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]
In this special guest article by Jaden, writer and admin of The Sudden Stop, we take a look at the renowned polar explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, whose ill-fated voyage to Antarctica and subsequent shipwreck inspired the narrative of the best-selling 2013 Tomb Raider reboot. The Final Voyage The Fated Journey of the Endurance Written by Jaden For Tomb Raider (2013), Crystal Dynamics took inspiration from myths and historical icons to create a tangible world within a blend of different ... [Continue Reading]
There have been times where I’ve come across an object in a Tomb Raider game that caught my eye but didn’t write an article about it because it didn’t quite fit the scope of my Arte-Factual series. So to remedy this, I’ve decided to launch a new series that will tackle anything that either doesn’t warrant a full in-depth feature or simply doesn’t fit neatly under any of the site’s existing series. The subject of this very first edition of ... [Continue Reading]
Lara Croft’s latest adventure takes her to the forests and mountain ranges of Siberia, a vast and often misunderstood region that stretches from Russia’s Ural Mountains to the country’s north Pacific coastline. Commonly viewed as a region of Arctic wastelands and Soviet-era prison camps, Siberia is a land full of stunning natural landscapes and home to numerous indigenous peoples. Many of us may never get the chance to follow in Ms Croft’s footsteps due to ... [Continue Reading]
Guest Blog by Rurik. It has been my experience that gamers are regularly type-cast as a sedentary lot who prefer to live out lives full of danger and excitement through the various characters of their games of choice rather than making the more difficult choice to step outside and build an exciting life of their own. Whether or not that remains the entirety of the truth, I do think you would be doing the wonder of existence a disservice to spend every waking moment on your buttocks in front ... [Continue Reading]
Based on what we’ve seen of Rise of the Tomb Raider so far, a good portion of the game will take place in Siberia, a region in the Russian Federation that is commonly (and incorrectly) viewed as little more than an icy wilderness, a place where political undesirables were sent away to languish in Soviet labour camps. But this expansive region is actually home to dozens of indigenous peoples and a wide variety of landscapes, from sweeping tundra and alpine forests to majestic mountain ... [Continue Reading]
I’ve always thought of Lara Croft as a modern-day “romantic explorer”, albeit one who’s armed to the teeth and equipped with all the latest high-tech gadgetry. Her insatiable thirst for knowledge and adventure drives her to explore ancient ruins and remote lands in search of priceless artefacts and long-lost civilizations. But she is not alone in her quest. Women have been blazing trails through foreign lands and archaeology long before she was a twinkle in Toby ... [Continue Reading]
On 24th July 1911, the Yale archaeologist and intrepid explorer Hiram Bingham III caught his first glimpse of the remote Inca citadel of Machu Picchu during an expedition to find the lost city of Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the beleaguered Inca Empire. Although it’s now thought that the site had been visited (and plundered) by others before him, Bingham is credited with bringing Machu Picchu to the world’s attention. Over the years that followed, however, thousands of artefacts ... [Continue Reading]
