Before I start our formal Intro to this issue, I'd like to say thank you to all our editors, helpers, assistant editors and special reporters that worked on the Acta. This issue is our final installment of the fifth volume, and the entire year was such fun. Truly a pleasure to work with every single one of you, and frankly an honor as well. Great big thanks to our readers as well!

Happy summer everyone! Ack, I've forgotten our large population of AW'ers bundled in wool in Australia (it's winter there you know). Every summer AncientWorlds kind of empties out, normally vibrant conversations die out for a bit and projects get laid by the wayside. Personally I am ok with that. Life is a cycle and we all need time to renew, right? I for one have been busy getting sunburnt and choking in a sandstorm. Because of this quiet AW downtime though, two of our worlds aren't publishing this issue. The Orient and Mesopotamia, two of my personal favorite world news every issue is taking a much needed hiatus.

No worries, we know they'll return in the September issue of our next edition and we thank them for all their hardwork over the years!

Some of the worlds publishing this issue are light, fun, summer fare. Some were lucky enough to have major festivals coming up (Celtia!) to cover and a few others I was absolutely amazed at. Truly! Don't believe me? Read for yourself. Just don't forget to read to the very bottom of Hilarity's Egypt World News (um.. your image of King Tut might get a bit *cough* altered!) and Topiltzin's Americas World News has the most fantastic gathering of archaeological news I've ever seen. "Well done" to America's newest editor!

What better way to spend a day escaping the sun than to pour over an excellent Acta issue? Enjoy everyone, and MANY thanks to our fantastic editors!

~ Laurels