B.C. Archaeology Travel in Five Dock, New South Wales, Australia | Travel and transport

B.C. Archaeology Travel

Locality: Five Dock, New South Wales, Australia

Phone: +61 405 492 946

Address: PO Box 1236 2575 Five Dock, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.bcarchaeology.com/

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25.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE ASKLEPIEION OF PERGAMON Near the ancient city of Pergamon, located in NW Turkey, lies the Asklepieion, a medical centre of great importance. It was dedicated to the ancient Greek god of medicine Asklepios, the son of Apollo. This therapeutic centre, based on the example at Epidauros in southern Greece, became one of the most important medical institutions in the Hellenistic and Roman world. The healing arts practices at Pergamon and in other As...Continue reading

25.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: EMPURIES The site of Empuries is located on the coast of Catalonia in NE Spain, about 100 km north of Barcelona. An indigenous village dates back to the early Iron Age (9th Century BC). This was later known as palaiapolis ‘Old City’. This was a small community based on stock breeding, agriculture and fishing. People lived in rectangular huts made of branches and mud. During the 8th century BC there was migration of Indo-European people (Urnfield Culture) in...Continue reading

24.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: TAQ E-BOSTAN The magnificent site of Taq-e Bostan is located in western Iran near the city of Kermanshah. The ancient site, which appears to have functioned as a way station and ‘paradise’ for resting on the Silk Road, consists of a number of important historic reliefs of the Sassanian Kings who ruled the Iranian plateau from AD 226-650. Little of the written record of the Sassanian period has survived: it consists in the main of a few inscriptions...Continue reading

24.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: TAPOSIRIS MAGNA Located in northern Egypt to the west of Alexandria, on the northern shore of the ancient Lake Mariut, Taposiris Magna was a small Ptolemaic and Roman settlement. The city was not located directly on the Mediterranean but faced the Lake shore. This appears to indicate that its commercial activity concentrated on overland trade and Lake Mariut rather than open sea trade. The ruins cover more than one square km but very little of the sit...Continue reading

24.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: NICOPOLIS After the Battle of Actium in September 31 BC, when Octavian (the future Augustus) defeated Antony and Cleopatra in western Greece, he founded the city of Nikopolis ('Victory City') on the NW shore of the Ambracian Gulf, where his military camp had been located. To populate the town he moved people from other nearby towns such as Calydon and Ambracia. The city had its own mint and every four years celebrated the Actia, a festival dedicated to Apol...Continue reading

23.01.2022 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE by Amelia Edwards It is hard, now that we are actually here, to realise that this is the end of our journey. The Second Cataract an immense multitude of black and shining islets, among which the river, divided into hundreds of separate channels, spreads far and wide for a distance, it is said, of more than sixteen miles, foams at our feet. Foams, and frets, and falls ; gushing smooth and strong where its course is free ; murmuring hoarsely whe...re it is interrupted ; now hurrying ; now loitering ; here eddying in oily circles ; there lying in still pools unbroken by a ripple ; everywhere full of life, full of voices ; everywhere shining to the sun. Northwards, where it winds away towards Abou Simbel, we see all the fantastic mountains of yesterday on the horizon. To the east, still bounded by out-liers of the same disconnected chain, lies a rolling waste of dark and stony wilderness, trenched with innumerable valleys through which flow streams of sand. On the western side, the continuity of the view is interrupted by the ridge which ends with Abusîr. Southwards, the Libyan desert reaches away in one vast undulating plain ; tawny, arid, monotonous ; all sun ; all sand ; lit here and there with arrowy flashes of the Nile. In all this extraordinary panorama, so wild, so weird, so desolate, there is nothing really beautiful, except the colour. But the colour is transcendent. Never, even in Egypt, have I seen anything so tender, so transparent, so harmonious. I shut my eyes, and it all comes before me. I see the amber of the sands ; the pink and pearly mountains ; the Cataract rocks, all black and purple and polished ; the dull grey palms that cluster here and there upon the larger islands ; the vivid verdure of the tamarisks and pomegranates ; the Nile, a greenish brown flecked with yeasty foam ; over all, the blue and burning sky, permeated with light, and palpitating with sunshine. I made no sketch. I felt that it would be ludicrous to attempt it. And I feel now that any endeavour to put the scene into words is a mere presumptuous effort to describe the indescribable. Words are useful instruments ; but, like the etching needle and the burin, they stop short at form. They cannot translate colour. NOTE: These are photos I took in northern Sudan in the area of the Third Cataract

