Cover Story
Converting the Caucasus According to legend, a king who had been saved after being turned into a boar ordered the conversion of Armenia to Christianity. From these royal beginnings came fights between crown, clergy, and defenders of different creeds. Christoph Baumer takes us… Features
Photographing Mosul, 1944 Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery: 'Anthony Kersting: Kurdistan in the 1940s' 
Solar Power at Stonehenge The people of Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe explored their connection to the sun in a range of ways, from monumental stone circles to small gold discs. As a new… 
Off with their heads! The emperors of Chiragan One of the finest collections of Roman emperors is to be found far from Rome in the Musée Saint-Raymond in Toulouse. But where did they come from, and how did… 
The Great Inscription: law and order at Gortyn The Cretan site of Gortyn may be overshadowed by the palace-complex of Knossos, also on the island, but among its varied remains is an important legal document that offers insights… 
Children of the Roman Empire A new exhibition in Florence examines what life was like for the young sons and daughters of gods, emperors, and ordinary mortals in ancient Rome. Dalu Jones explores what the… 
Egyptian afterlives: an interview with Salima Ikram As shown by the excitement surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamun 100 years ago, mummies and Egyptian tombs have an impressive ability to capture our imagination. Richard Marranca speaks to Egyptologist… News
Ancient Greek necropolis to welcome visitors in June 2022 The Ipogeo dei Cristallini is situated just outside the limits of ancient Neapolis. 
Phallic-shaped Ethiopian monuments 1,000 years older than previously thought Southern Ethiopia’s Gedeo Zone is home to many megalithic stelae that reach up to 6m in height, with an estimate of more than 10,000 across some 60 sites. Some resemble… 
Rare Romano-British carving revealed The substantial figure, measuring 67cm in height, was discovered in July 2021 in Buckinghamshire, southern England 
Depictions of hybrid camels identified at a temple in Hatra, Iraq Important as commercial commodities and as symbols of wealth and power, the animals also appear to be associated with the pre-Islamic Arabian goddess, Allat. 
Terracotta dog found in Rome It was uncovered at a construction site in the Via Luigi Tosti, which joins Via Latina, home to a number of large tombs. 
Oldest known depiction of falconry unearthed in Norway It is a detailed depiction, with the plumes of the bird of prey marked in careful lattice-work. 
Researchers identify the oldest known drinking straws Barley starch granules from the residue inside one of the straws hint that people were using them to drink beer. 
Inscription reveals crystal jar from Galloway Hoard belonged to a bishop The find possibly came from a church in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria, of which Galloway was a part. Views
Photographing Mosul, 1944 Feature, The Picture Desk Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery: 'Anthony Kersting: Kurdistan in the 1940s' 
Words of Wisdom: ‘At home, you can say or do anything’ Ideas What buddies could you prefer to a faithful wife? What brothers can you imagine skipping out on her for? A wife’s more trustworthy than friends, more faithful than a brother,… 
On show: the latest exhibitions from around the world Museum, What's on Due to changing coronavirus measures, the dates listed below may have changed since we went to print, and museums and galleries may close. Check the websites and social-media accounts of… 
Ninagawa Noritane People Ninagawa Noritane, photographed on 15 July 1879. He was notably reluctant. As his American friend Edward Morse recalled: ‘I actually abducted him… to the photographer’. In the 1930s, an admirer… Egyptian afterlives: an interview with Salima Ikram Feature, People As shown by the excitement surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamun 100 years ago, mummies and Egyptian tombs have an impressive ability to capture our imagination. Richard Marranca speaks to Egyptologist… Reviews
At Home in Roman Egypt: A Social Archaeology At Home in Roman Egypt offers the first full-scale investigation of life as experienced by the ordinary people of Roman Egypt in the 1st to 4th centuries AD. It approaches… 
Egyptian Mythology: A Traveller’s Guide from Aswan to Alexandria What was understood about the gods, goddesses, spirits, and demons in ancient Egypt depended to a great extent on what was being explained or taught and by whom, when, and… On show: the latest exhibitions from around the world Due to changing coronavirus measures, the dates listed below may have changed since we went to print, and museums and galleries may close. Check the websites and social-media accounts of… 
A Maya Universe in Stone In 1951, Quest for the Lost City was published in the United States. Reviewed in The New York Times as ‘a sort of overland Kon-Tiki’ – in reference to Thor… 
From the editor
Asumptuous Byzantine-style mural painted in the 13th century in the fortified monastery church of Akhtala, today in Armenia, graces our cover. The site is one of many beautiful churches built across the Caucasus in the centuries after the conversion of Armenia to Christianity around AD 314, followed by Georgia twenty years later. As we read in Christoph Baumer’s exploration of the early church in the Caucasus, shifts in power and ecclesiastical councils and disputes marked the long history of Christianity in the region up to the point of this painting’s creation.
Our first feature delves into the art of an earlier world, that of Stonehenge. Through the surviving creations of Neolithic and Bronze Age communities around Europe – from mighty monuments to the small, resplendent gold pendants on view in a new exhibition at the British Museum – we see an interest in the all-powerful sun and its movements, and perhaps even attempts to harness that power in a wearable fashion. We speak to Jennifer Wexler to learn more.
Meanwhile, toys buried in graves and sculpted portraits of young members of Rome’s imperial family are on display in Florence. The sculptures may be extravagant, but the small finds like toys, as well as images on elaborate sarcophagi, offer glimpses of the lives of children in ancient Rome and, Dalu Jones tells us, of the affection parents had for their sons and daughters.
Family was also important to the Cretan inhabitants of Gortyn in the 5th century BC. A large surviving inscription from the site details various legal issues surrounding families, such as adoption and inheritance, and reveals somewhat modern attitudes towards divorce and women’s property, as Diana Bentley writes.
We return to Roman statuary, this time from the villa of Chiragan in rural south-western France, where a large number of particularly fine heads of emperors were found. Were they, Andrew Selkirk considers, brought there for safekeeping from nearby Toulouse at a time of new Christian rule?
Finally, Salima Ikram tells Richard Marranca about some of ancient Egypt’s fascinating mummies – both humans and animals.
