Excavating Leicestershire and Rutland
The discovery, excavation, and analysis of the Richard III's remains in Leicester between 2012 and 2015 was one of the most famous archaeological projects of recent times, drawing global attention to the city.
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Excavating Lincolnshire
The concentration of artefacts was so rich that it led prehistorian Mike Parker Pearson to compare Fiskerton to La Tène, the 19th-century Swiss lakeside excavation that had a profound influence on our understanding of Iron Age Europe.
Clerical sinners and forgeries
Quarreling was commonplace, especially over who was entitled to sit in ‘the best’ pews. Clergy complained about being assaulted: one Kentish aristocrat took his hawk to church in 1514 and punched the vicar in the face when chastised for doing so.
The Treasures of Sanxingdui
The contents of those two pits amaze. They include some of the most remarkable bronzes from the ancient world: human face-masks with protruding eyes, thought to depict Cancong, the mythical first king of Shu.
Making a difference?
The wealth produced by Egyptian peasants was spent on warfare, monuments, and luxury. Egyptian artisans were despised as manual labourers. So Egyptian civilisation looked essentially the same in 30 BC as it had done in 3000 BC.
American advances
activists in Mexico City are claiming that the arrival of Columbus in America opened the door to European oppression and colonialism. Mexico City’s governor has confirmed that the place of Columbus will be taken by a replica of a pre-Columbian statue
War Classics – 1066: the year of the conquest
The Norman Conquest of England was a violent onslaught by barbaric feudal chivalry on what was, at the time, a sophisticated constitutional monarchy based on the rule of law, under whose authority the common people experienced a fair measure of…
Excavating the East Midlands
While investigating a site near Clifton in the south-western suburbs of Nottingham, Wessex Archaeology found evidence of a late Iron Age/early Romano-British farmstead, as well as the remains of two of its residents.
Church Communities and Heritage
Churches are significant repositories of community history; they contain rare and precious objects; they are, in a very real sense, museums at the heart of every community. They are also places of reflection and spiritual sustenance...
Professor of Archaeology Seán McGrail
His work included ethnographic research into different forms of shipbuilding, especially the construction of vessels without the use of metal fasteners, which took Seán to sites near and far, from the west coast of Ireland to the east coast of India.
Seasons, saints, and feast days
When exactly did we begin to lose touch with the natural cycle of the sun, the stars, and the seasons? Was it at the start of the Industrial Revolution, when people moved from land-based activities to working in factories?
V. G. Childe’s archaeological theory
Central to Childe’s conception of history was the creative potential of hunters, farmers, craftworkers, engineers, and scientists, and the way in which elites wasted surpluses on wars, monuments, and luxuries
Vikings of the Sunrise
Originating in the remote past on the island of Taiwan, these Austronesian-speaking people were ultimately to settle from Malagasy to Rapa Nui, Easter Island. But did they go even further, and reach the Americas before Columbus?
Recognising historic landscapes
The idea that there was no pre-existing Roman settlement on the site of medieval Venice is hard to credit when you realise that the Italian peninsula was heavily populated under the Roman Empire
War Classics – The Second World War: An Illustrated History
MHM Editor Neil Faulkner recalls one of the great works of military history.
Science versus The Arts
The heritage sector is central to the UK’s appeal as a tourist destination, which will be crucial in reopening our borders and rebuilding the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control.
Excavating Kent
Large infrastructure projects have led to some remarkable discoveries down the years – think of Heathrow Terminal 5, as well as the more recent work along the route of HS2
Egyptology: obelisks and ambitions
Flinders Petrie is called the father of Egyptian archaeology; well, he was assisted on all of his excavations by his wife Hilda, who has never really achieved the due recognition that she deserves.
The last laugh
Furnished graves smacked of paganism, along with the idea that worldly goods should be laid in the grave for the use of the deceased in the afterlife.
Raksha Dave on the future of archaeology
Time Team taught me to look outside my trench and think about how everything fed into a wider story. And as for Tony [Robinson] – I like to call him my TV dad.
Excavating East Sussex
Perhaps Sussex’s most famous ‘site’ of all featured in CA 286, when the Time Team examined rival theories of the location of the AD 1066 Battle of Hastings.
Prehistoric currencies, conflict, and climate change
In a warning of what might occur again in the future, a paper in the journal Nature blames climate change for interpersonal violence among Nile Valley dwellers in the Late Pleistocene.
The return of nature
Medieval people had a rather gloomy outlook: life was hard, the main thing was to avoid disaster, the future would probably be worse than the past.
Tea with the junta
For some unaccountable reason, perhaps a case of mistaken identity, Polly and I were ushered into a private room to sit down to afternoon tea with the junta.
The Battlefields of England
I headed for the battlefield monument to get my bearings – an obelisk erected in 1740 to mark the spot where Warwick the Kingmaker, the greatest figure of the Wars of the Roses, was supposedly cut down...
Excavating West Sussex
Fishbourne is just about the largest Roman villa yet to be discovered in this country, but until excavations began the site was virtually unknown...
Saving British heritage
the organisation has halted the Westminster Parliament’s expensive and environmentally damaging plan to demolish Richmond House, listed at Grade II* as a rare example of a fine building from the 1980s...
Was Nero really a goodie?
His talents may have been limited and he may have been fundamentally lazy: but was he bad? Could we not say that he made the best use of his limited talents – and the empire flourished?
Don’t underestimate Archaeology
Too often, we are seen as ‘people who play in the dirt’ or very occasionally ‘finders of secrets’ rather than serious academics. - Dr Hugh Willmott
Why studying the past matters
The eerie experience of writing about quarantine whilst in quarantine truly highlighted the relevance of archaeology in the modern world.
Shrines to saints and Pink Floyd
Museums and sculptors should work more closely with archaeologists and palaeontologists to recreate the appearance of our extinct ancestors.
Excavating Surrey
The county is one that historically suffers from being overlooked: its proximity, and partial absorption, into Greater London risks obscuring its significance.
Thomas Becket: troublesome or over-promoted?
In a way, I began to feel slightly more sympathetic to Henry VIII; the church was extremely powerful and if you are to oppose it, I suppose you must be ruthless.
A new world of communication
One of the most breathtaking experiences in my archaeological life was to mount the steps and look out over the assembled ranks of the terracotta army.
Protected places and prehistoric pints
Abydos was not only the earliest brewery and the forerunner of the great royal cemeteries... it was also the birthplace of the funeral wake and possibly too of the mass hangover.
Excavating Glamorgan and Monmouthsire
This publication features, among other highlights, the extraordinary, emotive survival of a series of footprints made by a Mesolithic child.