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2026 Festival

Home>Themes>Revealing the Ancient World

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Revealing the Ancient World

Learn about Babylon, Athens and Sparta, and the crucial role played by women during Rome’s violent transition from a republic to the dictatorship of the Roman Empire.

Fulvia: Breaking the rules in Ancient Rome


Tempest Anderson Hall, Museum Gardens

Join historian Jane Draycott as she reclaims the life story of Fulvia, one of the most powerful women of the late Roman Republic.

Plunder? How museums got their treasures


Join historian Justin M Jacobs as he challenges the widely accepted belief that many of Western museums’ treasures were acquired by imperialist plunder and theft.

Babylon: The mother of all cities


Ron Cooke Hub, Campus East, University of York

Step into a vanished age as historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones brings the world’s first and most illustrious metropolis, Babylon, vividly to life.

Athens and Sparta: The rivalry that shaped ancient Greece


Ron Cooke Hub, Campus East, University of York

Two great cities. One fierce rivalry. Join historian Adrian Goldsworthy to discover more about Athens and Sparta, the two big players in Ancient Greece.

Graveyards: A history of living with the dead


Ron Cooke Hub, Campus East, University of York

Why, how and where do we inter our dead? From the earliest known burial sites to today’s green burials, author Roger Luckhurst presents a wonderfully illustrated cultural history of graves and graveyards.

Uncovering York’s Black History


Discover York’s rich Black history on a fascinating journey spanning nearly 2,000 years - from Roman Eboracum to the 1950s – on a guided walk with Olivia Carpenter of the University of York.

Uncovering York’s Black History


Discover York’s rich Black history on a fascinating journey spanning nearly 2,000 years - from Roman Eboracum to the 1950s – on a guided walk with Olivia Carpenter of the University of York.