Archaeologists working at ancient Heliopolis (Matariya, Cairo) have uncovered an almost complete funerary assemblage beneath a mud-brick burial structure. The discovery includes a collection of personal and ritual objects, including a copper mirror, alabaster kohl vessels containing traces of cosmetics,…
James A Harrell looks into the uncertain origins of ancient Egypt’s most popular gemstone: carnelian.
Campbell Price describes a symbolic votive object from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.
Julian Heath recounts the remarkable discoveries made by a French mining engineer and archaeologist.
The Nubian empire at its height was one of the largest in the ancient world – a land rich in gold and other resources, with thriving trade. Highly skilled artisans created distinctive and finely crafted jewellery, ceramics, and architecture. And…
An intriguing woman’s grave has been discovered in Bjugn, in Trøndelag County, Norway. Researchers were alerted to the burial by a metal-detectorist who came across an oval brooch of a style typical for the Viking Age and the centuries before.…
Marie Antoinette is one of the most famous and most misunderstood figures of 18th-century France. Carly Hilts visited a new exhibition exploring her life and legacy.
The British Museum has launched a £3.5 million fundraising campaign to acquire a unique pendant associated with Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, and with the wider political ambitions of 16th-century Europe. Carly Hilts reports.
A unique exhibition at the Wereldmuseum Leiden in the Netherlands explores how gold has inspired humankind throughout history. Gillis Kersting visited to find out more.
A unique find, this tiny object is very finely crafted. What is it? This Roman miniature padlock, comprising a gold exterior and an iron core, measures just 1.2cm by 1.1cm. It is similar in form, technical structure, and decorative style…
For this issue, Hilary turns her attention to one form of jewellery worn by both women and men in ancient Egypt.
Intact burials containing a collection of beautiful jewellery have been discovered by the joint Egyptian-American South Asasif Conservation Project in a tomb located near the Twenty-fifth Dynasty Tomb of Karabasken (TT391). This is the first Middle Kingdom burial to be…
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith travels to Sinai to visit a temple dedicated to Hathor, ‘Lady of Turquoise’.
Bronze Age fossil collecting An object discovered in an ancient basement storeroom at Mycenae during excavations in the 1970s has just been identified as the fossilised astragalus (ankle bone) of an extinct genus of rhinoceros, thanks to recent analysis by…
Archaeologists in Poland have discovered hundreds of metal objects deposited in a lake by a Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age community. The site of Papowo Biskupie is located in north-central Poland, in an area that was once home…
This is an early medieval brooch made from a gilded silver penny, which was found over a year ago by a metal-detectorist in Wiltshire. It was recently acquired by the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, after having been declared Treasure. The…
For the first time in nearly a century, these famous Old Kingdom bracelets were scientifically analysed by an international team led by Macquarie University in Sydney, with surprising results, as Karin Sowada explains.
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
This Roman finger ring with an engraved intaglio was discovered by a metal-detectorist near Chelmsford in Essex and was recently declared treasure. This style of intaglio is known as a Henig Type II and dates to c.AD 125-175. The band…
Inside the cist tomb were the remains of a man and a woman, thought to have died in their 30s
A pendant adorned with symbolic motifs linked to Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon was recently unveiled at the British Museum. Carly Hilts spoke to Dr Rachel King and Teresa Gilmore to find out more.
The Egyptian-British archaeological mission working in the Northern Cemetery (Tombs of the Nobles) at Amarna has uncovered a burial containing fine pieces of gold jewellery. The grave contained the remains of a young woman wrapped in textiles, who was buried…
This pendant, known as a bulla, was found by a metal-detectorist in the Melton district of Leicestershire in November 2021. It is hemispherical in shape and formed of two plain gold sheets, one formed into a hollow dome and the…
The artefacts were found during the 1977-1981 excavations of nearly 200 graves at Ozengell, near Ramsgate in Kent.
Exhibitions and events on ancient Egypt from around the world.
Review by Russell Ó Ríagáin. This book is the third in a series associated with the Glenmorangie Company Research Project at National Museums Scotland, treating various aspects of Iron Age and medieval northern Britain. Arguably, it has been the most…
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions.
The Greek historian Herodotus tells us that among the Scythians, the nomads of the Eurasian steppe, there was a group of ‘gold-guarding Griffins’. Were these people the Saka, whose elite filled their tombs with golden depictions of griffins and other creatures? As a new exhibition on the Saka opens, Rebecca Roberts and Saltanat Amir explore one recently discovered burial and what its contents can tell us about this ancient culture.
Two deposits of spectacular bronze artefacts dating back to the 9th century BC represent the latest discoveries made during a series of archaeological excavations and surveys conducted in the Allier department of central France since 2019.
It seems less obvious today, as we hurtle about the country using modern road and rail networks, but river crossings were once dangerous places. In ancient times, rites in the form of prayers and sacrifices would be performed to appease the river gods and to improve the chances that goods and travellers would make it across unscathed.
Furnished graves smacked of paganism, along with the idea that worldly goods should be laid in the grave for the use of the deceased in the afterlife.
No one knows for certain why Viking Age people chose to bury their most treasured possessions underground. According to one 13th-century source, the influential Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, they did it because Odin – the Norse god who oversees Valhalla – had decreed that a man will have the use in the afterlife of any treasure he buried while still alive. More recently, however, archaeologists and historians have preferred more earthbound explanations for the presence in the British Isles of so many Viking Age 'hoards'.
Dated to c.AD 950 on stylistic grounds, the hoard contains three significant pieces of jewellery deposited in a single event, possibly by a wealthy individual.
How do you begin to analyse a corroded mass of almost 70,000 Celtic coins? Neil Mahrer guides us through the painstaking process of conserving the largest coin hoard yet found in the British Isles, and what has been discovered so far.
Do we need another book on Hadrian’s Wall? The answer in this case is a resounding ‘yes’. The authors curate the magnificent collections derived from several centuries of research, excavation, and antiquarian collection along the frontier. Their expertise and knowledge…
What sparked the unusual chariot burials associated with the Arras Culture in East Yorkshire? Migration has been proposed as an explanation, but a new book asks whether there are other ways by which chariot-making knowledge and burial practices could have been transferred. The reality is perhaps more mundane but, at the same time, highly informative about the diversity of lifestyles and burial practices in the British Iron Age and the ways in which people expressed their regional identity. Chris Catling reports.