Excavations in the ancient city of Artaxata have uncovered the remains of a church dating to the early days of Christianity in Armenia. Artaxata was the capital of the Kingdom of Armenia from the early 2nd century BC, and remained…
The Culver Archaeological Project has been running for almost 20 years. Carly Hilts reviews a new exhibition exploring its discoveries at two major Roman sites in Sussex’s Upper Ouse Valley.
Excavations on Islay, in the Inner Hebrides, have uncovered the archaeological remains of an early medieval metalworking workshop. Finds of flint had been emerging from the plough soil for some time, hinting at the area’s archaeological potential, but this was…
Recent excavations in Huttons Ambo in North Yorkshire have uncovered two previously unknown medieval buildings as well as hints of an Iron Age or Roman settlement. In the 1950s, excavations within the parish – which shares its name with a…
Human remains discovered on Lindisfarne in 2022 have been identified as disturbed burials that were potentially associated with an early medieval chapel and cemetery at the island’s famous medieval monastery. The bones were initially discovered during a watching brief undertaken by AOC…
Govan Old Church in Glasgow is one of the city’s most important historical landmarks, with the site’s religious story stretching back at least 1,500 years, and the church itself renowned for housing one of the most significant collections of Viking…
Excavations at Wrexham, in north-east Wales, have revealed further traces of a known Roman settlement and the unexpected remains of an early medieval longhouse. Geophysical surveys in 2023 and 2024 had mapped a settlement with a clear grid plan, as…
Third Roman stone head found in Carlisle excavations Excavations at Carlisle Cricket Club, which are uncovering the remains of a monumental Roman building, have produced a third carved stone head. Two mask-like sculptures had previously been found during the investigations…
REVIEW BY AMY BAKER Bringing together work conducted by Historic Environment Scotland (previously Historic Scotland), Glasgow University, and various commercial archaeological units, this highly readable and comprehensive synthesis of two decades of geophysical survey work along the Antonine Wall offers…
•A 98-line papyrus text discovered at Gerza (ancient Philadelphia) in the Fayum has been deciphered by researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, and found to contain fragments of two lost tragedies written by the Greek playwright Euripides. •A poorly…
My final geographically themed review focuses on London. I touched on some sites there in my reviews of Roman archaeology and the Thames (CA 330 and CA 343), so these columns will look more widely across modern-day Greater London. There…
Once home to Celtiberians, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors, the ancient city of Valeria is now the venue for an archaeological project focusing on investigating the imperial Roman forum. Catalina Urquijo and Dionisio Urbina share their surprising discoveries.
I would like to dedicate these pages to my PhD supervisor, Eric Higgs. After studying at the London School of Economics, he bought a hill farm in Shropshire at the outset of the Second World War, and spent the following decade rearing sheep and cattle, with the objective, he once told me, of breeding miniature versions of the former.
REVIEW BY PAUL NEWSON This lavishly produced A4 book is one outcome of a recent major exhibition jointly organised by the Netherlands and Lebanese antiquities services, and held in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden during the winter of 2022…
Bronze Age fossil collecting An object discovered in an ancient basement storeroom at Mycenae during excavations in the 1970s has just been identified as the fossilised astragalus (ankle bone) of an extinct genus of rhinoceros, thanks to recent analysis by…
Excavations associated with a major road scheme in Co. Wexford and Kilkenny identified more than 35 previously undocumented archaeological sites spanning 9,000 years. James Eogan, Senior Archaeologist at Transport Infrastructure Ireland, reports.
Fragments of four letters have been discovered at Berenike on the Red Sea coast. They were written on papyrus by Roman commanders stationed in Egypt in the reign of Nero (AD 54-68) and name three centurions: Haosus, Lucinius, and Petronius.…
A recent excavation by Wessex Archaeology for Sheffield City Council has uncovered long-buried traces of Sheffield Castle, as well as glimpses of the city’s influential industrial past. Carly Hilts spoke to Ashley Tuck on site to learn more.
The final season of a four-year excavation exploring the civilian settlement outside Birdoswald Roman fort concluded this summer. Carly Hilts visited the project at its outset, and again in 2023; this July she returned to Hadrian’s Wall to hear the latest thinking from Tony Wilmott and Ian Haynes.
Oxford Cotswold Archaeology (OCA) archaeologists working on the A417 Missing Link improvement scheme in Gloucestershire have uncovered a Roman mutatio (literally ‘change’; the Latin term for a horse-changing station) among 12,000 years of archaeological material being brought to light under…
The biggest dig at Pompeii in a generation is working to expose nearly an entire block of the ancient city. Archaeologists are making astonishing discoveries that shed powerful new light on life and death in the shadow of Vesuvius, as Giuseppe Scarpati and Sophie Hay told Matthew Symonds.
REVIEW BY DENNIS B BLANTON This new book from William Kelso is in the tradition of popularised portrayals of archaeological discoveries linked to the ‘Virginia adventure’. Beginning in the 1960s, Ivor Noël Hume published several evocative, book-length accounts of studies…
As the Ness of Brodgar excavations enter their final season of fieldwork, Dr Colleen Batey reviews a new exhibition exploring the Orkney site’s unique Neolithic archaeology.
During this season’s work at the Oxfordshire site of Besselsleigh deserted manor and village (CA 400) by Appleton Area Archaeological Research Project (AAARP), the team of volunteers and students from the Oxford University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE) excavated the…
REVIEW BY PAUL KITCHING This monograph presents the results of archaeological investigations undertaken as part of the Heritage-at-Risk strand of the Hadrian’s Wall Community Archaeology Project (WallCAP), with fieldwork focused on understanding and mitigating the threats to the monument, both…
Archaeologists from MOLA have uncovered evidence of a medieval windmill during work on the National Highways A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvement scheme. Located in Cambridgeshire, the structure is an example of a sunken Post Mill – the earliest…
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith goes off the beaten track to explore an unusual Late Period temple.
The Sacred Animal Necropolis at Saqqara consists of a series of catacombs and temples dating from different periods. Professor Paul Nicholson and Dr Henry Bishop-Wright of Cardiff University describe their project, which aims to get an overview of the site and determine how it developed over the centuries.
The remains of a royal fortified military rest area have been discovered at Tell Habwa (northern Sinai) by a mission from the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities. The team found the remains of a mud-brick building near the beginning…
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…
Stunning painted banquet hall uncovered in Pompeii A banquet hall boasting some of the finest frescoes found in Pompeii has recently been uncovered by archaeologists working in Regio IX. The Third Style wall paintings depict particular imagery from the Trojan…
Archaeologists working at Pompeii have uncovered a spectacular banquet hall decorated with mythological images connected to the Trojan War. This luxurious space, once used for feasting and entertaining, was part of a grand private residence located in Insula 10 of…
Early piercings A study recently published in Antiquity () has identified more than 100 ornaments used in body perforation as early as 11,000 years ago. The artefacts come from burials at the Neolithic site of Boncuklu Tarla, in Turkey, and…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.…
Smallhythe Place, a National Trust property in Kent, is home to a picturesque timber-framed house with enigmatic origins, while the surrounding landscape preserves unique traces of a medieval shipbuilding centre that served several kings. Over the last three years, a team of more than 100 archaeologists have excavated 21 trenches to help bring the site’s story to light once more.
With the summer digging season rapidly approaching, we are planning a series of spreads highlighting archaeological opportunities across Britain and Ireland. This month features projects ranging across East Anglia and East Sussex, Yorkshire and Northumberland, the Midlands, the Cotswolds, and London – please do get in touch if you would like to highlight your excavation to our readers in a future issue.