Current World Archaeology 136
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Discovering Denmark: From prehistoric burials to Viking Age power architecture and beyond
Denmark is home to many archaeological marvels, including both renowned sites and world-class museums. Olympia Bobou, Ilaria Bucci, and Rubina Raja are our guides to the wealth of heritage that the country has to offer.
Surveying Falerii Novi: Rethinking the development of a Roman town
Surveying an ancient town in Italy has presented fresh insights into a key moment for Roman urbanism. Matthew Symonds spoke to Martin Millett about what can be learnt from studying an entire townscape.
Current World Archaeology 127
Calling all photographers! Current World Archaeology Photo of the Year 2025
As summer comes to an end, it is the perfect time to reflect on any heritage-filled travels, archaeological projects, or visits to historical sites around the world. Dig out your best photos
Seeking the Silk Roads: An extraordinary story of the power of connections
The Silk Road has long been seen as a conduit for exotic goods travelling both east and west. But taking a wider perspective reveals how extraordinary objects and ideas were moving much more widely, as Sue Brunning and Luk Yu-ping told Matthew Symonds.
Valeria’s hall of fame: Secrets from an imperial forum
Once home to Celtiberians, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors, the ancient city of Valeria is now the venue for an archaeological project focusing on investigating the imperial Roman forum. Catalina Urquijo and Dionisio Urbina share their surprising discoveries.
Pachacamac: Seeking the origins of an Inca cult centre
Pilgrims once flocked from across the Inca Empire to Pachacamac. But just how ancient and rigorously planned was the layout of the cult complex that attracted them? Krzysztof Makowski reveals the remarkable results of recent excavations at the site
Qarn al-Harf: Exploring a Bronze Age refuge
Around 2000 BC, a successful and prosperous Bronze Age culture in Southeast Arabia suddenly collapsed. Traditions and settlements that had developed over centuries disappeared, apart from in one small enclave towards the north of their former territory. Derek Kennet told Matthew Symonds how attempts to hold on to the past ushered in a new era.
CWA #127 crossword, and answers to crossword #126
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions: send them to cwaletters@world-archaeology.com
Life and death at the ‘German Stonehenge’
Archaeological work around the ring sanctuary of Pömmelte in Saxony-Anhalt has uncovered a landscape rich in ancient monuments and settlements. Franziska Knoll tells us more about the discoveries.
Did Vikings have glass windows?
New research indicates that windows with glass panes may have been present in Viking Age buildings in Scandinavia.
The Hidden Länd
A new exhibition takes visitors on a journey through 1,000 years of life in south-west Germany.
Counting cities
Archaeologists, like most people, have an urge to grasp the world through something tangible or, even better, countable. There can be a great comfort in numbers, and numbers also convince; many have been the attempts to define cities by countable characteristics: an area of at least 10ha, 10,000 inhabitants, a certain number of public meeting places, a particular thickness of city walls in metres.
Building a Bronze Age boat
A reproduction of a type of Bronze Age vessel known as a ‘Magan Boat’ has just completed its maiden voyage off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The ‘Magan Boat’ is named after
Etruscan bronze lamp
What is it? This ornate bronze hanging oil lamp, 60cm in diameter and weighing 57.72kg, comes from the Etruscan civilisation. It is decorated with a unique combination of iconography that has been
Byblos: A Legacy Unearthed
REVIEW BY PAUL NEWSON This lavishly produced A4 book is one outcome of a recent major exhibition jointly organised by the Netherlands and Lebanese antiquities services, and held in the Rijksmuseum van
Advances in UAE Archaeology: Proceedings of Abu Dhabi’s Archaeology Conference 2022
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH In recent years there has been a lot of interest in unearthing the secrets of the diverse landscapes of the eastern Arabian Peninsula – lands that form the
Pilgrims in Place, Pilgrims in Motion: Sacred Travel in the Ancient Mediterranean
REVIEW BY GEORGIA FRANK This rich collection of essays explores the behaviour, experiences, and memories of travellers who visited shrines and sacred centres around the Mediterranean in antiquity. Looking beyond literate travellers’
The Donkey And The Boat: Reinterpreting the Mediterranean Economy, 950-1180
REVIEW BY ROBERT PORTASS It is not every day that one encounters a book that aims to overturn a paradigm and establish in its place the foundations of a new one; rarer
World news in brief: From Bronze Age fossil collecting to 16th-century trumpets
Bronze Age fossil collecting An object discovered in an ancient basement storeroom at Mycenae during excavations in the 1970s has just been identified as the fossilised astragalus (ankle bone) of an extinct
World’s oldest figurative art?
New analysis of rock-art sites in Indonesia has identified the earliest narrative art currently known anywhere in the world. Research in recent years had already revealed that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi
The sound of seashells
New research is exploring how ancient Pueblo communities in the Southwest United States may have been connected by sound. Chaco Canyon in north-west New Mexico was once a bustling ancient Pueblo settlement,