One of Berkshire’s oddities is that it is often forgotten that perhaps its most famous historic site is in the county at all – that of Windsor Castle. Such is the nature of this historic royal fortress, palace, and showpiece that the county fades away around it.
The British Museum recently held a preview of their next exhibition, which is set to explore perceptions and depictions of women in mythology throughout history, across the globe. Carly Hilts reports on the upcoming displays, which will open next month.
Which Anglo-Saxon king's stronghold in Athelney, Somerset, was investigated in Time Team's first ever episode?
Last year, we could barely contain our excitement at news that Time Team, the much-loved archaeology series that became a long-running Sunday-afternoon TV favourite, was planning to pick up its trowel again after a near-decade-long hiatus.
Review by CH. Those of us who enjoy relaxing of an evening with an episode or two of an archaeological TV show have been spoiled in recent years, with such tempting offerings as Digging for Britain, Digging Up Britain’s Past,…
Review by AB. Archaeological investigations have been taking place in Merseyside, in north-west England, since the 19th century, shedding light on the many communities who have inhabited the area over the last 10,500 years. In this brief but engaging publication,…
Review by Andrew Tibbs. As a collection of maps covering almost every imaginable aspect of landscape-usage, from the Bronze Age to the early medieval period, this book covers many types of ancient landscape-use, including settlement, foodways, belief, mobility, defence, and…
Crossword from Current World Archaeology issue of March 2022.
Review by George Nash Prehistoric rock art is very much a world phenomenon, with assemblages found in every corner of the globe. To the expert eye, each region has its own unique style, engraving or painting technique, and chronology. Since the…
In the 1970s, prehistoric rock art was found in the Tagus River Basin, just as a dam project was set to raise water levels. In a race against time, archaeologists sought to find a way to record thousands of images before they were submerged. Now the results have been carefully studied using a variety of new technological approaches. Sara Garcês and George Nash tell the remarkable story of one of Europe’s principal rock-art areas.
Soldiers is a personal selection of stories about war by a leading military historian following a lifetime spent studying the subject. It is not a heavyweight tome, but a fun-to-read book – if one can use such a term in…
Boris Johnson is not, of course, the first political leader to take a dim view of the free movement of people and goods between Britain and the Continent. More than 2,000 years earlier, Julius Caesar ordered the destruction of ships…
Dramatic evidence was found here for Iron Age ritual practices: parts of at least five human bodies were discovered, arranged round the western edge of a shallow hollow filled full of articulated animal bones.
Review by HB. From traces of Palaeolithic life along the coast to deserted medieval villages and a Cold War airfield, A History of Norfolk in 100 Places is a whistle-stop tour of the county’s most intriguing buildings, archaeological sites, and…
France and England were once connected by land. River crossings aside, when would it last have been possible to walk between the two?
The new ‘City of Caves’ project will see researchers exploring historical records and creating 3D laser scans.
Between which five present-day countries is the roughly defined geo-cultural territory of Kurdistan mostly now divided?
A collection of ten silver coins minted during the reigns of Edward I and Edward II were among the finds.
It is almost time for Current Archaeology Live! 2022, which will run from 25 to 27 February. We have an excellent line-up of leading archaeological experts ready to share their latest thinking on all aspects of the past, and, like…
Meanwhile, at Yaxley, Current Archaeology reported on work examining the archaeology of the ‘second’ English Civil War, during which the village church of St Peter’s was the scene of an extraordinary bombardment.
There is a great variety of archaeological and historical exhibitions, events, and activities scheduled for the coming year, and we have gathered a selection of the opportunities on offer below, ranging from excavations you can get involved in to lectures and conferences to attend. At the same time, there are also many ways to get stuck into history and heritage at home, with virtual museum tours, new podcasts, and the return of some of your favourite archaeology TV shows. Amy Brunskill has put together a summary of some of the best.
When The Making of the English Landscape by W G Hoskins was published in 1954, its author claimed that ‘no book exists to describe the manner in which the various landscapes of this country came to assume the shape and…
Showcasing 12 articles in four parts, Explorations in Archaeology and Philosophy emerged from a 2017 interdisciplinary conference, and the editors aimed to represent the diversity of topics that arise when archaeology and philosophy meet. This target is emphatically achieved. Part…
Can you identify these Mediterranean UNESCO World Heritage sites?
Over the last decade, 64 glaciers and ice patches in the Innlandet region have produced over 3,500 archaeological finds, from hunting tools and textiles to zoological material...
Many researchers dealing with prehistoric and historic rock art tend to remain firmly entrenched within their respective comfort zones. Throughout much of the contemporary world, the application and use of rock art is a fundamental part of society; moreover, it…
Professor Charles Higham will be a familiar figure to CWA readers. Not only does he write a regular column for the magazine, but he is also a world authority on the archaeology of Southeast Asia. When COVID shut down international…
Your view on past issues of Current Archaeology.
London Clay is an impressionistic survey of London and its history, filtered through the prism of the underlying geological strata. It is at once personal and overarching, meandering from pre-Roman to Victorian, south London to north, via what Chivers (a…
Cornwall is a county with a long military history, and reminders of its past can be found scattered across the landscape, ranging from Iron Age hillforts to Cold War control centres. Surrounded by sea on three sides, Cornwall has been…
The discovery, excavation, and analysis of the Richard III's remains in Leicester between 2012 and 2015 was one of the most famous archaeological projects of recent times, drawing global attention to the city.
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.
These results could be used to distinguish between skeletal remains that have been cremated, and those that may have been heated as part of ritualistic defleshing practices
The excavation of a Bronze Age roundhouse on Salisbury Plain has fed into a new reconstruction at Butser Ancient Farm, using experimental archaeology to interpret its ephemeral outline. Trevor Creighton, Richard Osgood, and Rachel Pope explain.
• Tracing the rise and fall of Syon Abbey
• Cladh Hallan: the roundhouse way of life in South Uist
• Neolithic art in the Stonehenge landscape
• The architecture of England’s co-operative movement
• Richborough’s Roman amphitheatre
These days, John Craxton is perhaps best known for the vibrant, sun-drenched illustrations he produced as book jackets for his close friend, the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. As a young painter in the 1940s, however, he was a leading figure in the post-war British art scene, alongside Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Lucian Freud.