Antiquity Journal
LightNews LightNews
banner
antiquity.ac.uk
Antiquity Journal
@antiquity.ac.uk
8.4K followers 1.6K following 3K posts
Antiquity is a bimonthly review of world archaeology edited by Professor Robin Skeates. Please be aware that we sometimes share relevant images of human remains. https://antiquity.ac.uk/
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
antiquity.ac.uk
Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · Oct 7
Our October issue is out now! Featuring great #archaeology such as:

🐴 The medieval taboo of horse consumption
🦁 The Chinese origins of Venice's iconic Winged Lion statue
🧊 Tattooed ice mummies of the Siberian Altai

& much more! 🏺

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Cover of the October 2025 issue of Antiquity, featuring archaeologists excavating at an unmarked grave site.
antiquity.ac.uk
The façade of the Sudan National Museum, both before the current war, and after its liberation from the Rapid Support Force (RSF) in July 2025, following 20 months of control, showing the extensive damage caused to the museum building and grounds 🏺 #Archaeology 1/2
Front of a brick and glass building with a stone pavement leading up to it, lined with statues of lions (photograph by Marc Maillot © Section Française de la Direction des Antiquités du Soudan 2012). Front of the same building, brick damaged and glass smashed. The pavement is overgrown with shrubbery and the lion statues missing pieces (photograph by Gasim Hassan Nasir, National Committee for Assessment and Protection of Khartoum Museums, NCAM, July 2025).
November 22, 2025 at 2:12 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Want to stay up-to-date on the latest #ArchaeologyNews? Check out our news webpage, where we report on new discoveries, upcoming events and follow-up on past research from the world of Antiquity 🏺 #Archaeology
antiquity.ac.uk/news
News | Antiquity Journal
Explore new research, find out how you can meet us at events, read blogs from our authors and more at antiquity.ac.uk
antiquity.ac.uk
November 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Can we identify real #pirates in the #archaeological record? What can material remains teach us about their lives? 🏴‍☠️
'Dead Man's Chest' explores both the entertaining tales and cruel reality of piracy. Read our review in the latest #NewBookChronicle 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺
Cover of the book reviewed, depicting four gold coins and an illustration of two red cutlasses, crossed.
November 21, 2025 at 5:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Say hello to this ancient greeting from a Late Iron Age terracotta relief at El Cerrón 🇪🇸 for #WorldHelloDay
A female figure or deity greets a charioteer. Possibly holding a spear, they may indicate connections to Phoenician gods Melqart and Baal

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Digital photo, filtered photo and artistic rendering of an oblong piece of terracotta. On its surface, two charioteers, a figure wearing a conical hat and holding a spear (or bâton de commandment) and a griffin are depicted in relief.
November 21, 2025 at 3:03 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 Settlement in the United Arab Emirates highlights 2000 years of commercial and cultural exchanges between Mesopotamia, India, and Arabia from the Bronze Age to the pre-Islamic period

🏺 #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @labrujulaverde.bsky.social
A 2,000-Year-Old Sanctuary Discovered Where Merchants Traveling Between Mesopotamia, India, and Arabia Made Offerings Before Crossing the Persian Gulf
On the western coast of the United Arab Emirates, a mound of earth known as Tell Abraq holds a millennia-old secret: more than 3,000 years of continuous human history, an exceptional testament to how…
www.labrujulaverde.com
November 21, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org
Share your thoughts about '#Antiquity'! Your insights are incredibly important to us and will help us to improve your experience. Complete this short survey and be in with a chance of winning £100! T&Cs apply: 📝➡️ https://cup.org/49xRYsD

@antiquity.ac.uk
Tablet displaying the cover of 'Antiquity' journal with the text 'User Survey' set on a textured surface, featuring an archaeological site in the background.
November 21, 2025 at 12:43 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Reminds us of this graffiti from an early modern prison on Sicily, depicting Maltese galleys used by the Order of St. John (aka Knights Hospitaller). It may foretell the prisoners' fates as galley rowers, or have been used to recount tales of Mediterranean privateering

