Crusader criminals: The other side of soldiering
The Crusades are known for spectacular military engagements. But they also saw all manner of crimes committed beyond the battlefield. In a new book, Steve Tibble uncovers some dark secrets.
Middle East
Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt: An eyewitness history
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER When I joined the army there were sphinxes all over the place: on cap badges, collar badges, sporran badges, embroidered on Regimental Colours… The Gloucesters even wore two, one fore and another aft, to commemorate fighting…
Shipwrecked cargo containing Roman-era marble artefacts discovered in Israel
The cargo comprises around 44 tonnes of marble architectural elements, including Corinthian capitals and marble columns
Roman military camps identified in the Arabian desert
Three Roman fortified camps have been identified in southern Jordan through satellite imagery surveying, with research suggesting that they represent evidence of an undocumented military campaign linked to the Roman annexation of the Nabataean kingdom at the beginning of the…
Nubia: Lost Civilizations
Review by Nigel Fletcher-Jones In recent years there has been increasing desire among travellers to visit the archaeological sites of southern Egypt and Sudan in search of ‘ancient Nubia’, an elongated oval that stretched either side of the Nile from…
Neolithic monument in northern Arabia yields evidence of ritual activity
‘It looks like cattle, goats, and gazelles were brought to the site, potentially slaughtered there and then presented to what is probably a stone representation of an unknown deity.'
Film Review: Lebanon
Lebanon is a powerful vision of men at war, made real and intense by the fact that we never once move outside the tank, and only see the outside world from the interior.
A Grand Spell of Sunshine: The Life and Legacy of Francis Frith
Review: Hilary Forrest Many readers will be familiar with the name Francis Frith, which is associated with the world of picture postcards, often of seaside views or famous sights. What you will discover from this fascinating and detailed work is…
Petra in the Accounts of Western Travelers: Selected Narratives from the Nineteenth Century
Review by David J Breeze John William Burgon’s description of Petra as ‘the rose-red city, half as old as time’ dates to 1845, well within the timeframe covered in this book. It remains an apt statement, underlined by the choice…
Meat stews were on the menu in Mesopotamia, study finds
Analysis of Beveled Rim Bowls excavated from a Late Chalcolithic site in Iraq has challenged traditional interpretations that they were used for distributing cereal rations to state-dependent labourers.
Unlocking a hidden landscape: preliminary fieldwork at Qarn bint Sa’ud, Abu Dhabi
Recent survey has revolutionised our knowledge of rock art created on an imposing natural landmark in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). What can archaeology reveal about how humans used a landscape that periodically became more or less hospitable in response to climate shifts? George H Nash, Yale Fox, Dillon von Petzinger, Genevieve von Petzinger, Aitor Ruiz Redondo, Juan F Ruiz Lopez, and Yamandu H Hilbert, provide us with a first glimpse of the fruits of their work.
Glass fragments highlight Islamic connections in late medieval Scotland
Discovered at Caerlaverock Castle, the glass fragments are believed to have been part of a vessel made in modern-day Syria, Iraq, or Egypt during the late medieval period.
Hundreds of prehistoric hunting traps identified across the Arabian desert
These monumental structures, termed 'kites', consist of low stone walls that stretch hundreds of metres and lead to an enclosure, in which gazelles and other game could have been trapped.
Pearl of the Desert: A History of Palmyra
Review by Jennifer A Baird. Palmyra has long been considered the jewel of Syria. In recent years, the site – which is internationally well-known for its monumental remains – has become infamous after those remains were targeted for destruction, casualties…
This week: Anthony Kersting
Taken in the 1940s, Kersting's powerful black-and-white pictures document life among the much-persecuted Yazidi community in what is now the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. They include captivating portraits of individuals as well as stunning architectural views
Photographing Mosul, 1944
Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery: 'Anthony Kersting: Kurdistan in the 1940s'
Facing the Palmyrenes: exploring life and death in a desert city
What can an extraordinary group of sculptures commemorating the dead reveal about ancient life in Palmyra? Thousands of ancient inhabitants’ portraits once graced lavish family tombs in cemeteries just beyond the desert city. Studying this artistry can reveal much about wealth, power, family, and even the balance between local tradition and outside influences in a major trading hub, as Eva Mortensen and Rubina Raja reveal.
Baalbek and Antioch, 1933
In 1933, the first season of excavations at Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish), south-west of Jerusalem, came to end. The remains of a building from the late 5th-4th century BC, described as a governor’s residence, had been unearthed and the defences of…
War on Film: The Desert Rats (1953)
The battle scenes are, in the main, well made, especially in showing what it was like for men hiding in dugouts and wadis in the desert under intense artillery-fire.
‘World’s oldest war memorial’ identified in Syria
Archaeologists have stated that a monument at the Banat-Bazi complex is over 4,000 years old.
AI advances in archaeology
Recently, researchers from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands have used the latest in AI technology to study the Great Isaiah Scroll (known as 1QIsaa), an ancient manuscript dating to the 2nd century BC that is considered one of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Jerash: revealing a ‘peripheral’ part of an ancient city in northern Jordan
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.
Crusader strategy: a contradiction in terms?
Medieval warfare was not just a matter of crude feudal violence, argues Steve Tibble.
Esfahan, Iran
Esfahan is little known in the West, but it has some of the world’s great architecture – not only mosques, but also its palaces, its gardens, and last but not least, its fine bridges.
Epic Iran: Persian splendours
A major exhibition delving into 5,000 years of art and design in Iran is set to open in London in May. Lucia Marchini speaks to curator John Curtis for a preview of some of the ancient highlights.
Allenby: making the modern Middle East
Edward Henry Hynman Allenby was born in 1861 in Brackenhurst, Nottinghamshire in comfortable circumstances – a Victorian squire perhaps destined to help govern the British Empire on behalf of the Queen-Empress.
Iran
It was a splendid tour: we stayed in 9 different hotels over 16 days, which meant that we were always on the move. But this was just what we wanted, for we explored the heart of the historic country and saw – if briefly – most of the best-known archaeological sites.
Caught in the crossfire: conflict in Syria and Iraq
In 2012, CWA reported on the damage inflicted on Syria’s cultural heritage since the beginning of the civil war. Now we take an updated look at heritage in conflict in Syria and Iraq.