"I hope that by the end of 2008 we will be able to reveal the final mysteries of the tomb of Seti I, the most beautiful tomb in the valley..."
And again, "We are hoping to find the tomb of Ramesses VIII, which has never been discovered, somewhere between the tomb of Merenptah (KV 8), son and successor of Ramesses II, and the tomb of Ramesses II himself (KV 7)..."
According to Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, there are many secrets still hidden under the Egyptian sand. He reveals the latest activity in the Valley of the Kings in a new posting on his website . It's an interesting reading. Just click on the picture to access it.
It took longer than expected, but it appears that I'm almost done with the Archaeorama center in Second Life. Everything is there -- tested, working and ready to play.
I just need some finishing touches before the official opening. I'm pleased to inform you that Archaeorama, the 3D extension of this blog, will open to the public on Sunday, May 18 at 9:00 am Second Life/ PDT Time.
I'm particularly proud of "The Secret Chamber", a free adaptation of the "Amduat - the Book of the Secret Chamber".
Meaning "that which is in the netherworld", the Amduat was an important ancient Egyptian funerary text, and was believed to contain the secret to eternal life.
In order to gain eternal life, everyone who died had to complete a 12-hour journey mirroring the journey of the sun god Ra from dusk till dawn.
At the Archaeorama center, avatars who enter the Secret Chamber will have to take that difficult itinerary, and go through twelve dangerous regions of the ancient Egyptian underworld, each one corresponding to an hour of the night.
Here is a video preview of what your avatar might expect to find once s/he enters the Chamber.
The video is called "A Pharoah's Journey To The Afterlife" and was partly produced in-world using the machinima technique and hi-res photos of Egyptian tombs (courtesy of Sandro Vannini/De Agostini).
In the next postings, I'll give you more information about the Archaeorama opening. Stay tuned!
A rather slow week. Among the most interesting news, the case of the androgynous pharaoh Akhenaten, a sunken treasure in a shipwreck off the African coast of Namibia, a new investigations into Aztec turquoise mosaics, and a study suggesting that Celtic roots lie in Spain and Portugal.
Also, a medieval pavement, made up of rare marbles and gemstones, has been revealed at London's Westminster Abbey, while a new study suggested that Neandertals had big mouths that they were able to open unusually wide. At last, researchers are revising the image of the Vikings: from longship ram-raiders to the fishmongers of Europe.
And here are the links to the stories:
'Androgynous' Pharaoh Had Feminine Physique: "...Akhenaten wasn't the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children. In fact, his form was quite feminine. And he was a bit of an egghead...."
African Shipwreck Yields Rich Treasures: ".. The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins -- and cannons to fend off pirates. But it had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable African coast, and it sank 500 years ago. Now it has been found.."
New look at turquoise treasures of the Aztecs:
"...Aztec turquoise mosaics, such as those in the British Museum’s Mexican Gallery, could well yield evidence that ancient trade networks in late pre-Columbian America were much more complex than we have assumed..."
Celtic roots lie in Spain and Portugal:
"..the Celts were the remnants of a great culture that extended here from modern-day eastern France, Switzerland, southern Germany and Austria..."
Vikings: from ram-raiders to fishmongers:
"Archaeologists and scientists have revealed that 1,000 years ago cod was traded extraordinary distances across Europe, from the Norwegian Arctic to England and the Baltic."
It’s a question that has been asked for decades: Did anyone survive the massacre of the last Tsar’s family?
No.
Ending one of the 20th century's most enduring mysteries, the final answer came straight from scientific tests.
DNA analysis confirmed that bone fragments dug up in Russia last year belong to Tsar Nicholas II's two missing children -- Crown Prince Alexei, who was 13 at the time of his death, and his sister, the Grand Duchess Maria, 19.
"We received full confirmation that they do belong to the Tsar's children," Eduard Rossel, the governor of Sverdlovsk region, where the royal family was killed, told journalists.
"Now we have the whole family," he said.
The Tsar Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra, their four daughters and hemophiliac son Alexei were murdered along with their doctor and three servants in 1918.
