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.
Roman sanctuary found in the Netherlands
Several Roman sanctuaries are known in the Netherlands, but this is the first to be discovered on the northern boundary of the empire.
Current World Archaeology 114
Let’s go on a pub crawl around Pompeii!
Join Andrew Selkirk for a trip around the bars in Pompeii and find out where to go with your loved one for a slap-up meal.
America’s oldest ochre mine identified
Artefacts made of non-local materials indicate that the quarry may have been the source of much of the ochre found across the American midcontinent
CWA 114 Crossword, and answers to 113
Across 6 Ancient Greek historian and geographer (6)8 Emperor whose return to Rome from campaigns in Spain and Gaul was honoured by the building of the Ara Pacis (8)10 Member of a
Athens at the Margins: Pottery and People in the Early Mediterranean World
Review by Robin Osborne. Thirty-three years ago, I attempted to push 7th-century BC Athens and Attica into the limelight. I managed to stimulate critical engagement from Anna-Maria D’Onofrio and James Whitley, but
World news in brief: maya dentistry, medieval hand grenades and early Islamic burials
A round up of some of the latest archaeological news from around the globe.
Dedicated followers of fashion: what did the Romans ever do for Athens?
Ancient Rome’s enthusiasm for all things Greek is well known, and archaeological echoes of these influences can be found across the Empire. Looking in the other direction, though, what traces did the Romans leave in Athens, the city at the heart of their idealised view? Carly Hilts reports.
The Temple of Khnum
Conservators working in the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper Egypt, have uncovered new details of the building’s colourful ceiling frescoes. Construction on the temple began in the Ptolemaic period and continued
Qatar: Evidence of the Palaeolithic Earliest People Revealed
Review by George Nash. The visible prehistoric sites of the Arabian Peninsula are all too clear to see, with burial-ritual and settlement sites of the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and, in particular, Iron
Bronze figurine
What is it? This small female figurine made of bronze is 14.7cm tall and weighs 155g. The figure has an egg-shaped head with a prominent nose, and a flat body with looped
The Great Maya Aquifer: exploring a hidden world beneath the Yucatán Peninsula
Southeast Mexico is rich in caves. This extraordinary underworld has influenced human activity for thousands of years. Now a project dedicated to understanding and preserving this realm is shedding new light on the archaeology of the Yucatán Peninsula, as Guillermo de Anda told Matthew Symonds.
Life and death in an early South Australian colony
Information about the health of early migrants to South Australia was obtained through analysis such as micro-CT scanning of their teeth.
Tutankhamun: excavating the archive
A century after Tutankhamun’s tomb first captured the world’s attention, a new exhibition at the Bodleian Library offers fresh insights into the famous discovery through archival material. Amy Brunskill visited to find out more.
Exploring a Roman house in VR
In order to explore how this lavish home was experienced by Roman viewers, researchers first used 3D-modelling software to create a reconstruction of the house. This 3D model was based on information from an earlier Lund University project that digitally mapped a neighbourhood in Pompeii, in combination with records from the excavation of the house and other information about Roman architecture.
The Congress of Roman Frontier Studies
Discussions were prematurely halted by the receipt of a coded telegram from the War Office summoning Birley home to join Military Intelligence, to which he had previously been recruited owing to his fluent German and knowledge of the Roman army.
Johannes Østrup’s journey of discovery: exploring the value of centuries-old scientific records
Dig into archive records. Leaf through forgotten research in books that were written in foreign tongues. Centuries-old observations can provide important perspectives on the archaeological record, as Eva Mortensen and Rubina Raja highlight in this account of a pioneering Danish explorer in the Syrian Desert.
David Attenborough, What in the World? and Mortimer Wheeler
A letter in the Penn Museum archives sets Richard Hodges and Alessandro Pezzati on the trail of a memorable moment in the pioneering days of archaeological broadcasting.
The Red Sea Scrolls: How Ancient Papyri Reveal the Secrets of the Pyramids
Review by Miroslav Bárta. The Old Kingdom papyri count among the rarest of finds. For several decades, the Abusir papyri archives from the pyramid complexes of the Fifth Dynasty kings Neferirkare and