Cornish Myths and Legends
The newest exhibition at the Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery (CMAG) in Truro explores local lore and its lasting legacy. Laura Miucci describes the displays.
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Current Archaeology’s May 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 is a variety of 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.
Go digging!
This month’s selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects from the Midlands, south-east England, Scotland, and Wales.
One of the magnificent six: secrets from the Byzantine city of Shivta
How did cities come to flourish in the Negev Desert? George Nash has gone in search of Shivta’s former glory.
Review: Royal Navy Submarine Museum
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions WITH MATTHEW ADAMS.
Denmark’s Viking fortresses: a Tuscan challenge
Richard Hodges explores the Viking fortresses at Trelleborg and Borgring.
The Road to Palmyra
Halfway between the Mediterranean and the River Euphrates, the Efqu spring offered refreshing respite for ancient traders crossing the dusty Syrian desert. The city of Palmyra flourished at the oasis, its merchants
Writing early medieval England: tracing the first echoes of Anglo-Saxon voices
How did the kingdoms of early medieval England evolve into a single nation? A new exhibition at the British Library combines artefacts and manuscripts to tell the story of the Anglo-Saxons in their own words. Carly Hilts reports.
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey
New displays in Westminster Abbey’s eastern triforium (the gallery above the nave) explore the long history of the church, its royal links, and its importance as a national monument. Lucia Marchini takes a look at the recently opened Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries.
Harry Potter: a history of magic
What link is there between archaeology and a best-selling series of children’s books? To find out, Lucia Marchini tours the British Library’s major new exhibition.
The Rothschild Pentateuch
The text contains features that indicate it may have been written in France for Jewish emigrés who had been expelled from England in 1290.
Modernising Maudslay’s Maya casts
These monumental carvings are just two of the many the adventurous Alfred Maudslay recorded on his travels around Mesoamerican sites in the 1880s and 1890s.
War on Film – The Vietnam War
James H Willbanks gives an insider’s view on the making of The Vietnam War.
Iran
It was a splendid tour: we stayed in 9 different hotels over 16 days, which meant that we were always on the move. But this was just what we wanted, for we explored the heart of the historic country and saw – if briefly – most of the best-known archaeological sites.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema: the archaeologist of artists
Dominic Green looked at the sensual paintings of the acclaimed Victorian artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema on show at Leighton House in London.
Picasso – half man, half bull
Picasso never visited Greece, let alone Crete. He didn’t need to do so. He re-created it on paper. The drawings and prints in our show reveal how Picasso evoked the ancient world and peopled it with gorgeous girls who resembled his mistresses.
Ancient America: following the Thunderbird
Well-known for his television programmes on the archaeology of South America, curator Dr Jago Cooper now focuses on the ancient cultures of the northwest coast of North America in his new exhibition at the British Museum, as he tells Diana Bentley
A stitch in time: masterpieces of English medieval embroidery
Jenny Davenport marvels at all the astoundingly intricate works of medieval English embroidery in Opus Anglicanum, a major exhibition currently on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London
CALAKMUL
Alice Stevens ventures deep into the Mexican jungle where, surrounded by the echoing screech of howler monkeys, Calakmul rises above the canopy, and takes a stand as the most impressive Mayan temple remaining today.
Antigonea: exploring an Illyrian city in Albania
Sarah Lindsell journeys across the Albanian hills to the 3rd-century BC Greek city of King Pyrrhus.
Scanning the Pharaohs
The results of CT imaging on Hatshepsut, Ramesses III, Tutankhamen, and a host of other New Kingdom mummies are revealed in a gripping new book by Zahi Hawass and Sahar Saleem, as Kimberley Watt illuminates.
Isis in Italy
Dalu Jones follows on the trail of the Ancient Egyptian goddess to Pompeii, Naples and Turin