Researchers identify first direct evidence of ancient drug use in Europe
Until now, evidence of drug use in prehistoric Europe has mostly been derived from archaeobotanical remains, artistic depictions, and chemical analysis of artefacts
ritual
Gods of Thunder: How Climate Change, Travel, and Spirituality Reshaped Precolonial America
Review by Eric Singleton It is a welcome departure to see a scholar stepping outside their regionalised field of study to offer an interconnected view of North American history that is not often discussed. This is what Timothy Pauketat, an…
Tomb offerings: a wish list for eternity
Ancient Egyptians believed that the foods and goods listed in their tombs would magically become available to them for eternity. Hilary Wilson reports.
Trove of bronzes found at ancient Italian sanctuary
Archaeological investigations have revealed more than 20 large statues dating from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century AD, as well as thousands of bronze, silver, and gold coins, and many votive objects
Does a hidden door in Tutankhamun’s tomb lead to Nefertiti?
Nicholas Reeves claims the north wall of KV62 originally depicted Tutankhamun burying Nefertiti and was later overpainted to show Ay burying Tutankhamun.
Circles of stone: exploring the monuments of Jomon Japan
Numerous ancient stone circles are known in Japan, but how and why were these monuments built? Simon Kaner examines what these enigmatic structures can tell us about a key period of Japanese prehistory.
CA 391 Letters – September
Your views on the latest issues raised in Current Archaeology.
World news in brief: early Maya calendar, Mesolithic mummies, and a sacred Phoenician pool
A round-up of the latest archaeological stories from across the globe.
Maya maize god head uncovered in Mexico
The team believe that the head of the youthful god, depicted with delicate features, was ‘originally conceived as a beheaded figure’.
Sacred Phoenician pool identified in Sicily
Numerous altars, stelae, votive offerings, and other finds associated with a religious complex were discovered.
Violent conflict on the Peruvian south coast: the dead of Amato
Why did collecting human heads as trophies become so widespread along the south coast of Peru, and who were they being taken from? Lidio M Valdez examines the extraordinary and chilling implications of the archaeology of the Acari valley.
Feminine power: the divine to the demonic
The British Museum recently held a preview of their next exhibition, which is set to explore perceptions and depictions of women in mythology throughout history, across the globe. Carly Hilts reports on the upcoming displays, which will open next month.
The Mesolithic in Britain: landscape and society in times of change
Review by George Nash. The concept of a ‘Mesolithic’, a Middle Stone Age, has been with us since the early 1930s, and many thousands of sites dating to this period have been discovered since, some submerged under our coastal waters.…
Religious Practice and Cultural Construction of Animal Worship in Egypt from the Early Dynastic to the New Kingdom: ritual forms, material display, historical development
Review by Salima Ikram. This book, based on a PhD thesis, focuses on Egyptian ‘animal worship’ from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BC. In the introduction, the author states that the work aims to use multiple theoretical perspectives and…
Peru: the hills are alive
For some ancient Peruvian societies, the past and the future were alive, as were the dramatic landscapes they lived in. Lucia Marchini speaks to Cecilia Pardo, Jago Cooper, and Tom Cummins to find out more about how these concepts permeated the art of the Andes.
This week: Peru
A number of imaginative solutions to the global-warming crisis were on offer this month, as world leaders gathered in Glasgow to discuss ways of tackling climate change – but one subject that was not up for discussion was human sacrifice. As a fascinating new exhibition on the history and culture of Peru makes clear, however, the Inca and other pre-Columbian civilisations of the central Andean region had no such qualms.
