Archive

We went looking for a Roman Road and all we found were buttons! In a scruffy corner of an old sports field in Perry Barr, RPS Group asked us to dig some trenches to look for remains of a Roman Road which once passed beneath the proposed location of a new school. There was little...

On the 3rd September 1651 the last battle of the Civil War raged in Worcester. Over 360 years later, ammunition, fixtures and fittings are coming to light from that fatal clashing of armies and beliefs. But how do you find the ephemeral archaeology of a battlefield, events of a single day in history? This is...

The part of the archaeological service most people think about is the digging, although as we stress on our blog this is only part of the story and we share stories from other parts of the service. We’ll share about the Historic Environment Record soon, but thought we’d look first at the Field Section part...

There is currently a fascinating collection of pottery out on a table in one of our offices, being worked on by one of our illustrators, which is causing colleagues to pause as they walk past. However much we’re used to seeing archaeological finds we are still attracted to a display of nice pottery. As we...

It is 50 years since Worcestershire County Council appointed an Archaeological Field Officer, James Bond, taking on responsible for aspects of archaeology in the county. At first linked to Worcestershire Museum at Hartlebury, this led to the creation of Worcestershire Archaeology, now part of Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service. Over the next 12 months we’ll...

It's International Lefthanders Day. Roughly 10% of the world's population are left-hand dominant. But for how long has this been the case? There's plenty of evidence in the archaeological record to suggest that handedness runs deep in our evolutionary history.

  Over 3000 years ago, fingertips were pressed into the damp clay of a large pot, creating a patterned band and dimpling the top. Once dry, it was fired and used before being broken – several large fragments were put into an isolated pit on the gravel ridge east of the River Severn. Prehistoric pots,...

  It’s fairly common to find animal bones on archaeological sites. Most often there’s a range of different bones from an assortment of animals, left over from cooking or butchery. So when the finds trays start filling up with just one or two different bones, it’s a cue that something particular was going on. This...

  All analysis of the Cathedral Square excavation is now finished and a report has been produced. As the report is very long and technical, we thought we’d summarise our results here too. The Dig Lich Street blog is also still available. In 2015, an archaeological dig took place prior to the Cathedral Square redevelopment....

  One of the many things our archaeologists found in August is this beautiful piece of bluegreen tinted glass. The tiny bubbles in the glass tell us that it’s old: Roman, to be precise. Roman glass was high quality and survives impressively well in the ground – so much so that it’s hard to believe...