22.01.2022 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE by Amelia Edwards We hurried on to the Great Temple, without waiting to examine the lesser one in detail. A solemn twilight reigned in the first hall, beyond which all was dark. Eight colossi, four to the right and four to the left, stand ranged down the centre, bearing the mountain on their heads. Their height is twenty-five feet. With hands crossed on their breasts, they clasp the flail and crook ; emblems of majesty and dominion. It is the atti...tude of Osiris, but the face is the face of Rameses II. Seen by this dim light, shadowy, mournful, majestic, they look as if they remembered the past. Beyond the first hall lies a second hall supported on four square pillars ; beyond this again, a transverse chamber, the walls of which are covered with coloured bas-reliefs of various Gods ; last of all, the sanctuary. Here, side by side, sit four figures larger than life Ptah, Amen-Ra, Ra, and Rameses deified. Before them stands an altar, in shape a truncated pyramid, cut from the solid rock. Traces of colour yet linger on the garments of the statues ; while in the walls on either side are holes and grooves such as might have been made to receive a screen of metal-work. The air in the sanctuary was heavy with an acrid smoke, as if the priests had been burning some strange incense and were only just gone. For this illusion we were indebted to the visitors who had been there before us. They had lit the place with magnesian wire ; the vapour of which lingers long in these unventilated vaults. To settle down then and there to a steady investigation of the wall-sculptures was impossible. We did not attempt it. Wandering from hall to hall, from chamber to chamber ; now trusting to the faint gleams that straggled in from without, now stumbling along by the light of a bunch of candles tied to the end of a stick, we preferred to receive those first impressions of vastness, of mystery, of gloomy magnificence, which are the more profound for being somewhat vague and general.

21.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: MAGNESIA The ancient city of Magnesia is located a few km from Ephesus in Ionia near the Meander River in western Turkey. The city was founded in the 10th Century BC by colonists from the city of Magnesia in northern Greece. It was not a member of the Ionian League of cities but maintained its independence. It came under the control of Lydia in the early 7th Century BC and was looted by Cimmerian invaders around 650 BC. Magnesia came under Persian ...Continue reading

21.01.2022 ARCHAEOLOGY LECTURES: EMPIRES OF THE SILK ROAD A 4-week lecture series - A$110 incl GST Hi - this is Michael Birrell. I'm an archaeologist and historian with 20 years experience of leading tours. This course examines the archaeology and history of the Silk Road from AD 600 to 1600. We explore the pre-Arab Sogdian culture, the arrival of the Arabs, the creation of the Samanid state, the invasions of the Seljuks and Mongols, and the Empire of Timur (Tamerlane) and his descenda...nts. Silk Road I: Sogdians and Arabs - Mon 8th Nov 3-5pm AEDT Silk Road II: Samanids - Mon 15th Nov 3-5pm AEDT Silk Road III: Seljuks and Mongols - Mon 22nd Nov 3-5pm AEDT Silk Road IV: Timurids - Mon 29th Nov 3-5pm AEDT The lectures will be held online using ZOOM. Lectures will start at 3 pm and finish at 5 pm (AEST Sydney time), with a short break in the middle. The cost of each series (4 lectures) is A$110 - this includes A$10 GST. Ideally you would send me an email (to [email protected]) with your name, address, phone number, and email address, and statement of which series you are interested in. Payment can be made by direct deposit or cheque. CONTACT ME: Phone: (+61) 0405 492946 Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

20.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: CATANIA The city of Katane, modern Catania, lies on the east side of the Italian island of Sicily at the foot of Mt Etna. It was founded by Ionian settlers from Chalcis on the island of Euboa, off the east coast of Greece. They chose a previously uninhabited location for their new colony in 729 BC. During the Archaic period it was of some importance. In 476 BC it was taken by Hieron I of Syracuse who exiled its citizens to Leontinoi, refounding Katane as th...Continue reading

