Crown Prince Ramesses: Pharaoh-in-waiting
Peter J Brand looks at how Sety I ensured his son and heir became the most well-prepared of all Egypt’s pharaohs.
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Ancient inscriptions in Saudi Arabia
The mountain of Jabal Ikmah, located 5km north of the ancient city of AlUla in north-west Saudi Arabia, has just been added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, which recognises documentary heritage of international significance. This is a significant…
The Cleopatras – Part 2: Cleopatra II, traditionally untraditional
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones continues his new series on the later Ptolemaic queens, focusing on the tangled family relationships of the second Cleopatra.
Gonbad-e QĀbus, 1934
As he made his journey through the green steppe, Robert Byron (1905-1941) could see his destination 20 miles away:‘a small cream needle stood up against the blue of the mountains’, as he wrote in The Road to Oxiana, the account…
Corpus of Indus Seals and Inscriptions: Volume 3.3
Review by Andrew Robinson The Indus civilisation – which flourished c.2500-1900 BC – was about twice the size of its equivalent in Egypt or neighbouring Mesopotamia. In its own way, it was as extraordinary as those civilisations, with its technically…
Berenike’s Buddha
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums
World news in brief: American wood and Egyptian gold
A round-up of some of the latest archaeological discoveries from around the globe.
The Association for Roman Archaeology
One of archaeology’s distinctive features has always been the lack of hard boundaries between professional and amateur. Archaeology is perhaps unique in the degree to which anyone can participate in the discipline, even at the highest level. That is especially…
Horemkhauef of Hierakonpolis
In the first of an occasional series focusing on remarkable people of their period, Wolfram Grajetzki introduces the ‘First Inspector of the Priests’ at Nekhen during the Second Intermediate Period.
Qasr Bshir: conserving a special Roman fort
Deep in the Jordanian desert lies an extraordinary ruin. It is a Roman fort that can stake a claim to being the best-preserved example anywhere in the former empire. But this relic of imperial power is in urgent need of conservation work. David Breeze, Mark Driessen, and Fawzi Abudanah discuss why Qasr Bshir is special, and the challenges that lie ahead.
Mysterious ‘Eadburg’ etched into early medieval manuscript
The name of an early medieval woman has been found among inscriptions recently identified on an 8th-century manuscript held by the Weston Library.
Ivory comb with rare Canaanite inscription
Until now, inscriptions found in the Canaanite alphabet have been limited to two or three words; this is the first meaningful Canaanite inscription found in Israel.
Extremely rare inscribed sling bullet from 2nd century BC found in Israel
It bears the Greek inscription ‘Victory of Heracles and Hauronas’, signifying the bullet’s use as both a physical and psychological weapon
Highlighting hieroglyphs at the British Museum and the Petrie Museum
This autumn marked 200 years since the ‘hieroglyphic code’ was cracked, allowing scholars to read and understand the ancient Egyptian script for the first time in centuries, and revolutionising our understanding of the people who used it. Carly Hilts visited two London-based exhibitions reflecting this milestone.
Sarcophagus of Ramesses II’s Treasurer uncovered at Saqqara
Following the discovery of the tomb of Ramesses II’s Treasurer Ptahemwia at Saqqara, the Egyptian team has now uncovered his pink granite sarcophagus in the main burial chamber.
Archaeologists find ancient Egyptian cheese
The remains of a white cheese were found in pottery vessels unearthed at Saqqara
Shrine containing headless falcons found at Berenike
The discovery dates to the Late Roman Period when the city was occupied by a nomadic people known as the Blemmyes,
A Late Period cartonnage from Lahun
In each issue of Ancient Egypt magazine, Dr Campbell Price describes a key artefact from Egyptology collections around the world. His choice for AE 134 is from the internationally important collection at the Manchester Museum.
