They may have left this isle around 1,500 years ago, but those Romans are still regularly making news stories in London and further afield around Great Britain.

Each new discovery helps us to further our knowledge and understanding about this fascinating period of British history.

  • Archaeologists uncover Roman ‘service station’ during roadworks in Gloucester
    on 2025-01-16

    The mutatio, on Ermin Street linking Silchester and Gloucester, would have provided a place for travellers to rest or change horsesAt Gloucester services on the M5, travellers are resting and refuelling, taking a break from the demands of the road.Just a few miles east, scores of archaeologists are completing a two-year project that has unearthed a forerunner of the site, a 2,000-year-old Roman take on the service station. Continue reading…

  • The brain collector: the scientist unravelling the mysteries of grey matter – podcast
    on 2025-01-03

    Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is cracking the secrets of ancient brains – even as hers betrays her. By Kermit Pattison Continue reading…

  • Scandinavians came to Britain long before Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, finds study
    on 2025-01-01

    Genetic analysis of Roman soldier or gladiator buried in York reveals 25% of his ancestry came from ScandinaviaPeople with Scandinavian ancestry were in Britain long before the Anglo-Saxons or the Vikings turned up, researchers have found after studying the genetics of an ancient Roman buried in York.The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons brought an influx of Scandinavians to ancient Britain in the fifth century, with the first major Viking raid – which targeted the monastery at Lindisfarne – occurring in AD793. Continue reading…

  • Scrapping the Latin excellence programme is shortsighted | Letter
    on 2024-12-31

    Dr Ulla Rajala says the programme has given state school pupils the same opportunities as those in the private sector, and should not be axedIt has been reported that the government is going to scrap the Latin excellence programme in February. If this goes ahead, we can only lament the shortsightedness of the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson. The programme has allowed students in state schools to read Latin in key stages 3 and 4, and prepare for GCSEs in the subject, giving them the same opportunities as students in private schools.Latin has provided English with a large chunk of its vocabulary and helps to understand the grammar. Latin developed into the Romance languages and can help in learning French, Spanish and Italian. Latin and Greek are behind medical vocabulary, and biological names of species are in Latin. The Romans, who wrote and spoke in Latin, gave Britain straight roads, toilets and city walls. Latin literature is the basis of western literary culture, and Roman law is reflected in our legislation. Latin also supports rhetoric and logical thinking. Continue reading…

  • Ralph Jackson obituary
    on 2024-10-23

    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…

  • The brain collector: the scientist unravelling the mysteries of grey matter
    on 2024-10-22

    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…

  • ‘Failure of Roman engineering on industrial scale’: discovery of water wells in England proves trial and error
    on 2024-08-17

    ‘Astonishingly preserved’ remains in Cambridgeshire give clues to substantial Romano-British industrial settlementThe Romans were remarkable engineers, thousands of years ahead of us on everything from underfloor heating to plumbing. But even they had their off-days and made mistakes, a new discovery reveals.Two wells built in the first century AD have been found in a field in Cambridgeshire by archaeologists from Mola (Museum of London Archaeology), and they reveal the trials and errors involved in a complex design and construction. Continue reading…

  • ‘Humongous’ fort found in Wales may disprove theory of Celtic-Roman peace
    on 2024-08-02

    Site in Pembrokeshire suggests area was more militarised than previously thought, says expert who made discoveryA previously unknown Roman fort discovered in Pembrokeshire in Wales overturns assumptions that the area’s indigenous Celtic tribe was on peaceful terms with the Roman invaders.The site, which has excited archaeologists, had been hidden until now beneath an enormous, overgrown field. It explains why the land had been unsuccessful for farming: the farmer kept hitting stone. Continue reading…

  • Hobbyist archaeologists identify thousands of ancient sites in England
    on 2024-05-27

    Exclusive: Bronze age remains and Roman roads among 12,802 sites discovered using latest technologyBronze age burial mounds, Roman roads and deserted medieval villages are among almost 13,000 previously-unknown ancient sites and monuments that have been discovered by members of the public in recent months, it will be announced this week.Truck drivers and doctors are among more than 1,000 people who participated in Deep Time, a “citizen science project” which has harnessed the power of hobbyists to scour 512 sq km (200 sq miles) of Earth Observation data, including high-resolution satellite and lidar – laser technology – imagery. Continue reading…

  • What could the Roman dodecahedron have been used for?
    on 2024-05-05

    The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical conceptsA 12-sided, 1,700-year-old object with no known purpose was found in Lincolnshire last summer and has just gone on display at Lincoln Museum. What could it have been used for? Paul Elliott, by emailPost your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading…