Crossing the Caucasus, Europe’s highest mountain range, is not for the faint-hearted, and nowhere is so bleak and so inhospitable as Dariali Gorge. It is here, legend tells, that Prometheus endured his cyclical punishment for stealing fire from the gods. And through here the Huns forced their way south to plunder the riches of the […]
Italy
Travel: Rome
CWA’s editor-in-chief Andrew Selkirk takes us on a capital tour. I have been to Rome – again! In March 2016, the city was the location for the annual conference of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. The conference was held in one of Italy’s foremost universities, La Sapienza. This is Rome’s oldest – […]
Special Report: Preserving Italy’s Past
In the wake of Italy’s catastrophic earthquake, Tracy Roberts, vice-president of LoveItaly, considers the present and looks to the future. On 24 August, an earthquake roughly 100km north-east of Rome, with a magnitude of 6.2, devastated a string of mountain towns and villages in central Italy. With a death toll nearing 300, this is first […]
CWA 79
Ice Age art is as awe-inspiring as it is perplexing, an astonishing and unprecedented explosion of human creativity. Much of what we thought we knew has been radically revised in the light of new findings and scientific advances. Palaeolithic specialist Paul Pettitt adroitly explores the latest discoveries, as outlined in the new edition of Paul Bahn’s classic book, Images […]
Abruzzo & Molise: Oliver Gilkes goes in search of the Samnites
Late in the year the streets of modern Rome are visited by groups of strangely dressed men with soft felt hats and the impressive, not to say alarming, bagpipes (zampogna) traditionally associated with the shepherds of the Abruzzo and Molise. Made of the inflated skins of sheep, their thin, reedy sound accompanies the disparate groups […]
CWA 76
The 6th century BC temple on the Greek island Despotiko is not what you might expect: the shrine boasts an enormous dining facility, and is surrounded by a large number of statues. Excavation on this idyllic little uninhabited island has also revealed evidence of an earlier temple – and a rather unnerving statuette of a […]
CWA 72
In France, archaeologists have uncovered a huge Iron Age chariot burial that is puzzling archaeologists. It is the largest yet found, and belongs to a Celtic aristocrat who enjoyed high social standing in life. But is this chief a man or a woman? The funerary complex is unusual, too: no settlement has been found close enough to be associated […]
CWA 71
The spectacular untouched tomb of Prince Liang Zhuang, favourite brother of the Ming emperor Xuande, has been hailed as China’s greatest discovery for a century. Not only was the treasure found in the burial chamber among the richest ever recovered, but the dazzling jewels that adorn the artefacts are evidence of expeditions undertaken by one of the most famous […]
CWA 70
War has raged in and around the last Hittite capital of Karkemish throughout its long and prestigious history. The city – also known as Carchemish or Karchemiš – straddles the Turkish-Syrian border, and today bears witness to bitter conflict just a few kilometres away in war-torn Syria. The young T E Lawrence – later Lawrence of Arabia – dug here […]
CWA 67
The Moche were the first empire-builders of the American continent, more than eight centuries before the Incas, and just as deserving of fame as those Johnny-come-latelys. But they had no written language, and did not hang around long enough to be recorded in the histories written by European fortune-hunters who plundered their material legacy almost a millennium later. Now, […]
CWA 65
Finding the archaeological evidence for a major turning point in history is something few archaeologists will experience. Finding the remains of a sea battle has never been done. Archaeologists working off the coast of Sicily have achieved both when they recovered the bronze rams from the warships lost at the Battle of the Egadi Islands. This was the battle […]
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