The word 'experimental' can be confusing, or even alarming. It suggests an area of activity in which people are pushing at boundaries, or acting somehow without official approval. Attached to the word 'archaeology', however, it simply denotes a field of academic study that uses controlled experiments to provide a better understanding of the past.
The Neolithic period was the final part of the Stone Age. Which years did it span in Britain?
Britain pulled out the red carpet last weekend, as world leaders arrived in Cornwall for this year's G7 summit. It wasn't the first time in history that power and pleasure have been so mixed, however. Indeed, last week's gathering would have seemed strangely familar to the 6,000 Englishmen and women who 501 years earlier accompanied their king, Henry VIII, as he crossed the Channel to join his French counterpart, Francis I, at the lavish three-week summit-cum-carnival known as the Field for the Cloth of Gold.
New dating research has revealed that, rather than being an ancient fertility symbol or depiction of the mythical hero Heracles, the giant is in fact medieval.
Your views on past issues of Current Archaeology.
Analysis of sediment samples taken from the Cerne Abbas Giant has shed new light on the origins of the Dorset hill figure, suggesting that the chalk outline may have been created in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts reports.
Church Recorders work in groups of 10-15 people, supported by a skilled photographer. They research and document the memorials, stonework, flooring, woodwork, metalwork, windows, textiles, paintings, organ, books, and historical records.
Previous archaeological work at the prison had already confirmed the location of the medieval keep and a few other buildings that would have formed part of the castle complex; the castle was an important English stronghold before the Second Barons’ War (1264-1267) and the subsequent invasion and conquest of Wales.
They will investigate the recent trend in constructing burial mounds as a columbarium – a place for housing the cremated remains of the deceased.
One of the essentials of building a megalithic chambered burial monument is the choice of materials used to construct it. It is now considered that stone (boulders, stone erratics and fragments, and quarried stone) used in the construction of megaliths was…
The wreck of the Royal Navy’s first long-range diesel-powered submarine has been awarded protected status by the British government.
Is the Cerne Abbas Giant a prehistoric creation honouring a fertility god, or perhaps even a crude representation of Oliver Cromwell?
This is a Roman mount made of copper alloy and probably dating to between AD 200 and 300. It was discovered by a metal-detectorist near Doulting in Somerset and recently remotely recorded for the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The mount is…
• Fluctuating fortunes of
Roman and medieval Exeter
• Burials in late Iron Age and early medieval Ireland
• New thinking on the Mary Rose and her crew
• An archaeology of airfields
• Exploring female stories from Sutton Hoo
Herefordshire is a cornucopia of remarkable church architecture, not only of the 14th century but also of the 12th, and the county rewards explorers with its riches.
The very first episode of Time Team was recorded in Athelney, the Somerset village often associated with which historical figure?
• Conserving Britain’s largest Iron Age hoard
• Britain’s first 5th-century mosaic at Chedworth?
• Early Christianity in western Britain & Ireland
• Infant Beaker burial near Salisbury
• Hadrian’s Wall: what was it for?
The team behind the ‘Exeter: A Place in Time’ project tell us about the sites that were excavated in the last 50 years.
A 13th century Bishop's palace unearthed in Somerset, an aerial tribute to NHS, and a box of mementos donated to English Heritage.
Why should we study airfields – and do these sites even count as archaeology? Bob Clarke makes a case for investigating and preserving such sites as important drivers of social change, as well as relics of military history.
The largest and most-complete late Bronze Age spearhead to be found in the Channel Islands has been discovered in Jersey, sparking questions about the ritual practices of the prehistoric islanders.
Discovered during excavations at Dewlish in 1974, the leopard mosaic is considered one of the most realistic depictions of an animal by a Romano-British artist to survive in any artistic medium.
Excavations begin along the A303 Preliminary investigatons by Wessex Archaeology in advance of the planned A303 tunnel scheme are in progress. So far they have undertaken more than 462ha of geophysical survey and 440 evaluation trenches, uncovering diverse finds in…
Recent research has potentially identified an intriguing new connection between Stonehenge and a partially dismantled stone circle in south-west Wales – furthering the connection between these two areas during the Neolithic period. Previous work on the origins of Stonehenge’s smaller…
Archaeological investigations just outside Salisbury have uncovered echoes of early Bronze Age activity, including the burial of an infant who was laid to rest with a scaled-down beaker. Rachel McMullan reports.
How do you begin to analyse a corroded mass of almost 70,000 Celtic coins? Neil Mahrer guides us through the painstaking process of conserving the largest coin hoard yet found in the British Isles, and what has been discovered so far.
Pembridge church, Mam Tor, and CA Awards results.
Excavations at Chedworth villa in Gloucestershire have provided striking evidence of its inhabitants enjoying life in the style of high-status Romans, long after the traditional end of imperial occupation in this country – including what might be Britain’s first 5th-century mosaic. Martin Papworth reports.
Fed up with being locked down? You could do worse than escape for an hour into the brightly lit and colourful world of the fair, courtesy of the richly illustrated website of the Fairground Heritage Trust (FHT). Browsing the ‘Learning’…
New dating evidence from Chedworth Roman Villa in Gloucestershire may have identified Britain’s first-known 5th-century mosaic, researchers have announced. Founded in the 2nd century and reaching its zenith 200 years later, the Cotswold site is one of the country’s largest…
It is the comprehensive yet unconventional way in which Gayford and Gormley shine new light on objects from prehistory to the early 21st century that make this volume so truly spectacular.
Flimston is a baseline study site for the EU-funded Ireland–Wales CHERISH project (2017-2023), which is studying climate change and eroding coastal heritage in Ireland and Wales.
Bagendon has long been the poor relation of British late Iron Age oppida, lurking on the distribution’s western fringe. Its extensive, intermittent ramparts have long been known, but only in the 1950s did limited excavations reveal its character. Tom Moore’s…
This is a welcome addition to the literature on confinement, a topic that has developed from a little-studied phenomenon into one of most vibrant areas within the subdiscipline of Conflict Archaeology. Gilly Carr has been a part of this through…
A new robust set of radiocarbon dates from the Glastonbury Lake Village in Somerset has allowed researchers to establish a more-precise chronology for how the site was used during the Iron Age. As the settlement contains so many well-preserved finds…
Excavations in Bath have revealed the remains of one of the earliest Victorian wash houses. Constructed during a time of revolutionary social reform and seismic shifts in attitudes towards poverty and public health, what can it tell us about how local authorities and community campaigners strove to improve the well-being of the poor following the arrival of a devastating pandemic? Current Archaeology explores recent research by Cai Mason.