20.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: APOLLONIA The ancient city of Apollonia, modern Marsa Susa, is located in eastern Libya. It was the port of the Greek colony of Cyrene which was located about 20 km away on the top of the escarpment. The port of Apollonia was undoubtedly created not long after the foundation of Cyrene in 632 BC, possibly by developing an earlier pre-existing small entrepot or way station for sailors. The shore of North Africa has sunk 2 m since antiquity, covering mu...Continue reading

19.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: THE FIELD OF MARS IN ROME The low-lying flood plain north of the Capitoline Hill in Rome was the ancient Campus Martius or ‘Field of Mars’, an area dedicated to the God of War. During the Republic (C5th -1st BC) the Campus was an area of open grassland used for military training and exercise as well as horse and chariot races. Male citizens of Rome would assemble here for public meetings, it was where the census was taken and where voting occurred. The Cam...Continue reading

19.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: DAN The site of Dan (Tell el-Qadi) is located in northern Israel at the border with Lebanon. It lies at the NE end of the Hula Valley at the foot of Mt Hermon and at the headwaters of the Jordan River’s most important source. The mound is rectangular and formed from the massive ramparts constructed in the Early and Middle Bronze Age. It was identified with ancient Laish/Dan by Edward Robinson in 1838. A bilingual Greek and Aramaic stone inscription...Continue reading

19.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: FIRUZABAD PALACE OF ARDASHIR Firuzabad is located in western Iran about 110 km south of Shiraz. The plain on which the city is located is 10 to 20 km wide and is abundantly watered by springs and the perennial river, the ancient Boraza River. The foundation of the city is ascribed to the founder of the Sassanian Dynasty Ardashir I. Archaeological and architectural-historical evidence prove conclusively that the town, known as Gor, dates to slightly...Continue reading

19.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: UMM ER RASAS The site of Umm er Rasas is located 30 km SE of Madaba in northern Jordan. It includes the remains of a very well preserved rectangular Roman fortified military camp, or castrum. This measures 158 m by 139 m and has well preserved walls. The ancient name of the site was Mephaath and it is mentioned in Eusebius's Onamasticon as the location of a military camp. Excavations have been conducted at the site since 1986. This work has concent...rated on a cluster of churches, rooms and courtyards in the NE part of the site to the north of the castrum, but there are remains of Iron Age and Nabataean settlement indicating much earlier use of the site. The main church here is the Church of St Stephen. The nave mosaic depicts a number of cities in Transjordan and Israel/Palestine which includes Amman, Madaba, Ma'in, Rabba and Kerak, Jerusalem, Nablus, Samaria, Caesarea, Ashkelon and Gaza. Representations of 10 cities in the Egyptian Delta are included as part of a Nilotic theme. The dedicatory inscription in the nave mosaic can be restored as 787 or 718 AD. The apse mosaic has an intricate geometric design with a dedicatory inscription dated to 756 AD. As a result the churches mosaics date to the period after the Muslim conquest of the region. Images of people and animals in the nave were later systematically attacked by Muslim fundamentalists but they have been repaired since being uncovered. Probes below the 8th Century mosaics have revealed evidence of an earlier church. Next to the Church of St Stephen is the Church of Bishop Sergius which has a mosaic floor dedicated in 587 AD. There is also a baptistry and funerary chapel. To the west is a courtyard which was later converted into a chapel. To its west is the Church of the Aedicula with a flagstone pavement - it is the oldest church in the complex and was erected in the 6th Century. The town appears to have been abandoned in the 8th or early 9th Century. Hi - this is Michael Birrell, the owner/manager of BC Archaeology Travel. I'm an Australian archaeologist and historian who has travelled widely in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. I completed my PhD in 1999 and have excavated at many sites in Egypt and Israel. I've been teaching courses and giving lectures on archaeology and history at Macquarie Uni and Sydney Uni since 1992. I've been leading tours of ancient world sites for more than 20 years but at the moment, due to coronavirus, I am only traveling through my memories. I have visited Umm er Rasas twice and these are some of the photos I took in 2012. My upcoming tours (covid-19 permitting): http://www.bcarchaeology.com/schedule-prices.html Upcoming lectures: http://www.bcarchaeology.com/lectures.html Contact me: [email protected] or (+61) 0405 492 946