Those who did not die outright were finished off by bayonets. Their bodies were doused in acid and finally dumped in a pit.
The story of the Romanovs' execution - the dull bayonet stabbings, the shots that ricocheted off their diamond lined corsets - alimented an endlessly hyped myth.
"I have a box full of letters by fraudulent Grand Dukes and Gran Duchesses, swearing they had miracolously escaped the Bolshevisks' bullets and bayonets," Nicholas Romanov, the great-great grandson of the "Iron tsar" Nicholas I, once told me.
The most famous claimer, dramatized in a 1956 romantic film starring Ingrid Bergman, was Anna Anderson, who nineteen months after the tsar murder, emerged in Berlin claiming she was the Grand Duchess Anastasia -- a claim she mantained until her death in 1984.
DNA tests revealed she was born in Poland, named Franziska Schanzkowska.
Here is a YouTube slideshow with plenty of photos of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
"...Some of the immense blocks of the Great Pyramids of Egypt might have been cast from synthetic material - the world's first concrete - not just carved whole from quarries and lugged into place by armies of toilers...."
"..Hawass said that the remains of the legendary Egyptian queen and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, were inside a temple called Tabusiris Magna, 30 kilometres from the port city of Alexandria in northern Egypt. ..."
"...An ancient Greek tomb thought to have held the body of Alexander the Great's father is actually that of Alexander's half brother, researchers say. This may mean that some of the artifacts found in the tomb—including a helmet, shield, and silver "crown"—originally belonged to Alexander the Great himself..."
"..Many of Egypt's most famous monuments, such as the Sphinx and Cheops, contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils, most of which are fully intact and preserved in the walls of the structures, according to a new study..."
"..A rare visit by archaeologists to a fifth-century imperial tomb offers hope that other closely guarded graves in Japan might soon be open to independent study..."
The weekend is coming up and it's time for some entertainment-like features.
In this spirit, I'm proposing "Cleopatra: Solve the puzzle", an interactive created at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois.
The game is simple: you have to search for one of the earliest portraits of the Egyptian queen. The portrait has been broken into twelve fragments and hidden. Obviously, your task is to find the pieces and put them back together.
Indeed, no other interactive could have been more topical: Zahi Hawass, director of Egypt’s superior council for antiquities, announced yesterday at a media conference in Cairo that excavation will begin in November to unearth the 2,000 year old tomb of the Egyptian queen.
Hawass has long suspected that Cleopatra is buried with her Roman lover Mark Antony at a temple 30km from Alexandra called Tabusiris Magna. So far, access to the tomb has been hindered as the temple is under water, the Italian agency Adnkronos International reported.
Egyptian archaeologists plan to solve the problem by draining the site, so they can begin excavation in November.
Meanwhile, here is the interactive. Just click on the picture to launch it.
"...The last original sculptures still adorning the Parthenon, Athens' iconic ancient temple, face a major pollution threat and must be removed to a museum..."
"...A team of archaeologists have unearthed a Greek temple in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, showing that the Greeks worshipped Pharaonic deities more than 2,500 years ago..."
"...Egyptian archaeologists have discovered that the tomb of the powerful pharaoh Seti I—the largest tomb in the Valley of the Kings—is bigger than originally believed..."
"..An Ancient Roman staircase which appears to have led into a previously unknown major building has been found during excavations for a new subway station..."
"..China's terracotta army, a collection of 7,000 soldier and horse figures in the mausoleum of the country's first emperor, was entirely covered with beaten egg when it was constructed..."
The "land between rivers", as the Greeks called Mesopotamia, is considered to be the cradle of civilization. This is where we find the origins of agriculture, written language, and cities.
Drawing from the Mesopotamian collection of the Oriental Institute Museum, which was unearthed in archaeological excavations carried by the University of Chicago over the past century, the interactive -- for kids, but not only-- works as good introduction to this ancient civilization.
Click on the picture to dig for Mesopotamian artifacts in Iraq:
After the dig, just click on the picture to curate a museum exhibition using photographs of the artifacts you found:
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