Ranked in the top five in the UK for archaeology (no. 2 in 2019), for the 13th year in a row, in The Guardian University Guide League Tables. Ranked in the top ten for student satisfaction in The Complete University Guide 2019 League Table of UK archaeology departments (published in May 2019). Twitter: @UCLarchaeology Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCLArchaeology Instagram: uclarchaeology

Signatures of animal bone fragmentation have huge potential for understanding deposition and archaeological site formation processes, yet they are scarcely studied, especially in medieval urban contexts. Archaeological investigations at 1–5 Benjamin Street, Farringdon uncovered a number of medieval cess pits and other contexts associated with the Hospitaller Priory of St John of Jerusalem. The well-preserved

Investigating several modern ‘mega events’, including World’s Fairs and Olympic Games, this paper discusses the complex relationship such events and their sites have often had with ‘the future’. Such events are frequently associated with demonstrating progress towards future ‘utopias’ (for example ‘The World of Tomorrow’ theme of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York) or leaving a tangible positive social

Details of news and events can be found throughout the year on the Institute’s website at https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news-and-events .

This article investigates the critical potential of newly emerging approaches to heritage experience design. Moving away from a familiar critique of heritage experiences as inauthentic or overly commercial, I consider three aspects of the experiential that might (re)shape critical engagements with the past in the present. Building on the work of Kidd (2018), the first engages with the growing trend

A new Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project brings together multiple strands of investigation to probe the relationship between ritual, violence, and early state formation. David Wengrow and Brenna Hassett will coordinate an international team combining biomolecular analysis (stable isotopes, ancient DNA), bioarchaeology, and archaeology to examine a remarkable set of Early Bronze

Of the 80,600 objects in UCL’s Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, around 4000 are from Sudan.1 Flinders Petrie himself did not travel south of Aswan, and these items were acquired through different channels after his death. While many of these are on display in the Museum galleries—albeit tucked amongst the greater proportion of archaeological material from Egypt—much of the Sudanese collection remains

Keeping plants and animals beyond their natural shelf life is a central human challenge, both as a matter of immediate survival and for the social and economic opportunities that stored foods offer. Understanding different food storage and preservation strategies in the past is key to a whole series of other research agendas, but remains challenging, not least because the evidence is patchy and hard

Archaeology has long congratulated itself on the success it has achieved in exploring the domestication of animals. This work was largely undertaken by examining animal bone remains from archaeological sites, studies that encourage a focus on meat consumption. The emphasis on domestication and on direct exploitation leads to the prioritisation of the earlier occurrences of livestock. Thereafter livestock

Earlier this year, academics at 65 UK universities were on strike for fourteen days over proposals of cuts to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the sector’s pension fund. Institute of Archaeology (IoA) striking staff organised a series of activities to keep students engaged during this period. This included the making of an all-hands’ banner, named ‘hands-up for education’ inspired by Magdalenian

Recent developer funded projects conducted by Archaeology South-East, the contracting division of the Centre for Applied Archaeology (CAA) have, over the last decade or so, begun to fill a void in our knowledge of one of the most archaeologically under-researched areas in Britain. It is becoming clear that rather than being a marginal landscape beyond more habitable zones, the Weald of South-East England

Details of news and events can be found throughout the year on the Institute’s website at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news-events

Since January 2017, the UCL Institute of Archaeology has been the institutional base of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Heritage Priority Area Leadership team. The team, led by AHRC Heritage Priority Area Leadership Fellow and Professor of Heritage Studies at the UCL Institute of Archaeology Rodney Harrison, are funded to undertake their work initially for a period of three years until

The Institute of Archaeology produces two well-established series of books: a General Series (series editor Ruth Whitehouse) and the Critical Cultural Heritage sub-series (series editor Beverley Butler). These have been published since December 2015 by Routledge, a branch of Taylor & Francis. In addition, the Institute is planning to enter into a new partnership with BAR Publishing to publish final

The Neolithic was not only a shift in how food was obtained, through farming, but it also set up long-lasting traditions in how foods were prepared and cooked. Archaeologists have increasingly recognized regionally distinctive emphases on cereal preparations, such as baked breads or boiled porridges that characterize different Neolithic traditions. While these can be inferred through features, such

Research on the Institute of Archaeology Library Archive has unearthed a number of letters written by Kathleen Kenyon during her early career as Secretary and later Acting Director of the Institute of Archaeology, 1935-1947. These letters shed light on Kenyon’s early career and the importance of her role in the newly founded Institute of Archaeology. They reveal the versatility required of her, with

Within Central Asia there is an unusual group of earthen buildings (koshks), usually constructed on raised platforms, with vertical engaged columns forming iconic ‘corrugations’ on the exterior walls. The complexes are semi-fortified, with a second storey entrance, and often with asymmetrical ranges of rooms around an internal courtyard. Little systematic archaeological work has taken place on these

This paper details and considers the results of excavations and research at Downley between 2015 and 2018. The primary aim of the project was to locate and prove the site of a late medieval – Tudor period hunting lodge that was mentioned in extant and archival literature but for which no physical trace existed. Four years of excavation, after an initial test pit survey, have revealed Tudor demolition

Ranked in the top five in the UK for archaeology (no. 2 in 2019), for the 13th year in a row, in The Guardian University Guide League Tables. Ranked in the top ten for student satisfaction in The Complete University Guide 2019 League Table of UK archaeology departments (published in May 2019). Twitter: @UCLarchaeology Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UCLArchaeology Instagram: uclarchaeology

In the following we focus on, and briefly summarize, the work of the UCL Rapa Nui Landscapes of Construction Project (LOC) over the past two years, monitoring various aspects of erosion and weathering on the island (Table 1) and its impact on the Rapa Nui (Easter Island) heritage landscape. This work builds on and expands data collected during the British Academy (SG-47054) and AHRC (AH/1002596/1)

