Issue 15

Welcome to the first edition of CWA for 2006. We start the year in true style with Qatna, a Syrian site that defies imagination. There, archaeologists have made the once-in-a-lifetime find, uncovering untouched royal tombs concealed beneath a Bronze Age palace. The tombs boast splendid gold, precious jewellery, and other ancient treasures, which have lain hidden since the day of their abandonment following the destruction of the palace – probably by the Hittites in 1340 BC.
From royal tombs in Syria, we turn up the heat and move south to look at the civilisation most famed for its tombs: Ancient Egypt. Here, Egyptologist Nigel Strudwick draws on his excavation at the Theban tomb of a high official, Senneferi, to explore exactly how

Qatna, Syria

Peter Pfalzner, of the University of Tubingen writes of the extraordinary Brinze Age royal tombs at Qanta

Tomb of Senneferi

How did a high-class Egyptian tomb work? All is revealed at the tomb of Senneferi who lived at the height of the New Kingdom at around 1420

Blow to Nero’s Palace

Nero’s palace has been forced to close after rain in December 2005 threatened to bring down part of the building

Neolithic Baby Boom

Scientific study reveals the invention of agriculture led to significant population increase

Egyptian Dwarfs

Biological and artistic evidence suggests that dwarfs held a privilaged position in Ancient Egyptian society

Beyond The River

To the east of the small town of Madaba in Jordan – famed for its 6th century AD Mosaic Map, the earliest known map of the Levant – is the Persian Palace of Qasr el-Mushatta. So impressive were these Persian ruins that Layard, writing in 1840, described them as ‘a marvellous example of the sumptuousness […]

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