In this issue

Words of power & the power of words
The British Library is staging an exhibition to show the crucial role the written word – from hieroglyphs, runes and cuneiform to print, predictive text and emojis – has played and continues to play in our history. Peter Toth

Out of Africa
African masks inspired 20th-century European artists, such as Picasso, now in the first exhibition of its kind in Italy examples of African art are displayed as art – not as ethnographic curiosities. Matilde de Chantrain

In the lap of luxury
American oil billionaire J Paul Getty had a replica of Herculaneum’s
Villa dei Papiri built in Malibu in the 1970s; now art treasures excavated at the original site are on show in America. Geraldine Fabrikant

Last supper in Pompeii
The Ashmolean Museum has prepared a feast of paintings, documents and artefacts from Italy and Britain to show just how important food
was for the Romans – from production to consumption. Paul Roberts

I, Claudius
Sickly, stammering and with little ambitioon, Claudius was perhaps the most unlikely of Roman emperors to suceed yet, as an exhibition in Rome shows, he was an efficient and diligent administrator. Dalu Jones

‘To cause justice to prevail in the land...’
Nearly 4000 years ago the Babylonian king Hammurabi drew up a legal code, carved on basalt stele and containing 282 sections, to regulate what, to him, would create a just and well-ordered society. Diana Bentley

Urban roots
The great civilisations that arose in Sumeria and Assyria, where the first city was founded, are the subject of a new book that describes and illustrates their power and the grandeur of their architecture. Ray Dunning

Words Of Power & The Power Of Words

Curator Peter Toth explores the crucial role that writing has played, plays, and will continue to play in human history – as shown in cuneiform, hieroglyphs, runes, letters and emojis inscribed across a fascinating exhibition on show at the British Library

9 mins

Out Of Africa

Matilde de Chantrain describes how African artefacts that inspired modern European painters and sculptors were once categorised as ethnographic, but are now seen as an esteemed art genre valued by collectors worldwide – as shown in a new exhibition in the Archaeological Museum of Bologna

8 mins

In The Lap Of Luxury

As the Getty Villa in Malibu displays original artefacts from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum for the first time, Geraldine Fabrikant explains how the ancient villa was built for a rich Roman in the 1st century BC, buried in AD 79 by the Vesuvian eruption, rediscovered in 1750 and recreated by J Paul Getty during the 1970s

8 mins

Last Supper In Pompeii

The Romans’ passion for fine dining is well known – now a mouth-watering new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum shows how the production, distribution and consumption for food and wine coloured every aspect of Roman life, as its curator Paul Roberts explains

9 mins

Read all stories from Minerva

Minerva Magazine Description:

Now available for iPad, Minerva magazine gives anyone with an interest in archaeology and antiquities a compelling insight into the ancient world. Minerva explores the lost civilisations of the past, from Ancient Egypt to Greece, Rome and the mighty empires of the Middle East and Asia.

For over 25 years, Minerva has revealed record-breaking auction results, exciting new finds, and untold stories of the distant past, spanning the Stone Age to the Dark Ages and beyond.

Each issue includes:
• News of finds and research from around the world
• Original research by international experts
• Reviews of major new exhibitions
• Latest trends and auction reports from the antiquities market
• In-depth features on history’s most fascinating people and events
• Profiles of leading figures from the world of archaeology
• Reviews of new publications and a must-have events diary