ROMAN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT AUGUSTODUNUM

More than 230 graves have been uncovered at a necropolis in the French city of Autun, revealing a diverse mix in burial practices over a period of nearly 200 years, as well as luxury grave goods from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD that highlight the wealth of some of its ancient inhabitants.

SHAPING THE WORLD: SCULPTURE FROM PREHISTORY TO NOW

The sculptor Antony Gormley and the art historian and critic Martin Gayford have been talking about sculpture with each other for 20 years.

Amelia Edwards (1831-1892)

“I am essentially a worker, and a hard worker, and this I have been since my early girlhood.”

THE GREAT BEYOND

The ancient Greeks thought much about the dead – how their remains should be disposed of, how their spirits might be summoned, how malignant they could be if unavenged. Classicist David Stuttard brings us face to face with the Greek dead.

INTO THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS

The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.

DEIR EL-BAHRI, 1894

Tensions were already high among the archaeologists, surveyors, and artists of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt in 1891 when an eventful dispute arose on Christmas Eve.

PUSHING BOUNDARIES

When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.

CUZCO 'CENTRE AND HEAD OF ALL THE LAND'

Cuzco was the heart of the vast Inca empire, but all changed in the 16th century when the capital was conquered by Spanish invaders. Michael J Schreffler investigates the Inca city, and how it went from the centre of one empire to the periphery of another.

A STUDY IN PURPLE

A tiny speck of purple paint from the 2nd century AD may yield clues to how ancient artists created the extraordinary portrait panels that accompanied mummified bodies into the afterlife.

Rome In The 8th Century: A History In Art

John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582

Thebes City Of Myths

Sparta is famous for its warrior tradition, Athens for its intellectual and artistic achievement. But what of Thebes? As ancient historian Paul Cartledge explains, Thebes too had a most distinctive image.

WHAT'S IN THE BOX? PLYMOUTH'S NEW MUSEUM OPENS

stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums

THE RICHES OF RAVENNA

In a small city on Italy’s Adriatic coast, faces of all-powerful emperors, empresses, and bishops gaze out from glittering mosaics. But why are these magnificent decorations here? Judith Herrin explores the history of Ravenna, a well-connected city and one-time capital of the Western Roman Empire.

PARTHENON, ATHENS, 1907

In 1903, the photographer Fred Boissonnas made his first trip to Greece with his frequent collaborator, the writer and art historian Daniel Baud-Bovy.

Eugène Viollet-le-Duc 1814-1879

“Viollet-le-Duc needed connections: he had elected not to study architecture, preferring to learn on the job.”

ANGLO-SAXON BURIALS REVEALED

Two excavations in England have revealed important Anglo-Saxon burials, dating back as early as the 6th century AD, that shed light on the different communities living in southern Britain at that time.

Treasures Of The Scythian Kings

Barry Cunliffe, among the most distinguished of world archaeologists, has recently drawn together the evidence for the Scythians in a comprehensive new book, The Scythians: nomad warriors of the steppe. Neil Faulkner asked him what we know of this most mysterious of ancient peoples.

THE TENTH MUSE

Angelica Kauffman was one of the most sought-after artists in 18th-century Europe. She cast aside convention to forge a remarkable career in London and Rome, not just as a portraitist, but also as a history painter, as Bettina Baumgärtel tells Lucia Marchini.

THE TEMPLES AT ABU SIMBEL

Discovered in 1813, moved wholesale to their present location between 1964 and 1968, the Great and Small Temples at Abu Simbel were twin monuments of Rameses II to himself and his wife. Egyptologist Nigel Fletcher-Jones, whose new book Abu Simbel and the Nubian Temples was published last year, takes us on a guided tour.

WAITING FOR THE EMPEROR ROME AND THE TWO NAPOLEONS

Inspired by exhibitions in Rome and Paris, Dalu Jones explores the intersections of imperial ideology and Classical archaeology in the reigns of Napoleon I and Napoleon III.

SAVING NOTRE DAME

When flames ripped through the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris in April 2019, the world feared for its survival. Now a small team of scientists is working towards its restoration and discovering secrets along the way. Christa Lesté-Lasserre spoke to some of them about their work and its challenges.

EARTHQUAKE HITS ZAGREB

In recent months, museums and other institutions around the world have been struggling to deal with the unprecedented economic and logistical fallout of COVID-19.

THE GOLDEN AND THE GROTESQUE

Nero’s spectacular palace in Rome, the Domus Aurea or ‘Golden House’, was rediscovered in the Renaissance. Dalu Jones describes how the opulent designs of its ancient halls inspired some of the most celebrated artists of the 15th and 16th centuries.

PROPERTY, POWER, AND THE BRITISH BAROQUE

Tate Britain’s recent exhibition British Baroque: Power and Illusion was an opportunity to explore the way in which art gave expression to the transition from revolutionary Commonwealth to a new stability and confidence in Late Stuart England.

THE ANTIQUARIAN: Lady Hester Stanhope 1776-1839

It is unusual to feature in a magazine like ours a woman who ordered an ancient statue ‘broken in a thousand pieces’. In April 1815, Lady Hester Stanhope was in Israel, at a site called Ashkelon.

PAVING THE WAY

The dramatic opening up of a sinkhole outside the Pantheon – the 2nd century AD ‘temple of all the gods’ (now a Catholic church) on Rome’s Piazza della Rotunda – has offered a tantalising glimpse of the imperial Roman paving beneath the present-day city streets.

MUSES RETURN TO STOWE

An important lost group of statues of the nine Muses – inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts – has been reinstated to the grounds of Stowe, one of Britain’s great country houses.

EVER - CHANGING EPHESUS

It is one of the most popular archaeological sites in the Mediterranean, but how many visitors know that the ruins they see are those of a new city, not the old? And how many know the rich myth-history of the ancient Ephesians? David Stuttard is our guide.

CIVILISATION BEGINS

Neil Faulkner reports on a new Getty Villa exhibition focused on the huge cultural contribution of the world’s oldest civilisation – Mesopotamia.