The Irish Potato Famine, or Great Hunger, took a terrible toll. Between the million who died and the million more who emigrated to escape, it cost Ireland a quarter of its population. Now, excavations at the former Kilkenny Workhouse have unexpectedly unearthed a cluster of long-forgotten mass graves holding famine victims. Providing a rare opportunity [...]

So it really is him, then. Unusually for archaeology all the strands of evidence point to the same conclusion. And what a conclusion it is: the skeleton found in Leicester Grey Friars carpark is that of Richard III ‘beyond reasonable doubt.’ Archaeology is normally poorly suited to recover a specific object or individual. Dependent on [...]

Prehistoric standing stones are famously enigmatic, but some monuments may have more secrets in their past than was previously supposed. Recent excavations at Trefael indicate that a supposedly Bronze Age standing stone was deliberately recycled from a Neolithic tomb. Was this a knowing refashioning of a sacred landscape? Salt may be a seasoning taken for [...]

Orkney could be an open-air archaeology museum. Sites such as Skara Brae and Maes Howe fire the imagination with their spectacular preservation. Yet while many of the archipelago’s big-name sites were dug in the first half of the 20th century, fieldwork has not rested on its laurels. Today, Orkney continues to play a leading role [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Shakespeare’s Curtain theatre is a major discovery. Immortalised in Henry V as ‘this wooden O’, it was here that Romeo and Juliet’s star-crossed love first played out. As well as premiering these masterpieces, all the signs point to the Curtain being the best preserved of Shakespeare’s playhouses. With its gravelled yard, knucklebone floor and surviving [...]

Orkney has been called the Egypt of the north. Studded with spectacular prehistoric monuments, the ancient landscape remains a powerful presence. Yet excavations continue to surprise. The island of Wyre was thought to be devoid of prehistoric activity until recent fieldwalking harvested a wealth of Neolithic finds. Wondering if this could be another Skara Brae, [...]

The traditional image of a Medieval leper is a familiar one. Tainted by spiritual pollution, they were outcasts shunned by society. Yet excavations on the site of St Mary Magdalen leper hospital in Winchester are revealing a different picture.  Here the afflicted were cared for in substantial structures, before being laid to rest in a [...]

Medieval St Paul’s would have been a striking sight. Its central tower and spire, completed around 1220, rose to a height of over 400 ft, making it the tallest steeple in Europe. But it was not to last. In June 1561 a lightning strike brought down the spire, and just over a century later the [...]

RMS Titanic is more than just a wrecked liner. The human toll of her loss is well known, with some 1,500 of the 2,200 on board perishing in the early hours of 15th April 1912. Yet ever since her resting place was located in 1985, Titanic has been at the forefront of questions about the [...]

In December I was fortunate enough to stand on the Nene riverbank in 1300 BC. Beside me were the stumps of prehistoric willow trees. Beneath me was a channel choked with the detritus of Bronze Age river life. Perfectly preserved eel traps, fish weirs and boats – six of them – still lay where they [...]

The most exciting thing about archaeology is the way fresh discoveries can overturn established theories in the blink of an eye. Witnessing how a new consensus emerges from these is also thrilling, and the sight of scholars with opposing views scoring and conceding points is a conference staple. Ultimately this debate forges our perceptions of the past. This issue we [...]