Personal adornment in early Egypt
Barbara Boczar explores the materials used to create objects for personal adornment in Egypt from the prehistoric to the Early Dynastic periods.
trade routes
Roadside caravanserai in North Sinai
Egyptian excavations at the site of another lost city – ‘Asila’ – in northern Sinai have revealed the remains of an Islamic structure thought to be a caravanserai (roadside inn), on the Darb el-Sultani (‘Sultan’s Road’). Also known as the…
Sunken treasures
The identity of a 17th-century shipwreck containing hundreds of gold coins has been revealed, three decades after its discovery. The wreck, which lies at a depth of c.18m in Salcombe Bay, off the south coast of England, was discovered in…
Genghis Khan: How the Mongols Changed the World
A new exhibition at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds explores the history and legacy of the Mongol Empire. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
In search of the lost Kingdom of Yam
Following in the footsteps of Harkhuf, desert explorer Mahmoud Marai discovers – along with his colleague Mark Borda – an inscription at Gebel Uweinat that sheds light on the whereabouts of the fabled kingdom.
Beyond the luxurious: Tracing the Late Antique ivory trade
Study of ivory use in the early medieval world is revealing fresh insights into how this material was viewed. The results have important implications for our understanding of the scale of the trade, and its impact on the elephants it exploited, as Rowan S English and Julia Steding explain.
Understanding the ‘Band of Holes’
New research is shedding light on the possible function of a mysterious site in southern Peru.
New Kingdom fortress found in Egypt
Excavations by an Egyptian archaeological mission at the site of Tell el-Kharouba in North Sinai have discovered a large military fortress dating to the New Kingdom period, c.1550-1070 BC. Initial archaeological work has revealed part of the fortification’s southern wall,…
An impressive Iron Age settlement
Archaeologists have uncovered a large settlement from the La Tène period in the Hradec Králové region of north-east Bohemia, in the Czech Republic. The discovery was first made in 2023 along the route of a proposed motorway and subsequently investigated…
A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks
REVIEW BY LISA BRIGGS It has been 15 years since A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor was first published and introduced readers to a novel method of breaking down world history into bite-sized, easily digestible…
Ramesses III in Jordan
The cartouches of an Egyptian king, discovered on a rock face in Jordan a decade ago, have now been documented, and confirmed as an inscription of Ramesses III (c.1184-1153 BC). The first such Egyptian inscription to be found in Jordan,…
Ring of Fire: a new global history of the outbreak of the First World War
REVIEW BY JONATHAN EATON In recent years, historians have increasingly sought to understand major conflicts from a genuinely global perspective. While this approach has perhaps always been synonymous with the Second World War, where the shape of the conflict was…
Oasis of archaeology
AlUla is an oasis town in north- western Saudi Arabia with a deep historic past as a major stepping stone for the traders who brought frankincense and myrrh north into Egypt and the Levant.
Bronze Age – Fires of change
A major exhibition at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden explores a period of massive transformation in the Netherlands and beyond. Amy Brunskill spoke to curator Luc Amkreutz to find out more.
Dispersed ancient Mediterranean cities
Ancient city culture was inescapable in the societies where it prevailed. It suffused life to encompass almost everyone. Even the dead.
Nine millennia of life on the banks of the ‘goodly Barow’: Archaeological excavations on the N25 New Ross Bypass in south-east Ireland
Excavations associated with a major road scheme in Co. Wexford and Kilkenny identified more than 35 previously undocumented archaeological sites spanning 9,000 years. James Eogan, Senior Archaeologist at Transport Infrastructure Ireland, reports.
New origin for an ancient game
The game of 58 Holes – also known as ‘Hounds and Jackals’ – is one of the oldest games in the world. It was long thought to have originated in Egypt, with the oldest example dating to the Eleventh Dynasty…
Berenike discoveries
Fragments of four letters have been discovered at Berenike on the Red Sea coast. They were written on papyrus by Roman commanders stationed in Egypt in the reign of Nero (AD 54-68) and name three centurions: Haosus, Lucinius, and Petronius.…
Hilary Wilson on… Lapis Lazuli
One of the most beautiful of all the semi-precious stones used by the ancient Egyptians was imported from quarries far away in Afghanistan.
