While today the health impacts of lead exposure are well documented, in the past its hazards were unknown, a silent killer that had an impact on potentially millions of people over the the millennia in which it has been mined.…
The mechanisms by which bone degrades in the burial environment are poorly understood, with large amounts of variation seen even within the same cemetery containing the same environmental and soil conditions. While it has been hypothesised since the 19th century…
The ways in which archaeologists and historians analyse economies in the past often do not align with how economies are assessed today. Modern economics is primarily based on GDP, which is inherently grounded in monetary values, making it impossible to…
Archaeologists are increasingly revisiting long-held theories about the past and highlighting how these ideas need to be updated in light of evolving evidence. This is especially the case with many artefact types that were first described by antiquarians or early…
Lead isotopes have frequently been used in archaeology to determine the provenance of metal objects. More recently, they have also been helping to assess mobility in humans and other animals. This form of analysis is still in its infancy, however,…
In ‘Science Notes’, we often talk about how new technologies are revolutionising our approach to archaeology. And while this is most certainly still the case, the reliability of previous methods can sometimes be taken for granted. This month we are…
In 2019, a metal-detectorist made a startling discovery while exploring near the edge of a stream near Pulborough in West Sussex: two curved pieces of a golden torc dating to the Iron Age. After being reported to the local Finds…
Researchers from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, along with colleagues from Austria and France, have used carbonate deposits recovered from Roman water mills in Barbegal, near the city of Arles in the south of France, to reconstruct the development and…
A recent study published in Current Biology has brought to light a link between red squirrels and leprosy in medieval Britain (). In ‘Science Notes’ this month, we’re taking a look at how these bushy-tailed rodents may have passed the…
In CA 411, we carried a news story about the exciting implications of recent research into early medieval silver coinage; for this month’s column, we delve deeper into the science behind the study to reveal how these conclusions were reached.…
Recently published research by GUARD Archaeology reports on the discovery of a pair of Bronze Age burnt mounds at Hallmeadow in Annan, 24km south-east of Dumfries. They were first identified in 2020, during archaeological works ahead of the construction of…
In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we examine a recent paper that has developed a new method to identify ‘aneuploidies’ – conditions characterised by an atypical number of chromosomes – among a large array of individuals from Europe, spanning the Iron…
Past studies of medieval populations have often glossed over any heterogeneity that probably existed in that period, often depicting a majority ‘white’ society. While this may be true of more rural settings, urban ones, particularly in places like London which…
It has long been assumed that the advent of agricultural and pastoral practices during the Neolithic saw a major shift in human eating patterns, focusing more on a terrestrial diet than a marine-based one. Numerous isotopic analyses from across Europe…
When you envisage Greek statues and friezes, you probably picture pure white marble sculptures, pockmarked with age – that is, after all, how they appear today. But that was not how they appeared to the ancient Greeks who made them,…
It seems that every few months ‘Science Notes’ is covering another breaking story on advances in a DNA research, a testament to how quickly the field is evolving. After our reporting of the successful, non-invasive extraction of human DNA from…
Strontium isotope analysis has become a standard in mobility research, featuring in many post-excavation analyses of human and animal remains. While ‘typical’ strontium analysis is able to tell us much about movement in the past, new techniques are being applied…
For this month’s ‘Science Notes’, I started off writing about ‘sedaDNA’, a catch-all term for any ancient DNA – including from flora, fauna, fungi, and other microorganisms – which is extracted from archaeological sediments. It is a technique that is…
It appears that, starting from now, it will become extremely difficult to accurately date certain objects based solely on 14C levels.
Arguably, one of the biggest challenges that continually faces archaeology is accessibility. While that can be interpreted in several different ways, what I’m going to concentrate on in this month’s ‘Science Notes’ is access to data. With the advent of…