In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will be putting her knowledge of Maya mythology and archaeology to the test as she races against time to save the world from impending doom. To celebrate the game’s upcoming release, I will be paying tribute to some of the greatest female Mayanists in a new monthly series of articles, simply titled “Mayanist of the Month”. The study of Mesoamerica’s Maya civilisation has attracted scholars from a variety of social and academic ... [Continue Reading]
The Tomb Raider games may have whet your appetite for all things ancient but if you really want to indulge your inner archaeologist, put down your game controller and find out what the real experts have to say about this exciting field of study. From the digital preservation of vulnerable heritage sites to the discovery of ancient sites through satellite imagery, these five TED talks offer unique insights into how 21st century archaeology and heritage preservation are being conducted. 1) ... [Continue Reading]
If you’re looking for some quality blogs on Ancient Egyptian history, language, or art, then look no further. All of the blogs listed below have been handpicked for their educational value, originality, and accessibility to the general public. Please note that this is an updated (and slightly expanded) version of the list I published back in September 2013. Blogs come and go. Some have vanished off the face of the Earth since the original list was published and new ones have risen up in ... [Continue Reading]
Survivor Reborn admin Lori and her husband Jay recently spent ten incredible days in Egypt and brought along their Rock Candy Lara Croft figure, who was more than happy to pose for photos in front of some of the country’s key attractions. From the pyramids at Giza to the Graeco-Roman ruins of Alexandria, from the banks of the Nile to the majestic temple ruins of Karnak, from the sun-beaten Valley of the Kings to the treasure-filled halls of the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, Lori and Jay ... [Continue Reading]
Do you like learning about ancient history and faraway lands? Well, if you’re a regular visitor to this site, I think it’s safe to assume that you do… so let me point you in the direction of CroftManor’s phenomenal documentary series, History and Geography in Tomb Raider! History and Geography in Tomb Raider is the brainchild of Simon Bucher, a 22-year-old Tomb Raider fan and student from Germany, and explores the real-life myths, archaeological sites, locations, and ... [Continue Reading]
Mark your calendars! The Archaeology of Tomb Raider will be taking part in VALUE’s upcoming live-stream event, “Streaming the Past: Fortune & Glory”, which will delve into the topics of treasure hunting and the misrepresentation of archaeology in the Tomb Raider series. The VALUE team and I will be joined by archaeological ethics scholar Meghan Dennis (University of York) for this exciting event and we’re inviting all of you to tune into the live-stream on ... [Continue Reading]
Those of you who have been following the latest story arc of Dark Horse’s Tomb Raider comic series will no doubt be familiar with the Wei Mirror – an ancient artefact dubbed the “Prison of Souls” – that Lara Croft is searching for in her bid to save her friend Sam’s soul from the clutches of the shaman queen Himiko. But did you know that this mirror is modelled after real-life bronze mirrors found at a number of ancient sites in Japan and China? In early ... [Continue Reading]
If you’ve always wanted to study archaeology or ancient history but have had to set aside those dreams due to a lack of finances, time, or suitable classes in your area, web-based MOOCs, or massive open online courses, may be just the thing for you. MOOCs have helped transform education in recent years, making it easier (and cheaper) for people across the world to enroll on a wide range of academic or professional courses offered by some the world’s leading universities and ... [Continue Reading]
The Tomb Raider video game series and films have done a tremendous job of showcasing some of the world’s historical sites and exotic locations, whether they’re well-known attractions such as the pyramids at Giza or Angkor Wat or the less commonly known Trajan’s Market and Jan Mayen island. And as one of the most successful and longest-running film franchises to date, the Star Wars films have often relied on real-world locations to serve as the backdrops of some of their ... [Continue Reading]
If you’re interested in the up-and-coming academic discipline of “archaeogaming”, you should check out the Society for American Archaeology’s November 2016 magazine (which can be downloaded as a PDF here or read online). This special issue is devoted to the study of video games and archaeology (or “archaeogaming”) and features articles by some of the leading researchers in the field. Of particular interest to visitors to this site is L. Meghan ... [Continue Reading]
In the 2006 game Tomb Raider: Legend, Lara Croft travels across the globe in search of pieces of the mythical Excalibur, visiting such places as a military base in Kazakhstan, the ruins of Tiwanaku in Bolivia, an ancient temple in the Ghanaian rainforest, and an abandoned monastery in Nepal. But did you know that the West African nation of Mali was almost a stop on Lara’s grand tour? Perusing my archive of Legend concept art recently, I spotted two pieces of artwork that seemed to depict ... [Continue Reading]
How many times have you wished you could study archaeology or ancient history but have had to set aside those dreams due to a lack of finances or suitable classes in your area? Well, thanks to the magic of online learning, you needn’t let distance or budgetary concerns stop you from indulging your passion for the past. Web-based MOOCs (or massive open online courses) have helped transform education, making it easier (and cheaper) for people across the world to enroll on a wide range of ... [Continue Reading]
