Officers from Durham Police seized a large number of coins and a silver ingot in two raids in 2018 and 2019. The hoard contained coins of Alfred the Great of Wessex and his less well-known contemporary Ceolwulf II of Mercia. Two men have denied charges relating to a Viking hoard of historically important coins and silver worth almost £1m. Roger Pilling, 73, and Craig Best, 44, appeared before Durham Crown Court to plead not guilty to all charges. They denied a charge of conspiracy to convert criminal property - Anglo-Saxon coins - between September 2018 and May 2019. Pilling, of L ..read more

  The letters "IMP" stand for imperator, meaning the tile maker was "supplying tiles fit for the emperor" or "on the emperor's demands." Dot Boughton Excavation of a Roman building on the grounds of a cricket club in the northern English city of Carlisle has yielded tiles with rare imperial stamps linked to Emperor Septimius Severus, reports Ted Peskett for the News & Star. “The Romans would quite often stamp their tiles,” says archaeologist Frank Giecco, who is leading the dig for British firm Wardell Armstrong. “The legions would stamp tiles, the auxiliaries would stamp tiles; bu ..read more

  Viking clothing was made of wool, linen, and animal hides, and for the wealthy, silk. Combs – which it seemed almost every Viking carried – were carved from antler, bone, ivory, and wood and often kept in their own cases. Jewelry of the upper class was fashioned from silver, gold, gemstones, and polished glass, but the lower class adorned themselves within their limits as well, using tin, lead, iron, and possibly copper. Shoes and boots were made of animal hide and without heels. Except for slaves, generally speaking, Scandinavians were well-dressed and took great pride in their perso ..read more

  The trust believes the resulting images are among the earliest surviving colour photographs of any major archaeological dig. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Barbara Wagstaff and Mercie Lack’s photographs of 1939 excavation left in plastic bag at National Trust It was 12 years ago that conservator Anita Bools first laid eyes on photographs which had been left in a plastic bag at the reception of the National Trust site Sutton Hoo by a mystery donor. She remembered they were laid out on tables for her to see and decide how important they might be. “It was one of those moments yo ..read more

  The White Horse of Uffington, a spectacular chalk figure on an English hillside, challenges the very idea of “heritage” as an unbroken line of descent. Made sometime between 1380 and 550 BCE by people who cut meter-deep trenches and filled them with chalk, the horse pattern should have disappeared under encroaching vegetation long ago. But it has been the work of generations to “scour” it—weeding, cleaning, and adding more chalk. It’s this tradition of scouring which so intrigues scholar Philip Schwyzer. “Like other monuments of similar antiquity, the Horse has been the site of shift ..read more

  Archaeologists working in Bacho Kiro Cave earlier this year. Image: Tsenka Tsanova, MPI-EVA Leipzig, License: CC-BY-SA 2.0 Europe was considerably colder 44,000 years ago than previously thought, according to new research. The finding is forcing a rethink about early human migration patterns and where our ancestors preferred to settle. “The expansion of Homo sapiens across Eurasia marked a major milestone in human evolution that would eventually lead to our species being found across every continent,” write the authors of new research published today in Science Advances. But scienti ..read more

@clashboy23/Twitter A carpenter’s rude carving on a church ceiling has been exposed hundreds of years later.  The x-rated carving has been discovered at Hereford’s All Saints Church, due to the construction of a new cafe taking place. The carving was spotted when a light was shone at the ceiling of the church, due to the cafe building an extra floor with bright lights for the restaurant area. The carving depicts a naked man holding his legs in the air, exposing his genitalia for the world to see. A controversial choice for such a religious location. The carving was never picked up o ..read more

(Norfolk County Council/Portable Antiquities Scheme) NORFOLK, ENGLAND—According to a BBC News report, a metal detectorist in the the Breckland area of Norfolk in eastern England has found a so-called sword pyramid dating to between A.D. 560 and 630, a time when the area was part of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia. The object, which would have been part of a pair and whose fellow has not been found, was designed as a decorative fitting to keep a sword attached to its scabbard. Researchers have speculated that one of the sword pyramid's functions was to delay hasty unsheathing ..read more

Unesco says Stonehenge will be put on its danger list unless plans for the A303 road tunnel are changed. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images Unesco has confirmed that Stonehenge could be stripped of its world heritage site status, over its concern that a road tunnel, backed by the government, would irreversibly damage an area of “outstanding universal value”. A report to Unesco’s world heritage committee setting out concerns about the £1.7bn A303 road tunnel was approved unchanged on Thursday. Unless the designs for the two-mile (3.3km) tunnel are extended and changed, the committee recomme ..read more

Researchers previously thought the cave was an 18th-century folly, or decorative structure constructed to enhance the natural landscape. (Mark Horton / Edmund Simons / Royal Agricultural University) An early medieval cave structure in Derbyshire, England, may be the former home of a ninth-century king—and the United Kingdom’s oldest intact domestic interior. As Mark Brown reports for the Guardian, new research conducted by experts from the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) and Wessex Archaeology suggests the 1,200-year-old dwelling once housed Eardwulf, an exiled ruler of the medieval Eng ..read more