What does the future hold?
By Owain Williams
We have just released issue 60 of Ancient History! I remember working issue 50 almost two years ago as if it were yesterday. So, I thought I would write a quick update on what future themes we have planned and see what you would like to see more of.
We are currently working on issue 61, on cities in the ancient world. This will, hopefully, be a nice, well-rounded issue, covering some familiar territory but also expanding into areas of the ancient world that we know some of you are very keen for us to explore, such as Mesopotamia. For issue 62, we are planning an issue on Greek mythology. While there will be an article or two covering more traditional elements of Greek mythology, such as mythological creatures, the issue will primarily focus on the study of Greek myth — what do the myths mean, how did Greek mythology develop, and how the Greeks interacted with their myths.
As for issue 63, we have planned for an issue on hygiene in the Roman world. However, much to my surprise, this is an issue that has been fairly difficult to put together. There are simply not many people who appear to have the expertise in ancient Roman hygiene and are able to write for the magazine. Indeed, summer and autumn are particularly busy times for academics, since they spend the summer finishing up their own projects and autumn is the beginning of the teaching year.
Going forward, we have a couple of ideas. The first is an exploration of the history of Messenia, from the Bronze Age through to the Roman period. In my last blog, I wrote about how I was lucky enough to go see the excavation at Iklaina, and that, with a trip to ancient Messene, absolutely inspired me to try and put this together. However, it is very much in an early planning stage. Messenia, unfortunately, simply does not have a lot of readily available imagery online, although I did take plenty of photos when I visited the region. So, we have to think carefully about what we will cover in the issue.
The second idea, also very much in the planning stage, is an exploration of the Mayan world, from religion to politics. I was inspired to plan this out because of my discussion with David Stuart on the Ancient History Podcast. Besides Tracy Arden’s introduction to the Mayan world, which I reviewed on the blog a few years ago, I have never really explored the Classical Maya. So, David Stuart’s book, The Four Heavens, was revelatory. There is just so much to explore. Why not explore it in the magazine?
What do you think? Do you like the sound of these theme ideas? What would you like to see covered in the magazine?
8 comments
Oh and also some content on peloponnesian war would be nice :)
These are all great suggestions! Thank you for your ideas.
I would like to see an issue about historical truths and untruths.
there are a lot of truths that i learnt when young which are now questionable.
for example, the bayeaux as a french tapestry.
on the other side, for years herodatus was treated as a romantic fiction, which is now accepted as truth.
the topic is interesting in that ‘facts’ change as a result of new discoveries.
some change as the originals were biased. for example, wedgwood created etruria style ceramics because of the romance of etruscan discoveries, but what was being copied was actually greek ceramics import or produced in etruria by greek potters.
i think it teaches a lesson in ‘facts’ and the ‘scientific’ method.
I know it has appeared before but I would like to see anything dealing with the Bosporan kingdoms from ancient thru the Roman Empire.
Would love to see more articles on the various Persian empires. I also enjoy articles on logistics and unexpected challenges in regards to ancient campaigns.
I guess I’m pretty biased on this subject, but I’m totally for having much more of Ancient Greece content so definitely a YES for me (and my father who’s also a subscriber) on Messenia. Like you say, it’s a somewhat scarce subject. But that’s why I love this magazine, you cover obscure parts of ancient history that others simply don’t. For example the issue you did on the Greek-Scythian interaction was brilliant & I learnt a lot.
To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of the Romans in contrast as it tends to be heavily covered in other history magazines or media in general. On first glance issue 63; I don’t think is an interesting topic to me, maybe if it was broader not only Roman.
I agree with you on the Mayans it would be an interesting change from the European civilizations usually covered. So I’d give a thumbs up to that too.
To be honest I’ve loved most of your themes so far, other than what I’ve already mentioned I guess it would be nice to see more obscure civilizations covered in the future issues e.g. African, other South American, Asian etc. Also maybe some content on the Hellenistic period, especially the Diadochi, their descendants (pre cleopatra), founding & early kingdoms of Ptolemy, Seleucus etc. But saying that I’ve really got no complaints, the physical quality of the paper, photographs & the quality of the articles are second to none.
I would like to see digital copies of ALL of your magazines available online for purchase. On occasion, the Postal Snail is not too reliable, but we can easily download the digital copy and read it onscreen or print it out. Of course, we would expect to pay for the digital copies.