Ancient History Magazine

In the modern world, with vast, industrial-scale agriculture providing food to supermarkets, it is easy to forget just how integral food is to the functioning of society. While urban sites certainly existed before the advent of agriculture, without a

Editor-in-chief: Jasper Oorthuys Editor: Owain Williams Assistant editor: Lauren van Zoonen Proofreading: Naomi Munts Design & Media: Christianne C. Beall Contributors: Murray Dahm, Paul Erdkamp, Manon Henzen, K.P.S. Janssen, Jona Lendering, Thanos M

Finding tiles at Roman sites is commonplace. Many have writing on them or the imprints of soles of shoes of workers employed at the brick factories. A site in the UK suggests that the people working at these industrial facilities were more diverse th

An exceptional image of the goddess Roma has been retrieved from a major mass transit construction project in the heart of the Eternal City. While working on the rescue dig on the Metro C Line in Rome, archaeologists found a round shard of glass. Whe

A section of the ancient Aqua Augusta has been identified running under the modern city of Naples, Italy. It is one of ten branches of the extensive water distribution system that once supplied fresh water to cities in Campania. Residents have long k

A team of archaeologists has discovered a lost palace of the Sumerian kings of Girsu and a temple of the Sumerian god Ningirsu, at the site of Tablet Hill in modern Tello, southern Iraq. Dr Hartwig Fischer, Director of the British Museum, says the di

There is a growing body of evidence for a human presence in the Americas prior to 15,000 years ago, likely initially in Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum. However, dense ice sheets blocked migration through the continental interior at that tim

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC left a freshly conquered empire denuded of the charismatic leader upon which it depended. The following day, some of Alexander's generals, bodyguards, and members of the elite administration of Alexander's c

The use of a dog to help heal illness, aches, and pains is attested throughout the Greco-Roman world. For example, inscriptions at the great shrine of Asclepius at Epidaurus record children being cured by the licking of a dog. Indeed, Asclepius is so

Dating from the Ptolemaic period, possibly from the reign of Ptolemy V (ca. 205–180 BC), the Famine Stele tells of a prolonged period of drought and famine in the reign of Djoser, a pharaoh of the Third Dynasty. According to the inscription, Khnum, a

According to Herodotus, 8000 Spartans were involved in the Persian Wars (7.234), with 5000 marching out to the Battle of Plataea (9.10). However, at the Battle of Leuctra, 100 years after the Persian Wars, there were only 700 Spartans present (Xenoph

In 1967, Israel seized the old city of Jerusalem, which had hitherto been ruled by Jordanian authorities. The Israelis confiscated the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were in the Palestine Archaeological Museum, and transferred them to the Shrine of the Book

Many scrolls contain familiar Jewish religious literature (e.g. books from the Bible, prayers, calendars). A part, however, can be identified as sectarian, and this has attracted most attention. The texts are identified by the number of the Qumran ca

Garlic was used to prevent birds from pecking freshly sown seeds from the fields. It was first boiled and then spread over the soil. Apparently birds like these cloves of garlic more than fresh seeds. According to Pliny, birds became stupefied as soo

Four bulbs of garlic? I dare you. Use as much garlic as you like, but please make it pungent. The trick is to use a lot of herbs as well. The moretum must be bright green. Together with the white wine vinegar it will give the dish freshness. And leav

ISBN: 978-0500297056 Thames & Hudson Ltd. (2023)-£12.99 www.thamesandhudson.com Reducing the history of any culture down to a number of representative lives is fraught with danger. Important aspects of the culture or its history can be overlooked (or

ISBN: 978-0691230214 Princeton University Press (2019) – £30.00 press.princeton.edu Given the nature of the literary evidence that is available to us, it is all too easy to image the ancient GrecoRoman world as one of scholars, philosophers, and stat

The Milindapanha (Questions of Menander) is a vestige of Greek Buddhism in South-Central Asia. The Buddhist text recounts the Socraticlike dialogue between the Greek king Milinda (Menander) and a local monk, Nāgasena, who may have been of Indo-Greek

By Saskia Roselaar Oxford University Press, 2010 IBN: 978-0199577231 To anyone interested in ancient history, especially that of Rome, the monopolization of the ager publicus by the wealthy elite, the Graechi's attempts at reform, and the political v