The Ness of Brodgar in Orkney is home to an unprecedented complex of 5,000-year-old buildings. Ongoing analysis is illuminating their form and function, as Carly Hilts reports.
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Study of the monuments at Jelling has revealed much about an extraordinary royal complex in 10th-century Denmark. Olympia Bobou, Ilaria Bucci, Rowan S English, and Rubina Raja explore the evolution of the site.
An exhibition at the James Simon Gallery – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin explores the art and architecture of the first settled cultures in south-eastern Turkey.
Monumental finds in Mexico Excavations at Aguada Fénix in Tabasco, south-east Mexico, have revealed a large complex that was constructed c.3,000 years ago, making it possibly the oldest Mayan monument ever discovered. The site was first identified during a LiDAR…
Where is this? If you know, email the Editor peter@ancientegyptmagazine.com before 30 April with your answer, giving your full name, address, and a contact phone number. One lucky reader’s name will be selected at random from all the correct answers…
Investigations at Aguada Fénix, in the lowlands of Tabasco, south-east Mexico, are uncovering evidence of a vast ritual complex constructed c.3,000 years ago. The site was first discovered via LiDAR in 2017, and initial explorations uncovered a large artificial platform…
On 1 August 1960, I visited Mycenae for the first time. In my diary I described it as a terribly moving experience, seeing the shaft graves and the famed treasuries of Atreus and Clytemnestra. Looking back, what I recall most clearly was the romance of it all.
Hilary Wilson explores the preservation of Egypt’s cultural heritage through replicas – the next best thing to visiting the monuments themselves.
Richard Hodges introduces the Emperor Augustus’ city of victory at Actium and interviews its renowned excavator, Kostas Zachos.
Excavations at Carlisle Cricket Club are uncovering the remains of the largest Roman building ever found on Hadrian’s Wall. Carly Hilts visited the site and spoke to Frank Giecco to find out more.
Aidan Dodson describes a forgotten royal necropolis of the early Old Kingdom.
From the Preseli Hills of Wales to the site of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain is 120 miles as the crow flies. That is quite some distance for the young farmers of Neolithic Wales to transport the bluestones that make up the inner circle at the Wiltshire monument. During April 2024, Professor Keith Ray of Cardiff University took two weeks to walk from west Wales to Stonehenge, accompanied by a series of archaeologists and anthropologists (a different one or two each day) to look at the landscape and consider the challenges facing the stone-bearers. Among them were CA’s editor Carly Hilts and Chris Catling, who now reports.
Excavations in the highlands of northern Peru have identified a circular plaza that may be among the earliest examples of monumental megalithic architecture in the Americas. The Callacpuma archaeological site, located in the Cajamarca Basin, has been the subject of…
Each issue, AE magazine goes off the beaten track to explore some of Egypt’s lesser known sites, new museums, and newly opened monuments, with tips to help the independent traveller. In this issue, Karl Harris explores two under-visited sites at Abydos.
Stone beads found near Lake Turkana in Kenya are offering a new way to study how early pastoralists in the area interacted with the landscape around them at a time of environmental and cultural change around 5,000 years ago. The…
Recent research at two mustatils (prehistoric rectangular open-air structures found across northern Arabia) is uncovering new information about the ritual practices that may have been taking place in the region in the late 6th millennium BC. First identified in the…
In those days, Mesoamerican archaeology was not for the faint-hearted, and Sylvanus Griswold Morley – ‘physically frail, short of stature, squeaky-voiced and near-sighted’, according to Prudence Rice and Christopher Ward – wasn’t really cut out for it. He suffered stomach…
Since the first hints of Neolithic masonry emerged at the Ness of Brodgar in 2003, two decades of excavations have uncovered an extraordinary complex of monumental stone buildings dating back 5,000 years. The site continues to revolutionise our understanding of this period of prehistory both in Orkney and further afield, and last summer Carly Hilts visited the site and spoke to Nick Card to find out the latest news from the Ness.
From Ahmose I to Horemheb, the depiction of kings in Egypt’s 18th Dynasty was a tale of tradition and innovation. Even as the image of the chariot-riding warrior pharaoh became entrenched, there were more radical changes to come with the Amarna style of Akhenaten, as Guy de la Bédoyère explains.
It has long been assumed that Amazonia was always sparsely inhabited by humans. Now LiDAR survey in Bolivia has revealed the stunning scale of settlements that lay concealed beneath dense tropical vegetation. Heiko Prümers told Matthew Symonds why it is time to rethink the nature of life in this region.
It is believed that the pyramid’s creation was connected to the TBJ eruption as volcanoes and mountains were sacred to the Maya. The structure may have served some kind of religious function, perhaps it was even intended to guard against future eruptions.
At the excavated mustatil, archaeologists uncovered an assemblage of cattle horns and skull fragments interpreted as an offering, perhaps related to a ‘cattle cult’, further supporting the ‘ritual’ interpretation of these sites.
It is evident that the sites were reused over time, well into the historic period, and had retained some kind of ritual significance when the later burials took place in the 9th-13th century AD.
In the largest study of north-western Arabia’s mustatil to date, archaeologists have recorded more than 1,000 of the enigmatic rectangular structures across 200,000km2 of land, shedding light on one of the oldest widespread monument-building traditions. These prehistoric structures take their…
The installation of the South Wales Gas Pipeline allowed archaeologists to investigate a 317km corridor stretching from the Pembrokeshire Coast to Gloucestershire. Their finds have illuminated more than 10,000 years of human history, including the previously unknown remains of Britain’s most south-westerly Neolithic henge. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts reports.
It was long thought that huge and complex monuments like Mount Pleasant in Dorset had developed over many centuries – but new dating evidence suggests that the diverse elements of this site came together much faster than previously imagined, with intriguing implications for our understanding of these late Neolithic enclosures. Carly Hilts reports.
And here is the weird thing. Polykrates is the greatest figure in Samian history. The Late Archaic age is the only time when the island could be considered a great power. And the archaeological imprint is truly awesome. Yet our local minibus driver didn’t even know the way to the ancient walls!
On the Maya road The first LiDAR study of the longest road in the Maya area has shed new light on settlement in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. The 100km- long Sacbe 1 was built in the 7th century AD and connected…
In the last decade, Göbekli Tepe has gradually moved into the focus of public interest, as seen in the increasing numbers of visitors, a trend that broke off in 2015 following the spread of conflict to nearby parts of northern Syria.
Why were the bluestones used in Stonehenge transported more than 200km from Preseli in Wales? The survey of the eastern Preseli Hills and investigation of selected sites by Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright have exposed some uncanny parallels with the Stonehenge landscape. Could these help explain the meaning of the famous stone circle?