“Viking!” was the word retired businessman Derek McLennan shouted to metal detector enthusiasts standing in a field in Dumfriesshire in south-west Scotland in September. He had just uncovered a hoard of…
Metal detecting enthusiast Derek McLennan’s recent discovery of Viking-age artefacts at a site in Dumfries and Galloway is both spectacular and impressive. Not only did he uncover a hoard of Viking-age…
The recent discoveries at Stonehenge, including ritual monuments, burial mounds and a long barrow, are wonderful examples of how archaeological geophysics can be used in areas where excavation is hard…
Although it is not yet 6am, and the sun has only just begun to rise, already the thermometer is pushing 30C, and the humidity so high it is impossible not to sweat. I’m leading an Australian archaeological…
A recent advert by sanitary product manufacturer Always asks us to think harder about the term “like a girl” by asking young adults and teenagers to run, throw or fight “like a girl”. Without thinking…
It is great news that the National Trust has bought Hambledon Hill, a Iron Age hill fort in southwest England, for the nation. Now the expertise of its in-house archaeologists and conservators can be used…
Iraq has a long and rich heritage, home for thousands of years to mighty empires – Assyria and Babylon, the Abbasid caliphate – that ruled the region once known as Mesopotamia, widely held as the cradle…
Although some countries bar the export of all cultural heritage objects, this is not the case in the UK. It is legal to sell British antiquities overseas, but sellers must acquire an export license for…
The discovery of a nearly complete fossil skeleton of a teenage girl in the Hoyo Negro submerged cave system in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula provides new insight into the first people to inhabit the Americas…
Death can be a problematic topic. Although not taboo, we’re simply not encouraged to talk about it normally. We’ll happily discuss it in an abstract sort of way, ponder over the death of others (as long…
When scientists from Imperial College released a simulation of a tsunami, triggered by a vast undersea landslide at Storrega off the coast of Norway around 6000 BC, it probably came as a surprise to many…
It has been reported that new archaeological finds have pushed back the age of Rome. A team of archaeologists discovered the remains of a wall built to channel water, which dates back to the ninth century…
In a recent paper in Nature, we described a strange marine animal, called Tamisiocaris. They were giants that swam in the oceans over 500 million years ago. They had strange looking appendages on their…
Controversy over Richard III’s alleged resting place in a lonely Leicester car park has recently erupted after two eminent academics claimed it could not be said with any confidence that the skeleton in…
The destruction and looting of cultural heritage has been intertwined with conflict for thousands of years. To steal an enemies’ treasures, defile their sacred places and burn their cities has been part…
Villagers living in the Somerset levels who have been inundated with floodwaters for weeks will be able to sympathise with the difficulties faced by those in the similarly low-lying Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta…
After months of research, excavating old graves and following one lead after another, my colleagues and I can confirm that remains we discovered are those of English king Alfred the Great or his son Edward…
During a 1988 excavation on London Wall 39 human skulls were discovered. But they remained shrouded in mystery. Now though, forensic analysis of the skulls by bio-archaeoloist Rebecca Redfern, shows that…
Pompeii has always been a magical place for me with its vast avenues and huge government buildings, small familiar houses and gardens and, of course, the mummified bodies of town citizens, immortalised…
During the warm periods between ice ages stretching from 500,000 to 200,000 years ago, the southern parts of Britain were occupied by a species of ancient human, Homo heidelbergensis. These hunter-gatherers…