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.
Sharing the secrets of a 2,700-year-old Phoenician shipwreck
The initial exploration of an ancient Phoenician shipwreck discovered off the Maltese coast was reported on in CWA 88. Now, thanks to groundbreaking technological developments, the wreck can be explored underwater in minute detail using virtual reality in a new online museum. Timmy Gambin, Lucy Woods, and Maja Sausmekat take us for a closer look.
Arctic: culture and climate
Humans have been calling the Arctic home for tens of thousands of years. But over the millennia, changes in climate have repeatedly forced groups to adapt or make way for incomers bearing superior tools. Amber Lincoln and Jago Cooper told Matthew Symonds about the archaeology of the circumpolar world.
City Walls in Late Antiquity: an empire-wide perspective
City walls are the largest structures associated with cities in the Roman Empire, but they seem still to be far from understood – maybe simply because they are such large structures and
Digging Deeper: how archaeology works
How do archaeologists know where to dig? How do they find out how old things are? And who gets to keep the objects they find? It is questions like these, often asked
Grave Disturbances: the archaeology of post-depositional interactions with the dead
Grave Disturbances focuses on a much-neglected area of funerary archaeology. Disturbed human remains are frequently encountered within burial contexts, but are often given scant attention in comparison to more complete remains in
Statue of Ramesses VI
What is it? This granite statue depicts Pharaoh Ramesses VI, who reigned 1144-1137 BC. On the back is a hieroglyphic inscription that reads: ‘May [he] live, [the] good god, son of [the
New thinking in scholarship
A paper is not necessarily of value because it is heretical, of course; it may just be wrong.
The Dancing Satyr of Mazara del Vallo
Oliver Gilkes contemplates an ancient masterpiece plucked from the sea.
Living in luxury in rural Sicily: the late Roman villa of Caddeddi
Sicily was famed in antiquity for its agricultural prosperity. An eloquent witness of its late Roman wealth is provided by the great villa near Piazza Armerina, a UNESCO World Heritage site. But the villa, built c.AD 320/330, is not unique in Sicily. Tucked away in the south-east corner of the island in the province of Syracuse, 5km south of the wonderful baroque town of Noto, is another rich Roman villa. It is not as large, but it was also constructed in the 4th century and also boasts fine mosaics. The site is little known, however, and barely gets any visitors at all. Roger Wilson is our guide.
The horizon of Khufu: inside the Great Pyramid
The sheer scale of Khufu’s Great Pyramid is breathtaking, but there is more to this audacious monument than immediately meets the eye, as Matthew Symonds recalls.
A feline find
On the strength of stylistic comparisons, researchers have dated the feline to around 200 BC.
Europe without borders
The exhibition Iron Age – Europe without Borders is divided into cultural-historical, chronological, and geographical sections. In addition to relics of largely unknown cultures, the exhibition focuses on the legacies of peoples such as the Celts, Etruscans, Scythians, and Sarmatians.
AI and ancient languages
Available in English and Arabic, Fabricius is an enjoyable introduction to hieroglyphs, but also presents new approaches for professional Egyptologists.
Uncovering Kalkriese
A remarkable piece of Roman armour has been discovered at the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.
Pre-Hispanic flood-management in the Pampa de Mocan
For thousands of years, areas along the north coast of Peru have been subject to huge flooding as a result of El Niño, a periodic warming in the atmosphere of the Pacific
Accessibility at ancient Greek sanctuaries
A study of the architecture of ancient Greek temples and sanctuaries dedicated to healing has determined that these spaces were deliberately made accessible to individuals with impaired mobility. Individuals with mobility impairments
News in brief: Italy, Persia, North America
Late Neanderthal tooth Investigation into a canine tooth found at Riparo Broion, a rock shelter in Vicenza, north-eastern Italy, has revealed that it may represent an important piece of direct evidence for
Early human footprints in Saudi Arabia
The footprints were discovered as part of the Palaeodeserts Project, which is examining climate change and human evolution in Saudi Arabia.
Mayflower 400: Legend & Legacy
On entering the gallery, visitors are reminded that, despite their prominence in the story of the early colonists, the passengers of the Mayflower were not the first Europeans to settle in the ‘New World’.
Earliest evidence for ball games in Eurasia
Ball games are known to have been played in Egypt c.4,500 years ago and in Central America at least 3,700 years ago, but it was previously thought that they were not present in Europe and Asia until much later.