Sailors, from the Neolithic to the Byzantine periods, approaching the shores of Malta from the south east could not have failed to notice the temple site of Tas Silġ on the hill above the shoreline. For nearly 5,000 continuous years, visitors flocked to this place of ritual that evolved and adapted to changing religious practices. [...]
Absolon at Predmostí
April 5, 2013
Filed Under: Czech Republic, Great Discoveries, Issue 58
The dig Rather than one major campaign of excavation, it was the results from a series of interventions over almost half a century, pulled together by Dr D K Absolon, Curator of the Government Museum in Brunn, Czechoslovakia, during the interwar period. This work of synthesis was then widely publicised from the mid-1920s onwards. The [...]
Book Review: The Twelve Caesars
The Twelve Caesars Matthew Dennison Atlantic Books, £9.99 ISBN 978-1848876859 The legends surrounding the first 12 rulers of the Roman Empire are legion. Called capricious, murderous, even mad by (not entirely disinterested) contemporary sources, their reputations lend colour to an already dramatic period of history. But what were Julius Caesar, Caligula, and Nero really like? [...]
Book Review: Death and Dying in the Neolithic Near East
Death and Dying in the Neolithic Near East Karina Croucher Oxford University Press, £80.00 ISBN 978-0199693955 The Neolithic was a time of seismic change in human development, when sedentary farming took over from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle. How a society treats its dead reflects the beliefs of the living, so can this transition be seen [...]
Book Review: How to be a Viking: The Norse warrior’s unofficial manual
How to be a Viking: The Norse warrior’s unofficial manual John Haywood Thames & Hudson, £12.95 ISBN 978-0500251942 If you’ve ever wondered how to choose the right sword, or how best to organise your army into an effective swine-wedge (who hasn’t?), this book is the one for you. From what to expect on sea voyages [...]
Book Review: Greeks & Parthians in Mesopotamia and Beyond: 331 BC-224 AD
Greeks & Parthians in Mesopotamia and Beyond: 331 BC-224 AD Wolfram Grajetzki Bristol Classical Press, £16.99 ISBN: 978-0715639474 Who were the Parthians? The Parthians are one of the forgotten peoples of history. When Alexander destroyed the Persian Empire in the 330s, Greek influence spread over the Persian world, and the Persians tend to be forgotten [...]
CWA travels to Malta: Mdina & Rabat
Just outside the fortified walls of Mdina, once the capital of Malta, are the remains of a fine example of a Roman townhouse. The Domus Romana was discovered by accident in 1881 by Dr A A Caruana, a pioneer of Maltese archaeology. But as we approached, the lure of the magnificent fortress city, perched high [...]
Richard Hodges travels to: Amelia, Italy
Rome is empty of tourists in late January; Umbria is even emptier, yet on most days there is sunshine for nine hours. Middle Italy’s landscapes are brought into a blissful clarity by the low angle of the sun, which makes a trip outside the Eternal City utterly bewitching. Little over an hour north of Rome [...]
Chris Catling on… Modern mind, ancient art, and Neolithic matchsticks
The modern mind The British Museum’s (superb) current exhibition is called ‘Ice Age Art’ – though some say it might be more accurate to call it Upper Palaeolithic Interstadial (Warm Period) Art, but you can see why they went for a title with a bit more pizzazz. To promote the exhibition, the BM has a [...]
Charles Higham: New finds with an old – very special – trowel
Non Ban Jak will soon be slumbering again in the heat of the dry season here in Northeast Thailand. The huge mound rises above the rice fields, demarcated by two moats and banks. Excavations here began last year and revealed, for the first time in such a site, house foundations, rooms, floors, and even a [...]
The Manhattan Project
Tom St John Gray reports on the legacy of the atomic bomb: is it heritage, horror, or both?
Doing up Pompeii
The EU have launched a £36.1m project to help conserve the spectacular Roman ruins at Pompeii. Approved by the European Commission in 2012, the funding aims to consolidate ancient structures, improve drainage, and assist the training of staff. Special measures will also be taken to protect the initiative from the influence of organised crime – [...]
Back in fashion
Egyptian blue, the world’s oldest artificial pigment, could have a range of modern uses from medical imaging devices to remote controls for televisions. First produced 5,000 years ago by the ancient Egyptians, the pigment was used to decorate tombs, sculptures, furnishings, and jewellery until the 4th century AD. Now, chemical analysis led by Tina Salguero [...]
Cultivating disease
The development of farming by our Neolithic ancestors had a negative impact on the health of modern humans, archaeologists say. Researchers from the Universities of Adelaide and Aberdeen, and the Sanger Institute in Cambridge, extracted DNA from calcified dental plaque on ancient teeth from 34 northern European prehistoric skeletons. Their analysis, published in Nature Review, [...]
Ancient Lifestyle Choices
Hardening of the arteries is commonly associated with the modern sedentary lifestyle, but it affected people across the ancient world, over a period of 4,000 years, newly-published research says. Full-body CT scans of 137 adult mummies from ancient Egypt, Peru, southwest America (Ancestral Puebloans of the Archaic and Basketmaker II cultures), and the Aleutian Islands [...]
Richard III rediscovered
Human remains found beneath a Leicester carpark are those of Richard III, England’s last Medieval monarch, a multi-disciplinary team of experts have announced.
Unusual offerings
Over 130 human skulls, thought to be the remains of human sacrifices, have been discovered in a remote Mexican field, far from known ritual centres. Dated to c.AD 660-869, they were found during excavations led by Christopher Morehart of Georgia State University, who was investigating ancient agricultural practices near Lake Xaltocan. The skulls, all adult [...]
Toothy Roman Tumour
Archaeologists examining the 1,600 year-old remains of a woman from Roman Spain have made a unique – if grisly – discovery: a calcified ovarian tumour containing four teeth and a piece of bone. Known as a ‘teratoma’, the spherical mass measured 4.3cm (1.7in) in diameter and was found in the right-hand part of the 30-40 [...]
Reconstructing the Lion Man
Archaeologists returning to the spot where the enigmatic ‘Lion Man’ was found 74 years ago have announced the discovery of almost 1,000 new fragments of the mammoth ivory figure – and new dating evidence that could put it among the oldest figurative sculptures in the world. The first pieces of the Palaeolithic statue were excavated [...]
No Neanderthal Neighbours?
Neanderthals might have died out 15,000 years earlier than previously thought, meaning that they could not have interacted or interbred with modern humans, new analysis suggests. For 20 years it had been thought that pockets of Neanderthals survived in southern Iberia until c.36,000 years ago. As Homo sapiens arrived in the northern part of the [...]
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