Archaeology News Online

What was life in the fens like in the period known as the dark ages? Archaeologist Susan Oosthuizen revisits the history of an iconic wetland in the light of fresh evidence and paints a compelling portrait of communities in tune with their changeable environment. In doing so, she makes an important contribution to a wider understanding of early medieval landscapes. Highland Cattle grazing in the Wicken Fen [Credit: © Wicken Fen] The East Anglian fens with their flat expanses and wide skies, a tract of some of the UK's richest farmland, are invariably described as bleak – or worse. Turn the clock back 1,000 years to a time when the silt and peat wetlands were largely undrained, and it's easy to imagine a place that defied rather than welcomed human occupation. Historians have long argued that during the 'dark' ages (the period between the withdrawal of Roman administration in around 400 AD and the Norman Conquest in 1066) most settlements in the region were deserted, and...

Skeletons have been uncovered on-site during redevelopment work at Brighton Dome Corn Exchange and are in the process of being exhumed respectfully and sensitively from underneath the area that was formerly the venue’s mini conference room. The human remains, which have now been exhumed and will be analysed to determine more about the deceased,  are thought to be from a Quaker burial ground that existed before the Royal Pavilion Estate was built  [Credit: Brighton Dome/Carlotta Luke] The remains are thought to be from 'Quakers Croft' a Quaker burial ground that existed before the Royal Pavilion Estate was built. The below map from 1803 shows the Quaker Meeting House facing onto North Street. The burial ground isn't marked, but it is likely to have been behind here in what is marked as 'Promenade Grove': Darryl Palmer of Archaeology South-East who is managing the dig on site, says: “This is a significant find that shines a light on an important historical moment in t...

A Roman sarcophagus has been found, excavated, and lifted from its ancient grave at a site on Harper Road. It is being moved to the Museum of London, where its contents will be exhumed. Archaeologists prepare to lift the lid of Roman sarcophagus found in Southwark, London  [Credit: Lauren Hurley/PA Wire] This is an exceptional find for London, where only two similar late Roman sarcophagi have been discovered in their original place of burial in recent years: one from St Martin-in-the Fields near Trafalgar Square (2006) and one from Spitalfields in 1999. The excavation, which began in January this year, revealed a large robber trench around the coffin and found that the lid had been moved, suggesting that the coffin was discovered and robbed in the past. However, it is possible that only the precious items were removed, and the less valuable artefacts, such as the body itself, still remain within the stone sarcophagus. An archaeologist peers under the lid of Roman sarcophagus [Credi...

In 1986, a long cist burial was dug up in Bridge of Tilt near Blair Atholl, where excavators discovered the skeleton of a man in his forties. Analysis at the time found the man was used to hard work, and lived around 340 to 615 AD, making this one of the earliest Pictish graves ever discovered. The digitally re-created Pictish man [Credit: GUARD Archaeology] Now, GUARD Archaeology in Glasgow and forensic artist Hayley Fisher have managed to digitally recreate the face of the Bridge of Tilt Pict which is now on display at Perth Museum and Art Gallery as part of their Picts and Pixels exhibition. Bob Will, the archaeologist leading this project, said: “The actual burial was found in the 1980s and a certain amount of work was done then. But various members of the local community and groups wanted to do more, so they got in touch to take the project forward and one thing they wanted was a facial reconstruction. That is what got the ball rolling on that one. “We then approached Historic Env...

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a luxurious 5th-century Roman palace in Auch in the Gers – and they face a race against time to excavate it. Excavation of Roman Imperial-era domus in Auch, France [Credit: © Jean-Louis Bellurget, Inrap] Abandoned some 16 centuries ago, this aristocratic ‘domus’ possessed private baths and splendid mosaics on the ground. It was close to the centre of the ancient Roman city of Augusta Auscorum, which was the capital of the province of Novempopulanie - and near the centre of the modern town of Auch. Aerial view of domus excavation [Credit: © Jean-Louis Bellurget, Inrap] Originally found by the landowner digging foundations to build a house, just 50cm below the surface the impressive 2-metre-deep ruins have been revealed. Since the end of April, l’Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (Inrap) has been bringing to light a part of what was once a vast aristocratic home. The Inrap team works on the 5th century domus in Auch [Cr...

The Marine Aggregate Industry Archaeological Protocol encourages the reporting and recording of maritime archaeological finds discovered by the aggregate industry during dredging works. The discoveries that come to light form a database of maritime archaeological finds that otherwise may have been discarded. The scheme boasts the reporting of 1600 finds since its launch in 2005 ranging from metal artefacts to timber and flints. Arguably the most important collection of flint finds reported through the Protocol were recorded on 13 February 2008 as Hanson_0133. The finds were reported by Hanson Aggregates Marine Ltd, (the licensee) and described as ‘28 x hand axes, mammoth molars, tusk fragments and antlers’, and they were recovered from Area 240, a dredging area situated approximately 11 km east of the Norfolk coast. On further analysis, it was established that 88 flint artefacts were present in the assemblage, classified as 33 hand axes, eight cores, and 47 complete and fragmentary fl...

