Witch bottle is uncorked to discover spellbinding content

Take a small heart-shaped piece of leather, a handful of iron nails, eight brass pins, a lock of hair, some nail clippings, a pinch of navel fluff and place them in a bottle. Then add a pint of urine, seal the bottle and bury it by your front door — this is the recipe for warding off a witch’s curse.

An analysis of the contents of the first witch bottle to be found with its cork intact has cast light on the fear of witchcraft in the 17th century.

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The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Economy (VASLE) Project

In the last fifteen years the role of metal-detected objects in the study of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian England has greatly increased through reporting to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and the Early Medieval Corpus (EMC). There are now thousands more artefacts and coins known than a decade ago which, in conjunction with fieldwork, have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the early medieval period.

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TAC SPRING 2009 PLEDGE DRIVE

Location: Worldwide Length: 3 min.

Help us raise $5000 in two weeks! Supporting memberships are the best way for us to ensure continuation of TAC and its programs. Our goal is to replace the lost underwriting income with new supporting Memberships, to ensure a sound financial footing for ALI and thus also for TAC. Check for daily updates from special TAC guests and representatives to learn how you can help TAC continue to deliver and expand its programming. We are counting on your support! Thank you.

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RescuE of Completed Archaeological Projects

The ADS and English Heritage are pleased to announce the online release of the first RescuE of Completed Archaeological Projects (RECAP) archives. The RECAP project entailed a audit process be carried out to assess the state of existing archives from a list of projects provided by Archaeology Commissions at English Heritage. The first four projects audited and archives under this project have now been released: Chalgrove Manor, Harding's Field, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire - Oxford Archaeology, The Cluniac priory and abbey of St Saviour Bermondsey, Surrey: excavations 1984-95 - Museum of London Archaeology, The eastern cemetery of Roman London: excavations 1983-1990 - Museum of London Archaeology, Thornhill Farm, Fairford, Gloucestershire - Oxford Archaeology.

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Ancient Death-Smile Potion Decoded?

Thousands of years before the Joker gassed comic book victims into a grinning death, Phoenician colonists on the island of Sardinia (map) were forcing smiles on the faces of the dead.

Now scientists say they know just how the ancient seafaring traders created the gruesome smiles some 2,800 years ago—not with a toxic gas like Batman's nemesis but with a plant-based potion.

And someday that plant might be used to Botox-like effect, perhaps reducing rather than adding smile lines, the researchers speculate.

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Farmer's son unearths medieval ring

A medieval silver ring dating back more than 800 years has been unearthed on a farm in Northern Ireland.

The 12th century artefact was found by 17-year-old Conor Sandford as he was putting up a fence post at the edge of one of his father's fields near the village of Kilmore, Co Armagh.

The teenager told a treasure trove hearing in Belfast today he initially thought the engraved finger ring was a ring pull from an old fizzy drink can.

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6th Annual Teaching & Learning in Archaeology Conference

There are still places left for the 6th Annual Teaching & Learning in Archaeology Conference, taking place on the 1st and 2nd July at Birkbeck College. Please see the provisional programme below. More information on the event can also be found on our website.

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Wessex Archaeology opens new office in Maidstone, Kent

Wessex Archaeology is delighted to announce the opening of a new office in Maidstone, North Kent. We have a long track record of working in the South East of England and our aim is to build on that success.

Covering the counties of Essex, Kent and East Sussex, the initial focus of the Maidstone office will be on evaluation and excavation work. However, the complete range of services will be available covering historic buildings and landscapes, excavation and publication, coastal and marine: the full spectrum of archaeological and heritage consulting and contracting.

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Hundreds to take part in Roman dig

Hundreds of Lincolnshire residents are set to take part in an archaeology dig starting this month.

Scores of Lincolnshire folk, including schoolchildren and members of the public, will be armed with trowels for the dig at Navenby.

The group has come together following an appeal in the Echo in March.

Organiser Pre-Construct Archaeology says the 28-day excavation starting on June 15 will centre on investigating the prehistoric forerunner to Roman Ermine Street

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Archaeological dig uncovers Parham's past

THE site of a parsonage believed to have been demolished in the early
1700s has been excavated by members of Worthing Archaeological Society (WAS).

They carried out the successful work on the Parham estate over the bank holiday weekend, with more than 500 visitors popping along to see
what was going on.

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Major dig to resume soon

Team will return to Lost Bishop’s Palace

AN INTERNATIONAL archaeological team will be hoping for continuing dry weather when a major north-east excavation resumes this month in a mediaeval moat.

