Multi-period

Copenhagen view from Christiansborg castle

Denmark Quiz

Denmark's current monarch, Queen Margrethe II, traces her lineage back to which 10th-century king?

Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood

Review by Eugenia Ellanskaya Why do we spend what makes up almost 20 per cent of our life being children? What is the purpose of our incredibly drawn-out pregnancies and post-birth investment into our offspring? These are just some of…

Gutenberg Bodmer

Historic Texts Quiz

In which Roman fort were the wooden tablets found that contain the earliest handwriting ever discovered in Britain?

Above & Left Northamptonshire is home to many rich Roman sites, such as the Roman villa at Piddington, which has featured several times in the magazine, including in CA 146, and at Priors Hall near Corby, where the discovery of a villa, linked industrial site, and intriguing Roman Celtic temple mausoleum was detailed in CA 370.

Excavating Northamptonshire

If there is a challenger to Piddington’s crown as the ‘prime’ site of Northamptonshire, then the multi-period site of Raunds in the north-east of the county, with its intriguing history of early medieval and later settlement, is a strong contender.

Redrawing the strontium isotope map for the south-west of England

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.

Exhibitions, events, and heritage from home across the UK

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.

Lego

Current Archaeology 391

• 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

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This week: Japanese stone circles

A fascinating exhibition opening at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre this autumn shines new light on a remarkable group of ancient stone circles. Spread across 17 sites, and mostly dating from c.2500 to 300 BC, these extraordinary monuments served for centuries as the focus for ceremonies associated with solar alignments and the seasons, as well as with death and the afterlife. Such is their importance that these stone circles were even granted UNESCO World Heritage status last summer. Even so, they will be unknown to many here in Britain.

640px Samurai and Ainu Fuzoku Ema

Japan Quiz

Dated c.14,000–300 BC, which is the earliest major culture of prehistoric Japan?

Evolution in the air: the urban conundrum

The human ape, with our big, social brain, is well suited to a life of dense social interaction. So, when faced with limited resources and growing populations, similar solutions tend to present themselves – in very different corners of the planet.

The Story of Russia

REVIEW BY ANDRÉ VAN LOON. The Story of Russia is a thorough work of historical writing that unfortunately leaves aside its most interesting ideas after the book’s introduction. Figes starts with a fascinating series of hypotheses: that Russia has been…

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Current Archaeology 390

• Decoding the dolmens of northern Europe
• Sourcing the stones of Hadrian’s Wall
• Exploring Blick Mead’s Mesolithic landscape
• Uist unearthed: Hebridean archaeology goes virtual
• Dulverton House: from abbey infirmary to academic accommodation

800px Boilly Checkers

Toys & Games Quiz

First discovered in Iraq, and dating to the third millennium BC, the Royal Game of Ur is a precursor to which modern board game?

Right Featuring in the news section of CA 188, this colourful 2nd century AD bronze dish, known as the ‘Moorlands pan’, was found in 2003 along the Staffordshire/Derbyshire border; inscribed on it are the names of several forts along Hadrian’s Wall.

Excavating Staffordshire

Staffordshire’s coverage in terms of prehistory begins intriguingly late. The one big surprise to me while researching this column was that the oldest sites featured only date to the Iron Age. If you are an archaeologist at work in the county, here is a chance to remedy this.

Growing up human: the evolution of childhood

Review by Joe Flatman. Growing Up Human examines the history of childhood in the broadest sense, from reproductive options through conception and eventual transference into adulthood, by way of gestation, birth, early years, childhood, and adolescence. The book was, clearly,…

Opposite Awol Erizku, Nefertiti (Black Power). Neon light on coated stainless steel, 2018. Size: 180 x 130.6 x 13cm

Visions of Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt has provided endless inspiration for artists and designers, whether ancient or modern. Benjamin Hinson and Anna Ferrari, curators of a new exhibition on Egypt’s artistic legacy, investigate this cultural phenomenon, its links to politics and power, and how contemporary Egyptian artists have made ancient imagery their own.

Avebury pure gold

Remarkable Stones Quiz

The historic boundary-marker known as the London Stone, indicating the downstream limits of the City's jurisdiction, is located at which point on the Thames Estuary?

Minerva

Minerva Magazine 196

• The art and power of golden manuscripts
• The birth of Gothic: cathedral-building in medieval Europe
• Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Feminine Power: She who must be obeyed
• Naples: restoring an ancient necropolis

Herculaneum Fresco 001

This week: Ancient alcohol

History, as we know, has been driven by the complicated love affair between humans and booze. Writing in the fourth-century BC, the Greek philosopher Plato summed it up for many, when he observed: ‘He was a wise man who invented…

CWA 114 Crossword, and answers to 113

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…