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Excavations at Alcatrazes, the seat of Cape Verde’s short-lived second captaincy, have exposed a Portuguese colonial settlement, demonstrating continued occupation after the relocation of its official offices. The results include insights into early Luso-African practices and the presence of West African and local-made pottery, with environmental samples ‘clocking’ colonial introductions.
Excavating Alcatrazes, Santiago Island, Cape Verde: early colonial impacts on land, people and material culture
In the highlands of northern Chile, research on industrial mining camps and agropastoral sites (estancias) shows the relevance of a contemporary archaeology perspective for studying the impacts of capitalist expansion, ruination and deindustrialisation for local Indigenous communities.
Ruination and deindustrialisation in the highlands of northern Chile
Ancient stone monuments may have marked the locations of key ritual activities for pastoralist communities. This project is the first to employ multi-method geophysical survey to identify additional features of construction and use at the Chalcolithic-period Rajajil Columns site in northern Saudi Arabia.
The Rajajil Columns: employing multi-method geophysical survey to investigate monument construction and use
Recent investigations in north-west Arabia have revealed that many major oases in the region were enclosed by a network of monumental walls. Confirmation of four newly identified walled oases demonstrates that this Walled Oases Complex had a substantial impact on long-term socioeconomic development in the region.
The Walled Oases Complex in north-west Arabia: evidence for a long-term settlement model in the desert
Multidisciplinary methods permit the first archaeometallurgical study of artefacts from five key first-millennium BC settlements in Poland: Grzybiany, Wicina, Kamieniec, Tarławki and Mołtajny. This project fills a lacuna in our understanding of technical ceramics, metal provenance and the role of settlements in the cultural landscape.
Metallurgy in first-millennium BC Poland: insights from metal production, trade networks and landscape archaeology
Fortified Island (FORTIS) examines Iron Age fortifications on the island of Bornholm to assess their characters, locations and chronologies. Through a multimethod approach, the project deepens our understanding of fortifications in relation to their physical and cultural landscapes, both on Bornholm and in the Baltic Sea Region more generally.
Fortified Island (FORTIS): fortifications and communities on Iron Age Bornholm
In 2022, a project was initiated to investigate the cemetery at Nowy Chorów, northern Poland, with Orzeszkowo-type (rectangular) burial mounds. During the excavations, both inhumation and cremation graves were uncovered, along with elements of elite grave goods and evidence of the reopening of the graves.
Nowy Chorów Project: funerary practices associated with rectangular burial mounds in early medieval Pomerania
The early medieval stronghold of Grzybowo, Wielkopolska, was a large complex, comprising two strongholds and an extensive outer settlement, with numerous elite movable monuments. Excavations suggest that this was an important site for the ruling dynasty, with analogies for this form of central stronghold found in Ruthenia and Bohemia.
The early medieval stronghold at Grzybowo from the tenth to eleventh centuries
Medieval elite culture is often difficult to grasp among archaeological records from settlement sites. A silver-gilt amethyst setting, probably part of a brooch, from the moat of Castle Kolno in Poland represents an unusual high-status find from a context related to everyday activity.
A jewel worthy of a duke from the moat of Castle Kolno
This study explores early domestic life at the historic Yoruba site of Orile-Owu. Excavations and ethnography reveal insights into diet and food processing, medicinal practices and the daily routines of occupants during the mid-fifteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries AD.
Domestic life at Orile-Owu, Nigeria (c. AD 1456–1661): an initial insight
Since 2015, four non-invasive campaigns have surveyed the San José Galleon shipwreck in the Colombian Caribbean, providing valuable insights into the age and provenance of artefacts found on the seabed. Numismatic, archaeological and historical approaches have been employed to analyse a collection of gold coins recorded within this underwater context.
The cobs in the archaeological context of the San José Galleon shipwreck
‘Lamsdorf/Łambinowice: an archaeology of memory’ is an interdisciplinary project that uses archaeological research methods and tools to locate unknown and unmarked graves of prisoners of war (PoW) and civilians related to the functioning of the German camp Stalag VIII B (344) Lamsdorf in the years 1939–1945.
Lamsdorf/Łambinowice: an archaeology of memory
This study uses archival photos and data from lidar, geophysical surveys and excavations to help uncover the physical realities of two Second World War Nazi sub-camps, Czyżówek (AL Halbau) and Karczmarka (AL Kittlitztreben), in the Gross-Rosen network, now in south-west Poland.
Landscapes of enslavement: investigations of Nazi concentration camps in Czyżówek and Karczmarka, Poland
Accessibility at the Sterkfontein Caves UNESCO World Heritage Site limits public and scientific engagement. The authors digitally visualised part of the cave using laser scans and photogrammetry, geospatially integrating the digital cave and fossil datasets. This enables broader access for learners, educators and scientists and enhances scientific outreach potential.
Towards a virtual environment for the Sterkfontein Caves, South Africa: developing a georeferenced and optimised digital dataset
Eight Acheulean sites are located in an under-researched ecological setting within the hilly terrain of the Upper Son Valley, India. A total of 1348 Acheulean artefacts have been identified across these sites, primarily preserved in high-energy depositional contexts, providing insights into the Pleistocene environment of hominin occupation and available lithic technology.
Acheulean habitation in the Upper Son Valley, India: insights into early occupation and environment
The Sidi Zin Archaeological Project aims to bridge understanding of the Acheulean–Middle Stone Age transition in northern Tunisia, a relatively understudied region in the context of hominin evolution. The Sidi Zin locality will provide chronological, palaeoenvironmental, geomorphological and cultural insights into Acheulean and Middle Stone Age occupations in Tunisia.
Sidi Zin Archaeological Project: new investigations into the Acheulean and Middle Stone Age in Tunisia
Searching for the Neolithic along the Vardar-Morava River corridor revealed several new sites in a previously underexplored region. Multidisciplinary investigations at Svinjarička Čuka identified Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation. Highlights presented here demonstrate the potential of this new key site for enriching our understanding of the prehistory of the Balkans.
Fresh light on Balkan prehistory: highlights from Svinjarička Čuka (Serbia)
Two new sites, identified during a survey of the Tajuña River Valley, central Iberia, show evidence of both flint extraction and working, specifically for the production of long blades. These are an important addition to the limited number of such sites known in Eurasia.
New quarries and workshops for long flint blade production in central Iberia (Brihuega, Guadalajara, Spain)