cemeteries

Grave concerns: Exploring the history of the British cemetery and its uncertain future

The cemetery – defined as a burial ground without an attached primary church or chapel – is a place where artistic, architectural, horticultural, historical, and literary interests are combined. Many were planned as places of botanical and geological instruction, while the epitaphs, extolling the moral virtues of the deceased, were intended to encourage emulation by the living. Appreciating their great value is a vital step towards ensuring that these spaces do not succumb to neglect and decline, as Chris Catling reports.

Archaeological landscape revealed near Newark-on-Trent

Archaeological investigations in advance of the A46 Newark Bypass scheme in Nottinghamshire have revealed a landscape scattered with features spanning six millennia. Archaeological Management Solutions (AMS) was contracted on behalf of National Highways to examine more than 23 acres (9.6ha)…

The Bamburgh Bowl Hole Anglian-period Cemetery: a bioarchaeological study ofa Northumbrian royal site

In 1815, Mount Tambora erupted, producing one of the largest volcanic eruptions in modern history, and causing extreme weather events for several years. Violent storms in winter 1816-1817 eroded a series of stone lined graves in the sand south of…

A Viking Age cemetery

A Viking Age burial site has been uncovered at Lisbjerg, near Aarhus, in Denmark. Excavations carried out by archaeologists from Moesgaard Museum have revealed 30 burials, although it is possible that there could be more in the surrounding area. The…

New Perspectives on Ancient Nubia

REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT The histories, cultures, and archaeologies of ancient Nubia remain a source of much scholarly debate, and centring our research on the people of the ancient Nile Valley is especially important at this time of political turmoil…

Mum’s the word: tracing a matrilocal society in Iron Age Dorset

Analysis of human remains from Winterborne Kingston in Dorset (see CA 281) has revealed evidence of female-centred societal structures in this area of Iron Age Britain, as well as genetic links to Continental Europe. Matrilocality, a societal pattern whereby marriage…

UK news in brief

Historic Scottish manuscript made available to public A text from Scotland is being made available to the public for the first time in 500 years after its acquisition by the University of St Andrews. The manuscript consists of a largely…

UK news in brief

Time Team at Sutton Hoo Following a successful return to Sutton Hoo this summer, Time Team have again joined forces with the National Trust and will carry out another investigation in Garden Field in 2025. Working in partnership with the…

Time Team at Sutton Hoo

The most intensive excavation to take place at Sutton Hoo in two decades has revealed new aspects of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery pre-dating the site’s famous royal burial ground, as well as recovering more pieces of the Bromeswell Bucket, an enigmatic artefact first identified in the 1980s. Carly Hilts visited the dig to learn more.

The Excavations at Ismant Al-Kharab: Vol. II, The Christian Monuments of Kellis: The Churches and Cemeteries

REVIEW BY MICHAEL TUNNICLIFFE Ancient Kellis was a site in the Dakhla Oasis that was occupied from Late Ptolemaic times to the end of the 4th century AD. Excavations have exposed houses, cemeteries, temples, and churches. Important documents were found…

Kinship and marriage in a steppe warrior society

DNA analysis of the Avar empire people, who lived on the Great Hungarian Plain some 1,500 years ago, is revealing details of their social structure, kinship practices, and marriage traditions. The Avar empire was founded by groups of mounted warriors…

Frame of reference: Rare wooden funerary finds from Roman London

Excavations in central London have revealed the remains of a c.2,000 year-old cemetery, where waterlogged soil conditions have preserved an extraordinary array of wooden finds, including coffins and what may be the first complete funerary bed from Roman Britain. Carly Hilts learned more from Gwilym Williams.

New evidence of women’s mobility during the Conversion Period

Recent discoveries of exceptionally well-furnished 7th-century female burials – such as those from Trumpington (CA 343) and from Harpole (CA 395) – have drawn increasing attention to a phenomenon associated with the Conversion Period. Isotope analysis of three of these…

Lost Nubian records

Grafton Elliot Smith’s lost recording cards detailing his excavations near Aswan in 1907-1912 have been discovered in an archive at the University of Cambridge, and published as part of a ten-year research project by Dr Jenny Metcalfe of the University…

Possible cemetery near the Arctic Circle

New research at a site in Finnish Lapland, c.80km south of the Arctic Circle, suggests that it could represent one of the largest Stone Age cemeteries discovered so far in northern Europe. Tainiaro, in northern Finland, was originally excavated in…

In the Shadow of Segsbury

REVIEW BY CH Large infrastructure schemes are often archaeologically exciting because they allow us to explore underlying features on a landscape scale. This comprehensive monograph summarises the results of one such excavation, by Cotswold Archaeology, where the creation of a…

The Hidden Valley: Finding Anglo-Saxons in rural Lincolnshire

More than 20 years ago, CA 175 described the investigation of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in Winterton Vale. Since then, interpretations of the finds have changed and understanding of their significance has grown. Now, with the excavation report about to be published and the full data made available online, Kevin Leahy shares the illuminating early medieval story that has come to light.

