Rising high above the floor of the Taff Valley, north of Cardiff, the conical towers of Castell Coch are a familiar sight to travellers driving along the A470. The Victorian architect William Burges designed the castle for the 3rd Marquess of Bute between 1875 and 1881, resulting in a masterpiece of High Victorian romanticism.
An ancient tree is one that is in the final stage of its life and is exceptionally old for its species. Such trees typically have a wide girth and a hollow trunk with decaying wood, holes, and cavities that provide…
Worthing Museum recently reopened following a year-long transformation. Carly Hilts visited its new-look archaeology galleries with their curator James Sainsbury.
Strap-ends from belts and other attachments are common finds from the early medieval period. This example was found by Cotswold Archaeology during an excavation in the market town of Halesworth in Suffolk in 2024, with recent conservation revealing its lovely…
Recent excavations at Milestone Ground on the eastern edge of Broadway have revealed one of the most intriguing archaeological landscapes yet found in Worcestershire. Beneath quiet pasture lay evidence of human activity stretching back 8,000 years, including Mesolithic flint tools, Bronze Age burials, hundreds of Iron Age storage pits, a Roman farmstead, and the largest late Roman cemetery known in the county. Constance Mitchell reports.
Ninth-century Carolingian coins from the reigns of Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald are not the sort of objects you would expect to find on a remote farm on the Isle of Anglesey, so, when metal-detectorists began reporting these and other exceptional artefacts from the early medieval period, the National Museum of Wales (now Amgueddfa Cymru) sent Mark Redknap, then Curator of Medieval and Later Archaeology, to investigate. Between 1994 and 2012, Mark led ten seasons of fieldwork on the site, revealing the remains of a trading settlement with a form unparalleled in Wales. With the full report recently published, Chris Catling describes its key findings.
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions.
Medical memories The article on Temperance (CA 434) was very interesting, but one important establishment was missed: the National Temperance Hospital on Hampstead Road, purpose-built in the late 19th century. When I was nursing there in the early 1970s, we…
In 2017, excavations revealed an unusual Bronze Age burial alongside other signs of ceremonial activity spanning thousands of years. With some of the grave goods now on display, CA returns to the story of the Lechlade ‘chieftain’.
The news that the Bayeux Tapestry will be making a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Britain from September 2026 until July 2027 made me think about sites associated with the Norman Conquest that might be of interest to the readers of Current Archaeology
The newest exhibition at the Cornwall Museum & Art Gallery (CMAG) in Truro explores local lore and its lasting legacy. Laura Miucci describes the displays.
There are lots of great ways to get involved with history and archaeology over the next few months, including exhibitions, lectures, and conferences exploring a wide range of subjects. If you would prefer to get your heritage fix from the comfort of your sofa, though, there is a variety of resources on offer online, too, from virtual site tours and digital offerings by museums to podcasts, TV shows, and more. Kathryn Krakowka has put together a selection
of some of the options available.
In 2021, an archaeological household name returned to our (computer) screens, as Time Team relaunched on YouTube. Carly Hilts visited the team at their first dig of 2026 and spoke to the show’s creator and Executive Producer Tim Taylor about how technology gave the show new life – and could transform the future of how archaeological stories are told.
Recent analysis of the remains of two children who were buried in the same grave in 7th-century Gloucestershire has revealed them to be brother and sister. CA reports.
A new exhibition at Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury draws together antiquarian excavations and very recent finds to illuminate life and death at different levels of early medieval society. Carly Hilts visited the displays and spoke to their curator Brett Thorn.
This month’s selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects from the Midlands, south-east England, Scotland, and Wales.
A glittering exhibition at Battersea Power Station in London explores the life and legacy of one of ancient Egypt’s most famous rulers. Carly Hilts visited to learn more.
This year marks a century since the birth of the pioneering prehistorian Aubrey Burl, and the 50th anniversary of the publication of his landmark study The Stone Circles of the British Isles, which is often considered the foundational work on the subject. To reflect these milestones, Neil Mortimer offers an overview of how the book came into being – and the occasionally unconventional approach of its author.
The elaborately decorated Book of Kells takes its name from the eponymous abbey in Co. Meath where it was kept for centuries, but it has been previously suggested that the early medieval manuscript was created on Iona. Now, thanks to…
It is said that reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body, so as well as trying (but not always succeeding) to keep the body trim by going for a short run every day, Sherds also (more successfully) sets aside time to spend with a book in the evening.
An absorbing new exhibition at Oriel Môn in Llangefni highlights Anglesey’s long and varied archaeological heritage. Carly Hilts visited the displays.
Caves have always captured the imagination. This is no less true of High Pasture Cave on the Isle of Skye, whose publication represents the latest contribution to a growing corpus in British cave archaeology. Nestled under the slopes of the…
The story of Roman Britain is often seen as a tale of two zones. To the south and east lay a ‘civil zone’, where towns and villas were at their most plentiful, while to the north and west a profusion…
With excavation at the Ness of Brodgar – one of the largest Neolithic sites known in north-west Europe – having finished in August 2024, after a remarkable 20 years of fieldwork, the long process of post-excavation analysis has now commenced.…
Richard Hodges’ most recent book takes us back to his original area of study: the economic and political conditions leading to the rebirth of towns in early medieval Britain. He starts by reminding the reader of his 1982 book Dark…
What makes this is a welcome addition to the not inconsiderable number of histories of Glasgow, is that Moffat knows how to tell a good story. The book is of interest because it extends back to prehistory and up to…
This volume was occasioned by the anniversary of the foundation charter of the burgh of Glasgow in 1175. The tongue- in-cheek title obscures the serious intent to recount the history of Glasgow through an examination of its central throughfare, which…
This early medieval finger-ring was found by a metal-detectorist near Quadring in Lincolnshire, south-west of Boston, in May 2024, and has more recently been declared Treasure. It is made of silver and dates to c.AD 700-1000. The middle of the…
Vanbrugh 300, presented by the Georgian Group and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, marks the life and work of Sir John Vanbrugh (1664-1726), a man who managed to pack multiple careers into his 62 years. By the time…
Dogs are man’s best (and oldest – see CA 352 and 401) friends, but how they came to be that way is still a bit of a mystery. Based on morphological changes and genetic estimations, they are believed to have…
Archaeological investigations in Bearsden, near Glasgow, have revealed evidence of a previously unknown fortlet on the Antonine Wall. This is the 13th Antonine Wall fortlet to have been confidently identified, adding to other examples that were recently revealed during geophysical…
Excavations south of Gloucester have uncovered a remarkably well preserved Bronze Age watering hole, with many of its wooden structures surviving in situ. The discovery was made last year during investigations by Cotswold Archaeology. When they first stripped back the…
The watering hole found near Gloucester is not the only reworked water source recently discovered in England. Excavations in advance of a new Rolls-Royce extension site at Goodwood, near Chichester in West Sussex, have revealed evidence of a thriving Iron…
Excavations at Honeygar Farm, a nature reserve that forms part of the Somerset Wildlife Trust, have uncovered the remains of a 6,000-year-old wooden trackway that would have been used during the early Neolithic period to allow people to cross the…
Food plays an important role in cultural identity, and can be used in archaeology to identify patterns of migration and assimilation. The early medieval inhabitants of Scandinavia are known to have had a marine-focused diet, but the extent to which…
We are what we eat, they say, and a new study by the University of Cambridge has found that this was as true in the medieval period as it is today, with diet being highly dependent on social status. The…