Ancient

No memorials of the past are more fantastic than the series of great statues—some of them as tall as a four-storey building—that greet the visitor to this lonely and storm-swept Pacific island. By C.A. Burland.

Geoffrey Grigson examines the treatment, by artists and poets, of the "three wise men" of Christian scripture.

Michael Grant analyses Mithras and its importance to the ancients.

Just over a thousand years ago Chinese printers completed the publication of the Confucian Classics—an event as important in the history of civilization as the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. By Adrian L. Julian.

Cyme, near the modern Smyrna, was one of the ports that served the Phrygians during the centuries from 1000-700 B.C., when they dominated Asia Minor. Freya Stark studies the civilization of this ancient people, from whom the Greeks derived one of the three modes of classical music.

David Stockton describes an important stage in the life of Cicero, the Roman philosopher, politican and theorist.

Charles Seltman shows how Egyptian memories of Crete and its inhabitants may have given rise to the Platonic legend of the lost island of Atlantis.

The journeys of Gospel books from 11th century Europe, M.A. Braude writes, illustrates their historical significance.

A new exhibition at the British Museum on the aftermath of the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79 raises questions about the relationship between past and present, says Daisy Dunn.

Nearly 35 centuries ago the first Empress in the history of the world proclaimed herself Pharaoh; Jon Manchip White records how Queen Hatshepsut then went on to rule for more than 20 years.