Archaeology news

• Blazing a trail

  12-01-2026 22:55 via archaeology.co.uk
  Earliest evidence of humans making fire discovered in SuffolkExcavation of 400,000-year-old pond sediments at Barnham, near Thetford in Suffolk, have revealed the oldest known evidence of early humans (in this case, Neanderthals) making fire. IMAGE: Courtesy of the Pathways to Ancient Britain project and by Jordan MansfieldExcavations at East Farm, Barnham, have uncovered the oldest-known traces of deliberate fire-making – a game-changing step in the human story that we now know took place
  
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• Current Archaeology 431 – ON SALE NOW

  12-01-2026 22:34 via archaeology.co.uk
  Happy New Year! I hope you had a lovely break over the Christmas period.Winter always puts me in mind of cosy fireplaces – but when did humans first learn how to create fire for themselves, rather than relying on embers from lightning strikes and wildfires? New evidence from Barnham in Suffolk has pushed this story back hundreds of thousands of years further than previously thought. Our cover feature explores this exciting discovery, and the revolutionary biological, technological, and so
  
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• From iron age tunnels to YouTube: Time Team’s ‘extraordinary’ digital renaissance

  03-01-2026 07:00
  Three decades after its modest beginnings on Channel 4, the TV juggernaut now has its own channel and global subscribersThirty-two years ago, a small group of archaeologists gathered for a weekend in Somerset to make a TV programme about a field in Athelney, the site where once, 1,200 years ago, King Alfred the Great rallied resistance to the invading Viking army.There weren’t many concessions to showbiz glitz. Instead, a group of blokes with unruly hair and a couple of women walked across
  
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• Cremation pyre in Africa thought to be world’s oldest containing adult remains

  01-01-2026 20:00
  9,500-year-old pyre uncovered in Malawi offers rare insight into rituals of ancient African hunter-gatherer groupsA cremation pyre built about 9,500 years ago has been discovered in Africa, offering a fresh glimpse into the complexity of ancient hunter-gatherer communities.Researchers say the pyre, discovered in a rock shelter at the foot of Mount Hora in northern Malawi, is thought to be the oldest in the world to contain adult remains, the oldest confirmed intentional cremation in Africa, and
  
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• A post for Josep María Salrach

  30-12-2025 00:19 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  This is very old news now, partly because I didn’t hear it when it was new, but also because I’m afraid I left it until I’d got some of my own news out of the way, as the subject wasn’t going to mind the delay. Because yes, alas, this is another post of passing: one of the great contributors to my field is no more.The late Josep María SalrachIf you read this blog, and also read my footnotes, then you’ve heard of Josep María Salrach i Marès, who
  
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• The best of the long read in 2025

  23-12-2025 06:00
  Our 20 favourite pieces of in-depth reporting, essays and profiles from the yearVictor Pelevin made his name in 90s Russia with scathing satires of authoritarianism. But while his literary peers have faced censorship and fled the country, he still sells millions. Has he become a Kremlin apologist? Continue reading...
  
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• How we hold back the tide: levees, drains and a bronze age circle of skulls

  19-12-2025 07:00
  Were children’s bones found at the edge of European lake settlements an attempt to appease water gods?Flood protection takes many forms, from the levees of Louisiana to the drains of East Anglia. Some villages in bronze age Europe may have had a more unusual barrier: a circle of skulls.Researchers from Basel University have found children’s skulls at the edge of lake settlements vulnerable to flooding, dating to the ninth century BC. As flooding became worse, villages in the Circum-A
  
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• Why west Cornwall is the perfect place to mark the winter solstice

  18-12-2025 08:00
  With ancient standing stones and modern midwinter festivals, the West Penwith peninsula is a land of magic and mysteryThe light is fading fast as I stand inside Tregeseal stone circle near St Just. The granite stones of the circle are luminous in this sombre landscape, like pale, inquisitive ghosts gathered round to see what we’re up to. Above us, a sea of withered bracken and gorse rises to Carn Kenidjack, the sinister rock outcrop that dominates the naked skyline. At night, this moor is
  
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• Warmers and Shelley to get through winter | Brief letters

