Archaeology in the news

Ancient beauty accessories, sarcophagi and urns recovered after illegal excavation in UmbriaItalian police have recovered a trove of funerary treasures, believed to have belonged to Etruscan princesses, that were illegally excavated from a vast underground tomb in the Umbria region.The finds, which included eight urns, two sarcophagi – one containing the remains of a woman aged between 40 and 45 – and beauty accessories, originated from a hypogeum that has been traced to an influential Etruscan family who lived between 300BC and 100BC. Continue reading…

Researchers are baffled by 12th-century corpses uncovered at a heritage learning centre built in the garden of Leicester Cathedral after discovery of Richard III’s remainsIn gardens a few metres from Leicester Cathedral, archaeologists have made a disturbing discovery. Their excavations have revealed a narrow vertical shaft filled with the remains of 123 men, women and children.It is one of the largest pit burials ever excavated in the UK, with subsequent research suggesting the bodies were dumped there more than 800 years ago, early in the 12th century. Continue reading…

Archaeologist Alan Endacott says area may have been site of henge monument similar to ‘earlier phase of Stonehenge’Two neolithic stone circles have been discovered on Dartmoor, adding credibility to the theory that a “sacred arc” of monuments was built in the heart of the wild Devon uplands.One of the circles appears to have similar features to Stonehenge, while the second sits slightly outside the sweep of the arc and could have served as a gateway used by pilgrims travelling to the area. Continue reading…

Handle depicting secutor gladiator found on ‘edge of empire’ to go on displayA rare and pristine example of gladiator memorabilia found in the River Tyne is to go on display, shining light on a 2,000-year-old culture of celebrity and sex appeal.English Heritage said the copper alloy figurine would have been a decorative handle on a folding knife. Found near Corbridge, Northumberland, it provides proof that the superstar status of gladiators extended to the far edges of the Roman empire. Continue reading…

Tickets to visit ruins buried by Mount Vesuvius, seen by 4 million this summer, to be capped at 20,000 a dayPompeii is to limit visitor numbers to 20,000 a day and introduce personalised tickets from next week in an effort to cope with overtourism and protect the world heritage site, officials said.This summer, a record 4 million people visited the remains of the ancient Roman city, which was buried under ash and rock after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. Continue reading…

Leading Egyptologist who began the process of reassessing the significance of early societies in Nubia and SudanWhen the Egyptian government under President Nasser decided to build the High Dam at Aswan in the 1950s, flooding lower Nubia and its archaeological sites, Unesco initiated an international campaign to save and relocate its monuments, including the temples of Abu Simbel and Philae, and the huge fortress of Buhen, just within Sudan.The excavation of Buhen, which began in 1957, was the UK’s major contribution to the campaign, funded by the Egypt Exploration Society, and directed by Bryan Emery, professor of Egyptology at University College London. Harry Smith, then a young Cambridge lecturer, joined the team in 1959, working at Buhen and other sites in Nubia until 1965. Continue reading…

Scientists studying DNA find one person in scene of cowering family was a man and not a ‘mother’ It is a tragic moment, frozen in time: a family of four shelters beneath a staircase as ash and pumice rains down on Pompeii. But scientists studying DNA of the victims say this famous scene is not what it seems: the “mother” of the group is actually a man.When Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79, the Roman town of Pompeii was destroyed, and its remaining inhabitants were buried beneath a thick blanket of ash and pumice. These victims were later immortalised by archaeologists who used plaster to fill the voids left by their bodies. Continue reading…

Original purpose of King Arthur’s Hall is a mystery and archaeologists say it is unique in EuropeAn enigmatic stone and turf structure on Bodmin Moor that was previously thought to be a medieval animal pen has been found to be 4,000 years older – and unique in Europe.The rectangular monument was built not in the early medieval period to corral livestock, as recorded by Historic England, but rather in the middle Neolithic, between 5,000 and 5,500 years ago, archaeologists have discovered. Continue reading…

