Nov 11
By: Robin Ngo
Send wine: A newly deciphered letter from Israel’s Negev desert describes an exchange of supplies between two Judahite military officers.
Nov 4
By: Noah Wiener
In the early 1960s, archaeologist James Mellaart uncovered a mural at Çatalhöyük, the world’s largest and best-preserved Neolithic site, which he interpreted to represent a volcanic eruption.
Oct 14
By: Noah Wiener
Tutankhamun died at a young age with a feminine physique. His closest relatives all shared similar features and fates. Imperial College London surgeon Hutan Ashrafian suggests that the royal family may have had an inherited disorder: frontal lobe epilepsy.
Sep 30
By: Robin Ngo
Scholars have proposed a new reading of the Mesha Stele: one line refers not to the “House of David,” but to the Moab king Balak from the story of Balaam in the Bible.
Sep 22
By: Robin Ngo
An ancient clay tablet acquired in recent years by the Sulaymaniyah Museum in Iraq offers new insights into the Gilgamesh Epic.
Sep 22
By: Noah Wiener
Megiddo’s Great Temple is a structure that, according to its excavators, “has proven to be the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered in the EB I Levant and ranks among the largest structures of its time in the Near East.”
Sep 18
By: Noah Wiener
In the 16th century B.C.E., Ahmose I overthrew the Hyksos and initiated the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt. Recent archaeological discoveries at Tel Habuwa shed new light on Ahmose’s campaign.
Sep 16
By: Noah Wiener
At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea off the Egyptian coast lies the spectacular port city of Thonis.
Sep 16
By: Robin Ngo
In the Middle East, archaeological looting and the deliberate destruction of archaeological sites and monuments are rampant. What, if anything, can be done?
Aug 25
By: Robin Ngo
A study published in PLOS ONE suggests that gladiators really did eat mostly plants and may have drunk an ash tonic as described by ancient authors.