Golden Mycenae is one of the most famous ancient towns in the world, but how did it work? There is the Palace on its citadel and there are tombs surrounding it, yet how are they related? In the first of a two part feature, David Mason takes us to Mycenae, walking along the little-known roads to see Mycenae as the Mycenaeans saw it, with the Treasury of Atreus carefully placed for maximum impact. Thereafter, in the subsequent instalment, Andrew Selkirk leads us up onto the citadel and wonders where the ordinary Myceneans lived.
We follow Mycenae with an ancient mystery: how did the Egyptians make glass? The Egyptians held glass in high esteem, admiring its brilliance and shine. Inspired to learn more, Paul Nicholson began exploring the evidence at Tell el-Amarna, the capital of the ‘heretic pharaoh’ Akhenaten (1352-1336 BC). Amarna was planned as a ‘new town’ by Akhenaten and abandoned soon after his death. Consequently, the site offers a rare and significant snapshot of urban Egyptian life and industry at that time. In this feature, Nicholson takes us to his excavations in the industrial quarter of Amarna, and tells how his experiments with making glass furnaces have effectively shattered old interpretations of early glass-making.
Archaeology is the study of material culture, and very few materials