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…
Hidden within the limestone cliffs of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales is a cave that has witnessed dramatic changes in climate, landscape, and human history. Bacon Hole, overlooking what is today the Bristol Channel, is home to one of the most intriguing and controversial stories in British prehistoric archaeology. It is a story that began more than a century ago with the discovery of possible Ice Age paintings, continued through decades of doubt, and has now been reopened through modern scientific investigation. George Nash explains.
This slim volume is the latest addition to the ‘50 Finds’ series produced by the Portable Antiquities Scheme in England and Wales (PAS). While most finds recorded by PAS are metal artefacts recovered by detectorists, more than 100,000 struck flints…
A series of ten red horizontal lines, recently rediscovered in Bacon Hole on the southern coast of the Gower Peninsula in Wales, has been interpreted as rock art possibly dating to the Upper Palaeolithic period c.17,100 years ago. If this…
This is the third edition of a book which first appeared in 1999 and was first revised ten years later. Much has happened since then, and even the editors have changed. The new book is a collaboration between a prehistorian…
Worthing Museum recently reopened following a year-long transformation. Carly Hilts visited its new-look archaeology galleries with their curator James Sainsbury.
Dogs are man’s best (and oldest – see CA 352 and 401) friends, but how they came to be that way is still a bit of a mystery. Based on morphological changes and genetic estimations, they are believed to have…
Africa’s oldest cremation? Archaeological investigations in the shadow of Mount Hora, in northern Malawi, have revealed the oldest evidence for human cremation yet found in Africa. The burial, which dates to c.9,500 years ago, was discovered at a rock-shelter site…
Ice Age art engages something within us that feels deeply and inherently human. Most of us feel it immediately: awe, curiosity, and perhaps even sometimes a feeling that borders on spiritual. Yet, while this response is nearly universal, the opportunity…
Newly published analysis of 11,000-year-old fragments of human bone and teeth
from Heaning Wood Bone Cave in Cumbria has revealed that they belonged to
an early Mesolithic child. Carly Hilts reports.
Analysis of a fragment of elephant bone, first discovered during excavations at Boxgrove, West Sussex, in the early 1990s (see CA 153), has revealed that it was used as a hammer by early hominins roughly 500,000 years ago, making it…
Archaeologists have revealed that humans were making fire 350,000 years earlier than previously known. Opportunistic use of wildfire, usually created by lightning strikes, is likely to have developed over a million years ago, but – until now – the earliest…
For my third and final column on the Palaeolithic, I will clamber into some of the most famous caves in the country. Even better – as I will outline at the end of this selection – the majority are open to the public, offering unparalleled opportunities to visit these stunning prehistoric sites.
This two-day conference will spotlight the dynamic intersection of archaeological research conducted by Mercian Archaeological Services and Nottingham Trent University, covering investigations across the UK, Midlands, and Egypt. There will also be numerous other industry experts showcasing their work through…
An exhibition in Paris explores the history of the city through the objects recovered from the river at its heart.
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…
In last month’s column, I explored Palaeolithic Norfolk and Suffolk, visiting some of the most important prehistoric sites not just in Britain but in the whole of western Europe. Here I will follow up on that review by moving south into Kent and Sussex
In the previous few columns I have explored some of the great towns of Roman Britain – so, as a change of pace, here I will begin a new mini-series on the country’s great prehistoric sites. I will commence this month with a series of locations in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Excavations at Old Park, on the eastern outskirts of Canterbury in Kent, have revealed further evidence of occupation of the site by ancient hominin species. These new discoveries have dated the earliest lithic layers to between 712,000-621,000 years ago –…
Excavations in Guardbridge, along the Eden Estuary in Fife, have revealed a rich landscape of archaeological features spanning the late Upper Palaeolithic through to the modern day. Conducted between 2019 and 2021 – and recently published on Archaeology Reports Online…
A remarkable site containing Palaeolithic stone tools was found in modern rainforest near Anyama, Côte d’Ivoire, in the 1980s. The chronology of these deposits remained unclear, but could modern dating techniques help to fill in this blank? Matthew Symonds learnt from Eslem Ben Arous, James Blinkhorn, and Eleanor Scerri what happened when a field team returned to Anyama.
The valley of the western Rother is best known to archaeologists as the location of Butser Ancient Farm and Bignor Roman villa, as well as the Weald and Downland Museum and the settlements at Selborne, Liss, Petersfield, Midhurst, and Petworth. Adopting a whole-landscape approach, taking in the entire river catchment, a recent study of the valley shows how natural and cultural heritage are inextricably intertwined, as Chris Catling reports.
An exhibition at Cliffe Castle Museum showcases artworks dating back 24,000 years, bringing together Continental artefacts with two key British finds. Carly Hilts reports.
REVIEW BY HANNA MCNULTY What if Ice Age art was not confined to glass cases or academic articles, but displayed in galleries alongside contemporary artists? In Ice Age Art Now, Jill Cook curates just that experience. Spanning the final 20,000…
A recent Netflix documentary, Secrets of the Neanderthals, has attracted a massive worldwide audience, and taken a major step forward in dealing with the widespread myth that Neanderthals were brutish and backward. As we now know from comparing their DNA and ours, we can count them among our remote ancestors.
New analysis of a hominin skull previously believed to represent a new species of ancient human suggests that it may in fact be a Denisovan. The Denisovans were first discovered in 2010, when ancient DNA from a finger bone in…
In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we are examining amino acid geochronology (AAG) – a dating technique that can be used to help date the whole Quaternary period, from c.2 million years ago up to the present day. Recently, a team…
A few years ago, Sarah Paris – then a graduate student at Cambridge University – asked if she could access the human skeletons from Khok Phanom Di in order to study the mortuary use of red ochre. I excavated this great Neolithic site in 1985, and I willingly agreed. Last year, she completed her doctoral dissertation and at the last Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, she won the prize for the best presentation by a graduate student.
Archaeologists working in north Abingdon have revealed evidence of one of our early human ancestors, as well as traces of ancient river systems, during preparation works for the new A34 interchange at Lodge Hill. Sixteen trial trenches were dug during…
Your observations, your objections, and your opinions: send them to cwaletters@world-archaeology.com
I would like to dedicate these pages to my PhD supervisor, Eric Higgs. After studying at the London School of Economics, he bought a hill farm in Shropshire at the outset of the Second World War, and spent the following decade rearing sheep and cattle, with the objective, he once told me, of breeding miniature versions of the former.
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH In recent years there has been a lot of interest in unearthing the secrets of the diverse landscapes of the eastern Arabian Peninsula – lands that form the modern United Arab Emirates (UAE). Unsurprisingly, much of…
New analysis of rock-art sites in Indonesia has identified the earliest narrative art currently known anywhere in the world. Research in recent years had already revealed that the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is home to some of the oldest figurative…
Since March 2020 I have criss-crossed the United Kingdom, examining its history through the eyes of Current Archaeology. I have now visited every county in every country, but I have just a few geographical loose ends to tie off, including, this month, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
What is it? This perforated baton made of mammoth ivory is believed to be a Palaeolithic tool used to make rope. The baton is 20.4cm long, 3.6cm wide, and 1.5cm thick. Four holes of slightly different sizes have been drilled…
Maidstone Museum’s impressively eclectic collection of British archaeology has been redisplayed in an absorbing new gallery. Carly Hilts attended its official launch in June.