The latest experimental archaeology initiative at a nature reserve and heritage park in Northamptonshire has seen the construction of a full-scale, working Roman pottery kiln. Carly Hilts visited its first firing to learn more.
While today the health impacts of lead exposure are well documented, in the past its hazards were unknown, a silent killer that had an impact on potentially millions of people over the the millennia in which it has been mined.…
Cotswold Archaeology’s excavations on the outskirts of Gloucester continue to reveal illuminating evidence: having previously uncovered a large Bronze Age waterhole (see CA 435), the team have now discovered traces of what is believed to be one of the few…
Recently published research focused on a late Roman sarcophagus found in Westminster Abbey’s grounds more than 150 years ago has shed new light on the coffin’s history, as well as the possible identity of the person buried within it. First…
Continuing renovation works at the Assembly Rooms in Bath are revealing not only the history of this almost 300-year-old building, but also the history of this area of the city over the last 2,000 years – including previously unknown areas…
A collaborative team of Irish and Norwegian archaeologists working at the Viking settlement of Woodstown, located on the banks of the River Suir, west of Waterford City, have uncovered the largest building yet found at the site, reinforcing previous suggestions…
An excavation at the 1,500-year-old churchyard of Govan Old in Glasgow has revealed evidence of early medival craftworking, including two incomplete finger-rings, which were discarded before completion. While the church that currently occupies the site was built in the Victorian…
Discovered in 2019 after a metal-detectorist found a lead ingot near the site, a Roman villa at Rossett, Wrexham – the first of its kind to be found in north Wales – is now being excavated, revealing new details about…
Continuation of the Caral Culture Caral is considered to be one of the oldest civilisations in the Americas, emerging c.3000 BC on the north-central coast of Peru. Its main settlement is believed to have been a site known as Caral-Supe,…
Young Archaeologists take over York A new Young Archaeologists’ Club has been established in York, giving children aged 8-16 the opportunity to get hands-on experience of the history of their city. The club was set up by four friends and…
An Egyptian team working in the Bahariya Oasis have discovered three tombs from different periods at the site of Sheikh Sobi, the necropolis for the priests and governors of the oasis from the Late Period. The first tomb was carved…
Egyptian excavations at the site of another lost city – ‘Asila’ – in northern Sinai have revealed the remains of an Islamic structure thought to be a caravanserai (roadside inn), on the Darb el-Sultani (‘Sultan’s Road’). Also known as the…
The archaeological site of Tell Abu Seifi in Qantara East (Ismailia Governorate) – a key site on the military ‘Horus Road’ – could be the location of the lost city of ‘Mesn’ mentioned in New Kingdom sources. An Egyptian mission…
A joint Egyptian-Chinese mission documenting the Temple of Sekhmet at Mit Rahina (ancient Memphis) has uncovered the remains of a mud-brick residential complex in the area surrounding the temple. The team also found a limestone wine press (with grape seeds…
Two Old Kingdom tombs have recently been discovered at Saqqara by an Egyptian team working at the Bubasteion necropolis, and a Spanish Egyptian team excavating at the ‘Mariette Necropolis’ to the north. The remains of a funerary chapel with a…
A Roman Period bath complex has been discovered by an Egyptian team working at Tell Nasser in Port Said – the first such structure to be found in the area. The discovery was made during the site’s first excavation season. Cypriot…
An Egyptian mission has uncovered a number of rock-cut tombs at the Tell el-Yahudiya site in Qalyubia Governorate – a rare find in the Eastern Delta, which has predominantly clay soil not suited to rock-cut structures. The tombs date from…
The intact burial of a male horse dating to the New Kingdom has been uncovered by an Egyptian team at Tell el-Abqain in Beheira, within a military fortress on Egypt’s western borders. The burial was associated with a large residential…
An Egyptian mission excavating at Kom el-Khilgan in Dakahlia Governorate has uncovered an ancient necropolis with evidence of use from the Predynastic Period through to the Graeco-Roman era. The earliest burials appear to be Maadi-Buto culture (c.4000-3500 BC), and are…
• An Egyptian mission at the Tell el-Deir site (Damietta Governorate) has uncovered 20 finely carved limestone stela, together with anthropoid pottery coffins, pottery lamps, and funerary amulets. • The hamadryas baboon (Papio hamadryas) and sacred ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) may…
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,…
The Community Archaeology Radiocarbon Dating (CARD) Fund, which helps volunteer and community groups to date their finds, has opened applications for its 2026 funding cycle. Kimberley Teale discusses key findings from some of the projects supported by the CARD Fund in 2025 – and how to apply this year.
Last month we shared images from Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, highlighting how recent drought conditions have revealed the outlines of long-buried archaeological remains. Features both familiar and newly identified have also been emerging across Wales this summer, and have been documented by Dr Toby Driver, the Senior Investigator for Aerial Survey at the Royal Commission.
A second excavation season at Buckler’s Hard, a private ship- building hub on the River Beaulieu, 12 miles (20km) south of Southampton in the New Forest, has fully revealed the wooden slipway where 55 ships for the Royal Navy –…
When we last reported from Arthur’s Stone in 2023 (CA 404), it was thought of as an isolated Neolithic monumental site overlooking the Golden Valley in Herefordshire. Now, the Universities of Manchester and Cardiff team that is leading the project…
This season’s excavation at Huttons Ambo in North Yorkshire has uncovered new details about the small village’s medieval past, including potentially one of the most high-status buildings yet found on the site. This is the fourth year the project has…
Restoration work at the Priory House in Dunstable – a Grade II-listed building that was originally part of the grounds of Dunstable Priory, founded by Henry I in 1132 – is carefully unpicking its evolution over the decades. The project,…
A once-thriving Bronze Age settlement has been revealed during excavations in Erksine, Renfrewshire. The discovery was made by a team from GUARD Archaeology, who excavated two large fields in Northbar, on the south-east outskirts of Erskine, between 2018 and 2019.…
The sheep-pox virus (SPPV; Capripoxvirus sheeppox) is in the same family as the variola virus, which causes smallpox in humans. It is a highly contagious disease among sheep, causing the animal to develop a fever, anorexia, eye discharge, and lesions…
Community-created field systems in Colombia? In the wetlands of La Mojana in northern Colombia is a vast (more than 500,000ha or 1,900 square miles) field system of canals and ridges, used to control both floods and droughts. In use from…
Sculpting southern Scotland A new project, coordinated by Dr Christina Cowart-Smith and funded by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, is set to start this autumn with the aim of documenting around 200 fragments of sculpture south of the Forth–Clyde…
An assemblage of objects discovered at Peñico on the north-central coast of Peru, dating to 3,800 years ago, provides new evidence for the continuity of the Caral culture. Caral is considered the oldest known ‘advanced’ civilisation in the Americas, emerging…
Archaeologists from Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities have uncovered the remains of a residential city dating to the 4th and 5th centuries AD at the Ain Al-Sabil archaeological site in the Dakhla Oasis, New Valley Governorate, in Egypt’s Western Desert.…
The wetlands of La Mojana in northern Colombia are home to an ancient raised field system made up of canals and ridges (camellones) covering a vast area of c.500,000ha. Often called the Zenú hydraulic systems, after the pre-Hispanic societies who…
An ancient votive well has been discovered at the Etruscan city of Kainua in northern Italy. Kainua, located on the outskirts of modern-day Bologna, was founded in the late 6th century BC. Situated next to the Reno river, along thriving…
Two remarkably detailed bird figurines have been discovered at Hohle Fels cave in south-western Germany. The cave, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura’, has produced an array of…