ARCHAEOLOGY

This issue is filled with fascinating stories about how rulers of the ancient and medieval worlds, including emperors, kings, and caliphs, displayed their power using the seemingly boundless resources at their disposal—although several of these displays would be far from permanent. Some rulers, such as ‘Abd al-Rahman III, who reigned over the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain, took it upon themselves to construct entirely new capital cities from which to oversee their domains. In the tenth century A.D., the caliph built the sprawling palace complex of Madinat al-Zahra just a few miles from the existing capital in Córdoba. He filled it with architectural homages to both his homeland in Damascus and his adopted home in Spain, as well as libraries stocked with learned treatises and vast gardens that enhanced the palace’s…

This issue is filled with fascinating stories about how rulers of the ancient and medieval worlds, including emperors, kings, and caliphs, displayed their power using the seemingly boundless resources at their disposal—although several of these displays would be far from permanent. Some rulers, such as ‘Abd al-Rahman III, who reigned over the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain, took it upon themselves to construct entirely new capital cities from which to oversee their domains. In the tenth century A.D., the caliph built the sprawling palace complex of Madinat al-Zahra just a few miles from the existing capital in Córdoba. He filled it with architectural homages to both his homeland in Damascus and his adopted home in Spain, as well as libraries stocked with learned treatises and vast gardens that enhanced the palace’s…

For me, archaeology is about storytelling, and it is a particular privilege to introduce myself as the new president of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) in a magazine so full of compelling human stories. As a maritime archaeologist, a discipline that is never too far removed from Jacques Cousteau and the Titanic, I specialize in the Mediterranean, exploring the sea and learning from the objects left by people who crossed it. While conducting underwater excavations and surveys of shipwrecks and harbors off the coasts of Turkey and Italy, I have wondered at a bronze trident used by hungry sailors to catch fresh food on a long voyage. I have held a broken wooden lice comb tossed overboard in disgust and pieced together fragments of a black-glazed cup that was…

WARRIOR QUEEN “Exploring a Forgotten Jewish Land” (January/February 2023) was an interesting article about the Ethiopian Jews. Ge‘ez, in addition to being the spoken word of the Beta Israel, is the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Church. What was omitted from the article was the legend of Judit, the Jewish Warrior Queen, who ruled the Zagwe Empire over 40 years in the tenth century. Judit’s father, King Gideon IV, defeated the emperor of Aksum but was killed in the battle. Judit took over and, according to legend, killed the successors to the Aksumite Kingdom’s throne. Her Beta Israel descendants ruled part of Ethiopia for about 300 years, until the newly resurgent Ethiopian Solomonic Dynasty eventually defeated the Jewish kingdom. Richard Juro Omaha, NE THE BEST IS YET TO COME Each article in…

While working toward a degree in Andean studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, archaeologist Sâm Ghavami took a bus every day from the city of Lambayeque to the town of Pacora along a stretch of the twisty Pan-American Highway. During each trip, in the tiny hamlet of Illimo, the bus passed a blue sign next to the road indicating a historical or archaeological site that read Huaca Pintada, or Painted Temple. When Ghavami finally had a chance to get off the bus and visit the site, he didn’t see much resembling an ancient temple, but instead came upon an abandoned mound covered by trees, weeds, and garbage. “It was in really bad shape,” he says. “If I hadn’t known it was a huaca, it would have been difficult…

For me, archaeology is about storytelling, and it is a particular privilege to introduce myself as the new president of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) in a magazine so full of compelling human stories. As a maritime archaeologist, a discipline that is never too far removed from Jacques Cousteau and the Titanic, I specialize in the Mediterranean, exploring the sea and learning from the objects left by people who crossed it. While conducting underwater excavations and surveys of shipwrecks and harbors off the coasts of Turkey and Italy, I have wondered at a bronze trident used by hungry sailors to catch fresh food on a long voyage. I have held a broken wooden lice comb tossed overboard in disgust and pieced together fragments of a black-glazed cup that was…