Viking Denmark

Viking Denmark
There is, apparently, no place in Denmark where one can be further than 50km from the sea – a perfect homeland for the Vikings, whose impact was widely felt in Europe and beyond between the 9th and 11th centuries.

Adept seamen and shipwrights and able to muster considerable bodies of armed men, they travelled as far as Newfoundland in the west, and the Caspian sea in the East, taking their rich traditions of artistic expression, story-telling and building skills with them.

This journey through their homelands will start at their southern land defence, the Danevirke, and will explore the evidence for their towns, their burial monuments and, perhaps most importantly, the remains of their ships, including the chance to sail in a replica at Roskilde. John Hines is particularly knowledgeable about the Viking legends and sagas, and he will weave these into the archaeological journey.
We also see fine examples of more recent traditional architecture, such as Roskilde’s lovely cathedal.

Whilst the focus of the tour is the Vikings, it would be hard to pass by some impressive discoveries dating to earlier periods, such as the famous Iron Age bog bodies, preserved by the wet terrain, and the richly decorated Gundestrup cauldron of the 1st century BC (in the National Museum).

The Peloponnese from Homer to hadrian & beyond

The Peloponnese from Homer to hadrian & beyond
This is the land of Homer’s heroes and the great Bronze Age citadels from which they came. The home cities of Agamemnon, Menelaus and Nestor help us to put the Trojan War into its Greek context as a meeting with the world of the Hittites of Asia Minor, at a time when Greek colonists were hungry for land, and introducing their way of life to new territories across the sea.

In later times the Peloponnese was also home to major cities and sanctuaries of Classical Greece and, once again this part of Greece took centre stage in ancient world politics as the Peloponnesian War of the late 5th century BC brought the power of Athens to an end, and changed western civilisation forever.
Perhaps this was the memory immortalised by Homer in his epic poems. Certainly many aspects of the Mycenean culture rediscovered by Heinrich Schliemann clearly echo the world described by Homer.

We finish in Athens, and now spend two days here seeing not only the National Museum, but also the new Acropolis Museum, both with incomparable collections which illustrate all aspects of life and death in Ancient Greece.

Starting with the oracle at Delphi, as all great journeys should, we cross to the Peloponnese and travel through a beautiful countryside of mountains, plains and seascapes. Your journey follows the course of history through the coming of Rome, and then early Christianity, visiting the impressive Byzantine and Frankish city of Mistra.

The Dordogne Prehistoric Cave Art

The Dordogne Prehistoric Cave Art
From the fierce debate which raged during the 19th century about the age and authenticity of decorated caves, to the most recent scientific research, the Dordogne has been at the centre of study of prehistory for many years.

The art in question belongs to the period approximately between 40,000 BC to 10,000 BC. To many, this period (known as the late Pleistocene) is so remote that it is difficult to envisage man as anything more than a ‘squat grunting savage’. However, we know that primitive forms of human had been making stone tools for more than 2 million years, and that Homo sapiens, the modern form of humankind to which we belong, evolved nearly 100,000 years ago.

Travel Between that time and the phase of cave decoration, Neanderthal man and his associated stone industries had come and gone, so that by 35,000 BC an advanced society of hunting and gathering humans of modern form was sufficiently well-established to combat the rigours of the final extreme cold phase of the Ice Age.

With the amelioration of climate after 10,000 BC, an artistic tradition that had lasted an almost unbelieveable 25,000 years ceased.

South-west Turkey mountain cities and tombs by the sea

South-west Turkey mountain cities and tombs by the sea:
Hidden in the Taurus Mountain of south-western Turkey are some spectacular Classical cities, inaccessible and forgotten until recent roads, archaeological survey and excavation returned them to public view.

These mountainous cities of the ancient region of Pisidia have a long history, being mentioned in Hittite texts and by Herodotus. The remarkably good living their hardy inhabitants eked out of the seemingly inhospitable terrain saw expression in much monumental building during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Their subsequent decline, as a result of earthquake, plague and changing economies, causes modern visitors to wonder how such civic splendour could thrive so far from anywhere.
Few visitors venture there, and the rewards for those who do are outstanding ruins in breath-taking settings, with the sense of discovery enjoyed by 19th century travellers.

This is a journey through some spectacular ancient cities in this corner of south-western Turkey, with exceptional mountain and coastal scenery, and some rough walks.

Across the mountains lies the World Heritage site of Hierapolis, splendid spa city established by the Attalids, where the limestone formations made by the hot medicinal springs have been named Pamukkale - ‘cotton castle’ - by the Turks. From here we continue to the Lycian coast, and the ruined cities of Xanthos, Patara and Telmessos.