The hilltop of Abbey Craig is best-known as the site of the National Wallace Monument, which commemorates the 13th-century Battle of Stirling Bridge. But while the Scottish commander William Wallace reportedly watched the armies of Edward I massing from the rocky outcrop before his famous victory in 1297, the site might have witnessed another […]

Cave archaeology has a long pedigree. Romantic images of our earliest ancestors sheltering in caverns led to many being  stripped of their stratigraphy in the 19th century — when  recording techniques were still in their infancy. New work has  revealed remains that escaped antiquarian attention, shedding  light on a once-vibrant world under the uplands. Research […]

Rome changed Britain. New roads opened up this country as  never before, creating a captive market — weary travellers.  Settlements seeking to part them from their sestertii sprung  up rapidly, but they are rarely excavated. Now work at Syon  Park has revealed life in one of Britain’s first service stations. When Conan Doyle loosed his […]

The Neolithic is being rewritten. New techniques of radiocarbon dating based on Bayesian statistics are allowing a greater precision than ever before and enable Neolithic dates to be tied down to within 50 years or less. This reveals that long Barrows and long cairns, the earliest form of Neolithic monument, were built from around 3800 […]

September is Scottish archaeology month. In celebration we open with two projects delivering spectacular results. The largest excavation ever undertaken in Aberdeen has uncovered four churches, and the remains of over 2,000 individuals. These reveal the impact of improved living standards, and a gradual Reformation. A suspected Viking harbour on Skye has been big news. […]

Bedlam. It is a word that evokes the casual brutality of early healthcare. It was also a real institution, tending real patients. Now the hospital’s former cemetery is being excavated, and the bodies within have been excitedly labelled as former patients by the press. Yet the truth is far more complex, and reveals a world […]

After being a CA reader for many years, it is very exciting to be here, and I hope that you enjoy my first issue. We start with the goods yard that once stood next to St Pancras station. In its heyday, this supplied the capital with Midlands victuals, but unlike St Pancras there was no […]

The time has come, dear readers, for me to bid farewell to Current Archaeology. It has been a fantastic few years working on the magazine and getting to know so many of you! I leave CA in the very capable hands of the incoming Editor, Matthew Symonds, who some of you may recognise as the […]

Even here at CA, we are not immune to the Royal Wedding fever sweeping the nation. Issue 254 opens with our nod to the most magnificent of royal occasions, covering every angle: the venue! Thefamilies! The dress! And most importantly — the dirt. Joking aside, what can archaeology tell us about royal weddings? We highlight […]

This month, our features and news stories highlight just how important advancing technology is for archaeology. Revisiting old sites, old bones, and old theories with new tools, perspectives, and practice will invariably shed a whole new light on what we thought we knew. If there is a better argument for the importance of investing in […]