The Highland valley of Glencoe is notorious as the location of a brutal 1692 massacre, but until recently little was known about what remained of the settlement that existed at this time. Now, though, archaeological fieldwork by the National Trust for Scotland has shed new light on 17th- and 18th-century remains within the glen, as Derek Alexander reports.
• Glass beads shed light on Pre-Columbian trade
• X-ray of a pregnant mummy
• Constantine the Great reunited with a messing finger
Your view on past Current Archaeology issues.
• Museum + Heritage Award winners announced
• Thames Discovery Programme continues
Have you ever wondered why there is often a big hole in the wall just inside a medieval church doorway? This book is primarily a study of the bar locks they were made to hold. Some were huge – like…
It is believed that this group may represent a Viking population who had settled in Oxford for some years.
Ritual or rubbish – how should we interpret objects that ended their days in rivers during the Roman period? Hella Eckardt and Philippa Walton consider this question by exploring the more than 3,600 artefacts that have been recovered from the waters of the Tees at Piercebridge.
This is a 7th-century gesture figurine of a man, made of copper alloy. It was found by a metal-detectorist last December in the parish of Kintbury, West Berkshire.
The team from the University of Exeter applied their formula to 1,366 domestic fowl skeletons found across Britain, ranging in date from the Iron Age through to the modern day.
The construction of a new bypass on the A75 near Dunragit has uncovered a wealth of archaeological finds, illuminating around 8,000 years of human activity within a rich and complex historic landscape on the south-west coast of Scotland. With the project’s findings now published in full, Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts surveys some of the key discoveries.
This volume largely stems from the 2018 European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) annual meeting in Barcelona. The editors have obviously taken great care in compiling a cohesive and comprehensive collection of papers that work towards providing a new academic narrative…
Furnished graves smacked of paganism, along with the idea that worldly goods should be laid in the grave for the use of the deceased in the afterlife.
Measuring 160mm by 215mm, the stone depicts a naked male figure holding a spear and standing in front of either a horse or a donkey.
Many heritage sites and museums in the UK, Ireland, and other countries around the world have now reopened their doors to visitors, but there are still plenty of ways to get involved in history and heritage from home this summer as well. Current World Archaeology's Amy Brunskill has put together a variety of options below, from video tours of recent exhibitions to online webinars, social media trends, and craft activities, as well as a round-up of some of the places that are open again.
The landscape of Wiltshire is full of indications of the county’s rich history, but perhaps some of the most compelling information about the area’s past comes from the hoards buried beneath its soil. The contents of these hoards vary widely,…
The Isle of Iona, located off the south-western coast of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, has been described by the poet Robert Crawford (b. 1959) as a place where ‘spirit, imagination, and physical exertion mingle’. Iona’s assemblage of early medieval carved stones and grave slabs constitute a special part of the island’s magic, forming a collection of early medieval art for which there are few parallels in the rest of Europe. The importance of one cross in particular – the 8th-century Cross of St John – has only recently been realised, in part because of a study of its concrete replica, as Current Archaeology's Chris Catling reveals.
What is it about the members of the Mortimer family, powerful and ambitious lords of the March, that attracts people to the Mortimer History Society (MHS)?
Next to the sarcophagus, a possible votive offering, consisting of a small pot containing what also appears to be cremated remains.
This report describes the results of excavations conducted in 2015-2016 on the Brooklyn Hall site, south of the River Derwent, opposite the fort at Malton, and immediately west of the main road from York. All those involved are to be…
The image shown here represents a fire altar with a triple-pointed crown in the flames as a central motif, surrounded by plant scrolls containing stylised leopards and tigers.
Time Team taught me to look outside my trench and think about how everything fed into a wider story. And as for Tony [Robinson] – I like to call him my TV dad.
Excavations revealed old foundations, as well as bricks and pottery, dating to the late 18th century.
This remarkable and important study of the art and culture of northern Roman Britain has been published almost two decades after my own – The Heirs of King Verica (Tempus, 2002; 2nd edition: Amberley, 2010), which dealt almost entirely with…
Perhaps Sussex’s most famous ‘site’ of all featured in CA 286, when the Time Team examined rival theories of the location of the AD 1066 Battle of Hastings.
‘The late medieval sheep of Britain have so engaged the attention of the agrarian historians that other aspects of stock husbandry appear to have been neglected. Our knowledge of the cattle of the period, and of how they were kept,…
These new discoveries could indicate that the harsh treatment on these prison ships was not a punishment solely reserved for men.
‘Even during Plague outbreaks, individual people were being buried with considerable care and attention.'
Too often, we are seen as ‘people who play in the dirt’ or very occasionally ‘finders of secrets’ rather than serious academics. - Dr Hugh Willmott