Discovering the pinnacle of Ecuador Ecuador’s capital of Quito, high in the Andes mountains, is one of the world’s most breathtaking cities, as Tim Tatton-Brown explains. Situated in the High Andes of Ecuador, at well over 9,000 feet above sea-level, Quito is the highest and one of the most extraordinary capital cities in the world. […]
Issue 77
Sicilian splendours
Sicily, one of the world’s great crossroads of culture, is the subject of the British Museum’s latest must-see exhibition, Sicily: Culture and Conquest. Curators Dirk Booms and Peter Higgs take us behind the scenes, telling the story using five of their favourite objects from the displays. Sicily sits in the centre of the Mediterranean, its […]
Oman
Frankincense and more The fragrant land of Oman, tucked away in the south-eastern corner of Arabia, is rich with glorious archaeology. But what are its highlights? David Millar is our guide. Imagine a country with a near-complete archaeological record from the time that humans first came ‘out of Africa’, with settlements and monuments as old […]
By steppe, desert, and ocean
The birth of Eurasia Brian Fagan reviews Barry Cunliffe’s masterful ‘big history’ book that traces the development of Eurasia from the first farmers to the expansion of the Mongols. Eurasia tends to be a blank on archaeological maps. Enormous distances, harsh climatic conditions, formidable linguistic challenges, and politics had been almost insurmountable obstacles until […]
Richard Hodges travels to… Morocco
At Christmas time, the sky in Morocco appears infinite and unchangingly serene, a natural partner of this expansive landscape. Sheltered by this sky, the Moroccans are gentle and surprisingly calm. Worlds away from the rhythm of the Mediterranean, this north-west corner of Africa, once the ancient Roman province of Mauretania, boasts three great Classical sites, […]
The mystery of Naukratis
Revealing Egypt’s international port From the late 7th century BC, the Nile Delta port of Naukratis was the world’s gateway to Egypt. Yet, despite early archaeological research at the site, it has languished in the shadows. Who lived there, how did the port operate, and what (sometimes salacious) secrets remained hidden? Alexandra Villing and Ross […]
LiDAR
LiDAR – or Light Detection And Ranging – is a form of laser-scanning, initially used in meteorology. Over the past decade or so, archaeologists have begun routinely to use the technology, drawn to its ability to capture extraordinarily accurate, high-resolution, 3D data. It works by using light sensors to measure the distance between the sensor […]
‘Throne of Agamemnon’ found
Archaeologists working in Mycenae, seat of the mythical King Agamemnon, have discovered what they believe to be the site’s only known royal throne. The international team, led by president of the Mycenaean Foundation, Prof. Christofilis Maggidis of Dickinson College, USA, made the find in June 2014. Erik DeMarche and Dan Fallu were taking palaeo-hydrological measurements […]
CWA 77
Cambodia’s stupendous temple of Angkor Wat, and the dense forest in which it sits, are currently the focus of a major cutting-edge project, led by an international team of researchers. In addition to traditional archaeological methods, the team has used high-tech LiDAR aerial laser-scanning to ‘see’ what lies beneath the temple grounds, and through the surrounding jungle. This revolutionary work […]