Santa Costanza, c.1710-1730
Among the early Christian catacombs in northern Rome, beyond the walls of the ancient city, are those of the Sant’Agnese fuori le mura complex. It is here along the via Nomentana that St Agnes of Rome is said to have…
Paid
Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws and Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities
Review by Diana Bentley Years of research as a folklorist and historian have enabled Adrienne Mayor, research scholar in classics and the history of science at Stanford University and an acclaimed author, to discover a marvellous array of the more…
Hilda Petrie (1871-1956)
Having learnt Arabic, Hilda would hire and pay their workers. She slept in a hut at Tarkhan with 80 skulls by her bed, living off canned pilchards and bully beef.
Chariot kings: the image of the pharaohs
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.
Janus: two-faced god of beginnings
As we enter a new year, many of us find ourselves both reflecting on the past and making plans for the future. This dual outlook is embodied by the two-faced god Janus, who governed the first month of the year in ancient Rome
Treasures of Ukraine: A Nation’s Cultural Heritage
Review by Lucia Marchini As well as death and displacement, conflict brings with it a threat to cultural heritage. Nearly one year on from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this timely and attractive volume (with profits donated to the organisation…
Caravan kings: exploring ancient Uzbekistan
Sculptures of kings and princes and murals of delegations of ambassadors paint a detailed picture of the wealth, influences, and connections of Uzbekistan’s oasis cities. Lucia Marchini speaks to Yannick Lintz and Rocco Rante to find out more.
Painting Pompeii
Richly painted frescoes enlivened the often dark and claustrophobic rooms of Roman houses. How was this interior world of colour created? Dalu Jones celebrates the triumph of Pompeii and Herculaneum’s frescoes.
Marks of devotion: exploring historic graffiti in St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall
The distinctive red sandstone edifice of St Magnus Cathedral is an unmistakeable landmark in Orkney’s largest town – as well as a fascinating repository of Kirkwall’s history. A recent graffiti survey there has recorded hundreds of markings and inscriptions dating from the medieval period to the present day. What can they tell us about the hopes, fears, and experiences of generations of visitors to the sacred site? Carly Hilts toured the cathedral with custodian Fran Flett Hollinrake to find out more.
Clachtoll: an Iron Age broch settlement in Assynt, north-west Scotland
Review by Ronan Toolis The excavation of Clachtoll in 2017 examined the interior of a broch buried beneath a conflagration that had occurred during the early 1st century AD and untouched since. This book examines an impressive assemblage of finds…
The Marlborough Mound: prehistoric mound, medieval castle, Georgian garden
Review by Stephen Rippon Silbury Hill in Wiltshire is one of our best-known prehistoric monuments, but was it unique? It seems not, as a similar – if somewhat smaller – mound appears to have lain ‘hidden in plain sight’ just…
Walking the Antonine Wall
Review by Andrew Tibbs Stretching for 38 miles across central Scotland, between the Firths of Forth and Clyde, the Antonine Wall is perhaps not as well-known as its southern counterpart, Hadrian’s Wall, but it is no less of an enigmatic…
‘Not so much a residence as a tradition’: the evolution of St James’s Palace from leper hospital to royal court
Buckingham Palace has been the main London residence of the British monarch since 1837, when Queen Victoria chose it as her base, but St James’s Palace remains the official seat of the sovereign, as it has since 1698. Newly appointed ambassadors, therefore, are accredited to ‘the Court of St James’s’, and it is from there that the public proclamation of a new sovereign is first read. Despite this, a comprehensive account of the 800-year history of this royal palace has only just been published, as Chris Catling reports.
The sky’s the limit: surveying the aerial photography of Harold Wingham
Almost 2,000 images taken by Harold Wingham (1924-2021), an unsung pioneer of archaeological aerial photography, have been made available to the public for the first time in a new project by Historic England. CA explores his life and work.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire: the Roman frontiers in Wales
Review by Al McCluskey The Roman Frontiers in Wales is one of the latest tranche of publications in the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ series. Co-authored by David Breeze and Peter Guest, this neat, informative, and accessible volume brings a…
The Watlington Hoard: coinage, kings, and the Viking Great Army in Oxfordshire, AD 875-880
Review by Murray Andrews This exciting new book is the definitive publication of the Watlington Hoard, a remarkable find of precious metal coins, ingots, and jewellery hidden in Oxfordshire in the late 870s AD and rediscovered in October 2015. Richly…
‘One of the most valuable women that ever lived’
During archaeological works beneath the floor of Bath Abbey between 2018 and 2020 (see CA 348), Wessex Archaeology recovered a stunning piece of an 18th-century bas relief marble sculpture. It was one of approximately 4,000 fragments removed from the Abbey’s…
Excavating the archives… from Fife to Moray
This stunning coastal location is better known for its Pictish carvings, but researchers have shown that it has a much longer, and more enigmatic, prehistoric pedigree, dating back at least as far as the Bronze Age.
