Cover Story
Jerash: revealing a ‘peripheral’ part of an ancient city in northern Jordan In AD 749, the ancient city of Jerash was hit by a devastating earthquake. Excavating private houses that collapsed during the disaster has revealed a wealth of information about the Umayyad city. These, though, are just some of the finds… Features
Understanding Hawaiian temples: a new angle on the role of ritual sites The temples of Hawaii are renowned for their varied forms and orientations, but could it be that this veneer of irregularity masks a pattern that sheds fresh light on these… 
Archaeology: Western science or global practice? Delving into ancient sites to illuminate the past is generally seen as a Western innovation. But just how novel is this approach? Excavating in Papua New Guinea has prompted Chris… 
Discovering Roman women’s lives: from slaves to a senatorial lady in Geneva How much can we know about the role of women in Roman society? Natalya Kahn examines inscriptions from Geneva to build up a picture of their experiences of life within… News
Ceremonial chariot found in Pompeii This is a unique find, representing the only vehicle of this type found in Italy to date. 
Emblems of power in Argaric society The Antiquity paper presents a new theory about the significance of these diadems as emblems of power and suggests that they may reflect the central position of these women in… 
Australia’s ancient rock art Researchers in Australia have used wasp nests on a cave wall to identify the earliest known example of in situ rock art in the country: a painting of a kangaroo… 
Discoveries in the Judean Desert The newly discovered fragments consist of over 20 pieces of parchment belonging to the Minor Prophets Scroll, including sections of the books of Zechariah and Nahum. 
Lost city in Luxor The city is situated near to Amenhotep III’s royal palaces and may have provided food and other items to the royal residence, as well as acting as the administrative and… 
Ancient Egyptian animal cemetery Excavations at an animal burial ground in the Egyptian port of Berenice have uncovered evidence of cats, dogs, and monkeys being kept as pets. Views
Current World Archaeology Photo of the Year 2021: Results Competitions Despite travel limitations over the last year, we’ve been transported to a wide variety of places... 
Ten years on from disaster Ideas, Places Urajiri is in the town of Minami Soma, impacted both by the tsunami and the meltdown, evacuated as it was in the exclusion zone around the stricken power plant. Archaeology… 
A new world of communication Comment One of the most breathtaking experiences in my archaeological life was to mount the steps and look out over the assembled ranks of the terracotta army. 
Protected places and prehistoric pints Comment Abydos was not only the earliest brewery and the forerunner of the great royal cemeteries... it was also the birthplace of the funeral wake and possibly too of the mass… The city of Chersonesos The Picture Desk The photograph shows the 1935 Basilica, named after the year it was excavated and believed to date to the 6th century AD. 
Queen Adelaide’s castle in the Tuscan marches Travel Thanks to modern scientific analyses, the every-day circumstances of Tuscany’s Dark Age peoples are no longer mute. One thing is certain from this excavation: objects and nature played an active… 
Saint-Bélec Slab Objects What is it? This engraved stone dating to the early Bronze Age (c.1900-1650 BC) is known as the Saint-Bélec Slab. Made of grey-blue coloured schist, the slab is c.2.2m long,… Reviews
Baalbek Reborn: Temples A new app offers an opportunity to experience an ancient site in its Roman heyday. Queen Adelaide’s castle in the Tuscan marches Thanks to modern scientific analyses, the every-day circumstances of Tuscany’s Dark Age peoples are no longer mute. One thing is certain from this excavation: objects and nature played an active… 
Megaliths and Geology One of the essentials of building a megalithic chambered burial monument is the choice of materials used to construct it. It is now considered that stone (boulders, stone erratics and fragments,… 
Olga Tufnell’s ‘Perfect Journey’ When 22-year-old Olga Tufnell set off on her first ‘perfect journey’ in 1927 – to join Flinders Petrie’s expedition in Egypt – she had little training in archaeology beyond several… 
The Dignity of Labour: image, work and identity in the Roman world Immediately beyond the Porta Maggiore in Rome, at a busy intersection, lies the impressive tomb of Eurysaces, a baker who lived through the last days of the Roman Republic. In… 
From the editor
In AD 749, the Middle East was struck by a devastating earthquake. Numerous cities suffered serious damage, including Jerash, which is now one of the most stunning archaeological sites in Jordan. Jerash never recovered from the disaster, and recent excavations in the ancient city have revealed two houses that collapsed during the earthquake, providing a glimpse of life – and death – on that fateful day.
An arid patch of Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands, is also home to archaeological sites that have remained largely untouched since they were abandoned. Taking a close look at Hawaiian temples, together with surviving historical accounts of their use, has provided a new sense of the vital roles that these monuments fulfilled.
Surviving texts – in this case ancient inscriptions – can also shed light on the lives of women living in Roman Geneva. This settlement, which developed where the River Rhône flows out of Lake Geneva, has produced records of women that span the social spectrum, ranging from slaves to a senatorial lady. Thanks to these finds, we can still feel the pride that accompanied a daughter becoming an imperial priestess, and attempt to untangle some complex relationships.
Using the material remains of the past to try and build up a picture of it is of course the bread and butter of archaeology. But while the discipline’s intellectual roots are usually deemed to lie in Europe, just how novel is this approach? A trip to Orokolo Bay, in Papua New Guinea, allowed Chris Urwin to see the ways that locals draw on traces of the past to illustrate their histories.
In our travel section, Richard Hodges reflects on the exciting finds made during excavations in Tuscany, and what they reveal about Queen Adelaide’s lost castle.
