July/August 2024 Issue

A fortified compound at Tell Habwa on the Sinai Peninsula may have been associated with the military campaigns of Thutmose III, one of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs. Along with other military installations, the compound was located on the Horus Road, which led from Egypt into the Levant. Scholars think the building might have been used by Egyptian soldiers, and perhaps even by the pharaoh, as a rest house. Thutmose’s troops would have marched along this route on their mission to expand Egyptian territory eastward in the 15th century B.C.

Judging from the high-quality glass, pottery, and carved gemstones found at a bathhouse in the city of Carlisle, the facility was frequented by upper-class Romans—perhaps including the emperor himself. Among the finds was a clump of Tyrian purple dye, the most expensive commodity in antiquity. Made from sea snail secretions, the pigment was reserved exclusively for royalty and the very wealthy. This is the only example ever discovered in England and may be connected with the emperor Septimius Severus’ visit to Carlisle in A.D. 208.

Between the 9th and 12th centuries A.D., when Chaco Canyon was the center of Ancestral Puebloan culture, someone was always listening—especially for the sound of a conch-shell trumpet. Chaco was home to more than a dozen communities, and as many as 200 smaller settlements existed along its periphery. Results of a recent study relying on computer modeling indicate that each settlement was within hearing distance of a trumpet blast from at least one neighboring village. The instruments may have acted like medieval church bells, signaling important announcements.