CWA 40

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 at the now-abandoned city of Al Zubarah in the Gulf state of Qatar. Hidden under the sands, its ruins offer a snapshot – as if frozen in time – of this most intense period of the Gulf pearling industry. Yet while other local cities survived the economic downturn, why did this wealthy city ultimately fall?
Lascaux has long been dubbed the ‘Sistine Chapel of Prehistory’ owing to its exquisite Ice Age art (as shown on the cover). Having survived for millennia, this art is now rapidly deteriorating. How and why? International rock-art specialist Paul Bahn charts the horrors of its mismanagement.
Turning to the Travel Section, we discover a whole new and unexpected world deep beneath the sun-drenched coastal town of Syracusa in Sicily. There, Michael Metcalfe takes us to ‘the city under the city’ as he ventures down through the Syracusa’s subterranean catacombs.
Other highlights include features on Belize, Butrint, and a travel focus on Arles, where David Miles comes face to face with a once-sunken Caesar.
Good reading!

CWA 39

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 by the British School at Athens, and the magazine opens with the full and fascinating story.
Meanwhile, as featured on our cover, some of Egypt's most spectacular tombs can be found in the Valley of the Nobles, just east of the Valley of the Kings. However, most are unknown to the general public, and many were even lost to Egyptology. Until, that is, a major project began to re-explore them. Turn to page 28 to step inside the lost tombs of Thebes.
From around the 14th century AD, the city of Timbuktu in Mali, West Africa, became legendary for the wealth it offered merchants crossing the Sahara. But what came before the ascendance of Timbuktu? To find out, we explore the excavations of the great Malian site of Tadmakka. Thereafter, within the Travel Section, we journey northwards along the trans-Saharan trade route, to the alluring oasis settlement of Ghadames in Libya.
Good reading!

CWA 38

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 did they come to be here? Using ‘CSI'

techniques, Simon James' stunning conclusion is that around 20 Roman soldiers were gassed to death by their Persian enemies. Turn to page 20 for the full and unexpected story of Romans versus Persians.

From the terrifying we then move to the sublime with an article on the archaeology of the beatific Caribbean island of Carriacou. The excavators describe it as an “archaeologists' paradise”, and so it is, thanks to its rich and vibrant pre-Columbian evidence. On-going digs are revealing where the island’s erstwhile occupants lived, what they ate, how they were buried, and even something of their religious customs. So, not quite the ultimate uninhabited desert island it was believed to have been by the first Europeans.
Other highlights include Dudley Moore’s research on Captain Spratt, who, in the 1850s, solved a shaky conundrum on Crete; plus a celebration of the work of ‘archaeoartist’ Kate Whiteford whose art has drawn much inspiration from archaeology. In addition to all the regulars, we end with a Christmas holiday medley of must-read archaeological books.

CWA 37

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 to be found in the great Hungarian capital of Budapest. Their restoration of the romantic glories of fin de siècle Budapest is well known, but Budapest was also the site of the major Roman legionary fortress and civilian town of Aquincum. What remains to be seen of Aquincum? Andrew Selkirk went to Budapest to find out.
The militaristic Aquincum was located on the frontier of Roman expansion, but what was life like on the frontier of the Assyrian Empire? In the 9th century BC, the Assyrians created a realm on a scale that had hitherto been unimaginable – marching east, west and north from their heartland in Mesopotamia. To the very north, in modern Turkey, they established the colonial site of Ziyaret Tepe. Current excavations are revealing fascinating insights on everyday life, but they also tell a chilling story of how the boom of Empire inevitably went bust.
Other highlights include a travelogue on walking the heart of Athens, and a feature explaining how to unlock the lost languages of the past.

CWA 36

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 in archaeology. But what have they been doing in more recent years?

As the current issue illustrates, some of their most remarkable discoveries have been at North Saqqara. There, in the shadow of the Pyramid of King Djoser (as shown on the front cover), they have found a cemetery dedicated not to mummified people but to mummified animals. At first it was thought that this area might mark the site of the tomb of Imhotep, the pyramid's architect. Instead, excavations revealed catacombs crammed with literally millions of animal mummies. The EES has been examining this conundrum. Thereafter, we journey across Egypt to offer more of the latest EES digs, discoveries and projects, including their crucial work in the Delta, notably at the royal city of Sais. 

Other highlights include a travelogue by Bob Partridge, the editor of Ancient Egypt magazine, who reflects on his experiences of visiting Egypt over the past 30 years. Finally, our thanks to Paul Nicholson for facilitating this issue; we urge all those fascinated by the discoveries in Egypt to join the EES to learn more.

CWA 35

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 cover, was modelled by the Moche; people who lived along the Northern coast of Peru a thousand years before the Inca marched through the land. Found in 1987, it marked the site of the elite tombs of the 'Lords of Sipán’ in a little-told story that rivals Carter and Carnarvon’s discovery of Tutankhamun in Egypt. The magazine opens with a major feature on the early 1st millennium AD Moche Lords of Sipán.
In the wake of these discoveries, an array of other pre-Inca sites along the Northern coastal plain are now under current excavation. All are proving to be extremely archaeologically rich. I took the Northern ‘Moche Route’ to meet the archaeologists and find out more, as further detailed in the Travel Section.
Other highlights in this issue include Charles Higham’s revelation of aristocratic Bronze Age ‘superburials’ at Ban Non Wat in Thailand. Thereafter, David Breeze considers the world’s Roman Frontiers, while David Miles takes us out of this world and into space: archaeology’s Final Frontier.