Archaeologists draw on laser mapping to find city they have named Valeriana, thought to have been founded pre-AD150After swapping machetes and binoculars for computer screens and laser mapping, a team of researchers have stumbled on a lost Maya city of temple pyramids, enclosed plazas and a reservoir, all of which had been hidden for centuries by the Mexican jungle.The discovery in the south-eastern Mexican state of Campeche came about after Luke Auld-Thomas, an anthropologist at Northern Arizona University, began wondering whether non-archaeological uses of the state-of-the-art laser mapping known as lidar could help shed light on the Maya world. Continue reading…

Researchers say skeleton retrieved from well is likely to be that of man ‘cast headfirst’ into it by besiegers of castleIn 1197, an ancient saga relates, a body was flung into a well by the besiegers of Sverresborg castle outside Nidaros, now the central Norwegian city of Trondheim. More than 800 years later, scientists think they may have found him.“We can never be 100% sure that the remains in the well are those of the man described in the saga,” said Michael Martin of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, a co-author of the study published in the journal iScience. Continue reading…

Boiler bother | Immigration and wars | Bradford blow | Working people | ME/CFS | Erotic SaturdayA few years ago, I got fed up trying to reprogramme my confusing boiler controls twice a year when the clocks change (What is the most efficient way to use central heating? Your energy questions answered, 26 October). So I reset the time on it by just half an hour. Now it comes on a bit late at the start of autumn, when it’s not that cold anyway, and a bit early in the depths of winter, when it’s really cold. Result.Dr Nigel MellorNewcastle upon Tyne• If governments want to stop unorthodox immigration, they should get stuck into stopping the wars that force people to flee for their lives (Despair in Chad camps as violence and hunger in Sudan drive 25,000 across border in a week, 21 October).Emma Tait London Continue reading…

Eminent archaeologist who was known for his excavations at Stonehenge, and later advised on large-scale projects including the Channel tunnelTimothy Darvill, who has died aged 66 of cancer, worked on international archaeological projects in the Isle of Man, Malta, Russia, Germany and the US, but was best known for his research on Stonehenge, which he fervently believed was a prehistoric healing centre. His excavations within the stone circle in 2008 were the first to be permitted there for more than 40 years.Darvill’s trench in the south-east sector of the monument, between the trilithons and the outer sarsen circle, was designed to investigate the circle of bluestone pillars there, and to obtain evidence for the date of their insertion. It was thought that the bluestones represented one of the earliest phases of the monument. Charcoal recovered suggested a date of around 2300BC for the construction of the bluestone circle, but most interesting of all were finds that pointed towards significant modification in the later Roman period, with stone working going on well into the early medieval. It was clear that some stones had lost more than two-thirds of their original size thanks to such chipping and reworking. Continue reading…

Paintings include one depicting a scantily clad Phaedra, mythological queen of Athens, and her stepson HippolytusA tiny house featuring erotic frescoes is the latest discovery in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Experts say the exquisitely decorated abode, called the House of Phaedra after the mythological queen of Athens, sheds light on the changing architectural styles in the first century AD but is also further proof that the residents of Pompeii had an appetite for sensual art.The vividly coloured wall paintings include one depicting a sexual encounter between a satyr and a nymph on a bed and one of a scantily clad Phaedra and her stepson Hippolytus, whom, according to Greek legend, she accused of rape after he spurned her advances. Another fresco features gods presumed to be Venus and Adonis. Continue reading…

Celtic coins in Jersey, vast Neolithic structures in Spain and France, and a Roman bath or two feature in our tipsters’ picks from antiquity and beyondFeeling the need for some brief respite from the crowds and snaking queues in Florence, an afternoon visit to the Etruscan hilltop town of Fiesole fit the bill. The settlement can be found within the archaeological area and could date back as far as the ninth century BC. The Romans conquered it in 283BC. I stood on the sunny hilltop, imagining that I was a Roman, spying my enemies approaching. There is far more to see in Fiesole than first appears – including a Roman theatre, Roman and Etruscan artefacts and the remains of Roman baths. This fascinating town is definitely worth a visit, to feel immersed in ancient history.Alison N Continue reading…

