When humans settled the Trent Valley after the end of the last Ice Age, they set in train a 10,000-year transformation that saw the wooded wetlands turn into a well-ordered agricultural landscape. At an exhibition tracing the story of the river and those who lived alongside it during prehistory, Carly Hilts spoke to David Knight and Clare Pickersgill to learn more.
Katherine Slinger explores one of the most important Theban religious festivals.
Among Egyptology’s many ‘unsung heroes’, Ricardo A Caminos counts as a modest yet significant figure. Carl Graves takes a look at his often-overlooked achievements, and his longstanding legacy, both within the profession of epigraphic recording, and the history of the Egypt Exploration Society.
Amir Ebrahim Elkorashy explores an archaeological landscape around a spring in the Western Desert.
W Benson Harer Jr proposes a new theory for the use of birthing bricks in ancient Egypt.
Sandals in ancient Egypt were far more than footwear, as Hilary Wilson explains.
Barbara Boczar explores the materials used to create objects for personal adornment in Egypt from the prehistoric to the Early Dynastic periods.
Thomas Smith relates the saga of the remarkable crusade on the Nile that came close to reshaping the Near East.
A recent series of excavations across Burpham and Wepham in West Sussex has revealed new – and sometimes surprising – insights into their origins and evolution. James Sainsbury reports.
Marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, 2027 has been designated the Year of the Normans. Events to mark the millennium are planned all over Europe, with castles as a major theme. In Ireland, the best guide to the hundreds of defended structures surviving from the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169 is the late David Sweetman, Ireland’s former Chief Archaeologist, whose book on The Medieval Castles of Ireland reveals how these 12th- and 13th-century symbols of Anglo-Norman power evolved from earthworks to commodious towers that dominated the landscape. Chris Catling reports.
The caves at East Wemyss are home to traces of human activity spanning prehistory to the present day, including important Pictish carvings. In recent decades some of these interactions have been destructive, but the local community is working to preserve this unique collection. As they mark the 40th anniversary of these efforts, Mike Arrowsmith reports.
The Bayeux Tapestry is perhaps the most recognisable piece of early medieval art – and, almost 1,000 years after the brutal events that it depicts, rather friendlier relations between England and France have seen the famous embroidery travel to the British Museum for a hotly anticipated exhibition. Carly Hilts visited to learn more about what its images can tell us about life in the 11th century.
The Ness of Brodgar in Orkney is home to an unprecedented complex of 5,000-year-old buildings. Ongoing analysis is illuminating their form and function, as Carly Hilts reports.
As the Bayeux Tapestry goes on show at the British Museum, Matthew Symonds explores some of the enigmatic messages encoded in its exquisite needlework.
From serving as the edge of an empire to falling within no fewer than three modern World Heritage Sites, Raetia's Roman frontier has long been a place of consequence. David J Breeze introduces the ancient and modern significance of this remarkable monument.
In the 12th century, the counts of Foix began creating a unique network of fortifications using caves and other natural features in their part of the Pyrenees. Colin Duncan Taylor explores their origins and reveals how, starting in the 19th century, these castles in the cliffs were ransacked by early archaeologists and fortune hunters in search of fabled Cathar treasure.
What role did science play in the emergence of the United States of America? Matthew Symonds spoke to Elissavet Ntoulia about scientific knowledge and its practical applications as a nation was born.
In the second part of our series, Graham Goodlad reviews the organisation, tactics, and weaponry of the two armies.
In the first part of our new series, Graham Goodlad explores the Jacobite movement’s early attempts to overthrow Britain’s ruling Protestant monarchy.
Onwards and upwards a timeline tracing the developing fortunes and many incarnations of America's air force in the 2oth century.
Just before dawn on Sunday 25 June 1950, following a brief bombardment, the 150,000-strong army of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, backed by Soviet Russia, crossed the border and invaded its southern neighbour, the Republic of Korea, backed…
He was Hitler’s favourite architect and the man responsible for Germany’s wartime production – yet Albert Speer tried to portray himself as the ‘Good Nazi’. Sixty years after his release from Spandau, Nigel Jones examines his role in the regime’s atrocities.
Major-General Sir Robert Sale and his wife Lady Florentia were Victorian celebrities, famed for their bravery on the Indian subcontinent. Patrick Mercer goes in search of a couple who became a byword for gritty colonial glamour.
In his new book, Iain MacGregor examines some of the most significant battles of the past 3,000 years. Here, he reveals the five key factors that shaped victory, from Marathon to Midway.
A small team of archaeologists has been undertaking research into the island of Staffa in the Inner Hebrides. Camping for a few days at a time over a number of years, they have carried out both survey and excavation work. Derek Alexander, Daniel Rhodes, Stuart Jeffrey, Tessa Poller, and Siân Jones describe the results of these efforts to date.
Hidden within the limestone cliffs of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales is a cave that has witnessed dramatic changes in climate, landscape, and human history. Bacon Hole, overlooking what is today the Bristol Channel, is home to one of the most intriguing and controversial stories in British prehistoric archaeology. It is a story that began more than a century ago with the discovery of possible Ice Age paintings, continued through decades of doubt, and has now been reopened through modern scientific investigation. George Nash explains.
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.
‘There’s no time like the present’, as the adage goes – and those who specialise in Contemporary Archaeology certainly agree. John Schofield explores how applying archaeological techniques to the material remains of our own times can illuminate current issues, as well as improving our understanding of the past.
Tiny traces of medieval wall-paintings have been discovered at Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire, transforming our understanding of how its chapel was decorated. Carly Hilts spoke to Sophie Stewart to learn more.
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith pays a return visit to the Grand Egyptian Museum to view the new galleries.
Robert R Frost explores the life and legacy of the antiquary, traveller, and pioneer of British Egyptology.
Simone Petacchi explores the often fragmentary evidence for women’s voices in ancient Egypt’s written culture.
James A Harrell looks into the uncertain origins of ancient Egypt’s most popular gemstone: carnelian.
Having explored herbal pain-killing remedies in the last issue of AE, Ira Rampil now looks at the physical and magical interventions used to relieve pain.
Andrew Fulton describes an important New Kingdom text that invokes 75 forms of the sun god.
Pioneering research in the Francis Crick Institute’s Ancient Genomics Lab is boosting our understanding of past populations, people, and pathogens. Carly Hilts spoke to Tom Booth and Kat Nilsson and explored a new exhibition sharing some of these findings.