jueves, 30 de agosto de 2012

British Museum - Gold model chariot from the Oxus treasure

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

Oxus chariot model

Region of Takht-i Kuwad, Tadjikistan, Achaemenid Persian, 5th-4th century BC

This remarkable model is one of the most outstanding pieces in the Oxus treasure, which dates mainly from the fifth and fourth centuries BC.

The Oxus Treasure is the most important surviving collection of gold and silver to have survived from the Achaemenid period.

The model chariot is pulled by four horses or ponies. In it are two figures wearing Median dress. The Medes were from Iran, the centre of the Achaemenid empire. The front of the chariot is decorated with the Egyptian dwarf-god Bes, a popular protective deity. The chariot can be compared with that shown being ridden by the Persian king Darius on a cylinder seal also in the British Museum.

A second fragmentary gold chariot now in the British Museum was acquired by the Earl of Lytton, the Viceroy of India, about the same time that the Oxus treasure was discovered and is thought to have come from the same source.

The Oxus Treasure

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The Discovery Programme and the Tara Conservation Plan

http://www.discoveryprogramme.ie/news-a-events/news/156-the-discovery-programme-and-the-tara-conservation-plan.html

The Discovery Programme and the Tara Conservation Plan

Written by Brian Lacey

Hill of Tara, County Meath The Discovery Programme is delighted that it has been selected by the Minister of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht to prepare a Conservation Plan for the Hill of Tara. Since its inception in 1991 the Discovery Programme has been, almost continuously, conducting research on the Hill of Tara and its environs, and into both the ancient and modern history of the site, its associated kingship, cultural significance and role in Irish affairs generally. It is probably true to say that the Discovery Programme has conducted more research on Tara than every other person and official body put together. For example, when the Discovery Programme commenced fieldwork at Tara in 1992 about 30 to 35 monuments were known on the hilltop. As a result of our work that figure is now at least four times the original number (depending on how they are counted). In addition there was no chronology for the evolution of the complex of monuments on the Hill; that lacuna has now been filled by a model for the sequence of monument construction which can be tested and refined through future excavations. Neither was there any real understanding of the historic relationship of the Hill of Tara itself and the monuments and landscape surrounding it. That gap has also been filled to a great extent by the work of the Discovery Programme and its collaborators and associates.

The Discovery Programme has amassed a huge amount of data about Tara and has an excellent record of publishing this material. Four academic books, a major excavation report, a large number of research articles and several popular, educational or tourist publications have been issued, and another book on recent discoveries through various forms of remote sensing is currently in preparation. For instance, in the summer season of 2010 the Discovery Programme and its partners at NUI Galway doubled the amount of geophysical survey on the hilltop, revealing in the process what is almost certainly the previously unknown whereabouts of the medieval manor of Tara. Discovery Programme surveys of the hilltop are now used as the basis for other work on the site and planning by a variety of interested bodies.

Given this history of research, the Discovery Programme is very well suited to undertake the task of leading the preparation of a Conservation Plan for this most important monument complex and its associated landscape. As the preparation of the plan involves areas of work which the Discovery Programme has not been involved with heretofore, we will be collaborating with Howley Hayes Architects. Howley Hayes Architects has an excellent and well-known track record of preparing such documents.

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New 3D Project to Digitise Iconic Monuments of Ireland and Europe

http://www.discoveryprogramme.ie/news-a-events/news/167-new-3d-project-to-digitise-iconic-monuments-of-ireland-and-europe.html

Researchers for the Discovery Programme document and provide virtual access to Irish World Heritage sites

Written by Anthony Corns

Untitled-2 3D-ICONS is a 3 year EU co-funded project which will focus on the 3D documentation of UNESCO World Heritage monuments and other monuments of outstanding value at European level. The digital content will include 3D models and reconstructions, enlarged models of important details, images, texts, videos. It will also include and re-contextualize in 3D, objects belonging to a monument but presently located elsewhere, for example in a museum. The project's activities will include both new digitization as well as the conversion of some existing 3D data into formats which are accessible for users. The project's anticipated impact is making accessible through the Europeana website an unprecedented quantity of high-quality, 3D models; presenting well-organized and attractive information about the masterpieces of European architecture and archaeology.

