Architecture in Roman Britain by Guy de la Bédoyère The Roman period was Britain’s first great architectural age, though this is difficult to appreciate from the ruinous state of the sites that survive. Understanding the types and range of buildings that existed in Roman Britain depends on careful excavation of foundations and wall footings, together with fragments of windows, roofs and carved architectural decoration discovered among the debris. When this evidence is taken together with examples of better-preserved buildings that still exist in Europe, the Near East and North Africa, it is possible to recreate something of the architecture of…
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Yuval Peleg Israeli Antiquities Authority’s head district archaeologist for the Jordan Valley Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yuval Peleg is the head district archaeologist for the Jordan Valley. His excavations at Qumran, conducted mainly from 1993-2004, have brought him into the middle of the debate raging over the Dead Sea Scrolls. He worked alongside fellow archaeologist Yitzhak Magen. The two of them found that the site was not an Essene settlement and that the scrolls were deposited in nearby caves by refugees fleeing the Roman army, after the fall of Jerusalem, in 70 A.D. Peleg holds an MA in archaeology from the…
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Description Zahi Hawass takes you inside the new tombs at Saqqara, the Valley of the Kings, and the temple of Taposiris Magna. See the tombs of Nefret-swt and Qar, and come along on the search for KV64 and the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony! Related Heritage Experts Zahi Hawass Credits Images by Sandro Vannini & Niccolò Piazza Transcription If someone ask me a question now and say: «What is the most recent discovery that you made?» I can say: «I’m inside a tomb located west of the step pyramid, the oldest pyramid in Egypt». This tomb is under the…
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What lies behind the legends of King Arthur? Fragments of history, or just wishful thinking? While historians study the ancient manuscripts, modern archaeologists join in the hunt for clues. From Arthur’s ‘birthplace’ at Tintagel to the fabled ‘Isle of Avalon’, we sift through the evidence. Journeying across Arthur’s Britain, we search for Camelot and the sites of his battles. Do the remains confirm or contradict the traditional accounts? Far from providing objective proof, Christopher Gidlow shows how archaeologists’ interpretation of their discoveries reflects the academic fashions of their times. Sites which in the 1960s were used to prove King Arthur’s…
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Archaeologists have made two major tomb discoveries at the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan. They discovered a rock-cut tomb that contained the skeletal remains of 61 individuals, along with a wealth of wooden artefacts, animal bones and ceramics. The second discovery was made at a place called tomb 676. While excavating it archaeologists found a gold medallion with an Islamic inscription on it. The find dates to long after the tomb was abandoned. “This object was placed in the tomb in a later period – perhaps as a way of warding off evil coming from the tomb,” said Professor David Johnson, of Brigham Young University in Utah, who led the team that made both tomb…
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The cemetery at Saqqara is one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt. Over six kilometres long, it boasts thousands of underground burial sites, as well as the six-step Djoser pyramid – Egypt’s oldest pyramid. The ruins at Saqqara have long attracted the interest of explorers, grave-robbers and local people. Travellers first reported evidence of antiquities at Saqqara in the 16th century. The Djoser Pyramid and the smaller pyramids around it were hard to miss – but the size of the necropolis only became apparent with the advent of excavations in the 19th century. It was not until Napoleon…
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Recent archaeological work at the site of Tell Tayinat in southeast Turkey, near the Syrian border, indicates that the ancient city was the centre of a Dark Age kingdom, ruled by people from the Aegean area. In an in-depth interview Professor Timothy Harrison, of the University of Toronto, told Heritage Key about this startling theory and the evidence that supports it. Around 1200 BC life changed suddenly throughout the Mediterranean world. The Mycenaean civilization in Greece and Crete, the Egyptian New Kingdom and the Hittite Empire, all collapsed at roughly the same time. It’s not until 900 BC that archaeologists…
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Stonehenge leaps out from its West Country surroundings like Liberace in a dole queue, so it’s no surprise that Britain’s grandest prehistoric monument has been the focus of a myriad projects since the dawn of archaeology. So what is Stonehenge’s archaeological history? And what light has centuries of excavation shed on the enigmatic treasure? Aubrey Discovers (Some of) The Aubrey Holes Stonehenge’s recorded archaeological history begins at the turn of the 17th century, with a small dig carried out by the pre-eminent physician William Harvey. Yet as much as Harvey was a pioneer of medicine, he was hardly a dab…
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Finished in 2560 BC, the Great Pyramid of Giza took 20 years to build. 3,000 years on, it doesn’t look like major Egyptian construction projects have hurried up any. It was recently announced that the opening date for the Grand Egyptian Museum – the massive centerpiece attraction of the epic new vision for the Giza plateau, two and a half kilometres from the pyramids – has been pushed back to 2013, after the latest in a long-running series of delays for the building. The project was officially commenced in 1992, which means that even if the GEM does open on…
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The question of how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built is one of the most hotly-debated topics in ancient history. Maverick French architect and self-styled “Mr Pyramid” Jean-Pierre Houdin is determined that he has the answer – the the 4,569 year-old monument was, he argues, erected from the inside-out, using an internal ramp built into the fabric of the structure. Others are skeptical of his theory, but Houdin is certain he has the proof. Here he gives some exclusive insights into his life and work (a decade-long obsession), launches a broadside at the Egyptology fraternity that he feels still…