News Round Up

PULLMAN, WASHINGTON—According to a statement released by Washington State University, researchers have detected traces of smooth sumac, or Rhus glabra, in residues on 1,400-year-old pipes unearthed in central Washington with new technology that can…

OSLO, NORWAY—According to a Science Norway report, Svein Vatsvåg Nielsen of the University of Oslo examined bluefin tuna and killer whale bones and bone fishhooks and harpoons discovered in a southern Norway wetland in the 1930s. He determined that…

MOTALA, SWEDEN—Live Science reports that forensic artist Oscar Nilsson has created a 3-D reconstruction of the head of a man whose 8,000-year-old skull was found among the remains of at least ten other adults and an infant in what was once a lake in…

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK—NBC News reports that researchers have compared the genome of a 9,500-year-old dog who lived at a site on Siberia’s Zhokhov Island, where archaeological evidence of dogsleds was also recovered, with DNA extracted from a 33,000-…

NISKO, POLAND—The First News reports that the remains of 115 children were found in a sixteenth-century cemetery associated with a large Catholic church in southeast Poland during road construction. Some of the children were buried with coins in…

ATHLONE, IRELAND—According to a report in the Roscommon Herald, excavations at the Athlone Garda Barracks in central Ireland have uncovered a cobbled area and courtyard dated to the late seventeenth century. Soldiers stationed at the site left…

The British Museum works in partnership with more than 250 cultural organisations based all over the UK as part of its National Programmes scheme. We collaborate with partners to share collections through touring exhibitions and loans. Because of…

The late 1960s and early 1970s were a period of massive redevelopment in Gloucester city centre – an area rich in archaeology. It was in this context that Henry Hurst – then the Field Archaeologist attached to Gloucester City Museum – led…

To celebrate Pride month our LGBTQ tour volunteers – and others who have helped our volunteers to research these histories in the collection – have selected objects with an LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer) connection from the Museum’s…

RENO, NEVADA—According to a statement released by the Desert Research Institute, Joe McConnell of the Desert Research Institute, Michael Sigl of the University of Bern, and an international team of their colleagues found evidence of two volcanic…

LUXOR, EGYPT—According to an Ahram Online report, several structures were uncovered during an excavation at the Avenue of Sphinxes, a ceremonial passageway lined with ram-headed sculptures that once connected temples in Luxor and Karnak. Mudbrick…

According to the most recent figures (from 2017), there are some 3,163 non-native species currently present in England, Wales, and Scotland, and 1,266 in Ireland, Dan Eatherley attests. The vast majority of these are plants – including many foods…

QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA—The Age reports that more than 200 artifacts dating to the late nineteenth century, including tobacco and opium pipes, leather goods, bottles, crockery, books, and animal bones, have been unearthed in Brisbane, a city located…

EXETER, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Exeter, researchers from the University of Exeter and Brazil’s State University of Mato Grosso sampled some 4,000 trees in southern and eastern Amazonia, and found that areas of…

STÖÐVARFJÖRÐUR, ICELAND—Live Science reports that traces of a longhouse dated to the early ninth century A.D. have been found in eastern Iceland, under the remains of another Viking structure thought to have served as a chieftain’s house decades…

It is one of the delights of visiting new places that you sometimes find an entirely unexpected archaeological site, which gives you an insight that is entirely new. And this is what happened when Andrew Selkirk visited Barcelona and discovered that…

It is a country of enchantment which poets have staked out and which they alone may lay claim to. It is nearest thing to Paradise this side of Greece… I believe that the Cro-Magnon man settled here because he was extremely intelligent and had a…

The use of the term ‘the Dark Ages’, to describe the early medieval period (5th-11th centuries AD) is closely tied to many of the misconceptions surrounding that era. This new publication, based on discussions at the 3rd University of Chester…

WARSAW, POLAND—According to a Science in Poland report, researchers led by Krzysztof Szostek of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University analyzed the skeletons of people buried in southern Poland over a period of about 5,000 years, and compared the…

WILTSHIRE, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a ring made up of 20 or more shafts has been found surrounding the site of the Neolithic settlement of Durrington Walls, which is located about two miles from Stonehenge. Arranged in a circle measuring more…