How do we rate the Emperor Trajan? Trajan is something of an in-between emperor, coming after a bad Emperor, Domitian, followed by a weak Emperor, Nerva, but being followed by the three great emperors who form the apex of the Roman Empire in the second century – Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Does Trajan […]

Sutton Hoo is best known for the elite Anglo-Saxon cemetery excavated there in the 1930s, but more recent campaigns tell an even richer tale. The royal burials sprang from an earlier cemetery, and were followed by dozens of graves of execution victims. How does the sequence track the journey of Anglo-Saxons, from pagan immigrants to […]

What were Hadrian’s Wall and the Antonine Wall for, and how did they influence everyday life in their shadow? As questions about modern borders continue to make the headlines, Matthew Symonds investigates Rome’s land frontiers in Britain. Borders are big news at the moment. We all know that a ‘great wall’ is planned along the US […]

Hadrian’s Wall has a special place in British archaeology and especially so in the history of Current Archaeology, being a place that the founders of CA knew and loved before they launched the magazine and to which they have returned repeatedly over the years.

The great archaeological bake-off   Thank you to all of you who entered our competition to bake CA a 50th birthday cake. Your creations looked fantastic. The winner is Hazel Mosley, with this detailed depiction of an archaeologist taking a break with CA 310 (typically, all the finds are hidden under the spoil heap!). Thanks to our friends at Oxbow Books for providing […]

More than 300 people came along to celebrate 40 years of Hadrian’s Wall research at our special conference on 2-4 September, organised in partnership with Durham University and sponsored by Andante Travels. The celebratory weekend began on Friday with a tour to Vindolanda and Housesteads with Andante Travels, led by expert guides Mark Corney and David […]

The excavations at Must Farm have been talk of the town at Historic England HQ, and the world over! To celebrate the incredible Bronze Age discoveries and final press call I baked a Must Farm Mud Cake for the team and submitted it to the Festival of Archaeology’s #archaeobake competition. Celia Knight Historic England This […]

This Castellum Francorum was created for the 90th birthday of Frank Brudenell, long time enthusiast of Roman military history and Hadrian’s Wall. It is based on a Peter Connelly plan of the fort of Vindolanda, with all the various types of building differentiated, but with the handy addition of an external bath-house!  Frank is a key member of […]

Here at the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, our 150th anniversary year is now in full swing. We have a series of lectures and exhibitions on the Society’s work planned, including our Anniversary Conference to be held on 10 September. At our recent annual walk, we celebrated our long history with this special […]

To celebrate the Nautical Archaeology Society’s (NAS) 30th birthday, we ran a special ‘Recorder Day’ course at the University of Bristol, the site of the inaugural course 30 years ago. The course focused on recording wrecks, finishing with a session in the pool where the students’ new-found skills were put to the test. The day […]