19.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: FREJUS (ANCIENT FORUM JULII) The origins of Frejus, an ancient town in SE France between Marseilles and Nice, probably lie with the Celto-Ligurian people who settled around the natural harbour of Aegytna. The Greek settlers of Marseille later established an outpost on the site. Frejus was strategically situated at an important crossroads formed by the Via Julia Augusta (which ran between Italy and the Rhone) and the via Domitiana (Spain and Italy). Julius C...Continue reading

18.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: AMRIT Amrit was a Phoenician religious centre in western Syria, about 8 km south of Tartus not far from the Mediterranean coast. It was the mainland port for the island city of Arwad which lies 2.5 km off shore. This religious centre reflects a mixture of different eastern architectural styles with strong influence from Achaemenid Persian styles. The earliest constructions at the site date to the end of the 3rd Millennium BC but the religious centr...Continue reading

17.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: AKHORIS (TEHNA EL-GEBEL) Tehna el-Gebel is located 12 km north of the city of Minya in middle Egypt. It is marked by a remarkable natural rock formation which is created by the descent of a side valley (wadi el-Tehna) making its way down to the Nile Valley proper. In antiquity Tehna el-Gebel was the site of the town of Mer-neferet while in the late Period it was known as Dehenet. In the Greco-Roman era it was called Akhoris. The ruins of the ancient ...Continue reading

17.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: ROMAN SEVILLE (HISPALIS) The city of Seville lies in southern Spain on the Guadalquivir River. In antiquity Seville lay near the mouth of the river but since that time the bay into which the river flowed has filled in and the coast is now some distance away. Seville was inhabited long before the arrival of the Romans. The earliest physical evidence comes from the 8th Century BC these people were the indigenous Pre-Roman people of Tartessos who controlled ...Continue reading

13.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: EPIDAUROS The sanctuary of Epidauros lies in southern Greece on the eastern side of the Peloponnese not far from the Saronic Gulf. It is dominated by Mt Kynortion which was sacred to a pre-Greek hero called Maleas later assimilated to Apollo. By the 6th Century BC the cult of Asclepius, the healing god identified as the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, was firmly established. The outbreak of plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian War (late 5th Centur...Continue reading

13.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: EUROMOS The Roman era temple of Zeus at Euromos is located in a rural setting on the road from Soke to Milas in western Turkey. Euromos was a prosperous city in the Hellenistic period and continued to thrive under the Romans. The temple of Zeus is thought to have been built during the reign of Hadrian in the early 2nd Century AD. In form it is a smaller version of the temple which Hadrian erected on the acropolis at Pergamon at about the same time.... The temple was 6 columns across the front and eleven on the sides. It was approached via a flight of steps leading through a double row of columns in the pronaos. A cult statue of Zeus originally stood at the rear of the cella. The temple is in a good state of preservation with 16 columns still standing. The entablature is still supported on three sides of the temple. A number of inscriptions refer to the fact that a number of leading citizens donated money towards the construction. Some of the columns remain unfluted which suggests that the temple was never completed. Only a few sections of other buildings are visible at the site. This includes the front rows of a theatre which is constructed into the side of a hill. A short section of the city wall is also preserved together with a round tower. Euromos was visited by Richard Chandler in 1764 as part of an expedition of the Society of Dilettanti. The French ambassador visited next in 1776 on a tour of Classical sites. His artist made a number of sketches of the temple which were eventually published. This included plans. elevations and a detail of the Corinthian order, together with a view of the site in the landscape. Hi - this is Michael Birrell, the owner/manager of BC Archaeology Travel. I'm an Australian archaeologist and historian who has travelled widely in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. I completed my PhD in 1999 and have excavated at many sites in Egypt and Israel. I've been teaching courses and giving lectures on archaeology and history at Macquarie Uni and Sydney Uni since 1992. I've been leading tours of ancient world sites for more than 20 years but at the moment, due to coronavirus, I am only traveling through my memories. I have visited Euromos twicw and these are some of the photos I took in 2005. My upcoming tours (covid-19 permitting): http://www.bcarchaeology.com/schedule-prices.html Upcoming lectures: http://www.bcarchaeology.com/lectures.html Contact me: [email protected] or (+61) 0405 492 946

