CA 392 Letters – October
Dedication for the Dover Boat This year is the 30th anniversary of the discovery and rescue of the Dover Bronze Age boat (see ‘Context’, CA 391). I am sending a poem I wrote, of which a shorter draft was published…
Bronze Age
This week: Archaeogenetics
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…
Maritime Archaeology on Dry Land: special sites along the coasts of Britain and Ireland from the first farmers to the Atlantic Bronze Age
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…
Thinking through images: narrative, rhythm, embodiment and landscape in the Nordic Bronze Age
Review by George Nash. Throughout prehistoric Europe, there are significant areas where rock art was commissioned, executed, consumed, and abandoned. One of these is southern Scandinavia. Here, during the later prehistoric period, ancient artists provided a sometimes- cryptic insight into…
Animal habits
One common motif is that of a knight in armour engaging in combat with a snail. Another is that of the killer rabbit, shown wielding sword, axe, or bow and arrow as it fights against those hunting it.
A voyage to the past
This September marks 30 years since the discovery of one of the world’s oldest-known seagoing vessels: the Dover Bronze Age Boat, whose remains are pictured here on display in a dedicated gallery at Dover Museum. The 3,500-year-old vessel was first…
Victorian gifts: new insights into the Stonehenge bluestones
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.
Remains of a Bronze Age roundhouse unearthed in Cardiff
The newly discovered structure sits within view of Caerau Hillfort, one the largest Iron Age hillforts in south-east Wales.
Museum news from London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and Glastonbury
The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions.
Going underground: echoes of Napoleonic-era mining found at Alderley Edge
Alderley Edge’s rich mineral resources have attracted the attention of miners as far back as the Bronze Age. Now, though, recent investigations have revealed traces of rather more modern activity, as Carly Hilts reports.
Uist Unearthed: Hebridean archaeology goes virtual
How can digital tools help to engage people in an area’s archaeological heritage? Dr Rebecca Rennell and Dr Emily Gal from the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) explain how cutting-edge technology is illuminating South Uist’s rich archaeological heritage, and outline some of the research and community co-production that went into creating their new augmented-reality app and multimedia exhibition.
Bronze figurine
What is it? This small female figurine made of bronze is 14.7cm tall and weighs 155g. The figure has an egg-shaped head with a prominent nose, and a flat body with looped arms, two knobs on the chest signifying breasts,…
Rise of the elites
... you can peer down into a deep square where Bronze Age burials are left in the ground following an earlier Thai excavation. Your eyes alight on the grave of a man accompanied by a remarkable number of pottery vessels and a socketed copper-base axe.
New study reveals Bronze Age daggers were not status symbols, but used for animal processing
New research finally answers the question of what Bronze Age daggers were used for, as Isabella Caricola and Andrea Dolfini reveal.
Welsh Bronze Age hoard declared treasure
The hoard, which dates from 1000-800 BC, was unearthed in Llanddeusant Community, Carmarthenshire.
Bronze Age spearhead found near Cirencester
Previous investigations have uncovered traces of human activity spanning the Neolithic to Roman periods.
Supersize finds from Sardinia and Egypt
At the site of Mont'e Prama in Sardinia, archaeologists have uncovered Bronze Age fragmentary sculptures of two boxers. And at Saqqara, a host of statues, coffins, and figurines have been revealed.
Bronze Age spearhead unearthed among other prehistoric finds in Gloucestershire
Six Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age timer-posted roundhouses and an array of animal bone and pottery fragments were also uncovered.
Barrows at the Core of Bronze Age Communities: Petersfield Heath excavations 2014-18 in their regional context
Review by David Field. Rarely in recent times have extant barrows, let alone groups of them, been excavated, for in most cases developer-funded excavation has only encountered levelled examples and the ditch alone has been sampled. At Petersfield Heath, 14…
Fragments of the Bronze Age
Review by Chris Griffiths. Those with an interest in Bronze Age metalwork will know that the literature tends to focus on the question of why metal objects were destroyed and buried: were they deliberately broken for recycling, to serve a…
‘Prehistoric farming settlement’ found on North York Moors
A community excavation led by DigVentures has unearthed post-holes and artefacts thought to date from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Roman periods.
