From the circular main hall of the Sackler Library in Oxford, an unassuming corridor leads to a staircase that takes you down below street level. Through a door marked "archive", office ceiling tiles and fluorescent lights stare down on a cheap blue carpet and a row of grey rolling stacks.
The hum of the air-conditioning lets slip that this ordinary-looking room is hiding something special. The temperature is held at 18.5C (65F), several degrees cooler than the sunny July day outside, while a humidifier keeps the moisture level tightly controlled. For those grey stacks contain the forgotten secrets of the most famous find in Egyptology, if not all of archaeological history: the tomb of Tutankhamun.
This is the Griffith Institute – arguably the best Egyptology library in the world. One of its most prized collections incorporates the notes, photographs and diaries of the English archaeologist Howard Carter, who discovered Tutankhamun's resting place in 1922. The only intact pharaoh's tomb ever discovered, it contained such an array of treasures that it took Carter 10 years to catalogue them all. Yet despite the immense significance of the discovery, the majority of Carter's findings have never been published, and many questions surrounding the tomb remain unanswered.
Jaromir Malek is the soft-spoken keeper of the archive whose own Tutankhamun project is nearing completion. By making all of Carter's notes available online, Malek wanted to ensure that the public would have access to the full extent of the discovery – and to spur Egyptologists into finishing the job of studying the tomb's contents. He has ended up creating a model that other researchers hope will transform the field of archaeology.
The effort has taken even longer than Carter's gruelling excavation. It began in 1993, when Malek says he realised that fewer than a third of the artefacts from Tutankhamun's tomb had been properly studied and published, a situation he describes as "unacceptable".
A total of 5,398 objects were found in the tomb, covering every aspect of ancient Egyptian life, from weapons and chariots to musical instruments, clothes, cosmetics and a treasured lock of the royal grandmother's hair. A few, like Tutankhamun's gold burial mask, are instantly recognisable, but many are not well known, even to experts.
Part of the reason is that Carter died in 1939, just seven years after his excavation ended, and before he could fully publish his findings. "He started working on the final publication, but he was physically and mentally exhausted after a very hard 10 years," says Malek. By all accounts a difficult man to work with, Carter had no collaborators left to continue his work when he died. And while the artefacts themselves are held in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, Carter's notes were donated to the Griffith Institute, where they have lain largely undisturbed ever since. ...
King Tut returns to NY for last leg of U.S. exhibit
Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:38pm BST
By Walden Siew
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - More than 30 years after King Tut's last visit to New York, the golden boy is back.
"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which opens Friday and runs to January 2, contains more than 130 rare artifacts, twice the number of treasures shown in the 1970s exhibit.
It includes items used for royal burial practices and daily life in ancient Egypt, King Tut's viscera coffin, containers for the boy king's mummified liver, his chariot and an exhibit explaining new DNA and medical techniques that may unlock more discoveries about the Pharaoh's royal family and how they died. ...
Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:38pm BST
By Walden Siew
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - More than 30 years after King Tut's last visit to New York, the golden boy is back.
"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," which opens Friday and runs to January 2, contains more than 130 rare artifacts, twice the number of treasures shown in the 1970s exhibit.
It includes items used for royal burial practices and daily life in ancient Egypt, King Tut's viscera coffin, containers for the boy king's mummified liver, his chariot and an exhibit explaining new DNA and medical techniques that may unlock more discoveries about the Pharaoh's royal family and how they died. ...
March 02, 2010
Horace Walpole’s treasures from Strawberry Hill
Drawing of Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, by William Marlow
Horace Walpole’s treasures from Strawberry Hill
Drawing of Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, by William Marlow
Sitting on concrete stairs, starving - even with an epically wretched hangover - can't diminish the glory of Brunch With Bach.
... So you have to hand it to the maharajas. We’ve underestimated them. Their talent for exploiting their populace and growing rich, disgracefully, was close to superhuman. That admitted, I see the V&A has set out to understand them in deeper and different ways.
Every now and then in this display, you encounter a map of India placing a particular nawab, nizam, rana, raja or sultan — the maharajas were a federation of royals, rather than a single species — in his shifting geographic kingdom. There are newsreels, too, and documentary-style black-and-white photographs of jewel-encrusted maharaos with curly moustaches meeting stiff British dignitaries with brooms up their jackets. On one of its strata, the show harbours an ambition to locate the maharajas in the full history of their times. But trying to hear this documentary message above the roar of the surrounding diamonds is like listening to a chirping robin while standing next to Niagara Falls. Yes, the maharajas may have played an interesting role in the jittery relationship between India and Britain. But what really matters here is the size of their rocks.
I have seen goose eggs smaller than the yellow diamond at the centre of the great necklace commissioned from Cartier in the 1920s by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. It was the largest single commission ever received by the finest French jeweller. And what of the string of huge emeralds worn by Ranjit Singh’s horse in the 1830s? Wouldn’t the weight of all that priceless stonewear around its neck have slowed the nag to a hobble? At one point in the glitterfest, I found myself staring at a slab of blue glass, roughly the size of a pear, set into the centre of a turban monument from Murshidabad. It turned out to be several hundred carats of uncut sapphire. ...
Every now and then in this display, you encounter a map of India placing a particular nawab, nizam, rana, raja or sultan — the maharajas were a federation of royals, rather than a single species — in his shifting geographic kingdom. There are newsreels, too, and documentary-style black-and-white photographs of jewel-encrusted maharaos with curly moustaches meeting stiff British dignitaries with brooms up their jackets. On one of its strata, the show harbours an ambition to locate the maharajas in the full history of their times. But trying to hear this documentary message above the roar of the surrounding diamonds is like listening to a chirping robin while standing next to Niagara Falls. Yes, the maharajas may have played an interesting role in the jittery relationship between India and Britain. But what really matters here is the size of their rocks.
