March/april 2015 VoluMe 68, NuMber 2 CONTENTS features 26 Rome's Imperial Port The vast site of Portus holds the key to understanding how Rome evolved from a mighty city to an empire BY JASON URBANUS 34 Packed for the Afterlife The remarkably well-preserved contents of a Ming Dynasty tomb BY JARRETT A. LOBELL 36 Iron from the Sky Archaeologists and planetary scientists experiment with meteorites, ancient Egypt's first source of precious iron BY KATE RAVILIOUS 40 City of the Moon New discoveries show that North America's biggest prehistoric settlement may have been the center of a lunar cult BY MIKE TONER 46 Te Vikings in Ireland A surprising discovery in Dublin challenges long-held ideas about when the Scandinavian raiders arrived on the Emerald Isle BY ROGER ATWOOD 26 A marble head of a statue found during excavations near the amphitheater at Portus, ancient Rome's most signifcant port. Cover: The Colosseum, one of ancient Rome's greatest engineering and architectural achievements, was built during the first century of the empire, between the years a.d. 70 and 80. PHOTO: Izzet KerIbar/GettyImaGes 1