Within Ireland the 3D-ICONS project activities are being carried out by the Discovery Programme: a public institution for advanced research in Irish archaeology, funded by the Heritage Council. Over the following three years discovery programme staff will capture and model in 3D a range of iconic Irish monument and artefacts to millimetre accuracy using an assortment of technologies including: laser scanning and photogrammetry. Once created 3D models can be used for a range of heritage activities, including: mobasterboice_2

Visualisation & virtual reconstruction
Tourism & promotion
Conservation & management

Cultural heritage assets are unique and irreplaceable in their tangible form of historic buildings, sites and artefacts; as well as in their intangible value, which includes history, collective memory and identity. It is paramount that all efforts should be made to preserve cultural heritage in all its forms, ensuring its security for future generations and to maximise the potential economic benefits for tourism and the creative industries.

Some of the sites to be documented include:

Skellig Micheal
Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site including Knowth & Newgramge
Hill of Tara
Dún Aonghasa stone fort, Aran Islands
Clonmacnoise
Glendalough
Derry City Walls

Connor Newman, Chairman of the Heritage Council, was excited and enthused by the project

It is paramount that all efforts should be made to preserve cultural heritage in all its forms, ensuring its security for future generations and to maximise the potential economic benefits for tourism and the creative industries.

By the Heritage Council providing financial support for institutions such as the Discovery Programme, additional European and international funding can be leveraged to extend this investment allowing Irish institutions to collaborative within European projects and enabling the promotion and communication of Irish heritage to a wider audience.

Professor Terry Barry, Associate Professor of Medieval History at Trinity College Dublin and the Chairman of the Discovery Programme stated.

The funding of a European project such as this to the Discovery Programme indicates the level of technical expertise which exists within Ireland in relation to archaeological and heritage research.

***UPDATE***

The project was officially launched by Conor Newman, Chairman of the Heritage Council on 18th April 2012 at the Royal Irish Academy Dublin. Fittingly the launch followed a joint Heritage Council / ICOMOS Ireland conference to celebrate International Day of Monuments and Sites.

For more information please visit www.3dicons-project.eu and www.discoveryprogramme.ie

cip_en_logo

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LIARI Conference 2012

http://www.discoveryprogramme.ie/news-a-events/liari-conference.html

LIARI Conference 2012

The Discovery Programme is proud to announce the first international interdisciplinary conference that will consider how communities in Ireland engaged with the Roman world. We have invited leading academics from Ireland, England, Scotland, Germany, Denmark and the USA to present papers from across the subjects of Archaeology, History, Classics, Earth Sciences, Iron Age studies and 'Celtic' Studies, covering the Iron Age through to Late Antiquity.

Recent contemporary dialogues in archaeology have highlighted the fluid nature of both the identities and materialities of those living and dying within and beyond the formal frontiers of the Roman Empire. Through the work of scholars such as Richard Hingley, David Mattingly and Andrew Gardner it is now recognised that concepts such as emulation and engagement, and reception and resistance, are as much to do with individual agency, opportunity and access as any grand overarching narrative of wholesale 'Romanization'. New social mores vied with local traditions to produce an eminently variable and localized Roman-ness both within and beyond the Roman provinces. To understand what it was to become Roman, we have to consider the layers of subtle negotiation and transformation taking place at the level of the individual, their community and the landscapes in which they lived and died.

What is remarkable and only recently understood is that despite the monumentalization of military might and control, both in northern Britain and along the Rhine frontier, these physical and ideological barriers did not stop the movement of people. Roman material is widely distributed beyond all of the frontiers of the Roman Empire, in areas that never fell within the territorium of Rome itself.

Until quite recently Roman material at Irish sites was widely regarded as anomolous or intrusive within the traditional archaeological narrative of the later Iron Age. With no expectation of contexts that might hold Roman evidence, readily identifiable material such as Samian ware, fibulae, coins and glass have been classified as 'intrusive' and often considered irrelevant to dating sequences at sites. More recent excavations, contemporary research and more recent finds have, however, prompted a reconsideration of Ireland's engagement with the Roman administration in the western provinces. The LIARI project was designed to investigate fully this formative period in early Irish history and has forged new collaborative research with leading scholars both inside and outside Ireland. The conference will provide an extraordinary opportunity for us re-evaulate the settlement, societies and economy of 'Ireland in a Roman world'.

Further Information

Please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions or for further information.

