British Archaeology

Missing pieces of a 6th Century Byzantine bucket have been uncovered at a site world-famous for its historical discoveries.

A month-long excavation with archaeologists, conservators and volunteers from the television show Time Team has taken place at Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk.

Fragments of the bucket were first discovered in 1986, with more found in 2012, the National Trust, which manages the site, said.

Further pieces have now been found and experts believed the bucket had previously been damaged and repaired.

A LAST chance to get up close to excavations at a mysterious Herefordshire archaeological site will be on offer this summer, as archaeologists work to solve a mystery.

For a final summer, members of the public will get the chance to get up close to archaeological excavations being carried out at Arthur’s Stone.

Tours of the mysterious and evocative English Heritage site in Dorstone also took place in 2022 and 2023 as part of a project to investigate early prehistoric Herefordshire, undertaken by The University of Manchester, Cardiff University and the American Institute for Field Research, in partnership with English Heritage. The project has significantly changed academic understanding of how the monument was used, and its team hope to uncover more of its secrets in 2024.

The Neolithic burial chamber comprises nine upright stones and a gigantic 25-tonne capstone. The 5,700-year-old Golden Valley site is most famous for its links to legends of King Arthur and for being a source of inspiration for the stone table in CS Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

So far, the project has started to unravel a complex sequence of changes to the monument spanning about seven centuries in the early Neolithic (3,700 – 3,000 BCE). We now know that it started as a stone chamber or ‘dolmen’ in the 37th century BCE encircled by a thick stone ring, with an entrance on the north. It was later re-oriented to face south and remodelled within a long cairn faced by drystone walls, with a false entrance between two projecting ‘horns’ of the cairn.

The archaeologists found evidence for an avenue of wooden posts leading to the new entrance which were replaced some centuries later with standing stones. It now looked more like the Long Barrows at Belas Knap and Stoney Littleton (also cared for by English Heritage). A narrow passage was built into one side of the cairn so that the old entrance could still be reached. Inside the passage they found pottery, bone, pitchstone from the Isle of Arran and rock crystal, probably brought from North Wales

Pembroke Castle has been a seat of power for centuries. It was the birthplace of Henry Tudor, father of Henry VIII, and is one of the country’s best preserved medieval strongholds, containing a maze of passages, tunnels and stairways, as well as a vast gatehouse tower. Scientists have discovered that the fortress has also been concealing a startling secret. A cave, known as Wogan Cavern, which lies directly underneath Pembroke Castle, has been found to contain a treasure trove of prehistoric material, including ancient bones and stone tools left behind by early Homo sapiens and possibly by Neanderthals.

These remains will provide key information about the settling of Britain in prehistoric times, say scientists, who last week began their first major excavation of the year at Wogan. Work on the site over coming years should provide answers to major puzzles about prehistoric Britain, including the end of the Neanderthals’ occupation about 40,000 years ago.

Early finds at Wogan include a wide range of fossils including mammoth, reindeer, and woolly rhino, as well as the remains of a hippopotamus, a species that last wallowed in British waters 125,000 years ago. Archaeologists have also found that much of the cavern’s floor is covered with a layer of stalagmite which has preserved the soil, bones, proteins and DNA that lie below.

“The site has got fantastic potential,” said Prof Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum, London. “It’s the best prospect that we have got in providing fresh material that can help us find out how Neanderthals lived in Britain and learn how they were replaced by Homo sapiens.”

A team of professional and amateur archaeologists has been digging for prehistoric, Roman, medieval, and Georgian remains.

The dig at Cothelstone Farm in the Quantocks is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and gives volunteers the opportunity to learn how to excavate a site.

The site was significant to people during the Bronze Age right up until medieval times, archaeologists said.

Dan Broadbent, historic heritage officer for the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme, said: "What makes it so special is the idea that you have a single place looking out at this fantastic view which was clearly important for people in the past over a long period."

The scheme, alongside charity DigVentures, organised the dig after seeing aerial images of the site which showed "potential features".

