Minerva - November/December 2013

Augustus: father of the Roman Empire How an average man from an average family became an all-powerful ruler who transformed the Roman Republic into a mighty empire. Patricia Southern

At home in Aphrodisias A stroll around the site of a magnificent ancient city in western Turkey that Caesar Augustus called his own. Patricia Daunt

The life aquatic Professor George Bass, the father of marine archaeology, talks about five decades of work beneath the waves. Roger Williams

Bees in her bosom? Delving into the ample and multiple mysteries of the Great Mother Goddess, Artemis of Ephesus. Richard Stoneman

Portrait of an artist A new exhibition celebrates the work of the artist Alan Sorrell, who reconstructed archaeological sites as they would have been thousands of years ago, long before computer graphics were invented. Julia Sorrell

Confessions of an archaeologist Dark, dank holes, dung beetles and the bones of domestic animals are all grist to the mill for members of this profession. David Miles

The singing collector Antiquities from the vast, varied collection of Evan Gorga, the eccentric 19th-century Italian opera star, are on show in Rome. Dalu Jones

Out of the dustbin of history Hearing how two intrepid Victorian ladies bought discarded fragments of Hebrew manuscript that turned out to be priceless. Ben Outhwaite

Along the Bedouin trails of Jordan Going on a five-day, five-star desert trek across the stony desert to the ‘rose-red city’ of Petra. Diana Darke