Exploring the archaeology, myths, locations, and art of Tomb Raider.
It’s been a ridiculously long time since the last Arte-Factual deep dive. I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed researched and writing these articles! So without further ado, let’s take a look at one of the many Mesoamerican-inspired artefacts Lara Croft found in Paititi’s Hidden City: the metatl. To begin …
Arte-Factual: Metatl Continue Reading
In the previous edition of Arte-Factual, I looked at Mexican sugar skulls, a folk art tradition that combines Christian religious practices with ancient Mesoamerican beliefs. This time around, I thought I’d turn my attention to the burial doll replica Lara Croft comes across in the remote town of Kuwaq Yaku …
Arte-Factual: Burial Doll Replica Continue Reading
The Day of the Dead, or Día de Muertos, is a multi-day festival in which Mexican families honour and remember their dead, celebrating their lives, building colourful altars for them, and welcoming their spirits back to Earth for an all-too-brief but deeply cherished reunion with their loved ones. Preparations normally …
Arte-Factual: Mexican Sugar Skulls Continue Reading
In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the ever-intrepid Lara Croft finds herself doing a spot of treasure-hunting while in Paititi, a hidden city deep in the Peruvian jungles and home to an isolated society which has its roots in Inca, Maya, and even Aztec cultural traditions and beliefs. A jade …
Arte-Factual: Jade Burial Mask Continue Reading
The Blood Ties DLC gave Tomb Raider fans a glimpse into Lara Croft’s childhood and her family history. Not only did we learn a little more about her enigmatic parents, we also found out what the younger Croft used to do in her spare time. One of the collectable documents …
Arte-Factual: Lara’s Hieroglyphs Worksheet Continue Reading
In her quest to find Kitezh in the frozen hinterlands of Siberia, Lara Croft stumbles upon the remains of the ancient armies and intrepid explorers who have tried – and failed – to conquer this once glorious and remote city. One of the artefacts Lara discovers throughout the course of the …
Arte-Factual: Mongolian Tug Continue Reading
In the mobile adventure Lara Croft: Relic Run, gamers have the chance to collect a number of South-East Asian artefacts in the game’s Jungle Temple level. One of these is the Golden Trident, a religious symbol commonly associated with the Hindu god Shiva. The Golden Trident is better known by its Sanskrit …
Arte-Factual: Golden Trident Continue Reading
With Rise of the Tomb Raider still months away from release, the endless-runner mobile game Lara Croft: Relic Run has provided fans with their much-needed fix of Crofty goodness. Relic Run hasn’t just provided me with hours of entertaining gameplay and amusing rag-doll deaths; it’s also offered me a whole …
Arte-Factual: Gilded Chinthe 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 is where such an …
Arte-Factual: Griffin-Head Protome Continue Reading
It recently came to my attention that I still hadn’t written any articles about the Core Design classic Tomb Raider 3, despite having launched this site almost two years ago. So it’s time to set that right. Tomb Raider 3 introduced new vehicles and a less linear globe-trotting adventure but …
Arte-Factual: Apsaras, the Celestial Dancers of Hindu Myth Continue Reading
When I first played Tomb Raider 1 back in 1996, I never realized how many real-life Pre-Columbian artefacts could be spotted throughout the Peru sections of the game. Some of these were already familiar to me – such as the Chimú bird carving – as I had done some research …
Arte-Factual: Aztec Maize Goddess Continue Reading
If you’ve been following my antics on Twitter, you’ll probably know that I’ve recently been revisiting the Greece levels of Tomb Raider 1, sniffing out material for a new edition of Arte-Factual. It had been years since I last played the 1996 classic so I’d almost forgotten how much real-life …
Arte-Factual: Ancient Greek Wrestlers Continue Reading
It’s been a while since I last wrote about one of Tomb Raider 2013’s collectable relics and since it’s been a year since the game was released, what better time to examine one of the ancient coins that Lara finds inside the Cliffside Bunker on Yamatai? The 100 mon coin, …
Arte-Factual: 100 Mon Coin Continue Reading
It seems that everyone is going crazy for Katy Perry’s latest music video, Dark Horse, which presents a very colourful, if somewhat inaccurate view of Ancient Egypt. So I thought I’d jump on the latest “Egyptomania” bandwagon and look at a famous sculpture that can be seen in the Tomb …
Arte-Factual: The Dendera Zodiac Continue Reading
Tomb Raider Chronicles was possibly my least favourite game of the Tomb Raider series. It may have had fewer glitches and better controls than its ill-received successor Angel of Darkness but it offered little new in terms of game-play aside from a couple of new moves. Its short, episodic nature …
Arte-Factual: The Mouth of Truth Continue Reading
Time for another edition of Arte-Factual! This time around, we’ll be returning to Barkhang Monastery to look at some of the other Buddhist symbols that can be found throughout the fictional monastery. The Wheel, or “Dharmachakra”: The Buddhist wheel, or dharmachakra, is one of the oldest and most recognisable motifs in …
Arte-Factual: Buddhist Symbols of Barkhang Monastery (Part 2) Continue Reading
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