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Left: a painting and digital illustration of a Maltese galley; a wooden ship with a low-lying hull, triangular lanteen sails and oars. Right: stone wall with markings engraved on it. Digital enhancement reveals striking similarity to the galleys, including a flag flown with the cross of the Order of St. John.
November 21, 2025 at 10:36 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
The shattered visage of Hatshepsut, one of Egypt’s few female pharaohs, portrays a story of political persecution. However, research in Antiquity suggests the destruction of her statuary had more complex motivations than simple hostility.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Stone sculpture of a pharaoh's head. A large crack runs across the face from the top left to bottom right, across an eye. Photograph by Harry Burton (1929). (© Department of Egyptian Art Archives, the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
November 21, 2025 at 10:22 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Lithics from the site of Cueva Grande in the central Iberian Meseta, thought uninhabited during the Upper Palaeolithic #FlintFriday
They indicate the inhospitable Iberian highlands were in fact occupied during the Late Pleistocene.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Four lithic artefacts (1, large blade; 2, retouched blade; 3 & 4, microgravettes).
November 21, 2025 at 8:13 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
#ThrowbackThursday to last year, when researchers discovered an unknown #Maya city in the dense jungle of Campeche, Mexico.
They published their findings in Antiquity and it is one of our most-read articles ever! Find out what all the fuss is about 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Simple Red Relief model (the higher the elevation, the redder the colour) showing topography under forest cover. Structures are visible, revealing an ancient city in the jungle.
November 20, 2025 at 7:45 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
We want to hear from you!
If you've read, written for, reported on or reviewed for Antiquity, take part in our @cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org user survey to let us know what you think of the Antiquity experience and have the chance to win a top prize of £100

www.surveymonkey.com/r/AntiquityJ...
Antiquity logo surrounded by the text 'Archaeologists. We want your feedback. Take part in our user survey for a chance to win £100.'
November 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Did Diocletian build a defensive border on the #Roman Empire's eastern frontier?
Satellite imagery found the forts were in fact widely distributed, suggesting they were built to facilitate trade and movement rather than conflict.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology #RomanFortThursday
Above: map of the forts discovered in an aerial survey published in 1934, depicting a north-south line of forts following the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire on the Syrian steppe. Below: all forts discovered to this day, showing a much wider distribution that would likely not have been effective as a border defence.
November 20, 2025 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 Potential discovery of a city in the Bronze Age Eurasian steppe, in contrast to the traditionally mobile sites that leave little archaeological evidence, is "just the beginning"

🏺 #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via @cnn.com
Archaeologists may have uncovered a Bronze Age metropolis in Kazakhstan’s steppe | CNN
Archaeologists studied Semiyarka, dubbed The City of Seven Ravines, a settlement from 1600 BC that may have been a powerhouse for metal production. Here’s what they found.
edition.cnn.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
boothicus.bsky.social
Bronze Age Nomad metropolis!
antiquity.ac.uk Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 4d
Archaeologists have unearthed a Bronze Age metropolis in the heart of the Eurasian steppe: an early form of city as complex as those of contemporary, more traditionally 'urban' civilisations, showing how steppe polities were just as sophisticated.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
November 20, 2025 at 12:16 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW #Phoenician small ceramic bottles were traditionally thought to hold perfumes and medicines. Residue analysis found chemical traces of wine, resins, pitch and palm oil, indicating their uses were much more multifunctional than expected.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Small ceramic bottles being sampled for residue with a Dremel rotary tool (A) and a dental tool (B).
November 20, 2025 at 10:45 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
The 'Pine and Cypress Culture' is a common theme in Chinese philosophy, with the trees' longevity and resilience being revered as representative of the ability to withstand adversity #WorldPhilosophyDay 1/2

🏺 #Archaeology
Several trees. A–C) dark coniferous species: Abies, Picea and Tsuga; D–F) conifers from lower elevations: Pinus, Platycladus and Cupressus; G–K) broadleaved trees: Cinnamomum, Phoebe, Quercus, Toona and Ulmus (images from the Plant Photo Bank of China with permission; photographs by G.M. Li, Z.C. Xue, Z.R. Yang, R.B. Zhu, J.W. Xi, A. Liu, Y.P. Zeng, J. Wang, Z.C. Liu, J.J. Zhou & M. Li).
November 20, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
uclarchaeology.bsky.social
Fantastic thread on amazing research!

