For centuries Scotland’s finely crafted silver brooches, neck chains, vessels, and more were made from a supply of Roman hacksilver. Lucia Marchini learns more about the medieval afterlife of this metal at the National Museum of Scotland’s new exhibition.
A wide-ranging archaeological survey across more than 1,000 hectares of Yorkshire woodland has revealed the secrets of hundreds of sites, many never recorded before. John Buglass takes us on a tour of some of the highlights.
A newly opened exhibition at Stonehenge documents the diet of the community thought to have been responsible for erecting the main phase of the monument – including the surprisingly far-flung origins of some of their food. Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts spoke to Susan Greaney, Richard Madgwick, and Mike Parker Pearson at the exhibition launch to find out more.
The Llangorse Crannog is the only example yet identified in Wales of a type of artificial island settlement more commonly found in Scotland and Ireland. Scepticism about the likelihood of the site being a crannog led to its being largely ignored in archaeological literature until the early 1980s. Then Alan Lane, who had recently been appointed to teach Post-Roman Archaeology at Cardiff University, rowed out to look and found substantial oak planks protruding from the water. Chris Catling describes what happened next.
A new exhibition, displayed amid the remains of London’s Roman amphitheatre, tells the story of the gladiators who fought in its arena. Carly Hilts spoke to Kate Sumnall about what light the material record can shed on the lives and deaths of these men.
Five years after he first explored the prospects of Archaeology as an academic discipline in these pages, John Schofield revisits this topic and reveals what has changed.
A range of artefacts were discovered during the excavation, many of which hint at the wealth of some of the settlement’s inhabitants.
For over a decade, archaeological research at the Ness of Brodgar has uncovered an astonishing array of Neolithic structures, including monumental buildings and hundreds of examples of prehistoric artwork. Nick Card brings us the latest news from the Ness.
On the afternoon of 26 April 1937, the air force of Nazi Germany’s Condor Legion, working on behalf of the Spanish Nationalists led by General Franco, sent its bombers over the ancient Basque town of Guernica. It was a Monday…
The remarkable preservation at Must Farm promised insights into day-to-day life that would revolutionise our knowledge of the late Bronze Age. As excavations at the site reach completion, it is already clear that we will never see that era in the same way again. Mark Knight, Susanna Harris, and Grahame Appleby told Matthew Symonds about life in a Bronze Age settlement.
The MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) Spitalfields Market excavations in 1991-2007 were one of Britain’s largest ever digs. Four major publications are being produced to cover the results. The latest volume concerns the post-medieval era (1539-1880), which was a period that saw vast social transformations, as Chiz Harward and Nigel Jeffries explain.
The Norman Conquest in 1066 is often described as the most famous date in English history, but 50 years earlier – almost to the day – the country had been captured by another foreign power: the Danish army of Cnut the Great. As we mark the 1,000th anniversary of these momentous events, what trace of the Viking conquest can be seen in the archaeological record? Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts reports.
Found over a number of weeks in 1942 and1943, the treasure that was dredged from Llyn Cerrig Bach, a small peat-filled lake on the Isle of Anglesey, is still revealing new information 70 years after it was found, as Chris Catling reports.
Until recently, Leicester’s Roman cemeteries had seen little major excavation, and their burial practices were poorly understood. Now an investigation in the city’s West End has given a wealth of new insights into the Roman town’s diverse population, as Mathew Morris reveals.
For decades, the accepted view of the Orcadian Neolithic was one of two cultural packages with a sharp break in the middle. New research has revealed a much more complex and nuanced picture, however. Carly Hilts spoke to Colin Richards to find out more.
In October, the contents of the Metropolitan Police’s Crime Museum went on public display for the first time at the Museum of London. This teaching collection has amassed artefacts from a succession of notorious crimes, but it also invites us to reflect on their legacy, as Jackie Keily told Matthew Symonds.
At its peak, New Bailey was the largest jail in England, but its imposing Georgian buildings were designed on the basis of radical progressive ideals. Modern development has wiped away all traces of the pioneering prison above ground, but archaeologists are now bringing its methods to light once more, as Rachael Reader and Michael Nevell explain.
These remains come from sites scattered from the Scottish Highlands to Dorset, and range in date from c.2200-750 BC
Just how quickly did Bronze Age people bury their dead? New work by Lauren Bailey, Martin Green, and Martin J Smith at Canada Farm suggests that they went to some lengths to display the deceased prior to their finally entering the earth.
