Current Archaeology

Grave concerns: Exploring the history of the British cemetery and its uncertain future

Current Archaeology

The cemetery – defined as a burial ground without an attached primary church or chapel – is a place where artistic, architectural, horticultural, historical, and literary interests are combined. Many were planned as places of botanical and geological instruction, while the epitaphs, extolling the moral virtues of the deceased, were intended to encourage emulation by the living. Appreciating their great value is a vital step towards ensuring that these spaces do not succumb to neglect and decline, as Chris Catling reports.

CA 439 Letters – September

Current Archaeology

Milestone Ground at midsummer The description of 59 pits forming a long, neat line at the Milestone Ground, Worcestershire (CA 435) is intriguing, especially as such features found elsewhere in prehistoric Britain

Museum news

Current Archaeology

The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.

Feature

Capturing Orkney’s chambered cairns

Current Archaeology

September 1, 2018

What can cutting-edge photographic technology add to our understanding of Orkney’s Neolithic chambered tombs? Georgina Ritchie explores the possibilities of photogrammetry, with contributions from Steve Farrar and Hugo Anderson-Whymark.

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Secondhand Stonehenge? Welsh origins of a Wiltshire monument

Current Archaeology

August 10, 2018

It has long been understood that the Stonehenge ‘bluestones’ – a catch-all term used to describe any of the monument’s uprights that are not thought to have been sourced locally – represent a variety of different types of rock, but their origins have been a subject for heated debate. Now archaeological and geological research have combined to pin down some of their sources, and to shed new light on how – and why – the stones were brought to Salisbury Plain. Mike Parker Pearson explains.

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Go west: the search for the bluestone quarries

Current Archaeology

August 10, 2018

How is cutting-edge chemical analysis helping to pinpoint the source of some of Stonehenge’s standing stones – 140 miles from Wiltshire in the Preseli hills? Geologists Rob Ixer and Richard Bevins explain.

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Exercise Magwitch and the prisoners of Rat Island

Current Archaeology

July 27, 2018

Popular legend has long told of the presence of graves on an island in Portsmouth Harbour, holding the remains of convicted criminals or Napoleonic-era prisoners of war. In the wake of severe storms that exposed human remains below the cliff, would archaeological investigation confirm the tale? Richard Osgood reports.

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Windsor Castle: ‘The most Romantique castle that is in the world’

Current Archaeology

July 23, 2018

The wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19 May took place against a backdrop of buildings that have been inhabited almost continuously since the 11th century. The fire of November 1992 at Windsor Castle (in what the Queen later called her annus horribilis) could have brought an end to that 1,000-year history; instead, the restoration that ensued was accompanied by extensive research into the castle’s fabric and development. The following edited extracts come from a new and exhaustive history of the building complex, which Samuel Pepys, visiting on 26 February 1666, described as ‘the most Romantique castle that is in the world’.

News

Bridging the divide: the role of science in archaeology

Current Archaeology

July 5, 2018

A public-interest piece in Nature – published in response to their research paper about the Bell Beaker culture – discusses the ‘sometimes straining’ relationship between archaeologists and geneticists.

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Like a rolling stone: experimental archaeology at Stonehenge

Current Archaeology

June 29, 2018

Was the communal effort of constructing Stonehenge as important to its builders as the finished monument’s purpose? And what was it like to move one of its mighty monoliths? CA spoke to Susan Greaney, Julian Richards, and Luke Winter – and travelled to the Stonehenge Visitor Centre for some hands-on experience.

News

Face to face with Cheddar Man

Current Archaeology

May 26, 2018

A team from UCL and the Natural History Museum has successfully sequenced his DNA for the first time, revealing a wealth of details about his physical appearance.

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Prehistoric pop culture: deciphering the DNA of the Bell Beaker Complex

Current Archaeology

May 5, 2018

More than 4,500 years ago, a hugely popular cultural phenomenon – today known as the Bell Beaker Complex – captured the prehistoric imagination, flourishing across much of Europe. Archaeologists are still deliberating over how this Complex, first identified in the 19th century, developed so quickly and effectively. Now the largest ancient DNA study to-date has shed revolutionary new light on the question, with surprising implications for our understanding of ancient populations – particularly that of Britain, which seems to have undergone an almost complete genetic turnover in just a few centuries. Kathryn Krakowka reports.

