For seven decades Berlin’s Neues Museum was a derelict, bomb-scarred shell — but finally it is back, boasting a star-studded cast including the 3,400-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. German Chancellor Angela Merkel officially opens the restored museum on Friday.It’s a day that took decades to arrive. One of the jewels of Berlin’s Museum Island complex will reopen its doors. The Neues Museum reopens on Friday, meaning that the entire ensemble of Berlin’s neoclassical galleries will be open for the first time since World War II.
“It is a special day … 70 years after it 
was closed, this building can be handed over to the public again,” Hermann Parzinger, the head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, which oversees Berlin’s museums, told journalists ahead of the opening of the galleries, which will hold the city’s Egyptian Museum and the Museum of Pre- and Early History. “It is, in a way, the end of the postwar era for the Museum Island.”
The star of the show will be the limestone-and-stucco bust of Nefertiti, which has been in Germany since 1913. Reflecting her status in the world of art history, the beautiful object will reside alone in a dome-ceilinged room which overlooks the length of the museum.
The museum has been closed since the beginning of the war in 1939, when its artifacts were taken into storage. Situated in the former East Germany, it was left in its war-torn state due to lack of funds. Nefertiti and thousands of other items have now been returned to their former home for the first time.
Alongside the historic artifacts, the space also houses a stretch of barbed wire from the Berlin Wall, a timely addition given next month’s 20-year anniversary of the fall of the east-west divide.
And the neoclassical architecture, recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site, has been lent a modernist touch by British architect David Chipperfield. His painstaking €233-million ($347 million) revamp has sparked controversy by leaving some of the historic decay untouched. White modern stairways sweep past old bricks pocked by bullets in World War II, original columns still have fire damage and neo-classical mosaics and pseudo-Egyptian murals still seem to flake away on ceilings and walls.
The high-profile opening has also reignited an ongoing row about the museum’s centerpiece, with Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass telling a number of German newspapers that Nefertiti belongs to his country. Speaking to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, Hawass said an official investigation had been launched into how Nefertiti came to Germany. “If she left Egypt illegally, which I am convinced she did, then I will officially demand it back from Germany,” he told the daily.
At the press conference ahead of the opening, Parzinger said any relevant documents would be given to the Egyptian authorities. He stressed he was “confident” Nefertiti’s place in Berlin was secure.
This weekend Nefertiti’s steely gaze will be the major draw for Berliners who are expected to flock to the public opening. The Neues Museum will be free for visitors on Saturday and Sunday. Organizers are braced for a mass turnout, providing hot drinks for the thousands expected to stand in line, despite the forecast of rain.
Afghanistan
Belgium
SANTA FE DE ANTIOQUIA HISTORIC CENTER
EGLISE PAROISSIALE DE SAINT-MARTIN-DES-PUITS
Iraq
Japan
TEMPLO DE SAN BARTOLO SOYALTEPEC (Church of San Bartolo Soyaltepec)
SHIKARPOOR HISTORIC CITY CENTER
PACHMACAMAC SANCTUARY
Romania
OLD TOWN OF ÁVILA (Ciudad Vieja de Ávila)
SHEERNESS DOCKYARD
TALIESIN 
University of Southampton archaeologists leading a major excavation of Portus, the ancient port of Rome, have uncovered the remains of an amphitheatre-shaped-building, solving a mystery which has puzzled experts for over 140 years.
“Our team has rediscovered this ‘theatre’ and proved it was in fact a building more akin to an amphitheatre. Lanciani had only found half of the structure, leading him to misinterpret its shape and function.”
Portus was Rome’s gateway to the Mediterranean for most of the Imperial period and played a key role in funnelling food, slaves, wild animals, marble and all manner of luxury goods from across the Mediterranean and beyond to the citizens of Rome. It was vital to the survival of the Empire and the only real ‘transport hub’ serving the city.
Having solved one riddle, archaeologists have now uncovered another; the white marble head of a statue unearthed at the site of once-luxurious rooms close to the ‘amphitheatre’. It is thought the head dates back to the 2nd or early 3rd century, however it is less clear who it depicts.
other structures. The Portus Project has also been undertaking a geophysical survey of the Isola Sacra, an island to the south of Portus, and has found a major new canal and traces of Rome’s marble yards.
Remains of the fabled dining hall have been discovered on the city’s Palatine Hill, where emperors traditionally built their most lavish palaces.
ool at Rome, an archeological institute, said: “People have been trying to find the rotating dining room for a long time. We don’t have much idea about it except for what Suetonius tells us. It could have had a revolving floor, or possibly a revolving ceiling. “If they really have discovered it, that would be exciting.”
Archaeologists in Rome claimed today to have found the remains of a legendary revolving dining room built by Emperor Nero to impress his guests.
Mr Herbert, 55, of Burntwood in Staffordshire, who has been metal detecting for 18 years, came across the hoard as he searched land belonging to a farmer friend over five days in July. The exact location has not been disclosed.
Following the initial find, Alex Jones, director of Birmingham Archaeology and his colleagues were invited to excavate the site, Birmingham University said.
The collection is currently being kept in secure storage at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery but a selection of the items are to be displayed at the museum from Friday until 13 October.
