Current refurbishment of the archaeobotany laboratory and integration of its extensive reference collections are underway. In addition to archaeobotanical remains, there are more than 20,000 accessions of modern reference specimens, mainly seeds, fruits and wood. The history of how these collections have grown is summarised, starting with the first phase when Geoffrey Dimbleby was Professor of Human Environment (1964-79), and during which Cecilia Western built up reference collections of wood. A second phase dates from the 1980s and 1990s with Professor David Harris and Archaeobotany Lecturer Gordon Hillman, who undertook research, fieldwork and teaching, especially in relation to agricultural origins and Near Eastern seeds. Jon Hather's research complemented this with his work on tubers, woods and tropical nuts. The third phase, since 2000, has seen accessions added from broader geographical origins and including wood and seeds, as well as phytoliths, 'plant fibre samples' and historic British cereal samples.
How can archaeologists understand the human experience of death in the deep past? More specifically, how can the archaeological record, consisting of fragmented material traces of past people's actions when faced with death, provide real insights into past lives? This article, which is a version of the Gordon Childe Lecture presented at UCL in May 2025, approaches these fundamental and ambitious questions by drawing inspiration from two foundational materialist thinkers-Gordon Childe and Pierre Bourdieu. Through the example of analysis of mortuary ritual practice in the European Mesolithic, it examines the potential for archaeological analysis of materiality and suggests different analytical pathways for analysis, drawing on insights from ritual theory, practice theory, archaeothanatology and cultural anthropology. Ultimately it asks how we can archaeologically approach human experience not only through an engagement with the material, but also if and how we may move beyond it in our enquiry and address aspects of past lived experience that have left no material trace.
Previous studies of Late Shang mortuary practices have focused on drawing direct correlations between burial remains and socio-political orders, while neglecting how personhood and social relationships were framed through the treatment of the corpse and its surroundings. In this article, I argue that Late Shang mortuary practices were customs of ‘ritual re-representation’, which I define as a form of bricolage that disassembled and reassembled tokens from ideal ritual ceremonies to re-enact the social existence of the dead in the liminal stage. These tokens were represented through meticulous arrangements of burial contents into distinct spatial divisions. Artefacts placed in spatial arrangements nearer to or farther from the body expressed themes related to the mortal body, decency in ceremonial conduct, moral transformation, capacity for hosting feasts, organising music and dance ceremonies, military authority and mobility. Retainers were placed in spatial orders corresponding to their proximity to the tomb owner during life. Victims were positioned outside the outer coffins, marking a boundary between the owner’s domain and those whose subjectivities were ritually denied. This symbolic structure embodied Late Shang notions of elite personhood, wherein nobles served as focal points within concentric layers of ritual networks involving ancestral practices of food and violence. The mortuary re-representation of elite personhood prevailed from the Late Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age in northern China and played a significant role in social stratification through a ‘sacred’ mode, rather than the non-religious path often assumed in scholarly debates and popular historiography as a defining merit of Chinese civilisation.
During 2021 and 2022 Archaeology South-East investigated a development spanning c.76 ha at Westcombe Park, north of the towns of Heybridge and Maldon, east Essex. This article highlights the regionally significant remains that were recorded over nine excavation areas (totalling c.3.4 ha). These comprised early Neolithic pits, an enclosed Middle Bronze Age settlement, Late Bronze Age enclosed settlements, three Middle Iron Age settlements, Roman field systems and an isolated Saxo-Norman farmstead. Six Middle Bronze Age longhouses within an enclosed settlement are discussed in detail, highlighting their rarity and national significance.
Around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens' dispersal to Australia marked the earliest period of human maritime adaptation. Two models of migration routes through Island Southeast Asia and the Wallacean Archipelago are proposed-a northern one and a southern one. However, the timing and location of these migrations remains disputed. Recent studies demonstrated the presence of populations with a strong maritime culture in southern Wallacea from around 40,000 years ago, while coastal adaptation in the north remains largely unstudied. This research project, hosted at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and in collaboration with UK, Australian and local institutions, aims to understand human reliance in marine environments using samples from recently excavated archaeological sites located on the northern route. Using comparative anatomy, biomolecular techniques such as ZooMS as well as stable isotope analysis, it seeks insights into subsistence strategies and seafaring technologies, establishing a novel framework for understanding our species' adaptation and dispersal for early seafarers across challenging regions of the planet.
This article considers the question of how collections of photographs are relevant for archaeology by using the archive of photographs from Kathleen Kenyon's 1952-8 excavations at Jericho, Palestine, held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. Using a selection of images from the archive, it shows how these photographs can attest to the colonial relationships embedded in archaeological practice, and how attuning to them can be a powerful tool for rethinking archaeological practice and knowledge production. The intention is to explore the potential of this collection, and others like it, in the hope that this project can be further developed.
The tradition of interring the dead in carved stone graves and structures was endemic to the tribal people of lower Sindh and Baluchistan. These people hailed from the many Baloch tribes that formed the ethnic makeup of the region before 1947 ce. This regional cultural heritage which reveals shared patrimony has not been systematically documented. This article discusses the development of a coding system that facilitates systematic inventory documentation of the graveyards. The coding system is the original work of the authors, which details the characteristic features of the graveyards and how they are coded alphanumerically to develop a comprehensive, yet open-ended inventory. Graves act as the primary reference point to develop such coding since they are a most vulnerable resource. As inventory documentation has not previously been attempted for these graveyards, a coding system was required and was developed through a pilot study of three places in lower Sindh; namely, Malir Graveyard in Karachi and Sondha and Pir-Patho graveyards in Thatta. A trial-and-error method was used to develop the coding, taking both the site and the literature as key components of the study. Developing a unique code for each graveyard, conducting extensive photo documentation on site and identifying typology and coding images are some components of the methodology. The article discusses the rationale behind the coding system and the development of several headings within which the inventory documentation will be sorted. It concludes by discussing the merits, scope and limitations of inventory documentation of stone carved graves and their graveyards.
This article considers the fundamental distinction between battleship and horseshoe curves and their relationship to seriation studies, particularly in the context of the study of coinage production and circulation.
This article investigates the impact of heritage crime on an important multi-period site in the west of England. It shows how archaeological methodologies can reveal the degree and impact of threats to sites and monuments as well as providing new understandings of past activities.
This article reports on a new field project exploring the pattern of Roman settlement in the landscape of Suffolk. It presents the results of the first season of fieldwork at the site of Alpheton.
The role and contribution of women to late-nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century archaeology has traditionally been underestimated. Women often found themselves in ancillary positions, their careers shaped by their domestic lives and their work and impact obscured. Museum archives hold vast quantities of material that can reveal women's contributions to these fields, but many remain inaccessible-uncatalogued or undigitised. Archives in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology include material relating to UCL's Egyptology department, notably the 1911 College Certificate in Egyptology. The first six students to join the Certificate were known as 'The Gang'. This article brings to light the personal histories and some of the professional contributions of the two neglected members, Georgiana Aitken and Emma Benson, to reunite The Gang and situate both women in the history of Western Egyptology.
