• 观像｜张光直：艺术——攫取权力的手段
动物纹样是殷商和西周初期青铜装饰艺术的典型特征，它于商朝安阳时期发展到高峰，但兽面的造型，至少双目和轮廓，在商代中叶的青铜器上已相当突出。它甚至可能同东部海岸一些史前时代的黑陶和玉器装饰图案有联系。至商代晚期（安阳）和西周初期，动物纹样已变得极其复杂多样。容庚所罗列的动物纹样有：饕餮纹、蕉叶饕餮纹、夔纹、两头夔纹、三角夔纹、两尾 ...
动物纹样是殷商和西周初期青铜装饰艺术的典型特征，它于商朝安阳时期发展到高峰，但兽面的造型，至少双目和轮廓，在商代中叶的青铜器上已相当突出。它甚至可能同东部海岸一些史前时代的黑陶和玉器装饰图案有联系。至商代晚期（安阳）和西周初期，动物纹样已变得极其复杂多样。容庚所罗列的动物纹样有：饕餮纹、蕉叶饕餮纹、夔纹、两头夔纹、三角夔纹、两尾 ...
Rebel Maccabees stormed and defeated a stronghold of the Seleucid Empire.The excavation in Lachish Forest, aerial view.(Image credit: Vladik Lifshits, Israel Antiquities Authority)Archaeologists have discovered the burned remains of an ancient Hellenistic
关中十六国墓葬所见民族关系研究付龙腾（北京大学 考古文博学院） 摘 要：关中十六国墓葬对汉晋墓葬制度既有所沿袭，也进行了有限的革新。其沿袭部分既有墓葬文化自然发展的“渐变”，也有刻意为之的“复古”；革新部分多数能从汉晋墓葬体系中找到渊源。这表现出关中诸政权在处理民族关系时的两种倾向：一方面为积极融合，既包括由来已久的民族迁徙所致 ...
The burned bone fragments belonged to at least three adults.The cup is on permanent display at the Archaeological Museum of Pithecusae on the island of Ischia in Italy.(Image credit: Photo courtesy of Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio per
Two graves in an ancient impact crater held luxury goods that were unusual for burials in the Middle Ages.Ornate carvings on the ivory comb depict scenes with animals.(Image credit: BLfD)A wealthy medieval man who died over 1,500 years ago in what is now
Iron fetters around the skeleton's ankles were secured in the center with a padlock.
Business in the front, party in the back.
到了公元十世纪，五台山已成为中国佛教新兴文化中的主要朝圣地。著名的菩萨玛尼茹斯里（Mañjuśrī）的居所（以习惯在狮子上骑山而闻名），位于中国东北山西省的遗址，从道教徒长期以来一直认为是神圣的荒野变成了一个复杂的建筑。佛教寺院。 林伟成在《圣山营造》中追溯了导致这一转变的因素的汇合之处，并指出修道院建筑，而不是文 ...
Objects from the early Bronze Age in Europe may represent one of the oldest forms of currency.
长江流域的原始艺术（下）邵学海本文刊登于《长江文化论丛》第一辑良渚文化的玉器 新石器时代，我国制玉、用玉特别发达的地区，大致沿东南海岸线分布。北端有辽西及内蒙古东部的红山文化，中部有太湖流域的良渚文化，南有台湾卑南遗址等。也有学者认为，史前玉文化中心只有两个，一个红山文化，一个良渚文化。同时认为，“从影响面及影响的深远意义来看 ...
Attackers may have timed the attack to coincide with a public gathering.
The Hyksos once ruled Egypt, but they didn't arrive as invaders.
Tight wrapping in childhood produced deliberately deformed skulls.
Replica swords tested combat skills and revealed battle damage
Archaeologists digitally reconstructed the leopard image from fragments of a sarcophagus cover.(Image: © University of Milan)Excavation of an ancient city of the dead in Aswan, Egypt, recently uncovered pieces of a sarcophagus lid that had been d
Hundreds who died weren't instantly vaporized.
Restorers discovered numerous objects concealed under the synagogue floor.
Carved references to an aurora predate known records by nearly a century.
Gladiators may have frequented the ancient tavern where the fresco was found.
