Bacchus Uncovered: Ancient God of Ecstasy
In 1640, a bronze tablet was discovered during construction work on a palace in Tiriolo, southern Italy. Dating from 186 BC, it records a decree issued by the Roman senate strictly regulating the cult...
View ArticleReview: China – visions through the ages
China: visions through the ages Lisa C Niziolek, Deborah A Bekken, and Gary M Feinman (eds) University of Chicago Press, $45 ISBN 978-0226385372 People across China’s vast and diverse landscape have...
View ArticleObject Lesson: Ram in the Thicket
What is it? This ancient Mesopotamian sculpture known as the ‘ram in the thicket’ is actually a ‘goat in a tree’. The goat is rendered in impressive detail, as it reaches up to eat leaves on high...
View ArticleArzhan
The golden burial of a Scythian king In 2001, more than 5,000 gold objects were discovered in an untouched Scythian burial in Tuva, Central Asia. But where exactly is Tuva? We first look at an earlier...
View ArticleTravel: Raffles and Java
The 200th anniversary of Raffles’ arrival in Singapore has galvanised debate about the legacy of this controversial figure. His modern profile owes much to his interest in heritage, which restored his...
View ArticleTravel: Secrets from the Byzantine city of Shivta
How did cities come to flourish in the Negev Desert? George Nash has gone in search of Shivta’s former glory. The Negev Desert of southern Israel holds many secrets from the distant past. Its landscape...
View ArticlePasargadae
On the plain of Pasargadae, Cyrus the Great founded a spectacular garden palace. Nothing like it had ever been seen in the region before, raising questions about where the idea came from, how the...
View ArticleObject Lesson: Selden Map of China
What is it? This late Ming dynasty map depicts China, the South China Sea, and surrounding lands. It was drawn in the early 17th century on three sheets of paper by an anonymous cartographer with an...
View ArticlePlain of Jars
Clusters of massive stone jars in Laos have inspired considerable curiosity. Little is known about the people who fashioned them, while even the date they were created has not been conclusively...
View ArticleEarly human footprints in Saudi Arabia
A set of human footprints found in an ancient lake deposit in the south-west of the Nefud Desert is believed to represent the earliest securely dated evidence of modern humans in the Arabian Peninsula....
View ArticleEarliest evidence for ball games in Eurasia
Three leather balls have been discovered in the prehistoric Yanghai cemetery in north-west China that pre-date by several centuries all existing evidence of ball games in Eurasia. The post Earliest...
View ArticleObject Lesson: Sumerian Plaque
This low-relief limestone carving, dating to c.2400 BC, formed part of a larger votive wall plaque in a Sumerian temple in southern Iraq, during what is known as the Early Dynastic III period. It would...
View ArticleRare child burial in Indonesia
A sub-adult burial dating to the early-mid Holocene, c.8000 BP, has been found in Makpan Cave on Alor Island, south-eastern Indonesia. To date, only a few complete pre-Neolithic burials have been found...
View ArticleLife and death in Sefidkuh
An ongoing study in the Makran Sefidkuh region of Iran is shedding light on the culture and archaeological remains of communities in the area, stretching back to prehistory. The post Life and death in...
View ArticleCooking cereals in prehistoric China
A project looking at the history of crops in prehistoric China has identified differences in regional diets and changes over time, which may be connected to varying cooking practices in these areas....
View ArticleAltai rock art
Survey and excavation in a remote region of Mongolia are revealing a wealth of information about an extraordinary concentration of rock art. Richard Kortum reveals what has been found, and why it is so...
View Article800-year-old mistake uncovered by modern imaging
A team of researchers led by Nottingham Trent University’s Imaging and Sensing for Archaeology, Art History and Conservation (ISAAC) lab have discovered evidence of a mistake made more than 700 years...
View ArticleAncient art in Indonesia
Indonesia is home to some of the world’s oldest cave art, and several significant discoveries have been made in the area in recent years, but archaeologists now believe that they have found a painting...
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Jerash
It is winter. The kitchen is humming with activity, as sheep’s wool is prepared for textile production and fires are kept up. The sheep have already been sheared with large iron scissors, and now the...
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Facing the Palmyrenes
What can an extraordinary group of sculptures commemorating the dead reveal about ancient life in Palmyra? Thousands of ancient inhabitants’ portraits once graced lavish family tombs in cemeteries just...
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