Archaeology in Europe

This blog is now located at http://archaeology-in-europe.blogspot.com/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to ...

Read more

On 25 February a Ludlow woman became the first person in the UK to face the full wrath of the Treasure Act for failing to report an ancient artefact find.Kate Harding, 23, pleaded guilty to breaching the act, was given a three month conditional discharge and ordered to hand over...

Read more

A ROMAN quern stone discovered near Chaigley has sparked excitement in archaeological circles.The stone was taken into Ribchester Roman Museum's 'Finds Day' on Saturday by a local woman and Curator Patrick Tostevin says it was definitely "the highlight of the day.""It is the sort of object that would suggest there...

Read more

To the Asiatics, as they were called, the lush Nile Delta, with its open marshlands rich with fish and fowl, was a veritable Garden of Eden. From earliest times, Canaanites and other Asiatics would come and settle here. Indeed, this is the background of the Biblical story of the famine...

Read more

The history of the road, which runs from Winchester to Chichester, is to be investigated and people are invited to get involved in a field visit.People wanting to get a closer look at the ancient road should attend a workshop on Saturday March 20, held at the Milburys Pub in...

Read more

Birmingham City Council Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Sport, Cllr Martin Mullaney, today congratulated the Staffordshire Hoard team after it scooped a top archaeology award.The team that recovered the Anglo-Saxon treasure, including staff from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, have won the Current Archaeology award for ‘The Best Rescue...

Read more

TODAY the tiny 9th century oratory of St Piran lies buried deep in the dunes above Perranporth. But not for long. The Historic Environment Service of Cornwall Council and the St Piran Trust will work with English Heritage and Natural England to uncover the historic church which has been overwhelmed...

Read more

An iron sword, gaming pieces and an arsenal of arrows from a set of antler bone carvings found next to corpses in Viking graves will be revealed by archaeologists in York this May.The Jorvik Viking Centre has obtained the burial hoard from The Orkney Museum, which has held the remains...

Read more

Thousands of years ago our Neolithic forebears were hunting wild game with flint arrows in the hills overlooking what is now Ballymena. Now they’re still making their presence felt, delaying a road dualling scheme that was aimed at easing congestion between the town and the M2. The A26 Ballee Road...

Read more

People staying in Florence hotels next month may find that a new exhibition at the Florence Archaeological Museum could be of interest.Entitled Abu Simbel - The Rescue of the Temples, Man and Technology, it features installations relating to the relocation of a host of "colossal temples" in order to protect...

Read more

The four-inch long nail is thought to be one of thousands used in crucifixions across the Roman empire.Archaeologists believe it dates from either the first or second century AD. The nail was found last summer in a decorated box in a fort on the tiny isle of Ilheu de Pontinha,...

Read more

Don’t laugh—researchers say a cache of ostrich eggshells engraved with geometric designs demonstrates the existence of a symbolic communication system around 60,000 years ago among African hunter-gatherers.The unusually large sample of 270 engraved eggshell fragments, mostly excavated over the past several years at Diepkloof Rock Shelter in South Africa, displays...

Read more

What do Homo sapiens have that our hominid ancestors did not? Many researchers think that the capacity for symbolic behaviors—such as art and language—is the hallmark of our species. A team working in South Africa has now discovered what it thinks is some of the best early evidence for such...

Read more

Gothic text recently discovered behind the Henry Hyde Monument on Salisbury Cathedral’s south aisle wall, now thought to date from the 15th century, has some lines of text that experts have been unable to identify. The Cathedral is appealing for people to help solve the mystery.Tim Tatton-Brown, the cathedral’s...

Read more

Startling new forensic research has revealed that multicultural Britain is nothing new after discovering black Africans were living in high society in Roman York.A study of various remains and artefacts from the 4th century at the Yorkshire Museum shows North Africans were living there thousands of years ago.The most exciting...

Read more

Campaigners in Colchester hit their target yesterday of raising £200,000 towards saving the only Roman chariot-racing circus ever found in Britain. Nothing remains above ground except a few stones, but the campaigners aim to buy a Victorian garden which covers a crucial part of the track: the starting gates from...

Read more

The first exhibition in Hungary of the gold treasures of the Thracian kingdom, which flourished on Bulgaria's present territory 3,000 years ago, will open in Nagykanizsa (SW) on March 19, organiser Csilla Kofalvi said.The unique find unearthed ten years ago in the region of Kazanlak will first be shown outside...

Read more

Visitors to Pompeii will be able to experience a live dig next month in the ancient Roman town that was buried in Mount Vesuvius' catastrophic eruption in 79 A.D.The site of the open-door excavation is the so-called House of the Chaste Lovers, a building that came to light in 1987...

Read more

Paul Buckland refused to pass students who didn't understand the basics of archaeology - and he's just one of many academics under pressure to raise the marks of undeserving students. So will Buckland's legal victory halt the destruction of standards in some universities, asks Julie Henry Read the rest of...

Read more

As a species of seeming feeble, naked apes, we humans are unlikely candidates for power in a natural world where dominant adaptations can boil down to speed, agility, jaws and claws. Why we rose to rule, while our hominin relatives died out, has long been a curiosity for scientists.The study...

Read more

AN URN discovered during the excavation of a large Roman site in Cullompton used to contain human remains for burial.The 2,000-year-old vessel, which is whole and unbroken, was dug up during construction work on the Millwood Homes site in the centre of the town.It was x-rayed at Exeter Airport...

Read more

Archaeologists have revealed the remains of what they say was a "high status" woman of African origin who lived in York during Roman times.Academics say the discovery goes against the common assumption that all Africans in Roman Britain were low status male slaves.Remains of the Ivory Bangle Lady, as she...

Read more

A female "vampire" unearthed in a mass grave near Venice, Italy, may have been accused of wearing another evil hat: a witch's.The 16th-century woman was discovered among medieval plague victims in 2006. Her jaw had been forced open by a brick—an exorcism technique used on suspected vampires in Europe at...

Read more

You can now explore Stonehenge from your living room thanks to a new online virtual representation of the historically significant site.Created by Heritage Key, which has previously created a virtual tour of the tomb of King Tutankhamen, the Stonehenge project shows you the site at different points in time and...

Read more

A tiny silver badge of a boar has allowed scientists to finally pinpoint the precise spot where they believe Richard III was killed by Henry Tudor's troops, bringing an end to more than 500 years of feverish debate among archaeologists and academics.The miniature emblem of the Plantagenet ruler was discovered...

Read more