Reports from a number of sources indicate that 82 year old archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad has been beheaded by Islamic State for refusing to reveal the location of hidden artefacts from the site of Palmyra. The Syrian archaeologist had devoted much of his life to this site
It is a sad thing for a life to be lost in such tragic circumstances defending the shared cultural heritage many of us love, all of us at History Bytes send our condolences to his family and colleagues.
Robert Krulwich, an author for the National Geographic, asked himself what name was the first recorded in the historical record. What he found was a debate between scholars that argue for one of two contenders.
This image comes from Trajan’s column and depicts the personification of Victory inscribing the name Dacia onto a shield to be hung on the victory trophy depicted to the right of the scene signifying the end of the first Dacian war. The victory monument on the right of the scene shows a tree trunk covered in the armour and weapons of the defeated enemy which can tell us a lot about the weapons and armour used by the Dacians throughout these conflicts.
20 August 1860 – On this day
Australian explorers Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills departed from Royal Park, Melbourne to commence their doomed expedition to cross the Australian continent from South to North.
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On the 19th of August 43 BC Octavian, later to become Augustus the first emperor of Rome, compelled the Roman Senate to elect him Consul of Rome.
An interesting albeit somewhat older documentary that examines fighter design arms race between the US and USSR from the creation of the Russia MIG 15, one of the most prolific fighters ever, manufactured in 4 countries and used by at least 18 to the MIG 29 and tracks the US developments from the US F-86 Sabre which was used by 26 different airforces to the F-18 Hornet.
Continue reading “Review – MIG vs America, Cold War in the Skies”
The evolution of body armour is a fascinating subject from the stylistic changes in Roman armour to the development of modern bullet proof vests, sometimes the failures tell us as much as the successes do. Max Virtus has written a really interesting article on one of those failures that never made it to the battlefield in his article about the World War I Brewster body armour.
British Archaeologist Nicolas Reeves feels that he may have found the resting place of Nefertitis’ mummy. After studying the high-resolution images taken of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 2009 Reeves was able to discern the texture of the walls of the tomb beneath the paint. This allowed Reeves to discover what he believes are two plastered over doors. Although it is still far from certain that anything exists behind these doors, Reeves believes he has found the likely resting place of Nefertiti. Examination with seismic X-ray and ground penetrating radar equipment is the next step in determining whether or not Reeves is right.
The Medal of Honor awarded for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.” was introduced in 1861, originally only for the sailors and Marines as the Army thought it was a bad idea. Six months later the Army changed its mind and approved the award of the Medal of Honor to soldiers. A recent documentary Medal of Honor – The History discusses the history and evolution of this award and explains the symbology of the original Navy design of Minerva repelling Discord and how the design came Continue reading “The Medal of Honor”
The University of Oregon and Oregon State University have teamed up to create a web-based app that allows people to engage with the history of the built environment of Oregon. The underlying collection consists 22,000 images and associated documentation. The digitised database which is accessible to everyone is ideal for amateur historians and researchers.
A production company affiliated with the Chinese military have produced a movie The Cairo Declaration as part of the 70th anniversary commemorations of Japan’s surrender in WWII which depicts Mao Zedong as an important participant in the Cairo conference of 1943. A conference he never attended.
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