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"As the story has evolved, we discovered that the ring ditch was probably visible into medieval times, the Romans would have seen it, the Anglo-Saxons would have seen it, so being able to tell that story has been very cool."

The ring ditch was likely a ceremonial site during the Bronze Age.

A number of grave slabs from England's oldest known shipwreck have been recovered by maritime archaeologists.

The remains of the 13th Century Mortar Wreck were discovered in Poole Bay, off Dorset, in 2020.

Cauldrons, cups, pottery and kitchen objects have already been brought to the surface.

A team from Bournemouth University has returned to the site to raise the carved slabs, along with stone mortars - made for grinding flour.

Dr Derek Pitman, head of archaeology at the university, said the wreck was "really well preserved".

"It was full of stone mortars and burial slabs. I've never seen anything like it," he said.

"It probably hit some choppy waters as it was leaving the harbour.

"It's a substantial ship and had a relatively large cargo."

A “lost” boulder rediscovered in a box in Salisbury Museum has provided powerful evidence that the bluestones of Stonehenge were transported from West Wales by glacier ice.

The evidence also makes it clear that the story of the transport of 80 bluestones by heroic Neolithic tribesmen, one of the great Stonehenge myths should now be dumped.

New research, published today in the International Quaternary Science Journal, describes in detail the surface characteristics of the boulder, which suggest that it has had a complex history beginning with glacial entrainment and transport in North Pembrokeshire and ending at Stonehenge with human damage in Neolithic and modern times.

Dig Alderney has discovered part of an Iron Age round house in its latest excavation.

Initially, the most recent dig had not revealed much archaeology but this latest find will offer a target for future excavations.

The team was hoping to find more evidence of Iron Age and Roman Alderney in the trio of trenches that they opened on Les Hugettes.

A pair of trenches were also positioned along Les Mielles to seek more of the large Roman building discovered in 2017.

Dr Jason Monaghan said: "What came as a surprise was the very late date of the pottery found beneath the floors of the building.

"It seems that it was not constructed until the 4th Century AD and was modified even later by the addition of crude drystone walls.

"Some of the pottery in the latest layers may prove to be post-Roman."

Other finds from this dig include 850 shards of Roman pottery with most from the 3rd and 4th Century, a bronze coin - of the Emperor Valens AD364-367 and a silver coin of Caesar Valerian II AD255.

A major research project will take place to "reach the undisturbed archaeology" at a site famous for unearthing an Anglo Saxon burial ship.

The National Trust, which owns the site, said the two-year research project at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, Suffolk, will aim to grow its understanding of the land.

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The excavation will be filmed by Time Team as a series exclusive for a documentary special, hosted by Sir Tony Robinson.

The project, which starts in June, will build on work carried out by Time Team in 2021 and 2023.

Mr Wainwright said previous work by Time Team identified mysterious features in Garden Field, Sutton Hoo.

"We know from previous work in this field, it’s likely we will find prehistoric flint tools and fragments of Anglo Saxon objects from burials scattered through the plough soil, but working out what the mysterious geophysical anomalies are will be our focus."

The mysterious ancient structure was first revealed in 1998 by the shifting sands of Holme-next-the-sea beach on the north Norfolk coast.

It consists of an upturned tree stump surrounded by 55 closely fitted oak posts and was originally built on the salt marsh away from the sea.

Researchers estimate it to have been built using timbers dating from 2049 BC.

The strange structure was positioned such that dunes and mud flats protected it from the sea.

A layer of peat which slowly covered the timbers also protected them from decay over thousands of years. There is a second, adjacent ring centred on two oak logs laid flat, which is also dated to the same year.

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Now, a new paper concludes that the Seahenge and the adjacent circle may have been constructed during a bitterly cold climatic period as a ritual to extend the summer and return to warmer weather.

“Dating of Seahenge timbers showed they were felled in spring, and it was considered most probable that these timbers were aligned with sunrise on the summer solstice,” archaeologist David Nance from the University of Aberdeen said.

