In Praise of Antiquity
There is no email I await with greater anticipation and, indeed, trepidation, than one captioned ‘Your radiocarbon results’.
Paid
Mayflower 400: Legend & Legacy
On entering the gallery, visitors are reminded that, despite their prominence in the story of the early colonists, the passengers of the Mayflower were not the first Europeans to settle in the ‘New World’.
Iron Age massacre in Iberia
Post-excavation analysis is now shedding more light on the final days of La Hoya and the devastating attack on the settlement.
Sumerian Plaque
The carving depicts a clean-shaven, elite male figure, perhaps a high-priest or ruler, sitting on a decorated stool, wearing a kaunakes (a type of Sumerian long skirt).
Prokhorovka: the greatest tank battle in history?
Bill Purdue takes a look at recent critical reappraisal of this famous clash of Soviet and Nazi armour in the summer of 1943.
The riches of Ravenna
In a small city on Italy’s Adriatic coast, faces of all-powerful emperors, empresses, and bishops gaze out from glittering mosaics. But why are these magnificent decorations here? Judith Herrin explores the history of Ravenna, a well-connected city and one-time capital of the Western Roman Empire.
Tantra: from ecstasy to enlightenment
Lindsay Fulcher enters the transgressive realm of Tantra. This rebellious Indian cult, which has overturned religious, social, sexual, and political norms from AD 500 to the present day, is currently being celebrated in an exhibition curated by Imma Ramos at the British Museum.
Philip and Alexander: Kings and Conquerors
In the mid 4th century BC, Greece experienced a seismic convulsion whose shockwaves would be felt as far away as India, when an energetic young commander took the throne of Macedon, led his army to a string of victories, and…
Secret Britain: unearthing our mysterious past
From a small spindle whorl to an expanse of moorland, there are many objects, individual sites, and entire landscapes in Britain that offer a portal to the past. In her engaging new book, Mary-Ann Ochota is our guide to the…
Rome in the 8th Century: A History in Art
What do we imagine the city of Rome to have been like in the 8th century AD? With the supremacy of Constantinople as the political and administrative centre of the empire, the Rome of this period – its buildings falling…
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Viollet-le-Duc needed connections: he had elected not to study architecture, preferring to learn on the job.
Aztecs: where eagles dare
Buried beneath Mexico City lie the remains of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan and its sacred centre. Lucia Marchini reports on an exhibition investigating wealth, worship, and empire in pre-Hispanic Mexico.
Thebes: city of myths
Sparta is famous for its warrior tradition, Athens for its intellectual and artistic achievement. But what of Thebes? As ancient historian Paul Cartledge explains, Thebes too had a most distinctive image.
China: in the beginning
Chinese rulers held the disciplines of astronomy and cosmology in high regard for millennia. Dalu Jones
previews an exhibition of exquisite objects exploring the connections between Heaven and Earth.
Tomen y Mur, Snowdonia National Park
Tomen y Mur was abandoned by AD 130, but had lasting political and cultural significance into the medieval period.
Beatles landmarks
Christopher Catling highlights threats to Fab Four-related buildings in their home city of Liverpool
Excavating the CA Archive: Yorkshire 1
The archaeological riches of God's Own Country: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from the past
Julius Caesar’s battle for Gaul
The Gallic War is one of the most famous ancient conflicts, and raged across north-west Europe for almost a decade. Andrew Fitzpatrick explores the archaeology of those dramatic events and their aftermath.
Finds tray – St Thomas Becket ampulla
This is a medieval ampulla, made of lead alloy and probably dating to the late 12th or early 13th century. Discovered by a mudlarker along the Thames foreshore in London, it was probably originally purchased during a pilgrimage to the…
Loughborough Bellfoundry Trust
In October 2020, a public inquiry was under way to consider whether planning consent should be given for the conversion of London’s Whitechapel Bell Foundry into a ‘boutique’ hotel. An alternative proposal has been developed by those who wish to…
Decorated in glory: exploring later-medieval churches in Herefordshire
Churches are what archaeologists call ‘persistent sites’, places used for the same purpose for centuries, even millennia. But that does not mean the churches themselves are static: they represent the accretion of various building interventions of many different kinds and dates. None are richer in art and architecture, though, than those from the period we call ‘Decorated’, as Nigel Saul’s new survey of 14th-century Herefordshire church buildings demonstrates. Current Archaeology's Chris Catling reports.
‘We are only sleeping master’: tracing the evolution of pet cemeteries
Burial grounds dedicated to domestic animals offer unique opportunities to investigate how our relationships with pets have changed over time. When and how did these cemeteries develop? Recent research by Eric Tourigny holds the key to new understanding, as Current Archaeology reports.
Ness of Brodgar: as it stands
The Ness of Brodgar: as it stands Nick Card, Mark Edmonds, and Anne Mitchell (eds) The Orcadian, www.orcadian.co.uk/shop, £35.99 ISBN 978-1912889082 Review CH
Hillforts of the Tay: community archaeology at Moncreiffe Hill and Castle Law, Abernethy
Hillforts of the Tay: community archaeology at Moncreiffe Hill and Castle Law, Abernethy AOC Archaeology Group Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust, £5 ISBN 978-527264052 Review Miles Russell
Gloucester: the Roman forum and post-Roman sequence at the city centre
Gloucester: the Roman forum and post-Roman sequence at the city centre H E Hurst Gloucester Archaeological Publications, £25 ISBN 978-0948386022 Review Richard Hodges
Excavation at Chester: the northern and eastern Roman extramural settlements, excavation 1990-2019 and other investigations
Excavations at Chester: the northern and eastern Roman extramural settlements, excavations 1990-2019 and other investigations Leigh Dodd Archaeopress, £30 IBSN 978-1789696271 Review Nick Hodgson
Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited
Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited Christopher Evans and Gavin Lucas McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, £45 ISBN 978-1902937892 Review Kasia Gdaniec
Letters from CA November 2020/December 2020
Your thoughts on Hilderstone, Bath plaster ceilings, and Norwich Castle
Museum: the American Airpower Museum
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions, with Marc DeSantis
In View
MHM's round-up of the latest military history titles
The Genesis of Air Power, 1909 – 1916
Neil Faulkner begins a short series on the history of airpower and its impact on the evolution of modern warfare.
Letters from MHM December 2020/January 2021
I commend Alexander Izza on his excellent article on Okinawa (MHM 119, October/November 2020) but would take issue with a couple of points.
Turner’s Modern World
All great artists need great subjects. Joseph Mallord William Turner was no exception. Although extremely talented, he was especially fortunate to have lived through stirring times.
War of Words – ‘trench warfare’
Combat on the Western Front during World War One is justly infamous for its grim lethality. Soldiers on both sides dug deep trenches in the earth to escape murderous enemy fire.
The myth of chivalry
Neil Faulkner argues that the supposed ‘supremacy’ of heavy horse on European battlefields in the Middle Ages is a romantic fantasy.
Lancaster: the forging of a very British legend
Penned by former RAF Navigator and Gulf War veteran John Nichol, Lancaster is one of the most enthralling aviation history books I have read. But its succinct title does not do it justice. Its pages narrate not only the history of the legendary bomber but also of those who flew her.