The religious reforms of Henry VIII changed not only English ecclesiastical life, they also tore into the social fabric of England. The Catholic Church had been the cornerstone of society, and children in particular had benefited from its monastic institutions through alms, sanctuary, and education. But how were children affected by the Reformation’s Dissolution of […]

The below photos were taken at the Current Archaeology Awards 2015, held at the University of London’s Senate House as part of the Current Archaeology Live! 2015 conference on 27-28 February 2015. Each image below is to be credited to Current Archaeology/Mark Edwards The image below is to be credited to Current Archaeology/Aerial-Cam

Top honours for Archaeologist of the Year at the prestigious Current Archaeology Awards went to Professor Michael Fulford, who has directed excavations at Silchester, a major Roman and Iron Age site in Hampshire, for almost 20 years. The project ended last summer, and has revealed a wealth of information about how the town evolved, and […]

Top honours for  Research Project of the Year  at the prestigious Current Archaeology Awards went to Professor Ian Haynes and Tony Wilmott, Newcastle University. They were recognised for their work at Maryport, a  research project initiated and funded by the Senhouse Museum Trust, where ongoing excavations at the 2nd century Roman fort have revealed the […]

Top honours for  Rescue Dig of the Year  at the prestigious Current Archaeology Awards went to  the Happisburgh Project team for their work at Happisburgh on the Norfolk coast. Their investigations at this remarkable site has revealed tangible traces of some of Britain’s earliest known human inhabitants, including a series of footprints dating back almost […]

Top honours for  Book of the Year  at the prestigious Current Archaeology Awards went to  Dr  Paul Bahn who edited The History of Archaeology (published by Routledge). Exploring how archaeology is practised in countries ranging across Europe, the Far East, Africa, and Latin America — often prompting surprising comparisons — this thought-provoking book examines how […]

Richard III’s life was ended by a brutal thrust into the back of his neck, which penetrated so far into his head that it left a dent on the inside of his skull, University of Leicester experts  suggest. The sequence of wounds  was identified by  Professor Guy Rutty of East Midlands Forensic Pathology Unit, during […]

When I launched Current Archaeology in 1967 I never thought that  we would ever reach issue 300. To my surprise, 12,000 pages and  more than 1,000 articles later, issue 300 is now upon us, and so  we have taken the opportunity to look back at the archaeology of  these past 48 years, and to think […]

While reading about the Bronze Age skeleton ‘Racton Man’, we got Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man’ well and truly stuck in our heads – so we asked our Twitter followers for more ArchaeoSongs!

What is the lost island of Drumclay, as featured on this month’s cover? Established in the 8th century, on the shore of Knockalough in Northern Ireland, it was in use for a millennium. But this is no ordinary island: it is a crannog — an artificial island — that was built on top of a […]