Another Nefertiti
Two decades after the discovery of the famous Berlin bust, a chance discovery was made in 1933 of a sculptors’ workshop at Amarna containing another unfinished head of Akhenaten’s queen.
pigments
The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt
REVIEW BY J PETER PHILLIPS This seminal work was first published by Thames & Hudson in 1995. The reprint is described by the publishers as a ‘compact hardback edition’ and includes a new foreword by Ahdaf Soueif, an Egyptian novelist…
Rock art of Wadi Rum: Preliminary investigations into the prehistoric and protohistoric past
Survey work in Wadi Rum is revealing fascinating new insights into the age and variety of its rock art. Genevieve von Petzinger and George Nash share the findings so far.
Ancient Egypt news in brief
• An international team analysing the wall paintings in the tomb of Thutmose III has found an unusual combination of high-quality pigments and innovative colour blends reflecting possible Minoan influences. This suggests close cultural contacts between the Egyptian and Minoan…
Only UK example of Tyrian purple found in Carlisle
Testing on organic matter discovered by archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong has identified it as the first example of Tyrian purple pigment found not just in the UK, but in the whole of northern Europe. This exciting find was unearthed during…
A Comprehensive Survey of Rock Art in Upper Tibet – Volume I: Eastern Byang thang
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH If I had been asked a few months ago what I knew about a vast rock-art assemblage in Tibet, I would have simply shrugged my shoulders and asked what, when, where, and why. But then, thinking…
Tudor paintings revealed at Christ’s College, Cambridge
Rare early 16th-century wall paintings have been uncovered – for the first time in almost 300 years – in the loft space of the First Court building at Christ’s College, Cambridge. Restoration work to the 15th-century building revealed three crowned…
Cova Dones: A surprising Palaeolithic cave-art site
A major new cave-art discovery has recently been made in Cova Dones, Spain. The nature of these images poses fascinating questions about how and where Palaeolithic people created such art, as Aitor Ruiz-Redondo told Matthew Symonds.
Science Notes: Determining the textures and colours of the Parthenon Sculptures
When you envisage Greek statues and friezes, you probably picture pure white marble sculptures, pockmarked with age – that is, after all, how they appear today. But that was not how they appeared to the ancient Greeks who made them,…
Exotic colour and pigments in early Ancient Egypt
Barbara Boczar investigates the sources of the wonderful colours used by ancient Egyptian artisans.
Painting secrets revealed
A study just published by an interdisciplinary team from Belgium and France has revealed small changes and ‘touch-ups’ to paintings in Theban tombs, showing that images were often adapted and reworked during their execution, rather than created by means of…
Colours of ancient Egypt
Painting the zodiac Colourful ceiling paintings including the signs of the zodiac have been revealed at the temple of Esna in Egypt. Executed in relief, the images also depict planets and other constellations, snakes, crocodiles, and hybrid creatures such as…
Moche murals revealed
Archaeologists working at the Moche site of Pañamarca, which is in western Peru, have uncovered intriguing depictions of a two-faced figure among the murals of its pillared hall. This building, which archaeologists believe may have been the most important at…
Esna zodiac
A beautifully painted zodiac ceiling has been revealed at the Temple of Esna following cleaning and restoration work by a German-Egyptian team. The colourful scenes, carved on the ceiling of the Roman Period columned hall, have not previously been published,…
Museum openings and reopenings around the world
The Manchester Museum, Bengaluru's new art gallery, and the House of the Vettii in Pompeii open to the public.
Researchers identify bird species on wall painting from Amarna palace
Kingfishers and pigeons had previously been identified amid this scene in the palace’s so-called ‘Green Room’, but new research has offered explanations of further details.
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.
Conserving Crathes Castle’s painted ceilings
The project involved extensive remedial conservation work to secure the rare, 17th-century painted ceilings for future generations.
The elusive cave writing of Lascaux
When Jean-Luc Champerret explored the Lascaux caves soon after their rediscovery, he saw not paintings but ancient writing. With the publication of his extraordinarily imaginative interpretation, Simon Coppock revisits the caves and their elusive, poetic markings.
Early ochre workshop discovered in east Asia
The study suggests that the site may represent an early colonisation attempt by modern humans.
The House of the Harpist
A remarkable group of luxurious wall paintings has been discovered at a rich Roman residence called the House of the Harpist in Arles, southern France. The house was discovered beneath an 18th-century glassworks factory in the Trinquetaille district, on the…
A trick of the light: the Great North Museum
Glowing in vivid technicolour against a pitch-black backdrop, the stone blocks pictured here are part of a group of seven Roman altars that have been reimagined in colour using only projected light – all as part of a new, immersive…
Revealing the Lady of Baza’s true colours
The painted sculpture depicting a seated woman was found inside a burial chamber with other rich grave goods.
Examining the Hours of Isabella Stuart
Isabella (c.1427-1494) was the second daughter of James I of Scotland, and was given the manuscript by her husband, Duke Francis I of Brittany, on their marriage.
800-year-old mistake uncovered by modern imaging
A team of researchers have discovered evidence of a mistake made more than 700 years ago while investigating the painted Buddhist temples in the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, China.
A study in purple
Today, more than 1,000 of these mummy portraits survive in museums and collections around the world.
Parsing the properties of Egyptian purple pigments
Between 30 BC and the 3rd century AD, during which period Egypt was a province of the Roman Empire, a practice developed of attaching a portrait of a mummified individual to their mummy wrappings. Approximately 1,100 of these paintings have…
A colourful past: the art and science of illuminated manuscripts
One of the ways that the Fitzwilliam Museum is celebrating its 200th anniversary is by the staging of a splendid exhibition of illuminated manuscripts at the end of July – a very fitting tribute to its founder, reports Theresa Thompson