Andante Travels: the experts in Archaeological Travel | Administrator

Wednesday, 11 August 2010 14:13

Andante’s Archaeological Photography Competition 2010 the Winner

Sponsored by Oxbow Books & The Council for British Archaeology

New_CBA_logo_white_full

We were surprised at the popularity of the competition and delighted by the diversity and quality of the entries of our new photography competition. It is with great pleasure that we now announce the winners.

OVERALL WINNER

CATEGORY WINNERS

BIG NAMES IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Sponsored and chosen by Oxbow Books, Oxford

Lee Robinson
Buddha head entwined, Ayuthaya

big_names_of_archaeology_lee_robinson

We had been told that cycling around the ruins of Ayuthaya was the best way to see them, unfortunately we had hired the most uncomfortable bicycle I have ever had the misfortune to ride.

None-the-less Ayuthaya is amazing, called the Venice of the east because of the many rivers that flow into it, it is scattered with ruins surrounded by green fields and canals.

Founded in 1350, by King U-Thong of Siam, by the 17 century it became one of the largest cities in the world with over 1 million inhabitants. You can only imagine its original splendor now as in 1767 the Burmese invaded and burnt the city to the ground, what remains now are the ruins of the once stunning palaces, temples and stupas, as well as hundreds of decapitated Buddhas in varying states of decay.

We arrived at Wat Mahathat feeling a little hot and sore. I had come to see the head of the Buddha entangled in the Banyan tree or Strangler Fig. As we approached we were instructed to bend low, this was Buddha and we should show our respect.

Lee Robinson leerobinsonphotography.co.uk

ENDANGERED ARCHAEOLOGY

Sponsored and chosen by Andante Travels in the Ancient World

Uli Kunz
Diver measuring prehistoric human bones, cenote, Yucatan

endangered_sites_uli_kune

Uli is sending us his story to go with the photo shortly....

BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY

Sponsored and chosen by The Council for British Archaeology

Brian Kerr
Rock art at Ketley Crag, Northumberland

british_archaeology_brain_kerr

"I chose the image of the Ketley Crag carvings because of the unique qualities of the carvings, the site itself and the location within the landscape.

When you sit in the shelter today, you are alone in the vastness of the landscape, absorbing the view, trying to imagine being there thousands of years ago, running your fingers over the carvings, you are only one of a small number of people who have seen the carvings since they were carved all those years ago. A very powerful place, beautiful carvings, a very emotional visit.

The perfect landscape, the perfect light, the perfect time of day, with the extra help from side flash to illuminate the carvings, this has produced this special once-in-a-lifetime photograph."

Brian Kerr

PEOPLE AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Sponsored and chosen by Oxbow Books, Oxford

James Kellie
Lucia Gahlin , Andante guide, explaining in Saqqara

people_and_archaeology_james_kellie

Context of photo:
Saqqara was the first stop on Andante's 'Land of the Pharaoh's' tour. In the morning we had visited Djoser's step pyramid, the first in Egyptian history. Our heads had to get round the unfamiliar names of third dynasty rulers in the third millennium BC. Our tour guide, Lucia Gahlin brought to life the evocative and photogenic buildings of the temple complex.

After lunch, we jumped forward 300 years to the sixth dynasty by visiting Teti's tomb; the pyramid no more than a heap of rubble despite its Egyptian title 'The pyramid which is enduring of places'. Underneath this, the actual tomb contained the real treasures, no longer valuables but beautifully moulded texts, extolling the pharaoh and his actions in preparation for the afterlife.

Lucia expounded them to us in the cramped conditions of Teti's burial chamber; her gestures seemed to call out to the gods just as Teti's script had. The photo's 'moment of truth' arrived!

Our first day was a magnificent introduction to the subsequent tour up the Nile and forward historically to more familiar pharaohs and their deeds over the next three thousand years.

For the technically minded:
The photo was taken on a Canon G70, a pocket-sized digital camera. Outside I use a higher grade digital SLR, but the suspicions of the modern temple guardians are aroused by such bulky equipment. Surprisingly there was just enough light to take the shot at 1/30 sec without flash; available light evokes atmosphere as well as minimising disturbance to guardians and visitors. Judicious photo-editing reduced the effects of stretching the camera's sensitivity to ISO 1600.

