CATEGORIES

Words Of Power & The Power Of Words

Curator Peter Toth explores the crucial role that writing has played, plays, and will continue to play in human history – as shown in cuneiform, hieroglyphs, runes, letters and emojis inscribed across a fascinating exhibition on show at the British Library

Out Of Africa

Matilde de Chantrain describes how African artefacts that inspired modern European painters and sculptors were once categorised as ethnographic, but are now seen as an esteemed art genre valued by collectors worldwide – as shown in a new exhibition in the Archaeological Museum of Bologna

At Home With Homer

An exhibition devoted to the most famous poet of antiquity is on show at the Louvre-Lens Museum – but what do we really know about him, and are we even sure that he composed the great epic poems for which he is famed? Barbara Graziosi sorts out fact from fiction

The Nakedness Of The Nude

Charles Darwent sees through the gauzy prudishness covering the genitalia in the nude paintings of the Renaissance to the naked truth concerning the unclothed human figure

A Classical Touch?

Richard Stoneman evaluates Ancient Greek influence on Indian sculpture and cave paintings following the invasion of Alexander the Great

Along The Wall With Hadrian's Cavalry

The 1900th anniversary of Hadrian becoming Emperor of the Roman Empire is being celebrated in a series of exhibitions at 10 different museums along the great wall he built from east to west across northern Britain.

A Fine Figure

Dominic Green visits Princeton University Art Museum to see the current exhibition of exquisite Ancient Greek red-figure vases, largely the work of the so-called Berlin Painter, whose particular style was identified by the Oxford scholar Sir John Beazley in 1911.

Dining With Socrates And Nero

Nicole Benazeth joins ghostly guests from the past at an exhibition in Marseille that charts the history of the banquet from ancient Greece to Rome.

Blood Lines Of Rome

Classicist and novelist Annelise Freisenbruch describes the challenges and vicissitudes of the lives of women in ancient Rome and tells Diana Bentley why she chose Hortensia to be the heroine of her first novel, Rivals of the Republic.

A Stitch In Time

Jenny Davenport marvels at all the astoundingly intricate works of medieval English embroidery in Opus Anglicanum, a major exhibition currently on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The Hidden Secrets Of Lake Nemi

Headlines last spring announced that a third pleasure-boat built for the Emperor Caligula (r AD 37–41) was about to be recovered from the murky waters of Lake Nemi near Rome. As it turned out, after investigating the facts with the former director of the Museo delle Navi at Nemi, archaeologist Giuseppina Ghini, this was not entirely a matter of ‘much ado about nothing’.

Voyage Of No Return

In 1845 the ill-fated Sir John Franklin and his 129-man crew sailed off in search of the Northwest Passage and were never seen again – at least that is what was thought until some local Inuit people were interviewed. Roger Williams investigates one of Britain's greatest naval mysteries - the subject of an exhibition at London's National MAritime Museum.

Defend Or Destroy?

Guy de la Bédoyère charts the rise and fall of the formidable and privileged Praetorian Guard who were paid to serve as the elite bodyguard of Roman emperors but who might equally well turn on their masters if, and when, they chose to do so.

Picasso – Half Man, Half Bull

Recent stories rom the world of art, archaeology and museums.

Metamorphoses Of The Poet's Mind

John Davie pays homage to the great Roman poet Ovid who died in exile 2000 years ago this year.

For The Love Of The Gods

An exhibition in Naples examines the timeless power of Greek myths, which are as vibrant today as when the Roman poet Ovid penned his Metamorphoses 2000 years ago.

The Galloping Goldsmiths

Everyone has heard of the Scythians but where did they come from, how did they live and what was it that helped them to rise to power?

Taking The Tablets

Paul Chrystal puts the record straight regarding how we know what we know about the Romans.

A Colourful Past

One of the ways that the Fitzwilliam Museum is celebrating its 200th anniversary is by the staging of a splendid exhibition of illuminated manuscripts at the end of July – a very fitting tribute to its founder, reports.

Writing on the Wall

David J Breeze constructs a history of the different theories about Hadrian’s Wall – who constructed it, when and why?

Standing up for the Classics

Lindsay Fulcher talks to the writer, broadcaster and lapsed comedian Natalie Haynes, who makes the ancient world not only accessible to a modern audience but relevant, funny and fascinating.

A Capital Architect

Dr Frances Sands tells us about Robert Adam, the fashionable 18th-century architect whose exquisite plans and designs, inspired by Classical ruins he saw on his Grand Tour and made for London clients, are currently on show at Sir John Soane’s Museum.

Memories of Antiquity

Dominic Green gives us a preview of an exhibition about to open at the Getty Center in Los Angeles that shows us how the ancient world was viewed through medieval eyes.

Unbelievable Treasures

Is Damien Hirst’s trove of ‘antiquities’ brought up from the sea-bed just a shipload of crock, or is it an historically accurate, if anarchistic, tribute to marine archaeology?

Signs and Omens

Although astrology, fortune-telling, the use of amulets and other superstitious practices are frowned upon by Islam, they have been used throughout history for a variety of purposes, as Theresa Thompson discovers in a new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum.

Caesarea Will Rise Again

Archaeology in Caesarea – King Herod’s city, Roman and Byzantine provincial capital, Crusader stronghold and Ottoman village – has been slow in getting off the ground. But now a £47-million renewal project, one of the largest of its kind in Israel, is set to put the ancient city and its treasures firmly on the tourist map.

Casting Director

Artist Marc Quinn talks to Michael Squire about his latest work, Drawn From Life – a series of 12 sculptures installed in Sir John Soane’s Museum, – and reveals what it is about Classical art that has influenced his work.

The Colossus Of Rome

Dalu Jones discovers what happened to the largest amphitheatre in the world after the brutal public fights and barbaric contests ceased.

The Archaeologist Of Artists

Dominic Green looks at the sensual paintings of the acclaimed Victorian artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema currently on show at Leighton House in London.

The Sun Queen

Joyce Tyldesley traces the life of Nefertiti, consort of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, who is Ancient Egypt’s most iconic and, some would say, most beautiful female ruler