by Richard Griffiths | 10 Mar 2024 | Blog Post
It is estimated that over half a billion adults play chess regularly, that is equivalent to over ten per cent of World’s adult population. The game emerged from the Indian sub-continent in the sixth century CE. In the following centuries not only had the game spread...
by Richard Griffiths | 10 Mar 2024 | Blog Post
The Oroqen Nation represent one of the smallest officially recognised ethic group in China. According to the census in 2010 their population numbered 8,659 people. The largest single concentration (2050 inhabitants) lived in the Oroqen Autonomous Banner area, which is...
by Richard Griffiths | 31 Oct 2023 | Blog Post
Whilst teaching a summer course at Ocean University, Qingdao, I took a road-trip with my archaeologist colleague, Sarah Ward, to Nanjing to see for ourselves the city portrayed in the first site in the Silk Road Virtual Museum. Nanjing was famous for its Porcelain...
by Richard Griffiths | 31 Jul 2023 | Blog Post
The Dragon Boat Festival is traditionally held on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month of the Chinese year. For some reason, nine hundred years ago Emperor Huizong chose to sponsor one on Jinming Lake (near the Northern Song capital Kaifeng) on the third day of the...
by Richard Griffiths | 2 Jul 2023 | Blog Post
There are not many two-faced buildings in the World. One of the best-known is the former Moskva hotel that was built in Moscow in the 1930s. As you can see in the photograph above, the layout of the two wings of the building are completely different. The building, on...
by Richard Griffiths | 4 Jun 2023 | Blog Post
Researching for the Silk Road Virtual Museum leads me to avenues that I never thought existed. Let me share this one with you. It starts at Christie’s Auction House in London. It is 25 June 2020 and we are here for its sale of Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds...
