Archaeology in the news

Previously unseen artefacts show invading forces included communities of men, women, children, craftworkers and merchantsDozens of sites linked to the Viking great army as it ravaged Anglo-Saxon England more than 1,000 years ago have been discovered. Leading experts from York University have traced the archaeological footprint of the Scandinavian invaders, identifying previously unknown sites and routes.The study, conducted by Dawn M Hadley, professor of medieval archaeology, and fellow archaeology professor Julian D Richards, found that the significance of many of the ingots, gaming pieces and other artefacts unearthed by metal detectorists over the years had been overlooked until now. They also discovered about 50 new sites that they believe were visited by the Viking great army. Continue reading…

The altar stone, which we now know is from Scotland, may have been a gift or marker of political allianceFive thousand years after the first monument was created at Stonehenge, it continues to give up dramatic new secrets – such as the “jaw-dropping” revelation earlier this year that its central stone had been transported more than 700km to Salisbury plain from the very north of Scotland.While it had been known for more than a century that the huge sarsens for which Stonehenge is best known come from more than 12 miles (20km) away and its “bluestones” originated in Wales, the discovery that the altar stone, which sits right at its heart, was Scottish caused an archaeological sensation, capturing headlines around the world. Continue reading…

Academics agree that by protecting robotic vehicles and landing sites we will help archaeologists of the futureJust as the outline of an iron-age hut or remains of a Roman sword cause excitement today, archaeologists of the future could be brushing Martian dust off metal and marvelling at one of Nasa’s rovers.Researchers have said that such instruments, as well as other forms of human activity on Mars, including landing sites and debris, must be preserved as part of the archaeological record of space exploration. Continue reading…

Oxford analysis shows evidence of bloody massacre, with hand and feet bones chewed by human molarsA collection of human bones discovered 50 years ago in a Somerset pit are evidence of the bloodiest known massacre in British prehistory – and of bronze age cannibalism, archaeologists say.At least 37 men, women and children were killed at some point between 2200BC and 2000BC, with their bodies thrown into a deep natural shaft at Charterhouse Warren, near Cheddar Gorge. Continue reading…

Trove had been preserved by warm waters and mud at the Tuscan springs near SienaBronze snakes, statues, two gold crowns, jewellery, thousands of coins and perfectly intact eggs are among the latest remarkable discoveries to emerge from the site of an ancient thermal spa in a small town in Tuscany.The trove had been preserved by the warm waters and mud at the springs, believed to have been built by the Etruscans in the second century BC, in San Casciano dei Bagni, a hilltop town close to Siena. Continue reading…

Archaeologist who embraced new ideas and technologies and challenged long-held assumptions about the rise of early civilisationA titan in world archaeology, Colin Renfrew, Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, who has died aged 87, tackled questions key to understanding who we are – what makes us human, how migration changes culture, why civilisations appear, what art means – with new evidence as well as argument. His determination to address big issues with science and data fired his enthusiastic embrace of new ideas and technologies, and his joy in directing excavations.Renfrew entered archaeology in the 1960s at a time of profound change. Younger practitioners were discovering the promise of new sciences and computers, and questioning accepted ideas about prehistory and how to tell its stories. Statistics replaced intuition, in what became known internationally as the New Archaeology, with Renfrew a UK figurehead and Lewis Binford, his friend and sparring partner in disruption, in the US. Continue reading…

Once listed as ‘illegible’, the words of inmates held in bleak fortress are revealed by latest technologyThe writing was on the wall for many of the prisoners incarcerated in the Tower of London over the centuries. Now, it can finally be deciphered.Hundreds of graffiti texts scratched into the historic stone walls by prisoners as they awaited their fate have come to light for the first time. Examples that were either overlooked or illegible are emerging through cutting-edge technology. Continue reading…

The project, which took 22 years to complete, unearthed more than 300,000 treasures now on display across its subway stations It caused untold commotion, decades of disruption and – among historians and archaeologists – controversy and despair. But at midday on Saturday, the antiquities-rich subterranean world of Thessaloniki will open to a world of driverless trains and hi-tech automation with the inauguration of its long-awaited subway.The excitement on the streets of the northern Greek port city is almost palpable. “Archaeologically, it has been an extremely complex and difficult endeavour,” said the culture minister, Lina Mendoni, of the more than 300,000 finds made since construction began 22 years ago. “To get here required a battle on many fronts.” Continue reading…

Researchers say fossilised marks were apparently made in same place within days of each other about 1.5m years agoAbout 1.5m years ago a big-toothed cousin of prehistoric humans walked quickly along a lakeside in Kenya, footprints marking the muddy ground. But they were not our only distant relative on the scene: treading the same ground was the early human Homo erectus.Researchers say an analysis of fossilised footprints discovered in deposits of the Turkana Basin, northern Kenya, suggest the marks were made by two different species on the human family tree who were in the same place within hours or days of each other. Continue reading…

New research revealed canals used for about 1,000 years to channel and catch freshwater fish on the Yucatán peninsulaLong before the ancient Maya built temples, their predecessors were already altering the landscape of Central America’s Yucatán peninsula.Using drones and Google Earth imagery, archaeologists have discovered a 4,000-year-old network of earthen canals in what’s now Belize. The findings were published on Friday in the journal Science Advances. Continue reading…

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…