Recent research on Pictish symbols has provided a new chronology for the carvings, transforming our understanding of their evolution.

A new study analysing the teeth of adults who died in the Kilkenny Union Workhouse at the height of the Great Famine (1845-1852) has revealed some of the possible social reasons for their poor oral health, and how this may have affected their general wellbeing.

The remains of a settlement associated with the Roman fort of Bravoniacum has been unearthed near Kirkby Thore in Cumbria. The footprints of post-built structures were discovered by GUARD Archaeology Ltd, working with Highways England and Amey Consulting during improvement works along the A66.

At the opposite end of the country to the Cumbrian settlement described above, signs of another possible extramural fort settlement have been identified at Okehampton, in Devon. Working during housing development, AC Archaeology has discovered the remains of at least 25 timber buildings lining both sides of a well-preserved Roman road, leading eastward from a known Roman fort (a scheduled monument since the 1970s).

King Henry I is said to have died from eating a ‘surfeit of lampreys’, but there is no excess of these eel-like fish in the archaeological record, as their remains rarely survive. Indeed, traces of lampreys are so scarce that they had previously only been identified at two sites in the UK. Now a third example has been found during post-excavation analysis of a midden uncovered in central London.

In the early days of archaeology, human remains were often treated as an afterthought, deemed unable to tell us much about past populations. As we are well aware today, though, this could not be further from the truth, and in more recent decades the study of human bones has become a major component of archaeological research. But, despite this skeletal success, there is another key aspect of burials that remains relatively under-researched: the grave soil.

Bronze age cists were discovered in the Kilmore area of the village in 2015 and 2017, and excavation this year has once again shown how rich the region’s prehistoric landscape is, with a third example found during an investigation ahead of a new care-housing development.

New evidence, brought to light by researchers from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and local historians from the Derry Tower Heritage Group, suggests that a ‘lost’ medieval round tower may in fact have been hiding in plain sight in the heart of Derry City for centuries.

Excavations at Pembroke Castle in Wales have revealed the foundations of a large medieval domestic building within the outer ward of the complex. With the dig uncovering evidence for a slate roof with green-glazed ceramic ridge tiles, a curving staircase, and two walls measuring 1m thick, it would have been a building fit for a king. Indeed, Pembroke Castle expert Neil Ludlow, who carried out the project with archaeologists from Dyfed Archaeological Trust, believes that it might be the birthplace of the first Tudor king, Henry VII.

A large Roman cemetery has been unearthed near Winterton, North Lincolnshire, five miles northeast of Scunthorpe. With excavations ongoing, over 60 burials believed to date to between the 2nd and 4th century AD have been revealed so far.