Archaeology Odyssey

For example, all of the skeletons excavated at the Neolithic site of Ain Ghazal, in Jordan, were missing heads. One interpretation is that the head symbolized authority and was removed so that authority would remain with the living, rather than with the dead. See Gary O. Rollefson, “Invoking the Spirit: Prehistoric Religion at Ain Ghazal,” Archaeology Odyssey, Premiere Issue, 1998.

See Frank Holt, “Alexander in the East,” Archaeology Odyssey, July/August 2001.

Though most of Ashoka’s inscriptions are in Prakrit, some have been found in Greek, for example, in Kandahar, in present-day Afghanistan. Some Greek-speaking peoples still populated the northwestern provinces during the Mauryan Dynasty.

Previously, Indian artists had only worked in perishable materials, according to Seleucis Nikator’s ambassador to India, Megasthenes (c. 350–290 B.C.); in a work titled Indika, Megasthenes wrote that India’s monsoon climate encouraged artists to think in terms of the temporary, rather than the permanent.

See the following articles in Archaeology Odyssey, July/August 2001: Frank Holt, “Alexander in the East,” and Rekha Morris, “Imagining Buddha.”

For more on ancient siege warfare, see Paul Bentley Kern, “Under Siege! How the Ancients Waged War,” Archaeology Odyssey, January/February 2004.

Other popular arrow poisons included aconite, or monkshood, a widespread toxic plant that paralyzes the nervous system, and hemlock (the poison that Socrates was condemned to drink), supposedly favored by archers around the Black Sea.

For more on one of the earliest examples of the “smiting scene,” see David O’Connor, “Narmer’s Enigmatic Palette,” Archaeology Odyssey, September/October 2004.