News

A local historical society has helped discover the remains of a major early medieval ecclesiastical centre in north-west Scotland, shedding light on the spread of Christianity in Scotland and highlighting the importance of collaboration between archaeologists and local communities.

Analysis and radiocarbon dating of rusted iron objects uncovered during industrial gravel extraction reveals they are the largest mass find of Iron Age iron bars in Europe. Large enough to equip around 500 warriors with swords, they indicate production and trade of iron on an unprecedented scale.

Analysis of insect remains from a cave in Gran Canaria reveals how it was used by the island’s Indigenous people, questioning many pre-existing interpretations of Indigenous Canarian societies and helping refine our understanding of life in the Canary Islands prior to Spanish colonisation.

Archaeologists have discovered preserved Mesolithic fishing traps in the inland mountains of southern Norway. Topographic barriers prevented fish from swimming into the region, indicating hunter-fisher-gatherers were actively introducing fish into mountain lakes for fishing.

Isotope analysis reveals Orthodox Christian migrants from the Kievan Rus’ were travelling hundreds of kilometres into medieval Vilnius, Lithuania during the 13^th and 14^th centuries AD, supporting the idea that medieval cities were shaped by mobility, cultural interaction and adaptation.

For the first time, researchers have identified the name of a Maya 'mathematician-astronomer', enabling us to place an Indigenous Maya scholar amongst the ranks of other great astronomers from history.

A major prehistoric centre in Ireland was among the first large, organised settlements to develop in Western Europe more than 3,000 years ago, new research reveals.

Examination of two burials from Iron Age north-west Scotland suggests complex funerary traditions spread around the coast, suggesting that the Iron Age dead held a strong and compelling presence in the world of the living that was maintained over long distances thanks to mobility and community connections.

Examination of four of Tanzania’s most iconic heritage sites finds they are, in the interest of generating income from tourists, being destroyed by the same institutions tasked with preserving them.

Microscopic analysis uncovers traces of a highly toxic chemical used as anaesthetic on Ming Chinese medical instruments, indicating refined medical practices were understood and followed in ancient China as early as the 14^th century CE.

Zooarchaeological and isotopic analysis of pigeon bones from Bronze Age Cyprus suggests pigeons were domesticated centuries earlier than previously attested, encouraging us to see pigeons as an important part of human life for millennia.

Dr Nicholas Skopal writes on his research on the giant stone jars of northern Laos, exploring how he and the team may have finally solved one of Southeast Asia’s great archaeological mysteries.

Excavation of a large jar on the Plain of Jars, Laos found the remains of at least 37 individuals buried within, indicating deposition in jars was part of ancestral mortuary rites that spanned generations and showing connections as far away as Western Asia.

We will be at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California from 29th April-3rd May 2026. Come along to meet our editor, grab some swag and find out how you can publish your research in Antiquity!

Examination of plague victims from a 17^th century AD hospital in Basel, Switzerland reveals the majority of those who died from the plague were working youths from lower social classes, showing how social status impacted disease mortality in the past just as much as it does today.

Ancient DNA analysis of individuals buried in chambered tombs from Early Neolithic northern Scotland finds some were closely related along the male line of descent, indicating paternal relatedness was an important social connection to the first Neolithic people in Britain and suggesting funerary landscapes were monumental signifiers of kinship and group identities.

Archaeologists have uncovered one of Scandinavia's earliest ship burials at the monumental burial mound of Herlaugshaugen, Norway, pre-dating the Viking Age and indicating pre-Viking cultural connections around the North Sea.

Excavation at the Maya centre of Ucanal, Guatemala finds evidence for the construction of open council houses, in which political leaders deliberated in public plazas, indicating the increasing importance of consensus-based politics during the Terminal Classic period.

Analysis of ash, preserved in Pompeian incense burners, finds evidence for the burning of frankincense sourced from as far away as India or sub-Saharan Africa, shedding light on daily religious life in the Roman Empire and the long-distance trade that facilitated it.

The first precise timeline of coral building construction in French Polynesia paints a clearer picture of everyday life in the Pacific following European contact and helps understand past ecological change.