Cover Story
Roman villas in Limburg: The rise and fall of a prosperous farming community Around 20 Roman villas have been excavated in the Limburg region of the Netherlands. The heyday for this work came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when a succession of sites was investigated with antiquarian zeal. Now fresh… Features
Digging Benin City: Investigations have begun at one of Africa’s most celebrated and notorious sites Nigerian archaeologists are working with the British Museum and UK colleagues to research and excavate in Benin City. Mike Pitts visited the site to learn more. 
Encircling the Empire: How Rome’s frontier network was chronicled Rome’s frontiers have defeated many, ranging all of the way from menacing barbarians to publishers planning a book series. Now a serendipitous set of volumes has successfully documented this ancient… 
Seeing beneath the surface: Unravelling prehistoric submerged settlements in the Balkans For two centuries, European scholars have explored prehistoric settlements preserved in Alpine lakes and bogs. The discovery of ancient pile-dwelling sites in the Mediterranean region of southern Europe makes it… News
Identifying cultural groups in Gravettian Europe Personal ornamentation is a powerful form of self-expression, often used to send messages about the wearer’s social identity, even today. But could such objects hold the key to understanding the… 
Uncovering Beaumont Abbey The abandonment of a military barracks in the centre of Tours, France, offered archaeologists a unique opportunity to excavate the entirety of an 11th-century abbey that was completely destroyed during… 
Early monumental architecture in the Andes Excavations in the highlands of northern Peru have identified a circular plaza that may be among the earliest examples of monumental megalithic architecture in the Americas. The Callacpuma archaeological site,… 
Analysis of ancient wooden tools In 1994, the 300,000-year-old spears from Schöningen, Germany, made headlines as some of oldest wooden objects ever discovered. But these were not the only finds from the site. By the… 
Kinship and marriage in a steppe warrior society DNA analysis of the Avar empire people, who lived on the Great Hungarian Plain some 1,500 years ago, is revealing details of their social structure, kinship practices, and marriage traditions.… 
Fabulous frescoes at Pompeii Archaeologists working at Pompeii have uncovered a spectacular banquet hall decorated with mythological images connected to the Trojan War. This luxurious space, once used for feasting and entertaining, was part… 
World news in brief: from early piercings to rich burial in Panama Early piercings A study recently published in Antiquity (https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.28) has identified more than 100 ornaments used in body perforation as early as 11,000 years ago. The artefacts come from burials… 
Ancient Australian pottery New discoveries on a small Australian island are rewriting our understanding of the culture and technology of the country’s early people. It has long been believed that the ancient Aboriginal… Views
CWA #125 crossword, and answers to crossword #124 Competitions Across 6 Large knife often found among Anglo-Saxon grave goods (9)8 Fertility goddess worshipped at Carthage (5)10 ___ Wall, Roman fortification in Scotland (8)11 Extinct Tibeto-Burman language (6)12 Opponent of… 
CWA Photo of the Year Competition 2024 – winners announced Competitions Results We had a fantastic selection of entries sent in for this year’s photo competition, with images that took us all over the world, and back in time. Subjects range… 
A lost monument re-emerges The Picture Desk The Dolmen of Guadalperal is a megalithic tomb located in the Spanish province of Cáceres, some two hours south-west of Madrid. The site is believed to be a Neolithic funerary… 
Against the flow Comment Rubina Raja & Søren M Sindbæk on managing ressources in urban African societies. 
Finding Eden and fighting extinction Comment In the complex story of human migration out of Africa, Homo sapiens are believed to have travelled steadily eastwards to Asia – eventually reaching Australia by around 50,000 years ago… 
Being ‘a Greek spy’ back at Butrint Travel The site of Butrint, in the foreground, looking towards the Straits of Corfu. I was in Greece, rolling off a ferry at Kyllini, about to visit its mighty castle, when… 
Bronze Age lipstick Objects What is it? This small, intricately decorated cylindrical vial, measuring 6.7cm long and 1.9cm in diameter, is made of a greenish chlorite-schist and contains a deep red cosmetic mixture believed… 
Neolithic France: a seismic moment Comment There has, of late, been a veritable tsunami of results from recent research that are literally transforming prehistory before our very eyes. Reviews
The other Pompeii: Common lives in the shadow of Vesuvius An exhibition at Pompeii explores the less glamorous side of life in the ancient city. Being ‘a Greek spy’ back at Butrint The site of Butrint, in the foreground, looking towards the Straits of Corfu. I was in Greece, rolling off a ferry at Kyllini, about to visit its mighty castle, when… 
Reimagining Human–Animal Relations in the Circumpolar North REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH When we think about the history and archaeology of the north, we are immediately drawn to the Inuit or Sami peoples. We forget the vastness of the… 
Dead Man’s Chest: exploring the archaeology of piracy REVIEW BY SHANNON LEE DAWDY Dead Man’s Chest is a collection of essays and research reports by practising archaeologists and historians who have conducted work on shipwrecks, terrestrial sites, artefact… 
The Naked Neanderthal REVIEW BY MATTHEW POPE From the start, Slimak is clear that The Naked Neanderthal is a very personal book and offers his own individual views on the archaeology of Neanderthal… 
From the editor
Farmers in the southern Netherlands found themselves in an enviable position during the Roman period. Nearby military bases along the Rhine brimmed with soldiers that needed feeding, while good soil allowed crops to be grown in abundance. Some landowners transformed these advantages into enormous wealth. Their success saw villa estates sprouting across a landscape that has gone on to capture the interest of generations of antiquarians and archaeologists. Bringing the evidence that they gathered together allows us to tell a story of country folk that is anything but everyday.
Digging in Benin City, Nigeria, is also shedding light on a remarkable residence: in this case, a royal palace. The site can stake a claim to being one of the most celebrated and notorious historic places in Africa. While the palace lay at the heart of a great kingdom, it was destroyed during a raid in 1897, with the loot including the sculptures now known as the ‘Benin Bronzes’. We go behind the scenes of the excavation project examining this site.
It is submerged prehistoric settlements that have been under the microscope in the western Balkans. Ancient pile-dwelling sites are often associated with Alpine lakes, but such settlements found favour across a much wider area. The challenge has always been to date the western Balkan sites. Overcoming this hurdle is revealing the remarkable potential of these settlements.
Where Roman frontiers are concerned, it is their scale rather than assigning them to a broad archaeological era that has posed problems for scholars. Now, though, a book series has managed to encircle the Roman Empire, providing an up-to-date account of the frontiers. We examine what has been accomplished.
Finally, in our travel section, Richard Hodges shares the results of recent excavations at Butrint, which are providing fascinating new insights into its fortunes in the 9th century AD.
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