The Royal Cache at Deir el-Bahri, 1881
The amazing discovery of more than 50 royal mummies.
The Picture Desk
Defending the dreaming spires: Civil War ramparts discovered in Oxford
Between 2015 and 2020, Oxford Archaeology and MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) investigated, prior to development, parts of a Civil War rampart buried below an access yard to Savile House at New College School in Oxford. The city’s defences were…
A Byzantine business district
Excavations in the ancient city of Ephesus in Turkey have uncovered the remains of early Byzantine shops and businesses. Archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) working this year in Domitian Square, next to the Upper Agora, focused their…
The wreck of Södermanland, Sweden
In this photograph, a diver explores the wreck of Södermanland, an 18th-century Swedish ship of the line now resting in the waters off Karlskrona, on the country’s southern coast. Built in Stockholm and launched in 1749, the 42-metre ship could…
Saving a Second World War Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery
This Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Battery – located some 350m east of Decoy Farm, to the north of the River Bure, near Mautby, Norfolk – is believed to be the most-complete battery of its type in Britain, and one of only…
Santa Costanza, c.1710-1730
Among the early Christian catacombs in northern Rome, beyond the walls of the ancient city, are those of the Sant’Agnese fuori le mura complex. It is here along the via Nomentana that St Agnes of Rome is said to have…
‘One of the most valuable women that ever lived’
During archaeological works beneath the floor of Bath Abbey between 2018 and 2020 (see CA 348), Wessex Archaeology recovered a stunning piece of an 18th-century bas relief marble sculpture. It was one of approximately 4,000 fragments removed from the Abbey’s…
Milestones in Egyptology: the discovery and clearance of KV62, the tomb of Tutankhamun
Howard Carter’s long search in the Valley of the Kings is rewarded.
Ancient mounds in America
In the middle of Louisiana State University’s campus stand two earthen mounds, each c.5.5m tall. The LSU Campus Mounds have long been known to be among the c.800 mounds created by ancient indigenous communities in this region, but archaeological investigations…
Alexander the Great: the making of a myth
Alexander the Great: the making of a myth is at the British Library in London until 19 February 2023.
Equestrian armour at the Wallace Collection
This magnificent equestrian armour from the 16th century is unique in that it has survived completely preserved to this day. The armour was acquired by the Wallace Collection in 1867 from the collection of the French sculptor Count Émilien de…
Recovering an anchor from the North Sea
Through the combined efforts of ScottishPower Renewables and Maritime Archaeology Ltd, with support from Historic England, a wrought-iron anchor, possibly dating from the Roman period, was successfully raised from the North Sea in June of last year. The location of…
Aï Khanoum, 1968-1973
One archaeological milestone this year is the centenary of the founding of the Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan (DAFA) in 1922. Their century of research has included investigations at Aï Khanoum, a Hellenistic city on the banks of the Oxus…
A snapshot in time
The Hardmans’ House, Liverpool
Giant warriors in Arabian art
Saudi Arabia is a paradise for researching engraved rock art (see ‘Saudi Arabian rock art’ in CWA 102). In March 2022, I returned to the Saudi provinces of Najran and ‘Asir. In the latter, the exploration of Wadi al-Khayyur, located…
The First World War in Postcards
Calum Henderson explores fascinating examples of postcards from the First World War which feature in John Wilton's latest book.
La Hougue Bie, Jersey Island story
An elevated medieval chapel may be the most noticeable thing in this picture of the beautiful La Hougue Bie near Grouville in Jersey, but the vast mound that this stone structure crowns has much older origins.
A voyage to the past
This September marks 30 years since the discovery of one of the world’s oldest-known seagoing vessels: the Dover Bronze Age Boat, whose remains are pictured here on display in a dedicated gallery at Dover Museum. The 3,500-year-old vessel was first…
Treasure of Mercia
The Staffordshire Hoard – the largest cache of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver ever found in Britain – is predominantly made up of weapon parts and other martial gear, including sword fittings, ceremonial objects, and fragments of a helmet (see CA…
The Temple of Khnum
Conservators working in the Temple of Khnum in Esna, Upper Egypt, have uncovered new details of the building’s colourful ceiling frescoes. Construction on the temple began in the Ptolemaic period and continued into the Roman period, with decoration completed during…
At first light
Jodrell Bank Observatory, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and part of The University of Manchester, is a working research facility that has supported the discovery of meteors, black holes, and the afterglow of the Big Bang. Last month saw the…
Valley of the Kings, 1923
‘Yes, wonderful things’ is the oft-quoted response Howard Carter gave when, on 26 November 1922, Lord Carnarvon asked if the archaeologist could see anything through a hole in the inner doorway of the tomb of the young king Tutankhamun.
Farming Wales
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 Vase in the Flooded Cave
Cave diving at the cenotes in Mexico is a magical experience, a never-ending labyrinth of tunnels filled with crystal-clear water where the only limit is how much gas you can carry. With no natural light, and the crazy speleothems (mineral…
German civilians gather around a British tank, Hamburg station, May 1945
This photograph, showing soldiers lounging on their tank and citizens going about their daily business, was taken outside Hamburg railway station in May 1945.
Edwardian excavations: Corbridge, Northumberland
This newly colourised image, based on an black-and-white photograph taken over a century ago, shows Edwardian labourers excavating the granaries at Roman Corbridge, an ancient town and supply base that began life as a military fort 2.5 miles south of…
Persepolis, 1935
Persepolis paintings perfectly glorious’ was the verdict Prentice Duell cabled from Egypt to James Henry Breasted, founder of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (OI). He had just seen the work American artist Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950) created…
A landscape through time
Last year, Historic England archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar to confirm the remains of Tudor and Jacobean formal gardens at Belhus Park in Thurrock, Essex, the site of a manor built in the medieval period and rebuilt in the 16th century.…
The House of the Harpist
A remarkable group of luxurious wall paintings has been discovered at a rich Roman residence called the House of the Harpist in Arles, southern France. The house was discovered beneath an 18th-century glassworks factory in the Trinquetaille district, on the…
Samurai: history and legend
For many centuries, the outside world knew little of the Japanese way of life. Before the Meiji Restoration of 1868 – after which the country rapidly modernised and opened itself up to global trade – only a handful of books…
Unearthing an ‘idol’
Prehistoric anthropomorphic items made of wood represent rare finds in British archaeology.
Photographing Mosul, 1944
Exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery: 'Anthony Kersting: Kurdistan in the 1940s'
Reading between the runes
The British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) recently passed the milestone of one million records generated since the project’s foundation in 1997. Among the highlights announced at the launch of the latest PAS annual report (for 2020) is this gold…
Roman mosaic in Rutland
The mosaic, which measures 11m by almost 7m, once formed the floor of a dining or entertaining room within a large villa complex occupied during the late Roman period.
A trick of the light: the Great North Museum
Glowing in vivid technicolour against a pitch-black backdrop, the stone blocks pictured here are part of a group of seven Roman altars that have been reimagined in colour using only projected light – all as part of a new, immersive…
Sutton Hoo, 1939
Shown here is one of Wagstaff’s images, with the ghostly outline of the ship, whose planks had eroded in the acidic soil, clearly visible. In the foreground, Basil Brown (wearing a hat) works in the ship.