CWA106

Art in the Amazon

Hundreds of thousands of vibrant images painted on rock faces in the Serranía La Lindosa in the Colombian Amazon.

Remarkable petroglyphs have been discovered in a remote region of Mongolia. Here a laser mapping team is visible atop the ‘giant horse rock’ – named after the artistry visible in the bottom half of the photograph – in 2007. This rock art lies on one of a pair of hills known to specialists as B2. Photo: David Edwards, 2007

Altai rock art: Visions of the past in Mongolia

Survey and excavation in a remote region of Mongolia are revealing a wealth of information about an extraordinary concentration of rock art.

LEFT The waterlogged deposits permitted spectacular preservation of wooden artefacts. This 13th century wooden head, which probably belonged to a staff, was found lying in a medieval ditch.

The Follo Line Project: Exploring medieval Oslo

Since 2013, the largest infrastructure project in modern Norwegian history has granted a team of more than 40 archaeologists an extraordinary glimpse of medieval Oslo. One of the biggest questions they aimed to answer is what the medieval town really looked like. Thomas Wrigglesworth shares some of their discoveries.

Various sculptures from the Torlonia collection that appear in the current exhibition in Rome (see ‘Further information' on p.37). In the centre, a goat can be seen in the foreground, then a crouching warrior and two statues of a satyr, while along the far wall two statues of Isis flank the Hestia Giustiniani, a female goddess (in the alcove).

Torlonia marbles: An archaeology of a 19th-century antiquities collection

The sculptures making up the Torlonia marbles provide a potent glimpse of life in ancient Rome. But this 19th-century collection is also an artefact in its own right.

How to find your outpost on the Roman frontier

How were smaller posts were distinguished? What steps did the authorities take to ensure that orders, post, goods, relief parties, or reinforcements were sent to the right place?

Sailing to Ithaca?

Is Ithaca, in fact, Odysseus’ island, where Penelope faithfully weaved, steadfastly waiting for her mischievous prince in their well-appointed palace?

Museo Nazionale: An Etruscan Renaissance in Florence

While there are impressive artefacts from all periods within, including a fantasy courtyard made from sculptural fragments of Roman Florentia, its glory is really the series of Etruscan antiquities.

RIGHT The lavishly decorated tomb of Wahtye, a high ranking official in the 5th dynasty, is one of the Egyptian heritage sites for which 3D models have been created to allow ‘visits’ during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Virtual visit to Wahtye’s tomb

A digital 3D model offers a new way to visit this remarkable ancient Egyptian site.

Managing Archaeology in Dynamic Urban Centres

Bringing together case studies from across Europe and beyond, this volume highlights the challenges shared by many archaeologists working in urban centres.

Collecting Ancient Europe

This short book in connection with a project at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, looking at its own forgotten ‘Ancient Europe’ collection, which was dispersed in the 1950s.

The Archaeology of Seeing

We, as modern humans, tend to look at ancient art with a 21st-century mindset. It is all too easy to stare (in wonder) at Palaeolithic rock art and conceive some idea, however complex, and consider it to be a plausible interpretation.

Ages and Abilities

The primary aim of this volume is to address the issue of bioarchaeological age assessment and the different social responses to ages and maturing within past societies

Food fads and fashions

At a time of food scarcity, obesity became a desirable condition… the Venus figurines represented an ideal body type.

Archaeology and the silver screen

As far as I am aware, The Dig is a first. I mean a film where the whole thing revolves around an archaeological dig that really happened? This is the only one, right?

Object Lesson: Lost Dixon Relic

This cigar box, containing several wooden splinters that make up a piece of cedar discovered in the Great Pyramid of Giza, was recently found in the University of Aberdeen’s collections.

The Society of Antiquaries of London is concerned that rising rent may force it to leave Burlington House (below lEFT), potentially endangering its extensive collection, which includes many historically significant objects, including this medieval processional cross (right) and a selection of important 16th century royal portraits (below).

Save Burlington House!

Rising rent may force the Antiquaries to leave Burlington House, potentially endangering its extensive collection, which includes many historically significant objects.

CT scanning of the mummy of Pharaoh Seqenenre revealed new information about the head

CT scans reveal a pharaoh’s violent death

Detailed study of the injuries to Seqenenre’s head has indicated that they were caused by several different weapons, suggesting that he was killed by multiple attackers

Excavations in Mexico City have uncovered a new section of the Huei Tzompantli, an Aztec skull rack.

‘Tower of skulls’ discovered in Tenochtitlan

Excavations in Mexico City have discovered a new section of the Aztec skull rack known as the Huei Tzompantli.

The paintings in Leang Tedongnge cave depict the Sulawesi warty pig, a species commonly featured in Indonesian rock art.

Indonesia’s oldest cave art discovered

Archaeologists now believe that they have found a painting on the island of Sulawesi that pre-dates all other examples in the region, and may even be the earliest piece of representational art currently known.

Ancient African ivory recovered from 16th-century shipwreck

A cargo of ancient African ivory recovered from a 16th-century shipwreck is shedding light on early trade networks and historical elephant populations.

Letters from CWA106

Tantra, Captain Boycott, and Parliamentarians in Coventry

800-year-old mistake uncovered by modern imaging

A team of researchers have discovered evidence of a mistake made more than 700 years ago while investigating the painted Buddhist temples in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China.

The shape identified by the geophysical survey bears a striking resemblance to this historical drawing of the fort.

Destroyed 19th-century Alaskan fort identified

The team behind a large geophysical survey in Sitka, south-east Alaska, believe they have identified the location of a 19th-century Tlingit fort, destroyed during a battle against Russian colonising forces in 1804.

World News in Brief

Domesticating dogs A study published in Scientific Reports ( s41598-020-78214-4) has proposed a new theory in the complex debate surrounding the way in which dogs came to be domesticated by early humans. It suggests that the process may have centred…