ULAS News

ULAS Deputy Director named Community Archaeologist of the Year

The Council for British Archaeology has announced this year’s winners of the Marsh Community Archaeology Awards, and we are proud to say that ULAS Deputy Director Vicki Score has been awarded the Marsh Archaeology Award for Community Archaeologist of the Year. The Marsh Community Archaeology Awards, supported by the Marsh Christian Trust, celebrate excellence in…

Castle Hill Community Dig Blog 4: Season 2 is about to start!

Well, a year has come and gone and it is September again which means Season 2 of our Castle Hill Community Dig is about to start! Last year was a huge success. The medieval archaeology proved to be far better preserved than anyone imagined. We dug three trenches, investigating the outer bank and ditch of…

ULAS archaeologists return to city park to explore historic monument linked with the Knights Hospitallers

Dig will run from 2 – 27 September at Castle Hill Country Park In September, University of Leicester archaeologists working with Leicester City Council and members of the public, will return to Castle Hill Country Park at Beaumont Leys to continue exploring a large scheduled ancient monument, Castle Hill, believed to be the remains of…

Bringing Our Past to Life with the Festival of Archaeology 2017

Take part in the UK’s largest archaeology festival and help bring our past to life. The programme for this year’s Festival of Leicestershire and Rutland Archaeology has been announced. Come and take part in the UK’s largest archaeology festival and help bring our past to life. Between Saturday 15th and Sunday 30th July over 80…

Lifting Begins on the fine Roman mosaic

The first piece of the fine Roman mosaic has been lifted at our large city-centre excavation at the site of the former Stibbe factory, between Great Central Street and Highcross Street in Leicester. The mosaic is one of the largest and highest-status Roman mosaic floors ever found in the city, it formed part of a…

New community archaeology project in town associated with King Richard III receives funding

A new community archaeology project that provides residents the opportunity to carry out excavations in order to learn more about their town’s history has received funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The Market Bosworth Society in partnership with the University of Leicester has been awarded a grant of £29,000 for their ‘Bosworth Links’ community…

Largest archaeological excavation in Leicester in over a decade to open to public

University of Leicester Archaeological Services are currently excavating the site of the former Stibbe factory, between Great Central Street and Highcross Street in central Leicester. The land is owned by Charles Street Buildings group, which has made the site available and financially supported the archaeological excavation ahead of a major planned development of the site….

New Roman mosaic uncovered in Leicester

Dig reveals exciting new evidence for Leicester’s Roman past. Archaeologists from ULAS are currently excavating a large site on the corner of Highcross Street and Vaughan Way, next to the John Lewis car park. The project, which has been running since November, is uncovering exciting new evidence for Leicester’s Roman past, including evidence for a…

Excavation of Roman Cemetery in Leicester up for Current Archaeology Award

For the second year running a project led by University of Leicester archaeologists has been nominated in the Current Archaeology Awards, this year in the category ‘Rescue Project of the Year’. The project, Buried between Road and River: Investigating a Roman cemetery in Leicester (reported on in Current Archaeology Issue 319), investigated part of a…

Castle Hill Community Dig Blog 3: What we know so far…

Well that’s it for this year. Excavation is complete, records are finalised, finds are washed (mostly), we’ve bid a sad farewell to our fantastic volunteers, packed everything up, backfilled the site and gone home. It has been a very productive second week. With the trenches cleaned up, the focus this week has been on recording…

Castle Hill Community Dig Blog 2: A successful first week…

The first thing to say is, we have archaeology, lots of archaeology. Last Thursday, in thick fog I supervised the digger machining open the three trenches that we will be investigating over the next couple of weeks. This is a tense moment. Before you break ground, you have no idea what you’re going to find…

Castle Hill Community Dig Blog 1: A bit of background

Hi everyone, welcome to the first blog for the Castle Hill Community Excavation. Over the next couple of weeks we will be posting updates here and on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ulasnews) to keep you up to date with what we are finding. First, a little bit about what we will be doing. What is happening? Leicester City…