This year’s CA Live! was our biggest conference yet, with around 600 people coming together at UCL’s Institute of Education in London to share the latest news about the past. For those who weren’t there, here is a round-up of what went on.
Mighty warhorses, as richly adorned and armoured as their knightly riders, are an immediately recognisable icon of the medieval period. Until recently, they were understood mainly through analysis of written sources – but what can archaeology add to this picture? Oliver H Creighton, Robert Liddiard, Alan K Outram, Katherine Kanne, Carly Ameen, and Robert Webley explore the key findings of their recently published research.
Of the many new religious groups that emerged from the ferment of ideas that characterised the Civil War and Commonwealth era (1630s to 1666), the Quakers proved to be one of the best organised and most influential. They have also gone further than other dissenting congregations in abandoning the architectural form that has been used for worship since the earliest days of Christianity by inventing a new kind of worship space – the meeting house. Chris Catling reports on a study of this distinctive Quaker building and its 17th-century origins.
With the summer digging season rapidly approaching, we will be running a series of spreads highlighting digging opportunities across Britain and Ireland. This month features projects ranging across the South-East, the Midlands, and Wales – do get in touch if you would like to highlight your excavation to our readers in a future issue.
There are many exciting archaeological events coming up over the next few months, including new exhibitions, lectures, and conferences. Or, if you would prefer to delve into history and heritage at home instead, there are lots of ways to do so, from virtual site tours and online resources to podcasts, games, and TV shows. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the options available.
Until around 8,000 years ago, Britain and the European mainland were connected by a land bridge that today is known as Doggerland. Although now submerged beneath the North Sea, this lost landscape has been recreated in an interactive simulation by…
Modern society faces significant global challenges, including climate change, environmental pollution, crime and conflict, social injustice, poor health, and concerns about wellbeing. In his recently published book exploring some of these issues, John Schofield argues that archaeologists have the necessary skills and insight to help address these problems, whether working in the field, among community groups, or in museums.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
An unusual Bronze Age necklace has inspired a colourful exhibition exploring the personal stories behind ancient and modern items of jewellery. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
Traces of London’s earliest Roman basilica, where officials presided over the settlement’s legal, commercial, and administrative affairs c.2,000 years ago, have been revealed beneath a City office block. Sophie Jackson told Carly Hilts about the discoveries.
An East Sussex landmark has reopened following a £7.5 million transformation. Carly Hilts reports on a recent site visit.
Sherds adopts a very broad definition of ‘heritage’, so no apologies for beginning this month’s column by drawing attention to the 70th anniversary of the establishment of tiddlywinks as a competitive university-based sport.
My column this month is on one of the least-known ‘great sites’ of all: Offa’s Dyke, the linear earthwork that stretches along the Welsh/English border. Most people know Hadrian’s Wall, and a fair few the Antonine Wall, but how many of us can say that we are familiar with Offa’s Dyke, either the standing sections of it that survive or the National Trail of that name that runs from Sedbury in the south to Prestatyn in the north?
REVIEW BY RUPERT TILL I first came across Graeme Lawson’s work about 16 years ago. He is a pioneer in exploring musical instruments in the archaeological record. His work is always highly detailed, applying an archaeologist’s methodological rigour to provide…
REVIEW BY TADGH O’KEEFFE Back in the 1980s, when the study of settlement and landscape in high and later medieval Ireland began to take off in earnest, little attention was paid to the world of the native Irish. Things have…
REVIEW BY JAMES O’DRISCOLL It is safe to say that I, and many others interested in the later prehistory of Ireland, have been waiting for this book for decades. This volume documents the excavations undertaken at the multivallate hillfort of…
REVIEW BY RP Have you ever wondered about the ancestor of the quiche? How about the origins of French toast? Who do we need to thank for the improvement of English cheese-making? Emma Kay has been foraging for tasty titbits…
REVIEW BY ROB IXER Many recent popular archaeology books are text-heavy, with indifferently reproduced black-and-white illustrations printed on poor-quality paper, and with a few token colour plates. This wonderful paperback, a landscape book in both senses of the word, is…
REVIEW BY JODIE LEWIS This monograph presents the results of excavations at five Bronze Age round barrows located on or near the north Cornish coast, undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit. Each barrow has a separate chapter, allowing readers to…
Following the release of the latest PAS and Treasure reports, Carly Hilts explores some key statistics and star objects.
A nalysis of a reliquary box long believed to house the remains of Magnus Erlendsson, Earl of Orkney in 1106-1117, has confirmed that the container is contemporary with the saint. The story of Magnus’ execution (following a power struggle with…
Archaeologists are well-used to working in trenches – and now excavations by Archaeology South-East (part of UCL Institute of Archaeology) have uncovered traces of an East Sussex site used to train troops destined for the front-line trenches of the First…
A hoard of mid- 15th-century Scottish and English coins has been discovered in the Cappercleuch area, in the Scottish Borders. The 30 gold and silver coins were discovered by a pair of metal-detectorists, who reported their find to the Treasure…
Human remains that were discovered in peatland at Ballymacombs More in Northern Ireland have been reidentified as belonging to an Iron Age woman who was possibly the victim of a sacrificial rite. When a bog body was discovered by machine…
During the English Civil War, Sheffield Castle – a Royalist stronghold – was besieged for ten days by Parliamentary forces who ultimately seized control of the fortifications. Traces of this conflict have now been uncovered during Wessex Archaeology’s ongoing excavations…
When you imagine the specimen stores of natural history collections, you might picture rows of jars containing mysterious samples suspended in an even more mysterious liquids. We might assume that these fluids are far less mysterious to those who work…
This recent addition to the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s database, originally found by metal-detectorists in Winchester in the mid-1990s and since donated to the Hampshire Cultural Trust, is a particularly eye-catching example of an early medieval zoomorphic mount. It dates to…
‘Sacrificial’ burial uncovered in Ecuador The remains of a woman who suffered a violent death between AD 771 and AD 953 have been excavated in Buen Suceso, a site in coastal Ecuador. The woman was aged 17-20, and was between…
Structural remains believed to represent the largest Viking Age hall yet found in Britain have been uncovered at High Tarns farm in Silloth, Cumbria. The site lies close to Holme Cultram Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded in 1150, and cropmarks…
A delectable drink from Derby Derby’s profusion of malthouses (CA 420) included an early 18th-century example which had the distinction of being converted, in 1773 (by the architect Joseph Pickford for the Irish impresario James Whiteley), into Derby’s Theatre Royal,…
New project to investigate Roman gypsum burials A three-year, £1 million project, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, is set to explore the Roman practice of coating bodies within coffins in liquid gypsum before burial. (A burial of…
Almost every TV costume drama begins with the sound of horses’ hooves and the rumble of carriage wheels as members of the cast arrive at some stately home or other, ready for the story to unfold. And no royal or…