A collaborative project has brought to light the lives of a 19th-century community living and working in Fewston, North Yorkshire. Among their number were many children who were indentured to work in the nearby mills, and whose lives may have ultimately been cut short by this labour. Kathryn Krakowka talked with Rebecca Gowland to learn more.
England’s largest annual community heritage festival returns this month with a programme of activities themed around creativity, ranging from fashion and the arts to archaeological excavations and museum open days. Ceri Pennington has picked out a selection from this year’s events.
An award-winning social prescribing project has been excavating thousands of years of history within the Walmgate area of York. Meg Barclay reports on its recent finds and how the initiative has been supporting the mental health and wellbeing of local residents.
Researchers from the University of York, York Museums Trust, and Heritage360 have recently carried out a 3D scan of a Roman gypsum burial – a practice in which liquid gypsum was poured over the body before interment. This project, the…
Graham Goodlad analyses the events that enabled Parliament to win control of northern England.
REVIEW BY ANGELA BOYLE This monograph presents the results of excavations at Burnby Lane and The Mile in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, which were carried out in several phases between 2014 and 2017 by MAP Archaeological Practice Ltd and commercially funded.…
Although humans have been building impressive, gravity-defying architecture for thousands of years, we still have a limited capacity to quickly and effectively diagnose any developing faults in these structures – something that diminishes our ability to conserve them effectively. In…
154 skeletons representing people of all ages were recovered from the 19th-century cemetery in Fewston
Having recently celebrated its 50th birthday, the York Archaeological Trust manages one of the oldest commercial units operating in the UK today, as well as several heritage-themed attractions within its home city, including the famous JORVIK Viking Centre. David Jennings explores some of the key projects that the Trust has been involved in, and the innovative ways in which it has presented the past to the public.
One of the interments contained a lead coffin with a female occupant; such coffins are relatively uncommon in Britain, and would probably have been expensive.
As consumers, we are well aware that scent sells. Supermarkets have for years been luring us in with delicious (if artificial) aromas of fresh coffee and newly baked baguettes, while cinema-owners’ profits have long been boosted by the wafting smell…
Review by Peter Halkon As the cover note states, this is an accessible introduction to the major artefacts and sites within the county. As Adam is a member of the curatorial staff at the Yorkshire Museum in York, the book’s…
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
The 1,600-year-old site has yielded the remains of a high-status Roman woman interred in a lead coffin.
The document was unfurled as part of research into a collection of more than 3,000 books, pamphlets, and periodicals donated to Leeds Central Library in the 1960s.
At its height, the Roman Empire grew to an area of around two million square miles, stretching from Mesopotamia in the east to Lusitania (modern-day Portugal) in the west – a distance of some 4,000 miles. But for all our…
When an unusual female burial was discovered in the apse of All Saints Church, York, it was interpreted as possibly representing the remains of a religious recluse. Since then, archaeological science and historical research have given new perspectives on the woman’s life, as Carly Hilts reports.
In total, the trench yielded over 1,000 stone tools and more than 200 animal bones.
Almost 20 years ago, York Archaeological Trust were excavating part of a Roman cemetery when they uncovered dozens of decapitated skeletons. Were these the remains of gladiators? An exhibition at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum sets out the evidence, as Carly Hilts reports.
Archaeologist and Digging for Britain presenter Dr Cat Jarman with Dr Daniel Young from Wessex Archaeology examining the Sheffield Castle core samples at the Wessex Archaeology labs. Image: Wessex Archaeology.
This copper-alloy disc brooch, measuring approximately 27mm in diameter, was found last year by a metal-detectorist in the parish of Thirkleby High and Low with Osgodby, just north of York. It is decorated with a red enamel bird, which is…
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
It is believed these were used to house and maintain trains on the Manchester & Huddersfield Railway
Fought at Sutton Bank in North Yorkshire, near Harrogate, on 14 October 1322, Byland saw Scottish forces led by King Robert the Bruce inflict on the English a defeat as serious as that of Bannockburn eight years previously.
After the war, the fort briefly served as a peacetime garrison until the mid-1950s.
A community excavation led by DigVentures has unearthed post-holes and artefacts thought to date from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Roman periods.
Review by Christopher Catling. Reading this book reminds me of the University of London’s Warburg Institute Library, which has a unique classification system designed by the library’s founder, Aby Warburg (1866-1929), to encourage serendipitous discovery: looking for one book, your…
Radiocarbon dating of a bone from the Burton Agnes burial suggests that all of these objects were created approximately 500 years earlier, c.3000 BC.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
Eighty-five years ago, an inscription was discovered at Brough-on-Humber hinting that the town was once home to a Roman theatre. Peter Halkon and James Lyall report on more recent excavations seeking to relocate its remains.
Review by Peter Halkon. Chariot burials are icons of Iron Age Britain. Apart from those found near Edinburgh and in Pembroke, they are clustered in eastern Yorkshire, with an outlier at Ferry Fryston in West Yorkshire. The most spectacular were…
The sculpture had been placed in a Neolithic grave containing the remains of three children.
It will be displayed just a few metres away from where it was unearthed following archaeological excavations at Coppergate, York.
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At the time of writing, many new archaeology- and history-related events are being scheduled around the UK. We have put together another selection of some of the upcoming ‘in-person’ activities and resources you can take advantage of, but there are also still lots of ways to get your archaeology fix from home, ranging from new online museums to TV shows that go behind the scenes at heritage sites. Amy Brunskill has gathered some of the highlights.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.