Here are some posts I enjoyed this week:
And the results are in, sort of, for the tomb of Nerfertiti hidden behind Tut’s. Click here for National Geographic “Infrared Scans Show Possible Hidden Chamber in King Tut’s Tomb”
From Nancy Bilyeau: This is the anniversary of the 1888 murder of Mary Kelly in her small rented room on Dorset Street on the East End. In this blog post Nancy writes about some of the myths of Jack the Ripper–it wasn’t Prince Eddy!– and some of the enduring mysteries. Mary is in many ways the greatest mystery as well as a haunting tragedy. Click here for English Historical Fiction Authors “Jack the Ripper and the Enigma of Mary Jane Kelly”
The power of games. Archaeologists have found gaming pieces from 1300 AD in a cave near Utah’s Great Salt Lake. They posit that these were ancestors of the Navaho and Apache migrating down from subarctic Canada to the Southwest at a time of both environmental and social stresses. Games, they suggest, played a diplomatic role between peoples who did not speak the same languages. All quite interesting to me. The mystery I’m working on uses a game (fictitious but based on ancient games) to negotiate the early romance of my two main characters. Click here for Archaeology Magazine “Game of Diplomacy”
This Greek city, called Selinunte, (Greek colony on Sicily), captured and emptied of its population in a single day by the Carthaginians, remained frozen in time at that moment of destruction because no one returned and it was gradually buried in blowing sand and dirt. Long admired by tourists for the temples that remained visible, archaeologists using geophysical techniques have discovered how uniquely complete the city is and are extracting a rich understanding of the economy and populations of classical Greek cities in ways no other site has made possible. The site is eerily like Pompeii and other instantly destroyed sites with bowls of food and unfired pots left just as terrified residents left them. The Carthaginians killed or enslaved the whole population and a thriving economic center disappeared over night. The extensive pottery production that has been revealed will be tracked now to see where trade took it throughout the ancient world. Exact matches of clay types allow that kind of research today. Click here for The Independent “Selinunte Site of Ancient Massacre Yields the Secrets of a Lost Greek City”
I do hope they find out if that is Nefertiti’s tomb. What a find that would be! Also find the ancient settlements on Sicily fascinating. As always, Judith, many thanks for your info. Love the articles!
Thanks, Priscilla. I’ve never visited the site on Sicily but it intrigues me, although much of what they’ve learned has been done without excavation. So much of what is fascinating is accessible to all via the publications coming out of it. It’s much later than my writing, but intriguing nonetheless and once again showing how interrelated by trade the whole ancient world was.
I’m also waiting for news of Nerertiti.
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