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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 · Dec 2
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
Excavation of a paddy field from China's early Hemudu culture (c. 6700–6300 cal BP). The earliest identified definitive paddy field in eastern China, tracing its development over time helps track the formation of complex societies in Asia.

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Three aerial photos of an excavated area, annotated with the location of the paddy field and archaeological features such as a paddy ridge.
February 9, 2026 at 9:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Why did early Andean civilisations build monuments?

5000-year-old burial mounds in the Titicaca Basin were built before developed power structures, suggesting they were communal acts of memorialisation, not displays of elite power.

🔗 from 2025 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Aerial view of the Kaillachuro site. In the foreground, two mounds are visible under excavation on a flat alluvial terrace. Hills rise up on the horizon.
February 9, 2026 at 5:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
In the Middle Neolithic Boyne Valley 🇮🇪 passage graves were superseded by more open circular enclosures. Circular 'proto-henge' monuments developed in southern Britain shortly after. Were they inspired by interaction across the Irish Sea? #MegalithicMonday

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Newgrange passage tomb: a large, circular hill with a 'wall' of white stone encircling half of it.
February 9, 2026 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
NEW Evidence for 4,500-year-old Paleo-Inuit settlement on the remote Kitsissut Islands, north of Greenland indicates the Arctic's first inhabitants were skilled seafarers who shaped High Arctic ecosystems from the beginning of glacial retreat.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
February 9, 2026 at 1:26 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
#OnThisDay in AD 1897, a British raid destroyed and looted Benin City, wiping out the Benin Kingdom.

Now, excavations at the Oba's historic palace site shed light on architecture, artisanal practice, trade, diet and more in pre-colonial West Africa.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Black-and-white image of three British men sat in the Oba's compound as it is being burnt. Laid out on the ground are many bronze plaques (the Benin Bronzes). Archaeologists excavating in a trench in Area 5 of the MOWAA excavations.
February 9, 2026 at 10:15 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Starting the week with some oatmeal? #OatmealMonday
Analysis of the gut contents of the Tollund Man, an Iron Age body from Denmark preserved in a peat bog, found his last meal was a barley porridge. Was this ordinary fare or related to ritual practices?

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
The last meal of Tollund Man: new analyses of his gut content
The last meal of Tollund Man, a bog body from Early Iron Age Denmark, has been re-examined using new analyses of plant macrofossils, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs, steroid markers and proteins found in his gut. Some 12–24 hours before he was killed, he ate a porridge containing barley, pale persicaria and flax, and probably some fish.
doi.org
February 9, 2026 at 8:13 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
How did the #Inca Empire expand its influence?
History & #archaeology suggest local strategies to deal with Inca expansion varied, with marriage alliances and conflict both being employed to compete with or resist Inca dominance #WorldMarriageDay 🏺

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Page from Guaman Poma's depiction of Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui's conquests, depicting a person with a club and shield hitting an unarmed person on the ground. Above, a person blows a horn trumpet.
February 8, 2026 at 11:01 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
#OnThisDay in AD 1845, the Portland Vase (a Roman cameo glass vase) was destroyed by a drunk visitor to the British Museum. Restored multiple times, its final restoration with epoxy resin in 1988-89 means little sign of the damage is now visible 1/2

📷 Jastrow / CC BY 2.5
Black glass vase with a white, classical-style scene depicting people and a cherub on its body.
February 7, 2026 at 2:12 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Stratigraphy from two of the 51 Aketala sites in the Tarim Basin of north-western China. The westernmost Bronze Age settlements discovered in China to date, they indicate cultural connections across Central Asia c. 4000 years ago.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Two photographs of the sides of trenches, separated into stratigraphic layers and annotated with numbers.
February 6, 2026 at 9:30 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Was Venice's Winged Lion statue made in China? Did British tin shape the ancient Mediterranean? Did music connect Western Asia's earliest civilisations?

Find out all this and more in our curated collection on the #archaeology of Trade and Connections: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🏺
Globe overlaid with the text 'Trade and Connections, Antiquity'.
February 6, 2026 at 5:15 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Did you miss Antiquity authors Benjamin W. Roberts and R. Alan Williams on #DiggingForBritain yesterday? No problem! You can catch up on BBC iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis... or go straight to the source in their #AntiquityBlog: www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
Excavating the British tin trade that shaped the Bronze Age
In 2025, we published an article in Antiquity, demonstrating through chemical and isotopic analyses that, c. 1300 BC, tin ingots made from tin ores in southwest Britain are found on shipwrecks off…
www.cambridge.org
February 6, 2026 at 3:03 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Neolithic axe-heads from the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney #FlintFriday
One of the most iconic tools of Europe's first farmers, wear analysis reveals they were treated in diverse ways, used for cutting wood, chiselling stone, scraping hides and more.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
A pile of polished stone axe-heads, ranging in colour from black to brown.
February 6, 2026 at 1:45 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
#Phoenician small ceramic bottles were traditionally thought to hold perfumes and medicines. Residue analysis found chemical traces of wine, resins, pitch and oil, indicating their uses were much more multifunctional than expected.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Workflow diagram, depicting how researchers combined acheometry with ancient texts to inform residue analysis of ceramic bottles, identifying resins, aromatics, grape acids and more.
February 6, 2026 at 10:22 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
In northern Fennoscandia, Scots pine trees were often incised with markings of cultural significance to the Indigenous Sámi.

