History hidden in plain sight
Banksy has made himself very rich with witty examples of the genre, and both Historic England and the National Trust now conserve and celebrate historic graffiti.
Comment
The value of culture
Economics cannot be used to measure the emotional, educational, psychological, spiritual, health, and social benefits of heritage – all the things that make life worth living.
Excavating the past of south Wales
This revealed much about life in ‘Roman’ Wales, in both its modest urbanised centres and its wider hinterlands.
Sailing to Ithaca?
Is Ithaca, in fact, Odysseus’ island, where Penelope faithfully weaved, steadfastly waiting for her mischievous prince in their well-appointed palace?
Food fads and fashions
At a time of food scarcity, obesity became a desirable condition… the Venus figurines represented an ideal body type.
Archaeology and the silver screen
As far as I am aware, The Dig is a first. I mean a film where the whole thing revolves around an archaeological dig that really happened? This is the only one, right?
Save Burlington House!
Rising rent may force the Antiquaries to leave Burlington House, potentially endangering its extensive collection, which includes many historically significant objects.
Excavating the CA Archive: North Wales
From prehistoric Anglesey to Snowdonia's slate industry: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from the past
The truth about Britain’s parakeets
To gasps of genuine astonishment from the audience, he showed slides of objects so pristine in their gold and garnet glory...
The future of planning
As every archaeologist knows, listed buildings and scheduled monuments represent the tip of the heritage iceberg.
Excavating the CA Archive: Black Country
From Birmingham's industrial heritage to a Roman riding school: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from the West Midlands
In praise of volunteers
My excavations, including Khok Phanom Di, have yielded well over 1,000 human graves, and often the dead were interred with multiple mortuary offerings from fine pottery vessels to thousands of ornaments in gold, silver, bronze, iron, carnelian, glass, shell, and agate.
New thinking in scholarship
A paper is not necessarily of value because it is heretical, of course; it may just be wrong.
Penn Museum: a museum for the coming decades
The symbol of the new Penn Museum is in the refurbished main entrance hall. On a prominent podium behind the ticket desks sits the Museum’s celebrated sphinx. Richard Hodges reports.
Preserving and presenting heritage
Today, 757 synagogues are deemed to be at risk, which illustrates the scale of the task facing the FJH in its mission to ‘celebrate and honour Europe’s lost Jewish communities’ and rescue these emblematic buildings as ‘powerful places of education’ offering ‘valuable insights into Jewish life and its impact on wider society’.
Towards a National Collection
Christopher Catling employs joined-up thinking in his regular column on the eccentricities of the heritage world
Excavating the CA archive: Yorkshire 2
From Captain Cook's Cottage to Romans in the East Riding: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from Yorkshire
Cancel culture
No doubt those early Christians would say it was relatively mild revenge for the sufferings of the martyrs.
In Praise of Antiquity
There is no email I await with greater anticipation and, indeed, trepidation, than one captioned ‘Your radiocarbon results’.
Beatles landmarks
Christopher Catling highlights threats to Fab Four-related buildings in their home city of Liverpool
Excavating the CA Archive: Yorkshire 1
The archaeological riches of God's Own Country: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from the past
Excavating the CA Archive: Derbyshire
Peak prehistory and Britain's first cave art: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from Derbyshire
Sherds: The good, the bad and the ugly
'Context is all': as the culture wars heat up, Christopher Catling looks at the problems of our contested heritage
Before the flood
The study found that 37 of the 49 World Heritage Sites are already at risk from floods, and 42 from erosion, although the level of risk varies from site to site, with Venice and Ravenna particularly at risk from flooding, and Samos and Tyre from erosion
Albania: the visit of the World Bank President
Let me go back over a quarter-century to Albania on a blissful autumn day in 1995 when, like a Martian, the President of the World Bank descended upon us.
Chania: a new year’s day hike
Ancient Kydonia, as Chania was known to Homer, owes its origins – like Knossos – to Neolithic times.
Lascaux IV
As far as I could tell, every minor contour of the original has been replicated, as of course have the paintings themselves.
Sherds: East meets West
Christopher Catling examines new evidence of the ancient links between Celtic Britain and the eastern Mediterranean
Discovering Denny
Charles Higham looks at how a routine DNA analysis resulted in a stunning discovery about the prehistory of our human past
Excavating the CA Archive: Sutton Hoo revisited
Joe Flatman re-examines half a century of reports on one of the spiritual homes of British archaeology
Adventures close to home
Many of us have developed a stronger appreciation of the natural and cultural heritage in our own back yards.
Albania and the Death of Pan
Devil or pastoral sprite and mischief-maker, Pan’s presence in the form of the lost sanctuary on Mount Mile lends a new dimension to the god’s story
Nooks, Corners, and Cloister Cafés
The Cloister Cafe at London’s St Bartholomew the Great (used as a location for Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, Sherlock Holmes, and Muppets: Most Wanted) is described as ‘an extraordinary cafe for an extraordinary church.
Göbekli Tepe: a new World Heritage Site
In the last decade, Göbekli Tepe has gradually moved into the focus of public interest, as seen in the increasing numbers of visitors, a trend that broke off in 2015 following the spread of conflict to nearby parts of northern Syria.
Archaeology: still the best degree
Five years after he first explored the prospects of Archaeology as an academic discipline in these pages, John Schofield revisits this topic and reveals what has changed.
Caught in the crossfire: conflict in Syria and Iraq
In 2012, CWA reported on the damage inflicted on Syria’s cultural heritage since the beginning of the civil war. Now we take an updated look at heritage in conflict in Syria and Iraq.