This sixth-century pectoral comprises 14 Byzantine gold coins and a gold disc gathered over two centuries.

The textbooks say the Byzantine Empire was a theocratic autocracy uniting church and state under an all-powerful emperor believed by the Byzantines to be God’s viceroy and vicar. Nonsense, says ...

Among the Scandinavian archaeological heritage are the so-called runestones, stelae whose epigraphic content is written -obviously- in runes, with a quite broad chronology, from the 4th century to the ...

Centuries of church schisms show that if there’s a doctrine to be fought over, there’s a good chance Christians will fight ...

To find a single coin in an archaeological excavation is not especially unusual, to find a hoard of coins is uncommon, and to find a hoard of gold coins is exceptionally rare. Thus, when archaeologist ...

I was in Paris during my sophomore year of college when I started reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I made my way through the first volume, immersed in the decadence of the late ...

Despite Putin's immense power (and rumoured vast wealth), he consistently presents himself as a servant of his people - a trick learned from the Emperors of Byzantium. His divorce, announced last week ...