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Ever since Napoleon Bonaparte’s scientists introduced the wonders of the Nile to the West in 1798-1801, our hunger for Egyptomania has remained unsatisfied. While quests, crypts, and biblical archaeology fade in and out of fashion, Egypt can do no wrong. From Shelley’s Ozymandias of 1818 to the emergence of jazz in Harlem and through to Cleopatra’s Needle on the banks of the Thames and Las Vegas’s Luxor Hotel, ancient Egypt remains a cultural phenomenon. If only its secret could be bottled.
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Photo: courtesy Andreas F. Voegelin, Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig. |
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| ‘Gaza at the Crossroads of Civilisation’ in Geneva |
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With the Gaza strip a battleground of sectarian violence, an oasis of peace can be anticipated this autumn at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva. ‘Gaza at the Crossroads of Civilisations’ draws together 530 objects to reflect the widespread cultural tapestry of this region. Some 229 pieces derive from major excavations pursued at Tell Umm al-’Amr, Blakhiyah, Jabaliyah, and Tell es-Sakan from 1995-2006, with the remainder drawn from the private collection of Jawdat Khoudary.
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Photo: A 6th-century AD chapel with 500 square metres of mosaics from a Byzantine basilica at Jabaliyah. |
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‘Rome Reborn’
in Virtual Reality |
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To experience ancient Rome, specialists and public alike traditionally have had to rely on a disparate range of information from historical texts to extant monuments, Renaissance and post-Renaissance drawings and descriptions, and the famous Plastico di Roma Antica model. Collectively, this information has now served as the framework for the recent unveiling of ‘Rome Reborn’, a virtual model of the imperial capital hailed as the world’s biggest computer simulation of an ancient city.
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Photo: courtesy of Professor Bernard Frischer, University of Virginia. |
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Decapitated Nasca
Skeleton from Peru |
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The Nasca culture of ancient southern Peru is distinguished by two cultural traits: the artistic creation of the Nasca Lines and the gruesome ritual of human sacrifice involving the decapitation of the victim and preparation of so-called trophy heads for ritual use. Recent research on a decapitated skeleton dating to the Middle Nasca period (AD 450-550), discovered in 2004 by Professor Christina Conlee of Texas State University, has fuelled the debate on the raison d’etre of this abominable practice.
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Photo: courtesy Professor Christina Conlee, Texas State University |
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The following articles appear in the
SEP/OCT 2007
issue of MINERVA |
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| Chariots, Horses or Hippos: What killed Tutankhamun? / W. Benson Harer |
|  | | The Tomb of Ptahemwia: Akhenaten’s ‘Royal Butler, Clean of Hands’ / Maarten Raven |
| | | Heracleion & Canopus Arise from the Waves / Sean Kingsley |
| | | The Sphinx Revealed: A Forgotten Record of Pioneering Excavations / Patricia Usick |
| | | Sotheby’s Record-Breaking Albright Knox Antiquities Auction / Jerome M. Eisenberg |
| | | The Spring 2007 Antiquities Sales / Jerome M. Eisenberg |
| | | From Obscenity to Majesty: the National Archaeological Museum, Naples / Mark Merrony |
| | | Roman Halmyris: Sailors & Martyrs Along the Romanian Frontier / Mihail Zahariade |
| | | ‘Greek Fire’: a Medieval Weapon of Terror / John Haldon, Andrew Lacey & Colin Hewes |
| | | Charles Warren: from Jerusalem to Jack the Ripper / Felicity Cobbing |
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Editor-in-Chief
Dr Mark Merrony
Editor
Dr James Beresford
Publisher
Myles Poulton
Managing Editor
Sophie Mackenzie
Art Director
Nick Riggall
Designers
Lyndon Williams
Debra Foster
Editorial Associate
Georgina Read
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