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

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

‘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

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.