settlements

Fields and farmsteads: Organising the early Roman frontier region in South Yorkshire

Excavations at Holme Hall Quarry, between Doncaster and Rotherham, have revealed how the landscape was transformed into extensive, carefully planned field systems and farmsteads during the early Roman period. Was this development the work of local Iron Age communities, or a land grab by an occupying army? Francis M Morris, who has recently completed post-excavation analysis and publication through Archaeological Research Services Ltd, explains more.

Did Vikings have glass windows?

New research indicates that windows with glass panes may have been present in Viking Age buildings in Scandinavia.

New dating for Karanis

Radiocarbon dating of crop remains excavated at the Graeco-Roman site of Karanis (in the Fayum) shows that the town was inhabited at least into the middle of the 7th century AD – 200 years after it was thought to have…

Beliefs and narratives: Images from Predynastic Egypt

Barbara A Boczar explores the imagery of Egypt’s Naqada periods.

Travels in an antique land: Mud-brick, mud-brick, glorious mud-brick

Each issue, AE magazine goes off the beaten track to explore some of Egypt’s lesser known sites, new museums, and newly opened monuments, with tips to help the independent traveller. In this issue, Karl Harris explores two under-visited sites at Abydos.

History of the Caucasus Volume 2: In the Shadow of Great Powers

REVIEW BY NICK EVANS Abdudzhalil Abdudzhalilov called himself the ‘last of the Mohicans’. Until his death in 2015, he was the last inhabitant of the village of Gamsutl in Dagestan, in the south of the Russian Federation. A spectacular image…

The Cities of the Plain: Urbanism in Ancient Western Thessaly

REVIEW BY JOHN BINTLIFF This is a rather frustrating volume, although we need to know more about ancient Thessaly, a land of fertile plains in north-central Greece. The book focuses on 22 ancient cities in western Thessaly, typical for the…

Iberians

A collaborative exhibition explores the Iron Age people of the Iberian Peninsula. Amy Brunskill spoke to curator Laurent Gorgerat to find out more.

Exploring an Ancestral Pueblo community

Recent archaeological investigations at the Castle Rock settlement complex, in the Mesa Verde region, have revealed new information about the Ancestral Pueblo community who lived here. Radosław Palonka, who led the research, tells us more.

Life in Early Medieval Wales

REVIEW BY HOWARD WILLIAMS A truly stupendous achievement of synthesis and evaluation, Life in Early Medieval Wales is a first for Welsh archaeology. Nancy Edwards’ concise prose draws on the experience of a lifetime spent teaching and researching early medieval…

Excavating the CA archive

Joe Flatman explores over half a century of reports from the past.

The Bare Bones: Presenting a very regional Neolithic

During the early Neolithic period, a distinctive regional tradition of funerary architecture developed on either side of the waters stretching between Northern Ireland and south-western Scotland. Matt Ritchie explores how archaeological research and interpretation is helping to illuminate the chambered cairns of the North Channel and the people who built them, and describes the role they can play in developing an understanding of place and time in younger audiences.

Below Excavation in progress in 2022 at the ‘Lost City of the Pyramid Builders’, in Giza, Egypt. Thirty five years after Ancient Egypt Research Associates initiated fieldwork here, an overview of the huge settlement is still coming together, and with it a much fuller understanding of the building of the pyramids.

Time to do it right

What Lehner’s team found was a far-flung complex of houses, storage galleries, kitchens, dormitories, and offices. The ‘Lost City of the Pyramid Builders’ saw light.

Hand of Irulegi

What is it? This 2,100-year-old piece of bronze sheet cut into the shape of a life-size right hand has been dubbed the ‘Hand of Irulegi’, after the site in Spain where it was found. The hand is 143mm tall, 128mm…

Above Imaginative reconstruction of a Western Desert Neolithic settlement, based on archaeological evidence from sites mentioned in the text.

Neolithic settlements of the Western Desert: Proto-villages of Stone Age Egypt

Following his exploration of rock art in the Western Desert in AE 127, Julian Heath continues his occasional series exploring Egypt’s prehistoric past, looking for evidence for the earliest settlements in the Western Desert.