Under threat from forestry, their documentation and protection is vital to the preservation of Sámi heritage #SamiNationalDay

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Three tree trunks incised with geometric symbols.
February 6, 2026 at 8:13 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
📰 Students uncover a medieval mass grave in Cambridgeshire, possibly a site of execution from clashes between Saxons and Vikings during the 9th century AD

🏺 #ArchaeologyNews via @the-independent.com

www.independent.co.uk/news/science...
Students unearth remains in possible execution pit on training dig
The discovery was made at Wandlebury Country Park near Cambridge
www.independent.co.uk
February 5, 2026 at 7:45 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Weaponry and equestrian equipment from a 'Viking merchant' grave at the 10th century AD Polish centre of Ciepłe. Ancient DNA indicates the individual buried here was from western Scandinavia, suggesting extensive trade across the early medieval Baltic.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Illustrations of several artefacts, such as a sword pommel, decorated with geometric motifs.
February 5, 2026 at 5:31 PM
Reposted by Antiquity Journal
drnwillburger.bsky.social
#RomanFortThursday: a #Roman dagger and and two dagger sheaths, both elaborately decorated with inlays (silver, brass, enamel).
Found in the Roman fort at Ehingen-Risstissen, dating 1st century AD.

On display at our branch museum Limesmuseum Aalen

🏺 #archaeology
A close-up of three objects on a black background: a plain iron dagger blade without a handle, next to two richly decorated metal dagger sheaths, both elaborately decorated with inlays made of silver, brass, enamel (geometric and circular patterns). There is also a small heavily rusted fragment in the lower left visible.
February 5, 2026 at 9:54 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
When did the Maya start burying their dead?
Excavation at a burial ground at Ceibal, Guatemala indicates the development of permanent cemeteries c.1000 BC could have been the catalyst that lead to permanent settlement and land ownership.

🔗 from 2025 🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Lidar relief map of Ceibal, revealing several groups of structures next to a river.
February 5, 2026 at 2:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Butterfly #archaeology for #WesternMonarchDay 🦋
The moth/butterfly (motjala) motif appears in rock art in the Flinders Islands Group, Australia. Collaboration between academics and the islands' Traditional Owners helps protect this cultural heritage 🏺

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Six rock art panels with moths/butterflies painted in red on the rock faces.
February 5, 2026 at 1:25 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Iron fibulae and belt loops from the Danish island of Bornholm #IronworkThursday
Such finds are distributed from mainland Scandinavia to northern Poland and Germany, indicating Bornholm was a pre-Roman Iron Age centre of trade and mobility.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Iron fibulae and belt loops (plus a blue glass bead), alongside illustrations reconstructing them when complete.
February 5, 2026 at 10:45 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
The next episode of #DiggingForBritain is tonight and features Antiquity authors Benjamin W. Roberts & R. Alan Williams on their excavations of the Bronze Age tin trade at St. Michael's Mount!

Can't wait? They wrote on their findings in an #AntiquityBlog 🏺 www.cambridge.org/core/blog/20...
Excavating the British tin trade that shaped the Bronze Age
In 2025, we published an article in Antiquity, demonstrating through chemical and isotopic analyses that, c. 1300 BC, tin ingots made from tin ores in southwest Britain are found on shipwrecks off…
www.cambridge.org
February 5, 2026 at 8:45 AM
antiquity.ac.uk
Dispersal of the Tupí-speaking Tupinambá and Guaraní peoples across eastern South America, from 80 BC to AD 1700. The Tupí linguistic group is one of the most widespread in South America. For the first time, #archaeology helps trace its expansion 🏺

(£) doi.org/10.15184/aqy...
Map of central South America, marked with arrows indicating the authors' proposed model of past dispersions of Guaraní (blue) and Tupinambá (orange).
February 4, 2026 at 9:35 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
What can bricks teach us about ancient empires?

Analysis of mudbricks and mortar from the walls of Carthaginian centre Qart Hadasht found the materials were sourced kilometres away from each other, showing the complex infrastructure of Punic Spain.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Close-up of the join between sandstone bricks with mortar between them.
February 4, 2026 at 5:35 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Shabti are ancient Egyptian funerary figurines, placed in tombs to act as servants for the deceased #EgyptologyWednesday

Sometimes, earlier shabti were reused in later burials, suggesting ancestral connections were important to burials' sacralisation.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
c.15cm-tall figurine in the shape of a sarcophagus, painted with hieroglyphs and a human face.
February 4, 2026 at 2:30 PM
antiquity.ac.uk
Basket remains from the submerged Neolithic settlement of La Marmotta, Italy #NationalWickerDay

Basket-making was common in prehistory, but baskets rarely survive. Organic preservation provides us with a more complete picture of Neolithic technology.

🆓 doi.org/10.15184/aqy...

🏺 #Archaeology
Section of the base of a basket, with preserved food remains inside.
February 4, 2026 at 1:45 PM