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  • The Leek embroidery

    In last month’s CA, Sherds wrote that Reading Museum’s copy of the Bayeux Tapestry was censored by the women of the Leek Embroidery Society when they stitched the facsimile in 1886. Sherds has since learned that the ladies of Leek have been maligned.

    Chris Catling

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  • Gebel Barkal Burial place of the god Amun

    Gebel Barkal Burial place of the god Amun

    Some 370km (230 miles) north of Khartoum lies a large, flat-topped rock (mesa) that was one of the most sacred places in Egypt and Nubia. The distinctive feature of this 100m-high (330ft) hill is a gigantic free-standing pinnacle (shown on the left) that, when seen from the north-east, resembles a rearing cobra snake (uraeus) –…

  • Beached: The Sanday Shipwreck, Orkney    

    Beached: The Sanday Shipwreck, Orkney    

    When skeletal timbers emerged from intertidal deposits at Sand o’Erraby beach on Sanday, Orkney, earlier this year, they were soon identified as part of a shipwreck – specifically, the midships section of a vessel’s lower hull. Current thinking is that the ship was possibly of Dutch manufacture, and perhaps 17th-century in date; if so, it…

  • The Conan Stone, Dingwall Museum, Highlands

    The Conan Stone, Dingwall Museum, Highlands

    Since the stone’s removal from the site it has undergone conservation, including the creation of a 3D model in order to bring its carvings into sharper relief.

  • Celebrating heritage ‘Game Changers’: Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire  

    Celebrating heritage ‘Game Changers’: Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire  

    A giant ephemeral land artwork the size of four Olympic swimming pools has been unveiled by Sir Tony Robinson at Whitby Abbey, to mark the 30th birthday of the National Lottery and celebrate the achievements of seven heritage ‘Game Changers’. National Lottery players raise around £30 million for good causes every week, and since 1994…

  • Saving shipwrecks: HMS Invincible, East Solent

    Saving shipwrecks: HMS Invincible, East Solent

    There are currently 57 nationally important shipwrecks in English waters, spanning the Bronze Age to the 20th century, designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 – including the remains of HMS Invincible (pictured here), a 74-gun warship that was wrecked in 1758 after hitting a sandbank in the East Solent. Now wreck sites are to…

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  • Excavating the CA archive: Monasteries of the high medieval period – Part 2

    Joe Flatman

    Continuing last month’s exploration of high medieval monasticism, this month I will visit sites across the country, both well known and less well known, that reflect the profound impact the Church had on society during this era, and the discoveries made by modern-day archaeologists which highlight this

  • The Bayeux Tapestry

    Chris Catling

    The Bayeux Tapestry has gone on display at the British Museum at last, despite the fears of some conservators that transporting it to London would cause irreparable damage. In the event, two threads were found to be broken when the Tapestry was inspected after arriving in London.

  • The view from Vienna

    Charles Higham

    Last year, in Vienna, we visited the salt mines at Hallstatt and the site beside the Danube where the Venus of Willendorf was discovered.

  • Amphibious cities

    World Archaeology

    When news about Tenochtitlan (nowadays Mexico City), the capital of the Aztec Empire, started to reach Europe around the time of the conquest by the Spanish Conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés, the city was soon labelled the ‘Venice of the New World’.

  • 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…

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…