Feature

Opposite Looking across the remains of Richbrough Roman fort, towards the reconstructed gateway that was recently built on the site. above The on site museum’s displays have been completely transformed to offer a more representative selection of the tens of thousands of finds that have been excavated at Richborough.

Gateway to Britannia: reimagining Richborough Roman fort

Richborough in Kent was one of the key locations in the early stages of the Roman invasion of Britain, later flourishing into a wealthy port town and then a significant military site. Over the last century, excavations have provided an extraordinary array of insights into the experiences of people who lived and worked within its walls – now, following a transformation of the on-site museum and the presentation of the outdoor archaeology, what new stories are there to tell? Carly Hilts visited to find out more.

Deciphering the Stone of Destiny

The Stone of Destiny – an ancient symbol of the Scottish monarchy – has undergone extensive new analysis in preparation for its role in the Coronation of Charles III at Westminster Abbey. The Stone was taken by Edward I during…

Ponteland’s prehistoric past: tracing life and death on the edge of the Northumberland Coastal Plain

Recent excavations on the south-western part of the Northumberland Coastal Plain have revealed an early Bronze Age ring-ditch with a remarkable sequence of human burials. Milena Grzybowska, who analysed the human remains, reports on this discovery and other prehistoric features in its immediate vicinity.

Opposite A reconstruction by Alan Duncan of a late Roman hunting party returning to Whitley Grange villa with their quarry. right The remarkably clear results of a geophysical survey of the St Laurence School villa, Bradford on Avon.

Rural Romanitas: rethinking the role of villas

It has been an undergraduate essay topic for the last 50 years and is a question that continues to challenge archaeologists studying the history of Roman Britain: what exactly is a villa, and is there even a simple definition that fits them all? The Association for Roman Archaeology recently brought together 20 experts to consider new discoveries, new interpretations, and the role of the villa in Romano-British culture, religion, and landscape. Their conclusions have just been published, as Chris Catling reports.

Right The engraved surface of the Whixall Stone, an example of late Neolithic or Bronze Age rock art recently found in Shropshire.

Found and lost: tracing a later prehistoric engraved stone from Shropshire

When a rock carved with late prehistoric imagery was uncovered in Shropshire – a county where examples of ancient artwork are notably scarce – it was recognised as a very significant find. George Nash reports on the discovery, its motifs, its place in British rock-art research, and its uncertain future.

Scent back in time: how ancient odours can bring the past to life

For half a century, AromaPrime has been creating historically accurate scents for museum exhibits and heritage attractions. Carly Hilts spoke to Heritage Scenting Consultant Liam R Findlay to learn more about how smells can help to conjure up the distant past.

In the lap of luxury: decadence in the ancient Persian and Greek worlds

A new exhibition at the British Museum delves into drinking and decadence in the ancient Persian and Greek worlds. Henry Bishop-Wright tells Lucia Marchini how elements of luxury could be adopted and adapted to express power across cultures.

The rise of royalty in prehistoric Europe

Extraordinary burials discovered in south-eastern Europe marked out individuals even at a time of egalitarian societies. Attila Gyucha and William A Parkinson guide us through spectacular finds from eleven countries that show how the elite grew their power in prehistory.

Below The Piazza del Campo in Siena. On the right is the city hall, the Palazzo Pubblico, with its distinctive pointed arches. The angular brick façade in the background on the left belongs to the Basilica di San Francesco.

Siena’s medieval monuments

As the Tuscan city of Siena grew in prosperity, its citizens made their mark through magnificent art and architecture, from aristocratic towers to allegorical frescoes. Historian Jane Stevenson takes us on a tour of its medieval monuments.

Opposite Detail of a lararium (small shrine for the household gods) from the House of the Wooden Shrine, Herculaneum,1st century AD. Size: 163 x 73cm above The ruins of Herculaneum, with the modern town above the site.

Wooden wonders of Herculaneum

An astonishing array of wooden objects has survived from Herculaneum, carbonised by the volcanic eruption that destroyed the town. This invaluable material may be less showy than the celebrated marble and bronze statuary, but it was still used for everything from beams and boats to purses and small shrines, as Dalu Jones finds out.