Early Cornish kings feasted on a diet of oysters, roast pork and fine wine, eating and drinking from bowls imported from Byzantium and glass goblets from Spain, a new dig at Tintagel Castle has suggested. Tintagel is intricately bound up in the legend of King Arthur [Credit: Emily Whitfield-Wicks/English Heritage Trust] Discoveries made by the Cornwall archaeological unit (CAU) support the view that Tintagel was a royal site during the 5th and 6th centuries, with trading links reaching as far as the eastern Mediterranean. Perched on Cornwall’s rugged north coast, Tintagel has for centuries been associated with the legend of King Arthur. Over the past 18 months, its custodian, English Heritage, has been accused of putting too much emphasis on the stories of Arthur and Merlin, rather than focusing on the site’s true, ancient Cornish heritage. The excavations, the first at Tintagel for decades, may help redress the balance. An archaeological dig at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall [Credit: Emi...

A ‘House of the Dead’ has been discovered in Wiltshire dating back 5,000 years by University of Reading archaeologists and students, and could contain the ancestors of those who lived around Stonehenge and Avebury. The site in a farmer's field was identified in aerial photographs  [Credit: University of Reading] As part of the University’s final Archaeology Field School in the Pewsey Vale, students and staff, with the support of volunteers from the area, have investigated the site of a Neolithic long barrow burial mound in a place known as Cat’s Brain – the first to be fully investigated in Wiltshire in half a century. The monument, which predates nearby Marden Henge by over 1,000 years, may contain human remains buried there in around 3,600 BC. The monument was first spotted by aerial photography and followed up by geophysical survey imagery. Dr Jim Leary, Director of the Archaeology Field School, said: “Opportunities to fully investigate long barrows are virtually unknown in rece...

Archaeologists from the University of Glasgow have uncovered conclusive radiocarbon evidence of a wooden hut on Iona dating back to the late 6th Century AD, believed to be that of St Columba when he worked at the monastery. Archaeologists have uncovered conclusive evidence that a wooden hut traditionally associated with St Columba  at his ancient monastery (ruins pictured) on the island of Iona dates to his lifetime in the late sixth century  [Credit: University of Glasgow] Radiocarbon tests show samples of charcoaled hazel unearthed from a site excavation 60 years ago, where it is believed Columba’s wooden hut was situated, date back to the exact period it is claimed Columba lived and worked at the monastery. The samples, excavated in 1957 by British archaeologist Professor Charles Thomas, have lain in a garage in Cornwall, preserved in matchboxes, until 2015 when a University of Glasgow team decided to follow up his research. The charcoal samples have now been radiocarbon da...

On the afternoon of Thursday the 22nd of June, at the Roman fort of Vindolanda in Northumberland, archaeologists made one of their most important discoveries since 1992. A new hoard of around 25 Roman ink documents, known as the Vindolanda writing tablets (letters, lists and personal correspondence), were discovered lying in the damp and anaerobic earth where they had been discarded towards the end of the 1st century AD. Excavation trench where the tablets were found [Credit: The Vindolanda Trust] These incredibly rare and fragile wafer-thin pieces of wood are often less than 2mm in thickness and about the size of modern day postcards. The documents were uncovered during the research excavation of a small area of the site (three metres in length) and are likely to represent a part of an archive from a specific period. As the archaeological team, carefully and painstakingly extracted the delicate pieces of wood from the earth they were delighted to see some of the letters were complete ...

Analyzing pigments in medieval illuminated manuscript pages at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) is opening up some new areas of research bridging the arts and sciences. Medieval studies doctoral student Ruth Mullett with a leaf from a 13th-century Italian Antiphonal, one  of the manuscript fragments scanned for chemical composition and trace elements in pigments  [Credit: Rick Ryan/CHESS] Louisa Smieska and Ruth Mullett studied manuscript pages from Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC), dating from the 13th to the 16th centuries, using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and spectral imaging analysis. “Our initial goal was to learn more about Cornell’s fragments and about trends in pigment use,” said Mullett, a medieval studies doctoral student. “An initial survey using a portable point XRF [p-XRF] instrument uncovered several things we weren’t expecting.” Their research, published in the journal Applied Physics A , was co-autho...

A pioneering X-ray technique that can analyse artefacts of any shape or texture in a non-destructive way has been developed by an international team of researchers led by the University of Leicester. Photographs of the archaeology samples (a) Sagalassos tesserae, (b) Roman coin, (c) 16th-century mortar  [Credit: University of Leicester] The technique, which has been showcased in a paper published in the journal Acta Crystallographica A , uses X-ray diffraction (XRD) in order to determine crystallographic phase information in artefacts with very high accuracy and without causing damage to the object being scanned. Using the technique, researchers can identify pigments in paintings and on painted objects -- which could potentially be applied in the future to help to clamp down on counterfeit artwork and artefacts and verify authenticity. The research suggests that the non-invasive technique could also eliminate the frequent need to compromise between archaeological questions that can...

What was life in the fens like in the period known as the dark ages? Archaeologist Susan Oosthuizen revisits the history of an iconic wetland in the light of fresh evidence and paints a compelling portrait of communities in tune with their changeable environment. In doing so, she makes an important contribution to a wider understanding of early medieval landscapes. Highland Cattle grazing in the Wicken Fen [Credit: © Wicken Fen] The East Anglian fens with their flat expanses and wide skies, a tract of some of the UK's richest farmland, are invariably described as bleak – or worse. Turn the clock back 1,000 years to a time when the silt and peat wetlands were largely undrained, and it's easy to imagine a place that defied rather than welcomed human occupation. Historians have long argued that during the 'dark' ages (the period between the withdrawal of Roman administration in around 400 AD and the Norman Conquest in 1066) most settlements in the region were deserted, and...