12.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE PETRA HIGH PLACE Nabataean deities such as the sky god Dushara were thought to manifest themselves or reside on the tops of mountains or other high places. Hill tops were often used for the positioning of open air sanctuaries. These were generally of simple design and have come to be called ‘high places’. They could be used for the worship of a range of deities and if there is no surviving inscriptional evidence then it can be difficult to ide...Continue reading

11.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: VINDOLANDA The Roman fortress of Vindolanda is located in Northumberland in northern England about 45 km west of Newcastle. It was first occupied by Roman soldiers long before Hadrian's Wall was built. It was founded around AD 85 to help the Romans consolidate their rule in the northern part of the country. It seems that it was demolished and rebuilt on a number of occasions to meet the needs of the different cohorts stationed at the fort. At least 9 differ...Continue reading

11.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE TEMPLE OF TOD The Egyptian village of Tod lies on the east bank of the Nile, 20 km south of Luxor. Its ancient name was Djerty while it was known as Tuphium in Greco-Roman times. The site dates back to the period of King Userkaf of the 5th Dynasty in the Old Kingdom when there was a local cult of the falcon-headed god Montu here. Numerous blocks survive from the Old Kingdom including a large granite slab from Userkaf’s original shrine - there a...Continue reading

10.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: THE TOMB OF MAYA AT SAQQARA Saqqara is situated 40 km from Cairo on the west bank of the Nile. The site is 6 km long and 1.5 km wide.The modern designation is thought to be derived from the name of the god Sokar, ancient god of the necropolis. In the Early Dynastic Period (3100-2670 BC) an extensive cemetery of mudbrick mastaba ‘bench’ tombs developed along the northern edge of the plateau. These consisted of a deep pit roofed with timber and a supers...Continue reading

09.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: ABYDOS TEMPLE OF RAMESSES II Abydos is located in middle Egypt near the modern town of Baliana. It is famous for the spectacular temple of Sety I, erected around 1300 BC. About 300 m north of Sety I’s temple, on the western edge of the village of Beni Mansur, his son Ramesses II built a temple for himself. This was dedicated mainly to the Osirian cult but was a more conventional design than his father’s temple. It was built when he was still co-ruler ...Continue reading

09.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: DOR The site of Dor lies in northern Israel on the Carmel coast, about 21 km south of Haifa. It was already inhabited in the Middle Bronze II period (1800 BC) with a few buildings of this period revealed on the western edge of the tell. A massive mudbrick wall has been identified on the eastern fringe of the mound and is dated to the Early Iron Age. This wall was 3 m high and 2.5 m wide, reinforced by a sand rampart on the outer edge. The wall date...Continue reading

08.01.2022 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE by Amelia Edwards The smaller temple at Abou Simbel, though it comes first in the order of sailing, is generally seen last ; and seen therefore to disadvantage. To eyes fresh from the "Abode of Ra," the "Abode of Hathor" looks less than its actual size ; which is in fact but little inferior to that of the Temple at Derr. A first hall, measuring some 40 feet in length by 21 in width, leads to a transverse corridor, two side-chambers, and a sanctuar...Continue reading

08.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: THE SEA OF GALILEE BOAT The Galilee Boat is an ancient fishing boat which was discovered in 1986 near the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The boat is 8.27 m long and 2.3 m wide. It appeared during a drought when the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee was in retreat. The boat was discovered by Moshe and Yuval Lufan of Kibbutz Ginnosar. It was excavated by the Israel Antiquities Authority with the assistance of the members of the Kibbutz.... Extraction of the boat took 12 days. The remains had to be encased in fibreglass to protect the timbers. It was later submerged for 12 years to stabilize the timbers. The Galilee boat was made of oak and cedar together with 9 other types of wood (including carob, sycamore, laurel, plane, terebinth, willow and judas tree) which suggests that it was repaired repeatedly with scrap timber. It is joined together with mortise and tenon joins and some iron nails. It had a very shallow draft which enabled it to get close to the shore of the Sea. The boat could be rowed but also had a mast allowing the fishermen to sail. The boat has been dated to about 40 BC on the basis of radio-carbon dating. With the boat was a cooking pot and lamp which can be dated on stylistic grounds to the late 1st Century BC through to the early 1st Century AD. There is repeated evidence of ancient repair of the boat which suggests that it was used for many decades before being scuttled. Hi - this is Michael Birrell, the owner/manager of BC Archaeology Travel. I'm an Australian archaeologist and historian who has travelled widely in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. I completed my PhD in 1999 and have excavated at many sites in Egypt and Israel. I've been teaching courses and giving lectures on archaeology and history at Macquarie Uni and Sydney Uni since 1992. I've been leading tours of ancient world sites for more than 20 years but at the moment, due to coronavirus, I am only traveling through my memories. I have lived and worked in Israel over the last 35 years and these are some of the photos I took of the Galilee boat in 2016. My upcoming tours (covid-19 permitting): http://www.bcarchaeology.com/schedule-prices.html Upcoming lectures: http://www.bcarchaeology.com/lectures.html Contact me: [email protected] or (+61) 0405 492 946

