Restoration work at the Priory House in Dunstable – a Grade II-listed building that was originally part of the grounds of Dunstable Priory, founded by Henry I in 1132 – is carefully unpicking its evolution over the decades. The project,…
The hotel suite in which Oscar Wilde stayed shortly before his arrest for gross indecency has been rediscovered during recent archaeological work at the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton. The room was identified by Dr Michael Shapland from UCL Archaeology…
Once hidden beneath layers of soot and bird faeces, the stunningly colourful painted scenes and elaborately carved columns adorning the Temple of Khnum at Esna (Latopolis) can now be seen in all their glory following decades of painstaking work by…
Timber-framing is gaining momentum as a mainstream construction technique for new buildings in the UK because of its environmental benefits. Timber substantially reduces the carbon emissions and high energy costs associated with steel and concrete structures, and the use of…
Dr Hourig Sourouzian, Director of the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project in Luxor, was recently honoured by Sherif Fathy, the Minister of Tourism, for her outstanding contributions to the restoration of the mortuary temple. The ceremony…
Patryk Chudzik describes recent archaeological discoveries in the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri.
Two decades of restoration work has finally been completed in the Tomb of Amenhotep III (WV22). The preservation of the tomb scenes was carried out by a Japanese-Egyptian team under the sponsorship of the UNESCO Japan Trust Fund. Restoration work…
The ceiling of St Mary’s Church in Grantully, Perthshire, is intricately painted with coats of arms, images of saints, and proverbs, with a central panel depicting what is thought to be the Last Judgement – all in a typical Scottish…
A routine inspection of the famous Tiger 131 German tank on show at the Tank Museum in Dorset has unearthed a piece of shrapnel that has remained hidden inside one of its wheels for more than 80 years. The shrapnel…
The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities has completed the conservation of a Roman Period tomb at Athribis (Naga‘a el-Sheikh Hamad, west of Sohag). The brightly painted tomb, consisting of a square antechamber leading to a triangular burial chamber, belonged to…
Campbell Price selects one of a pair of sphinxes from the first ‘avenue of sphinxes’, at Deir el-Bahri.
Restoration work at a former Tudor hunting lodge – the Ashes in Cumbria – has revealed beautiful paintings lurking beneath the failing plasterwork. The paintings were discovered in the primary upstairs bedroom of the lodge, and are believed to date…
An East Sussex landmark has reopened following a £7.5 million transformation. Carly Hilts reports on a recent site visit.
This theatre is part of the archaeological site of Aptera, near present-day Chania, in western Crete. The ancient coastal city-state was once one of Crete’s most important commercial centres, at its peak in the Hellenistic period (late 4th-3rd centuries BC).…
In 1946, 500 fragments of brightly coloured stained glass were removed from the window of St Andrew’s Church, Heckington, to make way for a modern replacement. This was not their first move – the fragments, which are mainly thought to…
Historic England continues to explore working-class heritage Historic England has announced the funding of 30 new projects through its Everyday Heritage grants programme, which will explore rural and coastal communities and celebrate working-class histories from across the country. The projects…
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS Ever since Michael Haag’s Luxor Illustrated was published in 2009, it has been an indispensable guide for travellers visiting Luxor and other sites in Upper Egypt. This new edition has been completely revised by Aidan Dodson…
Alan Lloyd considers the motives of certain individuals from antiquity for studying ancient Egypt. Were they Egyptologists?
The original colours of scenes inside the Temple of Edfu are now visible following cleaning and restoration work by a team from the University of Würzburg and the Supreme Council of Antiquities. The team removed the surface dirt, bird debris,…
REVIEW BY WILL FLETCHER This is a charming book. It features the conservation of a fine Grade II*-listed English vernacular building, situated in rural Norfolk. In total, the 13 chapters and appendices describe the building, its history, the former occupants,…
Restoring Boden Fogou Volunteers from the Meneage Archaeology Group have restored part of a passageway in an Iron Age fogou, which was rediscovered near Boden in west Cornwall in 2003 (see CA 414 for more about excavations on the site…
In 2014, archaeologist Warwick Rodwell and art restorer Diane Gibbs bought the Grade II*-listed manor house in Northwold, Norfolk, after it had been neglected for 60 years. With water pouring in and roofs, ceilings, and floors collapsing, they set about rehabilitating the house, and much has been learned in the process about the construction of the manor, the families who lived in it, and its place in the history of the parish, as Chris Catling reports.
A major new restoration project is under way at the 150-year-old Newhaven Fort, which is one of the largest defensive works ever built in Sussex. The £7.5 million project aims to open up previously inaccessible areas of the fort, such…
This month we are revisiting the subject of the very first ‘Odd Socs’ column (CA 211): the Milestone Society. The original idea for ‘Odd Socs’ was to adopt a tongue-in-cheek approach to the heritage sector’s hundreds of voluntary societies, presenting…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.…
The volunteers who excavated a World War II landing craft in Lincolnshire three years ago have now applied for it to be given a permanent home. The Buffalo LVT (Landing Vehicle, Tracked) was dug up in Crowland, north-east of Peterborough,…
José María Barrera describes the beautifully restored ceiling of the pronaos of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera.
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.…
In 1789, an opinion column in The Times hailed Britain’s canal-building achievements as a matter of national pride – contrasting them with the revolutionary turmoil in France. Aristocrats and entrepreneurs were losing their heads across the Channel, while in Britain they were busy building and funding a canal network that would serve the rapid growth of the nation as an industrial power. In his new book on the Swansea Canal, Stephen Hughes looks in detail at the archaeology and history of one such pioneering enterprise, as Chris Catling reports.
Abu Simbel actually presents us with several milestones. Probably completed by Year 24 in the reign of Ramesses II, the rock-cut temples left an awe-inspiring statement of power and permanence 140km south of Elephantine in the peripheral territory of Wawat…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.…
A series of undocumented storerooms has been discovered inside the pyramid of the Fifth Dynasty king Sahura at Abusir by a joint Egyptian-German mission. While carrying out restoration work on the pyramid, the team, led by the University of Würzburg,…
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the UK.
Thomas Hardy’s second novel – Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) – is a masterpiece of rural comedy with a tragedy at its heart: the usurpation of the centuries-old tradition of church music, represented by the loss of the west-gallery musicians…
A round-up of some of the latest news from the world of ancient Egypt.
A joint team from the Ministry of Antiquities and the University of Colorado have completed the restoration and reinstallation of a number of huge granite columns at Ashmunein, in Minya Governorate. Known as Hermopolis Magna in the Graeco-Roman era, the…