News

After seven years, Dr Robert Witcher is stepping down as Editor of Antiquity. Previous Deputy Editor, Professor Robin Skeates, is taking over and has big plans for the journal going forward!

Analysis and CT scanning of Roman mail armour from a civilian settlement on the Empire’s northern frontier provides the first solid evidence of armour repair outside of a Roman military installation. This repair would have been carried out by local craftspeople, shedding light on the Roman army’s reliance on civilian services.

Excavations at the Late Chalcolithic settlement of Shakhi Kora, Iraq, uncover new evidence for the earliest state institutions, suggesting a deliberate rejection of centralised forms of government, reaffirming that urbanism and the state are not inevitable outcomes. 

The engraving of trees with X-marks and geometric patterns played an important role in the cultural traditions of the Indigenous Sámi of northern Fennoscandia and north-west Russia, which were systematically repressed by the Scandinavian Church. In the modern day, the rare remaining trees are threatened by industrial logging, making their preservation vital to conserving Sámi belief systems.

Proto-cuneiform is a sign-based script, first attested in the c. 3350-3000 BC city of Uruk in southern Iraq, which developed into cuneiform: the world’s first writing system. New research suggests its origins lie partly in cylinder seals: engraved stone cylinders that were rolled across clay to imprint a design, rewriting our knowledge of how writing was invented.

Analysis of lidar data in Campeche, Mexico, reveals thousands of undiscovered Maya structures, including an entire city, proving that there is still much more of the Maya world to be discovered.

Check out the latest Antiquity blog, in which Antiquity author Dr Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology and the University of Bern explores the power of horses in the Iron Age Eurasian steppe and the origins of the elusive Scythians.

A citizen science project has doubled the number of known prehistoric barrows in the central Netherlands in just four months, showing the value of crowd-sourced data to professional archaeologists, local government and the volunteers themselves.

Excavation of a ~2800-year-old burial mound in southern Siberia reveals evidence for the sacrifice of humans and horses in honour of an elite person. It is one of the earliest examples of Scythian funerary practices, confirming the origins of Scythian culture lie far to the east of their later heartland in Eastern Europe.

A new project explores how Indigenous artists incorporate archaeological rock art motifs into their art, investigating how rock art is a key aspect of reclaiming Indigenous identities for colonised peoples.

Advanced radiocarbon dating points to American sweet potato cultivation in New Zealand’s temperate-climate South Island before AD 1400, suggesting sweet potatoes contributed to the first settlement of Polynesia’s southernmost habitable islands.

Archaeological survey at the site of Oued Beht, Morocco, reveals a previously unknown 3400–2900 BC farming society, suggesting the Maghreb was instrumental to the shaping of the western Mediterranean during the fourth and third millennia BC.

Analysis of Bronze Age arrowheads from the Tollense Valley, Germany, reveals some of them were not produced locally, indicating that the battle involved both local groups and warriors from the south. As such, the Tollense Valley battle is the earliest example of interregional conflict in Europe.

Analysis of preserved textiles suggests that the weaving traditions of the pre-Columbian Moche culture of Peru persisted despite the influence of the powerful Wari empire, showing how cultural identities can survive even as the world around them changes.

The annual meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists takes place in Rome from Wednesday 28th-Saturday 31st August. In recognition, we have put together a collection containing the latest research on the archaeology of Europe.

Come along to the 30th Annual Meeting of the EAA to chat with our editor Dr Robert Witcher and incoming editor Prof Robin Skeates, and get your hands on some Antiquity swag!

Check out the latest Antiquity blog, in which Antiquity author Dr Jakob Sedig from Harvard University writes about how ancient DNA shed light on past customs in pre-contact Mexico, revealing close-relative mating and child sacrifice amongst elites.

Antiquity author and Diving and Maritime Archaeology Officer at Bournemouth University Tom Cousins explores the exciting discovery of a rare example of a medieval shipwreck in English waters.

Ancient DNA evidence supports the identification of two early colonists buried at the first permanent English settlement in North America, revealing a family secret that was never recorded: one was illegitimate.

Examination of England’s only 13th-century shipwreck finds it was transporting Purbeck Marble, a valuable stone used in many of England’s most iconic religious monuments, presenting a snapshot into medieval England’s complex and flourishing trade networks.