Face to face with Fayum mummy portraits

The Fayum mummy portraits are masterpieces of ancient painting, but are they portraits? With an exhibition of these paintings and golden mummies on view in Manchester, Lucia Marchini speaks to Egyptologist Campbell Price to find out more.

Below The ‘Ramesses Ra of Rulers’ colossus at Luxor Temple.

A family of god-kings: divine kingship in the early Nineteenth Dynasty

Peter J Brand begins a new series focusing on the Ramesside Period by exploring the divinity of the early Ramesside kings.

Below The Twelfth Dynasty wooden coffin of Ukhhotep from Meir, now in the MMA. inset Ukhhotep asks for the basic offerings of bread, beer, ox, fowl, alabaster, and linen, all by the thousand, to be made available for him in the ‘Field of Reeds’, the Egyptian paradise.

Tomb offerings: a wish list for eternity

Ancient Egyptians believed that the foods and goods listed in their tombs would magically become available to them for eternity. Hilary Wilson reports.

Left ‘Overseer of the Fields’ Horemkhauef (on the left), in front of a row of granaries, in a scene from his tomb at Hierakonpolis.

Horemkhauef of Hierakonpolis

In the first of an occasional series focusing on remarkable people of their period, Wolfram Grajetzki introduces the ‘First Inspector of the Priests’ at Nekhen during the Second Intermediate Period.

Opposite The god Min with the female pharaoh Hatshepsut, in a scene from the Red Chapel at Karnak. right A Late Period copper alloy statuette of the god Amun Min, depicted holding his phallus in his left hand, with his right hand held aloft. From the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. far right The god Amun Min depicted with black coloured skin, in a scene originally from the Thutmose III temple in Deir el Bahari, and now in the Luxor Museum.

Min: the most popular deity in the Eastern Desert?

Sean Rigby traces the worship of this distinctive-looking ancient Egyptian god.

ABOVE The Deir el Bahri temples from above, with the remains of Mentuhotep’s structure in the foreground to the left of the Temple of Hatshepsut.

The Temple of Mentuhotep II at Deir el-Bahri

Geoffrey Lenox-Smith explores the innovative Middle Kingdom monument that inspired Hatshepsut’s famous Deir el-Bahri temple.

Above An accurate replica of one of the chariots found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, on display in the touring exhibition Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures.

Pharaoh’s chariot wheel: the power behind the throne

Kim Masters traces the development of the chariot wheel from its humble origin as a tree log under a stone block.

Above A view of Qurna, with clusters of private tombs cut into the upper slopes.

Exploring tomb distribution in Upper Qurna

Katherine Slinger searches for patterns in the locations of private tombs on the slopes above the royal mortuary temples of Luxor.

Below Excavations exploring the remains of the Civil War defences of King’s Lynn in July 2022. While 40° temperatures restricted activity during the early part of Week 1, work continued with enthusiasm undimmed.

King’s Lynn under siege: how a small field in North Lynn illuminated Civil War fortress engineering

This year is the 380th anniversary of the Siege of King’s Lynn, an important but often overlooked engagement during the Civil War. David Flintham presents the latest findings of a community archaeology project exploring the town’s fortifications.

Opposite Brothers Lincoln and Julian Barnwell discovered the wreck of the Gloucester in 2007 with James Little. Here they are measuring one of the ship’s cannons the vessel is thought to have had at least 54 at the time of its loss, and around 20 have been identified to date.

The Gloucester: piecing together the story of a royal wreck

A new exhibition at Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery features artefacts recovered from the wreck of the Gloucester, which sank off Norfolk in 1682. Carly Hilts visited and spoke to curators Professor Claire Jowitt and Dr Francesca Vanke to find out more.

Opposite Canterbury Cathedral’s Trinity and Corona chapels both of which once housed relics of St Thomas Becket seen from the south. right Looking east across the interior of the Trinity Chapel. The site of St Thomas’ shrine destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries is marked by the rectangular infilling in the pavement.

Standing in the presence of a saint: reconstructing the shrine of Thomas Becket

Last month, Warwick Rodwell guided us through recent research in Canterbury Cathedral, focusing on the virtuosic mosaic that once lay before the shrine of Thomas Becket. As a sequel, he now reveals what was learned about the shrine itself, and the chapel in which it stood before the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Right The 1820s road and two lighthouses were the first structures to be built on the island since a permanent monastic presence ceased in the 13th century. The upper lighthouse (to the left) was decommissioned in 1870 and is now a ruin. It is linked by a meandering path to the lower lighthouse, which is now fully automated and requires only occasional maintenance visits. Both lighthouses and the adjacent accommodation for the keepers and their families were built from rock excavated to build the lighthouse road to the right of the picture.

