The Cat in Ancient Egypt: Hunter pampered pet divine goddess
Meilin Lyu explores the different aspects of the ancient Egyptian cat, its depictions in art, and its importance in religion, cults, and daily life.
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The tale of an Amarna fresco
Bob Brier gives a fascinating account of the ultimately unsuccessful attempts to save a fresco found at Akhenaten’s city of Amarna.
Current Research in Egyptology: Working Women
Jessica Coughtrey asks what ancient skeletons can tell us about the role of women in the ancient Egyptian workforce.
Current Research in Egyptology: Beyond ethnicity
Marwan Kilani reconsiders our ideas about collective identities in New Kingdom sources.
Faking it: The new kingdom’s faux-stone funerary vessels
James Harrell looks at the time-honoured practice of imitating costly materials with cheaper ones.
Abu Rowash
Aidan Dodson describes a forgotten royal necropolis of the early Old Kingdom.
Hilary Wilson on… Egypt and how to see it in 1912
What was it like to visit Egypt as a tourist just before the First World War?
Stonehenge and the moon: Exploring a Neolithic monument’s lunar links
Stonehenge is famous for its association with the sun, and particularly with the summer and winter solstices – but did the movement of the moon also influence its design? Carly Hilts spoke to Dr Amanda Chadburn and Dr Heather Sebire about an ongoing project exploring the impact of a once-in-a-generation lunar event.
Illuminating Anglesey: Echoes of a later prehistoric ritualised landscape at Bedd y Foel
Recent investigations on the slopes of Pen y Foel, and a wider survey of its surrounding landscape, have shed new light on a previously undocumented
dolmen and other later prehistoric monuments. Mike Woods, Arwyn Owen, and George Nash take up the story of a long-forgotten and recently rediscovered ritualised landscape.
From stronghold to Steel City: Uncovering the ‘birthplace of Sheffield’
A recent excavation by Wessex Archaeology for Sheffield City Council has uncovered long-buried traces of Sheffield Castle, as well as glimpses of the city’s influential industrial past. Carly Hilts spoke to Ashley Tuck on site to learn more.
Orchards in England, a landscape history: A fruitful wander through the agriculture of the past
Orchards have not featured largely in studies of the historic environment, though there is a growing recognition of their ecological value. Yet orchards were once ubiquitous features of the landscape in many counties, whether in the form of a small plot attached to a farm, or as a large commercial orchard cultivated as the owner’s principal source of income. Making up for this omission is a new book by Gerry Barnes and Tom Williamson that attempts, for the first time, to provide a comprehensive overview of the development of orchards in England from the Middle Ages to the present day, as Chris Catling reports.
Birdoswald and beyond: Investigating an extramural settlement on Hadrian’s Wall
The final season of a four-year excavation exploring the civilian settlement outside Birdoswald Roman fort concluded this summer. Carly Hilts visited the project at its outset, and again in 2023; this July she returned to Hadrian’s Wall to hear the latest thinking from Tony Wilmott and Ian Haynes.
Underground, overground: Excavating an Iron Age fogou and Romano-British remains at Boden
A long-running community excavation in rural west Cornwall has been exploring an enigmatic network of Iron Age tunnels, as well as Bronze Age and Romano-British features, for more than 15 years. Carly Hilts spoke to James Gossip on site this summer.
Pompeii: The biggest dig in a generation
The biggest dig at Pompeii in a generation is working to expose nearly an entire block of the ancient city. Archaeologists are making astonishing discoveries that shed powerful new light on life and death in the shadow of Vesuvius, as Giuseppe Scarpati and Sophie Hay told Matthew Symonds.
Creatures of the Nile: What animals did for ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt owed many debts to the creatures that lived in and beside the Nile. Both wild and domesticated animals offered an abundance of food, raw materials, and inspiration. But just as animals helped shape ancient Egypt, so too humans had an impact on the species roaming the Nile valley, as Gina Criscenzo-Laycock and Juliet Spedding told Matthew Symonds.
Artificial intelligence rethinks the past: How computers are reconstructing Etruscan and Roman landscapes
What can artificial intelligence bring to archaeology? Maurizio Forte introduces recent work dedicated to reconstructing ancient landscapes, and weighs some of the risks and rewards.
Autoarchaeology at Christiansborg Castle: Digging into ancestral connections to the transatlantic slave trade
The discovery of an unsuspected family link to Christiansborg Castle, Ghana, led to a project examining a forgotten aspect of the transatlantic slave trade. Rachel Ama Asaa Engmann introduces us to ‘autoarchaeology’.
