, the old ...Book review: Quiet Corners of Rome
May 24th, 2011 at 10:30AM: Travel guidebooks conceive of the world as a series of obvious, important monuments. This is particularly true of a brash and magnificent city like Rome. Your typical traveler could be forgiven for simplifying this complex historic capital down to a giant marble stadium, a series of famous steps and giant chapel mural. But writer David Downie reminds us there's a lot more to Rome than its ...Crucifixion nails found in Israel? Probably not.
Apr 16th, 2011 at 11:30AM: There's been a shocking archaeological discovery in Israel. Nails from the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ have been found!
Well, no, probably not.
The claim comes from Israeli Canadian documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, the Washington Post reports. Jacobovici has done several documentaries on Christian subjects and came across an archaeological report from 1990 mentioning the discovery of ...Where are all the travel guide apps for Android?
Mar 25th, 2011 at 11:00AM: Nearly two years ago, I bought my first smartphone: the T-Mobile Android MyTouch*. I'm only occasionally jealous of my iPhone-carrying friends, as I find few travel guide apps for Android. Even after a move to Istanbul, I still use and rely upon it daily; Android's interface is fast and easy-to-use, and seamless use of Google applications like Gmail and Google Maps is part of the reason I bought ...Celebrate Italy's 150th birthday in Torino
Mar 17th, 2011 at 1:30PM: 150 years ago, Italy became a country. Well, sort of. Venice and Rome didn't join for another 9 years, so many Italians will be waiting until 2020 for the big celebration of the Risorgimento, as the unification is called in Italian. Nevertheless, as Italy's first capital city in 1861, Torino (aka Turin, home of the famed Shroud) is celebrating all year, including the reopening today of the ...Rome - 3 days in Italy
Mar 16th, 2011 at 2:30PM:
With the bustle of a large European metropolis and the detritus of a monumental past, Rome delights with a frenetic pace and antiquities lurking innocuously around each bend in the road. Here, history has been built on top of history for thousands of years. Seeing bankers in candy red Alfa Romeos zipping by millenia old ruins frames the endurance of this old city. Each sediment in time is ...A guide to America's most "offal" restaurants
Mar 11th, 2011 at 11:00AM: Even when I was a finicky kid subsisting on Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, I was intrigued by offal. No way in hell would I have eaten what are politely known in the food industry as "variety meats," but they sure looked intriguing.
As with most of my weird habits, I blame my dad for my fascination with animal guts. Growing up the daughter of a large animal vet, I spent most of my formative years ...Spring Break deals: Fares up overall, best deals can be found to Florida, Europe
Feb 24th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
The folks over at Bing Travel have been studying up on 2011 Spring Break airfare, and we hate to break it to you, but they've found that the average airfare cost is up more than 10 percent over last year, to $489. But the airfare increase doesn't have to stop the beach party. If you choose wisely, there are still plenty of Spring Break deals to be had.
Bing's Spring Break Travel Forecast ...Roman child's footprints discovered in northern England
Feb 15th, 2011 at 1:30PM:
Every now and then an archaeological discovery makes me realize just how much we have in common with our ancestors.
Just this morning I was telling my son to keep out of the mud. I didn't want his shoes to get dirty, you see, and didn't give much thought to the footprints he left behind.
Two thousand years ago in Roman Britain a child was hopping or skipping beside the road. Archaeologists ...Tod's shoe company to restore Rome's Colosseum
Jan 23rd, 2011 at 11:00AM: The Colosseum in Rome will get some much-needed repairs thanks to the sponsorship of Tod's, an Italian luxury shoe manufacturer, the BBC reports.
The restoration will cost about 25 million euros ($34 million). The iconic gladiator arena is right next to a busy road in a polluted city, and a subway line runs close by. Many stones have shifted and require bracing, and the whole things needs a ...Caligula's tomb discovered? Probably not
Jan 19th, 2011 at 8:30AM: The newswires are on fire with a remarkable discovery--the tomb of the infamous Roman emperor Caligula has been discovered near Rome.
The Guardian reports that Italian police caught a man loading a Roman statue onto the back of a truck at Lake Nemi, where Caligula had a palace. They arrested him and when they examined the statue were amazed to see that the man it depicted wore caligae, a type ...Top five castles of Extremadura, Spain
Jan 10th, 2011 at 9:00AM:
Spain is one of the best countries in the world to see castles. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Iberian peninsula was split between various Christian states and the Moors, Muslim invaders from North Africa. These factions fought and traded with each other in a constantly changing network of political alliances. Leaders protected their domains with castles and walled cities. One of the hot ...The Visigoths: Spain's forgotten conquerors
Dec 31st, 2010 at 2:30PM: When most people think of the fall of the Roman Empire, they think of hordes of howling barbarians swarming over the frontier and laying waste to civilization. That's only partially true. In reality, many tribes were invited, and even those that weren't came with their families not just to conquer, but to settle. This is why historians prefer the term "Migration Period". And although these tribes ...Rome's Vatican Museums host rare Aboriginal art exhibition
Dec 31st, 2010 at 2:00PM: No one can ever accuse the Vatican of acting impulsively. In 1925, over 300 artworks and relics were sent to Rome by Aboriginal Australians, for a papal show. Since that time, the items have been squirreled away, despite being one of the world's finest collections of Aboriginal art and artifacts, according to a recent New York Times article.
Fortunately, these treasures are now on public ...
