What's it like in the village that inspired Wuthering Heights?

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 12, 2026 / comment : 0 BBC News, news

The Yorkshire village of Haworth is in the spotlight ahead of the new Wuthering Heights film release.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/aQRoqvx

Brad Pitt blockbuster F1 sequel in the works, producer confirms

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 12, 2026 / comment : 0 news, films E

"It's really a thrill to work with Brad," F1's producer Jerry Bruckheimer tells the BBC at the annual Academy Awards luncheon in Los Angeles.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/K4Cx9ia

Great hall from 4th c. bishop’s palace complex found in Ostia

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 11, 2026 / comment : 0

The remains of a monumental hall belonging to a 4th-century episcopal palace have been discovered at Ostia Antica, Rome’s ancient port town. The base of the structure is eight by 20 meters (ca. 26 by 65 feet) and the walls were an estimated eight meters high. This is an extraordinarily large space, and it was richly decorated with mosaic floors and marble panels. It is one of the oldest Christian complexes ever discovered the environs of Rome, and its rich decoration and expansive facilities are on a scale previously unknown in the Constantinian period.

The archaeological remains of the 1,700-year-old structure lay hidden just inches below the topsoil, scraped and dislodged but not severely damaged by centuries of agricultural activity just above it. In fact, farming helped preserve the remains.

Ultimately, it was fortunate that the farmers continued to use the land until the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park near Rome was established. “Here, no buildings interfere with our excavations – we hardly have to take graves or anything like that into consideration,” says Prof. Dr. Sabine Feist of the Department of Christian Archaeology at the University of Bonn. A favorable situation for research – and not only for that reason: “We know of other churches from this early period, but these were completely altered in the Middle Ages.” That didn’t happen here either.

The newly-discovered structure is adjacent to a monumental church complex discovered by geophysical surveys in 1996 and excavated in 2023-4. The church was built around 330 A.D., late in the reign of Constantine (306-337 A.D.) on the remains of a Roman insula (apartment building). Measuring about 50 by 80 meters, the church complex covered 4,000 square feet and included am adjacent bishop’s residence.

For such an elaborate complex to have been built when Christians had only recently been granted legal rights (Edict of Milan, 313 A.D.) and freedom of worship is evidence of a well-organized Church apparatus, capable of emerging from the penumbra of private and literal underground spaces straight into sophisticated, large-scale architectural developments.

The Bishop of Ostia was an important church leader in the Early Church. He held the position of Cardinal Dean, charged with convening the conclave of cardinals to elect a new pontiff after the death of a Pope. The exact location of his titular church and residence were unknown until the 2023-4 excavation confirmed the identity of the building complex.

* This article was originally published here

British Museum to keep pendant linked to Henry VIII

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 11, 2026 / comment : 0 BBC News, news

The museum says it has reached a fundraising goal so it can permanently display the artefact.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/d8g7woG

British Museum to keep pendant linked to Henry VIII

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 11, 2026 / comment : 0 news, films E

The museum says it has reached a fundraising goal so it can permanently display the artefact.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/J29gy3x

British Museum acquires Tudor Heart

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 10, 2026 / comment : 0

The British Museum’s campaign to raise £3.5m ($4.7m) to acquire the unique Tudor Heart gold and enamel pendant commemorating the marriage of Henry VIII to Katherine of Aragon has reached its goal.

The gold pendant is engraved with a Tudor rose representing Henry VIII entwined with a pomegranate representing Katherine of Aragon decorated in red and white enamel. It features an H and a K on the reverse side, also enameled in red and white. A banner with the lettering + TOVS + IORS (the French “toujours” meaning “always”) is on both sides of the pendant. It was found with a thick gold link chain with a gold enamel gloved hand at one end functioning as a clasp. The total weight of the set is 317 grams of 24K gold.

British Museum researchers believe it was commissioned to celebrate the betrothal of Henry and Katherine’s daughter Princess Mary, then two years old, to Francis, Dauphin of France, then eight months old, in 1518. This is why it emphasizes love and marriage, and specifically the marriage of Henry and Katharine. The betrothal was called off in 1521, and Henry rousted Katharine from his court in 1531, ultimately divorcing her in 1533 to marry Anne Boleyn.

The Tudar Heart was discovered by a metal detectorist in Warwickshire on December 13th, 2019, a very fortunate Friday the 13th. It was reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme and declared Treasure. A valuation committee assessed its market value at £3.5m. Any museum that wished to acquire this unique jewel had to pay that sum to be divided between the metal detectorist who made the discovery and the owner of the land where it was unearthed.