  17-12-2025 18:59
  Raynaud’s syndrome | What follows winter | Beaver bones | Honda Jazz | Maga | LagerYour article on how to cope with winter (17 December) left one point out. Raynaud’s syndrome causes sufferers to lose blood circulation in their hands in cold weather. The best help I have found for it is buying a couple of HotRox – little metal eggs that can be charged up to release heat and restore blood supply. Bring on the snowballs!
  Clare Passingham
  Oxford• Re your 10 ways to thrive as
  
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• Beachy Head Woman may be ‘local girl from Eastbourne’, say scientists

  17-12-2025 11:14
  Exclusive: DNA advances show Roman-era skeleton, once hailed as first black Briton, came from southern EnglandBeachy Head Woman, a Roman-era skeleton once hailed as the earliest known black Briton and who scientists later speculated could be of Cypriot descent, has now been shown to have originated from southern England.The mystery of the skeleton’s shifting identity was finally resolved after advances in DNA sequencing produced a high-quality genetic readout from the remains. Continue rea
  
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• Relief and reward for passengers as Rome’s ‘museum stations’ finally open

  16-12-2025 19:02
  Archaeological treasures revealed during construction at two metro stops led to years of delaysMetro passengers in Rome can now peruse ancient history while in transit after the opening of two long-awaited stations showcasing a vast trove of treasures unearthed during their construction – including the remnants of a military barracks built during the reign of the emperor Trajan and 28 wells, along with the votives offered up in thanks.The Colosseo-Fori Imperiali, a sprawling station beside
  
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• Little Foot hominin fossil may be new species of human ancestor

  14-12-2025 15:00
  Australian researchers think the skeleton found in South Africa is not the same species as two found in the same South Africa cave system Little Foot, one of the world’s most complete hominin fossils, may be a new species of human ancestor, according to research that raises questions about our evolutionary past.Publicly unveiled in 2017, Little Foot is the most complete Australopithecus skeleton ever found. The foot bones that lend the fossil its name were first discovered in South Africa
  
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• Country diary: An unlikely job for a farmer – preserving a roman fort | Andrea Meanwell

  10-12-2025 06:30
  Tebay, Cumbria: We have 30 acres of Roman remains underground here, but thanks to recent storms and a redirected river, I fear they’re not safeToday I am out in freezing temperatures photographing a riverbank. Mist, which we call “clag”, swirls over the higher ground and I cannot see any of our livestock that are overwintering on the hills.The reason I’ve turned photographer may come as a surprise: on Low Borrowbridge farm we have a Roman fort and civilian settl
  
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• Ancient Egyptian pleasure boat found by archaeologists off Alexandria coast

  08-12-2025 10:00
  First-century luxury vessel matches description by the Greek historian Strabo, who visited city around 29-25BC An ancient Egyptian pleasure boat that matches a description by the first-century Greek historian Strabo has been discovered off the coast of Alexandria, to the excitement of archaeologists.With its palaces, temples and the 130 metre-high Pharos lighthouse – one of the seven wonders of the ancient world – Alexandria had been one of the most magnificent cities in antiquity. T
  
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• Linguists start compiling first ever complete dictionary of ancient Celtic

  08-12-2025 06:00
  More than 1,000 words used as far back as 325BC to be collected for insight into past linguistic landscapeIt is not likely to be a hefty volume because the vast majority of the material has been lost in the mists of time. But the remnants of a language spoken in parts of the UK and Ireland 2,000 years ago are being collected for what is being billed as the first complete dictionary of ancient Celtic.The dictionary will not be huge because relatively few words survive, but experts from Aberystwyt
  
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• Water leak in the Louvre damages hundreds of works, museum says

  07-12-2025 18:37
  Open valve in heating system affects 300 to 400 items just weeks after a brazen jewel theft raised security concernsA water leak in late November damaged several hundred works in the Louvre’s Egyptian department, the Paris museum said on Sunday, weeks after a brazen jewel theft raised concerns over its infrastructure.“Between 300 and 400 works” were affected by the leak discovered on 26 November, the museum’s deputy administrator, Francis Steinbock, said, describing them
  
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• Excavating the CA Archive – Palaeolithic Caves

