Agatha Christie’s secret life as an archaeologist
She is one of the best-known crime writers of all time but few know the extent of Agatha Christie’s archaeological pedigree.
Married in 1930 to eminent archaeologist Max Mallowan, Christie spent two decades living on excavation sites in the Middle East, writing her crime novels and helping out with her husband’s work.
Travel by boat and on the Orient Express to far-flung places such as Cairo, Damascus and Baghdad inspired some of Christie’s best-known works of detective fiction, including “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Death on the Nile,” and “Murder in Mesopotamia.”
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Now, 3,000-year-old ivory artifacts recovered by Mallowan between 1949 and 1963 from the ancient city of Nimrud, in what is now Iraq, and likely cleaned by his famous wife using cotton wool buds and face cream, go on display Monday at the British Museum in London.
Possible Chopin photo surfaces in Poland
A photograph said to be of the 19th century composer Frederic Chopin just after his death has surfaced in Poland – an extremely rare find that experts are trying to determine the authenticity of.
If real, it would be only the third known photograph of the Polish-French musical genius who lived from 1810-1849.
Wladyslaw Zuchowski, a photographer and gallery owner in Gdansk, said on Thursday that he bought the daguerreotype, the earliest type of photograph, from a private owner in Scotland.
Scholar discovers 6th-century Ethiopian Old Testament
A doctoral student at Durham University in England has discovered the existence of the oldest known copies of books of the Ethiopic Old Testament. The books date back to the early sixth century.
Working with previously-uncataloged manuscripts from HMML’s Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, Erho has identified the second oldest Ethiopic manuscript in existence (the oldest is the famous Abba Garima Gospels), which also contains the oldest known copies of books from the Old Testament. This manuscript, EMML 6977, dates prior to the Solomonic Era in Ethiopia, which began in 1270 CE and contains the books of Job and Daniel, as well as two homilies.
omg..thanks tammy for that story about chopin!…as a classical pianist myself it’s very interesting..
I posted the wonderful story of the 6th Century Ethiopian Old Testament being discovered. My niece & her husband will soon be adopting an Ethiopian Child. This will be a wonderful piece of information for them to save & show their child as time goes on.
Though not as significant as the stories Tammy posted but for ‘entertainment’ purposes, I thought I’d post this one that set off a gigantic dominio effect in the world of “Rock” music that’s still echoes today:
Hat Tip to the History Channel.
Mar 13, 1965: Eric Clapton leaves the Yardbirds
In and of itself, one man leaving one band in the middle of the 1960s might warrant little more than a historical footnote. But what makes the departure of Eric Clapton from the Yardbirds on March 13, 1965, more significant is the long and complicated game of musical chairs it set off within the world of British blues rock. When Clapton walked out on the Yardbirds, he did more than just change the course of his own career. He also set in motion a chain of events that would see not just one, but two more guitar giants pass through the Yardbirds on their way toward significant futures of their own. And through the various groups they would later form, influence, join and quit, these three guitar heroes—Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page—would shape more than a decade’s worth of rock and roll.
The fact is these 3 men inspired, literally, thousands and thousands of people worldwide to play guitar, including me. Long Live Eric, Jeff and Jimmy!