About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    myeulogy: Children sit in front of a tombstone waiting for their relatives at a public cemetery during the Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, in Jinjiang, Fujian province, April 4, 2012. The festival marks a day for the Chinese to remember and honor one’s ancestors. Chinese experts have called for legislative efforts to standardize funeral services, in an attempt to regulate the country’s unscrupulous funeral service providers who siphon huge profits from the relatives of the dead. (China Daily/Reuters)/2012 Year in Pictures: Part I

    myeulogy:

    Children sit in front of a tombstone waiting for their relatives at a public cemetery during the Qingming Festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, in Jinjiang, Fujian province, April 4, 2012. The festival marks a day for the Chinese to remember and honor one’s ancestors. Chinese experts have called for legislative efforts to standardize funeral services, in an attempt to regulate the country’s unscrupulous funeral service providers who siphon huge profits from the relatives of the dead. (China Daily/Reuters)/2012 Year in Pictures: Part I

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    • Posted 4 months ago
    • December 29th, 2012

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    Visitors to Egypt will pay to see replica tombs in future as tourism takes its toll For many visitors to Egypt, it is the definitive experience; to witness first hand Tutankhamun’s tomb in Luxor’s famous Valley of the Kings. However, irreparable damage caused by decades of tourists flocking to see the boy king’s burial chamber and other ancient tombs could mean visitors are soon banned from entering them. Read more here.

    Visitors to Egypt will pay to see replica tombs in future as tourism takes its toll

    For many visitors to Egypt, it is the definitive experience; to witness first hand Tutankhamun’s tomb in Luxor’s famous Valley of the Kings.

    However, irreparable damage caused by decades of tourists flocking to see the boy king’s burial chamber and other ancient tombs could mean visitors are soon banned from entering them.

    Read more here.

    archaeology: Visitors to Egypt will pay to see replica tombs in future as tourism takes its toll For many visitors to Egypt, it is the definitive experience; to witness first hand Tutankhamun’s tomb in Luxor’s famous Valley of the Kings. However, irreparable damage caused by decades of tourists flocking to see the boy king’s burial chamber and other ancient tombs could mean visitors are soon banned from entering them. Changes in temperature and humidity, say experts, is causing the intricately painted plaster to crumble away from the walls.  Future visitors to the tomb will have to be content with paying to see a carefully-crafted replica although Egyptian authorities have yet to make a decision on when that might be. The Supreme Council of Antiquities has already commissioned a series of near-perfect replica chambers in conjunction with Switzerland’s University of Basel and Madrid-based company Factum Arte. Highly skilled artists were given the green light to create three ‘facsimilies’ of the tombs of Seti I, Nefertari and Tutankhamun back in 2009. One of them, Briton Adam Lowe, told The Independent on Sunday newspaper: ‘The truth is that the tomb was never meant to be visited.  ‘It lasted well for over 3000 years. But in the last 90 since Carter’s discovery, its condition has deteriorated dramatically.’

    archaeology:

    Visitors to Egypt will pay to see replica tombs in future as tourism takes its toll

    For many visitors to Egypt, it is the definitive experience; to witness first hand Tutankhamun’s tomb in Luxor’s famous Valley of the Kings.

    However, irreparable damage caused by decades of tourists flocking to see the boy king’s burial chamber and other ancient tombs could mean visitors are soon banned from entering them.

    Changes in temperature and humidity, say experts, is causing the intricately painted plaster to crumble away from the walls. 

    Future visitors to the tomb will have to be content with paying to see a carefully-crafted replica although Egyptian authorities have yet to make a decision on when that might be.


    The Supreme Council of Antiquities has already commissioned a series of near-perfect replica chambers in conjunction with Switzerland’s University of Basel and Madrid-based company Factum Arte.

    Highly skilled artists were given the green light to create three ‘facsimilies’ of the tombs of Seti I, Nefertari and Tutankhamun back in 2009.

    One of them, Briton Adam Lowe, told The Independent on Sunday newspaper: ‘The truth is that the tomb was never meant to be visited. 

    ‘It lasted well for over 3000 years. But in the last 90 since Carter’s discovery, its condition has deteriorated dramatically.’

    (via gwebarchaeology)

    Cairo’s City of the Dead, a slum where 500,000 people live among tombs

    Almost 20 million people live in the Cairo metropolitan area, and housing is tight, even in the suburbs. In a neighborhood known as al-Arafa, residents have moved into a necropolis dating back to 600 A.D. In this City of the Dead, there is limited electricity and sanitation, and the deceased take up residency among the living. 

    Full story and a short video here.

    In Egypt, archaeologists reopen tombs to woo tourists

    archaeologicalnews:

    GIZA, Egypt — More than 4,500 years since the paint was first applied, the reds, yellows and blues still stand out on the walls of the tomb of Queen Meresankh III.

    A hunter throws a net to catch water birds, craftsmen make papyrus mats while a stream of people carry baskets filled with…

    Maya Royal Tombs Found With Rare Woman Ruler A woman ruler’s skeleton—her head mysteriously placed between two bowls—is one of two royal burials recently found at the Maya ruins of Nakum in Guatemala. The roughly 2,000-year-old tomb was found underneath another, 1,300-year-old tomb filled with treasures such as jade gorgets—normally used to protect the throat—beads, and ceremonial knives. The upper tomb’s corpse had been badly destroyed by rodents within the last few centuries, but the body was clearly that of another Maya ruler—perhaps another female, based on the small size of a ring found in that tomb. (See “Bowls of Fingers, Baby Victims, More Found in Maya Tomb.”) The royal burials are the first discovered in Nakum, once a densely packed Maya center. Study co-author Wiesław Koszkul and colleagues have been investigating Nakum’s surroundings, known as the Cultural Triangle, for decades. (Explore an interactive map of key Maya sites.) “We think this structure was something like a mausoleum for the royal lineage for at least 400 years,” said Koszkul, of the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology in Krakow, Poland. The Maya royal-tomb discoveries are described in the September issue of the journal Antiquity. Click through to see more amazing photographs…

    Maya Royal Tombs Found With Rare Woman Ruler

    A woman ruler’s skeleton—her head mysteriously placed between two bowls—is one of two royal burials recently found at the Maya ruins of Nakum in Guatemala.

    The roughly 2,000-year-old tomb was found underneath another, 1,300-year-old tomb filled with treasures such as jade gorgets—normally used to protect the throat—beads, and ceremonial knives.

    The upper tomb’s corpse had been badly destroyed by rodents within the last few centuries, but the body was clearly that of another Maya ruler—perhaps another female, based on the small size of a ring found in that tomb.

    (See “Bowls of Fingers, Baby Victims, More Found in Maya Tomb.”)

    The royal burials are the first discovered in Nakum, once a densely packed Maya center. Study co-author Wiesław Koszkul and colleagues have been investigating Nakum’s surroundings, known as the Cultural Triangle, for decades. (Explore an interactive map of key Maya sites.)

    “We think this structure was something like a mausoleum for the royal lineage for at least 400 years,” said Koszkul, of the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology in Krakow, Poland.

    The Maya royal-tomb discoveries are described in the September issue of the journal Antiquity.

    Click through to see more amazing photographs…