Stranger in the Mask of a Deer
‘Dreamer, can you cast your mind back to before you were islanded?’ This thoughtful and thought-provoking book-length poem is described by its author, Richard Skelton, as a ‘call-and-response from the present to the past’. The text drifts into a dream-like…
Iron Age ‘shrine’ discovered in Yorkshire Wolds
The most intriguing aspect of the shrine was the discovery of the skulls of over 40 cattle which had been placed in groups or pairs
Rethinking the Ancient Druids
In her latest book, Miranda Aldhouse-Green argues that we can broadly accept the portrait made of the Druids by ancient Greek and Roman writers, including their alleged practice of human sacrifice; and that many archaeological finds – cherry-picked from all…
Wooden snake figurine
Snakes are rarely depicted in rock art in northern Europe, and are known to have had symbolic significance in the later world views of the Finno-Ugric and Sámi peoples
Rich bronze artefact deposits found at ancient French settlement
Two deposits of spectacular bronze artefacts dating back to the 9th century BC represent the latest discoveries made during a series of archaeological excavations and surveys conducted in the Allier department of central France since 2019.
Drawn and Written in Stone: an inventory of stepped structures and inscriptions on rock surfaces in Upper Tibet (ca.100 BCE to 1400 CE)
For many thousands of years, humans have inscribed their presence on the landscape. They drew or pecked images of the fanciful, representational, or sacred on the walls of caves, rock shelters, rock faces, and boulders, as well as on structures,…
Plaque installed to remember the ‘witches’ of Corstorphine
Between 1563 and 1736, around 4000 people were accused of witchcraft in Scotland – the highest persecution rate across Europe.
World News: Saudia Arabia, South Africa, and Russia
The latest stories in archaeology from around the world, including the discovery of the oldest monumental landscape, new evidence of early human behaviour in South Africa, and the analysis of the Shigir Idol.
Digging returns to the Ness of Brodgar
These are the first examples of wood surviving in situ to be found at the Ness.
Bridge over troubled water: Roman finds from the Tees at Piercebridge and beyond
Ritual or rubbish – how should we interpret objects that ended their days in rivers during the Roman period? Hella Eckardt and Philippa Walton consider this question by exploring the more than 3,600 artefacts that have been recovered from the waters of the Tees at Piercebridge.
The last laugh
Furnished graves smacked of paganism, along with the idea that worldly goods should be laid in the grave for the use of the deceased in the afterlife.
Prehistoric structures in Saudi Arabia
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.
Arabia’s monumental landscape
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…
Darkness dispelled: exploring 1,500 years of life and death at the Sculptor’s Cave
The Sculptor’s Cave, on Scotland’s north-east coast, is best known for the Pictish carvings that give the site its name. Recent research by Ian Armit and Lindsey Büster, however, has drawn together evidence of enigmatic prehistoric funerary practices that were carried out at this remote spot for hundreds of years. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts reports.
Touching the past: encountering Iron Age bog bodies
Bog bodies are particularly potent archaeological discoveries, representing the recognisable faces of people from the past. Why were so many of these figures consigned to watery graves during the Bronze and Iron Ages, and what are scientific advances adding to our understanding of these enigmatic individuals? Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts explores thought-provoking recent research by Melanie Giles.
Arabia’s mustatils identified as the earliest monumental landscape
The discovery of cattle horns and skull fragments during the excavation has been interpreted as an apparent offering, and as confirmation that the structures were built for a ritual, cultic, or religious purpose.
Mounds and monasteries: burials in late Iron Age and early medieval Ireland
The Irish archaeologist Barry Raftery (1944-2010) wrote: ‘Death represents the ultimate confrontation between the human and the supernatural worlds. The surviving burial remains and the associated funerary monuments thus provide us with the clearest and most tangible surviving evidence of religious beliefs and practices’. With this as her theme, Elizabeth O’Brien has studied every excavated Irish burial dating from the period c.200 BC to c.AD 800. She found great diversity and one common strand – burial in close proximity to ancestors or to people regarded as saints, as Chris Catling reports.
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.
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.
The Life Biography of Artefacts and Ritual Practice: with case studies from Mesolithic-Early Bronze Age Europe
Within the context of burial and ritual, archaeologists have found it near-impossible to understand why mundane objects became the focus for ritual deposition. I suppose it is all too easy to look at anthropology and ethnography to get some of…