With small tiles of marble and glass, Roman mosaicists created intricate mythological images, realistic scenes from nature, and other complex compositions to decorate the floors and walls of tombs, sanctuaries, and homes. Dalu Jones explores some mosaic masterpieces normally hidden in stores in Rome’s museums.…
• The art and power of golden manuscripts
• The birth of Gothic: cathedral-building in medieval Europe
• Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Feminine Power: She who must be obeyed
• Naples: restoring an ancient necropolis…
Research into an intriguing rock relief recorded in the subterranean chambers is revealing details about religion and style in the region during the Neo- Assyrian Empire.…
Review by Eugenia Ellanskaya. When it comes to interpreting archaeological sites, invisible ink comes to mind as a common medium that has been used to paint the elusive picture of our past. Eye-opening discoveries often come from those slight variations in soil colour and texture that demand subtle observation and…
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.…
An exhibition on Feminine Power currently at the British Museum journeys through the beautiful, but dangerous, realm ruled over by great goddesses. There, Lindsay Fulcher discovers, men are often afraid to tread.…
Summer is in full swing, bringing with it the promise of long, bright days under the shining sun. This all-powerful celestial body has long been linked with kingship: Louis XIV of France, for example, famously chose the sun as his emblem and became known as the ‘Sun King’. In the…
The new galleries at the MFA, Boston, cover more than 2,000 years of art. We take a look at a some of the highlights from the ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine worlds.…
At the end of last year, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – the city known as ‘the Athens of America’ – opened a renovated suite of five galleries devoted to the art of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium. Lucia Marchini speaks to curators Christine Kondoleon, Laure Marest, and Phoebe Segal…
At the site of Mont'e Prama in Sardinia, archaeologists have uncovered Bronze Age fragmentary sculptures of two boxers. And at Saqqara, a host of statues, coffins, and figurines have been revealed.…
The long-term project, which started in 2011, has seen the restoration of the ancient bathhouse to protect parts that were left open to the elements.…
Review by Andrew Robinson. The Rosetta Stone, dated 196 BC, is of course famous worldwide – and perhaps the best-known object in the British Museum, following its 1801 capture by the British army from its French military discoverers in Egypt. Yet, although most people are aware of this early British–French…
A number of the national pavilions artists are drawing on ancient culture and themes from the past.…
Michael Ventris' decipherment of a mysterious ancient script, Minoan Linear B, was dubbed by The Times as ‘the Everest of Greek archaeology’……
‘Yes, wonderful things’ is the oft-quoted response Howard Carter gave when, on 26 November 1922, Lord Carnarvon asked if the archaeologist could see anything through a hole in the inner doorway of the tomb of the young king Tutankhamun.…
How did the elements of what we now call Gothic come together in medieval Europe? Emma J Wells takes us back to this great age of cathedral-building, when masons set out to replicate heaven here on earth.…
Glyphs including a serpent amd anthropomorphic figures wearing regalia were revealed using photogrammetry.…
Review by Aidan Dodson. In 2013, a remarkable discovery was made at the site of Wadi el-Jarf on the Egyptian Red Sea coast. It comprised a group of papyri, which not only proved to be the oldest inscribed examples of their kind yet found, but also shed wholly new light…
The layers of tunnels under Naples preserve traces of Greek life and death in ancient Italy. Dalu Jones heads beneath the surface to visit ongoing restoration work that is making an ancient tomb and its rare surviving Greek paintings accessible to the public.…
Remains of a palace at the site emerged from the waters in 2010, and in 2018, when water levels were again low, archaeologists carried out a short campaign, documenting the palace.…
The team believe that the head of the youthful god, depicted with delicate features, was ‘originally conceived as a beheaded figure’.…
