Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art is an illuminating and deeply engaging exploration of humanity’s earliest artistic expressions, brought vividly to life by Christoph Baumer and Therese Weber. From the very first lines, the book establishes rock…
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 ALISTAIR BARCLAY This is the latest in a series of accessible and well-illustrated books by the author on the development of British Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery. In it, he shares his fascination for the subject in a…
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…
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…
The motifs found on the panel include quadrupeds (possibly bovids and equids), as well as circles, zigzags, lines, reticulates, stelliforms (suns and/or stars), and more.
Review by Hugo Anderson-Whymark Carved stone balls are one of Scotland’s most intriguing Neolithic artefacts. Some 500 of these palm-sized stone spheres are known, with most found in Aberdeenshire. This monograph is the first solely devoted to the study of…
Review by George Nash. Throughout prehistoric Europe, there are significant areas where rock art was commissioned, executed, consumed, and abandoned. One of these is southern Scandinavia. Here, during the later prehistoric period, ancient artists provided a sometimes- cryptic insight into…
It was probably around 3,600 years ago that the earliest known depiction of the cosmos was buried in eastern Germany. By then, the Nebra Sky Disc had already served several roles. Repeatedly refashioning the artefact allowed it to keep pace with changing desires to express knowledge, belief, and power, as Neil Wilkin told Matthew Symonds.
Neil went on to propose using what R G Collingwood called ‘the historical imagination’ by blending data and interpretation to ‘tell the story’. He was convinced that this ‘must be done if archaeology is to be interesting and worthwhile’.
Researchers have studied the 30,000-year-old figurine using micro-CT imaging to try to trace the origins of the oolite rock it was made from
The sculpture had been placed in a Neolithic grave containing the remains of three children.
Over the past 50 years or so, the later prehistoric open-air rock art of Scotland has received much useful attention with the sterling work of researchers Ronald Morris and Stan Beckensall. It is only recently, though, that interest through Historic…
Many researchers dealing with prehistoric and historic rock art tend to remain firmly entrenched within their respective comfort zones. Throughout much of the contemporary world, the application and use of rock art is a fundamental part of society; moreover, it…
Cutting-edge photographic techniques have shed illuminating light on a series of carved chalk plaques excavated close to Stonehenge. What have they revealed about artistic endeavour in Neolithic Britain? CA explores a new study by Bob Davis, Phil Harding, and Matt Leivers.
This autumn, specialists have been working to conserve some of the Stonehenge sarsens, the latest in a series of initiatives stretching back to the dawn of the 20th century. CA Editor Carly Hilts spoke to Heather Sebire to find out more.
There is much we don’t know about the people who lived in Neolithic Malta, but they left their mark on the islands through vast temples and tombs. Luc Amkreutz and Sharon Sultana explore what these impressive structures and the figurines found in them can tell us about a vanished civilisation.
Due to changing coronavirus measures, the dates listed below may have changed since we went to print, and museums and galleries may close. Check the websites and social-media accounts of the museums for the most up-to-date information and bookings.
According to the researchers, this is the most elaborate and well-preserved depiction of honey-gathering documented within Levantine art to date.
What makes this discovery particularly exciting is that, even though animal carvings from this period are known from continental Europe, such realistic prehistoric depictions were not thought to exist in Scotland before now.
Survey and excavation in a remote region of Mongolia are revealing a wealth of information about an extraordinary concentration of rock art.
We, as modern humans, tend to look at ancient art with a 21st-century mindset. It is all too easy to stare (in wonder) at Palaeolithic rock art and conceive some idea, however complex, and consider it to be a plausible interpretation.
Archaeologists now believe that they have found a painting on the island of Sulawesi that pre-dates all other examples in the region, and may even be the earliest piece of representational art currently known.
As far as I could tell, every minor contour of the original has been replicated, as of course have the paintings themselves.
For over a decade, archaeological research at the Ness of Brodgar has uncovered an astonishing array of Neolithic structures, including monumental buildings and hundreds of examples of prehistoric artwork. Nick Card brings us the latest news from the Ness.