JULY/AUGUST 2023 * VOLUME 76, NUMBER 4 CONTENTS FEATURES 42 White House, Canyon del Muerto, Arizona 24 RISE OF THE PERSIAN PRINCES In their grand capital Persepolis, Achaemenid rulers expressed their vision of a prosperous, multicultural empire BY BRIDGET ALEX 32 AN ELEGANT ENIGMA The luxurious possessions of a seventeenthcentury woman continue to intrigue researchers a decade after they were retrieved from a shipwreck BY JARRETT A. LOBELL 36 INSIDE A MAGNIFICENT CELTIC TOMB New investigations of an Iron Age burial in France reveal the source of one woman's exceptional power BY BENJAMIN LEONARD archaeology.org 42 DEFENDING THE CANYONLANDS Rare shields from the American Southwest are a legacy of a turbulent time in Native history BY ERIC A. POWELL 48 AFRICA'S MERCHANT KINGS The early Christian kingdom of Aksum was at the heart of a great maritime trading network BY JASON URBANUS Cover: Winged, bearded bulls called lamassu adorn the Gate of All Nations in the Persian Achaemenid capital of Persepolis in modern-day Iran. PHOTO: 123RF/MohaMMad NouRi 1http://www.archaeology.org