Covering the end of Time Team feels like writing an obituary. The programme has been there for much of my personal journey through archaeology. I first stumbled across it in 1996 as a channel-hopping schoolboy hoping to delay my homework a little longer. Stunned by the team’s discoveries at Stanton Harcourt, watching the episode was [...]
MOLA’s Movember masterpiece
November 26, 2012 By Filed Under: Cakes
This edible portrait of Mortimer Wheeler was baked by Richard Ward, an archaeologist working on one of the Walbrook sites currently under excavation by MOLA, and sent in by his colleague Sadie Watson. MOLA have been raising money for charity by baking cakes, and as this month’s cause was (of course) Movember, they chose to depict the moustachioed former keeper [...]
Finding HMS Namur
In 1995 the discovery of part of a Royal Navy warship hidden in the Wheelwrights Shop at The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, sparked a hunt to determine both the name of the vessel and what it was doing there. Now, this unique find has proven to be the final twist in the tale of an exceptional [...]
Egypt in England opens at Wellington Arch
November 7, 2012 By Filed Under: News
When Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in November 1922, the Western world was seized by an epidemic of Egyptomania. What is less well known, however, is that England’s enduring interest in all things Egyptian has much earlier roots. Now English Heritage’s new exhibition in the recently-reopened Wellington Arch on Hyde Park Corner, launched to mark the 90th anniversary [...]
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November 2, 2012 By Filed Under: Issues
HMS Namur brings a new meaning to ‘ship burial’. Conjuring images of Sutton-Hoo style splendour, the boat is normally just an eye-catching status-symbol for the deceased. But not at The Historic Dockyard Chatham. The discovery of a quarter of a Royal Navy warship buried beneath flooring has puzzled archaeologists for over a decade. Now that the identity [...]
Arbeia Society conference 2012: Hadrian’s Wall and its Legacy on Tyneside
October 24, 2012 By Filed Under: Articles
This year’s Arbeia Society conference will feature recent discoveries on Hadrian’s Wall, as well as plans for future research involving the local community. With a series of talks focussed on the Wall’s Tyneside legacy, the conference will be held on Saturday 17 November at The Customs House, Mill Dam, South Shields, Tyne & Wear. Programme 10.00-10.20 [...]
More accolades for Operation Nightingale
October 17, 2012 By Filed Under: News
Operation Nightingale, the innovative rehabilitation project using archaeological fieldwork to help the recovery of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan, has added two more prizes to its trophy cabinet, after their success at the MOD’s Sanctuary Awards. Having already won the Project of Special Merit award at this year’s British Archaeological Awards, Operation Nightingale yesterday took first [...]
Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king
October 2, 2012 By Filed Under: Features, Richard III
On 12th September the University of Leicester held an extraordinary press conference. They announced that a three week dig seeking the remains of Richard III had ‘entered a new phase’ with DNA testing under way on an adult male skeleton. So what had they discovered? Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby, and Helen Foxhall Forbes told Matthew [...]
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October 2, 2012 By Filed Under: Issues
Every school pupil knows Richard III’s apocryphal cry of ‘A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse’. But what happened next? This school pupil was taught that after being dragged through the streets of Leicester the slain king’s corpse was pitched into the River Soar. Not so, it seems. While the tradition that Richard [...]
Miraculous survival: How Richard III’s church was preserved
October 1, 2012 By Filed Under: Articles, Richard III
If it seems a stroke of incredible good fortune that ULAS’ trial trenches came down on the very features that were needed to lead archaeologists to Greyfriars’ church – according to historical documents, the burial place of Richard III – the story of how the structure’s remains managed to survive 500 years while the site [...]
New Defence Archaeology Group launched aboard HMS Victory
Time Team’s Phil Harding and senior naval staff met today (28 September) aboard HMS Victory to announce the launch of a new tri-service Defence Archaeology Group.
Richard III: found?
September 12, 2012 By Filed Under: News, Richard III
University of Leicester archaeologists have found a male skeleton with possible battle injuries and a distorted spine.
The ArchaeOlympic Games
With London 2012 in full swing, we asked you to come up with some events for the ArchaeOlympic Games – and you didn’t let us down! We received a veritable spoilheap of suggestions via our Twitter and Facebook accounts , so many that we couldn’t cram all of them into our usual column in the [...]
Exclusive interview – Mick Aston: an archaeological journey
Real-life Archaeologists rarely become household names. Mick Aston is an exception. A defining voice in the development of Time Team and stalwart of the show since its first season in 1994, Mick’s resignation earlier this year ignited a media firestorm. He was in the news again in July after receiving a lifetime achievement award at [...]
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September 7, 2012 By Filed Under: Issues
Mick Aston is one of our most highly respected and celebrated archaeologists. Over the last 6 months he has left Time Team and received a lifetime achievement award at the British Archaeological Awards. Now he shares the highs and lows of his archaeological journey. From Mick’s earliest site visits (while bunking off school), to his [...]
Found: the lost church where Richard III was buried
September 5, 2012 By Filed Under: Articles, News, Richard III
University of Leicester archaeologists have found the lost church where Richard III was buried over 500 years ago – under a City Council carpark.
Stirling Castle voted the UK’s favourite heritage attraction
August 30, 2012 By Filed Under: Articles
Stirling Castle, home to the Stewart dynasty, has been voted the UK’s favourite heritage attraction, beating historic sites such as The Tower of London, The Houses of Parliament and Hampton Court Palace. Since the first written reference to the site in the early 12th century, Stirling Castle has witnessed the coronation of Scottish monarchs – including Mary, [...]
Chamber of secrets: Historic Scotland launches virtual tour of Maeshowe
Orkney is world-famous for its spectacular Neolithic archaeology, and now visitors from all over the globe will be able to explore one of its most enigmatic monuments, after a new virtual tour of Maeshowe chambered tomb went live today (29 August). In a video unveiled yesterday by Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the structure of [...]
Solved: the 17 year mystery of the ship under the floorboards
August 17, 2012 By Filed Under: News
In 1995 archaeologists made a surprising discovery beneath the floorboards of the Georgian wheelwright’s workshop at Chatham Historic Dockyard – the remains of an 18th-century flagship. Now after almost two decades of research, the mystery vessel has been named as the Namur, a second-rate ship of the line that played a key role in the battle [...]
Rare Roman altar found at Maryport
August 14, 2012 By Filed Under: News
Ongoing excavations at Maryport, Cumbria, have uncovered a Roman altar – the first to be found at the site in over 140 years. In 1870, landowner and antiquarian Humphrey Senhouse discovered 17 altars buried at the Roman fort near Hadrian’s Wall. Now Newcastle University archaeologists have added an 18th to this number. Like those found by [...]
