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Antiquity Journal
@antiquity.ac.uk
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Antiquity is a bimonthly review of world archaeology edited by Professor Robin Skeates. Please be aware that we sometimes share relevant images of human remains. https://antiquity.ac.uk/
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Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 24d
Our December issue is out now! Featuring great #archaeology such as:

🔵 The oldest blue mineral pigment use in Europe
⛰️ Mesoamerican mountain monuments and water worship
🐚 Playing the shell trumpets of Neolithic Catalonia

& much more! 🏺
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Cover of the December 2025 issue of Antiquity, featuring a photogrammetric image of an ancient quarry, with evidence for the quarrying of stone and a partially complete humanoid statue lying on its back.
antiquity.ac.uk
This beautiful stone axe is from Stone Age Akwanga, central Nigeria #FindsFriday
Analysis found multiple wear attributes, as well as microscopic traces of collagen and wood, indicating it was used for both butchery and woodworking 🏺 #Archaeology

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Stone axehead with a polished blade. A black box overlaid indicates one trace of use wear identified during analysis.
December 26, 2025 at 5:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Whether you're still too full to move after your Christmas dinner or already snacking on leftovers, why not pass the time reading some great #archaeology? Our collections contain tons of #OpenAccess and FREE articles on archaeological themes from around the world 🏺

🔗 antiquity.ac.uk/collections
Collections
Explore curated collections of our recent articles on specific themes, updated regularly and hosted on Cambridge Core.
antiquity.ac.uk
December 26, 2025 at 1:45 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Happy #BoxingDay! The origins of the term are uncertain, but it may refer to the alms boxes placed in churches to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, a practice dating back to late Roman and early Christian Europe 🏺 1/2

📷 4028mdk09 / CC BY-SA 3.0
An alms box (mite box) from the St.-Gallus-Kirche in Ladenburg, Germany: a black box with a padlock, sat on the arm of a pew in a church.
December 26, 2025 at 8:13 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Happy Christmas from Antiquity! Our gift to you is #OpenAccess archaeology 🎁

Check out all the free research and reviews from our latest issue: antiquity.ac.uk/open
Christmas tree on a wooden surface, decorated with red baubles, gold stars and a pinecone, with the text 'Free archaeology research and reviews, Antiquity'.
December 25, 2025 at 5:30 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Bringing out the special plates for Christmas Dinner? 🍗
Prehistoric people had crockery for special occasions too! In Neolithic Arabia, imported Mesopotamian Ubaid Ware was an item of prestige, whereas locally-produced Coarse Red Ware more commonplace

