Our Latest issues

Latest Features

  • Aphrodite: the making of a goddess
    ,

    Aphrodite: the making of a goddess

    A sweeping new exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford explores how an all-powerful but anonymous goddess from Bronze Age Cyprus evolved into the Classical deity that we are familiar with today, and how she continues to influence modern popular culture. Carly Hilts reports.

    Current Archaeology

Photo of The Day

  • Equestrian armour at the Wallace Collection

    Equestrian armour at the Wallace Collection

    This magnificent equestrian armour from the 16th century is unique in that it has survived completely preserved to this day. The armour was acquired by the Wallace Collection in 1867 from the collection of the French sculptor Count Émilien de Nieuwerkerke, who had displayed it in his apartment at the Louvre. Before that, it was…

  • Saving a Second World War Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery

    Saving a Second World War Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery

    This Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Battery – located some 350m east of Decoy Farm, to the north of the River Bure, near Mautby, Norfolk – is believed to be the most-complete battery of its type in Britain, and one of only a small number of complete, or near-complete, Second World War gun batteries still around today.…

  • Community spirit: Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria

    Community spirit: Hadrian’s Wall, Cumbria

    For Historic England, Hadrian’s Wall has always been a site needing active research – many questions about the frontier remain unanswered, and only by the kind of refreshed understanding that research brings, and by addressing the interests and concerns of the public, can the frontier remain relevant.

  • Flinders Petrie and the discovery of early Egypt

    Flinders Petrie and the discovery of early Egypt

    Petrie’s work at Naqada revealed for the first time the prehistoric past of Egypt.

  • ‘One of the most valuable women that ever lived’

    ‘One of the most valuable women that ever lived’

    During archaeological works beneath the floor of Bath Abbey between 2018 and 2020 (see CA 348), Wessex Archaeology recovered a stunning piece of an 18th-century bas relief marble sculpture. It was one of approximately 4,000 fragments removed from the Abbey’s 635 monuments during George Gilbert Scott’s works between 1864 and 1874. The sculpture, which was…

Archaeology Books

Military History Books

Comment

  • 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…

  • Korea

    A new exhibition at the British Museum traces 2,000 years of innovation, influence, and endurance on the Korean peninsula. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.

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…