This Bronze Age button comes from a hoard of three copper-alloy items that also included two axe heads. One of the axe heads was noticed by a farm worker in 2021, while backfilling a water pipe trench in Lessingham, Norfolk.…
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.…
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.
The identity of a 17th-century shipwreck containing hundreds of gold coins has been revealed, three decades after its discovery. The wreck, which lies at a depth of c.18m in Salcombe Bay, off the south coast of England, was discovered in…
An Egyptian mission excavating the Byzantine-era city at Ain el-Sabil in the Dakhla Oasis has uncovered the overall plan of the settlement and several new mud-brick structures. The city was built on a grid pattern with two main streets running…
Two recent discoveries – Britain’s largest hoard of Iron Age gold coins and a series of unusual elite burials – unearthed about 8km (5 miles) apart on opposite sides of Chelmsford, have shed vivid light on the area’s Iron Age importance, and how local communities responded to the turbulent period around the Roman conquest. Carly Hilts spoke to Angus Forshaw and visited a new exhibition of some of the finds.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
Analysis of two votive offering vessels from Pompeii is enhancing our understanding of Roman domestic rituals.
Six coins have been recovered from beneath the foremast of Nelson’s famous flagship during an ongoing conservation project. Over several nights in April, a 750-tonne crane was used to remove the Victory’s mizzen, foremast, and bowsprit, as part of the…
This book explores an important, new aspect of archaeological interpret-ation that deals with the description and transmission of mythical romanitas. One of the most prominent and novel features of Dr Turner’s study is his use of what he terms ‘heat…
This early medieval coin hoard was discovered near Maldon in Essex, in January 2025, by a metal-detecting group. Found dispersed across a field, its contents comprise 14 silver pennies, all the Long Cross type of Æthelred II (better known as…
Unusual religious monument uncovered in Egypt Excavations at the ancient Egyptian port city of Pelusium (modern-day Tell el-Farama) have uncovered the remains of a unique 2,000-year-old temple that is believed to have been dedicated to the local deity Pelusius. Archaeologists…
Exploring the archaeology of Sandwich Bay The Nautical Archaeology Society has launched a new project: ‘Coastal Pasts – Connecting Community with Coastal Heritage at Sandwich Bay’. This initiative, largely funded by a recent National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, will create…
Cousins Ellie and Lucie were reunited – and introduced to metal-detecting – during the COVID-19 lockdown. The result is this absorbing account, tracing their adventures in the past, from their first back-garden discovery, via metal-detecting rallies and their elation at…
Members of Go Detecting (Midlands) Ltd, carrying out a routine metal detecting survey in the parish of Bickmarsh in Worcestershire, have helped to uncover a coin hoard dating to the 9th century. Coins from this period are rare in Worcestershire…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
Archaeological investigations at a short-lived 16th-century Spanish settlement in southern Chile have uncovered a coin associated with its foundation. In 1584, colonists led by veteran navigator Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa established a fort called Ciudad Rey Don Felipe beside the…
This early medieval finger-ring was found by a metal-detectorist near Quadring in Lincolnshire, south-west of Boston, in May 2024, and has more recently been declared Treasure. It is made of silver and dates to c.AD 700-1000. The middle of the…
Archaeologists have discovered four military mass graves from the 18th and 19th centuries during rescue excavations in advance of the construction of the D11 highway between the towns of Jaroměř and Trutnov in the Czech Republic. The first mass grave…
The graves of three elite warriors, dating to the period of the Hungarian Conquest (AD 920s-930s), have been discovered near the village of Akasztó in southern Hungary. One of these burials, belonging to a 17- or 18-year-old warrior, is among…
Pleased about potin coins I was so amused when I saw the ‘pastry potin’ coins on the ‘Letters’ page in CA 432. I remember David Holman some years ago showing a group of members of the Isle of Thanet Archaeological…
Over the last 15 years, international research focused on a series of silver hoards and other finds from the late Roman and early medieval periods has shed new light
on how this metal was used and viewed during a period of great cultural change.
Dr Alice Blackwell, Dr Fraser Hunter, Dr Andreas Rau, and Dr Martin Goldberg report.
Geoffrey Lenox-Smith visits the archaeological museum in Alexandria, now reopened after a long period of renovation.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
This unusual silver seal matrix dates to the medieval period, but has reused a Roman intaglio as part of its design. It was discovered by a metal-detectorist in September 2024 at Gosfield, north of Braintree in Essex. Oval in plan,…
REVIEW BY KK This is a nice short book on the history of the English banknote, and is rather timely, with the era of the banknote seemingly coming to an end as online transactions and credit card payments become ubiquitous.…
Football fact-checking It was good to see some football archaeology being reported in CA 429 (‘Cathkin Park commemorated’). However, the article is misleading when it says that after Queen’s Park moved in 1903 ‘the stadium became disused’. Founder member of…
Further news from the frontier zone comes from Bremenium Fort – at High Rochester, north of Hadrian’s Wall – where recent excavations have revealed a wealth of finds to add to our understanding of how the fort sustained itself during…
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
The statuette… is intricate and highly detailed… What is it? This small, bronze figurine, which measures 7.5cm tall and weighs 55g, depicts a warrior standing in a lunging pose. He holds a sword in one hand and a shield in…
A large silver hoard dating to the medieval period has been discovered near Stockholm, Sweden. The treasure was unearthed by a member of the public digging for worms near his summer house, and reported to the County Administrative Board in…
Culture vultures A new study, recently published in Ecology (), reveals that the nests of bearded vultures can contain objects dating back hundreds of years. Examination of more than 50 historical bearded vulture nests in southern Spain, where the species…
The first archaeologically focused exhibition to be staged at the Museum of Liverpool explores what Treasure finds from north-west England and Wales can tell us about past and present connections across the region. Carly Hilts visited and spoke to Vanessa Oakden to learn more.
Castles, conservation, and conquest With a week in Norfolk booked and a visit to Norwich in mind, not least to collect a fridge magnet from the Castle for a grandson, it was serendipity when CA 427 arrived with a review…
REVIEW BY MIRANDA ALDHOUSE-GREEN This monograph examines the important, yet underestimated subject of the magical objects that form part of the archaeological footprint left by Roman Britons. It focuses on – so often neglected – small objects that form a…
Another recent find connected to Berenice II has been announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority. A rare gold coin depicting the Ptolemaic queen without her consort (and a cornucopia on the reverse) has been discovered during the excavation of a…