Written by Michael Ann Bevivino

Thursday, 10 May 2012 08:16

Ireland in a Roman WorldAn International and Interdisciplinary ConferenceRobert Emmet Theatre, Trinity College Dublin

20-21 October 2012Saturday 20th October
09:00 - 09:30Registration09:30 –...

Last Updated on Monday, 18 June 2012 11:09

Get to Know Honduras

Archaeology Magazine

We wish to invite you to visit Honduras, a Central American country in the very heart of the Americas.

Honduras has a monumental archeological site in the western part of the country, Copán. This famous Maya city is an important ceremonial center and one of the leading scientific centers of the Classic Maya period, used as an astronomical observatory. It flourished during the 7th century of our era and is representative today of what Athens is to the old world. For its rich architecture and iconographic, UNESCO declared Copán a World Heritage site in 1980.

Therefore, I reiterate my invitation for you to invest in Honduran Tourism and enjoy visiting our beautiful country.

Dr. Nelly Jerez
Ministry of Tourism

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lunes, 27 de agosto de 2012

La búsqueda continua!!!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/cleopatra/taposiris-magna-map

Fotografie Vintage dell'Egitto del 1870

http://hmtechnology.altervista.org/formazione-cultura/60-fotografie-vintage-egitto-1870/#

Web Digital Communication | HMTechnology60 Incantevoli Fotografie Vintage dell'Egitto del 1870 | @hmtechnology

L'Egitto è stato da sempre un'affascinante fonte di ispirazione per i fotografi e gli artisti di tutto il mondo; la bellezza e la magnificenza di quei luoghi riescono, da sole, a trasformare un'immagine fotografica in una vera e propria opera d'arte. Questo è quello che succede quando si parla di fotografie dell'Egitto.

Se poi queste fotografie sono antiche e si riferiscono a scatti realizzati in un passato lontano, risalente a poco tempo dopo la nascita della fotografia, ecco che siamo di fronte ad una impressionante galleria di fotografie vintage in grado di raffigurare artisticamente i luoghi ed i monumenti dell'antico Egitto.

Fotografie dell'Egitto: l'archivio della New York Public Library

[box]La New York Public Library ha condiviso recentemente un'incredibile galleria di oltre 9.000 tra fotografie e illustrazioni dell'Egitto e del Medio Oriente risalenti alla seconda metà del 1800. A quei tempi la fotografia era considerata una tecnica per dipingere con la luce ed i soggetti più ricorrenti erano proprio i monumenti dell'antico Egitto, oltre a quelli del mondo biblico. L'accademico [highlight]François Arago[/highlight] (1786-1853) appoggiò nel 1839 l'utilizzo della fotografia, convinto che essa avrebbe comportato, inoltre, un notevole risparmio nel copiare i milioni di geroglifici che coprono interamente i grandi monumenti di Tebe, Menfi e Karnak.[/box]

[dropcap]L[/dropcap]e prime fotografie della storia, infatti, destarono da subito l'interesse di tutti, dagli artisti alle persone comuni, affascinate, oltre che incredule, di fronte alla fedeltà di riproduzione che si poteva ottenere con questa nuova tecnica di rappresentazione. Artisti-viaggiatori, muniti di macchine e lastre fotografiche di metallo, affollarono le coste sud-orientali del Mar Mediterraneo per poter ritrarre attraverso la fotografia i luoghi più famosi dell'antico Egitto. Luoghi che, fino ad allora, erano stati resi noti agli occidentali soltanto attraverso raffigurazioni artistiche. Mai in modo reale e diretto come invece è stato possibile con la fotografia.

La collezione messa a disposizione della New York Public Library contiene, oltre agli scatti dei primi pionieri della fotografia come Du Camp, Salzmann, Robertson & Beato, e Frith, anche le fotografie scattate dai produttori di immagini per turisti, come Arnoux, A. Beato, Bonfils, Lekegian, Sebah e Zangaki. L'intera galleria offre, dunque, preziose risorse tramite cui esplorare l'Egitto ed il Medio Oriente di quel periodo, attraverso la lente dei professionisti della fotografia ed, a sua volta, attraverso le aspettative e le preferenze del pubblico destinatario.

Qui di seguito una selezione di 60 fotografie dell'Egitto di quel periodo (1870-1875).

Buon divertimento!