Athribis: The Temple of Ptolemy XII
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith explores the ruined Graeco-Roman temple at Athribis in Upper Egypt.
Travel
Excavations at Monte Cassino
In the first of a two-part feature, Richard Hodges untangles the early evolution of the famed Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino.
Jailhouse Rocks: Exploring archaeological echoes of Australia’s earliest colonists
The city of Sydney has changed beyond recognition since it was founded as Britain’s first Australian penal colony in 1788. Carly Hilts set out to explore some of the surviving traces of its earliest years.
The Royal Road to Meroë
Karl Harris continues his journey through Sudan, retracing one of the overland routes taken by the Meroitic rulers of Kush.
The Golden Age of the Kingdom of Georgia
The Caucasus is a region where nations have often found themselves sandwiched between competing great powers. Christoph Baumer examines the political intrigues and military struggles that led to the rise and fall of the Kingdom of Georgia, while taking in some of the key monuments from the era.
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…
Volos: Archaeology and myth in Thessaly
Looking for somewhere off the beaten track to explore in Greece? Martin Davies is our guide to the rich prehistoric heritage of Volos.
Ventotene: A prison that was a university
A free and united Europe is the necessary premise to the strengthening of modern civilisation… The Ventotene Manifesto (1941).
St George’s Hill, Damoulianata, Kefalonia
Last summer, one day stands out. While on holiday on the Ionian island of Kefalonia, I persuaded three friends to spend a morning investigating a castle that has intrigued me. Situated on a high hill, the ruins command breathtaking views…
Sicily: An isle of myth
The impressive ancient temples, villas, and theatres of Sicily understandably attract the attention of many visitors, but looking beyond the monuments to their spectacular natural surroundings and the stories they inspired also offers a way to understand the island’s ancient societies. David Stuttard guides us through Sicily’s mythological landscapes.
Western Macedonia: forgotten highlands of Greece
The archaeological gems on show in a neglected region of Greece help to shed light on the success of Alexander the Great, as Alex Rowson reveals.
Grama Bay: where the Ionian blue begins
Richard Hodges has been following in the wake of generations of mariners by investigating the extraordinary concentration of inscriptions carved into the rock of Grama Bay, Albania.
Asterix’s legacy at Alésia
Richard Hodges explores Alésia in Burgundy and the legacy of Julius Caesar’s defeat of Vercingétorix and the Gauls.
Aquincum: a museum and archaeological park in an urban setting
On 10 May 1894, Aquincum Museum in Budapest opened its doors to the public. Here, in anticipation of the forthcoming anniversary of that event, David Breeze recounts his connection to the museum and its archaeological park.
Touring the ancient theatres of Epirus, Greece
The mountains and forests of Epirus offer a dramatic backdrop for a tour through the theatres of the Greek region’s ancient cities. Diana Bentley finds stories of a famed oracle and a celebrated victory along the way.
Travels in an antique land: the Temple of Nekhbet-Hathor at Elkab
Each issue, AE magazine goes off the beaten track to explore some of Egypt’s lesser known sites, new museums, and newly opened monuments, with tips to help the independent traveller. In this issue, the intrepid Karl Harris searches for a small New Kingdom temple in the Wadi Hilal at Elkab.
The British Institute at Ankara: 75 years researching Turkey
As the British Institute at Ankara celebrates a major birthday, CWA casts an eye over what it has achieved, and where it is heading.
Clare Tuffy and Newgrange
I would restore the great chambers of Boyne, prepare a sepulchre under the cupmarked stones. Seamus Heaney, ‘Funeral Rites’
Narbo Via Archaeological Museum
The city of Narbonne in southern France has opened a brand new archaeological museum. Roger Wilson is our guide.
Sexten, Italy: meditations on a moment of madness
Richard Hodges has been visiting Sexten, where the alpine scenery still bears the traces of fighting in the First World War.
Underground Naples
The layers of tunnels under Naples preserve traces of Greek life and death in ancient Italy. Dalu Jones heads beneath the surface to visit ongoing restoration work that is making an ancient tomb and its rare surviving Greek paintings accessible to the public.
881: Sacking San Vincenzo al Volturno
In the conclusion to this two-part article, Richard Hodges examines the circumstances surrounding the attack on the Benedictine monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno in AD 881.
881: a 9th-century feudal calamity
In the first of a two-part piece, Richard Hodges explores the story of San Vincenzo al Volturno.
Tracy Roberts and LoveItaly
Based in Rome, LoveItaly is now in its seventh year and its accent is decidedly American and not patrician. It owes everything to the dynamism of a Californian who is every bit as Roman as the Romans.
Who beheaded the emperors of Chiragan?
One of the finest collections of Roman emperors is to be found hidden away in the Musée Saint-Raymond, the archaeological museum of Toulouse, in south-western France. But where did they come from, and how did such a magnificent collection of Roman emperors come to lose their heads?
The Lost City of Norchia
Upper Palaeolithic flints, Eneolithic tombs, and remains of a Bronze Age semicircular hut, as well as a tomb with a Villanovan shield, show that the place evolved over time, before being bafflingly abandoned in the earlier Iron Age.
Queen Adelaide’s castle in the Tuscan marches
Thanks to modern scientific analyses, the every-day circumstances of Tuscany’s Dark Age peoples are no longer mute. One thing is certain from this excavation: objects and nature played an active part in transforming the primitive experiences of Tuscany’s 9th-century peasants and their early feudal masters into some of the most sophisticated lifestyles in Europe by the 12th century.
Esfahan, Iran
Esfahan is little known in the West, but it has some of the world’s great architecture – not only mosques, but also its palaces, its gardens, and last but not least, its fine bridges.
Sailing to Ithaca?
Is Ithaca, in fact, Odysseus’ island, where Penelope faithfully weaved, steadfastly waiting for her mischievous prince in their well-appointed palace?
Museo Nazionale: An Etruscan Renaissance in Florence
While there are impressive artefacts from all periods within, including a fantasy courtyard made from sculptural fragments of Roman Florentia, its glory is really the series of Etruscan antiquities.
Penn Museum: a museum for the coming decades
The symbol of the new Penn Museum is in the refurbished main entrance hall. On a prominent podium behind the ticket desks sits the Museum’s celebrated sphinx. Richard Hodges reports.
The horizon of Khufu: inside the Great Pyramid
The sheer scale of Khufu’s Great Pyramid is breathtaking, but there is more to this audacious monument than immediately meets the eye, as Matthew Symonds recalls.
Albania: the visit of the World Bank President
Let me go back over a quarter-century to Albania on a blissful autumn day in 1995 when, like a Martian, the President of the World Bank descended upon us.
Chania: a new year’s day hike
Ancient Kydonia, as Chania was known to Homer, owes its origins – like Knossos – to Neolithic times.
Lascaux IV
As far as I could tell, every minor contour of the original has been replicated, as of course have the paintings themselves.
Appointing Pompeii’s Director
Beyond the island I saw the thin campanile of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which houses the Mouth of Truth, a bucket- list ‘must’ thanks to the incomparable Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953).