The fundraising campaign was launched last October with a deadline of April 2026, but they hoped to meet the goal by Valentine’s Day, to go with the motif of the heart-shaped pendant. Because of the high cost of the piece, both in gold alone and its priceless historical value, the museum appealed to the public for donations and to trusts and art organizations for grants. The campaign got a huge response. Celebrities like Damian Lewis, who portrayed Henry VIII in the BBC’s Wolf Hall series, promoted the appeal. Ultimately, small donations from more than 45,000 members raised £360,000, The National Heritage Memorial Fund contributed £1.75m, The Julia Rausing Trust £500,000, the Art Fund £400,000, and The American Friends of the British Museum £300,000.

“I want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported our campaign,” [Museum director Nicholas] Cullinan said.

“This beautiful survivor tells us about a piece of English history few of us knew, but in which we can all now share.”

Simon Thurley, chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: “The Tudor Heart is an extraordinary insight into the culture of Henry VIII’s court, and I am delighted that Memorial Fund support will enable it to go on public display.”

The museum hopes to formally include the pendant in the collection later this year, and has plans for it to tour the UK in the future.

* This article was originally published here

3 Doors Down lead singer Brad Arnold dies at 47

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 10, 2026 / comment : 0 BBC News, news

The Mississippi-born frontman of the popular rock band had announced a stage 4 cancer diagnosis in May 2025.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/Epw4g13

Uncle Bryn's Gavin and Stacey house up for sale

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 10, 2026 / comment : 0 news, films E

The house in the Vale of Glamorgan made famous by Uncle Bryn is on the market for £210,000.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/xkyfin4

3 Doors Down lead singer Brad Arnold dies at 47

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 10, 2026 / comment : 0 news, films E

The Mississippi-born frontman of the popular rock band had announced a stage 4 cancer diagnosis in May 2025.

from BBC News https://ift.tt/gB0zGkQ

Phoenician scarab found at Nuragic site in Sardinia

By: SGK ADVERTISING ADDA on February 09, 2026 / comment : 0

An excavation at the Nuragic site of Ruinas in Sardinia has unearthed a Phoenician scarab seal, produced 2,700 years ago in what is now Lebanon. The scarab is made of steatite stone and has a flat side engraved with hieroglyphic-like symbols.

The scarab, currently undergoing a delicate conservation process and a battery of non-invasive diagnostic analyses in the laboratories of the Archaeological Superintendency, presents a morphology well known in the glyptic tradition of the ancient Near East. Its surface, precisely worked in soft but durable steatite, shows incisions of hieroglyphic characters that will be the subject of detailed decipherment once the stabilization work has been completed.

According to the conventions of the time, these objects fulfilled a dual practical and symbolic function: they served as protective amulets, frequently worn around the neck, and acted as seals of authority or property, whose impression in clay or wax was unique and unrepeatable given the exclusive design of each piece, which explains the variability that exists among the thousands of known scarabs.

Phoenicians established several coastal settlements on Sardinia, part of their extensive trade network of colonies and trading posts that spanned the whole Mediterranean between the 9th and 6th centuries B.C. The scarab, however, was found in the deep rugged interior of the island occupied by the Ilienses, a Nuragic people credited by ancient sources as the oldest population on Sardinia, inhabiting the interior since the Bronze Age.

A number of artifacts that had to have been imported from long distances have been discovered in Ilienses territory, including pottery from Mycenaean Greece and oxhide-shaped copper ingots believed to have produced in Cyprus. In return, characteristic Iliense grey pottery dating to between the 14th and 13th centuries B.C. has been found in the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete.

For some scholars, such as the archaeologist Giovanni Ugas, the Ilienses represented the most important population of nuragic Sardinia and could be directly or indirectly related to the Shardana, one of the so-called Sea Peoples who appear in Egyptian records as mercenaries and adversaries of the pharaohs.

The scarab of Ruinas thus fits into a pattern of contacts that can no longer be described as sporadic or merely incidental. Its Phoenician provenance adds a new layer of complexity to the map of interactions, showing that the nuragic communities of Barbagia maintained links with multiple cultural centers of the eastern Mediterranean, not only with the Aegean-Mycenaean world.

The piece is a personal object, a movable good of value that traveled more than two thousand kilometers by sea and land, crossing cultural borders, until ending its useful life in a mountain village of inland Sardinia. Its presence materializes the commercial networks, prestige flows, and perhaps the movements of specialized individuals (artisans, merchants, smiths) who connected the Levant with the insular West.

* This article was originally published here