Picts: scourge of Rome, rulers of the north

Review by Kelly Kilpatrick The Picts first appear in written sources as a cultural entity to the north of the Roman frontier, and disappear from the written record before the turn of the 1st millennium. In combination with their still…

Left This figurine found in Bavaria perhaps represents a deity associated with water during the Hallstatt period. below A ceramic stamp, possibly for decorating organic materials, was also unearthed.

A prehistoric goddess? Archaeologists unearth unique Iron Age clay figurine

Archaeologists unearthed the figurine in a prehistoric gully near a Hallstatt period settlement occupied in the 8th-6th century BC.

Triangulation Pillar at Cladh Halainn geograph.org .uk

The Past

This week: Augmented reality

Throughout history, writers and artists have used their imaginations to tell stories from former times. From The Iliad to A Tale of Two Cities, and from The Last Supper to the Sistine ceiling, the results have inspired countless millions down…

Above The site of Burnswark hillfort is well known for its impressive Roman remains, but it has also recently formed the focus of a study exploring indigenous settlements in the Roman frontier zone.

On the edge of empire: exploring indigenous experiences on the Roman frontier

An investigation stretching from Durham to the southern Scottish Highlands is illuminating the lives of communities who lived under Roman occupation, and on the fringes of imperial influence. The first phase of this work has already identified more than 130 previously unknown settlements, as Carly Hilts reports.

Left Craig yr Aderyn (‘Bird’s Rock’) is a hill rising 258m above sea level near Llanfihangel y Pennant in Gwynedd. It is home to an Iron Age promontory fort.

What are hillforts? Investigating one of the most misunderstood monuments in Britain and Ireland

Not so long ago, the word ‘hillfort’ was habitually preceded by the words ‘Iron Age’, but now we know plenty of older examples. Not all of them are built on hills, and as for the word ‘fort’ there is little evidence for a defensive or offensive function. So what on earth are they? Having read the new Atlas of the Hillforts of Britain and Ireland, Chris Catling explores decades of research into these puzzling prehistoric monuments.

Baños Romanos, Bath, Inglaterra, 2014 08 12, DD 39 41 HDR

The Past

Roman Britain Quiz

Julius Caesar raided Britain in 55 and 54 BC. But which emperor began the Roman conquest in earnest in AD 43?

Rus – Vikings in the east

A new exhibition at the Moesgaard Museum in Denmark explores the often-overlooked story of the Rus Vikings. We spoke to curator Pauline Asingh about the adventures of these influential voyagers, whose travels took them from Scandinavia to Constantinople, the Caliphate, and beyond.

Climatic change and ancient civilisations

New studies are revealing the impact environmental changes have had on ancient societies around the world.

The Past

Rare 4,000-year-old board game found in Oman

The game's discovery proves that such entertainment was available for lower social classes as well as rulers.

Forging Identities in the Prehistory of Old Europe: dividuals, individuals and communities, 7000-3000 BC

This solid 459-page work by John Chapman summarises his life-long work in the Balkans and, as he states in the preface, was first conceived as a synthesis of Balkan prehistory but subsequently developed along a specific research path focusing on…

The Tale of the Axe: how the Neolithic revolution transformed Britain

Around 12,000 years ago, the course of human history changed forever when hunter-gatherer communities in western Asia made a dramatic lifestyle change, switching from foraging to farming. It was the beginning of the Neolithic revolution: a cultural phenomenon that swept…

Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited

Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited Christopher Evans and Gavin Lucas McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, £45 ISBN 978-1902937892 Review Kasia Gdaniec

One of the magnificent six: secrets from the Byzantine city of Shivta

How did cities come to flourish in the Negev Desert? George Nash has gone in search of Shivta’s former glory.

The Past

Travels to Armenia

The year 2015 is a sad one for Armenia: it marks the centenary of the great massacre of its people by the Turks, when over a million died in what many call the ‘Armenian Genocide'. But who are the Armenians? And where is Armenia? Andrew Selkirk goes in search.