The energy of crowds
Rubina Raja & Søren M Sindbæk on the complexities of communal living.
World Archaeology
Ritual deposits in prehistoric Poland
Archaeologists in Poland have discovered hundreds of metal objects deposited in a lake by a Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age community. The site of Papowo Biskupie is located in north-central Poland, in an area that was once home…
A remarkable Roman residence
A luxurious domus dating to the late Republican period has been discovered in Rome in the area between the Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. The site, which has been named the Domus del Vicus Tuscus, was first discovered in…
The origins of Rapa Nui’s mystery script
The existence of Rongorongo, the complex writing system used by the historic inhabitants of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), was first documented by Europeans in 1864, but by the end of the 19th century the script had fallen out of use,…
Cova Dones: A surprising Palaeolithic cave-art site
A major new cave-art discovery has recently been made in Cova Dones, Spain. The nature of these images poses fascinating questions about how and where Palaeolithic people created such art, as Aitor Ruiz-Redondo told Matthew Symonds.
Japan’s royal tombs: Burial mounds and Korean connections in the 3rd-8th centuries AD
Japanese burial mounds can be stunning in scale, while the decorated tomb chambers and grave goods sometimes found within have the power to astonish. In the first of a two-part series examining these tombs, Simon Kaner introduces the archaeology of burials mounds from the 3rd-8th centuries AD.
CWA #123 crossword, and answers to crossword #122
Across 5 Egyptian falcon-headed god also known as Horus (8)8 Roman goddess of the dawn (6)9 English river taking its name from the Old English for ‘winding’ (6)10 Spanish cave system containing Palaeolithic art (8)11 Building in Oxford housing varied…
Forum: Comments and conundrums
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions on CWA.
Surveying Khirbet al-Khalde: Global trade and ancient mobility in southern Jordan
Fresh knowledge about global trade and travel is coming to light in the Jordanian desert. A survey project is revealing information about the chronology of a small fort or fortlet and presumed caravanserai at the site of Khirbet al-Khalde in southern Jordan. Taking us through archival data, new archaeological finds, and the use of drone imagery, the co directors of the project Craig Harvey, Emanuele Intagliata, and Rubina Raja unravel new narratives about this fascinating desert site.
Objects in the ice
Archaeological survey of ice patches in the Mount Edziza Provincial Park, Tahltan Territory, British Columbia, Canada, has identified an array of perishable artefacts associated with ancient obsidian mining dating back thousands of years. Exploitation and trade of Mount Edziza obsidian…
Machine learning
Rubina Raja & Søren M Sindbæk on cognitive technologies
Jailhouse Rocks: Exploring archaeological echoes of Australia’s earliest colonists
The city of Sydney has changed beyond recognition since it was founded as Britain’s first Australian penal colony in 1788. Carly Hilts set out to explore some of the surviving traces of its earliest years.
Africa and Byzantium
A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York examines
the artistic and cultural relationships between medieval Africa and Byzantium.
Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A new history of the Ancient Near East
REVIEW BY ECKART FRAHM Mesopotamian history, Amanda Podany argues in the introduction to her new book, ‘is more of a weathered mosaic than a grand narrative’. What she provides in her long but never boring account, which covers events and…
Archaeology in Antarctica
REVIEW BY SHERRIE-LEE EVANS Archaeology in Antarctica is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of archaeological practice in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. The authors have researched published, unpublished, and oral accounts of all past archaeological work in…
Facing the Sea of Sand: the Sahara and the peoples of Northern Africa
REVIEW BY ANDREW SELKIRK What fields are left for Barry Cunliffe to conquer? After the Celts and the Bretons, Europe between the oceans, the Atlantic Ocean, the Scythians, and the Steppe, he has now turned his attention to Africa, and…
The Folds of Olympus: Mountains in Ancient Greek and Roman culture
REVIEW BY GERALD LALONDE Activity of the Earth’s tectonic plates affects geography, and geography affects the activity of humans. Sliding of the Africa–Arabia plate under the Eurasia plate in the Miocene and Oligocene ages raised mountains from the Pyrenees in…
Antler combs uncover Viking Age connections
Analysis of early Viking Age combs from Hedeby has revealed new evidence of links between the town at the base of the Jutland peninsula and distant upland regions of northern Scandinavia.
Let the sun shine in!
An Early Bronze Age sanctuary that functioned as a solar calendar has been discovered in the Netherlands. Cristian van der Linde tells us more.
Possible cemetery near the Arctic Circle
New research at a site in Finnish Lapland, c.80km south of the Arctic Circle, suggests that it could represent one of the largest Stone Age cemeteries discovered so far in northern Europe. Tainiaro, in northern Finland, was originally excavated in…