Tag: Museum
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The Wrestler of the Antikythera Shipwreck
In the National Archaeological Museum in Athens you can find a special gallery for the finds from the Antikythera shipwreck, a boat carrying luxury goods from around 75–50 BC which was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Greece. It contained many statues, vessels, coins and of course, the famous 2000-year-old computer I’ve previously […]
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What The Shanidar Cave Burials Tell Us About Neanderthals
The term ‘Neanderthal’ has become synonymous with the type of behaviour associated with ‘sluggish’, ‘brutish’ cavemen, and the term has entered the English dictionary as also meaning ‘an uncivilised or uncouth man’. Indeed, one online dictionary gives their definition of Neanderthal as meaning ‘crude, boorish, or slow-witted person’ and Neanderthaloid as ‘ill-mannered and coarse and […]
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Treasures of Natural History: Dodos, Darwin’s Pigeons and Neanderthal Skulls
At a recent trip to the Natural History Museum in London I visited their new gallery of treasurers from their collections, which as you’d imagine, are amazingly varied and cover everything from geology and dinosaurs to early human evolution and the animal kingdom. One of the most interesting specimens on display was a composite skeleton […]
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An Ancient Computer: The Antikythera Mechanism
The highlight of a recent trip to Athens was a visit to the National Museum of Archaeology. The museum had a special gallery for the finds from the Antikythera shipwreck, a boat carrying luxury goods from around 75–50 BC which was wrecked in a storm. It was discovered in 1900 by sponge divers. The highlight […]
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Unlocking the Past: Hidden Museum Collections
In the real world I work in museums and travel across the county of Somerset visiting its many historic sites on a weekly basis (I’m pretty lucky to be getting paid to do something I love). One day a week I work at Yeovil’s best-kept secret, the amazing Community Heritage Access Centre (CHAC). Basically it’s […]
Wonderful Things 