The Petrie Museum houses an interesting collection of funerary wooden models. These objects, deposited in the tombs of the Egyptian elites between the end of the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom to guarantee the deceased a wholesome rebirth, come from excavations carried out or purchased by W. F. Petrie in Egypt. Complete or fragmentary, with an often unclear archaeological context, these objects

A total of 270 Middle Palaeolithic sites are recorded in the Portuguese Archaeology Archive. However, only a few were systematically excavated, present valuable archaeological information and show reliable absolute date results. Amongst them, 13 archaeological sites yielded animal remains, but most of these assemblages are of indeterminate origin, or due to natural or carnivore accumulations. Therefore

The use of Niche Construction Theory in archaeological research demands that we establish empirically how human-constructed niches acted as legacies that shaped the selection pressures affecting past human populations. One potential approach is to examine whether human demography changed as a result of the continued use of landscapes enduringly transformed by past societies. This paper presents proxies

This short paper introduces the special section "Civilisation and the Construction of the Human Niche", organised by the ‘Domestication, Niche Construction and the Anthropocene’ research network at the UCL Institute of Archaeology.

Stonehenge is unique among prehistoric stone circles. Its stones are shaped and they carry lintels but the most extraordinary feature is that its stones have been brought to Salisbury Plain from elsewhere. Stonehenge’s sarsen stones (a type of silcrete) are thought to have been brought from the Marlborough Downs 20 miles (30 km) to the north (Parker Pearson 2016). More extraordinarily, the smaller

Introduction and Project Overview This research is based on the London Science Museum’s ‘Building Bridges’ programme, which consists of a structured sequence of activities for Year Seven secondary school pupils (aged 11–12) and their families. The overall programme aim is to provide links between science at school, at the Science Museum, and as part of every-day family life. The activities occur over

Introduction The technical quality and aesthetic beauty of the pre-Columbian metalwork of Central and South America have long fascinated scholars and the public alike. However, the existing picture of pre-Columbian metallurgy remains rather generalised and, as such, archaeologically simplistic. With some notable exceptions, much previous work has downplayed the role of humbler metallurgical traditions

The egalitarian character of traditional irrigation (subak) systems in Bali has been widely documented and discussed by anthropologists, historians, and archaeologists. In a recent study, Stephen Lansing and Karyn Fox have considered how the principles of niche construction theory might help to understand the genesis of these systems, as well as certain of their institutional characteristics. Here

Alice Stevenson and Emma Libonati on the AHRC-funded project ‘Artefacts of Excavation’, which aims to examine the practice of object distribution and its impact on archaeology, Egyptology and museums.

This article presents a detailed examination of Gordon Childe’s The Dawn of European Civilization, one of the best known books in European Archaeology. An overview of the book, its scope and influence is provided, as well as an analysis of its complex theoretical structures and philosophical context. Detailed sequential analysis of all six editions reveals how the original was repeatedly reinvented

The archaeology of rice has made important methodological advances over the past decade that have contributed new data on the domestication process, spread and ecology of cultivation. Growing evidence from spikelet bases indicates that non-shattering, domesticated forms evolved gradually in the Yangtze basin and that there were at least two distinct processes around the Middle Yangtze region pre-dating

Promotions Firstly, the Institute was very pleased to announce the success of five staff members in UCL’s Senior Staff Promotions, effective from October 2016. These promotions, richly deserved, acknowledge staff research and teaching excellence in their respective fields. Rodney Harrison is promoted to Professor of Heritage Studies; Tim Williams is promoted to Reader in Silk Roads Archaeology; Gabriel

Since 2011, the Centre for Applied Archaeology (UCL), together with a local Kazakh archaeological company (Archaeological Expertise) and the Margulan Institute of Archaeology of Kazakhstan, have been undertaking the Silk Road Cities of Kazakhstan Project in the south of the country. For the past two years, attention has been focused on the city of Kuik-Mardan, one of the largest of the seventy or so

This paper briefly reports on the initial results of a new Leverhulme-sponsored four-year archaeological project (RPG 234- 2014) centred on the Atures Rapids area of the Middle Orinoco River, Amazonas State, Venezuela ( Fig. 1 ). The Cotua Island Reflexive Archaeology Project seeks to establish the longue duree historical processes that by early colonial times culminated in the region’s reputation

Marco Gonzalez is one of a number of Maya sites on Belize’s coast and cayes (coral islands) that exhibit anomalous vegetation and dark-coloured soils. Like Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs), the soils are sought locally for cultivation and are underlain by anthropogenic deposits. Our research is aimed at assessing the role of the anthro- pogenic deposits in soil formation processes with a view to developing

A UNESCO project, Support for the Preparation for the World Heritage Serial Nomination of the Silk Roads in South Asia, afforded the opportunity to research evidence for Silk Roads exchange in South Asia. The first part of the paper explores the challenges of archaeology in the Kingdom of Bhutan, located on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas. GIS-based approaches to model earlier settlement

Details of news and events can be found throughout the year on the Institute’s web-site at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/calendar

Museums and heritage sites have provided merchandise for visitors to purchase since their earliest incarnations as public attractions in the 18 th century. Despite this longevity scant academic research has been directed towards such activities. However, retailing – formalised in the emergence of the museum shop – offers insights into a range of issues, from cultural representation and education, to

This brief update introduces the framework of a newly funded research project entitled ‘Iron Age and Roman Heritages: Exploring ancient identities in modern Britain’ to be undertaken collaboratively by Durham University and the UCL Institute of Archaeology, and supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (2016–2019)1. The project assesses how the Iron Age, Roman and, via smaller pilot