Antiquity Journal

A round stone plaque engraved with a sun motif.

How did prehistoric people respond to natural disasters? Some of 2025's most-read research suggested a volcanic eruption that blocked out the sun caused people in Neolithic Denmark to ritually sacrifice 'sun stones' to ensure a good harvest.

Read it 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Cave wall with a bright red handprint on its surface.

Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan sighted Guam #OnThisDay in AD 1521, becoming the first European to do so. The island has been occupied since 1500 BC, with #RockArt in caves showing how cultural traditions changed over time.

🔗 from 2017 (£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Polished green stone ornament, appearing to depict a frog-like creature in the birth-giving position. There are two perforations at the top and close-up inserts show evidence for wear on the perforations, indicating it was worn on soft straps. Other macroscopic close-ups indicate general use-wear traces.

Nephrite (aka jade) pendant from Neolithic Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia, depicting a frog-like creature giving birth.
It is similar to contemporary examples from across the Balkans, indicating shared symbolic imagery throughout the region.

🔗 from 2025 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Citation of the book reviewed and name of the reviewer (Sarah Kerr).

"An interesting and energising read for those doing any archaeological research because it stimulates connections and engenders alignment throughout our diverse discipline which, it seems, may be a crucial stepping stone to achieving the future of archaeology" 2/2

✍️ @sarahkerr.bsky.social

Cover of the book reviewed with the text 'Book Review, Antiquity'.

📕 #BookReview 🏺

Gary M. Feinman & T. Douglas Price (ed.)'s 'The future of archaeology' explores the challenges facing #archaeology and suggests how we could shape the discipline’s future 1/2

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar | Antiquity Research on Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer diet has focused on the consumption of animals. Evidence for the use of plant foods is comparatively limited but is rapidly expanding. The authors present an analysis of carbonised macro-remains of processed plants from Franchthi Cave in the Aegean Basin and Shanidar Cave in the north-west Zagros Mountains. Microscopic examination of the charred food remains reveals the use of pounded pulses as a common ingredient in cooked plant foods. The results are discussed in the context of the regional archaeobotanical literature, leading the authors to argue that plants with bitter and astringent tastes were key ingredients of Palaeolithic cuisines in South-west Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Long before the Neolithic, even #Neanderthals were eating more than just meat! Analysis of charred plant remains from Franchthi and Shanidar Caves indicates pounded pulses were common components of Neanderthal diets.

🔗 from 2023 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

The Last European Hunter-Gatherers Were Already Cooking Complex Stew Recipes That Included Fish and All Kinds of Plants The image that traditional archaeology has offered for decades about the eating habits of ancient Europeans may be facing a profound revision. A team of researchers led by Lara González Carretero,…

📰 Multidisciplinary study of Neolithic pottery finds European hunter-gatherers were cooking complex recipes with meat, fish, and plants, questioning the central role of animal resources in prehistoric diets.

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @labrujulaverde.bsky.social

www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2026/03/t...

Stone axehead with a polished blade. A black box overlaid indicates one trace of use wear identified during analysis.

Is this one of West Africa's first multi-tools? #FlintFriday
Analysis of Ground Stone Axes from Later #StoneAge (c.13,000–12,000 years ago) Nigeria indicates they were used for many different tasks, such as wood working, butchery/bone working and digging.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Wool dress, the top half made from red and pale yellow square patches, the bottom one brown-black piece.

Woollen dress from the 6th century BC-1st century AD cemetery of Zaghunluq, Xinjiang #NationalDressDay

Exotic grave goods such as this indicate Central Asian communities were involved in long-distance trade before the establishment of the Silk Roads.

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Viking warrior women? Reassessing Birka chamber grave Bj.581 | Antiquity | Cambridge Core Viking warrior women? Reassessing Birka chamber grave Bj.581 - Volume 93 Issue 367

Thank you for sharing! The authors of the 2017 study published, in 2019, their interpretation of the results in Antiquity, exploring their implications for both archaeology and general perceptions of the past.

Read it 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

The production of tools from bones was a major component of subsistence in prehistoric China too!

Initially a household industry, it became more specialised and standardised over time, underpinning (see what we did there 😉) the formation of complex societies.

Learn more 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Side-view of Petra, with the text 'Middle East & North Africa, Antiquity' overlaid.

Check out our collection on the #archaeology of the Middle East and North Africa, with FREE and #OpenAccess research on:

✍️ The origins of the world's first writing
🥂 Roman glass trade in the Levant
⛓️‍💥 The legacy of Early Islamic slavery

& more:

🏺 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The Roman Frontier in Britain | Antiquity | Cambridge Core The Roman Frontier in Britain - Volume 1 Issue 1

Because we love you so much, here's a special #RomanFortThursday and #ThrowbackThursday in one!
It's an examination of the Roman frontier in Britain by R. G. Collingwood, in our first ever issue from March 1927:

(£) doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Covers of the four books reviewed (Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries, Uist Unearthed, Picture Worlds and Readers of the Lost Ark).

This #WorldBookDay read about the power of storytelling in archaeology in our latest #NewBookChronicle, exploring how people told stories in the past and how archaeologists can continue to tell their stories in the present 🏺

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Viking body-making: new evidence for intra-action with iconic Viking anthropomorphic ‘art’ | Antiquity In Viking archaeology, the study of miniature figurines cast in silver and bronze provides a platform for debates on ritual and mythology, yet much of this discourse focuses on their appearance. Here, the authors use microwear and Reflective Transformation Imaging to survey the physical evidence of complex relational dynamics between 10 anthropomorphic artefacts from Viking Age Sweden and the human bodies they connected with. Through such analyses, and the abandonment of a priori assumptions regarding their purpose and symbolism, these figures can be seen as more than just components of an imposed category, and their varied, transmutable engagements with the world can be explored more freely.