The power of words: racing to read the lost secrets of Egypt
The beautiful and mysterious signs adorning ancient monuments across Egypt have excited speculation for centuries. The tale of how their meaning was finally rediscovered is just as long, and takes in many twists and turns. Success came 200 years ago, and with it a staggering insight into ancient Egyptian history, as Ilona Regulski told Matthew Symonds.
World news: Israel, Netherlands, and Spain
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from across the globe.
Giant warriors in Arabian art
Saudi Arabia is a paradise for researching engraved rock art (see ‘Saudi Arabian rock art’ in CWA 102). In March 2022, I returned to the Saudi provinces of Najran and ‘Asir. In the latter, the exploration of Wadi al-Khayyur, located…
Knucklebones used for gaming and divination found in Israel
Researchers discovered that many of the bones had been modified – shaved down, polished, perforated, or filled with lead – in order to improve the roll of the dice.
The Temple of Khnum
Conservators working in the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper Egypt, have uncovered new details of the building’s colourful ceiling frescoes. Construction on the temple began in the Ptolemaic period and continued into the Roman period, with decoration completed during…
Stone inscription celebrating Athenian military academy cadets discovered
The inscribed stone is the ancient Greek equivalent of a 'graduate school yearbook'.
When was Hadrian’s Wall built?
We know that Britain experienced tumultuous events during Hadrian’s reign. What we do not know is the order in which they played out. The answer may hold the key to understanding Britain’s premier Roman monument, as Matthew Symonds explains.
Commemorating Hadrian’s Wall: searching for signs of a 2nd-century celebration
This year marks the 1,900th anniversary of the visit of the emperor Hadrian to Britain where, according to his biographer writing more than 200 years after the event, ‘he put many things to right and was the first to build a wall 80 miles long to separate the Romans and the barbarians’. In 2022, the anniversary is being marked by events across Britain – but was there a ceremony in AD 122 to mark the building of Hadrian’s Wall? David Breeze, Christof Flügel, Erik Graafstal, and Andreas Thiel explore the possibilities.
CWA 113 Letters – May 2022
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions: send them to cwaletters@world-archaeology.com
Seeking a legendary lost city
The civil war had been very disruptive. There had been looting, pillage, and social upheaval. There are records of a most heinous crime, rooting up the boundary markers of land ownership, for which those guilty were impaled.
Military diploma dating back 2,000 years discovered in Turkey
It contains personal information in Latin regarding a soldier’s service in the Roman army, and is believed to be exactly 1,898 years old.
Petuaria revisited: searching for Brough-on-Humber’s lost Roman theatre
Eighty-five years ago, an inscription was discovered at Brough-on-Humber hinting that the town was once home to a Roman theatre. Peter Halkon and James Lyall report on more recent excavations seeking to relocate its remains.
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 into the ancient city. Diana Bentley is our guide.
This week: Elusive Sculptures
Very often, the stories we tell about archaeology are of objects being dug up, excavated, or otherwise unearthed. Sometimes, however, little actual digging is required, because the object being searched for has been there all along – right in front of the eye, hiding in plain sight, just waiting to be discovered.
Galloway Hoard jar belonged to medieval bishop
Discovered by a metal-detectorist in 2014, the hoard comprises more than 100 objects of gold, silver, copper-alloy, glass, earth, crystal, and other minerals...
This week: Butrint
With sea levels predicted to rise by as much as +2.0m by 2100, a recent UN study found many of the Mediterranean's greatest archaeological sites to be at serious risk of damage or loss. This week on The Past, we look in detail at how one site – the magical Graeco-Roman city of Butrint in Albania – is planning to confront the challenges posed by our fast-changing environment.
A trick of the light: the Great North Museum
Glowing in vivid technicolour against a pitch-black backdrop, the stone blocks pictured here are part of a group of seven Roman altars that have been reimagined in colour using only projected light – all as part of a new, immersive…
Domitian: dominus et deus
Are bad Roman emperors really that different from good Roman emperors? Nathalie de Haan and Eric M Moormann look at the case of Domitian, an accomplished military man and prolific builder who emulated Augustus but was reviled as a new Nero.