Before oil and gas, the Arabian Gulf grew rich on another natural resource: pearls. From the mid 18th until the early 20th century AD the international demand for pearls was insatiable. The local economy boomed. However, almost as fast as it boomed, so it bust. The story of this heady rise and fall is illustrated [...]

Between Mycenaean Greece and Classical Greece there is a ‘Dark Age’ during which civilization appears to have collapsed and little is known. But now, at Lefkandi on the Aegean island of Euboea, a site has been found that bridges this dark gap. What have they found? The answers are revealed thanks to a major exploration [...]

This issue features a trove of Turkish treasures. We begin in the ancient city of Myra on the southern coast of Turkey. This was once home to St Nicolas, the benign 4th century bishop of subsequent Santa Claus fame. Myra’s remains include a vast 11,000 capacity Roman-era theatre and numerous intricate rock-carved tombs – as [...]

  We think of chemical weapons as one of the horrifying features of modern warfare. We might assume that it all started with the First World War. But did it? Our cover feature investigates the gruesome evidence of a stack of bodies discovered inside a siege tunnel at the ancient Syrian frontier city of Dura-Europos. How [...]

What was the fate of archaeology under Communism in post-war Europe? In the East, the Communists carried out immaculate reconstructions of many of their historic city centres – at the very time when we, in the West, were destroying many of ours in the name of modernity. A classic example of such Communist work is [...]

This issue is devoted to Egypt. Over the years, some of the greatest discoveries in this extraordinary land have been made by members of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES). Founded in 1882 by the redoubtable Amelia Edwards, they employed Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) as one of their first excavators, so launching one of the greatest figures [...]

When, in 1911, the American explorer, Hiram Bingham, slashed his way through the South Peruvian forest to rediscover the Inca site of Machu Picchu, the world was rightly entranced. However, as this issue illustrates, there is much more to Peru than Machu Picchu.Thus, the startled golden face, half child and half ‘space-cadet‘, shown on the [...]

Who is Alexander Selkirk? Aside from being our publisher‘s brother, he was also the inspiration for the world’s most famous castaway. Writer Daniel Defoe based his novel, Robinson Crusoe, on the true adventures of a Scottish sailor, one hot-headed Alexander Selkirk, who was marooned on a tiny island, off the coast of Chile, from 1704 [...]

Golden Mycenae is one of the most famous ancient towns in the world, but how did it work?  In the first of a two part feature, David Mason takes us to Mycenae, walking along the little-known roads to see Mycenae as the Mycenaeans saw it, with the Treasury of Atreus carefully placed for maximum impact. [...]

The ‘Red Snake’, or Gorgan Wall, of northern Iran is one of the world’s greatest frontiers.  But who built it? And when?  An international team of archaeologists has been at work and here they finally unravel the secrets – and the date – of the Red Snake. In the Euphrates valley, towns and palaces are [...]

The stark, abstract Cycladic figurines found in the Aegean Cyclades islands have had enormous influence on modern art.  Colin Renfrew has been studying the material since he was a young man in the 1960s. He believes Keros must have been a major ritual centre of the Cycladic civilisation in the early Bronze Age. Could it [...]

CWA 25 covers the globe from the blood and gore of the Roman amphitheatre – where a mosaic by the flamboyant Magerius describes his beneficience – to Copper Age cave burials in the Levant. This issue also includes in its travels a visit to the Great Wall of China and two trips to the Caribbean, [...]

What was Spain like before the Romans? The site of Pintia, in north central Spain, is providing surprising answers. From the 5th century BC until the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century BC, Pintia was occupied by the Vaccaei, an Iron Age people with Celtic links. Alas, the Vaccaei left no written history [...]

Penn Museum was founded on a grandiose scale in the 1880s, and we open the issue with a review of its rollercoaster history. We then follow with two features on the great civilization of the Maya of Mesoamerica. Currently, they are digging at Copán, in modern Honduras where they have uncovered the tomb of the [...]

In the 8th century BC, the Spartans subjugated their Peloponnesian neighbours, the Messenians. When eventually Sparta was conquered, the Messenians founded a new city at Messene, which flourished in the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Now, a major restoration project has made it one of Greece‘s best preserved ancient cities, far triumphing over Sparta’s paltry remains. [...]

In this issue we present one of Rome’s greatest un-success stories: the extravagant yet impractical city of Clunia in northern Spain.Two thousand years ago, with the booming Roman political machine behind it, Clunia was made into the administrative capital of the province of Tarraconensis. The main aim of the city was to convey prestige. Among [...]

This issue marks our fifth anniversary and in celebration, we have given the magazine a splendid new look.As ever, we offer the latest on digs and discoveries from around the world, such as our cover feature on how archaeology is rewriting the Bible. According to the Old Testament, David and Solomon were the important kings [...]

For this second issue, we have a cornucopia of projects from all over the world. A look at one of the most stunningly beautiful – yet little known – archaeological sites in the world, Butrint; The story of Elizabethan explorer, pirate, business entrepreneur and naval hero Martin Frobisher’s quest for the North-west frontier; A 40,000 [...]

In this, our first issue, we cover the world. There are two very different towns, Amarna the best preserved town of Ancient Egypt, and La Milpa a newly discovered Mayan town in Central America; and what a fascinating contrast they make! There are also two classic sites to revisit. Troy has been the subject of [...]

CWA 24 was published in July 2007 and contained articles on the Palaeoindian site of Folsom -North America’s most famous site,  the ancient, pre-Islamic, history of Northern Arabia, the discovery of Europe's oldest modern humans in the Romanian Carpathian Mountains and finally,  a profile of the forthcoming British Museum Chinese Terracotta Army exhibition.     [...]