Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2023

In this issue

Learn about an ancient African kingdom that thrived at the center of a great maritime trading network. Travel to the Persian capital of Persepolis, where Achaemenid rulers expressed their ambitions for a prosperous, multicultural empire through the city’s grand buildings. Step inside the richly furnished grave of a powerful Celtic woman in France. And journey with us to Patagonia, where hunter-gatherers adapted to some of the world’s most volatile environments over the course of 13,000 years. In these stories—and so many more—this issue of ARCHAEOLOGY brings the past to life.

A NEW DAY FOR THE ANCESTORS' MOUNDS

In fall 2007, Glenna Wallace, chief of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, visited the Octagon Earthworks in the central Ohio city of Newark while attending a lecture series at the Ohio State University in nearby Columbus.

3 mins

Ancient Egyptian Astrology

For centuries, layers of soot have coated the ceilings and columns in the entrance hall of Egypt's Temple of Esna. Now, an Egyptian-German team of researchers, led by Hisham El-Leithy of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and Christian Leitz of the University of Tübingen, is restoring the temple's vibrant painted reliefs to their original brilliance.

1 min

BOG TOGS

A piece of fabric found in a Highland peat bog in the early 1980s has now been determined to be the oldest example of true tartan ever located in Scotland.

1 min

VIKING SUPPORT ANIMALS

The warriors of the Viking Great Army who campaigned in Britain from A.D. 865 to 878 worshipped gods often associated with animal companions, such as Odin and his eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

1 min

UPDATE - TEMPLE TIMES TWO

A team led by archaeologist Jessica Ortiz Zevallos has returned to the Temple of the Painted Pillars at the site of Pañamarca in northwestern Peru, where they have discovered new well-preserved, brightly colored paintings.

1 min

THE PALACE ON TABLET HILL

At the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Girsu A in present-day Tello, in southern Iraq, In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, French archaeologists excavated tens of thousands of cuneiform tablets there.

1 min

A SURPRISE IN SUDAN

Beneath the ruins of the medieval village of Old Dongola, on the Nile in northern Sudan, a team from the University of Warsaw was surprised to find stone blocks that may date to the time of the pharaoh Taharqo (reigned ca.690-664 B.C.).

1 min

BULLISH ON THE STORM GOD

In southern Turkey's Amuq Valley, a curious one-inch-tall lead figurine unearthed at a rural Bronze Age site is giving archaeologists a glimpse of how villagers living around 2000 B.C. responded to a period marked by increasing drought.

1 min

HYBRID HOARD

A hoard of silver and gold items buried in the Netherlands 800 years ago-possibly for safekeeping during a time of war-was recovered by a licensed metal detectorist.

1 min

BIG GAME HUNTING

Archaeologists rarely unearth the remains of large predators such as leopards, lions, and bears. But University of Haifa archaeologist Ron Shimelmitz and his colleagues wondered if, by looking at a large number of sites over thousands of years, they could identify evidence showing that ancient people hunted these fearsome creatures.

1 min

OFF THE GRID

One of Mexico's most important archaeological sites is hidden in plain view in the Tlalpan borough of southern Mexico City.

2 mins

Rise of the Persian Princes

In their grand capital Persepolis, Achaemenid rulers expressed their vision of a prosperous, multicultural empire

10+ mins

An Elegant Enigma

The luxurious possessions of a seventeenth-century woman continue to intrigue researchers a decade after they were retrieved from a shipwreck

7 mins

Inside a Magnificent Celtic Tomb

New investigations of an Iron Age burial in France reveal the source of one woman's exceptional power

10 mins

DEFENDING THE CANYONLANDS

Rare shields from the American Southwest are a legacy of a turbulent time in Native history

8 mins

AFRICA'S MERCHANT KINGS

The early Christian kingdom of Aksum was at the heart of a great maritime trading network

10+ mins

Read all stories from Archaeology

Archaeology Magazine Description:

Each issue of Archaeology offers the grit, and the magic, of archaeological discovery with an up-close view of sites around the world. Readers can look forward to the latest news, vivid storytelling, and compelling photography. Archaeology brings the human past to life.