A golden queen's wreath, c310BC

There was a review in my morning newspaper today of a forthcoming exhibition that I would love to see: Heracles to Alexander the Great (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 7 April to 29 August). About 500 objects will be on display, many of them from recent excavations in Aegae, the ancient capital of Macedonia. ‘We are so focused on the history of Athens,’ says Dr Susan Walker, keep of antiquities at the Ashmolean, ‘that we completely underestimate the Macedonians.’ The reviewer is particularly taken by a series of portrait heads: ‘Unlike the idealised faces of classical Athens, they show furrowed brows, wrinkles and laughter lines and may transform the history of portraiture. ‘The Macedonia of Philip II is the birthplace and birth-time of realistic portraiture,’ says Dr Angeliki Kottaridi, the lead curator of the exhibition (and also the director of the excavations at Aegae).