4 NEWS
Packed with bones and artifacts,
a lakeside cemetery in Kenya
is revealing insights into the lives of
ancient Africans nearly 5,000 years ago.6 PROFILES
Creators of the Cinématographe,
the Lumière brothers brought
moving images to a mass audience,
transforming modern culture through
the shared experience of cinema.10 INVENTIONS
In 16th-century Europe the
violin’s popularity surged
as it brought both fiddling to the fireside
and sublimity to the concert hall.90 DISCOVERIES
Lalibela’s rock-hewn churches
awed Portuguese travelers
in the 1500s. Built by a 12th-century king of
Ethiopia, the stone complex served as his
vision of a new Jerusalem.12 The Ancient Roots of Indo-European Languages
Today, some three billion people speak a language on the Indo-European
family tree, whose mysterious origins go back to the dawn of civilization.
22 Justice of the Pharaohs
A trove of legal documents found near the Valley of the Kings reveals the
ins and outs of ancient Egypt’s legal systems, from crimes to punishments.
36 Silencing Cicero
After Julius Caesar’s assassination, Rome’s great orator Cicero fought
—in vain—to save both his life and that of the Roman Republic.
48 Long Live Robin Hood!
From medieval ballads all the way to the silver screen, Robin Hood has
transformed from local folk hero to international icon of
60 The Inquisition’s Spanish Victims
The fates of five different people expose the pain and
terror at the core of Spain’s mania for religious purity
that lasted for more than three centuries.
76 Jesse James: An American Outlaw
The violence of the U.S. Civil War transformed Jesse
James from Missouri farm boy to vicious killer.Features Departmentsf dissent.PROCESSIONAL CROSS (16TH CENTURY) FROM ETHIOPIA.
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORKUNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE
Robin Hood and his band of Merry
Men gather in the sheltering groves of
Sherwood Forest in this 1859 painting by
Edmund George Warren.VOL. 4 NO. 6