Underwater archaeology is not all deep-sea diving. Artefacts and historic remains are periodically exposed on the shoreline before vanishing as the tide rises again, and can be found further inland in lakes and other bodies of water. Karen Moule describes the experience – and importance – of documenting these finds, and highlights three initiatives that you can join.
A new exhibition at Flag Fen Archaeology Park, near Peterborough, brings the area’s prehistoric past to life – including a trio of Bronze Age and Iron Age log boats. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
This is a trio of zoomorphic figurines that was recently acquired by Worthing Museum thanks to the kindness of the finder and landowner, who both agreed to waive their value. They were discovered a year ago, on two separate occasions,…
Excavations on Culloden Battlefield, near Inverness, this past October have recovered more than 100 projectiles in an area of the site that had not previously yielded any archaeological discoveries. The battle – the last to take place on British soil…
Excavations at Drumburgh, 10 miles (16km) from Carlisle, have unearthed a section of Hadrian’s Wall – the best-preserved part of the frontier fortification to be revealed west of the city. At the instigation of the landowners, who wanted to learn…
Further news from the frontier zone comes from Bremenium Fort – at High Rochester, north of Hadrian’s Wall – where recent excavations have revealed a wealth of finds to add to our understanding of how the fort sustained itself during…
A community excavation exploring the remains of Derrygonnelly Castle, a 17th-century fortification in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, has revealed unexpected evidence of extensive prehistoric settlement, pushing back the known habitation of this site by more than 8,000 years. Led by…
For more than 15 years, archaeologists from Bournemouth University have been excavating a number of sites around Winterborne Kingston, near Bere Regis in Dorset. This long-running project has revolutionised our understanding of the Iron Age in this region, with discoveries…
Excavations just north of Perth have revealed the remains of an Iron Age hillfort that appears to have been inhabited for close to 600 years before it was finally abandoned around the time that the first Roman armies appeared in…
Mass graves and migration in Neolithic France Recent isotopic analysis of human remains from Neolithic mass graves found at Bergheim and Achenheim in Alsace, France, have shed new light on the life histories of these individuals. Each pit was found…
Blue plaque unveiled for Reverend Wilbert Awdry Historic England has unveiled a National Blue Plaque honouring children’s author and creator of Thomas the Tank Engine, the Reverend Wilbert Awdry. The plaque is located at 30 Rodborough Avenue in Stroud, on…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
A new exhibition in London uses cutting-edge technology to recreate the streets of Pompeii – and the explosive events that turned a thriving Roman settlement into an archaeological time capsule. Carly Hilts describes the experience.
REVIEW BY PAUL T CRADDOCK This is a very thorough description of every aspect of the prehistoric copper mines on the Great Orme at Llandudno. It is also an attempt to recreate and describe an ancient community/activity not just from…
REVIEW BY BRANDON BRAUN The Latin motto for Shropshire – Floreat Salopia, ‘may Shropshire flourish’ – has been used since at least the 17th century, so it is a fitting title for the 100th volume of the Transactions of the…
REVIEW BY CH Dogs may be ‘man’s best friend’, but cats also share a long relationship with humans – a tale (tail?) that archaeologist Jerry Moore recounts in this absorbing overview, covering two million years of history and an equally…
REVIEW BY REBECCA GOWLAND The town of Blackburn in Lancashire was a key player in Britain’s industrial cotton boom, which saw a quadrupling of its inhabitants during the first half of the 19th century. This volume presents the results of…
REVIEW BY FINBAR McCORMICK This book is the first interdisciplinary analysis of early Irish kingship based on both historical and archaeological sources; it was formerly the preserve of just historians. This new approach is a fresh contribution to our understanding…
REVIEW BY ROB IXER This is the second landscape book by Jackson to be published this year and is in many respects a prequel to his earlier Rocks on the Edge of Empire, which is itself a splendid, sometimes stunning,…
In his speech of thanks for the dinner that was given to mark his 70th birthday in 1927, the architect and designer C F A (Charles) Voysey (1857-1941) declared: ‘my work was never popular, therefore you must all see how…
This two-day conference will spotlight the dynamic intersection of archaeological research conducted by Mercian Archaeological Services and Nottingham Trent University, covering investigations across the UK, Midlands, and Egypt. There will also be numerous other industry experts showcasing their work through…
Petra is renowned for its extraordinary tomb architecture, but little is known about the builders of these mausolea. George H Nash, Genevieve von Petzinger, Lina Alrabab’h, and James Nash examine this funerary landscape and the traces of those who made it possible.
In the first of a two-part piece, Richard Hodges visits Corinth for a conversation with its legendary excavator Charles K Williams.
Human beings may have suddenly doubled their age thanks to some recent research on a group of fossilised skulls from China, known as Yunxian 1 and 2. Previously classified as Homo erectus, they have now been designated as belonging to the Denisovan group, based on skull shape.
An extraordinary survival plucked from a Danish bog sheds light on the technical virtuosity available in the Roman Iron Age. Olympia Bobou, Ilaria Bucci, and Rubina Raja examine the significance of a remarkable piece of armour.
Easter Island did not just produce monumental stone sculptures. It was also home to talented woodcarvers making an extraordinary range of figurines. Paul Horley, Rafal Wieczorek, Catherine Orliac, and Paul Bahn explore a side to these sculptures that was hidden in plain sight.
Over the last century, Messenia in Greece has produced an extraordinary range of archaeological riches. Together, these finds showcase sumptuous burials and flourishing settlements, and shed vivid light on life during a pivotal period for the Mycenaean world. To find out more, Matthew Symonds spoke to Claire Lyons, Jack Davis, and Sharon Stocker.
A visit to Kea allows Martin J P Davies to dip into the archaeology of a charming island.
If you happen to be among the many people who are born and raised in the countryside, chances are that you have found yourself at some point in your life quarrelling about city people who seemed to imagine themselves to be naturally more innovative and progressive than the rest of humankind, your good self included.
An exhibition in Paris explores the history of the city through the objects recovered from the river at its heart.
On 1 August 1960, I visited Mycenae for the first time. In my diary I described it as a terribly moving experience, seeing the shaft graves and the famed treasuries of Atreus and Clytemnestra. Looking back, what I recall most clearly was the romance of it all.
The statuette… is intricate and highly detailed… What is it? This small, bronze figurine, which measures 7.5cm tall and weighs 55g, depicts a warrior standing in a lunging pose. He holds a sword in one hand and a shield in…
A recent study has successfully carried out full genome sequencing of a person from ancient Egypt for the first time.
REVIEW BY MATTHEW SYMONDS This volume honours Professor David Kennedy, a pioneering scholar of ancient Arabia and Rome’s eastern frontier, by bringing together 21 scholarly contributions examining both the archaeology of the wider region, and the way that it is…
REVIEW BY OSCAR MORO ABADIA This publication was created to accompany the British Museum Partnership Exhibition Ice Age art now, held at Cliffe Castle Museum in summer 2025. The exhibition showcased the British Museum’s remarkable collection of Pleistocene mobiliary art…
REVIEW BY TIMOTHY MATNEY The academic world inhabited by Sumerologists and Assyriologists is highly specialised and largely inaccessible for even the hardiest lovers of history. The texts themselves are fragmentary, often pieced together from disparate copies, deliberately anachronistic, and range…