A second season of excavations at Bodiam Castle in Sussex has revealed extensive evidence of a Roman presence, with tiles and pottery confirming that the site was home to a port for the Classis Britannica – the Roman naval fleet…
The diverse grave goods excavated at a 6th-century cemetery in Nottinghamshire testify to a wealthy community with wide-ranging trade links – but, as well as new objects and materials, did these networks help to spread deadly diseases, and might this explain the unusually high number of multiple burials identified at Broughton Lodge? Carly Hilts visited a new exhibition about the site and spoke to Ann Inscker, Professor Chris Loveluck, and Dr Clare Pickersgill to learn more.
Excavations along the A66 in Cumbria are revealing how this area formed a vital corridor for transport, travel, and trade over millennia. After an initial evaluation in 2022-2024 and ahead of proposed upgrades to the route, Oxford Cotswold Archaeology (OCA,…
A section of Watling Street – one of the most important roads in Roman Britain, running from Dover (Dubris) to Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) via London and St Albans – has been uncovered during excavations in Southwark. Traces of the route,…
A summer excavation in the Oxfordshire village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell has revealed a Roman road lying beneath the local primary school’s field. Jason Debney, chairman of the local history society, recalled being told by a resident many years ago that the…
REVIEW BY PATRICK DANIEL This book summarises 17 years of work by MOLA Northampton/Northamptonshire Archaeology at a 70ha development by the Roman road north of Doncaster. The earliest remains comprised a ring ditch with early Bronze Age cremation burials, an…
Fresh knowledge about global trade and travel is coming to light in the Jordanian desert. A survey project is revealing information about the chronology of a small fort or fortlet and presumed caravanserai at the site of Khirbet al-Khalde in southern Jordan. Taking us through archival data, new archaeological finds, and the use of drone imagery, the co directors of the project Craig Harvey, Emanuele Intagliata, and Rubina Raja unravel new narratives about this fascinating desert site.
When a team from Oxford Archaeology and RPS Consulting were called in to evaluate a brownfield site at King’s Hedges, on the northern outskirts of Cambridge, they did not expect to come across much as the site had already seen…
It is always stimulating to be reminded how much more remains to be said about Hadrian’s Wall, a Roman frontier system that is often believed – from an archaeological perspective – to have been ‘done’. Despite centuries of scholarly scrutiny,…
In 1933, the first season of excavations at Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish), south-west of Jerusalem, came to end. The remains of a building from the late 5th-4th century BC, described as a governor’s residence, had been unearthed and the defences of…
The idea that there was no pre-existing Roman settlement on the site of medieval Venice is hard to credit when you realise that the Italian peninsula was heavily populated under the Roman Empire
It seems less obvious today, as we hurtle about the country using modern road and rail networks, but river crossings were once dangerous places. In ancient times, rites in the form of prayers and sacrifices would be performed to appease the river gods and to improve the chances that goods and travellers would make it across unscathed.
Underpinning this comparatively slim volume is a remarkable archaeological programme. The South Wales Gas Pipeline was constructed in 2005-2007, extending from the Pembrokeshire coast to Gloucestershire. It was not a direct route: the Brecon Beacons lay in the way. So…
Surveying Dunfermline Abbey A recent project led by Dr Michael Penman from the University of Stirling in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland has conducted a series of ground-penetrating radar surveys of Dunfermline Abbey, revealing the possible layout of the original…
To-date, the 3rd-century cremations discovered above Birdoswald fort remain the only Roman cemetery to have received major archaeological attention along the line of Hadrian’s Wall. What light does it shed on the people who lived and died on the frontier? Tony Wilmott explains.