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Gallery of the Bronze Age Aegean

Gallery of the Bronze Age Aegean

The rise and fall of three mighty civilizations. Long before the Classical Age the prehistoric Cycladic, Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations flourished in Greece and the Aegean. This was before the age of written history, but these cultures inspired the myths and legends of Greece – tales of the

Re-enactment, Archaeology, and the Ancient Rome & Greece Weekend: I of IV

Re-enactment, Archaeology, and the Ancient Rome & Greece Weekend: I of IV

As an archaeologist the main goal in my work is to understand the people of the past, and to share that understanding with others. As a museum archaeologist, a good way to share that knowledge is at family weekends, like the ROM's Ancient Rome & Greece Weekend on June 15 th-16 th 2013! I

The Rules of Taxonomy: How Species Are Named

The Rules of Taxonomy: How Species Are Named

Why should ROM curators care about a proposal to create an organization that would make rules for how species of living things are named? Naming the things around us is a fundamental part of being human and using language. In fact, we do more than that; we bring order to the plethora of names by

Valentine's Day at the ROM: Unique Painting of Lovers

Valentine's Day at the ROM: Unique Painting of Lovers

Guest blog by Sudharshan Duraiyappah, a scholar and instruction at the University of Toronto and the ROM A cursory glance at the 17 th century Kangra painting featuring Radha and her lover Krishna, who according to Hindu mythology is considered an incarnation of the god Vishnu, might elicit a

Exhibit A: Light of the Desert Cerussite Gem

Exhibit A: Light of the Desert Cerussite Gem

At 900 carats, this magnificent gemstone is the world's largest faceted specimen of the mineral cerussite. Cerussite, a lead carbonate mineral, is extremely sensitive to heat and vibration—even warmth from the palm of a hand can damage it. Just imagine how much time and care the gem cutter

Erasing Mankind’s Heritage: the Monuments of Palmyra and their Devastation

Erasing Mankind’s Heritage: the Monuments of Palmyra and their Devastation

Dr. Clemens Reichel speaks at the San Antonio Museum of Art about the impact that the current conflicts in Syria and Iraq have had on cultural heritage sites and museums zones and what their loss would mean to all of humanity. While focusing on the intentional destruction of temples, monuments and

Meteorite of the Month: Oriented Nose Cone

By Brendt C. Hyde and Ian Nicklin Figure 1: Meteorite showing ‘thumbprint’ features referred to as regmaglypts. As rocks from space come through the Earth’s atmosphere they are travelling at speeds as high as 70 km/s. At these speeds, air in front of large space rocks gets compressed and, in

"Of Angling, and the Art thereof": Fish Tails and Fish Tales

"Of Angling, and the Art thereof": Fish Tails and Fish Tales

“Of Angling, and the Art thereof I sing, What kinde of Tooles it doth behoue to haue; And with what pleasing bayt a man may bring  The Fish to bite within the watry waue.” Fishing has long been pursued to provide food for families and communities, but as early as the 17th century when I. D.

Virtual Collaboration: The whole story of ancient Roman amethyst gem

On August 30, 2012 I posted a blog on the rediscovery of a very striking and important ancient Roman amethyst gem engraved with the image of Victory writing on a shield, dating to about 50 BC to AD 25. I also mentioned that the gem was in the collection of Sir Francis Cook by 1903. The posting paid

Gem of the Month: Canadian Diamonds

Posting by Brendt Hyde, Mineralogy Technician The discovery of diamonds in the 1990’s marked a beginning for Canada’s first diamond mine, the Ekati Diamond Mine, located in the Northwest Territories.  It also marked the beginning of the, still relatively young, diamond mining industry in