Textiles have long remained in the shadow of more conspicuous archaeological finds such as monumental sculpture, decorated coffins, and jewellery. Yet these often-overlooked artefacts offer vital insights into technology, economics, religion, dress, and daily life. Weaving for Eternity is therefore…
A new project is examining the traces of Roman mining associated with extracting
a particularly prized stone. Guillermo León, Catalina Urquijo, Dionisio Urbína,
José Luis Córdoba, and the spelunkers of the Cuenca Ara Club of Speleology describe the demands of archaeological investigation deep within the bowels of central Spain.
Prehistoric cultural exchange in Germany Excavations at Eilsleben in northern Germany have revealed a fortified settlement site, dating to c.5375 BC, that may have been founded by some of the first farmers to arrive in this part of Europe. The…
CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE IN ANCIENT EGYPT The exhibition traces the daily lives of young ancient Egyptians, with a display of more than 190 pieces from national and international collections in the Vimcorsa Room, accompanied by an immersive audiovisual experience in…
This is the companion to an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, which includes objects gathered from many international collections, curated by Helen Strudwick. But it is more than a catalogue of the artefacts in the exhibition. Although not…
• A 3,000-year-old gold mining operation, including mining tools and residential areas, has been discovered in Egypt’s Sukari Mountains; the entire camp has been moved nearly two miles away to separate it from the modern mine at the site. •…
REVIEW BY HILARY WILSON Spinning and weaving are among the earliest ancient technologies, and implements used in textile production turn up in archaeological excavations worldwide. Introducing this volume, part of Oxbow’s ‘Ancient Textiles’ series, Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi emphasises the rarity of…
Andrew Michael Chugg explores and reconstructs this famous architectural wonder, the inspiration for spectacular feats of Alexandrian science.
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.
Experimental archaeologists have recreated a famous ancient Egyptian perfume known as the Mendesian in a lab, using ingredients mentioned in Classical sources.
One of the exciting things about archaeology is that, just occasionally, something truly extraordinary comes along which radically changes the way we think about the past. One such moment came in 1900, when sponge divers working around the Greek island of Antikythera happened upon a shipwreck containing the single most important object of high technology ever recovered from the ancient world.
A seemingly unassuming lump of corroded bronze has confounded investigators for more than a century, ever since it proved to contain precision gearwheels that simply should not have existed in the ancient Greek world. A new study, using cutting-edge techniques, has now revealed what this machine could do, and how it did it, as Tony Freeth explains.
Which city boasts the largest Roman aqueduct still in use today, 19 centuries after it was built?
The mechanism was used to predict the positions of the sun, the moon, the phases of the moon and possibly planetary motions.