The 15th annual dig at the Lost Bishop’s Palace of Fetternear will be taking place from June 29 until July 24, just across the River Don from Kemnay.

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'Hidden history' uncovered on tour

Underneath the streets of Belfast lies a hidden history which archaeologists have been exploring for years.

However, until now, locals and visitors have not had the chance to actively explore the history that lies beneath them.

Since 1983, more than 50 excavations have taken place all over the city, in order to discover information about Belfast's 800 years of history.

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Warwickshire Museum's archaeology website wins award

A MUSEUM has won a national award for its website about archaeology.

Warwickshire Museum set up the Warwickshire Timetrail website six years ago to provide information about archaeological finds in the area

It was voted the best online historic environment record in a recent poll by the British Archaeological Jobs Resource.

Visit the website at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/timetrail

Medieval limekiln discovered in Ripon

THE discovery of a large medieval limekiln in Ripon has caused great excitement among local historians and archaeologists.

The circular structure, which is believed to be more than 500 years old, was unearthed behind Ripon House, on Residence Lane, by Leeds-based Archaeology Services WYAS – a company carrying out exploratory excavations as part of development work on a new housing project.

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Excavation at Haslar reveals horror of life in Nelson's navy

An excavation of a former military hospital graveyard has revealed the harrowing deaths of some sailors from Nelson's navy.

The dig is being carried out in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport, where the unmarked graves date back to 1755.

The work, which is being filmed for a Channel 4 Time Team documentary, is to reveal what life was like in the navy hundreds of years ago.

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Long Lost Relative

There's no doubt that the fossil primate named Ida, after paleontologist Jørn Hurum's young daughter, is big news, and page one coverage in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal attests it's more than just a bit of evolutionary road kill. Ida is the subject of a two-hour History Channel documentary, "The Link," which will debut on May 25. A juvenile female, the 95 percent complete skeleton comes from Germany's Messel Pit, a mile-wide crater, and dates to 47 million years ago. Effectively acting as host of the show is Jørn Hurum of the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum.

The documentary will engage those who are interested in human evolution, but it has to be said that there's a fair amount of padding. The focus seems solely on the question, is this a human ancestor or not? At an early stage I would guess that it was judged that only this question would hold the attention of viewers. I think that was a mistake. But you can find much that was omitted from the program in the companion website and book. How was the fossil found and acquired, what the environment was like, and basics like close-up images in which you take time in looking at closely (those in the documentary are shown for mere seconds). So the documentary comes at you in a rapid fire mode (but oddly with lots of repeated material), but if you want to engage with and think about Ida and the implications of this fossil, you have to go to the other sources.

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Macedonia: Iron Period Layers Revealed by Latest Archaeology Excavations at Kokino

The latest archaeological research at the ancient observatory of Kokino in north-eastern Macedonia revealed layers from the Iron Period, around the seventh century BC, Minister of Culture Elizabeta Kancheska-Milevska declared today.

“At the moment, there is intensive archaeological research on several sectors of the site,” the minister explained during a Parliament session dedicated to questions of members of parliament, quoted by national media. She added that this work should be completed by the end of June.

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Remains of temple of Isis found

Workmen inside Florence's courthouse have stumbled across a spiral column and hundreds of multicoloured fragments that experts believe may have belonged to a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis.

Dating to the second century AD, the remains were discovered as the men dug a five by three metre hole, barely four metres deep, for a new water cistern for the courthouse's anti-incendiary system.

''These finds are of extraordinary importance,'' said Alessandro Palchetti, the archaeologist charged with overseeing the works in the courthouse by Florence's archaeology superintendency, who suspected something interesting might be uncovered because of the area's historic relevance.

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Mystery over skeleton find in Littleton

SHOCKED builders near Winchester unearthed a skeleton thought to be more than 350 years old.

They made the discovery during work to build 12 homes in Main Road, Littleton.

But mystery surrounds why the remains — which were found in a 4ft deep pit — were not buried in the village’s churchyard, just a few hundred yards away.

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Vikings visited Canadian Arctic, research suggests

Artifacts suggest Norse settlement in Nunavut

One of Canada's top Arctic archeologists says the remnants of a stone-and-sod wall unearthed on southern Baffin Island may be traces of a shelter built more than 700 years ago by Norse seafarers, a stunning find that would be just the second location in the New World with evidence of a Viking-built structure.

The tantalizing signs of a possible medieval Norse presence in Nunavut were found at the previously examined Nanook archeological site, about 200 kilometres southwest of Iqaluit, where people of the now-extinct Dorset culture once occupied a stretch of Hudson Strait shoreline.

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