It’s fair to say that many archaeologists have a love-hate relationship with their fictional counterparts and with the way their profession is portrayed in popular culture. On the one hand, films and other works of fiction help perpetuate the trope of the “adventurer-archaeologist”, those Indiana Jones-types who spend their lives sniffing out lost cities and ancient treasures with little (or no) regard for proper archaeological procedure. Not only do such tropes give the ... [Continue Reading]
It’s not every day you get the chance to visit Yamatai or take a leisurely stroll around Himiko’s tomb. But one hot (and thankfully not too humid) day in September, my husband and I got the chance to do just that when we took some time off from our regular sightseeing and boarded a train bound for Nara, a former capital city not far from Osaka that’s renowned for its ancient temples, giant Buddha statue, and free-roaming deer. Once there, we transferred onto a smaller ... [Continue Reading]
Last November, archaeologist and author Jordan Jacobs approached me to see if I would be interested in reviewing the first two novels in his Samantha Sutton archaeology adventure series and very kindly sent me review copies shortly after our initial chat. While I don’t really fall under the series’ target demographic, I quickly became engrossed in its first two volumes, which, thankfully, managed to avoid most (if not all) of the classic “adventurer archaeologist” ... [Continue Reading]
This time last year, Tomb Raider fans were up in arms when Microsoft and Crystal Dynamics announced that Rise of the Tomb Raider would be a timed exclusive. It was a move that threatened to tear the Tomb Raider fan community to shreds as one of their beloved game series fell victim to the scourge of “console exclusivity”. Petitions were launched, angry tweets were tweeted, and updates on the official Tomb Raider Facebook page turned into “Console Wars” battlefields ... [Continue Reading]
With Rise of the Tomb Raider still months away from release, the endless-runner mobile game Lara Croft: Relic Run has provided Tomb Raider fans with their much-needed fix of Crofty goodness. Relic Run has not only provided me with hours of entertaining gameplay and amusing ragdoll deaths; it’s also offered me a whole new selection of artefacts to feature on this blog. So let’s kick things off by looking at one of the 20 relics from the game’s Jungle Temple level, the ... [Continue Reading]
One of the two relics Lara discovers amongst the ruins of Midas’ Palace in Tomb Raider: Anniversary is the griffin-head protome, a bronze decorative piece that she correctly surmises was once fitted onto an Ancient Greek cauldron or drinking vessel. What Lara’s declaration doesn’t tell us, however, is where such an artefact would have been produced or what the use of a griffin motif tells us about Ancient Greece’s cultural links with its neighbours across the ... [Continue Reading]
For decades, Hollywood and other entertainment outlets have depicted archaeologists as globe-trotting treasure hunters with a thirst for adventure, a taste for shiny trinkets, and a flagrant disregard for the integrity and safety of the ancient sites they’re trespassing on. Lost cities are a staple plot point of your average archaeological adventure and encounters with the mystical and/or paranormal are almost a certainty. Despite the best efforts of professional archaeologists and ... [Continue Reading]
I had just turned 16 when the first Tomb Raider was released and I remember how I was instantly wowed by the game’s athletic, fiercely independent, and intelligent female protagonist. As a tomboyish bookworm, I grew up on a diet of Enid Blyton novels, encyclopaedias, and any books on Ancient Egypt I could get my hands on at our small, under-stocked local library. And despite the countless hours I spent reading, I never seemed to come across any female characters I could truly identify ... [Continue Reading]
It recently came to my attention that, despite having launched this blog almost two years ago, I still hadn’t written any articles on the Core Design classic Tomb Raider 3. So it’s time to set that right. Introducing new vehicles and a less linear globe-trotting adventure, Tomb Raider 3 also featured some stunning artwork from the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, such as the dancers motif seen in the screenshot below and throughout the game’s India levels. The ... [Continue Reading]
Over the years, Lara Croft has visited some of the coldest and most remote places on the planet and the Aleutian Islands, which feature in the mini-adventure The Golden Mask, are no exception. In Golden Mask, Lara travels to Melnikov Island in search of the legendary Golden Mask of Tornarsuk and ends up infiltrating an old Soviet base in the process. While Melnikov Island is completely fictional, the Aleutian Islands themselves are very much real and may have been home to some of the first ... [Continue Reading]
When I first played Tomb Raider 1 back in 1996, I never realized how many real-life Pre-Columbian (and other) artefacts could be spotted throughout the game’s Peru levels. Some of them, such as the Chimú bird carving, were already familiar to me as I had done some research on Peruvian art and archaeology for a GCSE Art project. But it wasn’t until I started working on this site and replaying this 1996 classic that I began to notice that the game’s graphics artists had also, ... [Continue Reading]
The Tomb Raider games may have whet your appetite for all things ancient but if you really want to indulge your inner archaeologist, you should put down your game controller and find out what the experts have to say about this exciting field of study. From the use of 3D laser scanning in site preservation to the ongoing search for the origins of our species, these five TED talks offer unique insights into how 21st century archaeology and anthropology are conducted.** 1) Sarah Parcak: ... [Continue Reading]
It’s been a while since I last wrote about one of Tomb Raider 2013’s collectible relics and since it’s been a year since the game was released, what better time than to examine one of the ancient coins Lara finds inside the Cliffside Bunker on Yamatai? The 100 mon coin, also referred to as a “Tempō Tsūhō” (天保通寶), is one of the two Japanese coins Lara finds inside the cliffside bunker (the other being the “2 sen coin“) and, as Lara quite ... [Continue Reading]
