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  • The Wemyss Caves: Tracing 40 years of conservation, community, and discovery

    The Wemyss Caves: Tracing 40 years of conservation, community, and discovery

    The caves at East Wemyss are home to traces of human activity spanning prehistory to the present day, including important Pictish carvings. In recent decades some of these interactions have been destructive, but the local community is working to preserve this unique collection. As they mark the 40th anniversary of these efforts, Mike Arrowsmith reports.

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  • Second World War wrecks: Brecon Beacons

    Second World War wrecks: Brecon Beacons

    Today this wreck, along with several others in the Beacons, stands as a monument, a tangible example of the enormous sacrifices that were made every day during the Second World War.

  • Giant warriors in Arabian art

    Giant warriors in Arabian art

    Saudi Arabia is a paradise for researching engraved rock art (see ‘Saudi Arabian rock art’ in CWA 102). In March 2022, I returned to the Saudi provinces of Najran and ‘Asir. In the latter, the exploration of Wadi al-Khayyur, located west of the Wajid Desert, resulted in surprising findings. Whereas the 8km-long and 150m-wide wadi,…

  • An ancient altar

    An ancient altar

    Recent excavations at the ancient city of Savatra, in the Karatay district of Konya, central Turkey, have uncovered an impressive altar in the site’s theatre complex, which is believed to date to the Roman period. The altar is decorated with the image of a soldier, a military standard bearing the name of the Aurelia phyle,…

  • Digitising Doggerland

    Digitising Doggerland

    Until around 8,000 years ago, Britain and the European mainland were connected by a land bridge that today is known as Doggerland. Although now submerged beneath the North Sea, this lost landscape has been recreated in an interactive simulation by archaeologists at the University of Bradford. The digital model and accompanying animation – created by…

  • The First World War in Postcards

    The First World War in Postcards

    Calum Henderson explores fascinating examples of postcards from the First World War which feature in John Wilton’s latest book.

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  • The Jacobite Wars

    The Jacobite Wars

    In the first part of our new series, Graham Goodlad explores the Jacobite movement’s early attempts to overthrow Britain’s ruling Protestant monarchy.

Travel

Let our intrepid team of reporters inspire you with their reports from around the world

Museums

We continue our visits of museums around the workd

  • American thunderbolt

    In the first part of our special feature, Graham Goodlad charts the development of America’s air-arm from its earliest beginnings, while in our second article he focuses on the hardware deployed by American forces.

    American thunderbolt

Objects

We select our favourite objects from the newly discovered to the well-known

  • Finds Tray: Bronze Age hoard

    Finds Tray: Bronze Age hoard

    This is a Bronze Age hoard that was found near Blyth Bridge in the Scottish Borders. It comprises two bronze axe-heads, a complete copper ingot…

  • The pectoral of Ramesses II, Musée du Louvre

    The pectoral of Ramesses II, Musée du Louvre

    Campbell Price describes a New Kingdom pectoral made of electrum and glass.

  • Finds Tray: Bronze Age button

    Finds Tray: Bronze Age button

    This Bronze Age button comes from a hoard of three copper-alloy items that also included two axe heads. One of the axe heads was noticed…

  • Medieval notebook

    Medieval notebook

    We can see Latin, scratched into the book’s wax 700-800 years ago. What is it? This well-preserved medieval ‘notebook’ dates to the 13th or 14th…

  • Beyond conquerors and kings: Encountering ordinary people in the Bayeux Tapestry

    The Bayeux Tapestry is perhaps the most recognisable piece of early medieval art – and, almost 1,000 years after the brutal events that it depicts, rather friendlier relations between England and France have seen the famous embroidery travel to the British Museum for a hotly anticipated exhibition. Carly Hilts visited to learn more about what…

Groups

We discover the little known, yet tirelessly dedicated voluntary heritage societies thriving in Britain today..

  • Nautical Archaeology Society

    Nautical Archaeology Society

    Sea levels have risen by around 120m (400ft) since the last Ice Age, only stabilising at their current position around 3,000 years ago. Given how…

  • The Grayling Society

    The Grayling Society

    In the world of fly fishing, trout dominate the headlines, but in the past grayling were considered to be the equal of trout for sporting…

  • Friends of Abingdon Abbey Buildings Trust

    Friends of Abingdon Abbey Buildings Trust

    On 9 February 1538, Abbot Thomas Rowland signed a Deed of Surrender, formally handing over his monastery to Henry VIII, and the 1,000-year history of…

  • Cambridge Past, Present & Future

    Cambridge Past, Present & Future

    Starting with the opening of the UK’s first science park in 1970, Cambridge has grown from the sleepy market town of 60 years ago into…