08.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: UMM QAIS (ANCIENT GADARA) The ancient settlement of Gadara (today known as Umm Qais) is located in NW Jordan, very close to the borders with Syria and Israel. Towards the north of the site is the Yarmuk River valley and further north is the Golan Heights region. The Sea of Galilee is 12 km away and is visible on a clear day. Because of its strategic location on the roads from Bosra (ancient Bostra) and the coast, the city of Gadara prospered during...Continue reading

08.01.2022 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE by Amelia Edwards None of us, I think, will be likely to forget the sustained excitement of the next three hours. As the moon climbed higher, a light more mysterious and unreal than the light of day filled and overflowed the wide expanse of river and desert. We could see the mountains of Abou Simbel standing as it seemed across our path, in the far distance a lower one first ; then a larger ; then a series of receding heights, all close together..., yet all distinctly separate. That large one the mountain of the Great Temple held us like a spell. For a long time it looked a mere mountain like the rest. By and by, however, we fancied we detected a something a shadow such a shadow as might be cast by a gigantic buttress. Next appeared a black speck no bigger than a porthole. We knew that this black speck must be the doorway. We knew that the great statues were there, though not yet visible ; and that we must soon see them. At length the last corner was rounded, and the Great Temple stood straight before us. The façade, sunk in the mountain-side like a huge picture in a mighty frame, was now quite plain to see. The black speck was no longer a porthole, but a lofty doorway. Last of all, though it was night and they were still not much less than a mile away, the four colossi came out, ghost-like, vague, and shadowy, in the enchanted moonlight. Even as we watched them, they seemed to grow to dilate to be moving towards us out of the silvery distance. It was drawing on towards midnight when the Philæ at length ran in close under the Great Temple. Content with what they had seen from the river, the rest of the party then went soberly to bed ; but the Painter and the Writer had no patience to wait till morning. Almost before the mooring-rope could be made fast, they had jumped ashore and begun climbing the bank. They went and stood at the feet of the colossi, and on the threshold of that vast portal beyond which was darkness. The great statues towered above their heads. The river glittered like steel in the far distance. There was a keen silence in the air ; and towards the east the Southern Cross was rising. To the strangers who stood talking there with bated breath, the time, the place, even the sound of their own voices, seemed unreal. They felt as if the whole scene must fade with the moonlight, and vanish before morning.

07.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: AMMAN (ANCIENT PHILADELPHIA) Amman is the capital city of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It is located 206 km south of Damascus and 335 km north of Aqaba. The earliest references to the site call it ‘Amman of the Bene Amman’ and it is called Bit Ammanu in Assyrian texts. The continuous habitation of the city goes back to the 6th Millennium BC but remains of hunter gatherers have been found which date back to the Palaeolithic Period. The site of A...Continue reading

07.01.2022 TRAVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST: GOBEKLI TEPE Gobekli Tepe (meaning ‘Potbelly Hill) is located near Sanliurfa in SE Turkey. The site consists of circular structures made from carved limestone pillars carved with bas-reliefs of animals gazelles, snakes, foxes, scorpions, vultures and wild boars. The structures were built some 11,600 years ago at the dawn of agriculture, 7000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza. This makes them the oldest known temples. Indeed, Gobekli Tepe is ...Continue reading

