Skip to content

Royal Weddings Part 3: Sovereigns and Keepsakes

From the 11th to the 16th century, royal weddings remained very private affairs, but as the powers of the monarchy declined and Britain began a transition to a modern system of government, old barriers were broken down. Read more

Royal Weddings Part 2: The King’s Great Matter

If there is one monarch in British history likely to have left archaeological evidence for royal weddings, it is six-times bridegroom Henry VIII. In a desperate bid to sire a male heir – the ‘King’s Great Matter’ as the constitutional crisis was known – he personally selected four of his wives from his own court, something that would not be seen again until the 20th century. Read more

Schliemann: The Opera

A new rock-opera based on the life and times of the nineteenth century German archaeologist Henrich Schliemann is set to take this year’s Edinburgh festival by storm. Read more

The Archaeology of Royal Weddings – Part 1

As Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials this month stir feverish national excitement, what light can archaeology shed on the pomp and pageantry of the most magnificent of Royal occasions? Diggingthedirt has tackled this very subject. Here, we bring you Part 1 of our 3-part journey in search of the dirt on Royal Weddings. Read more

Gay Caveman: Putting the ‘Erectus’ back into ‘Homo’

Following the deeply unsettling revelations about the worlds first ‘Gay Caveman’ – as outed by the Daily Mail last week – results from DNA testing on the gay-bones have tracked his nearest living relative to a secret hideaway in Torremolinos, where he issued this exclusive comment: Read more

Mersyside Archaeology Service

This story picked up by eagle-eyed Rescue from a noncommittal dispatch from the Liverpool Museums website. Lets be under no illusions folks. This is the opening salvo. We are witnessing nothing less than a whole-scale dismantling of the planning process. Read more

The Artificial Ape – Timothy Taylor

‘The archaeological excavator’ wrote Mortimer Wheeler, ‘is not digging up things, he is digging up people.’ But what happens when we go so far back into our evolutionary past that things rarely survive? Read more

Diggingthedirt – Mix Tape 2

The usual mix of eccentric oddities, Mix Tape 2 builds to a heavy slab of disco, via brass band classics and Time Team tributes. Read more

The Redneck Archaeologist

Do you need to get yourself some learning and entertainment?

Are you sick and tired of switching on the TV to see the same old faces, saying the same old things about the same old sites? Then looky here folks: Diggingthedirt is proud to introduce… The Redneck Archaeologist. Read more

Pink Elephantitis

Aah, the fabled pink elephant of Tregaron! I partially remember an expedition to hunt for that beastie in ’86, shortly preceded by a three day binge with the boyo’s from the valley. Legendary.

News story here and here

Stonehenge Explained!

Archaeologists made a giant leap forward today when they discovered an Ikea style instruction manual during excavations adjacent to the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Read more

Metro-Archaeology

London’s uber archaeology unit, Museum of London Archaeology – otherwise known as MOLA (MoLAS basically, without the service) – have announced a new business venture set to take the country by storm. Read more

The Great Beer Experiment

The proof of the pudding is in the drinking…

Quintessential blokes down the pub, Billy Quin and Declan Moore, here deploy the street-smarts logic that, in the paraphrased words of Homer Simpson, makes beer the cause of and solution to all of archaeology’s problems. Next week we will be serialising the latest Current Archaeology Article ‘Past Orders: The Archaeology of Beer.’ Until then, try this one from the archives to wet your whistle. Take it away lads… Read more

Diggingthedirt Award Nomination

Fabulous festive news for diggingthedirt: the infinite amount of monkeys bashing the infinite amount of typewriters that occasionally spew-forth sporadic posts for your favourite website, have been nominated for an archaeology award! Read more

Diggingthedirt Mix Tape 1

Podcast Numero Uno! A bunch of tracks – some newly discovered, some dug up from the past, but all came my way this year. The mix is slightly dodgy (all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order!) but there you go. Welcome all the same, to Rancho Relaxo, Vol 1! Read more