Three rock-cut tombs belonging to high officials of the early New Kingdom have been discovered by an Egyptian team in the Bubasteion necropolis at Saqqara. The tombs are inscribed with their biographies, and provide important evidence of Egypt’s foreign relations…
Archaeologists working at ancient Heliopolis (Matariya, Cairo) have uncovered an almost complete funerary assemblage beneath a mud-brick burial structure. The discovery includes a collection of personal and ritual objects, including a copper mirror, alabaster kohl vessels containing traces of cosmetics,…
An Egyptian team excavating the multi-period cemetery at Tell Kom Aziza (Beheira) in the Delta has uncovered a section dating to the Graeco-Roman Period with diverse human funerary practices. Burials ranged from simple pits and mud-brick-lined tombs, to decorated gypsum…
A Dutch team from Leiden University has discovered a previously unknown Ramesside tomb in Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. Wall inscriptions name the owner as an official called Paser. The tomb has a typical Theban layout, with an open courtyard containing a…
A large multi-functional complex dating to the Fifteenth Dynasty (the Hyksos era) has been uncovered by an Egyptian mission at Tell el-Ku’a in Wadi Tumilat (Ismailia Governorate) in the eastern Nile Delta. The team discovered a walled residential compound, measuring…
New insights into the Plain of Jars in Laos Xieng Khouang Plateau in northern Laos is dotted with hundreds of ancient stone jars. While they have been the subject of archaeological investigations for over a century, their full use and…
A geophysical survey on Machrie Moor, on the western side of the Isle of Arran (a small island off the west coast of Scotland), has revealed the outline of what may be a previously unknown, near-circular prehistoric monument, adding to…
Pompeii reoccupied after eruption Excavations at Pompeii have uncovered evidence that certain areas of the city were reoccupied after the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. This had been suggested before, but previous excavations focused on reaching Pompeii’s pre-destruction levels…
Three rock-cut tombs from the Old Kingdom, reused during the Middle Kingdom, have been found by the Egyptian team working at the Qubbet el Hawa necropolis opposite Aswan. Two of the tombs have similar features and contained wooden coffins with…
A 4,500-year-old Egyptian skeleton from a rock-cut tomb in Nuwayrat, near Beni Hasan, has provided the first biological evidence for links between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in the early Old Kingdom. The man’s unusual burial – in a sealed pottery…
A major exhibition at the National Museum of Denmark is exploring the mysterious Viking Age Völva.
The burial was found to contain a pair of scissors, a folded sword, the remains of a shield and a spearhead, a razor, and a fibula (clasp).
‘As our community comes together to explore this important site, we hope to also reveal voices that have important lessons to teach us about our country’s roots.’
These days, it sometimes seems hard to read a newspaper, or scan a news website, without coming across an article about the ‘new elites’ who run our world. Often this is in reference to the richest ‘1 percent’, who are…
The team found that the modified stone cobbles had been used with a percussive action – either as stationary anvils or hammers – and that some preserved traces of gold contemporary with their use.
The remains of a white cheese were found in pottery vessels unearthed at Saqqara
The rock-cut tomb consists of the remains of a mud brick courtyard, with a descending staircase leading to two rooms.
Nicholas Reeves claims the north wall of KV62 originally depicted Tutankhamun burying Nefertiti and was later overpainted to show Ay burying Tutankhamun.
A round-up of some of the latest news from museums in the UK, including new findings from the NMS' Egyptian collections, the opening of the new Brontë at Elizabeth Gaskell's house, and
Carly Hilts travels around the world in 31 LEGO models at The Novium Museum, Chichester.
Radiocarbon dating revealed the child, nicknamed 'Neve’, lived around 10,000 years ago
Located in the Outer Hebrides, the prehistoric settlement of Cladh Hallan is best known for the Bronze Age mummies found buried beneath its roundhouses. As well as these insights into how the dead were treated, though, the dwellings have yielded illuminating insights into the world of the living, as Mike Parker Pearson, Jacqui Mulville, Helen Smith, and Peter Marshall explain.
According to a recent estimate by the World Gold Council, the total quantity of this precious pale yellow metal discovered around the world throughout all of human history amounts to just 201,296 tonnes. If the whole lot were melted down to form a single cube, it would measure just 22 metres on each side.
The discovery of 4,000-year-old log coffin and the remains of its occupant in Tetney, Lincolnshire, along with an equally rare stone axe buried with it, has brought together archaeologists from across the field in a massive effort not only to excavate and preserve the wood before it can disintegrate, but also to examine every avenue of evidence that this unique burial can provide. Hugh Willmott, Tim Allen, and Ian Panter report on their ongoing efforts.
The coffin, thought to date back c. 4,000 years, was crafted from a hollowed-out oak tree trunk
The skeleton of a Roman man with iron shackles locked around his ankles has been described as ‘perhaps the most convincing candidate for the remains of a Roman slave yet to be found in Britain’. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts reports on recently published analysis illuminating this unique burial.
The discovery of the gold object in an Early Bronze Age grave was unusual, as precious metals are rare in the region at this date.
Given the prominent location of this woman’s grave, overlooking the Ock valley, and the elaborate items she was buried with, it is likely she was a member of a leading family.
The newly discovered fragments consist of over 20 pieces of parchment belonging to the Minor Prophets Scroll, including sections of the books of Zechariah and Nahum.
Overall, these results seem to be consistent with lay individuals who may have entered into a monastic life as children and subsequently gained access to a higher-status diet.
The Irish archaeologist Barry Raftery (1944-2010) wrote: ‘Death represents the ultimate confrontation between the human and the supernatural worlds. The surviving burial remains and the associated funerary monuments thus provide us with the clearest and most tangible surviving evidence of religious beliefs and practices’. With this as her theme, Elizabeth O’Brien has studied every excavated Irish burial dating from the period c.200 BC to c.AD 800. She found great diversity and one common strand – burial in close proximity to ancestors or to people regarded as saints, as Chris Catling reports.
As a first-year undergraduate at UCL’s Institute of Archaeology in London, I spent seven weeks during the summer of 1991 at Boxgrove, enjoying stints working at several sites there, including GTP17, Q2/D, and Q1/A (as well as a week as…
A large Anglo-Saxon cemetery has recently been discovered at Overstone in Northamptonshire. With 154 interments, it is the largest burial ground from this period ever found in the county. The 15ha site was excavated by Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA)…
Analysis of more than 300 human skeletons, recovered from three different medieval burial sites across Cambridge, has provided interesting new details of the city’s inhabitants, and the individual risks they may have faced based on their position in life. The…
Viking ship burial in Norway A Viking ship burial was recently discovered at Gjellestad, Norway, during a ground-penetrating radar survey. It is now being excavated by the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. The ship is just one part of…
A recent excavation along Constitution Street in Leith, in advance of an extension to the Edinburgh tram line to Newhaven, has uncovered hundreds of human remains from a late medieval cemetery and, underneath it, a mysterious stand- alone burial. The…