A Spanish team has announced the discovery of the remains of 60 mummies, buried in two tombs close to the tomb of the New Kingdom vizier Amenhotep-Huy in el-Assasif (West Bank of Luxor).
Archaeological work ahead of a new housing development in Northamptonshire has revealed hints of possibly ceremonial activity spanning 2,000 years. Carly Hilts reports.
Archaeologist and Digging for Britain presenter Dr Cat Jarman with Dr Daniel Young from Wessex Archaeology examining the Sheffield Castle core samples at the Wessex Archaeology labs. Image: Wessex Archaeology.
Excavations in the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey have uncovered the remains of early Byzantine shops and businesses. Archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) working this year in Domitian Square, next to the Upper Agora, focused their…
The title of The First Stones, a newly published book edited by William Britnell and Alasdair Whittle, proclaims a bold new thesis: that the Neolithic long cairn at Penywyrlod, in the Black Mountains of south-east Wales, is one of the earliest of its kind. With the benefit of 50 new radiocarbon dates, and new ways of modelling those dates using Bayesian analysis, its authors revisit excavations that first took place in the 1970s – and argue that this distinctive monument represents the birth of a new tomb-building tradition, as Chris Catling discovers.
In 2020, we reported on intriguing discoveries emerging from a Roman villa site near Corby, Northamptonshire. Now further excavations have been carried out at Priors Hall, illuminating the area’s industrial heritage, its interconnectivity with other villa sites, and its Iron Age origins. Paddy Lambert reports.
Review by Edward Caswell This book provides a new and welcome synthesis of a particularly enigmatic group of Bronze Age ceramics, which have been variously named, but which the authors choose to classify, justifiably, as cups. Drawing on a large…
The artefacts were found during the 1977-1981 excavations of nearly 200 graves at Ozengell, near Ramsgate in Kent.
This past summer, the team returned to explore other buildings on the site, in order to learn more about the complex as a whole.
Recent excavations in southeastern Poland have uncovered a wealth of late medieval finds including arrowheads, pottery, and silver denarii
Review by Ronan Toolis The excavation of Clachtoll in 2017 examined the interior of a broch buried beneath a conflagration that had occurred during the early 1st century AD and untouched since. This book examines an impressive assemblage of finds…
Small finds included 3rd- to 4th-century Roman pottery – comprising local coarse ware, Oxfordshire ware, and a few shards of Samian ware – as well as a small number of 4th-century Roman coins.
Between 2016 and 2018, Cotswold Archaeology’s excavation of disused rugby pitches in Stoke Gifford, just north of Bristol, provided the opportunity to explore the layout of a Roman villa estate. Clare Randall describes some of the key findings.
Almost 2,000 images taken by Harold Wingham (1924-2021), an unsung pioneer of archaeological aerial photography, have been made available to the public for the first time in a new project by Historic England. CA explores his life and work.
The remains of a white cheese were found in pottery vessels unearthed at Saqqara
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
The identity of the ancient Egyptian ‘Qurna Queen’ remains a mystery over 100 years after the excavation of her intact burial. However, new research on her burial assemblage is revealing historic biases in interpretation and shedding light on Egypt’s place within African culture, as Margaret Maitland explains.
The excavations revealed at least 50 burials dating to the Roman period, including inhumation graves, cremation urns, and signs of funerary pyres.
Thousands of votive objects have been found buried in ritual deposits at a hilltop sanctuary in southern Italy. Cristina Boschetti, Jan Kindberg Jacobsen, Gloria Mittica, Eva Mortensen, and Rubina Raja take us to the excavations at the summit of Timpone della Motta and tie the findings together with the archaeology and history of the site. Our journey, though, begins in a laboratory in Orléans.
Archaeologists working in Ephesus, Turkey, have uncovered a new section of the ancient city: a business and gastronomical district dating to the early Byzantine period. The discovery was made by researchers from the Archaeological Institute of the ÖAW (Austrian Academy…
It has been suggested that the ivories were made by Assyrian artists and possibly arrived in Jerusalem as a gift to the nobility.
As a new exhibition opens at the Stonehenge visitor centre, curator and archaeologist Susan Greaney explores the incredible artistry and ingenuity of people living during Japan’s Jomon period and the parallels to their contemporaries in Britain and Ireland.
One of the most exciting discoveries was that of a casket carved out of a single stone, which contained a glass cinerary urn, along with a wealth of stunningly-preserved funerary goods.
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from across the globe.
The 2,500-year-old fortifications are perched on the edge of a cliff, and are fast disappearing due to processes of natural coastal erosion.
The project ends in December, but the team are still looking for more places to excavate. For more information, see www.thebishopbigdig.com.
The study sheds light on how the hallucinogenic drug was used in Late Bronze Age burial customs.
The settlement has been dated to the Early Classic Period (c. AD 250-600).
A new study is using Indigenous pottery to find out more about travel between the islands of the Caribbean throughout history.
Several Roman sanctuaries are known in the Netherlands, but this is the first to be discovered on the northern boundary of the empire.
The newly discovered structure sits within view of Caerau Hillfort, one the largest Iron Age hillforts in south-east Wales.
Review by Stephen Mileson. This report sheds light on the development of an ordinary rural settlement over the long duration. Stratton was a stræt-tun, a ‘settlement on a Roman road’ – in this case, the road between Baldock and Sandy.…
According to indigenous Mapuche culture, burial within a canoe symbolises the soul's journey to the final abode of the dead.
A 'luxurious estate’ featuring painted wall frescoes and marble-paved halls was also unearthed within the vicinity.
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Review by Simon Esmonde Cleary. Excavations in 2012-2013 on the north-eastern edge of Bristol revealed an area of landscape with evidence of human activity from the Neolithic to the recent past, but the most-plentiful evidence – which was excavated in…