James Kellie

PRIZES:

All winners have been notified by email. Prizes are as follows:

Overall Winner - Michael Conrick: Canon 500D camera or £500 off the Andante holiday of his choice.

Big Names in Archaeology -Lee Robinson: £100 worth of books from Oxbow Books, specialist archaeological bookseller, Oxford

Endangered Archaeology - Uli Kunz: 100Euro worth of books of choice

Best of British Archaeology - Brian Kerr: membership of the Council for British Archaeology and £100 worth of books published by them

People and Archaeology - James Kellie: £100 worth of books from Oxbow Books, specialist archaeological bookseller, Oxford

ENTRIES ARE NOW INVITED For the

ANDANTE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2011, closing date May 2011

More information to follow

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Monday, 09 August 2010 13:17

An Arcadian enigma

One of the last pieces I acquired before retiring from the Manchester Museum in 2006 was a small bronze figure of the Greek god Hermes, the ancient messenger-god. He is only 9.5 cm tall, and stands with both arms outstretched from the elbows, holding a small goat on his left forearm; he probably held an offering dish in the right hand, but only the fixing pin remains. He wears plain boots and a short tunic, a round felt travelling hat and boots, as befits a man who spends his life out on the hillsides.

Hermes (the Roman Mercury) was the protector of many things in mortal life: messengers and heralds, shepherds and goatherds, and he was the local god of Arcadia in the Greek Peloponnese. Although poets and painters later turned it into a romantic idyll, ancient Arcadia was a poor and backward region of barren hills, only suitable for keeping sheep and goats. Our figurine was almost certainly made there in the later 6th century BC, probably as an offering at a shrine. There were many sanctuaries scattered through the mountains of Arcadia sacred to a great variety of deities; one of the most important was on Mount Lykaion, where there were sanctuaries of both Zeus and Pan.

Our bronze came without an archaeological provenance, so why do we think he is Arcadian? I have discussed the figure with colleagues at the British Museum and elsewhere, and we are all agreed that the stocky build, the rather crude rendering of the facial features such as the boot-button eyes, the 'pilos' travelling hat and boots are typical of Arcadian work of this period: there are similar pieces from Arcadia in museums in Athens, Boston, Berlin and elsewhere.

The bronze has a beautiful shiny, smooth blue-green patina: such good patina often rings a warning bell for the professionally suspicious curator since it is easy to manufacture, but our early doubts were resolved by a scientific examination kindly carried out at the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum. Further study of the surface under the microscope showed that goat and god had been together all their lives, and not fastened recently.

There are many points which make this piece interesting, and which deserve further research. Hermes is often shown holding a lamb or a ram, but goats are unusual. I am sure the creature is a goat and not a ram, partly because of the way in which the shagginess of its coat is distributed around the neck and hind legs, but above all because of the little tail that turns up from the creature's rump, and because of the way in which the horns grow straight and grow centrally from the forehead. A sheep's horns are more widely set and normally grow outwards in a much stronger curve. Hermes with a goat appears on Greek vases, but really only in scenes of sacrifice or of comedy or parody. Searches through the literature and museum displays have not so far produced any three-dimensional goat-carriers: why not?

We are all familiar with the parable of the sheep being separated from the goats, where the former inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and the latter are damned to eternal punishment, but there is no particularly negative attitude to goats in Greek and Latin literature: why should there be? 'Goats can provide the peasant farmer and nomadic pastoralist with all their physical needs, clothing, meat and milk as well as bone and sinew for artefacts, tallow for lighting, and dung for fuel and manure. Goats will complement a flock of sheep, which are perhaps usually easier to herd, by browsing on thorny scrubland whilst sheep prefer the grass' – so Juliet Clutton-Brock in her A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals (Cambridge 1987). On the other hand goats are destructive in their omnivorous approach to vegetation (they are held to be one of the causes of the desertification of the Sahara and parts of the Near and Middle East), and anyone who has come face to face with a goat will have felt the wildness if not malevolence in those yellow eyes with their horizontal irises.

