Archaeologists excavating a planned construction site in the historic center of Wiedenbrück unearthed a large amount of wood arranged in a purposeful fashion, likely intended to reclaim land adjacent to a waterway. The wet soil near a waterway had preserved the small logs and branches, and also preserved pottery, animal bones and leather shoe soles. […]
An excavation of a medieval monastery on Mount Arriaundi, northern Spain, has unearthed a Roman-era votive altar inscribed with a dedication to the Basque deity Larrahe. The altar dates to the 1st century A.D. and is one of only three altars found in Spain with a dedication to Larrahe. It is the only one of
An excavation at the site of a medieval Benedictine abbey in Tomajmonostora, eastern Hungary has unearthed a burial containing a silver communion set dating to the 13th or 14th century. The chalice and paten (small plate for the host) were found in the hands of the deceased, placed there at the time of burial. The
The rare 12th century walrus ivory carving depicting Joseph of Arimathea taking the body of Christ down from the cross that was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a private sale last year has been sniped by the V&A. The Romanesque carving was made between 1190 and 1200 probably in York. It was
A section of a wooden boat discovered in Oslo is much older than archaeologists thought, and indeed may be Oslo’s oldest boat part. Researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) discovered on the seabed in Bjørvika, a neighborhood east of the city center of Oslo in an inlet of the fjord. It
A pair of 15th century frescoes in the church of San Martino in the Ligurian hamlet of Rocchetta Cairo have been restored. The frescoes, which depict the Madonna Enthroned and the Egyptian 4th century ascetic Saint Anthony the Abbot, were made by two different artists in the first half of the 15th century on a
An excavation of Bispevika, a neighborhood in Oslo that was once part of the city’s harbour, has uncovered the remains of a rare medieval iron gauntlet. Archaeologists from the Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU) found the piece of armature with a metal detector, but only a fragment of metal actually survives. Most of
One of the largest medieval coin hoards in southwestern Germany has been found in a pipe trench in Glottertal. In May of this year, an employee of the State Office for Monument Preservation (LAD) of the Stuttgart Regional Council was observing a crew laying a new water pipe. His brief was to look for ceramics,
A recent interpretation of the runic inscription on the Forsa Ring, an iron ring from 9th or 10th century that is the oldest extant legal text in Scandinavia, has revealed new information on Viking Age monetary systems. The reinterpretation changes only one word, but that change reveals a more flexible and practical approach to the
An archeology student has discovered a hoard of seven silver arm rings dating to the Viking Age just north of Aarhus, Denmark. Gustav Bruunsgaard found the hoard while metal detecting earlier this year in a field near Elsted where traces of a Viking settlement have been discovered in the past. First he found one silver
