News Round Up

This month we are putting the ‘art’ into ‘artefact’, showcasing a number of exciting discoveries that are as beautiful to look at as they are important to our understanding of the past. Our cover story unpicks the details of the Boxford mosaic, a 1,…

TEHRAN, IRAN—Live Science reports that traces of a poorly preserved stone wall stretching southward 71 miles from the Bamu Mountains have been identified in western Iran by a team of archaeologists led by Sajjad Alibaigi of Razi University. Pottery…

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA—The Guardian reports that Terry E. Barbour and Ken Sassaman of the University of Florida used drones outfitted with lidar scanners to create 3-D maps of an archaeological site covered with dense foliage on Raleigh Island, which…

ATHENS, GREECE—According to an Associated Press report, five shipwrecks were discovered during a survey of the waters off the coast of the Greek island of Kasos by a team of researchers led by archaeologist George Koutsouflakis of the Ephorate of…

Preliminary results of genetic research into whalebone from the University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute research site at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay, Orkney, show that some very large whale species were sourced for tools,…

In this month’s ‘Science Notes’, we dive into the world of palaeoparasitology, and examine what the study of faecal matter can tell us about human health and behaviour in the past. While we may not like to acknowledge it, humans play host to a large…

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND—An international team led by scientists at the University of Manchester has analyzed species-specific proteins in collagen obtained from turtle bones uncovered at prehistoric sites in Florida and the Caribbean in order to…

COLCHESTER, ENGLAND—A silver ring once used to tether a hunting raptor to its perch has been linked to the first Baronet of Sotterley, according to a BBC News report. Known as a vervel, the small ring, which measures less than one-half inch in…

BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND—After a decade of research, archaeologists led by Chris Fern of the University of York think that the seventh-century A.D. gold and garnet artifacts known as the Staffordshire Hoard were captured by the armies of Mercia’s King…

DUBLIN, IRELAND—The Journal reports that a geographic information system survey of the section of the River Boyne that runs through the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site has revealed anomalies that may be log boats or large boulders associated with…

In 2001 the Taliban government of Afghanistan banned all representations of the human form, from depictions on TV and in painting to ancient sculpture. Statues in the National Museum of Afghanistan were decapitated and the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan…

Inspired by the east: how the Islamic world influenced western art is the latest milestone on the long road of exploring the relationship between Europe, America and what used to be called the ‘Orient’. Ten years ago, an exhibition at the Islamic…

From rings and rare Anglo-Saxon namestones, to coins and a medieval oven, this year’s excavation on Lindisfarne has provided a new glimpse at life on the island before, during, and after the 8th-century Viking raid that struck its monastic community…

The British Museum Membercast is a monthly podcast made available to ‘all studious and curious persons’. Comedian, podcaster and super-fan Iszi Lawrence (The Z List Dead List) presents snippets from exclusive Members’ lectures at the Museum,…

VALLETTA, MALTA—According to a CNN report, the wreckage of the HMS Urge, which disappeared after it left Malta on April 27, 1942 for the Egyptian port of Alexandria, has been discovered under 400 feet of water. Timmy Gambin of the University of…

LINCOLNSHIRE, ENGLAND—The Spalding & South Holland Voice reports that independent archaeologist Neville Hall spotted graffiti dated August 4, 1914, the day of the outbreak of World War I, on a barn door in eastern England while surveying…

MADRID, SPAIN—Science News reports that incisions have been found on a 39,000-year-old imperial eagle toe fossil unearthed in northeastern Spain’s Foradada Cave. The marks are thought have been made when a talon was removed from the eagle’s foot for…

On a spring afternoon in 2017, archaeologist Jan Simek led a group of graduate students into the dark, wet mouth of a Tennessee cave. They slipped past cave crickets and ducked under a colony of bats clinging to the ceiling. When they came to the…

Archaeologists have completed their excavation of the Park Street burial ground in Birmingham. Some 6,500 skeletons were excavated from the cemetery, which was open from 1810 to 1873. The post HS2 dig uncovers Birmingham’s 19th-century inhabitants…

KIRYAT ATA, ISRAEL—Ynet News reports that volunteers assisting at an Israel Antiquities Authority excavation at the site of Usha in northwestern Israel uncovered slag, a hammer, and nails. The artifacts suggest iron tools were manufactured at the…