Analysis of pottery from the Caribbean island of Isla de Mona, part of the Puerto Rican archipelago, is shedding new light on food and drink practices on the island at the time of its early colonisation, including what may be…
A round-up of some of the latest archaeological discoveries from across the globe.
In 2018, a rusty lump of more than 400 fragments of iron was discovered in Germany at Kalkriese, the site of the Varus Battle, where a catastrophic defeat was inflicted on Rome in AD 9 (see CWA 104). In the…
The British submarine HMS Triumph was lost in mysterious circumstances off the coast of Greece in 1942. Now she has been located, after a search lasting more than 25 years. The submarine, which was involved in various special operations during…
A two-year restoration project on one of the most recognisable memorials of the First World War has begun. The Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, is dedicated to British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed during fighting in the nearby battlefields…
A cipher belonging to an ally of Oliver Cromwell early in the English Civil War has gone on display for the first time. The document, dating from the 1640s and rediscovered only last year, is being featured as part of…
An exceptionally rare bomber from the Second World War is back on public display after undergoing more than ten years of conservation work. The Vickers Wellington bomber, one of only two remaining in existence, is the centrepiece of the Bomber…
With Marc DeSantis.
This unusual stone tool was recently discovered in a back garden in Hastings, East Sussex. It is a Neolithic polished flint chisel, or possibly axehead, that appears to have been reworked into a cutting or scraping tool. The flint is…
Excavations in the winter of 2021 at Framlingham Road in Laxfield, Suffolk, have revealed a palimpsest of prehistoric settlement activity, including an enigmatic Bronze Age burnt mound. Bronze Age burnt mounds have long been puzzling archaeological features. As they are…
Although humans have been building impressive, gravity-defying architecture for thousands of years, we still have a limited capacity to quickly and effectively diagnose any developing faults in these structures – something that diminishes our ability to conserve them effectively. In…
More still to uncover at Pompeii While investigations at Pompeii have been ongoing for centuries, much of the site remains unexplored, and new excavations have recently begun in one such previously unexamined section. This new project aims to uncover an…
After years of research, Steve Mitchell and John Poulter hypothesise that the Raw Dykes – a double-banked ditch located 2km south of Leicester’s Roman public baths – is a remnant of a navigable Roman canal. Their full results were recently…
Excavations on a farm in Talsarn, Ceredigion, have found evidence for late Mesolithic and late Neolithic activity, helping illuminate a period that has been little explored in this region of Wales. The project at Talsarn began in 2019, when a…
A large piece of oak, found in Boxford, Berkshire in 2019 and dated to the late Mesolithic period, has been identified as the oldest decoratively carved wood currently known from Britain. The wood was discovered in a layer of peat…
Recent excavations within the cloister of Exeter Cathedral have unearthed significant structures and artefacts spanning the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval periods, including traces of a legionary fortress. The project has been carried out by AC Archaeology, led by Simon Hughes…
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the UK.
The bacteria that caused the Justinian Plague in the 6th century AD and the Black Death in the 14th century AD – Yersinia pestis – has recently been identified in three individuals from two Bronze Age sites in Britain. While…
In June 2017, contractors digging an electricity service trench, just inland from Longis Bay in Alderney, began to find human bones. Archaeologists from Guernsey quickly flew up to investigate, and so began six (COVID-19-interrupted) years of research into the biggest, and best-preserved, Iron Age and Gallo-Roman site in the Channel Islands. With another excavation just concluded, this seemed a good opportunity to summarise the results so far, as Philip de Jersey reports.
Painting the zodiac Colourful ceiling paintings including the signs of the zodiac have been revealed at the temple of Esna in Egypt. Executed in relief, the images also depict planets and other constellations, snakes, crocodiles, and hybrid creatures such as…
Archaeologists working at the Moche site of Pañamarca, which is in western Peru, have uncovered intriguing depictions of a two-faced figure among the murals of its pillared hall. This building, which archaeologists believe may have been the most important at…
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums
Strands of human hair from the Bronze Age burial and cult-cave of Es Càrritx in Menorca have been analysed, providing the first direct evidence of ancient drug-use in Europe. Around 1450 BC, Menorca’s inhabitants started to use natural caves as…
Stories from the world of archaeology, art, and museums
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
Researchers at the British Museum have used a new technology called neutron tomography to reveal the contents of six votive animal coffins, made of copper alloy, without having to open them. The technique involved sending beams of neutrons through each…
German researchers analysing 12 severed hands that were discovered at Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a) in 2011 have published their findings, suggesting that the amputations were part of a ritual, rather than a punishment for crime. The hands, dating to about 1500…
The joint German-Egyptian mission at Heliopolis, excavating the area surrounding the Obelisk Open-air Museum, has discovered a series of stone fragments from statues depicting Ramesses II, Ramesses IX, Horemheb, and Psamtek II. The finds include heads belonging to sphinxes that…
The ancient East Delta city of Pithom mentioned in the Bible was an important hub for international trade according to new discoveries made at Tell el-Maskhuta (Ismailia Province). The Italian-Egyptian mission excavating there has uncovered a large collection of pottery…
A beautifully painted zodiac ceiling has been revealed at the Temple of Esna following cleaning and restoration work by a German-Egyptian team. The colourful scenes, carved on the ceiling of the Roman Period columned hall, have not previously been published,…
The Egyptian archaeological mission working at the Meir archaeological site in el-Quseyya (Asyut Governorate) has uncovered a building dating to the Byzantine era. The structure consisted of a courtyard with a number of rooms, storage spaces, and a fireplace. The…
More than 2,000 mummified rams’ heads have been discovered by an American Mission excavating near to the Ramesses II temple at Abydos, inside a newly discovered storage room in the northern area of the temple. Alongside the rams’ heads, the…
A Dutch-Italian team has discovered a new tomb at Saqqara, belonging to a man named Panehsy who was associated with the Temple of Amun in the early part of the Ramesside Period. The tomb is in the form of a…
During the medieval period, it was speculated that the Picts had migrated from isles north of Britain, or even further-afield places such as Thrace or Scythia. A recent genetic study (published in PLOS Genetics: ), however, suggests that they in…
For this month’s ‘Science Notes’, I started off writing about ‘sedaDNA’, a catch-all term for any ancient DNA – including from flora, fauna, fungi, and other microorganisms – which is extracted from archaeological sediments. It is a technique that is…
Ongoing excavations on the grounds of the Besselsleigh estate in south-west Oxfordshire are revealing a rich palimpsest of settlement activity spanning the Roman period through to the modern day, bringing to life a once-thriving place that had been forgotten over…