UK

Revealing a rich prehistoric landscape at Biddenham

One of the most significant discoveries the team made was circular ditch monument.

Early origins of Arthur’s Stone uncovered

Arthur’s Stone is protected as a scheduled monument – it is famous for being the possible inspiration for C S Lewis’s ‘stone table’ in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The Past

‘Save British Archaeology’ campaign launched

‘The closure of world-leading departments of archaeology can only be described as short-sighted.'

The Past

Section of Hadrian’s Wall unearthed in Newcastle

Built in AD 122, Hadrian’s Wall stretched 73 miles from the North Sea to Solway Firth and marked the furthest limit of the Roman Empire.

The Past

3D technology to shed new light on ancient Celtic writing system

Its alphabet represents a written language ancestral to Scottish Gaelic, modern Irish, and Manx

The ‘bluidy’ battle of Killiecrankie: excavating the first Jacobite Rising

What can archaeological surveys of battlefields add to historical accounts of the fighting? Road improvements at Killiecrankie provided an opportunity to see how traces of fighting tallied with a commanding officer’s account of the clash, as Maureen Kilpatrick and Warren Bailie report.

The Jacobite Risings

Jeremy Black analyses the military and political significance of the Jacobite Risings that punctuated British history between 1689 and 1746.

Prestonpans, 1745: the forgotten Jacobite victory

Overshadowed by Culloden the following year – the battle that finally terminated the century-old Jacobite cause – Prestonpans is little known. Chris Bambery researches the story.

Archaeological fieldwork at Achtriachtan, Glencoe, is helping to illuminate the history of a Highland village that witnessed tragedy in the 17th century.

‘A roof o’er their heads’: exploring the archaeology of Achtriachtan township in Glencoe

The Highland valley of Glencoe is notorious as the location of a brutal 1692 massacre, but until recently little was known about what remained of the settlement that existed at this time. Now, though, archaeological fieldwork by the National Trust for Scotland has shed new light on 17th- and 18th-century remains within the glen, as Derek Alexander reports.

World News

• Glass beads shed light on Pre-Columbian trade
• X-ray of a pregnant mummy
• Constantine the Great reunited with a messing finger

Letters from CA – August 2021

Your view on past Current Archaeology issues.

News in brief

• Museum + Heritage Award winners announced
• Thames Discovery Programme continues

Bar Locks and Early Church Security in the British Isles

Have you ever wondered why there is often a big hole in the wall just inside a medieval church doorway? This book is primarily a study of the bar locks they were made to hold. Some were huge – like…

A Viking Age family reunion

It is believed that this group may represent a Viking population who had settled in Oxford for some years.

Bridge over troubled water: Roman finds from the Tees at Piercebridge and beyond

Ritual or rubbish – how should we interpret objects that ended their days in rivers during the Roman period? Hella Eckardt and Philippa Walton consider this question by exploring the more than 3,600 artefacts that have been recovered from the waters of the Tees at Piercebridge.

Finds tray – Anglo-Saxon gesture figurine

This is a 7th-century gesture figurine of a man, made of copper alloy. It was found by a metal-detectorist last December in the parish of Kintbury, West Berkshire.

LEFT An Iron Age cockerel from Houghton Down, Hampshire, recently radiocarbon dated to the 4th 3rd century BC. Analysis of the spurs suggests the bird lived to at least two years old.

Count your chickens: a new ageing technique for domesticated fowl

The team from the University of Exeter applied their formula to 1,366 domestic fowl skeletons found across Britain, ranging in date from the Iron Age through to the modern day.

Road to the past: exploring the prehistoric heart of Galloway

The construction of a new bypass on the A75 near Dunragit has uncovered a wealth of archaeological finds, illuminating around 8,000 years of human activity within a rich and complex historic landscape on the south-west coast of Scotland. With the project’s findings now published in full, Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts surveys some of the key discoveries.

The last laugh

Furnished graves smacked of paganism, along with the idea that worldly goods should be laid in the grave for the use of the deceased in the afterlife.

RIGHT This sandstone relief, featuring a naked horseman, was recently uncovered during excavations at Vindolanda.

Rare Roman relief revealed at Vindolanda

Measuring 160mm by 215mm, the stone depicts a naked male figure holding a spear and standing in front of either a horse or a donkey.

Heritage from home: August 2021

Many heritage sites and museums in the UK, Ireland, and other countries around the world have now reopened their doors to visitors, but there are still plenty of ways to get involved in history and heritage from home this summer as well. Current World Archaeology's Amy Brunskill has put together a variety of options below, from video tours of recent exhibitions to online webinars, social media trends, and craft activities, as well as a round-up of some of the places that are open again.

Hoards from Wiltshire

The landscape of Wiltshire is full of indications of the county’s rich history, but perhaps some of the most compelling information about the area’s past comes from the hoards buried beneath its soil. The contents of these hoards vary widely,…

Iona’s archetype? A concrete replica of the Cross of St John speaks

The Isle of Iona, located off the south-western coast of Mull in the Inner Hebrides, has been described by the poet Robert Crawford (b. 1959) as a place where ‘spirit, imagination, and physical exertion mingle’. Iona’s assemblage of early medieval carved stones and grave slabs constitute a special part of the island’s magic, forming a collection of early medieval art for which there are few parallels in the rest of Europe. The importance of one cross in particular – the 8th-century Cross of St John – has only recently been realised, in part because of a study of its concrete replica, as Current Archaeology's Chris Catling reveals.