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Urban orders: touring the friaries of medieval London

Current Archaeology

May 1, 2018

Almost nothing remains above ground of London’s medieval friaries: only the names of places like Blackfriars Bridge and station, the street – and City pub – called Crutched Friars, and the City street of Austin Friars, now overshadowed by Tower 42 (the former NatWest Tower), testify to their presence. By combining maps, archives, and archaeology, Nick Holder has succeeded in reconstructing their stories and assessing their impact on the London landscape, as Chris Catling reports.

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Settlement and sacred structures: exploring cultic and commercial activity at Maryport

Current Archaeology

April 12, 2018

Excavations at Maryport have shed vivid light on activity outside the Roman fort, from possible temple buildings and buried altars to signs of more everyday life. Tony Wilmott, Ian Haynes, and John Zant explain more.

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Hidden houses of worship: discovering the development of England’s Nonconformist chapels

Current Archaeology

April 1, 2018

Christopher Catling greets an outstanding new English Heritage book by Christopher Wakeling on Nonconformist places of worship with a challenge to their congregations: for the sake of your future you should take more pride in your heritage, opening your doors to show off the rich legacy of Dissent and make it better known.

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London Mithraeum: reimagining the famous Roman temple

Current Archaeology

March 28, 2018

On 14 November, London’s Temple of Mithras – now known as the ‘London Mithraeum’ – reopened to the public as the first new interpretation of a Roman ruin in the capital for nearly 20 years. Sophie Jackson, the lead archaeologist on the project, reports on the temple’s 63-year journey from its initial discovery in 1954 to its recent reconstruction and installation on the site of Bloomberg’s European headquarters.

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Scotland in Six: celebrating stone and steel

Current Archaeology

February 28, 2018

Since 2009, the Scottish Government has been designating themed years to mark specific aspects of Scotland’s cultural and creative life, as well as the country’s natural beauty. As we look back on 2017, the Year of History, Heritage, and Archaeology, Julianne McGraw explores how Scotland’s World Heritage Sites played their part in the festivities.

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Roman writing on the Wall: recording inscriptions at a Hadrian’s Wall quarry

Current Archaeology

February 9, 2018

In the depths of a Cumbrian wood, intrepid archaeologists have been abseiling down the wall of a Roman quarry to document eroding inscriptions left by 3rd-century soldiers tasked with harvesting the sandstone to help repair Hadrian’s Wall. Carly Hilts visited the site and spoke to Jon Allison and Mike Collins to find out more.

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Solving a silver jigsaw: a new hoard of Roman hacksilver from Fife

Current Archaeology

February 1, 2018

Recently discovered in Fife, the Dairsie Hoard represents the earliest-known evidence found outside the empire for Roman use of hacksilver to secure their frontiers. Fraser Hunter unpicks its illuminating and ornate contents.

News

Electrifying discoveries at Hampton Court Palace

Current Archaeology

February 1, 2018

This work has revealed the foundations of the original medieval hall, as well as the massive extension commissioned by Henry VIII after he took Hampton Court from Wolsey.

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Scotland’s Early Silver

Current Archaeology

January 1, 2018

For centuries Scotland’s finely crafted silver brooches, neck chains, vessels, and more were made from a supply of Roman hacksilver. Lucia Marchini learns more about the medieval afterlife of this metal at the National Museum of Scotland’s new exhibition.

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If you go down to the woods… discovering Yorkshire’s hidden heritage

Current Archaeology

January 1, 2018

A wide-ranging archaeological survey across more than 1,000 hectares of Yorkshire woodland has revealed the secrets of hundreds of sites, many never recorded before. John Buglass takes us on a tour of some of the highlights.

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Neolithic food miles: feeding the ‘builders of Stonehenge’

Current Archaeology

December 16, 2017

A newly opened exhibition at Stonehenge documents the diet of the community thought to have been responsible for erecting the main phase of the monument – including the surprisingly far-flung origins of some of their food. Current Archaeology’s Carly Hilts spoke to Susan Greaney, Richard Madgwick, and Mike Parker Pearson at the exhibition launch to find out more.

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