One reason for the preponderance of sheep-carriers suggested to me is that sheep relax when they are lifted up and carried in this fashion but goats are more likely to struggle. Hermes is the Classical Greek 'Good Shepherd', but in Late Roman iconography he takes on the role given to the Virgin Mary in early Christian art with the infant Dionysus in his arms, illustrated most vividly in the mosaics at Paphos in Cyprus but already foreshadowed in the famous marble Hermes at Olympia of the fourth century BC attributed to the famous sculptor Praxiteles and familiar to many visitors to Greece.

Our little figure may be a rustic work by comparison with the Praxitelean masterpiece, but for all that it gives me a certain wry satisfaction to know that the last acquisition I made in 36 years' service at the Manchester Museum is of a figure of the god of merchants and of thieves, and thus surely also of museum curators and archaeologists.

Written by Professor John Prag FSA

An Arcadian enigma

One of the last pieces I acquired before retiring from the Manchester Museum in 2006 was a small bronze figure of the Greek god Hermes, the ancient messenger-god. He is only 9.5 cm tall, and stands with both arms outstretched from the elbows, holding a small goat on his left forearm; he probably held an offering dish in the right hand, but only the fixing pin remains. He wears plain boots and a short tunic, a round felt travelling hat and boots, as befits a man who spends his life out on the hillsides.

Hermes (the Roman Mercury) was the protector of many things in mortal life: messengers and heralds, shepherds and goatherds, and he was the local god of Arcadia in the Greek Peloponnese. Although poets and painters later turned it into a romantic idyll, ancient Arcadia was a poor and backward region of barren hills, only suitable for keeping sheep and goats. Our figurine was almost certainly made there in the later 6^th century BC, probably as an offering at a shrine. There were many sanctuaries scattered through the mountains of Arcadia sacred to a great variety of deities; one of the most important was on Mount Lykaion, where there were sanctuaries of both Zeus and Pan.

Our bronze came without an archaeological provenance, so why do we think he is Arcadian? I have discussed the figure with colleagues at the British Museum and elsewhere, and we are all agreed that the stocky build, the rather crude rendering of the facial features such as the boot-button eyes, the ‘pilos’ travelling hat and boots are typical of Arcadian work of this period: there are similar pieces from Arcadia in museums in Athens, Boston, Berlin and elsewhere.

The bronze has a beautiful shiny, smooth blue-green patina: such good patina often rings a warning bell for the professionally suspicious curator since it is easy to manufacture, but our early doubts were resolved by a scientific examination kindly carried out at the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum. Further study of the surface under the microscope showed that goat and god had been together all their lives, and not fastened recently.

There are many points which make this piece interesting, and which deserve further research. Hermes is often shown holding a lamb or a ram, but goats are unusual. I am sure the creature is a goat and not a ram, partly because of the way in which the shagginess of its coat is distributed around the neck and hind legs, but above all because of the little tail that turns up from the creature’s rump, and because of the way in which the horns grow straight and grow centrally from the forehead. A sheep’s horns are more widely set and normally grow outwards in a much stronger curve. Hermes with a goat appears on Greek vases, but really only in scenes of sacrifice or of comedy or parody. Searches through the literature and museum displays have not so far produced any three-dimensional goat-carriers: why not?

We are all familiar with the parable of the sheep being separated from the goats, where the former inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and the latter are damned to eternal punishment, but there is no particularly negative attitude to goats in Greek and Latin literature: why should there be? ‘Goats can provide the peasant farmer and nomadic pastoralist with all their physical needs, clothing, meat and milk as well as bone and sinew for artefacts, tallow for lighting, and dung for fuel and manure. Goats will complement a flock of sheep, which are perhaps usually easier to herd, by browsing on thorny scrubland whilst sheep prefer the grass’ – so Juliet Clutton-Brock in her A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals (Cambridge 1987). On the other hand goats are destructive in their omnivorous approach to vegetation (they are held to be one of the causes of the desertification of the Sahara and parts of the Near and Middle East), and anyone who has come face to face with a goat will have felt the wildness if not malevolence in those yellow eyes with their horizontal irises.

