Current Archaeology - Britain's favourite archaeology magazine
Happy New Year! Our cover story takes us to Snettisham in Norfolk, where a single field has yielded at least 14 Iron Age metalwork hoards. This unique collection has the potential to transform our understanding of ancient artistry and ceremonial practices – and, with analysis of the hoards now published…
Bamburgh Castle: digging the home of Northumbria's kings
Nov 9, 2009 · The Bamburgh Research Project is picking up the pieces of the archaeological work started by legendary eccentric Dr Brian Hope-Taylor, who had left virtually no record of his excavations — or so it was believed. The story of Bamburgh is two-fold: before properly investigating the site, the team must first excavate the archaeologist who worked there 60 years ago. Bamburgh Castle is one of ...
Sutton Hoo at the British Museum - Current Archaeology
Jun 20, 2014 · Marking the 75th anniversary of a watershed discovery In May 1939, Suffolk archaeologist Basil Brown made a discovery that would change perceptions of Anglo-Saxon England forever: a spectacular 7th-century ship burial, overlooking the River Deben at Sutton Hoo. Seventy-five years on, its contents form the centrepiece of the British Museum’s recently reopened Early Medieval Europe gallery. CA ...
News Archives - Current Archaeology
A large Anglo-Saxon cemetery has recently been discovered at Overstone in Northamptonshire. With 154 interments, it is the largest burial ground from…
Articles Archives - Current Archaeology
Since CA 360 (March 2020) I have criss-crossed the United Kingdom, examining its history through the eyes of Current Archaeology. I have…
Designed to enchant: the great dolmens of Neolithic northern …
Aug 4, 2022 · The word ‘dolmen’ – derived from the Breton taol maen (‘stone table’) – is regarded as a folk term for Neolithic monuments that consist of a massive capstone supported by three or more upright stones, or orthostats. Archaeologists have sought to subdivide these monuments into more precise typological categories, but Vicki Cummings and Colin Richards, the authors of Monuments in the ...
The chances of surviving the Black Death - Current Archaeology
Mar 18, 2008 · Why did some people survive the Black Death, and others succumb? At the time of the plague – which ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, carrying off 50 million people, perhaps half the population – various prophylactics were tried, from the killing of birds, cats and rats to the wearing of leather breeches (protecting the legs from flea bites) and the burning of aromatic spices and herbs. Now ...
Peasant houses in Midland England - Current Archaeology
May 1, 2013 · How the Black Death prompted a building boom It used to be thought that only high-class houses had survived from the Medieval period. Radiocarbon and tree-ring dating has now revealed that thousands of ordinary Medieval homes are still standing in the English Midlands, many incorporated into des res village houses. Chris Catling reports on how some peasants lived very well in the Middle Ages ...
Secrets of Sutton Hoo - Current Archaeology
Sep 13, 2017 · Sutton Hoo is best known for the elite Anglo-Saxon cemetery excavated there in the 1930s, but more recent campaigns tell an even richer tale. The royal burials sprang from an earlier cemetery, and were followed by dozens of graves of execution victims. How does the sequence track the journey of Anglo-Saxons, from pagan immigrants to a Christian kingdom? Brought together in a new book, Carly ...
Digs Archives - Current Archaeology
Guide to fieldwork & digs you can join Please Note: Listings are being updated as details come in Looking for some inspiration? Why not try using the links below to get you started: Dig for a Day ¦ Roman Digs ¦ Digs Suitable for Children ¦ All Inclusive Digs ¦ Completely Free Digs Search by Location: All Areas | Scotland | Wales | North East | North West | Yorkshire | Midlands | East of ...