Tutankhamun – Pharaoh, Icon, Enigma: Lost for Three Thousand Years, Misunderstood for a Century
by Prof. Joyce Tyldesley.Headline, 2022ISBN 978-1-472-28984-1Hardback, £22. Do we need another book on Tutankhamun? The author herself has already published two Tutankhamun-focused works – the 2012 Tutankhamen’s Curse (reviewed in AE 71) in particular already covers much of the same…
From the Princes in the Tower to Northumbria’s Golden Age
Beneath the foundations of the staircase, the workmen found a wooden chest containing human bones and pieces of velvet. Charles II arranged for the remains to be reinterred in Westminster Abbey, but the bones were re-examined in 1933.
Dying Young: a bioarchaeological analysis of child health in Roman Britain
Review by Claire Hodson Over the last decade, numerous studies have challenged the traditional assumptions that the words ‘Roman Britain’ may incite. Included within this re-evaluation has been the increase in osteological analyses to reveal further insights into those working,…
Iron from Tutankhamun’s Tomb
by Katja Broschat et al.AUC, 2022ISBN 978-1-617-97997-2Hardback, £29.95. This is a lavish production from American University in Cairo Press, though at 62 pages long it is a rather slim volume. The book provides, for the first time, a complete account…
The London Gasketeers
The London Gasketeers (the name alludes, one assumes, to the swashbuckling heroes of the Alexander Dumas novel) are a newly created group set up to campaign for Britain’s historic gas lamps. Founded in January 2022, the Gasketeers operate by using…
Finds tray – Chinese lion figurine
This is a rare find – at least within Britain – that was recently discovered by archaeologists from Pre-Construct Archaeology at Bermondsey Square in Bermondsey, London. It is a stoneware lion figurine, probably Chinese in origin, but was found in…
Hilary Wilson on… fish in ancient Egypt
In this issue HW looks at how this major source of protein was shared among the ancient Egyptian population, and asks, “Who ate all the fish?”
Tutankhamun, King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife
by Aidan Dodson.AUC, 2022ISBN 978-1-6490-3161-7Hardback, £29.95. Aidan Dodson continues his pharaonic series with a volume on Tutankhamun “offered unapologetically” as an addition to the numerous books released or reprinted in time for the centenary. The book follows the format of…
The Story of Tutankhamun: An Intimate Life of the Boy Who Became King
by Garry J. Shaw.Yale University Press, 2022ISBN 978-0-300-26743-3Hardback, £16.99. So much has been written about Tutankhamun and his tomb since its discovery that it is an achievement for any writer to find an original angle to illuminate their narrative. Garry…
Tutankhamun and the Tomb that Changed the World
by Bob Brier.Oxford University Press, 2022ISBN 978-0-1976-3505-6Hardback, £21.99. The present volume is a reminder of how writing (rather than just the theories) about Tutankhamun has in some ways changed quite markedly over time – and in some ways stayed the…
Medicine and healing practices in ancient Egypt
Rosalie David and Roger Forshaw present a new perspective on healthcare in ancient Egypt.
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.
Warrior Tutankhamun: fragile pharaoh no more
In this special anniversary issue celebrating a hundred years since the discovery of KV62, we begin with new evidence that Bob Brier believes will change how we view Egypt’s most famous pharaoh.
In Carter’s footsteps: a legacy in epigraphy
Tutankhamun and Howard Carter: two men whose lives are separated by more than three thousand years, but now and forever intertwined in the annals of history. The discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in November 1922 would seal the fate of both men and have long-lasting implications for the study and popularity of ancient Egypt. But Carter’s contribution to Egyptology goes much further than his leading role in the world’s most famous archaeological discovery, as Carl Graves reports.
The First Resurrection of Tutankhamun
Continuing our 100th anniversary celebration of the finding of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Aidan Dodson looks at the ‘prehistory’ of the king, and how early scholars pieced together the evidence for this obscure king prior to the discovery of his tomb in 1922.
The Complete Tutankhamun: 100 Years of Discovery
by Nicholas Reeves.Thames & Hudson, 2022ISBN 978-0-5000-5216-7Hardback, £40. Who does not have a copy of the 1990 The Complete Tutankhamun on their bookshelves? This new, expanded, centenary edition follows the same format, but is updated to incorporate the “extraordinary advances”…
Decorated ivories
What is it? This collection of decorated ivory plaques found in Jerusalem was probably once inlaid in a piece of ornate wooden furniture. The plaques, which are believed to date to the 8th-7th centuries BC, were discovered broken into many…
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.