#LocalAndGlobal
antiquity.ac.uk Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 4d
NEW In the heart of the Eurasian steppe, a #BronzeAge metropolis has been unearthed, showing that the settlements of nomadic steppe societies were just as sophisticated as contemporary, more traditionally 'urban' civilisations.

#AntiquityThread 1/14 🧵

🏺 #Archaeology
Drone photograph of the archaeological site of Semiyarka, looking from the south-east to the north-west, taken in July 2018. The outlines of several rectilinear buildings are visible running in a line across a flat grassland (credit: Peter J. Brown)
November 19, 2025 at 4:28 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Stratigraphy from two of the 51 Aketala sites in the Tarim Basin of north-western China. The westernmost Bronze Age settlements discovered in China to date, they indicate cultural connections across Central Asia c. 4000 years ago.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Two photographs of the sides of trenches, separated into stratigraphic layers and annotated with numbers.
November 19, 2025 at 9:35 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
It's that special time of year we've all been waiting for, happy #GISDay everyone! 🗺️

Here's a mini #AntiquityThread on some of the fantastic #archaeology research published in Antiquity this year that applied this now-indispensable tool 1/6 🧵

🏺
Map of terrain built from lidar data, revealing the underlying contours of the landscape including the outline of a hillfort.
November 19, 2025 at 5:35 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Similar are these bone and stone dice from the Grand Harbour of Malta, where the Knights of St John docked their galleys in the 17th & 18th centuries. Likely made by the captives that rowed the ships, they indicate the captives socialised and played games on board.

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Several handmade dice of different sizes, some bone, some stone.
November 19, 2025 at 3:16 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Any ideas what this Palaeolithic painting from Cueva Dones, Spain depicts? 🏺 #Archaeology

Answer below 👇
Cave wall with a design in red ochre painted on its surface. © A. Ruiz-Redondo, V. Barciela & X. Martorell.
November 19, 2025 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Fragment of a Late Period (664–332 BC) wooden coffin at the cemetery of Tarkhan, Egypt #Woodensday
Once an extensive necropolis, now only a small area survives, highlighting the urgent need for protection.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Pointed fragment of wood with nail-holes in one side.
November 19, 2025 at 1:45 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 Discovery of a 12,000-year-old Natufian figurine depicting a woman with a goose on her back 'unlike anything previously found in Southwest Asia'

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @archaeologynews.bsky.social

archaeologymag.com/2025/11/rare...
Rare 12,000-year-old Natufian figurine of a woman and a goose offers a glimpse into prehistoric beliefs
A 12,000-year-old Natufian clay figurine from Israel reveals rare human–animal symbolism and early ritual traditions in the prehistoric Levant
archaeologymag.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
durotrigesdig.bsky.social
It's #HillfortsWednesday !!

Here's the Iron Age enclosure of Belsar’s Hill #Cambridgeshire, remodelled as a Norman fortress in the early 1070s, before being incorporated into a field system and overlain by a road

It's still impressive however, especially from the air 🤩

📷 Bill Blake CC BY-SA 4.0
The grass covered ramparts of an oval shaped Iron Age hillfort from the air, bisected by a modern, tree-lined road
November 19, 2025 at 6:49 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
The Battle of al-Qadisiyyah may have taken place #OnThisDay in AD 636. A crucial step in the Muslim conquest of Mesopotamia and beyond, it is still hugely significant in the Arab world.
Last year, research in Antiquity uncovered the battle's location:

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Person stood in a desert, next to a trench with an eroded rampart running along its edge.
November 19, 2025 at 8:13 AM