“We know that the period in which they were constructed 4,000 years ago was a prolonged period of decreased atmospheric temperatures and severe winters and late springs placing these early coastal societies under stress,” he said.

The Seahenge’s alignment matches with sunrise on the summer solstice, suggesting it mimicked the “pen” described in folklore for an unfledged cuckoo to keep singing and extend the summer.

Archaeologists suspect that the strange monument’s structure imitates the winter dwellings of the cuckoo remembered in folklore – a hollow tree or ‘the bowers of the Otherworld’ represented by the upturned oak stump at its center.

“Summer solstice was the date when according to folklore the cuckoo, symbolising fertility, traditionally stopped singing, returned to the Otherworld and the summer went with it,” Dr Nance explained.

“The ritual is remembered in the ‘myth of the pent cuckoo’ where an unfledged cuckoo was placed into a thorn bush and the bird was ‘walled-in’ to extend the summer but it always flew away,” he said.

The other structure, according to Dr Nance, points to legends of ‘sacred kings’ who were sacrificed if misfortune fell on the community.

“Evidence suggests that they were ritually sacrificed every eight years at Samhain (now Halloween) coincident with the eight-year cycle of Venus,” he said.

“Both monuments are best explained as having different functions and associated rituals, but with a common intent: to end the severely cold weather,” Dr Nance said.

Archaeologists have discovered a Norman bridge during a dig in a West Sussex city.

Experts working in Chichester's Priory Park have uncovered the remains of a military causeway that would have led to the city's 11th Century castle.

The team from Chichester and District Archaeology Society made the discovery during an excavation in the park which is set to finish on Monday.

An open day is being held on Saturday for people to come along and hear about the finds.

An amateur detectorist has described how he unearthed a bronze age hoard, including a rare sword, after getting lost during a treasure hunters’ rally.

John Belgrave, 60, became separated from the main group of detectorists and headed to higher ground to try to spot them when he made what he has called the find of a lifetime.

His device activated as he walked along and when he dug down he uncovered a rapier sword dating back to the middle bronze age.

The 61cm (2ft) rapier had been deliberately broken into three pieces and placed in the ground alongside the remains of a wealthy landowner.

Unusually, the hilt, though cast in bronze, was shaped to mimic a wooden handle. Only two similar rapiers have been found in Britain before and they were incomplete.

As well as the rapier, a palstave axe head and a decorative arm bangle were found, presumably buried as an offering.

Dorset Museum and Art Gallery raised £17,000 to buy the objects, with the proceeds shared between Belgrave and the landowner.

Still not as good as the original series when they had TV funding, but a pretty good dig with 5 trenches.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

A study by students from the University of the Highlands and Islands has revealed that a promontory in the Loch of Wasdale in Firth, Orkney, could be the remains of an ancient crannog.

A crannog is a partially or entirely artificial island, typically built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland from the prehistoric period onward

Despite significant variations in methodology, most crannogs on mainland Scotland were built by driving timber piles into the loch bed and filling the interior with peat, brush, stones, or timber to create a solid foundation.

In largely treeless regions like the Western Isles, these island dwellings utilised a diverse mix of natural, artificially enlarged, or entirely artificial islets.

The discovery was made by students from the UHI Archaeology Institute, who were conducting test-pitting on a promontory at the northern end of the Loch of Wasdale.

According to a press statement by UHI: “It appears as an islet on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map. Little is known about the site, but the fact the shoreside edges appear to show the remains of walling led to the suggestion it may be a crannog.”

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The test-pitting revealed large quantities of cairn-like rubble, in addition to more structural remains or a stone surface, indicating that the entire promontory/islet is artificial.

Martin Carruthers, a lecturer at UHI, said: “A structure made up of some very large masonry seems to lurk at the heart of the cairn makeup. Constructing this ‘monument’ must have been a very substantial undertaking.”

“In terms of artefacts, apart from some later post-medieval glazed pottery, we recovered a single worked flint, probably a ‘thumbnail’ scraper, which is most likely later Neolithic in date,” added Carruthers.

