CATEGORIES
فئات
ROMAN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT AUGUSTODUNUM
More than 230 graves have been uncovered at a necropolis in the French city of Autun, revealing a diverse mix in burial practices over a period of nearly 200 years, as well as luxury grave goods from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD that highlight the wealth of some of its ancient inhabitants.
INTO THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
DEIR EL-BAHRI, 1894
Tensions were already high among the archaeologists, surveyors, and artists of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt in 1891 when an eventful dispute arose on Christmas Eve.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.
A STUDY IN PURPLE
A tiny speck of purple paint from the 2nd century AD may yield clues to how ancient artists created the extraordinary portrait panels that accompanied mummified bodies into the afterlife.
Rome In The 8th Century: A History In Art
John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582
Thebes City Of Myths
Sparta is famous for its warrior tradition, Athens for its intellectual and artistic achievement. But what of Thebes? As ancient historian Paul Cartledge explains, Thebes too had a most distinctive image.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX? PLYMOUTH'S NEW MUSEUM OPENS
stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums
PARTHENON, ATHENS, 1907
In 1903, the photographer Fred Boissonnas made his first trip to Greece with his frequent collaborator, the writer and art historian Daniel Baud-Bovy.
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc 1814-1879
“Viollet-le-Duc needed connections: he had elected not to study architecture, preferring to learn on the job.”
ANGLO-SAXON BURIALS REVEALED
Two excavations in England have revealed important Anglo-Saxon burials, dating back as early as the 6th century AD, that shed light on the different communities living in southern Britain at that time.
THE TENTH MUSE
Angelica Kauffman was one of the most sought-after artists in 18th-century Europe. She cast aside convention to forge a remarkable career in London and Rome, not just as a portraitist, but also as a history painter, as Bettina Baumgärtel tells Lucia Marchini.
EARTHQUAKE HITS ZAGREB
In recent months, museums and other institutions around the world have been struggling to deal with the unprecedented economic and logistical fallout of COVID-19.
THE ANTIQUARIAN: Lady Hester Stanhope 1776-1839
It is unusual to feature in a magazine like ours a woman who ordered an ancient statue ‘broken in a thousand pieces’. In April 1815, Lady Hester Stanhope was in Israel, at a site called Ashkelon.
PAVING THE WAY
The dramatic opening up of a sinkhole outside the Pantheon – the 2nd century AD ‘temple of all the gods’ (now a Catholic church) on Rome’s Piazza della Rotunda – has offered a tantalising glimpse of the imperial Roman paving beneath the present-day city streets.
MUSES RETURN TO STOWE
An important lost group of statues of the nine Muses – inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts – has been reinstated to the grounds of Stowe, one of Britain’s great country houses.
CIVILISATION BEGINS
Neil Faulkner reports on a new Getty Villa exhibition focused on the huge cultural contribution of the world’s oldest civilisation – Mesopotamia.
BOOK REVIEWS
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF ANCIENT CITIES: A NATURAL HISTORY
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.
Eugène Boban (1834-1908)
In the mid 19th century, new national museums were opening across Europe.
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
In The Lap Of Luxury
Nicole Benazeth visits an exhibition of treasures in Arles that shows how the other half lived in the ancient world.
Magnificent Monteverdi
Tom Ford pays tribute to the ground-breaking Italian composer, born 450 years ago, one of the great musicians celebrated in the V&A‘s upcoming exhibition Opera: Passion Power and Politics.