The World Before Us

Over the past week, the media have been reporting on a new discovery — that 450,000 years ago, Neanderthals were generating fire, far earlier than previously known.

There are few archaeological discoveries that match unearthing a Roman mosaic. I know this from personal experience at the city of Verulamium, north of London.

Inevitably almost, I have to write about Tutankhamun.

Several readers have asked me about Pu-Abi, mentioned in last week’s column — 1922 was a memorable year for archaeology.

One item of a proposed new curriculum for schools attracted my attention.

I first visited the Crimea 20 years ago.

It is exactly a year since the discovery of Sandy Irvine’s boot on Mt Everest.

The warring states period in Chinese history lasted from 475-221 BC.

The world watched with horror on April 15 2019, when a fire engulfed Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

We are a territorial species, and wars are usually fought over land.

I recently wrote about the discovery of a new human species following the recovery of DNA from a fragment of bone from Denisova Cave in Siberia.

Who were in fact, the first humans to reach the Americas, when did they get there and what did they find?

Tourists throng to the Greek theatre at Epidaurus, but very few venture further to the nearby shore, where, standing on a promontory on our first visit to Greece, my brother and I made out an...

Stonehenge is one of the most mysterious of monuments. It has puzzled visitors for centuries and has a prominent place in folklore. To this day, it attracts thousands to celebrate the summer solstice.

The Shroud of Turin has been described as "the world’s most studied archaeological artefact".

The island of Sveti Ivan lies just 350km north of Istanbul, formerly Constantinople.

One of my most memorable cruises as a guest speaker took us to Kerch, where today Putin’s infamous bridge links Russia to the Ukraine.

Not many people have had their name adopted into the English language.