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!
GREECE
Lefkandi: out of the dark: Between Mycenaean Greece and Classical Greece there existed a ‘Dark Age’. Now, major excavations at the site of Lefkandi are shining a bright new light on this period.
EGYPT
The lost tombs of thebes: Just east of the Valley of the Kings, within the Valley of the Nobles, are some of the most spectacular Egyptian tombs, as Zahi Hawass explains.
MALI
Before timbuktu: The famed west African city of Timbuktu grew wealthy on Medieval trade. But, as archaeologists have recently revealed, before Timbuktu came the great trading centre of Tadmakka.
REGULARS
TRAVEL
LIBYA
Fiona Dunlop travels to the pearl of the Sahara, the oasis town of Ghadames.
POSTCARD
Richard Hodges writes from Périgord Noir, France.
JORDAN
Read the latest on the Great Arab Revolt Project’s work in search of T E Lawrence’s Arabia, and then join the excavators in 2010.
REVIEWS
BOOKS
Scripta: International Journal of Writing Systems; The Code Breaker’s Secret Diaries; Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and Early Israel 1330-100 BC.
GREAT DISCOVERIES
Mohenjo-daro A snapshot of the great Pakistani Indus Valley site of Mohenjo-daro — the oldest-known city of the Indian Subcontinent.
