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Apr 04

Mesolithic Tranchet Axe

By News, Recent Finds

This week’s #FindsFriday is a Mesolithic tranchet axe from a site near Chichester.

Tranchet axes were essential tools in the Mesolithic, used for woodworking and other daily tasks. This one was found in a pit beside four parallel curvilinear features dating to the Early Bronze Age. 

The site revealed evidence of thousands of years of activity, with features from the Neolithic through to the Roman period. Among the Early Iron Age remains were structures, a large posthole and ditch enclosure, and a well. A landscape shaped and reshaped over time, with this axe as a small trace of its earliest inhabitants.

Mar 28

Silver Fibula

By News, Recent Finds

This week’s #FindsFriday is a silver fibula brooch from a Roman rubbish pit in Gloucestershire. The same pit yielded a wealth of finds, including Roman pottery, animal bone, and ceramic building material, alongside a small copper alloy pin and two pieces of copper alloy wire. Initially, patches of verdigris from the copper objects clung to the brooch’s surface, leading us to believe it was copper alloy too. But to our delight, a gentle clean with a dry brush revealed the silver beneath!

Mar 24

Neolithic Cremation Burial

By News

PCA has made a remarkable discovery at Monksfields in Cambridgeshire – a Middle Neolithic cremation burial, the first ever recorded on the western Cambridgeshire claylands and only the second known in the county. Such burials remain a rare and poorly recognised phenomenon in the UK.

The cremated remains of two people, an adolescent or adult and a child, were found in a small pit without an urn, grave goods, or visible monument. Radiocarbon dating places the burial between 3364 and 3102 cal. BC (SUERC-130643 (GU69945)), offering a rare insight into life (and death) over 5,000 years ago.

The burial, just below a ridgeline with views over the Fox Brook (a tributary of the River Great Ouse), adds a crucial piece to the puzzle of Neolithic Cambridgeshire. Although it may not look spectacular, it represents a significant shift in our understanding of Neolithic traditions. Increasingly, non-monumental deposits of human remains are recognised as a significant yet underrepresented aspect of Neolithic funerary practices in Britain. A recent study documented just 46 such features across all of mainland Britain, highlighting how rare these discoveries are (Rowland & Thompson 2024).

MayPole
Mar 14

LAMAS 61st Annual Conference

By News

The LAMAS (London and Middlesex Archaeology Society) annual conference will be a hybrid event again this year – in person at the Museum of London Docklands, with an option watch the lectures online. It takes place on Saturday 15th March, and tickets are now available here.

Harry Platts will be presenting the results of PCA excavations in Stratford. His talk A Late-Medieval Tannery at Stratford will explore evidence of leather production, from horncores to oak bark, parasite eggs to tanning pits. Harry will outline the development of the tannery, its connection to Stratford’s shifting economy and its ultimate decline in the 16th century. PCA will have a stall at the event if you want to pick up any of our current publications.

In the meantime, you can explore more about the site through these interpretation panels:

Mar 12

Digging the Cotswolds

By News

PCA Warwick have just started work on a site on the outskirts of a popular tourist town in the Cotswolds, and it’s already looking promising! The team are currently getting a handle on which of the features are real and which not but already they have uncovered worked bone pins, a glass bead and Romano-British pottery.

Previous work in the wider landscape suggests that this site sits on the fringes of a settlement occupied from at least the Bronze Age through to the Anglo-Saxon periods and could be the origins of the current town.

Its early days yet, but we’re looking forward to contributing to our understanding of the evolution of this popular destination.

Mar 07

Iron Age antler pick

By News, Recent Finds

This week’s #FindsFriday is an antler pick, a tool most commonly associated with the Neolithic period, where they were used to quarry stone and dig the ground for the construction of monuments like Stonehenge. However, this example from Suffolk was found in a pit alongside late Iron Age pottery.

In the Neolithic period, antler picks were sometimes deliberately placed as sacred deposits at the end of their use. While it’s possible that this pick was a found and curated object, it’s more likely that they continued to be used for agricultural or horticultural tasks during the Iron Age. Although antler picks are rare finds from this period, examples have been discovered at Iron Age hillforts like Danebury and Maiden Castle. This recent find provides important evidence of how such tools may have persisted into the Iron Age in Britain.

Mar 06

World Book Day

By News

It’s World Book Day!

For today only, get 20% off all our publications.

Our monograph series offers in-depth accounts of major excavations, while our Occasional Papers explore smaller projects and thematic connections across sites. Looking for something more accessible? Our fully illustrated booklets bring discoveries to life in a visually engaging way.

Shop here: https://www.pre-construct.com/publications/

Use coupon code BOOKS at checkout for 20% off all books.

Feb 28

Find of the Week

By News, Recent Finds

Here’s Timothy, from the team working at the Tower of London, with a medieval gunstone – what a place to find one!

This roughly shaped stone projectile was probably destined for a cannon, but since bore sizes varied, it would have been finished to fit the chosen gun. Gunstones were a vital part of medieval warfare, and finding one within the walls of one of the world’s most famous fortresses provides a compelling glimpse into its defensive past.

Feb 27

Secular and Religious History Through Time

By News, Talks

Last December Eric Parry Architects hosted a seminar on collaborative work between archaeologists and architects featuring. Joe Brooks gave a talk with Jessica Bryan from MOLA called ‘Secular and Religious History Through Time’, on the history and archaeology of 50 & 120 Fenchurch Street.

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PCA’s 2015 excavations at 116-120 Fenchurch Street revealed a complex sequence of Roman activity east of the forum, including a road and timber-framed buildings from the late 1st to 2nd centuries. Later Roman phases included masonry foundations and robber cuts, showing the evolving cityscape.

Click here to learn more about the site

Jan 30

Behind the scenes at the Tower of London!

By News

Our team had the privilege of visiting the Byward Tower to admire these fabulous medieval wall paintings. On the right, Archangel St Michael holds scales tipped by mischievous little demons, while Mary and John the Baptist stand to the left of what was once a dramatic Crucifixion scene. Centuries later, a Tudor fireplace – complete with a decorative rose – was added, reshaping this historic space. Thanks to HRP and Alf Hawkins for making this unforgettable visit possible!