Archaeologists at the Calthorpe Gardens development have found over 18,800 artefacts dating from the Prehistoric Mesolithic, Late Bronze Age-Middle to Late Iron Age, and early Anglo-Saxon times.

Local residents have been invited to view the host of discovered artefacts at a free event taking place at Banbury Town Hall on Thursday June 6, at 7pm.

.The Orbit Homes site is now considered one of significant regional importance after experts Border Archaeology discovered the settlement and burial ground.

Handmade pottery and textile tools were found at the Late Bronze Age to Middle/Late Iron Age small settlement.

The remains of at least 52 people - as well as grave goods such as bead necklaces, pendants, personal objects and weapons - were found at the Anglo-Saxon burial site.

Alongside these findings, 9,310 litres of paleoenvironmental samples were also taken to shed light on the human activity of the past.

First the demolition, soon comes the building, but at the moment the site of Wigan’s Galleries shopping centre is in the hands of archaeologists. More than 25 exploratory trenches have been dug on the large tract of land between Market Place and New Market Street as experts bid to unearth historical treasures.

Such excavations are a standard part of the process in larger developments such as the Galleries25 project.

Chances to seek out buried artefacts and remnants of old roads and buildings are few and far between so they have to be seized upon. And Wigan is ancient enough to have the potential to yield up all kinds of secrets from the past.

The town centre has been there for hundreds of years and played a key part in the English Civil War of the 17th century and Roman remains have also been recovered from sites nearby, leading experts to speculate that this is the empire’s settlement known on maps of the time as Coccium.

But so far the works, which are of course delaying the start of construction of a major new complex incorporating leisure, hospitality, retail and accommodation, have proved rather disappointing.

Cotswold Archaeology have been tasked by the Defense POW / MIA Accounting Agency to search the crash site for the remains of the pilot, who died when the B-17 crashed following a system failure in 1944.

At the time, the plane was carrying a payload of 12,000lbs of Torpex, an explosive comprised of 42% RDX, 40% TNT, and 18% powdered aluminium. Torpex was mainly used for the Upkeep, Tallboy and Grand Slam bombs, as well as underwater munitions.

The pilot was declared MIA when the plane exploded into an inferno, however, using modern archaeological techniques, the researchers plan to systematically excavate and sieve the waterlogged crash site to recover plane ID numbers, personal effects, and any surviving human remains.

It is the hope of the excavation team members that they will be able to recover the pilot’s remains and return him to the United States for burial with full military honours.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Defense whose mission is to recover unaccounted Department of Defense personnel listed as prisoners of war (POW) or missing in action (MIA) from designated past conflicts.

Follow-up on earlier report:

In a remarkable discovery, a couple accidentally unearthed a treasure trove of 17th-century coins while renovating their farm in West Dorset, England.

The find, which occurred nearly five years ago, came as the couple dug deeper to increase the head height in their long-house cottage at South Poorton Farm. Robert Fooks struck a glazed pottery bowl with his pickaxe, revealing about 100 coins dating back to the first English Civil War.

The “Poorton Coin Hoard,” as it became known, included gold coins from James I and Charles I, as well as silver half crowns, shillings, and sixpences from the time of Elizabeth I, Phillip, and Mary. The collection recently sold for approximately $75,000 at Duke’s Auction House.

Archaeologists excavating an early medieval site on the East Yorkshire coast said they have found buildings and objects of "national significance".

The team from the University of York began work uncovering the remains of a timber hall close to Skipsea, and have now found evidence of an even earlier settlement.

Dr Jim Leary, from the University's Department of Archaeology, said only a "handful" of such sites existed in the UK and the discovery of buildings and tools that could date back as far as the 5th or 6th Centuries was "phenomenal".

The team are expected to be on site until the end of May.

A homeowner is searching for answers after an obscure inscription was found written underneath a stone slab in his garden patio.

Builders made the discovery while working on the 300-year-old home of John Adams in Norbury, Shropshire.

