What does Stonehenge have to do with Christmas? How did the Romans celebrate midwinter? Was Jesus really born on 25 December? How did the Medieval church merge the celebration of the Nativity with earlier pagan tradition? Why did Parliament abolish Christmas in the 17th century? What are the origins of Christmas trees, carols, and crackers? And who is Santa Claus?
These days, some would have us believe that Christmas has been ‘hijacked’ – that the season of good cheer has been rudely stripped of its religious connotation (of ‘mass on Christ’s day’) and replaced instead by a secular and commercially…
Traces of gold residue have been identified on five stone grave goods from a Bronze Age burial in Wiltshire.
Review by Stephen Rippon Silbury Hill in Wiltshire is one of our best-known prehistoric monuments, but was it unique? It seems not, as a similar – if somewhat smaller – mound appears to have lain ‘hidden in plain sight’ just…
Between 2016 and 2018, Cotswold Archaeology’s excavation of disused rugby pitches in Stoke Gifford, just north of Bristol, provided the opportunity to explore the layout of a Roman villa estate. Clare Randall describes some of the key findings.
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…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions
In the middle-to-late Neolithic in southern and eastern Britain a number of important monumental landscapes were host to a series of cremation cemeteries, the deposition of the dead in some cases being a catalyst and inspiration for the elaborate monument-building and…
Chedworth Roman Villa, near Cirencester, has been open to visitors since its discovery 158 years ago – but, until today, the site never had a formal academic publication. A new monograph has now drawn together decades of research, as Simon Esmonde Cleary, Jason Wood, Emma Durham, Martin Papworth, and Julie Reynolds report.
Non-conformist chapels and meeting houses have greatly enriched our townscapes, though we have been slow to recognise their merits. Indeed, the late Princess Margaret, when opening the Keele office of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of…
A new exhibition at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre explores striking similarities between the stone monuments built by two unconnected but contemporary cultures, 6,000 miles apart. Carly Hilts went to find out more.
In the decades since the cracking of the human genome, the study of ancient DNA – known as archaeogenetics – has had a dramatic effect on our understanding of the distant past. The analysis of genetic material preserved in archaeological…
The 2,500-year-old fortifications are perched on the edge of a cliff, and are fast disappearing due to processes of natural coastal erosion.
I was reminded of his contempt for journalism during the summer, when the BBC and scores of newspapers that consider themselves serious reported that the drought was so severe that the source of the River Thames had dried up.
Strontium (Sr) isotope analysis has been used in archaeology for several decades now to assess movement and migration at both the individual and population level. To be as accurate as possible, however, it requires a strong baseline knowledge of the biologically available strontium in the regions from which the samples are likely to have originated.
As autumn approaches, there are many fantastic opportunities to get involved in history, heritage, and archaeology around the UK, including new exhibitions, events, and conferences. There are also still plenty of online resources available if you’re looking for ways to get your heritage fix at home, ranging from new virtual museums to podcasts, TV shows, and more. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the options available.
• Is this archaeology? A story of Lego lost at sea
• HMS Northumberland: diving a victim of the Great Storm of 1703
• Reconstructing medieval London Bridge and its houses, 1209-1761
• New insights into the Stonehenge bluestones
• Napoleonic-era mining at Alderley Edge
Review by KK. This thought-provoking book reimagines how we approach maritime archaeology – demonstrating that it is not solely for the adventurous diver but can, and should, be practised from the comfort of dry land. Specifically, by examining all of…
The garden was gifted to the National Trust in 1962, and now welcomes more than 85,000 visitors every year.
With 130 ships, 2,431 guns, and 30,000 men, Philip II’s invasion force was, according to one English admiral, ‘the greatest and strongest combination that was ever gathered in all Christendom’. If it had been successful, the history of the past…
An elevated medieval chapel may be the most noticeable thing in this picture of the beautiful La Hougue Bie near Grouville in Jersey, but the vast mound that this stone structure crowns has much older origins.
Your views on the latest issues raised in Current Archaeology.
It was, according to the ship's captain, a 'once in a 100-year phenomenon'. On 13 February 1997, the 944ft-long cargo vessel Tokio Express was en route from Rotterdam to New York when it was hit by a freak wave about 20 miles off Land’s End, causing it to tilt so violently that 62 lorry-sized containers were thrown into the ocean.
Twenty-five years ago, a cargo of millions of pieces of Lego was washed overboard during a storm off Land’s End. To this day, tiny pieces of plastic are still being found on Cornish beaches. Joe Flatman reports on a project working to document these finds.
The recent rediscovery of a series of rock samples collected during the Victorian period has allowed new analysis of some of the stones of Stonehenge. Rob Ixer, Richard Bevins, Nick Pearce, and David Dawson explain more.
Review by Susan Greaney. This elegant new volume is the first book for over 60 years to focus specifically on how the world-famous Neolithic monument of Stonehenge was constructed. The narrative progresses through the step-by-step process of the extraction, transport,…
Dulverton House began life as part of a medieval priory, and has since seen centuries of adaptations and amendments. What traces of its historic fabric have survived to the present day? Recent archaeological investigations ahead of planned refurbishment works have revealed many of the structure’s secrets once more, as Chiz Harward reports.
Review by Simon Esmonde Cleary. Excavations in 2012-2013 on the north-eastern edge of Bristol revealed an area of landscape with evidence of human activity from the Neolithic to the recent past, but the most-plentiful evidence – which was excavated in…
The newly uncovered banjo enclosure, which contains at least three roundhouses and 65 deep, cylindrical storage pits dating from c.300-100 BC, was discovered during a geophysical survey.
Scientific analysis of sediments, pollen, and ancient DNA preserved at Blick Mead in Wiltshire has revealed a detailed picture of the Mesolithic landscape close to Stonehenge. David Jacques and Sam Hudson report.
A 13th-century merchant vessel carrying a cargo of Purbeck marble has been identified as the earliest-known wreck site to be found with surviving timbers in English waters. Carly Hilts reports.
This Romano-British copper-alloy figurine was found last year by a metal-detectorist near Marlborough in Wiltshire. It weighs 98.5g, and stands 62.5mm tall. The figure’s head (which is much larger than the body) is tilted slightly upwards, and its hair is…
Some of the latest stories from the realm of UK archaeology.
Across 6 Ancient Greek historian and geographer (6)8 Emperor whose return to Rome from campaigns in Spain and Gaul was honoured by the building of the Ara Pacis (8)10 Member of a Germanic people believed to have invaded Britain in…
Raiding parties often consisted of genetically similar people, suggesting that they probably came from a single community or were members of the same family, such as the four brothers in one boat burial in Estonia who died on the same day.
![The assault ration pack dating from the Second World War [right]. X ray scans [far RIGHT] revealed its contents, including meat blocks, biscuits, and latrine paper.](https://i0.wp.com/the-past.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/post-1_image0-7.jpg?fit=561%2C421&ssl=1)
Originally found in 2006, the sealed ration pack was mistakenly identified as an artefact from the 1950s.