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Archaeology

Patrick McGovern in his laboratory, examining and "sniffing" out a 3,000-year-old millet wine, which was preserved inside a tightly lidded bronze vessel from an elite tomb at the Shang Dynasty capital of Anyang in China.

Did a thirst for beer spark civilization?

Drunkenness, hangovers, and debauchery tend to come to mind when one thinks about alcohol and its effects. But could alcohol also have been a catalyst for human civilization?

Inside Archaeology

Nile barge docked at Amarna, King Tut Virtual

Edutainment: Is there a role for popular culture in education?

Friday, 15 January 2010

Popular interest in history is peaking like perhaps never before in the 21st century. Films such as Spartan gore-fest 300 have proven big hits at the box office in recent years, and many more ancient world movies – including Centurion, Clash of the Titans and Valhalla Rising – are set to arrive in 2010.

Female Figurine (Front), Fired Clay, Cucuteni, Dr?gu?eni, 4050?3900 BC, Boto?ani County Museum, Boto?ani: 7558

Why did the collapse of old Europe bring a shift from female to male power?

Friday, 15 January 2010

The exhibition "The Lost World of Old Europe," in New York, has raised some very interesting questions about prehistoric societies and how they changed. David Anthony, guest curator of the exhibition and a leading anthropologist specializing in prehistoric Europe, Eurasia, and North America, raised a particularly powerful issue - why did the collapse of a highly sophisticated, matriarchal culture in what is now Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova, lead to a shift of power to men?

Bones and pottery inside one of the tomb shafts.

Tombs of the pyramid builders discovered in Giza, Egypt

Tuesday, 12 January 2010

An archaeological team led by Dr. Zahi Hawass has discovered several new tombs that belong to the workers who built the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre. “This is the first time to uncover tombs like the ones that were found during the 1990s, which belong to the late 4th and 5th Dynasties (2649-2374 BC),” said Dr. Hawass.

The largest piece of the Taharqa statue is pictured here. It includes parts of the base and torso. There is an inscription on the back-pillar.

Massive statue of Pharaoh Taharqa discovered deep in Sudan

Friday, 8 January 2010

No statue of a pharaoh has ever been found further south of Egypt than this one. At the height of his reign, King Taharqa controlled an empire stretching from Sudan to the Levant.

A millefiori stud, which was part of an Anglo-Saxon hoard found by Terry Herbert, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, as he searched a field near his home

Greatest finds of the year

Thursday, 7 January 2010

Image

Grunts from the front: From Roman tablets to army blogs

Thursday, 17 December 2009

Humans have always fought each other, but the written narrative of warfare begins about 6,000 years ago with documents detailing a conflict between Elam and Sumer (modern-day Iran and Iraq). Since then military history has been dominated by the official story of leaders and their strategic political and military decisions. Wars have rarely been narrated by the ordinary foot soldier, pilot or sailor.

Scientists examining the flaking King Tut murals.

The secrets of Tutankhamun's decaying tomb

Monday, 7 December 2009

Guy Adams: Millions of visitors to the Egyptian king's chamber are destroying the wonder they came to see.

Evidence of mass cannibalism uncovered in Germany

Sunday, 6 December 2009

Evidence of mass cannibalism in which even children and unborn babies were on the menu has been uncovered in Germany by archaeologists.

David Lister: Craft does not make art – it takes originality

Tuesday, 1 December 2009

As a debate, "what is art" prefigures most art. France's celebrated prehistoric cave paintings probably had assorted cavemen raising their clubs as they declared: "I may not know much about art but I know what I like." And within the last couple of weeks, there has been an earnest debate in the pages of The Independent on the nature of art. This was sparked by Sir Richard Eyre's polemic on the subject, in which he said, among many other things, that art "makes us look at the world differently".

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