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.…
Ancient Egypt has provided endless inspiration for artists and designers, whether ancient or modern. Benjamin Hinson and Anna Ferrari, curators of a new exhibition on Egypt’s artistic legacy, investigate this cultural phenomenon, its links to politics and power, and how contemporary Egyptian artists have made ancient imagery their own.…
• Revealing the riches of China’s Bronze Age kingdoms
• Mithras: mysteries of a Roman cult
• Ancient Egypt and modern art (out 24 August)
• The elusive cave writing of Lascaux
• From remarkable medieval women to famous discoveries…
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.…
A significant discovery comes in the form of the marble head of a bearded man, which researchers believe belongs to the headless Herakles in Athens' National Archaeological Museum .…
When Jean-Luc Champerret explored the Lascaux caves soon after their rediscovery, he saw not paintings but ancient writing. With the publication of his extraordinarily imaginative interpretation, Simon Coppock revisits the caves and their elusive, poetic markings.…
Review by Susan Greaney. This elegant new volume is the first book for over 60 years to focus specifically on how the world-famous Neolithic monument of Stonehenge was constructed. The narrative progresses through the step-by-step process of the extraction, transport, dressing, and erection of the stones that form the main…
The Bronze Age kingdoms of China have long been overshadowed by the Qin, who replaced them with a unified empire. Fan Jeremy Zhang explores the spectacular discoveries that have been helping two of them, the Zeng and Chu, rise from obscurity.…
Two recent discoveries in very different sites in England are offering close connections to unknown workers of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Sir John Soane’s Museum, in London, restoration work is underway in the architect’s drawing office. While working on the colonnade that supports the drawing office, the museum’s…
Pangu was born in the midst of an egg-like chaos. After 18,000 years, the two muddled parts separated, and the Yin (which represents the negative, feminine, cool, dark, and wet) became the earth and the Yang (representing the positive, masculine, hot, bright, and dry) the sky.…
This ruined city had richly carved monumental gateways and, even more significant, an 8th-century BC stela that, bearing the same text in both the Phoenician alphabet and Luwian hieroglyphics, gave Çambel the key to unlock the Luwian language for future scholars.…
Sculpted scenes of the youthful Mithras slaying a bull have been found across the Roman Empire, offering an image of a god that is unlike other deities in the Roman pantheon. Margaux Bekas and Pascal Capus take us into the heart of this enigmatic cult.…
Review by Diana Bentley. Few episodes in antiquity are more gripping than the epic struggle for political supremacy and survival between Octavian, heir of Julius Caesar; his rival, politician and general Mark Antony; and Cleopatra, ruler of Egypt. In his latest book, Barry Strauss, Professor of History and Classics at…
Archaeologists unearthed the figurine in a prehistoric gully near a Hallstatt period settlement occupied in the 8th-6th century BC.…
Based on the architectural association between Rabana-Merquly’s rock reliefs, fortifications, and settlements, and some specific types of pottery, the team have tentatively dated the site’s main building phase to the 1st century BC.…
Historian Janina Ramirez tells Diana Bentley about her latest work delving into stories of celebrated archaeological discoveries and the people behind them, and of the medieval women all-too-often overlooked by history.…
Review by Jennifer A Baird. Palmyra has long been considered the jewel of Syria. In recent years, the site – which is internationally well-known for its monumental remains – has become infamous after those remains were targeted for destruction, casualties of the ongoing Syrian conflict, which has taken many lives…
Parts of a necklace of nectandra seeds and small bag were also found with the sculpture.…
As well as the remains of the temple buildings, many votive altars, and sculptures, archaeologists also unearthed fire pits with vestiges of sacrifices.…
• 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.…