Mare nostrum, Old Basing, Hampshire
The handful of sculptures and mosaics depicting this god that are known, however, include one on the pediment of the temple of Sulis Minerva in Bath.
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Heritage from home: February
As we find ourselves back in lockdown, the vast quantity of resources available online seems more valuable than ever. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the many ways you can get involved in archaeology, history, and heritage from home, to help you explore the past until museums and heritage sites are able to open once more.
The future of planning
As every archaeologist knows, listed buildings and scheduled monuments represent the tip of the heritage iceberg.
50 Finds of Roman Coinage: objects from the Portable Antiquities Scheme
This latest book in the ’50 Finds’ series from the Portable Antiquities Scheme is the first to focus on a specific artefact type rather than on a region or period. Roman coinage is a fitting choice for this new approach,…
Burying the Dead: an archaeological history of burial grounds, graveyards, and cemeteries
This book provides a brief history of how humans have dealt with their dead over the centuries – mainly focusing on the early medieval period through to the modern day. It is, at times, a dizzying whirlwind of a tour,…
The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur
‘The past lies in fragments… one might just as well try to reconstruct the idea of a tree from its leaves, or an ocean wave from a dripping tap.’ So writes Max Adams, author of The First Kingdom, a wide-ranging…
Leprosy: past and present
More than a decade in the making, this book was well worth the wait. It is a thorough compendium of knowledge on not only the history and (bio)archaeology of leprosy, but also its epidemiology and evolution. At its heart, it…
Classical Caledonia: Roman history and myth in 18th-century Scotland
Classical Caledonia explores the antiquarian rediscovery of Scotland’s Roman remains, and how these have influenced and continue to influence Scottish identity, impacting on our interpretation of Roman Scotland today. Various populist and misleading tropes, such as Hadrian’s Wall forming the…
The Fairground Heritage Trust
Fed up with being locked down? You could do worse than escape for an hour into the brightly lit and colourful world of the fair, courtesy of the richly illustrated website of the Fairground Heritage Trust (FHT). Browsing the ‘Learning’…
Sheffield Castle: archaeology, archives, regeneration, 1927-2018
Sheffield Castle is a rare archaeological treat put together by a university team working with local authorities and professional archaeologists. It is about a place that has topographical and historical meaning thanks to recent well-designed rescue excavations and sleuth-like digging…
Keith Marischal: searching for a lost castle and Renaissance palace
The imposing aristocratic residence of Keith Marischal, in East Lothian, has changed dramatically in appearance over recent centuries. What can archaeological investigations funded by the Castle Studies Trust, together with detailed historical research, tell us about its original design? Dr Miles Kerr-Peterson reports.
Green fingers and golden finds: how lockdown gardening led to a host of new discoveries
Between March and June of last year, many of us found ourselves spending a lot more time at home – and, if you are lucky enough to have outdoor space, in the garden. The British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme has since announced a flurry of archaeological discoveries made by members of the public digging at home, some of which were described in their latest annual report. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts explores some of the highlights.
Excavating the CA Archive: Black Country
From Birmingham's industrial heritage to a Roman riding school: Joe Flatman explores half a century of reports from the West Midlands
In search of sunken ships: reflections of Britain’s colonial past
Britain’s involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade and the historical injustices of colonialism and the British Empire have been much in the news in recent months. In Britain and the Ocean Road, maritime historian Ian Friel asks how Britain got caught up in these nefarious activities. Chris Catling reports on what the new book reveals.
Letters from CA February 2021/March 2021
Your thoughts on the London Blitz, Cerne Abbas Giant, and Dad's Army
Finds tray – Iron Age swan neck pin
This is a complete copper-alloy ‘swan’s neck’ pin, a kind of artefact generally dated to the Iron Age. It comprises a circular flathead, which appears sub-rectangular in cross-section with rounded edges. Each flat side of the pinhead is decorated with…
Reviving Ousdale Broch
A recent conservation project has breathed new life into an Iron Age broch in northern Scotland. The Ousdale Broch, just south of Berriedale in Caithness, used to be considered one of the best-preserved brochs in the region. At some point…
Assessing the accessibility of Atxurra
Cave painting is one of the earliest forms of human culture, one of the first outlets of our creativity. But the meaning that these paintings had to the communities who created them remains a bit of a mystery. Who painted…
Artists on the edge of the world: exploring the British Isles’ earliest art at Les Varines, Jersey
Archaeologists excavating a 15,000-year-old campsite at Les Varines, Jersey, have recovered ten fragments of stone decorated with hundreds of interweaving lines. Recently published analysis of these ‘plaquettes’ suggests that they may represent the earliest artworks yet identified in the British Isles. Carly Hilts reports.
World News: Norway, Indonesia, Spain
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…
Evidence of Roman reprisals in Essex?
A recently revealed Iron Age settlement in Cressing, near Braintree in Essex, appears to have been almost completely destroyed during the second half of the 1st century AD. Dating to around the time of the Boudican uprising of AD 60/61,…
Caistor Roman Project gets a boost
Caistor Roman Project (CRP) – a community archaeology group centred around the Roman town of Venta Icenorum at present-day Caistor St Edmund in Norfolk – received an unexpected morale-booster in August: an emergency grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund,…
Great Pyramid artefact found in Aberdeen
In December 2019, a small fragment of cedar, which had been missing for more than 70 years, was rediscovered within the collections of the University of Aberdeen. The fragment may, at first glance, seem unprepossessing, except for the fact that…
News in brief
Surveying Dunfermline Abbey A recent project led by Dr Michael Penman from the University of Stirling in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland has conducted a series of ground-penetrating radar surveys of Dunfermline Abbey, revealing the possible layout of the original…
Unusual burial discovered in Leith
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…
Bronze Age monument uncovered in the New Forest
Community excavations on the Beaulieu Estate in the New Forest have uncovered an enigmatic Bronze Age monument, as well as evidence for Mesolithic activity, greatly adding to our knowledge of how this area of Hampshire was used during prehistory. Aerial…
Neanderthal neighbours: tracing evidence for our closest hominin relatives in Britain
Neanderthals have long been stereotyped as our less-capable cousins, but advances in archaeological research have given fascinating new insights into the lives of our closest hominin relatives and the world they inhabited, as Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes explains.
Current Archaeology Live! 2021 Conference
It is almost time for Current Archaeology Live! 2021, which will run from 26 to 28 February. While this year’s event will be entirely online, and things will look a bit different to what you are used to, we still…