Anubis Returns

Last week a giant statue of Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead was floated down the Thames. The 25-foot fiberglass representation of the jackal-headed god was taken down the river on the back of a cargo ship to Trafalgar Square, before being moved to various locations around the capital.

Basically it's all to promote an exhibition, "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," opening in November in Greenwich at O2. But the veneration of Anubis is nothing new in South London. In 1996 a Roman cemetery was excavated by archaeologists in Southwark in Great Dover Street (part of the original Kent Road). The grave of a young woman included several lamps with images of Anubis, as well as one with a gladiator image, prompting (probably unfounded) speculation that the grave was of a female gladiator.