Military rest stop in northern Sinai
The remains of a royal fortified military rest area have been discovered at Tell Habwa (northern Sinai) by a mission from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The team found the remains of a mud-brick building near the beginning…
After 1177 BC: The Survival of Civilizations
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS In his 2014 book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (reviewed in AE 85) Eric Cline charted the ‘perfect storm of calamities’ that led to the sudden collapse of the thriving interconnected Bronze Age civilisations. In…
Palmyra, Blemmyes, Diocletian, and Egypt
Ancient Egypt Magazine explores an often overlooked period of Egyptian history: the short-lived control of Egypt by Palmyra, and the incursions of the Eastern Desert Blemmyes.
Surveying Khirbet al-Khalde: Global trade and ancient mobility in southern Jordan
Fresh knowledge about global trade and travel is coming to light in the Jordanian desert. A survey project is revealing information about the chronology of a small fort or fortlet and presumed caravanserai at the site of Khirbet al-Khalde in southern Jordan. Taking us through archival data, new archaeological finds, and the use of drone imagery, the co directors of the project Craig Harvey, Emanuele Intagliata, and Rubina Raja unravel new narratives about this fascinating desert site.
Africa and Byzantium
A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York examines
the artistic and cultural relationships between medieval Africa and Byzantium.
Origin of ancient Egypt’s baboons
An interdisciplinary project involving biologists, Egyptologists, and anthropologists has discovered evidence that may pinpoint the actual location of the trading region of Punt, based on the genetic analysis of an ancient mummified baboon discovered in the ‘Valley of the Monkeys’…
In praise of Tating Ware (and high-definition archaeology)
Fifty years ago, I received a life-changing letter. David Peacock, my tutor at Southampton University, offered me a doctoral scholarship to study the imported Frankish pottery from Hamwic, the 7th- to 9th-century emporium at Southampton. The newly formed Southampton Archaeological…
A meteoric discovery
A team of researchers have confirmed that a Bronze Age arrowhead found 150 years ago in Switzerland was made of iron from a meteorite – but not the meteorite they expected. The discovery was made during a recent study of…
Gems and trade
Egyptian researchers have used three spectroscopic techniques for rapid analysis of gemstones from Egypt, revealing their origins and providing a window into historical trade routes. Gemstones peridot (olivine) and emerald, and semi-gemstones beryl, amazonite, and amethyst, from mines in the…
Ancient inscriptions in Saudi Arabia
The mountain of Jabal Ikmah, located 5km north of the ancient city of AlUla in north-west Saudi Arabia, has just been added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register, which recognises documentary heritage of international significance. This is a significant…
Naga: the buried royal city
An exhibition at the State Museum of Egyptian Art (SMÄK) in Munich transports visitors to excavations at the ancient city of Naga in Sudan.
Exotic colour and pigments in early Ancient Egypt
Barbara Boczar investigates the sources of the wonderful colours used by ancient Egyptian artisans.
Liman Tepe: A bridge between worlds
For over 30 years a pioneering project has investigated the prehistory of the Izmir region of Turkey. What has it discovered? Vasıf Şahoğlu told Matthew Symonds an epic tale of rise and fall, connectivity and technology, and the long shadows cast by devastating natural disasters.
Berenike’s Buddha
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums
Roman Aquileia: the impenetrable city-fortress, a sentry of the Alps
Review by Carolynn Roncaglia In AD 452, Attila the Hun led his forces over the eastern Alps into Italy. Straightaway they besieged the city of Aquileia, which for more than 600 years had guarded the way into Roman Italy from…
Fighting the pirates: the dark side of privateering
Pirates or privateers? The buccaneers who haunted the high seas in the 17th and 18th centuries sailed a fine line between fighting Britain’s enemies and profiting themselves. Tim Newark looks at the careers of two notorious figures, and reveals the criminal complexity behind their actions.
Water in the Roman World: engineering, trade, religion, and daily life
Review by Andrew Tibbs In Roman times, water was an important resource, but also had symbolic importance. Waterways acted as arterial routes of the Empire, used by the military, traders, and civilians to move resources and people, while on dry…