CATEGORIES

ANCIENT CITIES OF ILLYRIA

Albania, one of Europe’s smallest and least-known countries, is an archaeological treasure-house. Oliver Gilkes, an archaeologist with 20 years of experience there, provides an introduction.

Glories Of The Met

There are many outstanding examples of ancient art in the Met’s collections. We take a look at a few highlights – both from the exhibition Making the Met and elsewhere in the museum – that open a window on to the institution’s past.

The Roof Of The World

Humans have lived in the Arctic Circle for more than 30,000 years, overcoming environmental challenges to produce objects of great beauty, usefulness, and ingenuity. Maev Kennedy looks forward to a new exhibition at the British Museum, the first to be devoted to the region’s history and culture, and to the changes in its climate which now threaten its future.

TEMPLES OF TYRANNY

Archaeologist Neil Faulkner argues that the Greek temples of Sicily are monuments to both civilisation and barbarism.

SARCOPHAGUS REVEALED UNDER THE ROMAN FORUM

A team of archaeologists and architects announced the ‘extraordinary’ discovery of a 2,600-year-old shrine directly beneath the Roman Forum – and they have suggested that it might be associated with the cult of Romulus, Rome’s legendary founder and the first king of the city.

VISIONS OF EGYPT

Three Victorian artists – Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Edward Poynter, and Edwin Long – helped to shape our image of the distant past. Stephanie Moser describes how their passion for archaeology and love of domestic objects produced a wealth of detailed, descriptive paintings.

MONUMENTAL MEXICO

The Olmecs are best known as the creators of Mexico’s first civilisation, and for making some of the country’s most extraordinary works of art. Claudia Zehrt surveys a major new exhibition that aims to bring their history and culture to a European audience, and includes many fascinating pieces that have never left Mexico before.

Eugène Boban (1834-1908)

In the mid 19th century, new national museums were opening across Europe.

ANCIENT LUXURY GOODS

A new study has shed light on the trade and production of decorated ostrich eggs across the Mediterranean region and in the Middle East during the Bronze Age and Iron Age.

FROM THE ARCHIVE - STONEHENGE PICNIC, 1860S

Relaxing in the shade of Stonehenge’s towering trilithons, these Victorian picnickers are dwarfed by the Neolithic monument in whose circuit they sit.

150 YEARS OF THE MET

On 13 April 1870, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded. Celebrating this anniversary, a new exhibition explores how America’s largest art museum came into being, and looks at the changes it has gone through in its 150-year history. The curator Andrea Bayer tells Lucia Marchini some of its stories.

Remembering Carthage

Dalu Jones traces the history of the great Phoenician city, the home of Hamilcar and Hannibal, condemned by Cato, conquered by Scipio Africanus, commemorated in Dido’s heart-rending lament and currently celebrated in an exhibition at the Colosseum in Rome

Over The Moon

As we reflect on the 50th anniversary of our first tentative steps on the lunar surface, Louise Devoy explores our fascination with the Moon, as shown in a major exhibition she has co-curated in the National Maritime Museum

On The Horns Of A Dilemma

Dr Jody Joy of the University of Cambridge outlines what life might have been like at a lakeside village of Star Carr 11,500 years ago and what the strangely beautiful skull and antler headdresses found there might signify

Mistress Of Time Travel

Best-selling children’s writer Caroline Lawrence tells Diana Bentley where she finds the inspiration for her pacy, impeccably crafted novels and why young and old alike continue to be fascinated by the ancient world

High-Towered Troy

For over 3000 years the Iliad, Homer’s epic tale of the Trojan War, has inspired poets, artists, playwrights, archaeologists, composers and film-makers as can be seen in Troy: myth and reality, a fascinating new exhibition at the British Museum

Fashion plates

Historian, curator and ex-champion jouster, Tobias Capwell explains how, during the 14th and 15th centuries, a young man wanted to be seen wearing the latest design of armour – not just for show, but because it could help to save his life in combat.

Lost Cities Of Iraq

Two long-lost cities in Iraq have started to emerge: one in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan; the other is thought to be somewhere in the south.

The First 'Hammer Of The Scots'

Simon Elliott describes how Septimius Severus, a ruthless but extremely effective Roman emperor and military commander, dealt with troublesome, warring locals ‘north of the border’ in Britannia

In The Farnese Gardens

Dalu Jones explores the newly restored monumental terraces, grottoes, frescoes and fountains of the ancient Roman gardens on the Palatine Hill In Rome

Monsters Of The Mind

Dominic Green meets a collection of holy terrors, alien beings and awesome wonders at New York’s Morgan Library & Museum

Devotion And Decadence

After its tour to four venues across the US, then to Paris and Copenhagen, Devotion and Decadence: The Berthouville Treasure and Roman Luxury has reached its final destination at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) in New York.

Twilight Of The Gods

Professor Maarten J Raven, who is retiring after 40 years at the National Museum of Antiquities of the Netherlands, shows us round his farewell exhibition, Gods of Egypt.

King Of The World

Far from being simply a power-grabbing ruler and military strategist, the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal was a scholar, who assembled the first comprehensive library in the world, discovers Dominic Green when he visits the British Museums new exhibition.

Anglo-Saxon Attitudes

David Miles pays fulsome tribute to the late Jean Manco and reviews her last book probing the roots of the Anglo-Saxons, which is also the subject of a landmark exhibition on show at the British Library.

Pointing The Finger

The Campana art collection was assembled in Italy, acquired by Napoleon III, and then dispersed among the museums of France, including the Louvre, and also the Hermitage in Russia; Dalu Jones traces its journey.

Victorian Classics

As the iconic painting Flaming June returns to Leighton House Museum in London, Dominic Green looks at the influence of the Classical World on the inscrutable artist Frederic, Lord Leighton.

The Wrong Caesars

As a dozen Renaissance gilded silver treasures, the Aldobrandini Tazze or Twelve Caesars, go on show at Waddesdon Manor, Professor Mary Beard unscrews the puzzle of how the Roman emperors and dishes got mixed up

Horse Sense

Dominic Green explores the fi ne equine imagery on Ancient Greek vases and coins in a wide-ranging exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

‘To Cause Justice To Prevail In The Land...'

There is much more to the 282 laws of Hammurabi than ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ explains Diana Bentley, who pays tribute to the remarkable legal code instituted by the king of Babylon nearly 4000 years ago. 1