Current World Archaeology 137
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Ramses the Great: How a pharaoh built his legacy
Why is Ramses II considered to be ‘the Great’? An exhibition focusing on his life and times sheds light on how Ramses earned this accolade. Matthew Symonds shares what he learnt.
Beyond the luxurious: Tracing the Late Antique ivory tradeÂ
Study of ivory use in the early medieval world is revealing fresh insights into how this material was viewed. The results have important implications for our understanding of the scale of the trade, and its impact on the elephants it exploited, as Rowan S English and Julia Steding explain.
Megaliths and Geology
One of the essentials of building a megalithic chambered burial monument is the choice of materials used to construct it. It is now considered that stone (boulders, stone erratics and fragments, and quarried
Discoveries in the Judean Desert
The newly discovered fragments consist of over 20 pieces of parchment belonging to the Minor Prophets Scroll, including sections of the books of Zechariah and Nahum.
Olga Tufnell’s ‘Perfect Journey’
When 22-year-old Olga Tufnell set off on her first ‘perfect journey’ in 1927 – to join Flinders Petrie’s expedition in Egypt – she had little training in archaeology beyond several years assisting
News in brief: Neanderthals and Waterloo
A quick round-up of news stories from around the globe, including a study of how Neanderthals spoke, an analysis of a chesnut tree from the Battle of Waterloo, and the discovery of stone artefacts in South America dating to c. 24,000 years ago.
Lost city in Luxor
The city is situated near to Amenhotep III’s royal palaces and may have provided food and other items to the royal residence, as well as acting as the administrative and industrial centre of the empire.
Discovering Roman women’s lives: from slaves to a senatorial lady in Geneva
How much can we know about the role of women in Roman society? Natalya Kahn examines inscriptions from Geneva to build up a picture of their experiences of life within the Roman Empire.
The Dignity of Labour: image, work and identity in the Roman world
Immediately beyond the Porta Maggiore in Rome, at a busy intersection, lies the impressive tomb of Eurysaces, a baker who lived through the last days of the Roman Republic. In the ensuing
Ancient Egyptian animal cemetery
Excavations at an animal burial ground in the Egyptian port of Berenice have uncovered evidence of cats, dogs, and monkeys being kept as pets.
Kolombangara: surveying a forgotten Second World War fortress
Early this year, a team set out to survey long-overlooked fortifications on the island of Kolombangara. Their work is shedding new light on preparations to repel an anticipated Allied invasion, as Nikolaus Hochstein Cox reveals.
Art in the Amazon
Hundreds of thousands of vibrant images painted on rock faces in the SerranÃa La Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon.
Altai rock art: Visions of the past in Mongolia
Survey and excavation in a remote region of Mongolia are revealing a wealth of information about an extraordinary concentration of rock art.
The Follo Line Project: Exploring medieval Oslo
Since 2013, the largest infrastructure project in modern Norwegian history has granted a team of more than 40 archaeologists an extraordinary glimpse of medieval Oslo. One of the biggest questions they aimed to answer is what the medieval town really looked like. Thomas Wrigglesworth shares some of their discoveries.
Torlonia marbles: An archaeology of a 19th-century antiquities collection
The sculptures making up the Torlonia marbles provide a potent glimpse of life in ancient Rome. But this 19th-century collection is also an artefact in its own right.
How to find your outpost on the Roman frontier
How were smaller posts were distinguished? What steps did the authorities take to ensure that orders, post, goods, relief parties, or reinforcements were sent to the right place?
Current World Archaeology 106
Museo Nazionale: An Etruscan Renaissance in Florence
While there are impressive artefacts from all periods within, including a fantasy courtyard made from sculptural fragments of Roman Florentia, its glory is really the series of Etruscan antiquities.
Virtual visit to Wahtye’s tomb
A digital 3D model offers a new way to visit this remarkable ancient Egyptian site.
Managing Archaeology in Dynamic Urban Centres
Bringing together case studies from across Europe and beyond, this volume highlights the challenges shared by many archaeologists working in urban centres.
Ages and Abilities
The primary aim of this volume is to address the issue of bioarchaeological age assessment and the different social responses to ages and maturing within past societies
The Archaeology of Seeing
We, as modern humans, tend to look at ancient art with a 21st-century mindset. It is all too easy to stare (in wonder) at Palaeolithic rock art and conceive some idea, however complex, and consider it to be a plausible interpretation.