Edgar Allen Poe’s immortal poem The Raven was first published 177 years ago today. When last the Nevermore was uttered on these pages it was eight years ago and the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, had launched a Kickstarter to preserve the most magnificently evocative illustrations submitted by artist James Carling in 1882 for a […]
Excavations of the ancient port city of Kition (modern-day Larnaca) in Cyprus have unearthed a pit full of ostraca (potsherds, slabs, stones) inscribed in Phoenician that document the business transacted at the bustling harbor town in the 1st millennium B.C. Kition was a harbor town long before it was Kition. There is evidence of occupation […]
The Ipogeo dei Cristallini, an ancient Greek necropolis carved into the tufa stone underneath Naples, is opening to the general public for the first time this year, giving visitors the opportunity to see a treasure trove of Greek funerary art and architecture. The earliest coastal settlement of what would become Naples was established by Greek […]
A Bronze short sword has been discovered in the bed of the River Váh near the town of Hlohovec in the southwestern Slovak Republic. The blade is 26 cm (10 inches) long and weighs 150 grams (5.3 oz) and had a handle made of organic material (probably wood) which has not survived. The rivets that […]
An extremely rare 13th century gold penny of 20 pence minted by King Henry III discovered last September by a metal detectorist has sold at auction for £648,000 ($873,000), far exceeding the pre-sale estimate of £400,000 ($546,000). It is one of just eight documented examples of the gold penny, four of them in museums. The […]
Construction of a new boathouse on the Rhine in Kaiseraugst, outside Basel, Switzerland, has revealed the remains of a previously unknown Roman amphitheater that is the youngest that has ever been found in the Empire. Aaargau Canton archaeologists started excavating the site last month expecting to encounter material remains from a quarry that was abandoned […]
The remains of tea leaves discovered in a royal tomb in Zoucheng, eastern China’s Shandong province, have been dated to 453-410 B.C., the early Warring States Period, making them the oldest known brewed tea in the world. The previous title-holders, discovered in 2005 in the tomb Emperor Jing of Han, are 300 years younger. The […]
Archaeologists excavating the site of a comprehensive housing and green space development in Nijmegen’s Winkelsteeg area have unearthed a spectacular Roman blue glass bowl that is in flawless condition. It is at least 1,800 years old, and there is not a chip or crack on it. Such dishes were made by allowing molten glass to […]