One reason for the preponderance of sheep-carriers suggested to me is that sheep relax when they are lifted up and carried in this fashion but goats are more likely to struggle. Hermes is the Classical Greek ‘Good Shepherd’, but in Late Roman iconography he takes on the role given to the Virgin Mary in early Christian art with the infant Dionysus in his arms, illustrated most vividly in the mosaics at Paphos in Cyprus but already foreshadowed in the famous marble Hermes at Olympia of the fourth century BC attributed to the famous sculptor Praxiteles and familiar to many visitors to Greece.

Our little figure may be a rustic work by comparison with the Praxitelean masterpiece, but for all that it gives me a certain wry satisfaction to know that the last acquisition I made in 36 years’ service at the Manchester Museum is of a figure of the god of merchants and of thieves, and thus surely also of museum curators and archaeologists.

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Friday, 06 August 2010 12:09

Siega Verde becomes a World Heritage site

rock_art

Guests who have travelled on our ‘Spain & Portugal, Early Rock Art’ tour with Paul Bahn, and other fans of rock art, may be interested to know that Siega Verde has now been given World Heritage status by UNESCO – see link for the details.

Click here for more information on Siega Verde

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Monday, 02 August 2010 10:37

Recent archaeological work at the Ness of Brodgar

Recent archaeological work at the Ness of Brodgar has produced some very exciting results – see this link for the details. We don't know how much of the excavations will be visible when we visit, but this is an intriguing indication of what is currently coming out of the ground'.

Click here for more details on Ness of Brodgar

Click here for more information about our Archaeological vacation to Orkney and Shetland

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Tuesday, 03 August 2010 09:11

Andante's Archaeological photo competition - The Category Winners

ANDANTE ARCHAEOLOGICAL PHOTO COMPETITION 2010

THE WINNERS

All winners are now being contacted. The final result will be announced tomorrow, 10th August.

Will big_names_of_archaeology_lee_robinson

Lee Robinson, Winner: Big Names of Archaeology, sponsored by Oxbow Archaeological Books (Buddha head entwined, Ayutthaya)

We had been told that cycling around the ruins of Ayuthaya was the best way to see them, unfortunately we had hired the most uncomfortable bicycle I have ever had the misfortune to ride.

None-the-less Ayuthaya is amazing, called the Venice of the east because of the many rivers that flow into it, it is scattered with ruins surrounded by green fields and canals.

Founded in 1350, by King U-Thong of Siam, by the 17 century it became one of the largest cities in the world with over 1 million inhabitants. You can only imagine its original splendor now as in 1767 the Burmese invaded and burnt the city to the ground, what remains now are the ruins of the once stunning palaces, temples and stupas, as well as hundreds of decapitated Buddhas in varying states of decay.

We arrived at Wat Mahathat feeling a little hot and sore. I had come to see the head of the Buddha entangled in the Banyan tree or Strangler Fig. As we approached we were instructed to bend low, this was Buddha and we should show our respect.

Lee Robinson leerobinsonphotography.co.uk

british_archaeology_brain_kerr

Brian Kerr, Winner: Special Category - Britain, sponsored by the Council for British Archaeology (rock art at Ketley Crag, Northumberland)

"I chose the image of the Ketley Crag carvings because of the unique qualities of the carvings, the site itself and the location within the landscape.

When you sit in the shelter today, you are alone in the vastness of the landscape, absorbing the view, trying to imagine being there thousands of years ago, running your fingers over the carvings, you are only one of a small number of people who have seen the carvings since they were carved all those years ago. A very powerful place, beautiful carvings, a very emotional visit.

The perfect landscape, the perfect light, the perfect time of day, with the extra help from side flash to illuminate the carvings, this has produced this special once-in-a-lifetime photograph."

Brian Kerr

people_and_archaeology_james_kellie

James Kellie, Winner: People and Archaeology, sponsored by Oxbow Archaeological Books (Lucia Gahlin , Andante guide, explaining in Saqqara)

Context of photo:
Saqqara was the first stop on Andante's 'Land of the Pharaoh's' tour. In the morning we had visited Djoser's step pyramid, the first in Egyptian history. Our heads had to get round the unfamiliar names of third dynasty rulers in the third millennium BC. Our tour guide, Lucia Gahlin brought to life the evocative and photogenic buildings of the temple complex.