In Flanders Fields: Cemeteries of the First World War

A groundbreaking new exhibition draws on collections around the world to tell the complex and emotionally charged story of the cemeteries of World War I, as Nicholas Saunders reports.

Flinders Petrie’s sequence dating chart

A major step forward in understanding and dating ancient Egyptian ceramics.

Tetisheri Pyramid and cemetery discovery

The American-Egyptian South Abydos Project team has completed the restoration of the Tetisheri Pyramid, the last such structure to be built for an Egyptian queen. It was erected as a memorial to the queen by her grandson Ahmose I, founder…

Death in the Iron Age of Eastern England: an interdisciplinary analysis of human remains from 800 BC to AD 60

REVIEW BY JENNIFER FOSTER This most useful, extensive analysis concerns Iron Age inhumed bones in eastern England. The burial types start in the late Bronze Age, with most people buried in settlements: ‘normal’ pit/ditch, crouched, and north–south orientated; disarticulated bones;…

IMAGE: University of Aberdeen IMAGE: University of Aberdeen

The genetic links of the Picts revealed

During the medieval period, it was speculated that the Picts had migrated from isles north of Britain, or even further-afield places such as Thrace or Scythia. A recent genetic study (published in PLOS Genetics: ), however, suggests that they in…

The Past

Roman and Saxon cemetery unearthed in Leeds

The 1,600-year-old site has yielded the remains of a high-status Roman woman interred in a lead coffin.

The Past

This week: Gladiators

At its height, the Roman Empire grew to an area of around two million square miles, stretching from Mesopotamia in the east to Lusitania (modern-day Portugal) in the west – a distance of some 4,000 miles. But for all our…

Opposite Some of the components of the 7th century Harpole Treasure, the richest necklace of its kind ever found.

Harpole’s hidden gem: excavating early medieval Britain’s most significant female burial

Archaeological work just outside Northampton has uncovered an internationally significant burial, furnished with a remarkable 7th-century necklace, as well as a number of other high-status grave goods. With conservation and analysis of the finds under way, Carly Hilts spoke to Paul Thompson and Lyn Blackmore about what these artefacts can tell us about the woman they were buried with, and what they could add to our understanding of early medieval England as research progresses.

Second Pictish stone discovered near Ulbster

It probably dates to between the 5th and 7th centuries AD, before the Picts were converted to Christianity.

Anglo-Saxon assemblage acquired by KAS

The artefacts were found during the 1977-1981 excavations of nearly 200 graves at Ozengell, near Ramsgate in Kent.

Study presents first evidence of use of human bone for making pendants in northeast Europe

The study aims to improve our understanding of the social identities of people living in this region between c.9,000 and 7,500 years ago by exploring what their burials can tell us about their relationships with the animals in the world around them.

Stonehenge and Middle to Late Neolithic Cremation Rites in Mainland Britain (c.3500-2500 BC)

In the middle-to-late Neolithic in southern and eastern Britain a number of important monumental landscapes were host to a series of cremation cemeteries, the deposition of the dead in some cases being a catalyst and inspiration for the elaborate monument-building and…

The Past

Archaeologists uncover 17th-century ‘vampire’ burial in Poland

According to Slavic folklore, sharp instruments such as sickles could be used to decapitate the deceased should it try to leave its grave.

Circles of stone: exploring the monuments of Jomon Japan

Numerous ancient stone circles are known in Japan, but how and why were these monuments built? Simon Kaner examines what these enigmatic structures can tell us about a key period of Japanese prehistory.

Athens at the Margins: Pottery and People in the Early Mediterranean World

Review by Robin Osborne. Thirty-three years ago, I attempted to push 7th-century BC Athens and Attica into the limelight. I managed to stimulate critical engagement from Anna-Maria D’Onofrio and James Whitley, but failed to convince the wider world that this…

Barrows at the Core of Bronze Age Communities: Petersfield Heath excavations 2014-18 in their regional context

Review by David Field. Rarely in recent times have extant barrows, let alone groups of them, been excavated, for in most cases developer-funded excavation has only encountered levelled examples and the ditch alone has been sampled. At Petersfield Heath, 14…