Explore how assumptions about gender has influenced scholarship and limited interpretation of Nordic belief systems in Antiquity, through the re-interpretation of anthropomorphic figurines such as so-called 'valkyrie' pendants:

doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Stone Age woman was buried like a man, revealing flexible gender roles 7,000 years ago in Hungary A study of 125 skeletons from two Neolithic cemeteries in Hungary has revealed that men and women had clear gender roles — but sometimes those roles were fluid.

📰 Stone Age skeletons from Hungary suggest Neolithic gender roles were fluid, with some individuals buried with material culture and skeletal changes associated with the opposite sex.

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @livescience.com

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

A vibrant pink graphic with bold text that reads "Archaeology Artificial Intelligence from Cambridge." On the right, there's a colorful image of the analysis of rock. Courtesy of Antiquity.

These #Cambridge articles showcase exciting advances in #archaeology, examining at the same time how #AI is opening up possibilities for discovery, and enriching the debate around accuracy and ethics.

🔗 https://cup.org/4r8sw1Y

@antiquity.ac.uk @saa-aap.bsky.social
Image credit: 'Antiquity'

Read the review by Richard Bradley and purchase our Long Barrows Book! 🤎👍

Using AI to identify rules for an ancient board game of the Roman era...this is very interesting #Archaeology #AncientRome #boardgames

Title (Truly Grand Egyptian Museum), name of the reviewer (Martin Odler) and first paragraph of the article.

"Indeed, we might dare to consider it one of the most important museological events of our century because this is the largest museum globally dedicated to a single civilization... The GEM stands to serve as the best gateway for understanding the ancient Egyptian civilization".

Entrance of the Grand Egyptian Museum, with a 'hanging' obelisk front and centre.

NEW The Grand Egyptian Museum displays c.50,000 ancient Egyptian artefacts from across its entire history, with major exhibitions Tutankhamun's life, death and identity.

Our latest #ReviewArticle from Martin Odler explores the "Truly Grand Egyptian Museum".

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺#Archaeology

Manuscript page depicting a meeting between the Spanish conquistadors and Indigenous people in Yucatán. A Black person is also present at the meeting, possibly Juan Cortés, slave of the soldier Juan Sedeño and the first African registered in New Spain.

Hernán Cortés and Spanish conquistadors arrived in Mexico #OnThisDay in AD 1519.
The early colonial settlements they founded were occupied by Indigenous Americans, Europeans, and enslaved Africans, creating a unique social fabric.

🔗 from 2022 (£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Excavation and interior of Escuadrón 41's cistern, containing demolition debris from the early 1960s.

NEW In 1958, the former colonial battery Escuadrón 41 was repurposed into a detention centre and used by Cuba's Batista dictatorship to torture revolutionaries.
Despite efforts to erase them, the ruins persisted, both physically and in public memory.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Detecting social differences in diet in medieval towns: isotopic evidence from Cambridge, England, c. AD 940–1538 | Antiquity Here, the authors apply a ‘whole-town’ approach to isotopic analysis, to characterise and explore variation in diet within medieval Cambridge and its hinterland.

Read the original research in Antiquity 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Isotopes reveal how social status shaped diet in medieval England Isotope analysis reveals that social status and wealth had a profound impact on diet in medieval England, showing that people from different social groups in medieval Cambridge ate markedly different…

📰 Isotope analysis reveals how social inequality can be read in our bones, shedding light on how wealth and status impacted diet in medieval England

🏺 #AntiquityResearch #ArchaeologyNews via PhysOrg

phys.org/news/2026-02...

Citation of the book reviewed and name of the reviewer.

"The tombs of forefathers is an original, well-written and nicely illustrated study that deserves to have a considerable influence outside the authors’ study area." 2/2

✍️ Reviewed by Richard Bradley

Cover of the book reviewed, depicting a sunrise over a Neolithic long barrow, with the text 'Book Review, Antiquity'.

📕 #BookReview 🏺 #Archaeology

Jan Turek & Petr Krištuf's 'The tombs of forefathers' examines the Neolithic long barrows of Bohemia, shedding light on the ritual landscape of an understudied region and its possible connections to medieval literature 1/2

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

Ten miniature metal figurines depicting various anthropomorphic figures of different shapes and sizes.

Miniature silver and bronze figurines from #Viking Age Sweden. Microscopic analysis suggests their manufacture and use may have mirrored how human bodies were treated, hinting at the complexity of Nordic pre-Christian religion and magical practices.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology

Fragments of sweet wrappers.

Four pieces of plastic cutlery.

Plastic drinking straws and straw wrappers.

Enjoying a treat this #NationalSnackDay? Don't forget to dispose of your waste! Archaeological survey at the Iron Age hillfort of Castell Henllys found lots of plastic waste from modern visits, suggesting we now live in the 'Plastic Age'.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

#HillfortsWednesday🏺#Archaeology

Citation of the book reviewed and name of the reviewer.

"[The book] is an exemplary piece of research. Spinazzi-Lucchesi demonstrates how close analysis of everyday artefacts (spindle whorls, loom weights and other implements) can illuminate far-reaching questions of technology, identity and cultural interaction" 2/2

✍️ Reviewed by Danijela Stefanović