Between the 31st October and 2nd November 2023, Durham University’s Archaeology staff and students provided a series of exciting hands-on activities at the Science and Engagement team’s annual celebration of science on Palace Green.

In December 2023, representatives of The Bishop Big Dig project and Durham University attended the annual THE Awards Dinner, dubbed the 'Oscars of higher education'. Congratulations once again to The Bishop Big Dig project, shortlisted for 'Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community'.

Our archaeologists have helped establish that a male born in the Roman period (AD 43-410) travelled thousands of miles to Britain as a child.

Durham Archaeology staff and students visited the University of York on 21 October to participate in the first annual meeting and lecture of the Steppe Sisters Network.

For a team of archaeologists digging in south-west Spain, the discovery of a Bronze/Iron Age stela – a funerary stone slab with carvings depicting an important individual – would have been exciting enough. But to find a stela that challenges long-standing interpretations of how the carvings represent gender and social roles in prehistoric times, was beyond the teams’ wildest dreams.

Following the recent “Meet Our Chancellor” session during which Durham University’s Chancellor, Dr Fiona Hill, spoke about 'Regional Redevelopment: Lessons from Germany', she joined the Durham UNESCO Chair on Archaeological Ethics and Practice in Cultural Heritage and Redhills CIO in co-hosting a postgraduate workshop on 'Redevelopment in County Durham – Heritage, Climate and the SDGs'. The featured photo shows breakout groups in discussion with Ross Forbes, Fiona Hill and Nicola Craddock.

Richard Hingley from our Department of Archaeology was invited to write a review of the recently released film Boudica: Queen of War starring Olga Kurylenko as the title character. Warning: this review contains spoilers for Boudica: Queen of War.

A documentary on the project 'At the Edge of the Mountains' was shortlisted at the 11th Annual Arkhaios Film Festival. The Department's Professor Anna Leone leads this Aliph-funded project, located in Tataouine (Tunisia) and Nafusa (Libya).

A previously unknown assemblage of Palaeolithic handaxes from Canterbury was discovered in a museum archive, by Durham Archaeology PhD researcher Pete Knowles. The assemblage contains one of the world's largest and probably finest examples of a ficron handaxe. The handaxe raises many questions about form and function: why did early Neanderthals need to craft such complex tools?

This 13 October is the UN’s International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Professor Robin Coningham and Dr Christopher Davis from our Department of Archaeology explain why sustainable access to water is so important and how Durham is helping.

During Black History Month 2023, the Department of Archaeology will be regularly releasing a news item relating to the life and work of a Black archaeologist. Watch this space for more articles as they are released.

Durham University Archaeology students have been part of an extraordinary archaeological discovery in Spain.