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Ubaid period bowl from Eridu, southern Mesopotamia. A pale grey, shallow bowl painted with a cross-hatched design in a darker shade of grey. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain Several fragmented pieces of Coarse Red Ware from Bahra 1, Kuwait. Hand-formed pottery vessels with coarse surfaces, ranging in colour from pale red to reddish brown (credit: Adam Oleksiak).
December 25, 2025 at 1:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Merry Christmas from everyone in the Antiquity team! We hope you have a wonderful day ☃️🏺
Graphic of snowflakes and baubles with the text 'Merry Christmas from Antiquity'.
December 25, 2025 at 8:45 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Greek Protogeometric pottery is traditionally associated with Athens, but analysis of an early Protogeometric amphora found it was produced in central Macedonia, suggesting the iconic Iron Age style originated in this historically marginalised region.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Right: fragments of a red-brown coloured amphora, painted with black coloured compass-drawn concentric circles. Left: sketch reconstructing the vessel.
December 24, 2025 at 5:35 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Need to grab a last-minute gift for tomorrow? Give the gift that keeps on giving: a... necklace made of beetles? #ChristmasEveShopping 🏺 #Archaeology
Strung together and placed in a bark box, insect exoskeleton fragments were made into jewellery in Iron Age Poland.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Above: a phyllobius viridicollis beetle on a leaf. Below: several phyllobius viridicollis pronota (the section between the head and abdomen) from a grave at Domasław, south-west Poland. In one case, three are strung together, indicating they were used as beads on a necklace/bracelet.
December 24, 2025 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet, but rewilding seeks to reverse this. The latest #AntiquityDebate asks if archaeologists should 'rewild their minds' to better-understand past worlds much more biodiverse than our own.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
A rewilded landscape at Knepp, Sussex. Grasses, trees and shrubs spread across a hilly landscape. Two deer stand in the scrubland.
December 24, 2025 at 1:45 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Wooden settlement remains from Bronze Age Tabakoni, in the Colchis lowlands of western Georgia #Woodensday 🏺 #Archaeology
The waterlogged environment required a solid foundation for the construction of occupation sites, and the anaerobic conditions preserved them.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Top) overview of wooden features in a trench, from the first settlement phase (twentieth century BC); bottom) horizontally laid wooden beams forming the foundation of a rectangular building with a plank floor in the centre of the settlement mound, excavated in 2017 (photographs by J. N. Meyer).
December 24, 2025 at 10:35 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Kiritimati (aka Christmas Island) was visited #OnThisDay in AD 1777 by Captain Cook. Occupied (intermittently) since at least 1450, monumental architecture there indicates cultural and ritual connections across the whole of East Polynesia.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Map of the South Pacific with a line outlining the East Polynesia region, stretching from New Zealand in the south west to Rapa Nui in the east and the Hawai'ian Islands in the north.
December 24, 2025 at 8:13 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 Over 70 bodies uncovered at a medieval English cemetery likely used for executed criminals

#ArchaeologyNews via the BBC

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
More remains uncovered at Buckingham 'execution' cemetery
Archaeologists believe the site in Buckingham was a burial ground for executed criminals.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 23, 2025 at 8:30 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Circular pottery lids from Early Modern Idrija, Slovenia, engraved with letters #EpigraphyTuesday 🏺 #Archaeology

Used in mercury roasting, they prevented vaporised mercury from escaping during the roasting process, enabling the extraction of liquid mercury from ore.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Two circular pieces of pottery inscribed with letters (SD and M/TM) alongside diagrams making the inscriptions clearer.
December 23, 2025 at 5:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Cylinder seal and its impression, from an Assyrian grave at Tell Billa.
Analysis of grave goods indicates wealth inequality grew over time, suggesting the expansion of the Assyrian empire coincided with increased taxation of its subjects.

🔗 from 2024 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Cylindrical piece of stone engraved with a design. Next to it is a piece of clay with the design imprinted onto it, depicting a procession of four-legged animals.
December 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW the Kura-Araxes culture of the South Caucasus spread over a large area of South-west Asia during the fourth and third millennia BC. Now, Bayesian chronological modelling shows how it shaped sociocultural transformations during the Early Bronze Age.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Digital elevation model of the South Caucasus, showing locations of seas, mountains, rivers, the major cities of Yerevan and Baku, and Early Bronze Age sites mentioned in the article.
December 23, 2025 at 1:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Can't wait for Christmas? Here's an early present from Antiquity! 🏺
Our collection of contemporary #archaeology and theory covers topics from the ongoing impact of past conflicts to the future of research in a more divided world.

Access it completely free:
Contemporary Archaeology and Theory
A special collection of articles from Antiquity on Contemporary Archaeology and Theory
www.cambridge.org
December 23, 2025 at 10:22 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Exploring your family history this #NationalRootsDay? Ancient DNA can tell us a lot about family relationships in the past.
DNA analysis of early medieval burials in England even found an individual with a grandparent from West Africa!

