Efforts to decipher the Herculaneum scrolls have reached an important turning point. The collection of over one thousand papyrus scrolls, carbonised during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79, was discovered in 1752 in what is now known as…
Haunting new images have been revealed of shipwrecks caused by one of the most significant naval battles of the Second World War. The Battle of Midway, fought on 4 June 1942, saw the United States Navy inflict a crippling blow…
It was one of the most significant conflicts in the country’s history. Now, a new database has been set up to record the monuments and memorials to the British Civil Wars. The wars were fought throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland…
A new exhibition is set to explore what ordinary life was like for soldiers in the Roman army. Legion, opening in February at the British Museum, will boast more than 200 objects on display, including the world’s only intact legionary…
New research has been charting the wrecks of ships lost during Operation Dynamo, the Allied evacuation from Dunkirk in the summer of 1940. Historic England and its French counterpart, Drassm, carried out a survey of 30 wrecks in the waters…
A specialist grant that helps volunteer and community groups to date their finds has opened applications for its 2023 funding cycle. Robin Holgate discusses some of the key findings from the projects supported by the CARD Fund in 2022 – and how to apply this year.
Earliest engravings? A series of marks, found in the La Roche-Cotard cave on the north bank of the Loire River in France, could be the earliest examples of Neanderthal engravings yet found. Surveys of the cave walls in 2013 and…
When a team from Oxford Archaeology and RPS Consulting were called in to evaluate a brownfield site at King’s Hedges, on the northern outskirts of Cambridge, they did not expect to come across much as the site had already seen…
Excavations at a site believed to have been used as a ‘summerhouse’ by Alasdair Ruadh ‘Maclain’ MacDonald, chief of the MacDonalds of Glencoe from 1646 to 1692, have revealed a coin hoard underneath the grand fireplace. The University of Glasgow…
Extensive excavations near Newark-on-Trent have revealed a complex farmstead that was in use from the late Iron Age through to the Roman period. Back in June, the investigations – carried out by MOLA ahead of the construction of the Newlink…
Work by MOLA in advance of the development of a Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire has uncovered the remains of an experimental catapult from the Second World War. Known from historical records, the catapult in question was called…
When you envisage Greek statues and friezes, you probably picture pure white marble sculptures, pockmarked with age – that is, after all, how they appear today. But that was not how they appeared to the ancient Greeks who made them,…
A pair of Roman swords – the first to be found in the Cotswolds, and thought to be only the second time two have been found in the same context in the whole of Britain – has been discovered during…
New research is calling into question the origin and function of the Altar Stone at Stonehenge. A century ago, Herbert Thomas announced that the non-sarsens, dolerites, and volcanic tuffs making up the Stonehenge bluestones had been transported to Wiltshire from…
Dinosaur bones discovered in 1977 in the Kharga Oasis have recently been identified as a species of herbivorous dinosaur new to science. The remains, which included vertebrae and limb, pelvis, and shoulder bones, date to about 75 million years ago,…
Egyptian researchers have used three spectroscopic techniques for rapid analysis of gemstones from Egypt, revealing their origins and providing a window into historical trade routes. Gemstones peridot (olivine) and emerald, and semi-gemstones beryl, amazonite, and amethyst, from mines in the…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany have recreated the smell of the mummification balm used on the noblewoman Senetnay, wet nurse to Amenhotep II. The team used gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and other techniques to analyse…
A joint team from the Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Colorado have completed the restoration and reinstallation of a number of huge granite columns at Ashmunein, in Minya Governorate. Known as Hermopolis Magna in the Graeco-Roman era, the…
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a ship that sank in the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 650 metres off the coast of el-Alamein. Dating to the 3rd century BC, the ship was carrying a cargo of wine amphorae imported from Rhodes.…
More than a decade ago, a metal-detectorist discovered a plough-scattered hoard of over 100 Roman coins, together with items of jewellery. Vanessa Oakden explores what has been learned about the finds since then, and what they tell us about life in Cheshire c.2,000 years ago.
Earlier this year Archaeological Research Services Ltd excavated a Roman farmstead west of Milton, on the northern outskirts of Cambridge, providing new insights into rural domestic life and adding to the picture of affluence in this area of Roman Britain.…
It seems that every few months ‘Science Notes’ is covering another breaking story on advances in a DNA research, a testament to how quickly the field is evolving. After our reporting of the successful, non-invasive extraction of human DNA from…
Cooking curries in Vietnam 2,000 years ago Microscopic analysis of plant remains from 12 grinding stone tools found at the site of Óc Eo, in southern Vietnam, has provided new insight into the spice trade in the region between 2,000…
Two recent studies have assessed a large quantity of worked whale-bone recovered from Anglo-Saxon contexts in Southampton (Hamwic), Ipswich, and Flixborough, finding that each site may have employed different strategies for obtaining cetacean remains. Whether whales were actively hunted or…
Staff and students from Bournemouth University, together with local volunteers, have been excavating Iron Age settlements around Winterborne Kingston in Dorset as part of the Durotriges Project since 2009. This past excavation season, however, while investigating an enclosed Iron Age…
A recent modelling project has created a probable map of the Roman road network across the counties of Devon and Cornwall, showing how it may have connected with the wider province of Britannia. While the presence of a few Roman…
Conserving more than 26,000 shells in Devon For the past year, staff from the National Trust have been working to conserve the tens of thousands of marine materials – including shells, bones, coral, and starfish – that decorate the interior…
A new project aims to conduct an in-depth analysis of the prehistoric landscape near Drumadoon on the west side of the Isle of Arran, including the investigation of a large Neolithic cursus monument, or rectangular enclosure, which was first discovered…
A recent publication in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society () has brought to light a major archaeological complex – spanning in date from the Neolithic to the Iron Age – on Faughan Hill in County Meath, placing it within…
New research is changing our understanding of the climate of Early Pleistocene Europe and what it meant for our early relatives. Hominin fossils and stone tools indicate that archaic humans had reached Europe by around 1.4 million years ago. Surviving…
Excavations in Israel have unearthed a 1,600-year-old synagogue, home to an exceptional set of mosaics.
Excavations in China have uncovered a set of ceramic pipes that represent the oldest water-drainage system ever found in the country, and appear to have been the product of impressive community efforts. Pingliangtai is a Late Neolithic site in what…
An Ice Age mystery In 1999, archaeologists working in Hohle Fels cave in southern Germany discovered the head of a 35,000-year-old ivory figurine, believed to depict a horse. Recent excavations have now produced part of the figurine’s missing body, which…
Archaeologists have found what may be Europe’s oldest pile-dwelling site, dating to almost 8,000 years ago, preserved by the waters of Lake Ohrid, which straddles the border between Albania and North Macedonia. The discovery comes as part of the EXPLO…
Excavations in Rome have discovered a theatre that was built by Emperor Nero in the 1st century AD. Several Classical historians refer to a theatre built for the infamous emperor – and known lover of the arts – where he…