News Round Up

When I was a first-year history undergraduate, I came to the British Museum on a field trip. The Anglo-Saxon period was brand new to me at the time – the only reason I knew of ‘Sutton Hoo’ and its fame was because a helmet that had been found there…

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA—According to a Live Science report, continuing excavations at the site of the Great Synagogue of Vilna have unearthed floor tiles with geometric designs, some 200 coins dating from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, a…

DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE—The Associated Press reports that archaeologists led by Meghan Howey of the University of New Hampshire investigated the site of the Second Meetinghouse, which was built in 1654 for the congregation of the First Parish Church on…

VALKENBURG, THE NETHERLANDS—According to a Dutch News report, roadwork in the southeastern Netherlands, near what was once the northern border of the Roman Empire, has uncovered a pole carved with an inscription reading "COH II CR," which is short…

123.4 By Anastasia Papathanasiou, William A. Parkinson, Daniel J. Pullen, Michael L. Galaty, and Panagiotis Karkanas. Pp. xviii + 435, figs. 294, tables 80. Oxbow, Oxford 2018. £70. ISBN 978-1-78570-648-6 (cloth). Reviewed by P. Nick…

123.4 Edited by Ann Brysbaert, Victor Klinkenberg, Anna Gutiérrez Garcia-M., and Irene Vikatou. Pp. 342. Sidestone Press, Leiden 2018. €34.95. ISBN 9789088906961 (paper). Reviewed by Jerrad LancasterFor as long as humans have been…

123.4 Edited by Christian Horn and Kristian Kristiansen. Pp. x + 253. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018. $99.99. ISBN 978-1-107-18556-2 (cloth). Reviewed by Guy D. MiddletonHorn and Kristiansen’s volume Warfare in Bronze Age Society…

123.4 Edited by Chloé Ragazolli, Ömür Harmansah, Chiara Salvador, and Elizabeth Frood. Pp. 264. Bloomsbury Academic, London 2018. $114. ISBN 9781474288835 (cloth). Reviewed by Jacqueline DiBiasie-SammonsThis volume, born out of a workshop of…

123.4 Edited by Christine D. Beaule. Pp. 372. University Press of Florida, Gainesville 2017. $95. ISBN 978-0-8130-5434-6 (cloth). Reviewed by Marshall Joseph BeckerDetermination of cultural frontiers has become an important goal of…

123.4 Edited by Haagen D. Klaus, Amanda R. Harvey, and Mark N. Cohen (Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local Regional and Global Perspectives). Pp. xxii + 486. University Press of Florida, Gainesville. $100. ISBN 978-0-…

123.4 By Brian Hayden. Pp. xii + 398. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2018. $125. ISBN 978-1-108-42639-8 (cloth). Reviewed by Joanne M.A. MurphyThe Power of Ritual in Prehistory takes us on a journey through the Old and New Worlds,…

123.4 By Ian Hodder (Foundational Questions in Science). Pp. xvi + 179. Yale University Press, New Haven and London 2018. $27.50. ISBN 978-0-300-20409-4 (cloth). Reviewed by Maxime BramiWhere are we heading? Hodder’s first “popular” science…

Calling all photographers! Summer is now upon us. Whether you’re heading off on holiday to take in the sights and splendours of world archaeology or busy in the field, make sure you pack your camera. Get snapping and send us your best archaeological…

LEICESTER, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that 122 jet beads carved with intricate patterns have been discovered in a Bronze Age grave in one of the more than 160 Round Mounds located on the Isle of Man. The beads, thought to have been crafted in North…

GLOUCESTERSHIRE, ENGLAND—According to a report in The Guardian, a patterned green glass fragment unearthed at the site of Chedworth Roman Villa in southwest England has been identified as an 1,800-year-old piece of a bottle shaped like a fish that…

SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND—The Independent reports that the wreckage of a Swedish or Danish merchant vessel, built sometime between A.D. 1490 and 1540, has been found under nearly 400 feet of water in the Baltic Sea. According to an international team of…

The University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute and the University of Aberdeen are offering a funded MRes Archaeology to start in January 2020. The research is entitled: Out of the Round: a palaeoecological investigation into human…

The University of the Highlands and Islands research dig at The Cairns, South Ronaldsay, Orkney has now come to an end for this year. With the site safely covered up it is time for Site Director Martin Carruthers to sum… Continue reading →

Mickey Van Lit from Leiden University brings The Cairns blog up to date. As the excavation is coming to an end, so is this blog. I very kindly asked whether I could write a second blog, just because I liked… Continue reading →

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND—The Drinks Business reports that Claire Hawes of the University of Aberdeen discovered a record for a still in Aberdeen’s municipal registers that dates to 1505. The still was used to make rose water and “aquavite,” or "water of…