The Dead Sea Scrolls of Qumran
Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Tsila Sagiv, photographer.
A photo essay of the Dead Sea Scrolls and artifacts from Qumran, with photos from the Israeli Antiquities Authority from an exhibit by the Pacific Science Museum and text by your guide to Archaeology at About.
The Herbal Wines of Ancient Egypt and the Near East
Photograph courtesy of German Institute of Archaeology, Cairo.
In the 1990s, a multi-chambered tomb was discovered at Abydos on the middle Nile River in Upper Egypt. The tomb, called U-j, has been attributed to one of the earliest of Egyptian kings, Scorpion I, from Dynasty 0. This photo essay explores the evidence for the importation of wines from the Levant, found in hundreds of jars buried with Scorpion I.
The New Seven Wonders
All but one of the old Seven Wonders has disappeared--some of which may have been fictional anyway--and Swiss entrepreneurs Bernard Weber and Bernard Piccard decided it was time to renew the list. Six of the seven are archaeological sites, and those six and the leftover from the last seven--the Pyramids at Giza--are here in this photo essay.
Traveling the Silk Road
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii Collection (Library of Congress)
Evidence for international trade between the far-flung civilized outposts of the vast Asian continent world dates to at least 1000 BC, when some mummies from New Kingdom Egypt were wrapped partly in silk traded from what is today China. This photo essay pairs photos from a new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History and historical photos of shops and camels and artifacts from the vast network of the Silk Road.
Venus Figurines from Poland
Romuald Schild, photo credit Dagmara Manka
This essay includes images and discussion of an unusual form of Venus figurine--chipped stone plaquettes of the Lalinde/Gönnersdorf style from the Wilczyce site in Poland, dated between 14,000 and 16,000 years ago.