  04-12-2025 23:23 via archaeology.co.uk
  or my third and final column on the of the most famous caves in the country. Even better – as I will outline at the end of this selection – the majority are open to the public, offering unparalleled opportunities to visit these stunning prehistoric sites.KENTS CAVERN, DEVONCA 262 explores the long history of settlement by both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens in Kents Cavern.The first sustained mention of the Palaeolithic in the pages of Current Archaeology comes in issue 65 (February 1
  
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• Rendlesham rediscovered

  04-12-2025 22:40 via archaeology.co.uk
  Exploring landscapes of power in early medieval East AngliaOverlooking the excavation of Rendlesham’s early medieval royal residence in 2022; the foundations of the timber great hall can be seen in Trench 14. IMAGE: Jim Pullen © Suffolk County CouncilOver the last two decades, evidence of a high-status early medieval settlement has been emerging just four miles from Sutton Hoo. What can Rendlesham tell us about the evolution and exercise of royal power in early medieval England? Carly
  
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• Current Archaeology 430 – ON SALE NOW

  04-12-2025 09:00 via archaeology.co.uk
  The turning of the year is always a point to pause and reflect. For me, this issue marks a mindful milestone, as it is my 100th since I became Editor. But there is also much to reflect on in the ever-evolving world of archaeology. CA 430 showcases the diversity of disciplines that make up our field, combining a report on a major excavation, thought-provoking scientific and ethical insights, a historic building with an intriguing story to tell, and opportunities to take part in underwater invest
  
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• Current Archaeology 430

  04-12-2025 09:00 via archaeology.co.uk
  The turning of the year is always a point to pause and reflect. For me, this issue marks a mindful milestone, as it is my 100th since I became Editor. But there is also much to reflect on in the ever-evolving world of archaeology. CA 430 showcases the diversity of disciplines that make up our field, combining a report on a major excavation, thought-provoking scientific and ethical insights, a historic building with an intriguing story to tell, and opportunities to take part in underwater invest
  
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• Country Diary: A lonely chapel that whispers and roars | Sara Hudston

  04-12-2025 06:30
  Abbotsbury, Dorset: Long ago this was the place to come and wish for a husband. It is empty today, but still so full of presenceTwo ascending buzzards dazzle against the sun as I climb to St Catherine’s Chapel alone on its hill above the sea. It is the saint’s own feast day (25 November), when women once came to recite a charm for getting married. The traditional wording was blunt: “A husband, St Catherine, a handsome one, St Catherine, a rich one, St Catherine,
  
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• Norman conquest coin hoard to go on show in Bath before permanent display

  03-12-2025 13:00
  Trust announces major grant to exhibit £4m Chew Valley Hoard, which was found by metal detectorists in 2019 The coins were buried in a valley in the English West Country almost 1,000 years ago at a time of huge political and social turmoil.A millennium on, plans have been announced to bring the Chew Valley Hoard, 2,584 silver coins hidden shortly after the Norman conquest, back to the south-west of England. Continue reading...
  
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• Rescue Project of the Year 2026 – Nominees

  02-12-2025 19:49 via archaeology.co.uk
  Rescue archaeology is carried out in areas threatened by human or natural agency. We’ve collated some of the best rescue projects that have been highlighted in Current Archaeology over the past year. Below are the nominees for Rescue Project of the Year.Voting is now open, and all the winners of the Current Archaeology Awards will be announced on 28 February 2026 as part of Current Archaeology Live! 2026. Click here to find out more about the event.Under the i
  
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• Research Project of the Year 2026 – Nominees

  02-12-2025 18:57 via archaeology.co.uk
  This has been another exceptional year for archaeological research. The following are some of the most exciting projects to have featured in CA over the last 12 months – the nominees for Research Project of the Year.Voting is now open, and all the winners of the Current Archaeology Awards will be announced on 28 February 2026 as part of Current Archaeology Live! 2026. Click here to find out more about the event.
  Sponsor of Research Project of the Yea
  
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• Book of the Year 2026 – Nominees

  02-12-2025 16:27 via archaeology.co.uk
  Below are some of the publications we feel most deserve to be recognised for their contribution to the field – the nominees for the Book of the Year award.Voting is now open, and all the winners of the Current Archaeology Awards will be announced on 28 February 2026 as part of Current Archaeology Live! 2026. Click here to find out more about the event.Click here for links to all the other categories.Sponsor of Book of the Year 2026
  An Irish Civil War Dugout –
  
