I’m just back from a seminar on spolia in Berlin, organised by Topoi. In my paper, I discussed the re-use of sculpture in late antique contexts and the life histories of individual statues. I also had the opportunity to visit the recently re-opened Neues Museum, closed at the beginning of the war and then bombed […]
Author archives: Troels
Karnak Cachette Online
Painting of saint in the Festival Hall of Thutmose III, Karnak. Photo: TMK, May 2007. The French institute in Cairo has just announced the first online version of their database of the Karnak cachette, a massive haul of sculpture unearthed at Karnak between 1903 and 1907: L’IFAO a le plaisir de vous annoncer la sortie […]
Top 5 Photos on Flickr
Although I only make a small portion of my Flickr photos publicly available and only contribute to groups when invited to do so, I have had 100,000+ views on my account (however, this is small fry when compared with, for example, museum photographer extraordinaire Hans Ollermann). So what kind of images are people searching for? […]
Looking Up in Alexandria
Continuing the series “Looking Up” begun with Baalbek back in May, I now turn to Alexandria. The series is mostly an excuse to post some photos on the blog, but the act of looking up (to ponder the monumentality of cathedrals, mosques, artworks, etc.) is in many ways an integral part of the tourist gaze […]
“The Italians Have No Legal Title to Repatriation”: Another Glyptotek Update
Reconstructed context: “Etruscan tomb” in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. Photo: TMK, August 2006. I have neglected to report on the on-going series of articles in the Danish newspaper Information on the negotiations between Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and the Italian Cultural Ministry (previously discussed here, here, here, here, here, and here). The series […]
The Politics of Street Signs
Street sign in the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Photo: TMK, June 2009. Just another small but potent reminder of the political nature of everyday spaces in the Old City of Jerusalem: In the Jewish Quarter, the vast majority of streets (always labelled in Hebrew, Arabic and English) have had their Arabic names vandalised. […]
A Day at the Tokyo National Museum
A manuscript in the Tokyo National Museum. Photo: TMK, February 2009. Tokyo National Museum is one of the best museums I’ve visited in the last couple of years. Beautifully laid out with plenty of space around the exhibited objects (preventing the clutter effect that causes that experience of information overload in certain other museums), nice […]
Staying Behind
The grave of G.L. Harding, Gerasa, Jordan. Photo: TMK, May 2009. The archaeologist Gerald Lankester Harding is a name closely associated with Qumran as well as Jordanian and Palestinian archaeology in general. He is also one of the members of a small exclusive club of archaeologists that are buried on sites where they were active. […]
Roman Portraits in Context
Roofs of Piraeus
I dug out some old photos taken on the roofs of Piraeus back in 2004. These roofs (and the life that takes place there), quite typical of many Mediterranean cities, have always fascinated me. At a quite trivial level, I guess my fascination (at least in part) stems from a Northern European envy of the […]