Previously thought to be little more than hillfort, is this actually the first Iron Age city north of the Alps?
Re-dating Ice Age art
Do the outlines of hands in Spain’s El Castillo cave belong to Homo sapiens or to their earlier Neanderthal cousins?
Horse Power
How does the archaeological record reflect the vital role horses played in the development of civilisation?
Sudan: Amara West
What was life like under the shadow of the pharaohs? The realities of life and death under Egypt’s rule
France: Barbegal watermills
When they were built in the 2nd century AD, the great watermills at Barbegal, in the South of France, were at the very cutting edge of technology. Their revolutionary design, says Wayne Lorenz, enabled the Roman Empire to flourish, and endured unchanged until the 20th century.
Namibia’s mandolins
‘Expect the unexpected’ is a good maxim for any archaeologist. But nothing could have prepared Terry Hardaker and his team for their spectacular find as they explored the ancient land surfaces in a remote part of western Namibia.
Peru: Pachacamac
Why were the bodies of a dozen newborn babies placed around the edge of a 1,000-year-old tomb?
Turkey: Dascyleum
The unstoppable Persian king, Cyrus the Great, powered through Anatolia, conquering all in his path. In 547 BC, he defeated Croesus, the legendary Lydian king of ‘rich as Croesus’ fame. The new empire was divided into regional satrapies; the capital of one was Dascyleum, where recent excavations led by Kaan İren tell the story of that fiery onslaught and subsequent settlement.
Turkey: The Koru tumulus
The Koru tumulus The large cluster of tumuli around Lake Kuş (Lake Manyas) – reminiscent of the Thousand Mounds of Sardis, the great royal cemetery of the father of Croesus, King Alyattes – belongs to Dascyleum. It includes burials of Phrygian, Lydian, Persian, and Macedonian nobles. Here, Kaan İren reports on recent excavations at one [...]
Beyond the grave: cemeteries at Amara West
Michaela Binder discovers what the dead can tell us about living.
Egypt: The Aurochs of Qurta
Five years ago, CWA reported on the discovery of the oldest rock art found in North Africa (CWA 24). Dirk Huyge and his team have been back to Egypt to re-examine the site: it seems not only are the petroglyphs even older than first thought, they may show possible contact with Europe.
Ancient Olympics: Sex, Sport, and Sacrifice
Forget London 2012. What about Olympia in 388 BC? Archaeologist Neil Faulkner has just published a new book that attempts to reconstruct the lived experience of the ancient games. So what were they really like?
Teouma
When were the South Sea Islands first inhabited? The discovery by Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford of a remarkable cemetery, with nearly 100 burials and a superb collection of pots, has thrown new light on the earliest population of this remote area.
Turkey: Perge
Excavations at Perge celebrate their 66th anniversary in summer 2012. The capital city of Pamphylia is a triumph of Classical and Hellenistic design. Now, investigations suggest its roots go back well before its artistic heyday. Prof Dr Haluk Abbasoğlu reveals the long and distinguished past of this prestigious site.
Libya: Castles, kings, and caravans
The Garamantes of Fezzan: barbaric hut- and tent-dwelling nomads, or a civilisation of wealth and power?
Turkey: Göbekli Tepe
Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia is the world’s oldest man-made structure. Could religion have been the catalyst that ignited the ‘Neolithic Revolution’?
Columbia: Ciudad Perdida
The lost city of a lost civilisation – yet today it is one of the most important Pre-Hispanic sites in South America.
Syria: Tell Brak
Civil unrest, violent clashes, an oppressive authority: we could be talking about Syria today. But this is 6,000 years ago, during the Late Chalcolithic Period.
Greece: Pella
Following his articles on the tomb of Philip II and the ceremonial centre at Vergina, Andrew Selkirk now investigates Pella, the commercial capital.
Yemen: Arabia’s Stonehenge
While surveying the inhospitable Red Sea coastal plain of Yemen, archaeologist Ed Keall took a wrong turn on his way back to base camp. As he tells Nadia Durrani, his mistake turned out to be monumental.
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