Excavations in Colchester have revealed where a couple stashed their valuables before Boudicca sacked the city. These artefacts, and the charred debris found strewn above them, provide a poignant insight into those on the receiving end of the Iceni’s wrath. First, Philip Crummy and Adam Wightman shed light on a dark day in Colchester’s past, and then Nina Crummy guides us through the treasure itself.
'The ship operated as a trade vessel, but was commandeered three times, before being finally ordered into service by Philip II of Spain as part of his Armada campaign.’
What was it like to be a child growing up within the turbulence and destruction of Reformation England? Drawing on his research of over 4,500 skeletons, Bennjamin Penny-Mason reveals an untold story.
Everyone has heard of the aqueducts of Rome, but what about those of Medieval Exeter? Professor Mark Stoyle is on a mission to make them better known, as Chris Catling reports.
The Scottish island of Iona was one of the most influential Christian centres in Early Medieval Europe. But how much of its first monastery, built in the 6th century, has survived to the present day? As 2013, the 1,450th anniversary of its foundation, approached, it was time to find out, as Peter Yeoman explains.
What did the fragmentary Bronze Age boats found around Britain look like when complete, and what were they like to handle? The best way to find out, Robert Van de Noort told Current Archaeology's Carly Hilts, is to build one yourself.
Burnt mounds are an archaeological enigma: recent discoveries at Hoppenwood Bank, a bog near Bamburgh in Northumberland, call into question even the little we thought we knew. They show that some of these mainly Bronze Age features date back to the Early Neolithic, and are associated here with a series of substantial timber platforms. Graeme Young, of the Bamburgh Research Project, explains.
As the asparagus season gets under way, and possible Romano-British asparagus beds are discovered in Cambridge, Stefanie Hoss explores how a Mediterranean passion for this delicacy developed offshoots in the northern provinces.
For up to 4,500 years, a series of sunken dug-out canoes have been lying, forgotten, on the bottom of Lough Corrib in Co. Galway. Now these vessels are beginning to surrender their secrets once more, in an investigation by Ireland’s Underwater Archaeology Unit, spearheaded by Karl Brady.
Major new restoration work at Knole, one of England’s greatest mansions, has granted archaeologists access to previously hidden spaces, and uncovered a forgotten history. Nathalie Cohen takes us for a tour.
Few archaeologists had even heard of the Thornborough henges until 2002, when a local campaigning group started to kick up a fuss about gravel- and sand-extraction in the vicinity of the monuments. Now Thornborough is routinely described as ‘the Stonehenge of the north’. As Chris Catling reports, a decade of research has transformed our understanding of one of the most important monuments of its kind in Europe.
The Neolithic was a period of momentous change in which can be seen the birth of our modern world. It marks the moment when humans took control of the planet (not necessarily for the good), rather than simply existing upon it. Chris Catling reports on a recent debate hosted by the Royal Archaeological Institute focusing on why Britain and Ireland finally became Neolithic almost 1,000 years after farming had become the predominant lifestyle on the Continent.
The Staffordshire Hoard is a glittering reminder of the creative talents of the Anglo-Saxons – but now pioneering research is revealing that their skills were more far sophisticated than previously imagined, as Carly Hilts learned.
Well known on the Continent and scattered along the coasts of Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, dolmens are an immediately recognisable form of chambered tomb. They represent remarkable achievements for their Neolithic builders, crowned with stones weighing as much as 160 tonnes. Vicki Cummings and Colin Richards investigate how these distinctive monuments were constructed – and what happened when a project did not go to plan.
As the National Maritime Museum opens its new Nelson gallery, MHM Editor Neil Faulkner analyses the admiral’s legend.
Controversy has recently flared over the location of the Battle of Hastings. In an exclusive Channel 4 special, Time Team investigates, undertaking the first ever dig on the traditional site and assessing the rival claimants, as Assistant Producer Alex Rowson reports.
The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II prompted the first comprehensive archaeological study of the Medieval throne on which British monarchs are crowned. It has been battered and vandalised over the ages, but unpicking this majestic artefact’s evolution shed new light on both its original form and that of the enigmatic Stone of Scone, as Warwick Rodwell reveals.