Mr Adams shared a photograph on social media to try to work out what the text might say with several people suggesting it was in Hebrew.

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Mr Adams, who works for the National Trust, said his house was located on a road that was once a major travelling route.

"It was an inn previously. It was also a pub," he said. "Maybe it was [written by] somebody who happened to be passing through or staying here."

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Experts at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have been contacted to see if they can translate the stone.

The Castlerigg stone circle, located in the northwestern county of Cumbria within the Lake District National Park, has long been a draw for tourists and was taken into guardianship in 1883—becoming one of the first prehistoric monuments in the country to receive state protection.

The monument is thought to be one of the oldest stone circles on the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, of which there are hundreds of known examples. England comprises most of the island of Great Britain, which it shares with the countries of Scotland and Wales.

Previous estimates based on circumstantial evidence have placed the construction of the Castlerigg stone circle at around 3000 B.C. or slightly earlier. But no solid dating work has been conducted at the site.

Now, Cumbrian archaeologist Steve Dickinson has shed new light on the monument's possible age, proposing—based on his recent research—that at least part of the stone circle was erected around 3700 B.C., he told Newsweek.

The part Dickinson is referring to is known as the "Sanctuary"—a rectangle of large boulders, measuring around 23 feet by 15 feet, that projects into the middle of the stone circle from its eastern interior.

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While the function of the Sanctuary remains a mystery, the plan and size of this structure is similar to that of many small timber structures excavated in Ireland—and one recently uncovered in the English county of Yorkshire—all dated to the early Neolithic archaeological period, Dickinson said. In Britain and Ireland, this period lasted from around 4300 B.C. to 3300 B.C.

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The fact that the Sanctuary displays similarities to examples of small early Neolithic timber structures from Ireland is significant, according to Dickinson.

Radiocarbon dating of these timber structures suggests their construction began around 3730-3660 B.C. and that their use ended between roughly 3640-3600 B.C. This evidence is one of the reasons that Dickinson is proposing an early Neolithic date for the construction of the Castlerigg Sanctuary.

"The first part of my case for an early Neolithic Castlerigg is that the Castlerigg rectangular structure replicates the forms of some of the Irish examples. It monumentalizes them in stone," he said.

"This monumentalizing in stone is a feature of the timber to stone transition widely regarded by many prehistorians as occurring across Britain and Ireland where enclosures and circles marked out with timber posts were turned into, or remodeled in, stone," he said.

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"The second part of my early Neolithic case for Castlerigg is that the Sanctuary there was erected around 3700-3640 B.C.—following the use-life of the Irish structures," Dickinson said.

Dickinson's proposal has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and will likely require further research to confirm it. But if the theory is correct, it would date the Sanctuary to around 700 years before the first phase of construction at Stonehenge, which occurred around 3000-2900 B.C.—long before the large stones made an appearance.

The castle was first constructed during the Norman period as a simple motte and bailey. Over the centuries, various additions and periods of reconstruction extended the footprint of the castle, which by the 13th century became a royal residence for nobility and English kings.

Between the 15th century and 17th century, the castle went into decline and much of the stonework from the fortifications were used to construct roads and buildings within the city centre, leaving only the keep which was used as a gaol (prison).

In time, the keep was considered to be unsuitable and its demolition began in 1787, leaving no visible remains of the castle.

During development works in the south-west of Gloucester city centre, archaeologists from Cotswold Archaeology have uncovered traces of the castle beneath the basketball court of the former HMP Gloucester.

A number of trenches revealed medieval structural remains that archaeologists have interpreted as forming part of a masonry causeway or bridge structure. This provided access to the castle across its inner defensive ditch and continued north-east onto Castle Lane.

Excavations also found subsequent demolition and robbing of stonework, evidenced by the infilled castle ditch, and comprised cultivation soils of the Castle Gardens, which occupied this area from the later 18th century through to the mid-19th century.

In addition, a stretch of Post-medieval wall relating to the gardens was identified, which corresponds to a boundary shown on early and mid-19th century maps.

