Articles
Rewriting the Age of Arthur: the Dark Ages brought to light
Did 9th century Anglo-Saxon propaganda distort the records for the turbulent 5th and 6th centuries? Rather than Briton versus Anglo-Saxon – as in the myth of Arthur – was it simply a murderous struggle between rival British warlords? Archaeologist Miles Russell has been re-reading Dark Age history books.
The Land between the Oceans: Part 1: Europe's ‘Neolithic Revolution’ revisited
Barry Cunliffe’s latest book represents the synthesis of half a century studying the archaeology of Europe, an achievement comparable with that of Gordon Childe in the 1930s. In this article, and in two more to follow in succeeding issues, Current Archaeology summarises his conclusions.
The Mildenhall Treasure: a secret history
The British Museum’s Richard Hobbs has been playing detective – investigating the 60-year-old mystery surrounding the spectacular Mildenhall Treasure and here he reports on the outcome of his enquiries.
One of the most celebrated hoards ever recovered from British soil, the Mildenhall Treasure consists of 34 pieces of exquisitely decorated Roman silver tableware of the 4th century AD and has remained on almost permanent display at the British Museum ever since it was first reclaimed from the house of one Sydney Ford.
Dear Dr Fawcett, I reported the find to the police at Mildenhall on the 21st, and they promptly came along and pinched the lot.
So wrote an aggrieved Sydney Ford, whose letter was just the beginning of an extraordinary story of subterfuge and supposed conspiracies that surround this truly enigmatic discovery.
Excavating the slums of Belfast
A neglected and deprived part of Belfast has been excavated by archaeologists to reveal its transformation from 17th century farmland to squalid, overcrowded 19th century urban slums.In 1853, the Rev. W M O’Hanlon, Congregationalist minister for Upper Donegall Street Church, published a series of letters in the Northern Whig, a Belfast newspaper, detailing the filth and depravity in which the poorest people in the city lived.
Hadrian's Wall: 30 years on
Thirty years ago, David Breeze and Brian Dobson wrote a history of Hadrian’s Wall from the archaeological evidence. Still in print in a revised edition, it is one of the most successful archaeology books ever written. With a major British Museum exhibition devoted to Hadrian opening this July, we asked David Breeze to take a fresh look at the emperor’s greatest monument in the light of 30 years further research.
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