Medieval death on the Nile
Thomas Smith relates the saga of the remarkable crusade on the Nile that came close to reshaping the Near East.
medieval history
Embroidering history: Reconciliation and recrimination on the Bayeux Tapestry
As the Bayeux Tapestry goes on show at the British Museum, Matthew Symonds explores some of the enigmatic messages encoded in its exquisite needlework.
Digging into Paris’ past
Excavations on the Île de la Cité are uncovering thousands of years of Parisian history. Amy Brunskill spoke to Julien Avinain and Lucie Altenburg to find out more.
War of Words – ‘Frank’
with Marc DeSantis
Interpreting signs of child abuse in excavated remains
While research is increasingly looking at the experience of children in the past, this is still an under-researched area, and in terms of children’s exposure to violence, while cases of exceptional mass events can be recognised in archaeology, subtler, systematic…
The Archaeology of Leicester in 20 Digs
This is the latest in the ‘…in 20 Digs’ series. Gavin Speed has been involved in Leicester’s archaeology for more than 20 years, and he has produced a well-illustrated account of 20 key sites in Leicester (with a bonus 21st…
The Two Hundred Years War: The bloody crowns of England and France, 1292-1492
The sheer length of the Anglo-French conflict known as the ‘Hundred Years War’ – which actually lasted 116 years – has long invited debate about the label. Contemporaries, of course, did not use the term, which was first coined by…
Excavating the CA archive: The Norman Conquest
The news that the Bayeux Tapestry will be making a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Britain from September 2026 until July 2027 made me think about sites associated with the Norman Conquest that might be of interest to the readers of Current Archaeology
The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Towns: A Viking gift?
Richard Hodges’ most recent book takes us back to his original area of study: the economic and political conditions leading to the rebirth of towns in early medieval Britain. He starts by reminding the reader of his 1982 book Dark…
Charlemagne: King, conqueror, emperor
In the first part of our special feature for this issue, Stephen Roberts traces the life of this extraordinary individual; while in the second part, he looks in more detail at Charlemagne’s victory at Pavia, which helped him establish the foundations of the Holy Roman Empire.
Charlemagne: From life to death, a timeline of events that defined the legendary king’s reign.
Infographics: Amy Brunskill
CWA 135 crossword, and answers to crossword #134
Across 7 Name given to human fossils discovered in Indonesia in the late 19th century (4,3)8 Culture of coastal communities in Peru from c.900-100 BC (7)10 Semi-precious stone used since the Neolithic (4)11 Chalcolithic to Roman site east of Ankara…
Animalia: animal and human interaction in the early medieval English world
REVIEW BY CARLY AMEEN This fifth volume in the ‘Daily Living in the Anglo-Saxon World’ series exemplifies contemporary interdisciplinary scholarship. The editors, Maren Clegg Hyer and Gale R Owen-Crocker, have assembled contributions that seamlessly weave evidence from archaeology, history, art…
Castles of Scotland
REVIEW BY KK With more than 1,500 castles – a term that Andrew Powell-Thomas uses to cover everything from medieval military fortifications and tower houses to crenellated mansions and great estates – still standing in Scotland today, no book can…
MHM 145 Letters – March
Your thoughts on issues raised by the magazine.
Holyroodhouse: Tracing the history of Scotland’s official royal residence
The Royal Collection Trust, the Department of the Royal Household that manages the public opening of the King’s official residences, has published new histories of Windsor Castle (CA 341) and St James’s Palace (CA 394) in recent years. Now it is the turn of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the King’s official Scottish residence, to be the subject of a comprehensive new history, as Chris Catling reports.
MHM 143 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
The Bone Chests: Unlocking the secrets of the Anglo-saxons
REVIEW BY KK For those not familiar with the eponymous ‘bone chests’, they are the – rather innocuous-looking – wooden chests placed high atop the choir screens in Winchester Cathedral, which, based on the names written on the outsides, purportedly…
Archaeology on Prescription: Using fieldwork to support York’s mental health provision
An award-winning social prescribing project has been excavating thousands of years of history within the Walmgate area of York. Meg Barclay reports on its recent finds and how the initiative has been supporting the mental health and wellbeing of local residents.
Deciphering the Stone of Destiny
The Stone of Destiny – an ancient symbol of the Scottish monarchy – has undergone extensive new analysis in preparation for its role in the Coronation of Charles III at Westminster Abbey. The Stone was taken by Edward I during…
Ireland and the Crusades
Review by Michael Potterton Thirty years ago, when I was a history and archaeology undergraduate at University College Dublin, the phrase ‘Ireland and the Crusades’ seemed almost as absurd as ‘Ireland and the Palaeolithic’ or ‘Ireland and the Renaissance’. Times…
St Bartholomew the Great
Packed tightly between Smithfield meat market and the Barbican’s brutalist towers, St Bartholomew the Great (or Great St Bart’s, as it is often called) is London’s oldest surviving parish church, and also one of its most atmospheric. Founded by Henry…
‘The city thirsts’: water in Istanbul: past, present, and future
Supplying Constantinople with water was a monumental challenge that received a monumental solution. Examining the extraordinary remains of aqueducts, bridges, and cisterns reveals the ingenuity – and expense – committed to sating a thirsty ancient metropolis, as James Crow explains.
From the Princes in the Tower to Northumbria’s Golden Age
Beneath the foundations of the staircase, the workmen found a wooden chest containing human bones and pieces of velvet. Charles II arranged for the remains to be reinterred in Westminster Abbey, but the bones were re-examined in 1933.
The Lost King: imagining Richard III at the Wallace Collection
A finely crafted suit of armour can be as much a work of art as it is a carefully honed piece of military technology. Carly Hilts visited the Wallace Collection to explore a new temporary exhibition that showcases its internationally important holdings of arms and armour, tying into a new film about the search for Richard III’s grave.
CA Letters – January 2022
Your view on past issues of Current Archaeology.
This week: Monasteries
When the painter Stanley Spencer unveiled his masterpiece, 'The Resurrection, Cookham' (1924-27), The Times called it “the most important picture by any English artist in the present century”. In this famous, dreamlike composition, now one of the highlights at Tate Britain, Spencer imagines biblical figures rising up from the dead in the tranquil setting of the graveyard of his local church, Holy Trinity, nestling by the Thames in the Berkshire village where he lived.
The Mortimer History Society
What is it about the members of the Mortimer family, powerful and ambitious lords of the March, that attracts people to the Mortimer History Society (MHS)?
Scotland in Six: celebrating stone and steel
Since 2009, the Scottish Government has been designating themed years to mark specific aspects of Scotland’s cultural and creative life, as well as the country’s natural beauty. As we look back on 2017, the Year of History, Heritage, and Archaeology, Julianne McGraw explores how Scotland’s World Heritage Sites played their part in the festivities.
Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king
On 12 September the University of Leicester held an extraordinary press conference. They announced that a three-week dig seeking the remains of Richard III had ‘entered a new phase’ with DNA testing under way on an adult male skeleton. So what had they discovered? Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby, and Helen Foxhall Forbes told Matthew Symonds and Carly Hilts.