One archaeological milestone this year is the centenary of the founding of the Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan (DAFA) in 1922. Their century of research has included investigations at Aï Khanoum, a Hellenistic city on the banks of the Oxus…
Analysing pottery fragments recovered from the site, archaeologists have dated the construction of the settlement to between the 5th and 7th centuries AD.
The installation is part of the HW1900 Festival and will be open to the public until 30 October.
The settlement has been dated to the Early Classic Period (c. AD 250-600).
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When it was completed in 1209, medieval London Bridge was the only fixed crossing of the Thames downstream of Kingston-upon-Thames (until Fulham Bridge was built in 1729). Remarkably, it was also home to some 500 people – equivalent to the population of a small medieval town. In London Bridge and its Houses, Dorian Gerhold has scoured the archives of Bridge House – the medieval charity that managed the bridge – to find out more about the community that lived on this extraordinary structure, as Chris Catling reports.
Two recent discoveries in very different sites in England are offering close connections to unknown workers of the 19th and 20th centuries. In Sir John Soane’s Museum, in London, restoration work is underway in the architect’s drawing office. While working…
A 'luxurious estate’ featuring painted wall frescoes and marble-paved halls was also unearthed within the vicinity.
The historic boundary-marker known as the London Stone, indicating the downstream limits of the City's jurisdiction, is located at which point on the Thames Estuary?
Previous structures nominated for inclusion have ranged from water towers and cranes to stately homes and churches.
The word ‘dolmen’ – derived from the Breton taol maen (‘stone table’) – is regarded as a folk term for Neolithic monuments that consist of a massive capstone supported by three or more upright stones, or orthostats. Archaeologists have sought to subdivide these monuments into more precise typological categories, but Vicki Cummings and Colin Richards, the authors of Monuments in the Making, politely suggest that they are wrong to do so. Is it time to reclaim the word? Chris Catling reports.
These days, the term ‘philhellenism’ (literally, the love of all things Greek) is perhaps most often associated with the Romantic poets and thinkers of the late 18th and 19th centuries – a period during which a ‘new cult of the…
At which battle in 490 BC did an Athenian army repulse the first Persian invasion of Greece?
Ancient Rome’s enthusiasm for all things Greek is well known, and archaeological echoes of these influences can be found across the Empire. Looking in the other direction, though, what traces did the Romans leave in Athens, the city at the heart of their idealised view? Carly Hilts reports.
Conservators working in the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper Egypt, have uncovered new details of the building’s colourful ceiling frescoes. Construction on the temple began in the Ptolemaic period and continued into the Roman period, with decoration completed during…
In order to explore how this lavish home was experienced by Roman viewers, researchers first used 3D-modelling software to create a reconstruction of the house. This 3D model was based on information from an earlier Lund University project that digitally mapped a neighbourhood in Pompeii, in combination with records from the excavation of the house and other information about Roman architecture.
Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of The University of Manchester, is a working research facility that has supported the discovery of meteors, black holes, and the afterglow of the Big Bang. Last month saw the…
Influential figures in the heritage world are concerned about the scale and height of new buildings proposed for the centre of Canterbury, where the primacy of the cathedral as a focal point of views and the intimacy of historic streets are under threat. Chris Catling reports on a manifesto for the city produced by SAVE Britain’s Heritage, warning against the mistakes of post-war development and recommending a new approach that has lessons for many of our towns and cities.
Woodchester Mansion is considered to be one of the UK’s most haunted buildings, and people pay large sums to spend the night in the freezing cold mansion with their ghost-detecting cameras and radar equipment.
Although none of the stained-glass windows were destroyed or damaged by the fire, many of them, already dusty, were exposed to smoke and soiled as a result.
How did the elements of what we now call Gothic come together in medieval Europe? Emma J Wells takes us back to this great age of cathedral-building, when masons set out to replicate heaven here on earth.
The layers of tunnels under Naples preserve traces of Greek life and death in ancient Italy. Dalu Jones heads beneath the surface to visit ongoing restoration work that is making an ancient tomb and its rare surviving Greek paintings accessible to the public.
The glorious, far-reaching south-western outlook from Richmond Hill has long been one of England's most famous views. For centuries, painters (including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Constable and Turner) have climbed to the top in search of inspiration from the landscape, and to marvel at the beauty of the Thames as it wends its way serenely past the grand houses below.
When Henrietta Howard (née Hobart) built her Thames-side country house in Twickenham in the 1720s, it represented so much more than a fashionable escape from the bustle of court life: it was a refuge from her abusive marriage, and a sign of hard-won independence. With the house and its grounds now restored to their Georgian glory, and the site reopening to the public, Carly Hilts visited to find out more.
With its distinctive chequerboard exterior combining Caen stone and knapped flint, the Marlipins building in Shoreham-by-Sea has been an eye-catching landmark for centuries – in fact, dendrochronological analysis suggests that it is the earliest surviving secular building in Sussex. Its…
‘Widening access’ and ‘access for all’ are two of the slogans that characterise today’s heritage practice, but the community-minded people of Faversham have been doing access for half a century. Open House, held almost every July since 1982, sees the…
The death of which monarch led to the accession of George I?
Numerous altars, stelae, votive offerings, and other finds associated with a religious complex were discovered.
Review by M Elizabeth Grávalos What makes a home? All humans have ideals of home, but no two people conceptualise home and their household in the same manner. Yet despite this diverse human experience, many archaeologists rely on rigid household…
The Inca may have called the city Picchu, or more likely Huayna Picchu.
Fresh traces of urban life spanning almost three millennia are coming to light in central Rome. New Danish-Italian excavations have uncovered far more than Caesar’s monumental forum project. Delving through archaeological layers, while travelling back in time from Mussolini’s 1930s constructions, Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Eva Mortensen, Claudio Parisi Presicce, and Rubina Raja disentangle the complex urban stratigraphy of the Eternal City.
Review by Oliver J Gilkes Everybody likes mosaic pavements; they are ancient artefacts that entrance and beguile the visitor at Greek and Roman sites. No matter that floor mosaics (the majority of survivals) were little more than rugs and mats,…
The Nelson Room at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich was unveiled in late March following a year-long conservation project.
The event, Meet the Makers Behind London's Heritage, is being hosted by the Heritage of London Trust (HOLT), an independent charity which has spearheaded restoration projects in the city for over 40 years.
Review by AB. The term ‘street furniture’ encompasses a wide range of everyday objects that are found along roads and in towns and cities around the world, from manhole covers and postboxes to bus stops and cabman’s shelters. In this…
Carly Hilts travels around the world in 31 LEGO models at The Novium Museum, Chichester.