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• Archaeologist of the Year 2026 – Nominees

  02-12-2025 15:14 via archaeology.co.uk
  Below are the three individuals nominated for 2026’s ‘Archaeologist of the Year’, whose achievements reflect the diverse work taking place within our field.Voting is now open, and all the winners of the Current Archaeology Awards will be announced on 28th February 2026 as part of Current Archaeology Live! 2026. Click here to find out more about the event.Find out more about the awards here.
  Sponsor of Archaeologist of the Year 2026Dr Jane Kershaw
  Jane i
  
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• Shells found in Spain could be among oldest known musical instruments

  02-12-2025 06:00
  Conch-shell trumpets discovered in Neolithic settlements and mines in Catalonia make tone similar to french horn, says lead researcherAs a child, Miquel López García was fascinated by the conch shell, kept in the bathroom, that his father’s family in the southern Spanish region of Almería had blown to warn their fellow villagers of rising rivers and approaching flood waters.The hours he spent getting that “characteristically potent sound out of it” paid off
  
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• Archaeologists say they have proof humans carved huge pits near Stonehenge

  27-11-2025 15:02
  Research team uses range of novel methods and equipment to analyse ‘extraordinary’ Durrington pit circleThe presence of an extraordinary circle of yawning pits created by Neolithic people near Stonehenge has been proved thanks to a novel combination of scientific techniques, a team of archaeologists is claiming.The architects of Stonehenge may have had the heavens in mind when they built the great stone monument in Wiltshire, but the team believes the makers of the Durrington pit cir
  
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• DNA reveals stone age teenager as chewer of 10,500-year-old ‘gum’

  23-11-2025 21:26
  The prehistoric birch tar found in Estonia contained traces of saliva that were analysed by genetics expertsA piece of stone age “gum” chewed by a teenage girl 10,500 years ago has been discovered by archaeologists in Estonia.The Institute of History and Archaeology at the University of Tartu discovered the prehistoric birch tar had impressions of teeth marks and traces of saliva. Continue reading...
  
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• Rosemary Church obituary

  23-11-2025 18:33
  My mother, Rosemary Church, who has died aged 86, was a primary school teacher and a local historian whose work focused on Faringdon in Oxfordshire, the town where she lived for much of her life.In 1978 she founded the Faringdon and District Archaeological and Historical Society, whose members catalogued gravestones in churches, transcribed documents of local interest, collected photographs from a bygone age, put on exhibitions and talks, and set up a history resource centre for use by the commu
  
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• Rare bronze and iron age log boats reveal details of Cambridgeshire prehistory

  14-11-2025 01:01
  Well-preserved oak and maple boats used for transport and fishing to be displayed in PeterboroughAfter lying undisturbed in mud for more than 3,000 years, three rare bronze and iron age log boats have emerged to offer fresh insights into prehistoric life.The boats were among nine discovered in a Cambridgeshire quarry 13 years ago – the largest group of prehistoric boats found in the same UK site. Most were well preserved, with one still able to float despite its long incarceration. Continu
  
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• Excavating the CA Archive – Palaeolithic Kent and Sussex

  06-11-2025 18:10 via archaeology.co.uk
  In last month’s column, I explored Palaeolithic important prehistoric sites not just in Britain but in the whole of western Europe. Here I will follow up on that review by moving south into Kent and Sussex. A series of discoveries made in these counties has further enriched our knowledge of the deep past of what were to become the British Isles, and played a crucial part in the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project of 2001-2011, which transformed our understanding of this peri
  
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• Current Archaeology 429 – ON SALE NOW

  06-11-2025 17:28 via archaeology.co.uk
  This month’s articles are bookended by unusual artefacts with intriguing tales to tell. The first is an elaborate pendant bearing emblems associated with Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Analysis of its imagery has revealed a much wider story than was previously imagined, illuminating not only a royal marriage and the world of the Tudor court, but political ambitions and hopes for a lasting peace in 16th-century Europe. The other is a mysterious Roman dodecahedron. Theories abound for h
  
