The site at Eccles in Kent was excavated on a shoestring from 1962 to 1976 by Alec Detsicas with the Lower Medway Archaeological Research Group and then the Eccles Excavation Committee. Lack of funding hampered post-excavation, and while Alec Detsicas…
CAER Heritage is a model of genuine partnership between heritage professionals and community interest groups.
Review by Nick Higham. Stephen Rippon must be congratulated on a handsome, well-illustrated book that is a new must-read for anyone interested in the East Saxons or what the transition from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England meant to the ordinary…
Woodchester Mansion is considered to be one of the UK’s most haunted buildings, and people pay large sums to spend the night in the freezing cold mansion with their ghost-detecting cameras and radar equipment.
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.
In its heyday, HMS Invincible was considered one of the finest ships in the Royal Navy – and although it sank off Portsmouth in 1758, its remains represent the best-preserved 18th-century warship known in UK waters. Carly Hilts spoke to Daniel Pascoe, who headed recent excavations of the wreck, and visited an exhibition currently running at The Historic Dockyard Chatham to find out more.
'This can be claimed as the single most significant historic maritime discovery since the raising of the Mary Rose in 1982.’
Six Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age timer-posted roundhouses and an array of animal bone and pottery fragments were also uncovered.
Last month we explored the evolution of Roman and medieval Leicester. Now Mathew Morris explains how recent University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) excavations in the city have revealed links between its Roman predecessor and North Africa.
Recent excavations at Black Cat Quarry in Bedfordshire have revealed a story of farming communities spanning the Neolithic to the early medieval period, as well as the possible remains of an important Viking encampment described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Ben Dyson, who supervised the majority of excavations and undertook the post-excavation analysis for Archaeological Research Services Ltd, explains more.
Digging up memories I was delighted to see a reference to the 1974 excavation alongside the Mermaid Theatre in London (CA 386, ‘The triumphal arch’). I was one of the students working with Martin Millett on the site, while on…
Among the larger features excavated in the course of the investigations, the team found a 10,000-year-old pit that had been dug into the chalk bedrock, perhaps to catch game such as aurochs.
The survey work showed that the complex was a ‘courtyard castle’ with corner turrets and a great hall...
Review by Robin Hughes In this engaging example of contemporary archaeology, Jonathan Gardner explores the multifaceted impacts of three London-based ‘mega events’ on the capital: the Great Exhibition of 1851, the 1951 Festival of Britain on the South Bank, and…
Review by David Field. Rarely in recent times have extant barrows, let alone groups of them, been excavated, for in most cases developer-funded excavation has only encountered levelled examples and the ditch alone has been sampled. At Petersfield Heath, 14…
The Tudor vessel sank during the Battle of the Solent in 1545, and its surviving timbers and contents have been undergoing conservation since the wreck was raised in 1982
This copper-alloy owl figurine was found last year by a metal-detectorist on cultivated land in the Cotswolds, and it dates to the Roman period, when owls were associated with the goddess Minerva. The 6.8cm-tall bird is perched on a round,…
Review by HB. This lavishly produced volume offers an introduction to Thames ‘mudlarking’ – the practice of searching the river’s foreshore (with a permit!) for historical objects and other items of interest. The book is not so much a practical…
All that remains of the abbey above ground since its demolition at the Dissolution of the Monasteries is an arched stone gatehouse.
This image shows Esgair Llewelyn in Powys, one of the oldest farmhouses in Wales. It was built as a cruck-framed upland hallhouse c.1500. It would have originally had an open fire in the middle of the hall floor, but the…
The objectionable trough has survived, though the figures are so eroded that you need advanced powers of imagination to see anything erotic or outrageous in these maenads – female followers of the wine god, Dionysus.
Iron Age coins are not just currency: they are miniature works of art. Carly Hilts visited the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to see a new special display exploring the imagery of the Iceni.
When Henrietta Howard (née Hobart) built her Thames-side country house in Twickenham in the 1720s, it represented so much more than a fashionable escape from the bustle of court life: it was a refuge from her abusive marriage, and a sign of hard-won independence. With the house and its grounds now restored to their Georgian glory, and the site reopening to the public, Carly Hilts visited to find out more.
There is a wonderful selection of archaeological and historical events and exhibitions scheduled for this summer, ranging from the return of Europe’s largest Viking festival to new exhibitions at the British Museum and the London Transport Museum. There are also still many ways to get involved in history and heritage at home, with online museum tours and educational resources, social media accounts, TV shows, and much more. Amy Brunskill has put together a summary of some of the options out there.
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.
Excavations in Crowland, Lincolnshire, are exploring the remains of a structure that might be linked to an Anglo-Saxon anchorite. Project directors Duncan Wright and Hugh Willmott report.
Review by CH Ancient remains and ghostly narratives often coincide in the popular imagination, providing fruitful inspiration for chilling tales. This anthology of 12 short stories has been curated by archaeological historian Amara Thornton, of the University of London, and…
We know that Britain experienced tumultuous events during Hadrian’s reign. What we do not know is the order in which they played out. The answer may hold the key to understanding Britain’s premier Roman monument, as Matthew Symonds explains.
Review by Chris Griffiths. Those with an interest in Bronze Age metalwork will know that the literature tends to focus on the question of why metal objects were destroyed and buried: were they deliberately broken for recycling, to serve a…
Excavations at the site have revealed traces of a significant Mesolithic ‘home base’, including evidence of extensive flint-tool manufacturing and major feasting events.
With its distinctive chequerboard exterior combining Caen stone and knapped flint, the Marlipins building in Shoreham-by-Sea has been an eye-catching landmark for centuries – in fact, dendrochronological analysis suggests that it is the earliest surviving secular building in Sussex. Its…
‘Widening access’ and ‘access for all’ are two of the slogans that characterise today’s heritage practice, but the community-minded people of Faversham have been doing access for half a century. Open House, held almost every July since 1982, sees the…
This year marks the 1,900th anniversary of the visit of the emperor Hadrian to Britain where, according to his biographer writing more than 200 years after the event, ‘he put many things to right and was the first to build a wall 80 miles long to separate the Romans and the barbarians’. In 2022, the anniversary is being marked by events across Britain – but was there a ceremony in AD 122 to mark the building of Hadrian’s Wall? David Breeze, Christof Flügel, Erik Graafstal, and Andreas Thiel explore the possibilities.
One discovery in Essex above all others has regularly hit the archaeological headlines since the early 2000s – the spectacular Saxon princely burial from Prittlewell, near Southend-on-Sea. This was... one of the most exciting finds made in Britain in this period.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions in the UK.
Review by Miranda Aldhouse-Green. Ray Howell’s new book focuses on the Iron Age and the transition to the Roman period as experienced by one particular tribe (or polity), zooming in on the Silures of south-east Wales. In 11 succinct chapters,…