In France, archaeologists have uncovered a huge Iron Age chariot burial that is puzzling archaeologists. It is the largest yet found, and belongs to a Celtic aristocrat who enjoyed high social standing in life. But is this chief a man or a woman? The funerary complex is unusual, too: no settlement has been found close enough to be associated with it, and the people buried here
appear to be an honoured few, selected from different generations.
New investigations into the origins of bronze production in China, which eventually led to the magnificent vessels we see in museums around the world today, have revealed unexpected results. Do we need to rethink the evolution of China’s Bronze Age industry?
The 2,000-year-old remains of a young woman have been found in Ethiopia. Dubbed ‘Sleeping Beauty’, she was buried holding a bronze mirror to her face. Hers was one of several graves discovered in a remote spot that, as part of the Kingdom of Aksum, enjoyed far-reaching trade links stretching into the Roman Empire.
The Canadian Centre for Epigraphic Documents, staffed entirely by volunteers, is doing invaluable work recording and translating Syriac inscriptions – written in the language directly linked to the early Christian Church – that otherwise would be lost forever. Many already exist only in photographic form. Time is running out.
In Reggio Emilia, 21st-century technology and know-how are recreating the 1st/2nd-century AD incarnation of the town; it was then called Regium Lepidi. Using innovative software and Oculus equipment to produce a fully immersive experience, new techniques are revolutionising both how we visualise the past and how we record it.
On the centennial anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Massacre, one of the saddest events in human history, Andrew Selkirk travels to Armenia to explore the history of this nation’s people.