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…
This Assyrian winged bull is safe in Chicago, if far from home. How much else is safe?
Trjames
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…
Naia, which means water nymph in Greek, in her watery grave.
Daniel Riordan Araujo
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…
Burial with grave goods.
Peter Akkermans, Sabi Abyad Project
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…
Traces of submerged lands are visible today, if you know where to look.
Richerman
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…
What happens to Romulus and Remus?
Wolfgang Zwanzger/Shutterstock
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…
Now is the winter of our disbelief.
Gareth Fuller/PA
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 ruins of the 11th century Great Umayyad Mosque, Aleppo.
Halabi Lens
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…
The thawing ground gives up its many secrets.
Qanirtuuq Collection
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…
Alfred the Great can finally rest in peace.
Neil Howard
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…
Keeping your head up was tough in Roman times.
Public domain
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…
For days when Lucozade and a Mars bar just won’t cut it.
barclakj
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…
Quantum mechanics has been hailed as the next big thing in technology. And quantum computers are a media favourite. But there is a little-known quantum technology that can peer beneath the earth, which…
It should not be a surprise that East Africa was a hotbed of evolution, because over the last five million years everything about the landscape has changed. The extraordinary forces of plate tectonics…
Finding Entelognathus is a revelation comparable to the discovery of Archaeopteryx.
Brian Choo
A spectacular new “missing link” fossil has been unearthed in China. The 419 million year old armoured fish, called Entelognathus, meaning “complete jaw” solves an age-old debate in science. For palaeontologists…
Frontiers like Hadrian’s Wall are central to the study of the Roman Empire. By now we might expect to have discovered most such major landmarks. However, by scrutinising archives of aerial photography…
Syria’s ancient fortifications are sadly in use once again, and have been heavily damaged.
Emma Cunliffe
What makes us human? Whatever it is, it can be found in Syria. When the earliest hominids first came from Africa they passed through Syria, and their remains, together with the tools they made, can still…