Archaeology · Archive · The East · Museums · Science
An American archaeologist has carried out a forensic analysis of skulls of people who were buried beside the tombs of Egypt's first kings at Abydos, and has found on many of them traces of violent death. Abydos in Upper Egypt served as the burial place of the kings
The East · Archaeology · Geography · Maps · Science · Rome
I have read an interesting article by the Italian archaeologist Marco Galli of Sapienza University of Rome, "Beyond the Borders: Ancient Rome and Eurasian Trade Networks". Galli examines the Roman Empire's part in trade with India and China in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries AD,
Archaeology · Observations · Science
The acoustics of Etruscan tombs have become the subject of a study. Etruscan chamber tombs were family vaults, and they were opened afresh for every new burial. Funeral rites with feasting, dancing and games are depicted in many of the paintings. The relatives of the deceased returned to these tombs
Archaeology · The East · Books · Science
The Babylonian poem "The Dialogue of a Master with His Slave", which English-language scholarship calls the "Dialogue of Pessimism", has come down to us in copies from Assyria and Babylonia, written in Akkadian. It is assigned to wisdom literature, that is, to instructive texts like
Archaeology · In the Press · Faith · Art · Books · Museums · Science
In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the
The East · Archaeology · Faith · Observations · Ethnography
A Case in Which the Image of an Ancient Nubian Ruler Could Be Mistaken for a Figure of Christ. The petroglyph from Misida (2) in northern Sudan, near the Third Cataract of the Nile, consists of a male figure about two and a half metres tall and two goats. The
Archaeology · Science · Ethnography
In the Bronze Age, it was chiefly the young who moved house in Greece. Researchers have analysed the skeletons of 199 people, found by archaeologists at six sites in central and southern Greece, and concluded that in the Bronze Age it was young people who moved between communities most often.
Paris · Archaeology · Architecture
On the Île de la Cité in the centre of Paris, archaeologists have discovered a section of ancient wall about 20 metres long. The researchers suppose that this wall formed part of the fortifications of Lutetia, the settlement of the Gallic tribe of the Parisii from which Paris later grew.
The East · Archaeology · Science
Undisturbed burials discovered at Göbekli Tepe. Göbekli Tepe lies in south-eastern Turkey. Between 9600 and 8200 BC, hunter-gatherers raised monumental structures and stone pillars here in several stages. This era belongs to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, that is, the early part of the New Stone Age, when people
Archaeology · Science
Findings published on a 17th-century ship sunk off northern Germany. The Polish underwater archaeologist Michał Grzegorz Grabowski of the University of Warsaw has published the results of his study of a 17th-century shipwreck. Divers found the vessel in 2023 in the Greifswald Bay in northern Germany, while preparing
Archaeology · Museums · Heritage · New York
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has handed over to Greece ancient objects that until recently were held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since 2017 the Manhattan prosecutor's office has had a special unit devoted to combating the illicit trade in antiquities, which
The East · Archaeology · Archive · Heritage
A Fragment of the Treaty of Kadesh Has Been Found. Archaeologists working at Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite kingdom on the territory of present-day Turkey, have found a fragment of a clay tablet bearing cuneiform writing, which has turned out to be part of the Treaty of Kadesh.