Strands of human hair from the Bronze Age burial and cult-cave of Es Cà rritx in Menorca have been analysed, providing the first direct evidence of ancient drug-use in Europe. Around 1450 BC, Menorca’s inhabitants started to use natural caves as funerary structures. Among them was Es Cà rritx, which had already…
• The gods of Dura-Europos
• Making a splash
• Secrets of their craft
• All creatures great and small
• Visions of Mary Magdalene
• Eleusinian mysteries…
How did water go from being something to fear to a place of privilege in Greece and Rome? Karen Eva Carr plunges into the cultural history of swimming.…
Many metalworkers and ceramicists in Renaissance Europe seemingly had no qualms about killing a lizard – or other animal – for their art. Pamela Smith investigates the intriguing practice of life-casting that turned nature into art, and why artisan authors recorded practical knowledge in words.…
From the worship of local Syrian protector gods to Christianity, many different religions flourished in the cosmopolitan crossroads city of Dura-Europos. Jen Baird brings us face to face with the diverse divine through the art of this ancient site.…
Animal art over thousands of years paints a picture of the ways we live with and study different species, from Roman hunting hounds to swarms of bees, as Lucia Marchini investigates.…
Text by Andrew Robinson…
The dates listed below may have changed since we went to print. Check the websites of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings.…
In early Christian art, Mary Magdalene was a key figure in the Resurrection of Christ, as first witness and ‘apostle to the apostles’. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona explores how her significance was set in stone, tiled on walls, and carved in wood and ivory.…
Review by Diana Bentley Nearly two and a half millennia after it was written, Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War not only remains vibrantly alive and regularly referred to in discussions of modern conflict and politics, but is a rich subject of scholarly study and debate. Although left unfinished, Thucydides’…
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums…
Archaeologists working at the Moche site of Pañamarca, which is in western Peru, have uncovered intriguing depictions of a two-faced figure among the murals of its pillared hall. This building, which archaeologists believe may have been the most important at the site, was partially excavated in 2010, and has more…
Painting the zodiac Colourful ceiling paintings including the signs of the zodiac have been revealed at the temple of Esna in Egypt. Executed in relief, the images also depict planets and other constellations, snakes, crocodiles, and hybrid creatures such as a four-winged bird with a crocodile’s head and snake’s tail.…
As he made his journey through the green steppe, Robert Byron (1905-1941) could see his destination 20 miles away:‘a small cream needle stood up against the blue of the mountains’, as he wrote in The Road to Oxiana, the account of his 1933-1934 travels around Afghanistan and Persia with Christopher…
Eleusis – modern Elefsina – is in the spotlight as European Capital of Culture. Dalu Jones visits its ancient remains to enter the realm of the Eleusinian Mysteries, secret rites honouring the renewal of life.…
Review by Nigel Fletcher-Jones This volume brings together eight historians of Africa under the editorship of John Parker (formerly at SOAS, University of London) to discuss the origins and structure of kingdoms through time and across the continent – from ancient Egypt and Nubia (the earliest known African kingdoms) to…
Review by Andrew Robinson The Indus civilisation – which flourished c.2500-1900 BC – was about twice the size of its equivalent in Egypt or neighbouring Mesopotamia. In its own way, it was as extraordinary as those civilisations, with its technically sophisticated cities such as Harappa and Mohenjo-daro, utopian absence of…
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums…
• The rise of royalty in prehistoric Europe
• Exploring interpretations of the Fayum mummy portraits
• Wooden wonders at Herculaneum
• Drinking and decadence in the ancient Persian and Greek worlds
• Touring Siena’s medieval monuments…
A new exhibition at the British Museum delves into drinking and decadence in the ancient Persian and Greek worlds. Henry Bishop-Wright tells Lucia Marchini how elements of luxury could be adopted and adapted to express power across cultures.…