NB! · Archaeology · Observations

How Little We Know About Pompeii

Archaeology · Observations · Heritage · Ethnography

Excavation of the Ukok Princess in 1983 and the dispute over reburial of the mummy

Why do I say alas? Because one truly wishes that the touching devotion of the people of Altai to their native mummies might be rewarded. The Ukok Princess was excavated in 1983, and her body was remarkably well preserved for its age of 2,500 years. All thanks to the

The mummy of the Ukok Princess with light hair, visible teeth and dark tattoos on the shoulder and arm.

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Heritage · Society · Ethnography

Altai people demand the return of the Ukok Princess from a Gorno-Altaysk museum for burial

For years now the Altaians have been demanding that the Ukok Princess be returned home and committed to the earth. Though she is, in any case, kept in a museum in Gorno-Altaysk, she belongs to the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Altaian elders, alas,

Gold headdress with a relief female bust at the centre and pendants of fine chains, displayed in a museum case.

NB! · Archaeology · Art · Museums

Gold Woman's Headdress of the 3rd Century BC in the Archaeological Museum in Athens

A woman's headdress of gold, Greece, 3rd century BC. Held in the Archaeological Museum in Athens

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Heritage

The Lion's Head on the Roof of the Parthenon

Coming Up · Archaeology · The East · Museums · Education · Saint Petersburg

Hermitage lecture hall holds lecture series on Khorezm, next one on 12 February

The Hermitage Lecture Hall has launched a lecture series, “The Desert Castles of Khorezm”. Those of you in Saint Petersburg, do drop in for a cup of tea. Khorezm is a millennia-old Asian oasis, where excavations have uncovered settlements lost in the sands, irrigation works and necropolises. The next

NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies

The inscription on the stone records the conquests of Harald Bluetooth and serves to commemorate his parents, Gorm the Old and Thyra

NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies · Heritage · People

The great rune stone raised by Harald Bluetooth, gatherer of the Danish lands and baptiser of Denmark, that venerated tenth-century ruler after whom Bluetooth was named

Marble bust of a child with short hair, wearing a toga, on a round pedestal, Roman sculpture.

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Rome · Humour

Third-Century Roman Child's Bust Found to Depict a Girl, Not a Boy

For a long time the child immortalised in a 3rd-century Roman sculpture was thought to be a boy, because of the short haircut. It has recently emerged that this type of toga was worn by girls. So much for assuming a gender identity

NB! · Archaeology · Museums · Humour

A Vase in the Shape of a Mouse

A vase in the shape of a mouse. 3rd century AD, Britain. The mouse's body is wound about with a cord in the form of a snake

NB! · Archaeology · Architecture · Museums · Observations

The first tier of the Temple of Minerva remained underground and is used as a cellar, as can be seen from a model in Assisi's rather neglected archaeological museum, which looks more like a mere warehouse of Roman finds

Archaeology · Archive · Geography · Observations · Society

For the last week and a half I have been writing every day, sorting through old notes, editing and so forth

For the last week and a half I have been writing every day, sorting through old notes, editing and so forth. When I say old notes, I mean, for example, the field journals of the 1920s and 1930s from the Mongolian expedition and curious jottings on the Russian explorers of