Taking a bulldozer to open an ancient monument is not usually recommended. But, in 1977, that is exactly what Manolis Andronikos did. After considerable debate, he had come to the conclusion that the Great Mound at Vergina was actually the site of Aegae, the religious capital of Macedonia where Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, was murdered in 336 BC. Could this possibly be …
Read the full story »Welcome to CWA
Welcome to Current World Archaeology, the magazine that reports on the latest discoveries in archaeology round the world. CWA was published in 2003 as a sister magazine to Current Archaeology which since 1967 and has been reporting on the latest discoveries in British archaeology.But CWA does not can just look at the latest discoveries: it is also a travel magazine looking at a great monuments round the world, explaining how they really work, and how they came to be the monuments that we see today.
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Turkey: Domuztepe
The popular image of Neolithic communities is of small hamlet-sized groups. Excavation at the vast settlement at Domuztepe has turned this notion on its head. What rules or rituals could have bound such a huge community together? Alexandra Fletcher and Stuart Campbell believe a macabre ‘death pit’ and mysterious red-clay terrace hold the clue.
India: Hampi
The former capital of one of the greatest and wealthiest empires of the Indian subcontinent for 300 years until its destruction in 1565 is facing a new and very modern danger: bulldozers. Paul Woodfield visited the site.
Italy: Portus
Imperial Rome’s mighty maritime gate at Portus was revealed in CWA 42. Now, Simon Keay reports on an exciting new discovery that may hold the key to the nature of this port: the giant military shipsheds of the Emperor’s fleet.
Aegae
In 1855, the young French archaeologist Léon Heuzey found the remains of a magnificent palace, concealed under a ruined chapel. The village nearby was called Palatitsia, a name that hints at its former glory. Could this be the palace of the ancient Macedonian kings? In our last issue Andrew Selkirk told the story of how Philip II of Macedon’s tomb was discovered here. Now, he returns to examine the rest of the site.
France: la Glacerie
La Glacerie in Cherbourg, Normandy, is the first WWII Prisoner of War camp for German soldiers to be excavated and studied. How does living memory measure up to archaeological research? Robert Early compares the hard evidence with the witness accounts.
Pompeii
Excavations at Pompeii began in 1748. Today, advances in technology are being used to preserve and conserve. And, as Joanne Berry and Sarah Court reveal, the ancient city is still giving up its secrets. So, what is new in Pompeii?
Smithsonian: Tang Treasures special report
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC has withdrawn from hosting a controversial maritime exhibition. Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds was due to open in the Smithsonian’s Sackler Gallery in spring this year, but has been cancelled following a two-day conference in December 2011, attended by an international advisory committee of experts that included the World Archaeological Congress Committee on Ethics and UNESCO.
Shipwrecked first opened …
Alaska: Chinese buckle
An ancient Chinese-style bronze buckle found by a team from the University of Colorado Boulder in Alaska may prove the earliest evidence of trade links with East Asia. The CU-led excavations are part of a National Science Foundation-funded project to study human responses to climate change at Cape Espenberg from AD 800 to AD 1400, a critical period of cultural change in the western Arctic.
The …
Mexico: Mexican pyramid’s first offering
Archaeologists investigating the core of the Pyramid of the Sun, at Teotihuacan on the outskirts of Mexico City, have discovered the ceremonial offering placed at the heart of Mexico’s tallest pyramid, deposited when construction first began in about AD 50.
Laid on the pyramid’s rubble base, the offerings included obsidian knives and projectile heads, 11 ceramic vessels featuring the rain god, Tlaloc, and three anthropomorphic figures …
Caribbean: Something cooking on Carriacou
A tiny Caribbean island has produced one of the most diverse collections of prehistoric non-native animal remains ever found in the region. Excavations at two sites on Carriacou revealed that five species were introduced from South America between c.AD 1000-1400. One, opossums, can still be found there today, but the other four – peccaries, armadillos, guinea pigs, and agoutis – have long since vanished.
Carbon dating …
Great Discoveries »
Great discoveries: Royal Tombs of Ur
Leonard Woolley’s excavations at the ancient Sumerian city of Ur in southern Iraq – or Mesopotomia, ‘the land between the two rivers’, as it was then known – lasted from 1922 to 1934. At the end of the 1926 season, working on a cemetery site containing some 2,500 burials, the excavators uncovered a deep shaft, at the foot of which lay a gold dagger with …