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Graph of the results of principal component analysis, displaying the Worth Matravers individuals, alongside other early medieval aDNA samples from England (yellow squares; Gretzinger et al. 2022) and contemporaneous North African individuals (blue triangles; seventh to eleventh centuries AD Guanches from the Canary Islands; Rodríguez-Varela et al. 2017). Modern samples (grey crosses) from West Eurasia and West/North Africa are shown in the underlying plot. Whilst almost all the individuals from early medieval England fall neatly within the range for modern west Europe, one (EAS003) is in the range for modern west/north Africa.
December 23, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org
Share your thoughts about '#Antiquity'! Your insights are incredibly important to us and will help us to improve your experience. Complete this short survey and be in with a chance of winning £100! T&Cs apply: 📝➡️ https://cup.org/49xRYsD

@antiquity.ac.uk
Tablet displaying the cover of 'Antiquity' journal with the text 'User Survey' set on a textured surface, featuring an archaeological site in the background.
December 22, 2025 at 6:48 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Did a slave revolt cause the decline of #medieval farming in southern Iraq?

The first absolute dates suggests earthworks in the region stayed in use following the 9th-century-AD Zanj rebellion, questioning the traditional historical narrative.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Black-and-white CORONA satellite imagery of a landscape covered in linear ridge/earthwork features. A dotted line annotates a canal channel running through the earthworks. Photograph number DS1035-1040DF019 captured 23 September 1966 (reproduced courtesy of the US Geological Survey).
December 22, 2025 at 9:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
The #Inca kept detailed records using khipus: devices made from knotted string.

The famous monument of Monte Sierpe (aka Band of Holes) was segmented and arranged similarly to a khipu, indicating it was used for accounting #MathematicsDay

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Many vertical pieces of string with knots along their lengths, fixed together by a long, horizontal piece of string. Regularly arranged series of holes stretching along a mountain ridge.
December 22, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
cambup-archaeology.cambridge.org
⏳ Counting down to #AIASCS2026? Revisit 2025’s standout work from Cambridge's #archaeology and #classicalstudies journals - free to read (where not already #openaccess) through 31 Jan 2026.

🎆🎇🔗 https://cup.org/48PnMZh

@antiquity.ac.uk @saa-aap.bsky.social @archaeologyeaa.bsky.social
Banner for 'Classical Studies & World Archaeology Highlights' from Cambridge Journals, featuring purple radial background.
December 22, 2025 at 2:38 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Are you an Early Career Researcher trying to get your research in front of a global audience? We can help! 🏺
Antiquity publishes #archaeology from all periods and regions, and is read worldwide too. Find out more and how to submit: antiquity.ac.uk/submit
Submit an article
Interested in submitting an article to Antiquity? Find out more, including our submission guidelines for authors and details about our editorial processes, here.
antiquity.ac.uk
December 22, 2025 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Isotope analysis of Bronze–Early Iron Age tin ingots from four Mediterranean shipwrecks found the tin was mined in south-west Britain. Evidence for 'zones of interaction' indicate land and sea connections from Britain to the Levant #MaritimeMonday

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Map of Europe and parts of North Africa and Western Asia, annotated with yellow stars showing locations of shipwrecks with tin ingots (off the coasts of south-west Britain, southern France, southern Anatolia and the western Levant) as well as circles indicating zones of interaction between regions and dotted lines indicating possible down-the-line trade routes via these zones of interaction.
December 22, 2025 at 1:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 For the first time, artefacts from the San José galleon, including a bronze cannon, porcelain cup and three coins, have been brought to the surface

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @archaeologynews.bsky.social

archaeologymag.com/2025/12/san-...
San José galleon artifacts surface after 300 years, shedding light on the 1708 Caribbean shipwreck
For the first time since the San José galleon sank beneath the Caribbean more than three centuries ago, a set of carefully selected artifacts has been brought to the surface, giving a clearer window into one of the most fabled shipwrecks in the Americas
archaeologymag.com
December 22, 2025 at 10:15 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
📕 #BookReview

Bruno Chaume (ed.)'s 'La principauté celtique du Mont Lassois à Vix' provides a detailed account of fieldwork at Iron Age Mont Lassois, summarising the main insights from a decade of research at the major Late Hallstatt site 1/2

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Cover of the book reviewed, depicting an artist's reconstruction of an Iron Age settlement on a hill, with the text 'Book Review, Antiquity'.
December 22, 2025 at 8:13 AM