The Egyptian Book of the Dead
An exhibition exploring ancient Egyptian funerary texts and traditions returns to the Getty Villa Museum.
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Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art
Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art is an illuminating and deeply engaging exploration of humanity’s earliest artistic expressions, brought vividly to life by Christoph Baumer and Therese Weber. From
The Early and Middle Bronze Age in the Central Balkans
This volume examines the later phases of the Early Bronze Age and the Middle Bronze Age in the central Balkans, offering a comprehensive review of the archaeological evidence from the region. The
Building community: Göbeklitepe, Taş Tepeler, and life 12,000 years ago
An exhibition at the James Simon Gallery – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin explores the art and architecture of the first settled cultures in south-eastern Turkey.
The Diver of Paestum: Youth, Eros, and the Sea in Ancient Greece
On 3 June 1968, Italian archaeologists digging the ancient city of Paestum made an extraordinary discovery. They had unearthed a tomb fashioned from slabs of travertine, containing the bones of an individual
Colonial Intrigues and My Dismissal as Director of Antiquities: A Memoir of Cyprus in the 1930s
‘Journeys, like artists, are born and not made ’, Lawrence Durrell begins his encomium to Cyprus, Bitter Lemons. For millennia, this Mediterranean island was a staging post to the Middle East; then,
Making Art in the Ice Age: The Story of How Our Ancestors Made Images
In 2024, Paul Bahn and Elle Clifford published Living in the Ice Age, adapting their 2022 publication Everyday Life in the Ice Age for a younger audience. In my review of their
The Great Museum of the Sea: A Human History of Shipwrecks
Most maritime archaeologists spend their careers trying to tease out what happened before a ship sank by asking questions like who was on board, when was it built, where was it going,
War on Film – The American Revolution
Taylor Downing reviews the latest film and television releases.
Wolfpack: inside Hitler’s U-boat war
As Roger Moorhouse suggests in the introduction to Wolfpack, it was natural that post-war English language books about the Battle of the Atlantic would largely ignore the German perspective on the conflict.
The Spanish Civil War in the Air Volume 1: 1936-37
Under-funded and wracked by the hostility between political factions within its ranks, Spain’s military aviation was in a dire state in the period immediately before the Spanish Civil War. At this time,
Germany’s First World War Aviators: the lives of fliers
Since the late 1990s, the study of World War I has moved beyond the constraints of military history to embrace an increasingly multidisciplinary agenda. Not least in this has been the adoption
Tunisgrad: victory in Africa
It is something of a cliché in the history of the Second World War to claim that Stalingrad, the graveyard of Germany’s Sixth Army in Russia, was the decisive turning point of
Current Archaeology’s March Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home
There are lots of great ways to get involved with history and archaeology over the next few months, including exhibitions, lectures, and conferences exploring a wide range of subjects. If you would prefer to get your heritage fix from the comfort of your sofa, though, there are various resources on offer online, too, from virtual site tours and digital offerings by museums to podcasts, TV shows, and more. Kathryn Krakowka has put together a selection of some of the options available.
Uncovering Roman Carlisle: Where worlds met and Gladiators of Britain at Tullie, Carlisle
Two new exhibitions shed vivid light on different aspects of life within the most northerly Roman town on Hadrian’s Wall. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
Samurai
A new exhibition at the British Museum traces the story of Japan’s famous warriors from the medieval period to the present day, separating history from myth and exploring how their image has evolved over the last 1,000 years. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
Domination: the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Christianity
Through her TV work and writing, Professor Alice Roberts is a powerful and effective advocate for archaeology in the public realm. In Domination, she extends her coverage to explore Christianity in Late Antiquity,
Common Ground in Scottish Archaeology: contributions in honour of Anna Ritchie
Few people have made such a profound impact on the understanding of Scotland’s prehistoric and early medieval past as Anna Ritchie. In 2022, the Scottish Society for Northern Studies and the Pictish
Archaeology of Britain’s Oldest Church Doors
For lovers of church archaeology, anything by Warwick Rodwell is a must. His new book covers two subjects: medieval ecclesiastical doors – the Westminster example is pre-Conquest and the Hadstock one a
Neolithic Timber Halls and a Bronze Age Settlement with Hoard at Carnoustie, Angus
The timber halls ex-cavated at Carnoustie between 2016 and 2017 are some of the most significant Neolithic discoveries in Scotland in recent decades, particularly considering that the bigger of the two halls