Asia

The ancient world’s largest fortresses: Persia’s northern defences in late antiquity

In the 4th to 6th centuries AD, Persia was under attack from the north by the ‘White Huns’ and other powerful groups of steppe warriors. Persia’s response was to create a massive fortification belt – unsurpassed in scale anywhere in the ancient and medieval world, with only the possible exception of China. Eberhard Sauer, Jebrael Nokandeh, Hamid Omrani Rekavandi, Mohammadreza Nemati, and Mehdi Mousavinia have explored the backbone of the system: the densest concentration of mega-fortresses in the late antique world, in the Gorgan and Tehran Plains of Iran.

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The Past

Shipwrecked cargo containing Roman-era marble artefacts discovered in Israel

The cargo comprises around 44 tonnes of marble architectural elements, including Corinthian capitals and marble columns

The Past

Roman military camps identified in the Arabian desert

Three Roman fortified camps have been identified in southern Jordan through satellite imagery surveying, with research suggesting that they represent evidence of an undocumented military campaign linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom at the beginning of the…

Left This gold armlet, decorated with lion griffins, showcases the skills of Achaemenid goldsmiths. It was found in Tajikistan and can be dated to 500 330 BC. The armlet is 12.3cm in height, while the gaps in the lion griffins would once have held colourful glass, faience, and stone.

Power or decadence? Luxury under the Achaemenids, Athenians, and Alexander the Great

We all know that the finer things in life can transmit messages about wealth and status. In the epic struggles between the Persians and Greeks in the 1st millennium BC, though, luxury came to mean so much more, as Jamie Fraser told Matthew Symonds.

Vietnamese stringed instrument

What is it? This object, thought to be at least 2,000 years old, is believed to be a stringed musical instrument. The artefact is made from a single piece of deer antler and is c.353mm long, with a diameter of…

Anyang: China’s ancient city of kings 

A recent exhibition at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, explores the art and culture of the Bronze Age city of Anyang in China. We spoke to curator J Keith Wilson to find out more.

An archaeology of thought

I doubted if Daeng would find anything of interest within. An hour later, she was revealing the smallest skeleton I have ever seen.

Current World Archaeology 118

• The story of a Roman frontier fort in Jordan
• Myths and Minoans at Knossos
• Mountain rock art in Kyrgyzstan
• Palmyra: the archive of Harald Ingholt
• Exploring a Peruvian fortress-temple in the desert

Left Aerial view of the temple mound at Girsu, looking south, with the walled sacred precinct in the distance. above An Old Akkadian administrative clay tablet from Tablet Hill at Girsu (c.2350 2200 BC), listing quantities of barley.

Lost Sumerian palace uncovered in Iraq

Known today as Tello, Girsu is one of the oldest cities in the world.

Jalame, 1963-1971

Viewers of the Netflix competition series Blown Away will be familiar both with the mesmerising transformations that take place under extreme heat as glass is blown, shaped, and decorated, and with the Corning Museum of Glass in upstate New York,…

3826 41 Bi'ar Buwwah Gate 1 (IDIHA 0008222; IDIHA F 0011081);

The Past

Neolithic monument in northern Arabia yields evidence of ritual activity

‘It looks like cattle, goats, and gazelles were brought to the site, potentially slaughtered there and then presented to what is probably a stone representation of an unknown deity.'

World news in brief: finds from Japan, Iraq, and Egypt

A round-up of some of the latest archaeological news from across the globe.

The Past

This week: Roman forts

It is understandable perhaps, here in Britain, that we have a somewhat partial understanding of Ancient Rome’s border defences – with most attention focused naturally on Hadrian’s Wall, the extraordinary fortified structure that is the largest Roman artefact anywhere in…

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.

Ancient mesopotamian tavern uncovered

The recently discovered tavern, dating to c.2,700 BC, consisted of an open-air public eating area and a kitchen

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.

Below Oli Pryce introduced my special birthday session with a picture of me and of the Rangitane that brought Polly, Tom, and me from London to New Zealand in 1967!

The 22nd Indo-Pacific Prehistory Congress

Myanmar is a newcomer to the study of South-east Asian prehistory. Twenty years ago, I joined a group of colleagues to visit, at the invitation of the Myanmar government, the first Bronze Age site to be discovered there.

Right Anti war protestors during the 1967 march on Washington, at which some 100,000 people gathered. The movement brought together a range of groups advocating change in American society as well as an end to the war.

The Past

This week: The Vietnam War

It began as an anticolonial struggle against the French, and ended as the Cold War’s bloodiest battleground. By the time the last US troops were withdrawn on 29 March 1973 – fifty years ago this month – it had cost…

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.