The Nebra Sky Disc: decoding a prehistoric vision of the cosmos
It was probably around 3,600 years ago that the earliest known depiction of the cosmos was buried in eastern Germany. By then, the Nebra Sky Disc had already served several roles. Repeatedly refashioning the artefact allowed it to keep pace with changing desires to express knowledge, belief, and power, as Neil Wilkin told Matthew Symonds.
Prehistoric pioneers: how female migrants changed the face of Bronze Age Orkney
Analysis of human remains from the Links of Noltland, Westray, has revealed the first concrete evidence of a major influx of non-local people into Orkney during the Bronze Age – and, uniquely for the period, it appears that this movement of migrants was dominated by women. Carly Hilts reports.
This week: Links of Noltland
The perfectly preserved Stone Age village of Skara Brae is perhaps Orkney's most celebrated ancient site, offering stunning proof that these northerly islands were once at the cutting edge of Neolithic civilisation. But Skara Brae was only inhabited from about 3200 to 2200 BC – after which date, according to the traditional view, Orkney's fortunes slipped into a decline from which they were slow to recover.
Weighing up the evidence: did Bronze Age Britons use gold as currency?
‘While gold would still have had an intrinsic value and probably could have been used for trading in any number of circumstances, it most likely wasn’t a generally recognised form of currency.’
Bronze Age mound found under ‘lost’ Oxford college
'No intact original human burials have been found but they are thought to be represented by the disarticulated skeletal remains.'
Bronze Age burial mound discovered beneath former Oxford college
A fragment of skull and part of a human jawbone were also uncovered.
Prehistoric Rock Art in Scotland: archaeology, meaning and engagement
Over the past 50 years or so, the later prehistoric open-air rock art of Scotland has received much useful attention with the sterling work of researchers Ronald Morris and Stan Beckensall. It is only recently, though, that interest through Historic…
Bronze Age hoards in Wales declared Treasure
The larger of the two hoards comprises fragments of seven socketed axes, a piece of sword-blade, two ingots, and six casting jets
New aDNA evidence for Bronze Age migration into Britain
A new investigation has now seen an international team of more than 200 geneticists and archaeological scientists discover aDNA evidence for a second significant and hitherto unknown Bronze Age migration into Britain
Family ties: deciphering the DNA of the Amesbury Archer and the Companion
Twenty years ago, one of the richest Bell Beaker burials ever found in Europe was discovered close to Stonehenge. At that time, DNA analysis was not sufficiently advanced to learn more about the individual, dubbed ‘the Amesbury Archer’ – but the intervening decades have seen significant scientific advances that have shed illuminating light on this enigmatic figure, as well as his relationship to a younger man buried nearby. Andrew Fitzpatrick, Jacqueline McKinley, Alistair Barclay, Ian Armit, Iñigo Olalde, and David Reich report on what has been revealed.
The world of Stonehenge
In February, the UK’s first major exhibition focusing on the story of Stonehenge will open at the British Museum. Carly Hilts went to a preview of the upcoming blockbuster to find out more.
Cladh Hallan: exploring the roundhouse way of life in South Uist
Located in the Outer Hebrides, the prehistoric settlement of Cladh Hallan is best known for the Bronze Age mummies found buried beneath its roundhouses. As well as these insights into how the dead were treated, though, the dwellings have yielded illuminating insights into the world of the living, as Mike Parker Pearson, Jacqui Mulville, Helen Smith, and Peter Marshall explain.
This week: Cladh Hallan
Archaeologists have long been drawn to the Outer Hebrides, the windswept island chain that lies off Scotland's north-west coast. For decades, the chief source of their fascination was to be found on the Isle of Lewis, where a number of prehistoric ritual sites were found to be clustered around the village of Callanish. More recently, however, attention has also been diverted to the island of South Uist, where in 2003 an extraordinary discovery was made.
Earliest evidence of mercury poisoning identified in 5,000-year-old bones
The researchers attribute the incidence of mercury poisoning during the Chalcolithic period to the increased exploitation of cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral
Bronze Age coffin found in Lincolnshire
The coffin contains the remains of a man and an axe, which is thought to have been more of a symbol of authority than a practical tool.