After lunch, we jumped forward 300 years to the sixth dynasty by visiting Teti's tomb; the pyramid no more than a heap of rubble despite its Egyptian title 'The pyramid which is enduring of places'. Underneath this, the actual tomb contained the real treasures, no longer valuables but beautifully moulded texts, extolling the pharaoh and his actions in preparation for the afterlife.

Lucia expounded them to us in the cramped conditions of Teti's burial chamber; her gestures seemed to call out to the gods just as Teti's script had. The photo's 'moment of truth' arrived!

Our first day was a magnificent introduction to the subsequent tour up the Nile and forward historically to more familiar pharaohs and their deeds over the next three thousand years.

For the technically minded:
The photo was taken on a Canon G70, a pocket-sized digital camera. Outside I use a higher grade digital SLR, but the suspicions of the modern temple guardians are aroused by such bulky equipment. Surprisingly there was just enough light to take the shot at 1/30 sec without flash; available light evokes atmosphere as well as minimising disturbance to guardians and visitors. Judicious photo-editing reduced the effects of stretching the camera's sensitivity to ISO 1600.

James Kellie

endangered_sites_uli_kune

Uli Kunz, Winner: Endangered Archaeology, sponsored by Andante Travels (diver measuring prehistoric human bones, cenote, Yucatan)

The overall winner has yet to be chosen by Julian Richards , author, archaeologist and presenter of "Meet the Ancestors" series on BBC2. They will receive a Canon EOS 500D or £500 off one of our holidays. Julian may choose from any of the entrants.

We had been told that cycling around the ruins of Ayuthaya was the best way to see them, unfortunately we had hired the most uncomfortable bicycle I have even had the misfortune to ride.

None the less Ayuthaya is amazing, called the Venice of the east because of the many rivers that flow into it, it is scattered with ruins surrounded by green fields and canals.

Founded in 1350, by King U-Thong of Siam, by the 17 century it became one of the largest cities in the world with over 1 million inhabitants. You can only imagine its original splendor now as in 1767 the Burmese invaded and burnt the city to the ground, what remains now are the ruins of the once stunning palaces, temples and stupas, as well as hundreds of decapitated Buddhas in varying states of decay.

We arrived at Wat Mahathat feeling a little hot and sore. I had come to see the head of the

Buddha entangled in the Banyan tree or Strangler Fig. As we approached we were instructed to bend low, this was Buddha and we should show our respect. It is an enchanting sight to behold and one that remains a mystery, how the head became entangled in the tree is still unknown but as such makes this archeological treat even the more appealing.

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Wednesday, 28 July 2010 10:19

Message for all Bare Bones Travellers, past and present… FREE BARE BONES TEE-SHIRTS!

If you are a Bare Bones traveller, we wondered if you would you like a free Bare Bones tee-shirt for yourself or someone you know?

These are simple, round-necked, short sleeved, 100% cotton tee's with a discreet logo on the chest with a whimsical gallery of skeletons in ancient attire on the back.

We are giving away 53 of them as listed below.

Hurry, once they've gone, that's it!

Cornflower Blue

Women's
Size 8 = 2

Men's
Small = 2

Mid-earth Brown

Women's
Small = 5
Medium = 0
Large = 0

Men's
Small = 3
Medium = 1
Large = 0

Country Green

Women's
Size 8 = 5
Size 10 = 2
Size 12 = 0
Size 14 = 0

Men's
Small = 2
Medium = 0
Large = 0
X-Large = 0

If you would like a t-shirt please ring us on 01722 713800 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Monday, 21 December 2009 16:06

Archaeology and Nemrut Dag, seen through the eyes of a Travel Journalist

Written by Karen Bryan

Ancient civilisations, powerful empires and charismatic, if immodest, rulers. In this guest post Margaret Doherty explores Eastern Turkey’s magnificent and varied history through its archaeological sites with archaeological travel experts Andante Travels.

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