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A feline find
A geoglyph has been discovered on a hillside in the Nazca desert of Peru during the emergency project ‘Cleaning, Conservation and Restoration of the Geoglyphs ...
An unexpected tomb
Discovering a previously unsuspected Roman cemetery would normally rank as the archaeological highlight of a building project. Recent work on Corsica, though, revealed an even ...
The late Roman villa of Caddeddi
Sicily was famed in antiquity for its agricultural prosperity. An eloquent witness of its late Roman wealth is provided by the great villa near Piazza ...
Review: The Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo
The modern town of Mazara del Vallo lies on the south-western coast of Sicily. Created as a Phoenician outpost, it became a border post lying ...
Ship shape: Viking burial found
A Viking ship burial has been discovered at the site of Gjellestad in south-eastern Norway. It was first identified during a ground penetrating radar (GPR) ...
Travel: Digging in Permafrost
It was a typical summer day: birds, boats, sea, and ice. The difference was, the birds were Arctic geese, the boats were converted canoes, the ...
Richard Hodges: The Death of Pan
The Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha was obsessed with defending his ‘paradise on earth’. He feared invasion by NATO troops using a combination of amphibious landings ...
Review: Egyptologists’ Notebooks
Anyone visiting Egypt today must wonder how it struck travellers before our current understanding of its archaeological sites. Egyptologist Chris Naunton, former director of the ...
Special Report: AI and ancient languages
A new tool, launched this year on the anniversary of the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, offers a novel high-tech way to examine ancient Egyptian ...
Minerva magazine offer for CWA subscribers
Special Offer: CWA subscribers can get 25% off a subscription to our sister magazine, Minerva. In January 2020, Current World Archaeology gained a new sister publication – Minerva – a bi-monthly
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An unexpected tomb
Discovering a previously unsuspected Roman cemetery would normally rank as the archaeological highlight of a building project. Recent work on Corsica, though, revealed an even greater surprise.
7 Wonders
7 discoveries that changed the archaeological world
One of the most exciting things about archaeology is that it is an ever-changing landscape, constantly causing us to reconsider our most firmly-held beliefs about ...
7 skeletal sites
What happens to us after we die? Prepare to get shivers down your spine as we look more closely at seven sites that dance closely ...
7 wonders – Editor’s choice
It is hard to narrow down your favourite archaeological sites to just 7 place names when you have the whole world from which to choose, ...
7 Fashionable Finds
Throughout history people have been keen to keep up with the latest trends and fashions. Whether used to display wealth or indicate membership of a ...
7 facts about the 7 Wonders of the World
Herodotus was the first to create a list of the seven most spectacular monuments in the world - or at least, in the world known ...
7 spectacular temples
Dominating the forum of Ostia Antica, the main harbour town supplying ancient Rome, the brick-built Capitolium can be seen from almost every part of the 2,500-year-old ...
7 facts you might not know about Howard Carter
Today (May 9) is Howard Carter's birthday, so we thought we would share some of our favourite facts about the discoverer of Tutankhamun's tomb. 1. Family ...
7 ship-shape sites
We're in a maritime mood today. Read on for seven of our favourite ship-related archaeological sites. Bon Voyage! 1. The Oseberg ship, Norway In 1904, ...
7 revolutionary writings
We often think of archaeology as being all about objects, but written sources are just as fundamental to our understanding of the past. Official inscriptions, ...
Travel: Digging in Permafrost
What is archaeology in the Arctic like? Matilda Siebrecht shares its challenges and charms. Icy seas: Inuit legend tells of a man escaping from assailants across the floating ice. Today, it is not uncommon to see people negotiating the ice floes for fun. [Image: Matilda Siebrecht] It was a typical ...
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Richard Hodges: The Death of Pan
David Hernandez and Richard Hodges investigate a deity’s demise. Pan, as depicted on the bronze statuette found as a gun battery was being constructed on Mount Mile in 1981. The god is shown with a bearded human face, discreet horns, and goat-legs. He is pouring oil from an alabastron. Mount ...
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Travel: A Villa in the Country
Imperial Extravagance in Serbia The main imperial palace at Gamzigrad. This enormous fortified villa has been excavated since the 1950s. The formal imperial complex functioned alongside a smaller and more private villa, presumably the imperial quarters. [Images: courtesy of Lescovac Museum.] Journeying south from the Serbian Danube presents an opportunity ...
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Richard Hodges: The Visit of the World Bank President
The site of Butrint, in Albania. Back in 1995, the site was visited by the World Bank President. But would it be possible to mark the occasion by uncovering the site’s majestic Baptistery mosaic? Italy is in lockdown as I write and it feels like Christmas Day, such is the ...
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Travel: Through the Iron Gates
Golubac castle watches over the entrance to the famed ‘Iron Gates’ of the Danube: it has been occupied by Hungarians, Serbs, and Ottomans over its long history. Since the building of a dam in the 1980s, the narrow entrance to the gorge, guarded by this castle and another on the ...
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Travel: Hamilton Grange
The history of Hamilton Grange brings new meaning to ‘moving house’. Here, the former home of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton approaches its third setting in 2008. Its new foundations, in St Nicholas Park, are visible right. (Image: Wolfe House & Building Movers, www.wolfehousebuildingmovers.com) Exploring a Founding Father's mobile home Why ...
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Richard Hodges: A New Year’s Day Hike
Chania in the winter, as a baleful sea swells within the Venetian harbour. Archaeology indicates that there has been a settlement at Chania since at least the Neolithic period. No matter how many years I have spent in the Mediterranean in wintertime, I cannot get it into my head that ...
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Travel: Barcino
The modern city of Barcelona, as seen from the forecourt of the National Art Museum of Catalonia. Barcelona occupies a fertile plain edged in by mountains on three sides and the sea on the fourth. It was a site that also found favour with the Romans. It is one of ...
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Richard Hodges: Lascaux IV
It is a country of enchantment which poets have staked out and which they alone may lay claim to. It is nearest thing to Paradise this side of Greece… I believe that the Cro-Magnon man settled here because he was extremely intelligent and had a highly developed sense of beauty ...
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Richard Hodges: Zeugma’s last secret
A mosaic featuring Oceanus and his wife Tethys – an aquatic scene, which was to prove ominously prophetic in the summer of 2000, when a new dam left rising waters threatening the ancient city of Zeugma. Could a rescue project be mounted before a sizeable chunk of the town disappeared? ...
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