At the edge of the world: exploring early medieval asceticism on the Skelligs

Skellig Michael – the larger of two rocky islets that lie 8 miles (13km) west of the Iveragh Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland – was the favoured retreat of early medieval monks seeking an escape from worldly temptations. Reading the newly published Book of the Skelligs, Chris Catling gains some insights into the conditions those hermits endured and the reasons why the islands were added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.

Left The entrance façade of Rowand Anderson’s cathedral sized Gothic Revival masterpiece of 1888, Govan Old Parish Church. This A listed building is set within an ancient graveyard that looks more sparsely inhabited than it is, as has been demonstrated by recent probing surveys.

Reimagining the Govan Stones: placing archaeology at the heart of a Glasgow community

Govan Old Parish Church is home to one of the most significant collections of Viking Age carved stones in the British Isles, and recent fieldwork in the churchyard has revealed the presence of further examples buried beneath the turf. Carly Hilts spoke to Stephen Driscoll about the latest findings, and about an initiative to forge new connections between the church, its archaeological holdings, and the local community.

Asterix’s legacy at Alésia

Richard Hodges explores Alésia in Burgundy and the legacy of Julius Caesar’s defeat of Vercingétorix and the Gauls.

Left The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. Seeking to understand how this remarkable monument was constructed has long been a source of scholarly fascination. Here we see the west side of the pyramid, with the Western Cemetery, which contained officials and retainers, visible in the foreground.

Records of the pyramid builders: discovering eye-witness accounts of a legendary construction project

How did Egypt build the pyramids? It is a question that has excited the imagination of scholars and visitors for millennia. Now papyri documenting work on the Great Pyramid are revealing fresh insights into construction work. Pierre Tallet and Mark Lehner told Matthew Symonds how combining text and archaeology can expose the secrets of an extraordinary building project.

Qasr Bshir: conserving a special Roman fort

Deep in the Jordanian desert lies an extraordinary ruin. It is a Roman fort that can stake a claim to being the best-preserved example anywhere in the former empire. But this relic of imperial power is in urgent need of conservation work. David Breeze, Mark Driessen, and Fawzi Abudanah discuss why Qasr Bshir is special, and the challenges that lie ahead.

Unboxing Palmyra: the archive of Harald Ingholt

The cardboard sheets, photographs, and handwritten notes compiled by Harald Ingholt bear a wealth of information about Palmyrene sculpture and architecture. As his archive in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is reopened, Olympia Bobou, Eva Mortensen, and Rubina Raja reveal some of the secrets within.

Mountain rock art at Saimaluu Tash: battle chariots and ploughing scenes at an altitude of 3,000m

The remote, mountainous location of Saimaluu Tash has ensured that its ancient rock art remains remarkably well preserved. Some of the images, though, feature subjects such as ploughing and chariots. The presence of activities best suited to much lower altitudes raises questions about who was creating this rock art and why. Christoph Baumer is our guide to an extraordinary concentration of ancient artistry.

Knossos: seeking the labyrinth

Was the Minoan palace at Knossos the inspiration for myths about the Minotaur and its labyrinth lair? Delving into the archaeology of this monument and its environs reveals a reality every bit as remarkable as the ancient legends, as Andrew Shapland told Matthew Symonds.

ABOVE A forest burns following a US napalm strike during the Vietnam War, 1966. Among the many victims of the long running conflict was the country’s devastated ecosystem.

The end: Vietnam, 1973

Fifty years ago this spring, the last American troops left Vietnam. Taylor Downing looks back on a conflict that ended in humiliation for the US.

Museum Review: Muckleburgh Military Collection

Open 10am-5pm daily (1 April to 30 October)Weybourne, Norfolk, NR25 7ERwww.muckleburgh.co.uk+ 44 (0)1263 588 210 The Muckleburgh Military Collection is the largest privately owned military museum in the United Kingdom. It was opened to the public in 1988 by Michael…