Countdown to war: How a diplomatic crisis in the Balkans led to a Europe-wide conflagration
FROM 28 JUNE 1914 TO 4 AUGUST 1914 28 June – Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, having met his good friend Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany just weeks previously to discuss the tense…
Miracle on the Marne
Graham Goodlad analyses the battle that saved Paris but initiated four years of trench warfare.
When Europe went to war: five steps to catastrophe
‘No part of the Great War compares in interest with its opening,’ wrote Winston Churchill of the world changing events that took place 110 years ago this summer, as Europe’s ‘Great Powers’ found themselves sliding inexorably towards a new type…
Churchill and the scientists: Winning the ‘Wizard War’
In the second part of our series to mark Winston Churchill's 150th birthday, Taylor Downing explores his relationship with the difficult but brilliant scientist who restarted Britain’s controversial World War II bombing campaign.
Crusader criminals: The other side of soldiering
The Crusades are known for spectacular military engagements. But they also saw all manner of crimes committed beyond the battlefield. In a new book, Steve Tibble uncovers some dark secrets.
An armoured Balaklava: Lessons from the Gothic Line
Less well-known than the invasion of Normandy, the Allied campaign in northern Italy saw some of the bloodiest fighting of the Second World War. Eighty years on, Patrick Mercer looks in detail at one action to understand how things went wrong.
The shock of the new
Marshal Turenne’s bold Winter Campaign of 1674-1675 defied the norms of 17th-century warfare, says William E Welsh. It also sealed his reputation as one of France’s greatest commanders.
Building Roman Cirencester and beyond: Roman tile production in the north Wiltshire countryside
A community excavation in the small village of Minety has found a Roman tile kiln, which marked its products with a series of stamped letters. As the investigation, led by Cotswold Archaeology, revealed, this industry was of more than just local importance – and with another season of digging set to take place this summer, Neil Holbrook and Peter Warry report on the story so far.
Signs of the tines: Tracing bone- and antler-working in early medieval Ipswich
Following the publication of a major new work combing through antler- and bone-working evidence, as well as signs of Scandinavian influence, from early medieval Ipswich, Ian Riddler and Nicola Trzaska-Nartowski explain how a chance meeting at a railway station helped to transform understanding of this early medieval craft.
Secrets from the sky: Exploring monumental discoveries from Neolithic Ireland
A wide-ranging LiDAR survey in Co. Wicklow has revealed hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological features, including a cluster of five cursus monuments that are helping to illuminate this enigmatic site-type. Carly Hilts reports.
Exploring Modbury’s martial past: Time Team trace a Civil War story in a Devon market town
One of the newest episodes released by Time Team focuses on a test-pitting investigation in the back gardens of Modbury. Carly Hilts explores the Civil War story that was uncovered over the course of three days, as well as echoes of international connections.
Eye-opening insights: Exploring an Anglo-Saxon settlement and beyond
Eye Kettleby ought to be far better known – it is a very rare example of an early medieval settlement, and the newly published excavation results shine a light on a formative period in English history for which we have precious little archaeological evidence, as Chris Catling reports.
A Cylindrical Conundrum
Scholars have long puzzled over the function of the enigmatic golden objects discovered in the tombs of the Napatan kings and queens. Peter Lacovara believes he has solved the mystery.
Current Research in Egyptology: Unveiling Ancient Egyptian Black Coffins
Marwa Abdel Razek and Mounira Raslan explore the role of Pauserhat, ‘scribe of the textile workshops’, and the significance of his black coffin.
Current Research in Egyptology: Kamal and Erman
Azza Ezzat and Ahmed Mansour highlight the achievements of two prestigious names in the history of Egyptology.
Current Research in Egyptology: Burial Practices in Alexandria
Samar Ahmed Abu-Dahab explores recent excavations at the Graeco-Roman Tanis Street cemetery site.
Dating the dead: Chronology and context at Saqqara’s sacred animal necropolis.
The Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara consists of a series of catacombs and temples dating from different periods. Professor Paul Nicholson and Dr Henry Bishop-Wright of Cardiff University describe their project, which aims to get an overview of the site and determine how it developed over the centuries.
Rediscovering Egypt – Part 2: The Harrogate Collection in Swansea
Following his introduction to the Harrogate Collection in the last issue, Ken Griffin takes a closer look at some of the objects that are on loan to the Egypt Centre in Swansea.
Cooking Recipes and Drink Preparation in Ancient Egypt
Barbara Gai investigates the diet of ancient Egyptians and the ways in which their meals were prepared.