New research into a man buried at St Peter’s in Barton-upon-Humber almost 1,000 years ago has shed new light on the complexity of society in Britain during the Norman Conquest. The unusual burial was first excavated almost 50 years ago,…
Analysis of an Iron Age mass grave in northern Serbia reveals surprising new information about the group of individuals buried here. Gomolava is a tell site in the Pannonian Plain that was first occupied in the 6th millennium BC and…
We are what we eat, they say, and a new study by the University of Cambridge has found that this was as true in the medieval period as it is today, with diet being highly dependent on social status. The…
Today, 17 million UK households have at least one pet. Carly Hilts visited a new exhibition in Oxford exploring humans’ long and varied relationships with animals.
REVIEW BY CH Nicholas Higham’s comprehensive exploration of how ‘Roman Britain’ transitioned into ‘Anglo-Saxon England’ brings with it a wealth of topics that still resonate today – discussions of migration, integration, and cultural influences; Britain’s relationship with continental Europe; and…
Over the past few years there have been several research papers that have made headlines because of their insights into major genetic shifts in the population of Britain throughout time (see CA 338 regarding the Bronze Age Beaker migration, CA…
In 2011, excavations at the site of the Roman-period city of Mursa (modern-day Osijek) in Croatia came across an ancient water well containing the complete skeletons of seven individuals. The results of analysis recently published in the journal PLOS One…
REVIEW BY SAM LEGGETT This volume reads as a ‘Who’s Who’ of early medieval cremation research, with most of the top historians, funerary-, and bio-archaeologists assembled. Williams and Lippok have been truly innovative here with how they have assembled the…
REVIEW BY PAUL T CRADDOCK This is a very thorough description of every aspect of the prehistoric copper mines on the Great Orme at Llandudno. It is also an attempt to recreate and describe an ancient community/activity not just from…
What was life like in Britain 3,000 years ago? How did people live together, find their food and materials, and organise their domestic rituals and day-to-day activities? The Bronze Age to Early Iron Age settlement of Cladh Hallan in the Outer Hebrides has provided answers, as well as new questions, as Mike Parker Pearson, Jacqui Mulville, Helen Smith, and Peter Marshall explain.
Lead isotopes have frequently been used in archaeology to determine the provenance of metal objects. More recently, they have also been helping to assess mobility in humans and other animals. This form of analysis is still in its infancy, however,…
New research – using the largest multi-isotope dataset of animal remains yet generated in archaeology – has shown that communities in southern Britain had diverse ways of organising feasts during the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.…
Archaeologists in western Pennsylvania have identified the site of a tragic episode during the North American conflict known as the French and Indian War (1754-1763). On the evening of 12 November 1758, two Virginia regiments, led by Lieutenant Colonel George…
Recent research carried out by Project Ancient Tin, an initiative led by Benjamin Roberts and R Alan Williams from the University of Durham (published in Antiquity: ), has found that a large proportion of sampled tin ingots on Mediterranean shipwrecks…
REVIEW BY CARLY HILTS Popular imaginings of the Viking Age are often dominated by larger-than life figures – kings, warlords, explorers, poets – with the experiences of ordinary men, women, and children fading anonymously into the background. This vibrant book…
Poem to remember This poem was written at a time when I was a Chemistry Lecturer at Llandaff College of Technology and also an amateur archaeologist. At the time, I marvelled that chemists were detecting cholesterol in graves where only…
New research indicates that windows with glass panes may have been present in Viking Age buildings in Scandinavia.
REVIEW BY MS Migrations are back. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, large-scale population movements were frequently the go-to explanation for the appearance in the archaeological record of new ways of doing things – be it novel building styles,…
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the UK.
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…
Another Anglo-Saxon cemetery associated with Bronze Age monuments was recently uncovered by Wessex Archaeology in Lincolnshire. The discovery was made during excavations in advance of the National Grid’s ambitious new infrastructure project, the Viking Link, which will allow for the…
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…
A new exhibition running at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge explores the wealth of human stories that have been brought to light in the surrounding region, through excavations old and new. Carly Hilts visited the displays with curator Dr Jody Joy to learn more.
Analysis of the silver bracelets belonging to the Fourth Dynasty queen Hetepheres I has revealed the origins of the silver ore used in Egypt, and the extent of Egypt’s trading networks. A team led by researchers from Macquarie University in…
A facial reconstruction of the early medieval teenager who was laid to rest in a bed burial in Trumpington, Cambridgeshire, has been carried out by forensic artist Hew Morrison for a new exhibition, ‘Beneath Our Feet: archaeology of the Cambridge…
A recent study has used geochemical analysis to compare brass manillas traded with West Africa in the 16th-19th centuries with the materials used to make the famous Benin Bronzes, in order to find out more about their possible origins.
154 skeletons representing people of all ages were recovered from the 19th-century cemetery in Fewston
At the end of February, more than 400 people came to UCL’s Institute of Education in London for our first in-person conference since 2020. Here is a round-up of what went on.
When an unusual female burial was discovered in the apse of All Saints Church, York, it was interpreted as possibly representing the remains of a religious recluse. Since then, archaeological science and historical research have given new perspectives on the woman’s life, as Carly Hilts reports.
Researchers have successfully traced the origin of tin ingots found aboard the shipwreck to ore deposits in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
New isotope analysis of a jawbone found buried against the outside wall of an Iron Age broch at The Cairns on South Ronaldsay, Orkney, has shown that seafood was probably a major part of this person’s diet throughout their lifetime.
Findings show that there were at least two genetically distinct Late Upper Palaeolithic populations present in Britain after the last Ice Age, around 15,000 years ago.
Ancient human DNA is revolutionising our ability to detect human migration that occurred hundreds of years ago. Joscha Gretzinger and Stephan Schiffels explain how these advances have transformed our understanding of the past.
This summer, CA Editor Carly Hilts travelled to Orkney to catch up on recent archaeological research in the islands (watch this space for future features). While there, she also visited exhibitions showcasing discoveries from two more excavations, at Stromness Museum, and the Orkney Museum in Kirkwall.
With the 40th anniversary of the raising of the wrecked Tudor flagship Mary Rose approaching this autumn, the Portsmouth-based museum dedicated to the vessel is trialling immersive new approaches to illuminating its archaeology. Carly Hilts visited to find out more.
Prehistoric anthropomorphic items made of wood represent rare finds in British archaeology.