Archaeologist, curator at the British Museum and leading expert in the field of Greco-Roman medicineAs an archaeologist, material culture specialist and expert on Roman Britain, Ralph Jackson, who has died from cancer aged 73, created an impressive body of work during nearly four decades as a curator at the British Museum.He was a leading expert in the field of Greco-Roman medicine, and one of very few scholars who specialised in its material aspects, specifically surgical instruments and paraphernalia recovered in excavation. His 1988 book Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire has sold thousands of copies across the English-speaking world. Continue reading…

Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is cracking the secrets of ancient brains – even as hers betrays herAlexandra Morton-Hayward, a 35-year-old mortician turned molecular palaeontologist, had been behind the wheel of her rented Vauxhall for five hours, motoring across three countries, when a torrential storm broke loose on the plains of Belgium. Her wipers pulsed at full speed as the green fields of Flanders turned a blurry grey. Behind her sat a small, black picnic cooler. Within 24 hours, it would be full of human brains – not modern specimens, but brains that had contemplated this landscape as far back as the middle ages and had, miraculously, remained intact.For centuries, archaeologists have been perplexed by discoveries of ancient skeletons devoid of all soft tissue, except what Morton-Hayward cheerfully described as “just a brain rattling around in a skull”. At Oxford, where she is a doctoral candidate, she has gathered the world’s largest collection of ancient brains, some as old as 8,000 years. Additionally, after poring over centuries of scientific literature, she has tallied a staggering catalogue of cases – more than 4,400 preserved brains as old as 12,000 years. Using advanced technologies such as mass spectrometry and particle accelerators, she is leading a new effort to reveal the molecular secrets that have enabled some human brains to survive longer than Stonehenge or the Great Pyramid of Giza. Continue reading…

£4.3m hoard acquired for the nation by South West Heritage Trust will be displayed at British Museum next monthIt began with a speculative trip to a soggy field in south-west England by a seven-strong band of metal detectorists more intent on figuring out how to use some new kit rather than unearthing anything of great historical importance.But the friends came upon an astonishing hoard of coins – 2,584 silver pennies – from the time of the Norman conquest, which has been valued at £4.3m, making it the highest-value treasure find ever in England. Continue reading…

Humans and horses have been entwined throughout history, one could not have thrived without the other, according to a new book that explores a unique bondIt was a heart-stopping sight. On 24 April this year, blood-drenched horses galloped through rush-hour traffic in central London, smashing chaotically into a tourist bus and a taxi, before careening along pavements in blind panic. The horses, which serve in the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment guarding the king, were on their daily morning exercises near Buckingham Palace when loud noises from a building site caused them to bolt and rampage through the capital for more than two hours. Six people were hospitalised with minor injuries, but all the horses survived in what seemed a once-in-a-lifetime event. Then, on 1 July, it happened again. Three regal horses bolted through Knightsbridge, this time fleeing a London bus.Having just published Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History, William T Taylor knows a thing or two about horses and he acknowledges the curiousness of the horses’ escape when I call him at his home in Colorado. “The funny thing about our modern world is that horses are so deeply embedded in so much of our culture,” he says. “That grew out of their role in things like transport, communication and agriculture. It’s a powerful example, these military horses. It might take them escaping and running amok for us to think about it, but it has actually always struck me, when visiting London, just what a majestic and dangerous symbol of power and authority they represent.” Continue reading…

Researchers hope to uncover how people died and how diseases have developed over 1,000 yearsDeep beneath the streets of Paris, the dead are having their last word. They are recounting 1,000 years of death in the city: how many are ­buried in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up Les Catacombes, what killed them and how the diseases that may have led to their demise have ­developed over the centuries.In the first ever scientific study of the site, a team of archeologists, anthropologists, biologists and ­doctors is examining some of the skeletons of an estimated 5-6 ­million people whose bones were literally dumped down quarry shafts at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th. Continue reading…

Researchers urge caution after Jordan tomb excavation and say new clues about Nabataean culture may lie elsewhereFor one of the most famous ancient sites on the planet, there is a surprising amount about the city of Petra – and the Nabataean people who built it – that we don’t know for sure.What exactly were their origins? How did their society operate? And why did they hand-carve such spectacular monuments into the reddish rock of the Jordanian desert? Continue reading…