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• Current Archaeology 429

  06-11-2025 17:28 via archaeology.co.uk
  This month’s articles are bookended by unusual artefacts with intriguing tales to tell. The first is an elaborate pendant bearing emblems associated with Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon. Analysis of its imagery has revealed a much wider story than was previously imagined, illuminating not only a royal marriage and the world of the Tudor court, but political ambitions and hopes for a lasting peace in 16th-century Europe. The other is a mysterious Roman dodecahedron. Theories abound for
  
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• A multi-sided story

  06-11-2025 09:00 via archaeology.co.uk
  Examining the Norton Disney dodecahedron in its wider contextThe Norton Disney dodecahedron. IMAGE: University of Nottingham Museum/Alan Fletcher
  Around 130 dodecahedra have been found across the northern Roman Empire, but the purpose of these ornate objects is unknown, and few have been recovered from datable contexts in modern excavations. An important exception forms the focus of an exhibition exploring the archaeology of Potter Hill, Lincolnshire. Carly Hilts visited the displays and spoke t
  
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• Archaeologists discover how oldest American civilisation survived a climate catastrophe

  05-11-2025 14:50
  Experts find artefacts left behind in Caral showing how population survived drought without resorting to violenceArchaeologists in Peru have found new evidence showing how the oldest known civilization in the Americas adapted and survived a climate catastrophe without resorting to violence.A team led by the renowned Peruvian archaeologist Ruth Shady, 78, concluded that about 4,200 years ago, severe drought forced the population to leave the ancient city of Caral, and resettle nearby. Continue re
  
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• Bigger on the inside

  29-10-2025 20:02 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  The very helpful discussion on blog alternatives a few posts back, still bubbling on, seems for now to be pointing to trying to regrow an audience here. I think that means I need to start posting more than once every few months, don’t you? And things are sufficiently exciting just now that I am starting to stub bloig posts again, for the first time in ages. But I have left it late for today, so let me just bounce some medievalist photography off you once again, if I may?This is the view yo
  
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• The big ‘what’s going on’

  21-10-2025 21:39 via tenthmedieval.wordpress.com
  The time has come (the blogger said) to talk of big things. I have flown flags enough, over the last few posts, sporadic as they have been, to give the impression that change was afoot in my life as well as maybe in the blog, and so here at last is the announcement. These are the headlines.
  For reasons which the blog more or less makes clear, if you read back over the doldrums, hiatuses, shortage of news and posts about industrial action, despite having had a secure academic appointment in a top
  
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• ‘It would be wonderful’: the team hoping to unearth ‘Cornwall’s Stonehenge’

  12-10-2025 14:00
  Experts and volunteers working at Castilly Henge have been trying determine if it is the county’s lost great stone circleIt was a grey Cornish autumn day, but Henry Stevens’s tough shift digging in a field next to the A30 was about to get very exciting.Her eye was caught by something glinting in the soil and she picked up a flake of flint that had lain for thousands of years within what might just turn out to be a Cornish version of Stonehenge. Continue reading...
  
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• Why it’s worth taking a wider look at biarchal cultures | Letters

  10-10-2025 18:23
  In places such as Canada, the US, parts of Africa, southern India and Polynesia, biarchal traditions are almost within living memory, says Simon DawsonLaura Spinney offers a compelling glimpse into the possibility that gender-egalitarian societies once flourished in the past – cultures where women held substantial autonomy and influence (The big idea: Was prehistory a feminist paradise?, 5 October). However, her article remains constrained by a predominantly Eurocentric lens.Most of Spinne
  
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• Excavating the CA Archive – Palaeolithic Norfolk and Suffolk

  07-10-2025 19:14 via archaeology.co.uk
  In the previous few columns I have explored some of the great towns of Roman Britain – so, as a change of pace, here I will begin a new mini-series on the country’s great prehistoric sites. I will commence this month with a series of locations in Norfolk and Suffolk where there is evidence for Palaeolithic activity, some dating back to the Lower Palaeolithic (c.3.3 million-300,000 years ago), others spanning the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (c.300,000-50,000 and c.50,000-12,000 year
  
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• A battlefield hit by HS2 – and planning rules | Letter

  07-10-2025 18:41
  Permitted development regulations allowed the contractor to strip topsoil and damage potential archaeology, writes Simon MarshIt isn’t just the countryside and its residents that are suffering due to HS2 (‘It’s been beyond difficult’: earthworks of HS2 take toll on Chilterns residents, 2 October). The high-speed rail contractor has recently done considerable damage to potential archaeology on the nationally important registered battlefield at Edgcote, a Wars of the Roses
  
