We often write in ‘Science Notes’ about how technology is revolutionising many aspects of archaeology, but this column rarely touches on conservation. This is one of the areas, however, where technological advances are having some of the biggest impacts, with…
The discovery of a mass grave in the Jordanian city of Jerash (ancient Gerasa) has provided evidence of the impact on the population of the Justinian Plague. A newly published study of the burial site has revealed that at least 230 individuals were hastily buried on top of each other, rather than in individual graves, within the city’s abandoned hippodrome
The remains of a complete Byzantine monastic residential complex have been discovered by an Egyptian mission working at the al-Qarya archaeological site, in the Tima district of Sohag. The team found the remains of rectangular mud-brick structures with dimensions ranging…
REVIEW BY MICHAEL TUNNICLIFFE This is a paperback edition of a work following the Third International Symposium on Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt. There is a particular focus on the life and writings of St Shenoute, who was a…
The Egyptian government’s ‘Great Transfiguration Project’ for the UNESCO World Heritage site of Mount Sinai – the location of the 6th century Monastery of St Catherine – has caused international concern, and calls for the area to be placed on…
At first glance, it looks like an ornate coffee spoon… What is it? This curious object, which looks at first glance like a large, ornate, cruciform coffee spoon, is in fact rather an elegant counterpoised coin balance. Suspended on a…
Strictly speaking Saranda cannot be saved. When I first came here in September 1993, a year after Albania became a democracy, it was a blissful Ionian seaport. Many of its citizens had left for Greece, so it felt empty, yet…
A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York examines
the artistic and cultural relationships between medieval Africa and Byzantium.
Excavations in Israel have unearthed a 1,600-year-old synagogue, home to an exceptional set of mosaics.
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.
The text represents one of the earliest-known translations of the Gospels.
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,…
• ‘The city thirsts’: the most extensive water supply system in the ancient world
• The Priest of Pututus: a unique Andean tomb
• Conjuring Mongolian deer stones: seeking the meaning of enigmatic monoliths
• The man in the parcel: unravelling a mortuary mystery
• Ireland: the prehistoric passage tombs of Knowth and Newgrange
Today, Istanbul – formerly Constantinople – is Europe’s largest metropolis, having grown dramatically in size since the 1970s to reach a population in excess of 17 million. But despite the gleaming modern towers, busy expressways and seemingly endless urban sprawl,…
Supplying Constantinople with water was a monumental challenge that received a monumental solution. Examining the extraordinary remains of aqueducts, bridges, and cisterns reveals the ingenuity – and expense – committed to sating a thirsty ancient metropolis, as James Crow explains.
Excavations in the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey have uncovered the remains of early Byzantine shops and businesses. Archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) working this year in Domitian Square, next to the Upper Agora, focused their…
Archaeologists working in Ephesus, Turkey, have uncovered a new section of the ancient city: a business and gastronomical district dating to the early Byzantine period. The discovery was made by researchers from the Archaeological Institute of the ÖAW (Austrian Academy…
Analysing pottery fragments recovered from the site, archaeologists have dated the construction of the settlement to between the 5th and 7th centuries AD.
The new galleries at the MFA, Boston, cover more than 2,000 years of art. We take a look at a some of the highlights from the ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine worlds.
What name was given at birth to the 1st-century apostle now known as St Paul?
A new report spells out the risks that rising sea levels pose to some of the world’s greatest archaeological sites. Richard Hodges and David Prince consider the situation at Butrint.
Excavations in Eritrea are revealing early Christian sites from the Kingdom of Aksum. What can these places of worship reveal about cultural connections in the 6th century AD? Gabriele Castiglia, Philippe Pergola, Stefano Bertoldi, Marco Ciliberti, Elie Essa Kas Hanna, Božana Maletic´, and Matteo Pola share the secrets of an extraordinary ecclesiastical complex.
Excavations in the city of Yavne in Israel have discovered a vast 1,500-year-old industrial complex thought to be the largest wine production centre known from the Byzantine period. The factory complex encompasses five large wine presses, each covering an area…
This book provides a brief history of Christianity in the eastern Peloponnese (including ancient sites in Corinth, such as Kenchreai and Lechaion, as well as Isthmia, Nemea, Sikyon, and Epidauros) and in Athens, from its beginnings but with a focus…
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 encountered during recent archaeological work in the north-western part of the site, as Achim Lichtenberger, Eva Mortensen, and Rubina Raja reveal.
The photograph shows the 1935 Basilica, named after the year it was excavated and believed to date to the 6th century AD.
• Conserving Britain’s largest Iron Age hoard
• Britain’s first 5th-century mosaic at Chedworth?
• Early Christianity in western Britain & Ireland
• Infant Beaker burial near Salisbury
• Hadrian’s Wall: what was it for?
Over the past few years, the Ethiopian Heritage Fund has been scaling cliffs and mountains to study and conserve the remarkable rock-hewn painted churches of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, currently in the grips of conflict. Blair Priday, Stephen Rickerby, and Lisa Shekede guide us through their work.
In a small city on Italy’s Adriatic coast, faces of all-powerful emperors, empresses, and bishops gaze out from glittering mosaics. But why are these magnificent decorations here? Judith Herrin explores the history of Ravenna, a well-connected city and one-time capital of the Western Roman Empire.
• Ravenna: mosaics and majesty in an imperial city
• Tantra: the rise of a spiritual rebellion
• City of myths: how and why Thebes was forgotten
• In the beginning: ancient Chinese cosmology
• Where eagles dare: wealth, worship, and conquest in the Aztec capital
How did cities come to flourish in the Negev Desert? George Nash has gone in search of Shivta’s former glory.