This is an early medieval brooch made from a gilded silver penny, which was found over a year ago by a metal-detectorist in Wiltshire. It was recently acquired by the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes, after having been declared Treasure. The…
When you envisage Greek statues and friezes, you probably picture pure white marble sculptures, pockmarked with age – that is, after all, how they appear today. But that was not how they appeared to the ancient Greeks who made them,…
Survey records 30 wrecks sunk during Operation Dynamo Over the course of two weeks in September and October, DRASSM (the French marine heritage agency), in partnership with Historic England, carried out a survey of 30 shipwrecks sunk during Operation Dynamo,…
A pair of Roman swords – the first to be found in the Cotswolds, and thought to be only the second time two have been found in the same context in the whole of Britain – has been discovered during…
New research is calling into question the origin and function of the Altar Stone at Stonehenge. A century ago, Herbert Thomas announced that the non-sarsens, dolerites, and volcanic tuffs making up the Stonehenge bluestones had been transported to Wiltshire from…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions
REVIEW BY KK For those not familiar with the eponymous ‘bone chests’, they are the – rather innocuous-looking – wooden chests placed high atop the choir screens in Winchester Cathedral, which, based on the names written on the outsides, purportedly…
REVIEW BY CH In the 4th century AD, a modest defended farmstead was established close to what is now Roscommon, in the Irish county of the same name, and over the next 1,000 years it evolved into a much more…
REVIEW BY VICKI CUMMINGS Six miles from Belfast city centre is the monumental complex at Ballynahatty. Today, the circular earthwork known as the Giant’s Ring, with a small megalith set at its centre, is still visible, but once this was…
REVIEW BY CH This magazine should reach you in November, bridging the period between Hallowe’en and Christmas – both dates traditionally associated with the sharing of spooky stories. If you would like your frights to have an archaeological flavour, this…
REVIEW BY KK Rogers’ book serves well as a succinct introduction to the Roman towns of Britain. It starts by discussing how these towns evolved, whether de novo or through the expansion of pre-existing settlement sites, and highlights the different…
REVIEW BY AB Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire might be a peaceful spot today, but this steep valley on the River Severn was once a hub of industry and manufacturing, and the site of several key developments that drove the Industrial…
Dylan Bickerstaffe investigates the evidence for Tutankhamun’s long-lost mortuary temple.
Karl Harris travelled to Sudan on an expedition to identify the original locations and find-sites of objects now in museum collections.
For the first time in nearly a century, these famous Old Kingdom bracelets were scientifically analysed by an international team led by Macquarie University in Sydney, with surprising results, as Karin Sowada explains.
Do you recognise this place?
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
What was the origin of the ankh hieroglyph and what did it mean to the ancient Egyptians?
AFRICA & BYZANTIUM An exhibition of nearly 180 works exploring the tradition of Byzantine art and culture in North Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, and other powerful African kingdoms, from the 4th century to the 15th century and beyond. On display…
A series of elegant female figurines, the subject of ongoing research, had been wrongly identified in the past as ‘brides of the dead’. W Benson Harer Jr proposes a new theory to explain their purpose.
Continuing his series of articles on Predynastic Egypt (see AE 127, 135, and 137), Julian Heath now looks at evidence for the disputes that arose between different groups of early settlers.
For this issue, Dr Campbell Price examines a sculpture in the Brooklyn Museum whose original purpose is unclear.
Peter J Brand looks at how Sety I ensured his son and heir became the most well-prepared of all Egypt’s pharaohs.
Revealing the remains of a tightly packed complex of previously unknown temples and tombs.
A selection of the latest publications on Egypt and Egyptology, assessed by AE’s team of experts.
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE The book’s introduction sets the scene by briefly describing the find, with a chronological sketch of the archaeological landscape of Saqqara the subject of the first chapter. The caching phenomenon – the deliberate gathering and deposition…
REVIEW BY HILARY FORREST William Flinders Petrie, known to many as the ‘Father of Egyptology’, left a huge legacy of Egyptological material – not only artefacts, but also many writings. He also produced many typological catalogues based on his excavations.…
Dinosaur bones discovered in 1977 in the Kharga Oasis have recently been identified as a species of herbivorous dinosaur new to science. The remains, which included vertebrae and limb, pelvis, and shoulder bones, date to about 75 million years ago,…
Egyptian researchers have used three spectroscopic techniques for rapid analysis of gemstones from Egypt, revealing their origins and providing a window into historical trade routes. Gemstones peridot (olivine) and emerald, and semi-gemstones beryl, amazonite, and amethyst, from mines in the…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany have recreated the smell of the mummification balm used on the noblewoman Senetnay, wet nurse to Amenhotep II. The team used gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and other techniques to analyse…
A joint team from the Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Colorado have completed the restoration and reinstallation of a number of huge granite columns at Ashmunein, in Minya Governorate. Known as Hermopolis Magna in the Graeco-Roman era, the…
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a ship that sank in the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 650 metres off the coast of el-Alamein. Dating to the 3rd century BC, the ship was carrying a cargo of wine amphorae imported from Rhodes.…
In CA 388 we asked, ‘what are hillforts for?’, and Toby Driver’s new book Hillforts of Iron Age Wales has some suggestions. Based on his many years spent recording these monuments on the ground and from the air, he concludes that no single explanation fits every example. Rather, like terraces of seemingly identical Victorian or Edwardian houses, external similarities disguise the many different functions, ideas, and ways of life that hillforts supported, as Chris Catling reports.
More than 20 years ago, CA 175 described the investigation of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Winterton Vale. Since then, interpretations of the finds have changed and understanding of their significance has grown. Now, with the excavation report about to be published and the full data made available online, Kevin Leahy shares the illuminating early medieval story that has come to light.
Three years of excavations centred on a c.6,000-year-old burial monument in Herefordshire have revealed that its story is much longer and more complex than was previously thought. Carly Hilts visited Keith Ray, Win Scutt, and Julian Thomas on site to learn more.