Popular legend has long told of the presence of graves on an island in Portsmouth Harbour, holding the remains of convicted criminals or Napoleonic-era prisoners of war. In the wake of severe storms that exposed human remains below the cliff, would archaeological investigation confirm the tale? Richard Osgood reports.
The MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) Spitalfields Market excavations in 1991-2007 were one of Britain’s largest ever digs. Four major publications are being produced to cover the results. The latest volume concerns the post-medieval era (1539-1880), which was a period that saw vast social transformations, as Chiz Harward and Nigel Jeffries explain.
These remains come from sites scattered from the Scottish Highlands to Dorset, and range in date from c.2200-750 BC
Just how quickly did Bronze Age people bury their dead? New work by Lauren Bailey, Martin Green, and Martin J Smith at Canada Farm suggests that they went to some lengths to display the deceased prior to their finally entering the earth.
Are the macabre remains at an Iron Age sanctuary evidence of sacrificed enemy warriors? CWA talks to Mads Kähler Holst, who made the grim finds.
On Monday 4 February the results of tests on a skeleton found beneath a Leicester carpark were announced to a global media audience. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley stated ‘our academic conclusion, beyond reasonable doubt, is that the individual exhumed at Grey Friars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England.’ Matthew Symonds and Carly Hilts look at what this momentous announcement tells us about Richard, and why the Leicester team are so confident they have got their man.