According to the archaeologists: “The results highlight that significant archaeology continues to survive at a relatively shallow depth, enabling us to trace historic land use and landscape change within this part of the city across many centuries.”

Artefacts found at the A417 in the Cotswolds date back 12,000 years and include a rare cupid figurine, a Roman nail cleaner, pottery, coins and jewellery.

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"We have a nice Roman settlement and it lies on Ermin Street, the road between Roman Cirencester and Gloucester," said Mr Thompson.

"We think that our settlement was being used to help with people that were travelling along the road and probably something to do with horses."

One of the theories is that the settlement may have been used for people to stop by to have their horses cared for or exchanged.

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One of the the most unusual finds from the dig was a small Cupid figurine from the Roman period, said Mr Thompson.

Found during the excavation phase of the dig, the figurine is 7cm (2.7in) in height and is made from copper alloy.

The figurine is a depiction of Cupid in the style of Hercules.

"It represents the power of love over even the strongest Heroes. It was probably a love token," added Mr Thompson.

"It wouldn't have been cheap. It's a really unusual and special find."

Of more than a thousand metal figurines from across Roman Britain, some 33 are known to depict Cupid, although this example appears to be the first to show Cupid as Hercules.

Volunteers are being sought for an archaeological dig looking to unearth Roman artefacts.

The community dig at Carlisle Cricket Club has been organised by Uncovering Roman Carlisle (URC) which previously found a bathhouse at the site.

The spring excavation is being carried out after work last year uncovered a rare dye, called Tyrian Purple, only used by the Roman elite.

Anne Quilter from Cumberland Council said: "Following the recent news of the Tyrian Purple, there’s a real buzz about the site."

The new dig will take place between 11 May and 15 June.

About 700 volunteering slots have been taken up so far, but URC is looking for more people to get involved. No previous archaeology experience is required.

Archaeologists from MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) have uncovered a moated medieval windmill during construction works of the National Highways A428 Black Cat to Caxton Gibbet improvement scheme in Bedfordshire, England. According to the researchers, the mill dates from between 1066 to 1485 during the medieval period.

Owning a mill would have been a great position of power for the local lord of the manor. The lord received money for the flour and rent from local tenants who farmed the land around it.

Excavations have revealed that the mill had a large central post used to orient the sails towards the wind. The post was found partly buried in a large mound used for support, making it a sunken type of Post Mill that first appeared in Europe from the 1100s to 1200s.

No physical remains of the mill survives above ground and the mound it stood on was levelled for farming. However, upon removing the topsoil, archaeologists found traces of a moat ditch surrounding the structure.

A moat is not unusual for sunken type Post Mills, as the excavated soil from the ditch was used to build the mound where the larger mill structure was situated.

According to a representative from MOLA: “Because this area is naturally very wet, the deep ditch would have collected water and become a moat. We could see evidence for this during our excavations because it was full of shells from water snails!”

The discovery of small stone carved with an early form of Celtic script has caused excitement among archaeologists after being dug up in a garden.

It was found by geography teacher Graham Senior in Coventry during lockdown in 2020 while he was weeding, but its true value was only recently understood.

Dating back possibly as far as the 4th Century, the stone's Ogham script features a series of lines inscribed on three of its sides, and experts are trying to understand their full meaning.

Teresa Gilmore, finds liaison officer for Staffordshire and West Midlands said: "It's an amazing find, we're very lucky."

She added: "Most Ogham inscriptions you generally find in the more Celtic areas - Scotland, Ireland and down in Cornwall - you don't generally get them down in the Midlands."

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Mr Senior said his theory was that it could have been a keepsake, possibly carried by a Roman soldier.

"It’s a very tactile thing - just feels right as if it was meant to be held," he said.

The piece of sandstone measures just 11cm (4 inches) in length and is believed to have been carved sometime between the 4th and 6th Century AD.

Ms Gilmore said another theory was that it could have been used by Irish tradesmen to make contact with each other.