An international team carrying out satellite remote sensing in the Eastern Sudan deserts has discovered hundreds of huge ancient mass graves in the Atbai Desert, part of the Sahara Desert which stretches between the Nile in Nubia and the Red…
A comprehensive road system underpinned the exceptional degree of mobility and trade that characterised the Roman Empire, and much of the modern road system in Europe and the Mediterranean region is built on top of Roman constructions. Roman roads are also among the earliest relics of antiquity to be studied and mapped.
• A German-Egyptian ScanPyramids team has discovered two previously unknown air-filled cavities in the Pyramid of Menkaura at Giza, which might suggest the presence of a second entrance on the eastern side of the monument. • Research published in the…
Underwater archaeological investigations have located the missing bow of the USS New Orleans in the Solomon Islands’ Iron Bottom Sound. The US Navy cruiser was heavily damaged during the Battle of Tassafaronga on 30 November 1942 when it was hit…
Surveying an area of remote Mexican jungle that was previously devoid of Maya sites has produced remarkable results. Ivan Šprajc told Matthew Symonds how he set about discovering lost settlements in an archaeological black hole.
REVIEW BY AMY BAKER Bringing together work conducted by Historic Environment Scotland (previously Historic Scotland), Glasgow University, and various commercial archaeological units, this highly readable and comprehensive synthesis of two decades of geophysical survey work along the Antonine Wall offers…
A wide-ranging LiDAR survey in Co. Wicklow has revealed hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological features, including a cluster of five cursus monuments that are helping to illuminate this enigmatic site-type. Carly Hilts reports.
Researchers from the University of North Carolina (USA), using remote sensing and other geophysical methods, have identified sections of an extinct branch of the Nile which flowed close to the line of Old and Middle Kingdom pyramids between Giza and…
For more than a decade, Adam Stanford and English Heritage have periodically recorded the parch marks that appear at Stonehenge in the summer, when conditions are right. Until recently this involved oblique low-level aerial photography via mast, kite, or drone.…
Recent LiDAR work intended to record the state of the landscape in Baltinglass, Ireland, has revealed a complex of five Neolithic cursus monuments, shedding new light on the importance of the area during this period. The archaeological landscape of Baltinglass…
Revealing the remains of a tightly packed complex of previously unknown temples and tombs.
REVIEW BY ANDREW TIBBS The Road is a personal journey by the author to experience Roman roads and how they impacted the lives of those around them, and the surrounding landscape, not just 2,000 years ago, but in more recent…
In the wake of the discovery of the Antonine Wall fortlet found at Carleith Farm in West Dunbartonshire (see CA 400), another one has been revealed, this time at Bonnyside, near Falkirk, on the more eastern side of the wall.…
Evidence of an ancient hydraulic engineering system has been discovered along the banks of the Nile by the British Museum’s Amara West Research Project. Satellite imagery and aerial drone and ground surveys revealed a 600-mile network of nearly 1,300 river…
Rubina Raja and Søren M Sindbæk on low-density urbanism at ancient sites
In the south-eastern margins of the Zimbabwe plateau sit the ruins of southern Africa’s first major city, Great Zimbabwe. The city was established as the capital of the Karanga kingdom in the 11th century AD, and remained occupied until the…
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH Due to current climate change, the coastline of north-western Europe is in a state of flux, resulting in the slow but inevitable inundation of the sea. This change in coastline is clearly witnessed by the ongoing disappearance…
‘It looks like cattle, goats, and gazelles were brought to the site, potentially slaughtered there and then presented to what is probably a stone representation of an unknown deity.'
Ever fancied a behind-the-scenes tour of Hadrian’s Wall? While there are many ways to explore its Roman past on the page or in the field, securing an insider’s peek at the day-to-day management of the monument has always been more…
These monumental structures, termed 'kites', consist of low stone walls that stretch hundreds of metres and lead to an enclosure, in which gazelles and other game could have been trapped.
Review by Luuk de Ligt The two volumes that make up this publication present the results of the ambitious Roman Peasant Project co-directed by Kim Bowes and Cam Grey. Geographically, the focus of the book is on the region of…
The Phoenicians occupied the coast of the Levant for over 1,000 years, but knowledge of their trade network and practices remains elusive. In 2007, an ancient wreck containing a large cache of ceramic containers was discovered off Malta. This ship proved to be one of only a handful of known Phoenician vessels. Since 2014, further exploration of the site has yielded some very exciting results. Project Director Timmy Gambin and Lucy Woods reveal some of its mysteries, and the challenges of excavating a shipwreck 110m below sea level.
At the excavated mustatil, archaeologists uncovered an assemblage of cattle horns and skull fragments interpreted as an offering, perhaps related to a ‘cattle cult’, further supporting the ‘ritual’ interpretation of these sites.
The initial exploration of an ancient Phoenician shipwreck discovered off the Maltese coast was reported on in CWA 88. Now, thanks to groundbreaking technological developments, the wreck can be explored underwater in minute detail using virtual reality in a new online museum. Timmy Gambin, Lucy Woods, and Maja Sausmekat take us for a closer look.
Survey near the town of Palpa, Peru, has revealed a wealth of geoglyphs that appear to be older than their celebrated neighbours at Nasca. Luis Jaime Castillo, Johny Isla, Fabrizio Serván, and Karla Patroni reveal what has been found, and why these images seem to have been aimed at a very different audience to the Nasca lines.
The stupendous temple of Angkor Wat and its forested environs are currently the focus of a major project involving LiDAR aerial laser-scanning and more. The archaeology is radically changing our understanding of this staggering site, but how? Brian Fagan and Nadia Durrani get the inside story from project co-director Roland Fletcher.
Today we take it for granted that aerial photographs are an essential tool for understanding the historic environment, but for the pioneers of aerial photography it was a struggle to gain acceptance, as Chris Catling, who has been reading Martyn Barber’s new book, A History of Aerial Photography and Archaeology, now relates.