Film Review: Lebanon

Lebanon is a powerful vision of men at war, made real and intense by the fact that we never once move outside the tank, and only see the outside world from the interior.

The Past

Early example of cranial surgery identified in late Bronze Age tomb

This discovery represents the earliest example of its kind found in the ancient Near East.

Right A screenshot of the wreck site of USS Albacore, which was lost at sea on 7 November 1944. Poor visibility at the site made her identification challenging.

Wreck of lost US submarine from WWII identified off the coast of Japan

The discovery was made by the underwater archaeology team of Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC).

Ashoka and the Maurya Dynasty: the History and Legacy of Ancient India’s Greatest Empire

Review by Robert Harding The ancient Mauryan Empire and its third emperor Ashoka (c.304-232 BC) represent a striking departure for Colleen Taylor Sen. The author’s reputation rests on her series of food books, most notably Curry: a global history. Nevertheless,…

Digging Tell en-Nasbeh, 1929

Between 1926 and 1935, American scholar William F Badè and his team unearthed the remains of a small town at the site of Tell en-Nasbeh in Mandate-era Palestine. Thought to be the biblical town of Mizpah, the site, which flourished…

Assyrian palace excavated in the ancient city of Nimrud

Finds from the palace include a large stone vase and inscribed fragments of ivory and of ostrich eggshell.

Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East

Review by Diana Bentley The ancient Near East has not always attracted the popular attention it deserves, especially in comparison with other cultures of the surrounding area, like Greece, Rome, and Egypt. This latest work by Amanda H Podany, Professor…

Minerva Magazine 199

• Painting Pompeii: how Roman houses were decorated
• Silk Road oases: exploring ancient Uzbekistan
• Chariot kings: the evolving image of the pharaoh
• Shock and awe: the imaginative work of Henry Fuseli
• Persia and beyond: the mythical legend of Alexander the Great in the East

Petra in the Accounts of Western Travelers: Selected Narratives from the Nineteenth Century

Review by David J Breeze John William Burgon’s description of Petra as ‘the rose-red city, half as old as time’ dates to 1845, well within the timeframe covered in this book. It remains an apt statement, underlined by the choice…

Right Only a few deer stones show actual human features and behaviour, among them the remarkable Deer Stone 14 at Uushigiin Uvor in Mongolia. It stands 256cm tall and shows ring ornaments in pierced ears and a modelled human face, whose open mouth suggests an individual engaged in a shamanic song or chant.

Conjuring Mongolian deer stones: biographical statuary of Bronze Age Central Asia and south Siberia

The enigmatic deer stones speckling the Mongolian steppe have long invited questions. Now fresh research is providing clues to why they were carved and what they may represent. William Fitzhugh and Richard Kortum, with Bayarsaikhan Jamsranjav, share the story of these remarkable relics.

Lachish comb 2 (1) Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority

Ivory comb with rare Canaanite inscription

Until now, inscriptions found in the Canaanite alphabet have been limited to two or three words; this is the first meaningful Canaanite inscription found in Israel.

Right Ban Non Wat from the air. The excavations took place under the tall central building with a yellow roof.

A chicken coup

An infant who died at birth during the fourth Bronze Age phase was interred with a hen’s egg over the left hand; perhaps the infant was holding it when placed in the grave. What better symbol can be found for the regeneration of life itself than an egg?

Extremely rare inscribed sling bullet from 2nd century BC found in Israel

It bears the Greek inscription ‘Victory of Heracles and Hauronas’, signifying the bullet’s use as both a physical and psychological weapon

Koboto Santaro a Japanese military commander Wellcome V0037661

War of Words – ‘samurai’

‘Samurai’, meaning ‘one who serves’, derives from the Japanese verb samurau, ‘to wait on’. These warriors were the elite military class of feudal Japan, akin to the knights of medieval Europe. A samurai (the word is both singular and plural)…

Opposite Alexander meets the Brahmans. Firdawsi, Shahnamah (‘Book of Kings’). Rajaur, northern India, 1719.

Alexander the Great in Persia and beyond

Alexander the Great’s ambitions of conquest took him far from his Macedonian home and into Asia and Babylon, where he died. Ursula Sims-Williams investigates the mythical legacy of Alexander in the East, where different traditions cast him variously as an accursed figure, a philosopher-king, and even a prophet.

Conserving artworks after the Beirut blast

Conservation work is being carried out on a painting of Hercules and Omphale, recently attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi, that was damaged during the massive explosion in 2020 in Beirut.