Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples
Upcoming exhibition at the Met October 16, 2007 - February 18, 2008 Throughout their long history, the ancient Egyptians used copper, bronze, gold, and silver to create lustrous, graceful statuary that, most characteristically, stood at the crux of their interactions with their gods, from ritual dramas that took place within the temples and chapels that dotted the landscape everywhere, to the festival processions through the towns and countryside that were thronged by believers. This is the first exhibition to focus on the art and significance of Egyptian metal statuary and marshals fresh insights to present a new understanding of this type of statuary, its influences, and its meaning. On view from domestic and international collections will be some 70 superb statues and statuettes created in precious metals and copper alloys over more than two millennia.

Stories about the Copper Scroll crop up from time to time, mostly involving intrigue and conspiracies, and are the subject of several websites. Who can resist the allure of possible buried treasure worth $1 billion? Here's the latest from an expert at the University of Denver who has worked on the scroll.

The Copper Scroll Back in the News Hershel Shanks, erstwhile editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, has written a book on the Copper Scroll and the hunt for the Temple Treasure, appropriately titled "The Copper Scroll and the Search for Temple Treasure" - released at the same time as Dr. Sean Kingley's new book on the same subject entitled "God's Gold." Expect to see news reports coming out of Rome, the Middle East and Israel in the coming months about roving bands of treasure hunters attempting to dig up sacred landmarks...

Serpent Mound Discovered In Great Britain A 4,000 year old Bronze Age serpent mound discovered in western England during road construction. And here's a brief article about the Mother of all Serpent Mounds, in Ohio USA.

Starry, starry night... It must have really been something to see. On July 4, 1054 CE, Chinese astronomers noted the presence of a bright new star in the sky, a "guest star" (supernova) that was visible during daylight for 23 days, and visible to the naked eye in the night sky for 653 days before "disappearing." What the Chinese observed was light from an exploding star that gave birth to the Crab Nebula, some 5,246 years before the light finally reached Earth. It was probably also recorded by Anasazi Indian artists (in present-day Arizona and New Mexico), as findings in Navaho Canyon and White Mesa as well as in the Chaco Canyon National Park (NM) indicate.

Chess Princess

She's fourteen year old Sheila Dines from Croydon, Surrey, in the U.K. In 2006 she split a 1,000 BPS prize with another young lady as Britain's "top girl" in the UK Chess Challenge, and she is again taking part in the Challenge again this year.

August 13, 2007

There's another theory being proposed for how the great pyramids were built.

Did the Egyptian Use "Cast" Stone to Built the Pyramids? Yet another theory about how the pyramids were built - verrrrryyyyy interesting...

The Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the University of Memphis (Tennessee, USA) has some useful tools at its website, including a Brief Timeline of Ancient Egypt and a tour (in color photographs) of famous archaeological sites in Egypt.

The Ancient World Conference Reading University will host The Ancient World Conference September 15-16, 2007. The conference presents a series of illustrated lectures from a panel of experts covering a range of subjects, from prehistory to the present day examining, archaeology and history from new and intriguing angles. Experts will include Michael Wood, Kent Weeks, Bettany Hughes and many others.

Old Gods Don't Get No Respect The gods of yesterday are forgotten today. Stone images of ancient gods are being used to make buffalo sheds and other buildings in Nepal.

Ships and Boats...Update - A replica of a 1,000 year old Viking long-boat left the Danish port of Roskilde headed to Ireland on July 2, 2007. Aboard the new Sea Stallion is a mixed crew of 65 men and women, who will be living on the 30 meter long ship with no shelter and no privacy for about 3-1/2 months. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Abora III is due to set sale for Spain from New York on July 11, 2007. First stop on the Abora's projected 3-1/2 month journey is the Azore islands, where the navigator hopes to put in for fresh provisions by August 10, and then to Cadiz on Spain's southern tip and the Canary Islands. The boat will be equipped with modern navigation and communications equipment, but the ship was made out of reeds on Lake Titicaca using ancient techniques.

Call for ASOR Papers from BAR
The Biblical Archaeology Society announces two prizes of $10,000 each for the best academic papers presented at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), to be held this November in San Diego.

The John Mancini Prize, named for John Mancini of Albuquerque, New Mexico, will be awarded for the best paper on the Archaeology of Early Christianity and the Patristic Period.

The other prize of $10,000 is supported by a contribution from Sami Rohr of Bal Harbour, Florida, who made it a condition of his support that it be named for Biblical Archaeology Review editor Hershel Shanks. The Hershel Shanks prize will be awarded for the best paper on the Archaeology of Late Antique Judaism and the Talmudic Period.

A paper may be nominated by the presenter or anyone else. A copy of the paper must be sent to the Biblical Archaeology Society, publisher of BAR, by January 31, 2008.

Another Crop Circle

How could we pass this one up !? - it's got a checkerboard in it and - depending upon one's perspective, it's either a columned hall with a timbered ceiling and a checkerboard floor, or a bipolar pyramid... Discovered in a wheat field at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire, southern England, published on July 3, 2007. It also a embodies the ancient Chinese conception of the four quarters of the "square" earth (the geometric plain formed by the four cardinal directions) encompassed within the three-dimensional "circle" of the universe. From this conception arose the invention of the magnetic compass.