Places

Excavating the Hebrides

the star of the show is undoubtedly Cladh Hallan in the south of the island, famous for its Bronze Age ‘mummies’, the earliest evidence of deliberate mummification found in Britain.

Above There are many multi period sites in Scotland that have been highlighted over the decades: CA 360 reported on the Tarradale Through Time Project, which uncovered the history of the Black Isle from the Mesolithic to post medieval period, while CA 280 investigated the inhabitation of the Ardnamurchan Peninsula from the Neolithic to the 19th century.

Excavating the Highlands

To many, this part of the country is the ‘definitive’ Scottish landscape of their dreams, the stuff of countless movies and TV shows. To less romantically inclined archaeologists, it is a place forged by the environmental extremes experienced there.

Excavating Scotland

Moving geographically west to east, we then come to Bearsden on the north-west outskirts of Glasgow. This site is, if not the most excavated of Antonine sites, then certainly that most visited by Current Archaeology.

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.

Excavating Suffolk

The result of many years’ fieldwork by local voluntary and educational organisations came to a head there in the early 1990s, when a long-proposed bypass was constructed, destroying major elements of the Roman settlement.

Exhibitions, events, and heritage from home in Spring and Summer 2022

There are lots of great heritage-related opportunities to get out and about this spring, with conferences to attend, exhibitions to visit, and excavations to sign up for. Or, if you’d prefer, there are still many archaeology-, history-, and heritage-related resources and activities to enjoy at home, whether you’re looking for a virtual tour of an ancient Egyptian pyramid, a podcast about transatlantic shipwrecks, or online games designed for children. Amy Brunskill has put together a summary of some of the options available.

LEFT & ABOVE Prehistoric sites at Kingsmead Quarry and Datchet, in CA 292 and CA 351, revealed traces of Neolithic life.

Excavating Berkshire

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.

Seeking a legendary lost city

The civil war had been very disruptive. There had been looting, pillage, and social upheaval. There are records of a most heinous crime, rooting up the boundary markers of land ownership, for which those guilty were impaled.

RIGHT CA 343 explored Trumpington, on the western edge of Cambridge, where archaeologists have found impressive early medieval burials.

Excavating Cambridgeshire

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.

LEFT & ABOVE Previous issues of CA have explored the archaeology of the Trent across a variety of time periods, from Neolithic and Bronze Age waterworks to medieval and Tudor fishing weirs.

Excavating the East Midlands

While investigating a site near Clifton in the south-western suburbs of Nottingham, Wessex Archaeology found evidence of a late Iron Age/early Romano-British farmstead, as well as the remains of two of its residents.

Hever Castle Christoph Matthias Siebenborn

Heritage from home – September 2021

Across the UK, many heritage sites and museums are now welcoming visitors again, but if you’re still looking for activities and resources that you can take advantage of from home, there is an ever-growing supply of those too! Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of the options available, from virtual tours and online exhibitions to podcasts, TV shows, games, and activities, as well as a list of some of the places that are open once more.

Joe Flatman alt

Excavating Kent

Large infrastructure projects have led to some remarkable discoveries down the years – think of Heathrow Terminal 5, as well as the more recent work along the route of HS2

The Lost City of Norchia

Upper Palaeolithic flints, Eneolithic tombs, and remains of a Bronze Age semicircular hut, as well as a tomb with a Villanovan shield, show that the place evolved over time, before being bafflingly abandoned in the earlier Iron Age.

Chatsworth

Heritage from home: July

Many museums and heritage sites in the UK and Ireland have already reopened to visitors, with more to follow in the coming weeks, but if you still fancy getting your heritage fix at home there are plenty of great options, from virtual tours and online exhibits to podcasts and TV shows. Current Archaeology's Amy Brunskill has put together another selection of archaeology-, history-, and heritage-related resources to enjoy from your sofa, plus places you can now visit in person.

Taj Mahal

Heritage from home: June

As museums and heritage sites reopen, we’re looking forward to visiting our favourite spots as soon as possible – but there are still plenty of resources available online from historical, archaeological, and cultural institutions and sites around the world, as well as podcasts, TV shows, social media content, and more. Current World Archaeology's Amy Brunskill has put together another selection of options, as well as summarising some of the places that have recently reopened.

BELOW The earthquake and tsunami of 2011, which caused damage to many archaeological sites across Japan, is the subject of a new museum that opened in Fukushima this spring.

Ten years on from disaster

Urajiri is in the town of Minami Soma, impacted both by the tsunami and the meltdown, evacuated as it was in the exclusion zone around the stricken power plant. Archaeology is providing a focus for rebuilding community identity.

The Society of Antiquaries of London is concerned that rising rent may force it to leave Burlington House (below lEFT), potentially endangering its extensive collection, which includes many historically significant objects, including this medieval processional cross (right) and a selection of important 16th century royal portraits (below).

Save Burlington House!

Rising rent may force the Antiquaries to leave Burlington House, potentially endangering its extensive collection, which includes many historically significant objects.

Deir el-Bahri, 1894

The exquisite results can be seen in Paget’s watercolour of bulls from one wall, and Howards Carter’s reproduction of a scene in which Thutmosis I and his mother Seniseneb make offerings to the god Anubis.

Below Within the walls of the C.ittadella in Victoria: view across the rear enclosed spaces of the houses.

Gozo, Malta

From Malta, we now travel to its sister-island Gozo, where Nadia Durrani encountered two new major restoration projects.

South entrance to the Agora by the Tower of the Winds

A postcard from Athens

Athens conjures up ancient Greece and the civilisation symbolized by the fastidious re-building of the Parthenon. Yet Athens boasts possibly the most extensive remains of any Roman city in Greece. Why should this matter? Well, for the imperial Romans, Greece…