The caves at East Wemyss are home to traces of human activity spanning prehistory to the present day, including important Pictish carvings. In recent decades some of these interactions have been destructive, but the local community is working to preserve this unique collection. As they mark the 40th anniversary of these efforts, Mike Arrowsmith reports.
This Stonehenge paperback will sell, probably deservedly, very well. Its text gives a suitable level of detail, while also reflecting current mainstream (and therefore English Heritage) views, and hence is correctly pitched for its audience – namely the interested bystander,…
As the oldest antiquarian organisation in Scotland, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has been deeply involved in documenting the nation’s past for almost 250 years. Deborah Roe is our guide to this rich history, and to ambitious plans for the Society’s future.
In 1920, a collection of antiquities and antiques was thrown away, and most of its contents remain lost more than a century later. Martin A Timoney describes recent efforts to piece together clues to their whereabouts and appeals for more information.
Tudor Heart saved for the nation The British Museum’s campaign to raise £3.5 million to acquire a heart shaped pendant bearing imagery associated with the court of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon has achieved its goal. Discovered by a…
Recent rock-art surveys in the Peak District National Park have documented more than 40 decorated panels dating to the Bronze Age, as well as two animal carvings that may be even older. Anna Clark and George Nash report.
Continuing our occasional series focusing on people who have made a significant contribution to Egyptology, but are often forgotten, Hilary Forrest discusses the life of Aquila Dodgson.
In the early part of the 19th century, there began a gradual move away from antiquarian ways of simply describing archaeological features and sites towards a more analytical approach of enquiry into the past. Stephen Upex takes up the story of Edmund Artis, one of the pioneers of this progress who, he argues, should be considered among the founding figures of modern British archaeology.
Among the early Christian catacombs in northern Rome, beyond the walls of the ancient city, are those of the Sant’Agnese fuori le mura complex. It is here along the via Nomentana that St Agnes of Rome is said to have…
As the Society of Antiquaries of London launches a new affiliate membership, increasing access to its library and museum collections for the general public, Carly Hilts visited Burlington House to learn more about three centuries of antiquarian activity, and its very eclectic holdings.
In the 1930s, an admirer remembered Japanese antiquarian Ninagawa Noritane fondly as ‘simple-hearted and unpretentious. He was frugal and sometimes walked around wearing a lampshade hat woven with rush.’ He added, perhaps unnecessarily, ‘It should be said that he was…
The gravity-defying sculptures are the works of Venice-born artist Gianfranco Meggiato
It is hard to disagree with the astronomers. They clearly felt that naming a single lunar crater after Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc in 1935 was insufficient and, in 1993, honoured him again, this time with an asteroid. But astronomy is…
A Victorian 3D image thought to be the earliest-known family photograph to have been taken at Stonehenge has been identified in the collection of Queen guitarist Dr Brian May. CA went to see the ‘stereo view’ on display at the monument’s visitor centre.
Founded in 1846, Sussex Archaeological Society is one of the UK’s oldest county-based archaeology societies – but how did it begin? Carly Hilts spoke to Emma O’Connor to learn more about the birth of the organisation, as well as an exhibition marking its 175th birthday.
How much do we really know about Hadrian’s Wall? After more than a century of scientific research into this magnificent Roman monument, it might be suspected that few mysteries remain. Instead, the recent ‘Pilgrimage’ along the Wall showed that debate is still in rude health, as Matthew Symonds reveals.
'In 1638, Kircher was lowered into an awakening Vesuvius to advance his geological knowledge.'
Classical Caledonia explores the antiquarian rediscovery of Scotland’s Roman remains, and how these have influenced and continue to influence Scottish identity, impacting on our interpretation of Roman Scotland today. Various populist and misleading tropes, such as Hadrian’s Wall forming the…
Stonehenge has to be the most intensively studied prehistoric monument in the world, which begs the question: ‘is there anything left to say?’ A new English Heritage study of the wider Stonehenge World Heritage Site landscape has come up with a few surprising facts which, if not all new, are perhaps not widely known, as Chris Catling now reports.