06.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: HAIDRA (ANCIENT AMMAEDRA) The site of Ammaedra, today known as Haidra, is located in western Tunisia, not far from the border with Algeria. It lay on a major road leading from the coast through Capsa and then into the interior. It was a military base established by the Third legion Augusta in early Imperial times. It received a colony of settlers during the Flavian Period when the Third Legion was transferred further west to Tebessa (around AD 75 - th...Continue reading

05.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: ED DAKKA The temple known today as Ed Dakka, located between Aswan and Abu Simbel, was originally located 40 km south of its present location but was moved by the Egyptian Antiquities Organisation between 1965 and 1968 to preserve it from the rising waters of Lake Nasser. The temple was founded by the Meroitic King Arkamani (Greek Ergamenes) during the late 3rd Century BC, when this part of Nubia fell under the dominion of these African rulers based a...Continue reading

05.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: ADI AKAWEH The temple to the Sabaean moon god Almaqah at the site of Adi Akaweh (or Meqaber Ga’ewe) lies SW of the town of Wukro in northern Ethiopia. It was erected in the 8th Century BC and represents one of the most ancient archaeological monuments in Ethiopia. Its well-preserved cult inventory includes a libation altar and a royal dedication text, a seated female votive statue and incense burners have been worked by the Sabaean masons to a very hi...Continue reading

02.01.2022 TRAVELS IN EUROPE: DELPHI The ruins of the famous sanctuary of Delphi, located in central Greece, are amongst the most spectacular in the ancient world. The precinct lies at the foot of Rodini rock on the lower slopes of Mt Parnassos. The sanctuary was enclosed within a built wall in which there were many gates, the masonry largely in place by the 6th Century BC. The enclosure was built on rising ground and was quadrilateral in shape. The greatest dimensions of the compound a...Continue reading

02.01.2022 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE by Amelia Edwards The coming back thus, after an excursion in the felucca, is one of the many pleasant things that one has to remember of the Nile. The sun has set ; the afterglow has faded ; the stars are coming out. Leaning back with a satisfied sense of something seen or done, one listens to the old dreamy chant of the rowers, and to the ripple under the keel. The palms, meanwhile, glide past, and are seen in bronzed relief against the sky. Pr...esently the big boat, all glittering with lights, looms up out of the dusk. A cheery voice hails from the poop. We glide under the bows. Half-a-dozen smiling brown faces bid us welcome, and as many pairs of brown hands are outstretched to help us up the side. A savoury smell is wafted from the kitchen ; a pleasant vision of the dining-saloon, with table ready spread and lamps ready lit, flashes upon us through the open doorway. We are at home once more. Let us eat, drink, rest, and be merry ; for tomorrow the hard work of sight-seeing and sketching begins again. NOTE: This is the end of our imaginary journey 1000 miles up the Nile. I hope you've enjoyed exploring Egypt with me (Michael Birrell) and Amelia Edwards

02.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: SESEBI The town site of Sesebi is located in northern Sudan about 50 km south of Soleb and 40 km north of Kerma. The earliest settlement by Egyptian colonists at the site was not enclosed by walls but was surrounded by a deep ditch and must date to the early reigns of the 18th Dynasty (1400 BC). This pioneer colony was apparently never completed in the form originally planned; it were overbuilt and replaced by a much larger rectangular, walled town i...Continue reading

02.01.2022 ARCHAEOLOGY LECTURES IN EARLY 2021 Hi everyone. This is Dr Michael Birrell, the owner/manager of B.C. Archaeology Travel. I am going to teach the following Zoom courses in the coming months and hope you might find them of interest. I'm going to teach on Mondays (Classical World) and Wednesdays (Middle East) and in the 3-5pm Sydney AEDT time slot. I will be recording the lectures, so if you can’t actually attend certain lectures, I can always send you a link afterwards. MONDAY...Continue reading

02.01.2022 TRAVELS IN NORTH AFRICA: GEBEL SILSILA The site of Gebel Silsila is located about 40 km south of Edfu in southern Egypt. It is located where the Nile Valley gets narrower and the desert margin comes directly down to the water’s edge. This is the narrowest part of the Valley - the river flows through a narrow gorge. This region is dominated by sandstone, and because it was so close to the river’s edge, the region was extensively quarried. Numerous shrines and stelae were cut ...Continue reading