An aerial view of Kemune Palace from the west, near the Tigris River in Iraq.Credit: University of Tübingen/eScience Center/Kurdistan Archaeology OrganizationWhen a drought dried up the water in Iraq’s Mosul Dam reservoir, it exposed ruins from an ancient
Qingbai ceramics from the Field Museum's Java Sea Shipwreck collection.Credit: Copyright The Field Museum. Photo by Kate GolembiewskiScientists just blasted pottery from an ancient shipwreck with a "ray gun." Besides being totally sci-fi, the X-
Roman historians accused Nero of deliberately setting the Great Fire of Rome so that he could rebuild the city in a more pleasing style.Credit: Photographer Helmut Wimmer/Copyright Interspot Film GmbHWas the infamously cruelNeroreally as terrible an emper
Climate change trashed the Byzantine Empire, ancient garbage mounds revealed.Credit: ShutterstockAbout a century before the fall of the Byzantine Empire — the eastern portion of the vast Roman Empire — signs of its impending doom were written in garbage.A
Roman relief of a chariot race and spectators, from the Vatican Museum's collection.Credit: CM Dixon/Print Collector/GettyDuring the first century, people across Rome were obsessed with chariot races, which frequently produced horrific crashes.However, on
A schoolchild's homework in Greek was written on a wax tablet nearly 2,000 years ago.Credit: Copyright British Library BoardHomework written by a school kid in ancient Egypt has been preserved since the second century A.D. And the words on the slab may so
By mapping historical spy-satellite images to recent aerial photos, researchers can find historical sites that vanished decades ago.Credit: Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of ArkansasWhen the United States launched its first secret &q
(© Trustees of the British Museum)Inscribed coneOn May 2, 2003, shortlyafter the invasion of Iraq, London’s Metropolitan Police raided an antiquities dealer and seized eight artifacts they believed had been obtained through illicit channels. It’s typ
A preserved painting shows the clearing of the site of Capitolias, with the assistance of Dionysus and other gods.Credit: Copyright CNRS HiSoMAIn an ancient Roman tomb that was recently discovered in Jordan, a colorful mural offers a comics-like glimpse o
"You are the stench of a low-life latrine," said one irate character to another in the ancient Roman novel "The Metamorphoses," written by Apuleius in the late second century A.D.Credit: ShutterstockAre ugly accusations and verbal abus
A bronze right arm, preserved from the shoulder to the fingers, was recently recovered from the Antikythera shipwreck. (Brett Seymour/EUA/ARGO)A graceful bronze arm that was once attached to a statue dating to the first century was recently recovered from
Researchers offer a new angle on interpreting mathematical inscriptions on a very old tablet.Credit: UNSWScientists recently decoded a clay tablet from ancient Babylonia that dates to around 3,700 years ago, and found that it contains the oldest trigonome
The ongoing archaeological excavation in the Ruins of Yuanmingyuan, also known as the Old Summer Palace, has made substantial progress, with more than 50,000 pieces of relics discovered so far.
Gihon Spring was crucial to the survival of its inhabitants, and archaeologists had uncovered the remains of a massive stone tower built to guard this vital water supply. Based on pottery and other regional findings, the archaeologists had originally assi
"As long as the culture lives, the nation lives," said Shan Jixiang, head of China's Palace Museum, at the opening ceremony to the exhibition Afghanistan - Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul.
About 1,400 years ago in Israel, a bag holding nine bronze coins was carefully hidden inside a niche in a building's wall. Untouched since then, the coin cache recently emerged during excavations for a highway expansion near Ein Hemed, a national park loc
Cambodia's ancient stone city of Angkor is a remnant of the Khmer Empire, dating between the 9th and 15th centuries. But even stone crumbles over time, and scientists are investigating what may have led to significant degradation of the remains of Angkor'
The eye-catching annual “New Archaeological Discoveries in China” Archaeology Forum sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and organized by the Institute of Archaeology of CASS and Archaeology Press was held in Beijing on January 10th,
Marble statues of Aphrodite/Venus found at Petra in Jordan date to the second century.Credit: Tom ParkerTwo marble statues representing Aphrodite/Venus, the Greco-Roman goddess of love, were found recently at Petra, an ancient desert city in Jordan.The st
An unusually delicate pair of artifacts recently emerged from a dig site in the United Kingdom: a tiny ball of thread and another length of thread wound around a bobbin. Both are estimated to be approximately 3,000 years old.