There can be a certain familiarity to Roman towns. During the heyday of the Empire, such settlements were essential for administering conquered…
Before oil and gas, the Arabian Gulf grew rich on another natural resource: pearls. From the mid 18th until the early 20th…
Between Mycenaean Greece and Classical Greece there is a ‘Dark Age’ during which civilization appears to have collapsed and little is known.…
This issue features a trove of Turkish treasures. We begin in the ancient city of Myra on the southern coast of Turkey.…
In his writings, Strabo explains that the city of Metropolis is 120 stadia from Ephesus - and indeed it lies about 35km…
Laodicea is well sited on a high plateau and surrounded by the rivers Lycos, Kapros and Asopos. Little wonder the city has…
The site has become famous partly for its large size (about 5,000-8,000 people lived there) and long occupation (the site is Neolithic…
From one iconic archaeological site to another, we end this round-up at Troy, on the western coast of Turkey. The site was…
What was life like for the Cro-Magnons, Europe's first anatomically modern humans? Having harnessed the archaeological data, Brian Fagan then gathers us…
This autumn the Penn Museum will hold an exhibition on their first-ever excavation at Nippur in modern Iraq. But it all centres…
Myra, on the southern coast of Turkey, was home to the 4th century bishop St Nicolas (of Santa Claus fame). What remains…
As the capital of two great empires, Istanbul (and in its previous incarnation as Constantinople) contains a great wealth of culturally important…
Exquisitely located just 11km from the Mediterranean coast, the city was founded atop a 60m high acropolis. Its history is both deep…