An Indonesian Pompeii?

Popular Archaeology magazine reports on the discovery of whole communities on Sumbawa (Indonesia) that were buried by the infamous eruption of the Tambora volcano in 1815

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

Nomadic cultures of the steppes: new light on the Scythians

The Scythians, or Saka, as they were known to outsiders, were nomads who traversed the Eurasian steppes from the Black Sea to the borders of China. Regarded as "barbarians" by the ancient Greeks, archaeological investigations have thrown new light on their culture, their way of life and interactions with neighbours such as the Persians and Chinese.

An article from the New York Times, published in conjunction with an upcoming exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University, looks at the artifacts recovered from Scythian burial mounds and what this tells us about their culture

CLICK HERE TO WATCH A SLIDE-SHOW OF SOME OF THE BEAUTIFUL ARTIFACTS ON DISPLAY

Excavations at Swahili trading town in East Africa

Archaeology website "Past Horizons" reports on the excavations at Songo Mnara in Tanzania. The town was occupied between the 14th and 16th centuries AD, when the town was part of "the indigenous and cosmopolitan  form of urbanism that linked Africa with the Indian Ocean world system from AD 700 - 1500"

"Before silk: unsolved mysteries of the Silk Road" : video

Professor Colin Renfrew of the MacDonald Institute of Archaeological Research (Cambridge) delivers a lecture on the early contacts between China and Western Asia and Europe from the neolithic to the 8th century AD

This video of his lecture is uploaded onto YouTube.
Please note it runs for an hour and was recorded live

Museums and ethics

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington is facing calls to cancel a planned exhibition of Chinese artifacts salvaged from a Tang-era shipwreck as they were recovered by a commercial treasure-hunter rather than by academic, archaeological methods.
Read more in this article from the online New York Times  

Jerusalem: archaeology and rival histories

Article from the online edition of the Smithsonian Magazine explores the complex history of the Temple Mount and the fraught nature of archaeology on the site as "ancient history inflames modern-day political tensions"

Treasures of Afghanistan exhibition

Two reports published in connection with the British Museum's latest major exhibition "Afghanistan: crossroads of the ancient world", which opens today (3rd March) and runs until 3rd July

"The hill of gold" - article by Peter Thonemann from the Guardian (Saturday 21st February) looks at the historical background to the treasures, in particular the Tillya Tepe hoard

"Karzai opens London show of rescued Afghan treasures" - report from Reuters by Stefano Ambrogi (2nd March) on the opening of the exhibition and how the artifacts were saved for posterity.

Trading post excavated in Qatar: Gulf Times article

The town of al-Zubarah flourished briefly as a pearl-fishing and trading town between the mid-18th and early 19the centuries. This article from the Gulf Times reports on the excavations at this important site

Asian Perspectives: open-access journal

The journal Asian Perspectives (published by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa) is  now available on open-access from Vol.1 (1957) to Vol.47 (2008).
The journal looks at the archaeology and prehistory of the Asia-Pacific region

N.B. the Library also has access to Vol.39 (2000) onwards via EBSCOHost as well as print holdings from Vol.1(1957) onwards at Per 103 / 137833

Two new open-access journals of interest to historians

Two new open-access journals with a wide historical (and thematic) range

Hallesche Beitrage zur Orientwissenschaft

This academic journal published by the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (frequently in monograph format) covers a wide range of topics and countries (ancient history, archives, religions, Middle Eastern studies etc.)
It is currently available as digitized open-access texts from Vol.1 (1979) to Vol.44 (2007).

The current link address is via AWOL (Ancient World Online blog)

'Atiqot (Journal of the Israeli Antiquities Authority)

This journal covers the archaeology of "the land of Israel" from prehistory to Ottoman times. Open access coverage begins with Vol.60 (2008). You need to register first, but after that you will be able to login to view and share journal content.