Articles
Royal Hospital Greenwich
Royal Hospital Greenwich was the naval equivalent of the more famous Chelsea Hospital for army veterans. It was a retirement home for ‘seamen worn out or become decrepit by age and infirmities in the service of their country’. Among them were at least 93 men who fought at Trafalgar.
Pottery and Plunder
When large amounts of rare pottery, Venetian tea bowls, Cuban silver coins and pottery from the Caribbean began to turn up in 16th and 17th century cesspits in London’s Narrow Street, archaeologists were more than a little perplexed.
Tintagel Castle
Medieval historian Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed Arthur was conceived at Tintagel, a myth that has helped make it one of the most visited archaeological sites in Britain. What do we really know about this iconic site? A major excavation project, begun in the 1990s, has just published its conclusions.
Suffolk Gold
A stunning hoard of Iron Age gold coins was found in Suffolk in spring 2008, and has turned out to be one of the largest and most spectacular finds of its kind in Britain. Unusually, for a find of this size, almost all the coins were found actually in situ at the base of the earthenware pot in which they had been deposited 2,000 years ago. News of the find has been deliberately withheld in order to complete the investigation - until now.
Viking house found at Hungate
Archaeologists in York have uncovered a Viking house at Hungate earlier this month. The building dates from the mid to late 10th century and is of the same type as those found at Coppergate during excavations in the late 1970s and early 1980s - now part of the famous JORVIK Viking Centre.
Is this Britain's oldest toy?
A lump of chalk carved to resemble a piglet with snout and floppy ears has been found in the grave of a prehistoric child buried near Stonehenge.
Shakespeare's first theatre
Shakespeare is associated mainly with the Globe and the South Bank. But most of his early plays were first performed at a playhouse in Shoreditch called simply ‘The Theatre’. Museum of London archaeologists think they have just found it.
Harnessing the tides: Excavating the earliest mills in Ireland
A tiny fragment of granite and a sherd of pottery, unearthed at the tail end of an excavation in Northern Ireland, signalled the discovery of the world’s oldest excavated tide mill. Chris Catling reports back from Nendrum.
Celtic Art and Tourist Knick Knacks
Enamelled bronzes from Roman Britain have turned up all over the Roman world. This poses an interesting question: were Celtic artists making tourist knick knacks for Roman soldiers to take back home? Leading expert Ernst Künzl puts a British ‘souvenir’ into context.
Chiswick House
English Heritage archaeologists have recently had a rare chance to investigate Britain’s first ‘Palladian’ country house - Chiswick House in West London.
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