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• The people of St Peter’s

  07-10-2025 17:30 via archaeology.co.uk
  Encountering a community from 19th-century BlackburnHeadland Archaeology’s excavation of the remains of St Peter’s, Blackburn, and its burial ground revealed a wealth of information about people buried there in the 19th century. IMAGE: Headland Archaeology
  On 30 September 1820, the cornerstone for a new Anglican church was laid in Blackburn town centre. Consecrated the following year, St Peter’s had been built to help accommodate the Lancashire town’s rapidly growing popu
  
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• New Orleans couple discovers ancient Roman grave marker in their yard

  07-10-2025 11:00
  Discovery of 1,900-year-old headstone dedicated to Roman sailor sets off effort to repatriate item to ItalyA New Orleans couple clearing away undergrowth in their home’s yard unearthed a grave marker, setting off a quest for answers about how the roughly 1,900-year-old relic ended up there – and an effort to repatriate it to Italy.The remarkable discovery was the work of Tulane University anthropologist Daniella Santoro and her husband, Aaron Lorenz, according to a report published o
  
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• Current Archaeology 428 – ON SALE NOW

  06-10-2025 16:04 via archaeology.co.uk
  You might notice that our first three features all begin with a photograph of a burial. Spanning c.3,000 years and hundreds of miles, together they highlight the diverse ways in which past populations have interacted with the dead, and what these practices can tell us about the living.This month’s cover feature takes us to Blackburn in Lancashire, where one of the largest cemetery excavations of its kind outside London has recovered the remains of almost 2,000 men, women, and children who
  
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• Current Archaeology 428

  06-10-2025 16:04 via archaeology.co.uk
  You might notice that our first three features all begin with a photograph of a burial. Spanning c.3,000 years and hundreds of miles, together they highlight the diverse ways in which past populations have interacted with the dead, and what these practices can tell us about the living.This month’s cover feature takes us to Blackburn in Lancashire, where one of the largest cemetery excavations of its kind outside London has recovered the remains of almost 2,000 men, women, and children who
  
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• Was prehistory a feminist paradise?

  05-10-2025 13:00
  Visions of matriarchal utopia may be wishful thinking, but there’s growing evidence of women wielding powerThere is a stubborn and widely held idea that in some earlier phase of our species’ existence, women had equal status to men, or even ruled, and societies were happier and more peaceful for it. Then along came the patriarchy, and much bloodshed and oppression later, here we all are.This notion of matriarchy and patriarchy as polar opposites – with a switch having been thro
  
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• Country diary: Just how low can a stone circle go? | Sara Hudston

  02-10-2025 06:30
  Withypool, Somerset: This is a landscape where things can lie hidden – not least a bronze-age structure that is more trip hazard than landmarkSeen from the barrow at the top of Withypool Hill, the common stretches away south like a lion’s back, tawny grass glinting as the land dips and then rises to the open skyline. Apart from a bridle path worn through like a rubbed seam, and a distant, narrow thread of road, the ground appears empty. But it’s not – we’r
  
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• ‘It’s incredibly exciting’: ancient canoe unearthed after Hurricane Ian stormed through Florida

  28-09-2025 13:00
  The latest find is likely from the 16th century and could have originated as far away as the CaribbeanFlorida already claims to be the world capital of golf, shark bites and lightning strikes. Now a remarkable discovery following a devastating hurricane has enhanced its position as a global leader in another distinctive field: ancient canoes – some even prehistoric.State archeologists have just completed a painstaking preservation of an ancient wooden canoe discovered by a resident of Fort
  
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• New research may rewrite origins of the Book of Kells, says academic

  26-09-2025 07:00
  Exclusive: Author challenges assumption monks on Iona created manuscript, instead positing its origins are PictishThe Book of Kells was likely to have been created 1,200 years ago in Pictish eastern Scotland, rather than on the island of Iona, according to research that challenges long-held assumptions about one of the world’s most famous medieval manuscripts.The Book of Kells is an intricate, illuminated account of the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that was long thought to
  
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