Meet Ta-Bast, an Egyptian mummy in the Museum of Ancient Art at the University of Aarhus in Denmark. Ta-Bast in the Museum of Ancient Art, University of Aarhus. Photo: TMK, August 2005. Based on its inscriptions, the coffin has been dated to the 21st dynasty (1070-945 BCE). According to Torben Holm-Rasmussen, it is typical of […]
Category archives: Archaeology
Forensic Archaeology during World War II: Ethics and Politics
First part of an absolutely brilliant programme last night on Danish television (DR2): “Kraniet fra Katyn” (“The Skull from Katyn”). Katyn is the site of the mass graves of thousands of Polish soldiers and civilians that were systematically executed in 1940 by the Soviet occupying forces. The mass graves were subsequently discovered by the Nazis […]
Achaemenid and Late Antique Sardis
Sardis is a fantastic site in western Turkey, beautifully situated and with a magnificent acropolis. I have recently uploaded my photos from there to the Stoa gallery. My trip there inspired me to read Elspeth Dusinberre’s book on the city’s time as a Persian satrapal capital (559-330 BC). She asks all the right questions, but […]
Two Amphitheatres in One Post
I have uploaded some photos from Pozzuoli and Lecce to the Stoa Gallery for everyone’s viewing pleasure. Both have rather nicely preserved amphitheatres. In the corridors beneath the amphitheatre at Pozzuoli. Photo: TMK, May 2005.
The Entremont Oppidum
A couple of kilometres north of Aix-en-Provence, one finds the oppidum of Entremont, occupied between c. 190 and 90 BCE by a Celto-Ligurian tribe known as the Salyes or Salluvii. The site has been extensively excavated and work is still on-going. Its northern slopes are protected by a still impressive defensive wall. The southern slopes […]
Top Ten Archaeological Sites on the Mediterranean
A while back, The Independent published a list of their top ten archaeological sites in the Mediterranean region. Here’s a list of my favourite sites. I often change my mind on such things, so it’s not a definitive list! And there are, of course, still many parts of the Mediterranean that I have yet to […]
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Re-Opens
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen has recently re-opened after a year of so of restoration and reorganization of especially the Etruscan and Greek collections. The didactic displays have also been improved in the Roman sculpture galleries. The new themed section “Middelhavshorisonten” (The Mediterranean Horizon) is very nicely done, but it might disappoint visitors that are […]
Open Access Titles from the Oriental Institute
Via Savage Minds I’ve discovered that the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute offers open access to several of their publications as PDFs. Among the many interesting titles are: “The Amuq Valley Regional Projects, Volume 1 – Surveys in the Plain of Antioch and Orontes Delta, Turkey, 1995-2002” by Kutlu Aslihan Yener et al. See my […]
An Egyptian Encounter in Denmark
The current issue of Public Archaeology is a special issue, edited by Peter Ucko, on “Living Symbols of Ancient Egypt“. This is a field of research that has experienced a surge of interest recently, notably in the “Encounters with Ancient Egypt” series (also edited by Ucko), Lynn Meskell’s “Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt“, as well […]
Discrepant Experiences of Britain in the Roman Empire
David Mattingly’s “An Imperial Possession. Britain in the Roman Empire” is a book that I’ve waited for some time, and I was happy to see it in print. As expected, it’s a masterly synthesis of incredible scope and clear-sight. The most exciting aspect of the book is that it dispenses with several orthodoxies in research […]