Cover Story
Spiro: renewing the world Vast quantities of artefacts were found in a mound in Oklahoma in the 1930s. Together they tell an intriguing story of ritual and cosmic renewal. As an exhibition reuniting some of these objects travels to Texas, Lucia Marchini speaks to… Features
The Changing Faces of Olympia One of the most celebrated works of ancient Greek sculpture, Phidias’ statue of Zeus, was once housed in a temple at Olympia. Though this lost wonder was much admired by… 
The Palace in the Desert Last year, the restored mosaics of the lavish audience hall and bathhouse of Hisham’s Palace near Jericho were opened to the public. Marie-Louise Winbladh explores the early Islamic art that… 
Paper worlds and hidden masterpieces A small selection of the thousands of drawings compiled by Regency architect Sir John Soane have gone on display in London, among them exquisite works that bring us visions of… 
Museo Barracco: a head for sculpture Having brought together ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian artefacts to create a museum of comparative sculpture, Baron Giovanni Barracco gave his collection of antiquities to the city of Rome… 
Trench Art: the Art of War From buttons to artillery shells, a range of items from battlefields have been transformed – often by soldiers – into powerful and personal pieces of ‘trench art’. Nicholas J Saunders… News
Study sheds light on origins of Venus figurine Researchers have studied the 30,000-year-old figurine using micro-CT imaging to try to trace the origins of the oolite rock it was made from 
Archaeologists unearth Roman London’s luxury lodgings Excavations found the mosaic in what is thought to have been a Roman dining room at The Liberty of Southwark site. 
The search for Shackleton’s ship The excellent state of preservation of the ship meant that once this wreck was located it was easy to identify, with its name still visible. 
Neolithic ritual complex discovered in Jordan Two stelae are examples of some of the oldest artistic expressions in the Middle East. 
Institutions acquire new artworks inspired by the ancients A rare history painting by the French artist Marie-Guillemine Benoist (1768-1826) has recently joined the collections of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Views
Persepolis, 1935 The Picture Desk Persepolis paintings perfectly glorious’ was the verdict Prentice Duell cabled from Egypt to James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (OI). He had just… 
Jeanne Dieulafoy (1851-1916) People “The Dieulafoys were unconventional to the point of scorn: Jeanne routinely wore male clothes…” 
On show in 2022: exhibitions from around the world Museum, What's on The dates listed below may have changed since we went to print. Check the websites of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings. Reviews
The Idea of Marathon: Battle and Culture Review by David Stuttard. On an August morning just over two and a half millennia ago in 490 BC, a numerically inferior army of democratic Athenians, their liberated slaves, and… Paper worlds and hidden masterpieces A small selection of the thousands of drawings compiled by Regency architect Sir John Soane have gone on display in London, among them exquisite works that bring us visions of… Museo Barracco: a head for sculpture Having brought together ancient Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Mesopotamian artefacts to create a museum of comparative sculpture, Baron Giovanni Barracco gave his collection of antiquities to the city of Rome… 
H of H Playbook Review by Lucia Marchini. The myth of Heracles, his heroic strength and ability to meet seemingly insurmountable challenges, has proven an enduringly popular one. Emperors and kings made use of… 
The Greatest Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious Scripts Review by Andrew Robinson. All academics would presumably regard writing as one of the world’s great inventions, perhaps even the greatest invention. Philologist Silvia Ferrara certainly does. An expert on… On show in 2022: exhibitions from around the world The dates listed below may have changed since we went to print. Check the websites of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings. 
From the editor
Around AD 1400, during a period of lengthy droughts, a remarkable event took place at Spiro in Oklahoma. People at the Mississippian ceremonial centre had dug into one of its mounds, moved their ancestors’ burials, and built within the mound a hollow chamber, where they then placed an elaborate array of riches in wood, shell, copper, textiles, feathers, stone, and rock crystal. Among them was the stunning antlered-mask that adorns our cover. This object and some of the other finds from the site have been reunited for a touring exhibition that is now at its final stop, the Dallas Museum of Art, but why were they all sealed away inside a mound 600 years ago?
Spiro was clearly important to Mississippian society, and other cities had been sending objects there for centuries. In a similar vein, Olympia had a central role in the ancient Greek world. It was the home of the famous panhellenic games, drawing Greeks from all over, but also of a range of monuments – sculptures and buildings set up by athletes victorious in the games, and by city-states and kings victorious in conflict and conquest. David Stuttard explores the changing faces of the site, and the lasting legacy of one of its most famous faces in antiquity: that of Zeus, as sculpted by Phidias.
Next, we turn to the spectacular early Islamic mosaics of an Umayyad desert castle outside Jericho, known as Hisham’s Palace. As Marie-Louise Winbladh writes, the mosaics, recently restored and now open to the public, suited the lavish lifestyle of their patron – not Caliph Hisham, but his wine-drinking, poetry-penning nephew and successor al-Walid.
Like the Umayyad palace, which drew on early Greek, Roman, and Persian design traditions, the intriguing Museo Barracco in Rome draws from ancient art of different cultures. Once the private collection of Baron Giovanni Barracco, this mix of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Cypriot, Palmyrene, and Mesopotamian sculpture was presented to the city of Rome 120 years ago. Dalu Jones takes us on a journey through this little-known collection.
A little more than a decade after the Baron’s gift to Rome, the First World War broke out. While the practice of trench art – turning objects relating to war into pieces of art – dates back to antiquity, the many examples from the First World War carry particularly powerful stories of personal experiences of conflict, as Nicholas J Saunders writes.
Finally, we take a look at a small selection of the exquisite and delicate drawings architect Sir John Soane collected for his London home, museum, and studio, as part of his vision to educate and inspire his pupils and the architects of the future.
