Current Archaeology 435
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An enduring landscape: Uncovering 8,000 years of life and death on the Cotswold Edge
Recent excavations at Milestone Ground on the eastern edge of Broadway have revealed one of the most intriguing archaeological landscapes yet found in Worcestershire. Beneath quiet pasture lay evidence of human activity stretching back 8,000 years, including Mesolithic flint tools, Bronze Age burials, hundreds of Iron Age storage pits, a Roman farmstead, and the largest late Roman cemetery known in the county. Constance Mitchell reports.
Llanbedrgoch: Exploring a unique early medieval trading centre on Anglesey
Ninth-century Carolingian coins from the reigns of Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald are not the sort of objects you would expect to find on a remote farm on the Isle of Anglesey, so, when metal-detectorists began reporting these and other exceptional artefacts from the early medieval period, the National Museum of Wales (now Amgueddfa Cymru) sent Mark Redknap, then Curator of Medieval and Later Archaeology, to investigate. Between 1994 and 2012, Mark led ten seasons of fieldwork on the site, revealing the remains of a trading settlement with a form unparalleled in Wales. With the full report recently published, Chris Catling describes its key findings.
Ancient shark attack
Individual 24 was found to have at least 790 wounds made at around the time of death
New dates for Machu Picchu
Radiocarbon dating of burials from the Inca site of Machu Picchu has revealed that it was occupied several decades earlier than previously thought. The famous UNESCO World Heritage site in Peru is
Hare paenga: the canoe-shaped houses and monumental archaeology of Rapa Nui (Easter Island)
The archaeology of Rapa Nui is dominated by the Easter Island heads, but these were just one element of larger ceremonial complexes. Colin Richards explores some distinctive houses, which offer tantalising clues for understanding the celebrated statues.
Paul Reynolds and a new Classical Archaeology
The astonishing thing about Paul is his photographic memory. I recall he once joined a Roman sherd from Butrint with a piece from the maritime villa at Diaporit, three miles away.
Archaeology and the Early Church in Southern Greece
This book provides a brief history of Christianity in the eastern Peloponnese (including ancient sites in Corinth, such as Kenchreai and Lechaion, as well as Isthmia, Nemea, Sikyon, and Epidauros) and in
Wooden snake figurine
Snakes are rarely depicted in rock art in northern Europe, and are known to have had symbolic significance in the later world views of the Finno-Ugric and Sámi peoples
Rare Roman boundary stone
The travertine stone bears an inscription detailing Claudius’ titles and honours
Southern Levant: what was on the menu in the land of milk and honey?
Just how much can ancient diet tell us about past lives? Shyama Vermeersch considers what cuisine reveals about the southern Levant in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Doggerland and Malta
Gillis Kersting explores the lost worlds of Doggerland and prehistoric Malta through two new exhibitions at the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.
The Warsaw Mummy Project
A multidisciplinary project that uses a wide range of techniques to study ancient Egyptian mummies is shedding new light on the secrets hidden beneath their wrappings, as Marzena Oz.arek-Szilke, Marcin Jaworski, Wojciech Ejsmond, and Stanisl´aw Szilke explain.
V. G. Childe’s archaeological theory
Central to Childe’s conception of history was the creative potential of hunters, farmers, craftworkers, engineers, and scientists, and the way in which elites wasted surpluses on wars, monuments, and luxuries
Rich bronze artefact deposits found at ancient French settlement
Two deposits of spectacular bronze artefacts dating back to the 9th century BC represent the latest discoveries made during a series of archaeological excavations and surveys conducted in the Allier department of central France since 2019.
Vikings of the Sunrise
Originating in the remote past on the island of Taiwan, these Austronesian-speaking people were ultimately to settle from Malagasy to Rapa Nui, Easter Island. But did they go even further, and reach the Americas before Columbus?
The Archaeology of Medieval Towns: case studies from Japan and Europe
The Archaeology of Medieval Towns is an interesting proposition: a book which aims to act as a bridge between the medieval worlds of Europe and Japan, introducing each to the specialists of
Recognising historic landscapes
The idea that there was no pre-existing Roman settlement on the site of medieval Venice is hard to credit when you realise that the Italian peninsula was heavily populated under the Roman Empire
Libarna: revealing the complex history of a colonial city
How did the Romans learn to incorporate new groups and regions into their empire? Libarna, a Roman colony in what was the Gallic part of Italy, may hold the key to answering this question. Katherine V Huntley reveals the ancient, and modern, significance of the city.
Earliest Christian monastery found in Egypt
Inscriptions were also found on the walls of several buildings, with passages from biblical and early Christian texts written in Greek.
Drawn and Written in Stone: an inventory of stepped structures and inscriptions on rock surfaces in Upper Tibet (ca.100 BCE to 1400 CE)
For many thousands of years, humans have inscribed their presence on the landscape. They drew or pecked images of the fanciful, representational, or sacred on the walls of caves, rock shelters, rock
Bronze Age and Jutish cemetery excavated in Kent
One of the most exciting discoveries was that of a massive square pit burial holding the skeletal remains of a horse and a wolf-sized dog
Rare Bronze Age coffin sheds light on ancient funerary rites
The coffin, thought to date back c. 4,000 years, was crafted from a hollowed-out oak tree trunk
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