I have seen goose eggs smaller than the yellow diamond at the centre of the great necklace commissioned from Cartier in the 1920s by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. It was the largest single commission ever received by the finest French jeweller. And what of the string of huge emeralds worn by Ranjit Singh’s horse in the 1830s? Wouldn’t the weight of all that priceless stonewear around its neck have slowed the nag to a hobble? At one point in the glitterfest, I found myself staring at a slab of blue glass, roughly the size of a pear, set into the centre of a turban monument from Murshidabad. It turned out to be several hundred carats of uncut sapphire. ...
The Egyptians didn't even learn about slavery until a middle eastern people invaded them in the 12th Dynasty.
Do a little research, Ms "Journalist."
Do a little research, Ms "Journalist."
Most of me is horrified, but my Inner Mongolian digs it the most.
Yeomanry hessian knee boots
London College of Fashion Shoe Collection
Made by Bartley and Sons Date c 1883-5
Decoration: Formalised wrinkles blocked into leg at front and back. Parallel lines at sides. Silver braid top and oval boss centre front.
Description Of Toe: Oval, narrow, shallow
Description Of Upper: Tongued,vamp-galosh. leg higher at front, V-dip, side seams. Colour - black.
Description Of Sole/Heel: Heel - 1.3 inch stacked, fine wheeled, steel spur socket. "Maxwell Patentee". Row of steel small nails, outside corner. Group of 4 at breast. Sole - Tan forepart, S-curve edge, black waist.
Description Of Sock/Insole/Lining: Lining - Tan leather, gold stamped. Royal Arms, "Bartley and Sons/ 493 Oxford St., London" MS. "74454. G.H. Drummond, Esq. West Kent. Yeo.Cav."
Ta much, dear MouthAlmighty! Still more sexy boots!
Friday, January 30, 2009
Smithsonian asks Aretha Franklin for her inaugural hat
Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
If you wondered when news about Aretha Franklin's gray large-bowed inaugural hat would die down, well... it's not happening yet.
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has asked the Queen of Soul if she will donate the hat she wore to sing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (also known as "America") before the swearing-in on the steps of the Capitol for an exhibit on President Barack Obama's inauguration.
Other items the Smithsonian will have on display in the presidential exhibit include Michelle Obama's off-white ball gown.
So will Franklin donate the famous chapeau that rocketed Detroit milliner Luke Song of Moza Inc., 6513 Woodward Ave. in Detroit's New Center, to worldwide fame (and a lot of sales)?
"I am considering it," Franklin said in a statement. "It would be hard to part with my chapeau, since it was such a crowning moment in history. I would like to smile every time I look back at it and remember what a great moment it was in American and African-American history. Ten cheers for President Obama." ...
Smithsonian asks Aretha Franklin for her inaugural hat
Susan Whitall / The Detroit News
If you wondered when news about Aretha Franklin's gray large-bowed inaugural hat would die down, well... it's not happening yet.
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has asked the Queen of Soul if she will donate the hat she wore to sing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" (also known as "America") before the swearing-in on the steps of the Capitol for an exhibit on President Barack Obama's inauguration.
Other items the Smithsonian will have on display in the presidential exhibit include Michelle Obama's off-white ball gown.
So will Franklin donate the famous chapeau that rocketed Detroit milliner Luke Song of Moza Inc., 6513 Woodward Ave. in Detroit's New Center, to worldwide fame (and a lot of sales)?
"I am considering it," Franklin said in a statement. "It would be hard to part with my chapeau, since it was such a crowning moment in history. I would like to smile every time I look back at it and remember what a great moment it was in American and African-American history. Ten cheers for President Obama." ...
To cut costs, DIA cancels 3 exhibitions
BY MARK STRYKER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
January 16, 2009
The Detroit Institute of Arts has canceled three upcoming exhibitions, including one blockbuster import from overseas and two smaller works-on-paper shows drawn from the museum's permanent collection. The vagaries of the museum world and cost-cutting in the face of the worsening economy are to blame.
The blockbuster, "Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence," organized by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, had been scheduled to travel to the Detroit museum this fall.
But when the only other North American venue for the show dropped out, the DIA could not shoulder the additional financial burden on its own, a DIA spokeswoman said. The DIA declined to name the withdrawing museum, which had not formally announced the show.
The other cancellations -- a print show devoted to Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Jim Dine scheduled to open in July, and a show of prints and drawings related to books scheduled to open in November -- are casualties of the DIA's financial troubles and Michigan's economy. ...
BY MARK STRYKER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
January 16, 2009
The Detroit Institute of Arts has canceled three upcoming exhibitions, including one blockbuster import from overseas and two smaller works-on-paper shows drawn from the museum's permanent collection. The vagaries of the museum world and cost-cutting in the face of the worsening economy are to blame.
The blockbuster, "Baroque 1620-1800: Style in the Age of Magnificence," organized by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, had been scheduled to travel to the Detroit museum this fall.
But when the only other North American venue for the show dropped out, the DIA could not shoulder the additional financial burden on its own, a DIA spokeswoman said. The DIA declined to name the withdrawing museum, which had not formally announced the show.
The other cancellations -- a print show devoted to Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Jim Dine scheduled to open in July, and a show of prints and drawings related to books scheduled to open in November -- are casualties of the DIA's financial troubles and Michigan's economy. ...