ULAS News

Iron Age and Roman occupation unearthed at the new Stamford AFC Stadium

Last year, ULAS undertook an archaeological excavation at the proposed new Stamford AFC stadium at Ryhall Road, north of Stamford, Lincolnshire. The work was commissioned by the Burghley House Preservation Trust with R G Carter as the main site contractor. Features discovered date to the late Iron Age and early Roman period. Two large boundary…

ULAS archaeologists honoured

This week, ULAS co-directors Dr Richard Buckley and Dr Patrick Clay have been made Honoured Citizens of Leicester for their decades of dedicated work recording and promoting the city’s rich archaeological heritage. For more than 30 years (not 30 decades as some reported, although we like the idea that they have some insider knowledge of…

Iron Age settlement excavated near Lutterworth

During the autumn of 2013 ULAS carried out an archaeological excavation on land at Leaders Farm, on the south-western edge of Lutterworth in Leicestershire, for Bellway Homes (East Midlands) Ltd. prior to construction of a new residential development to be known as Whittle Fields. An evaluation carried out by ULAS in 2012 identified two areas containing…

Burrough Hill 2014

After five years, this summer saw the final season of excavations at Burrough Hill. John Thomas reports: this year, the Project aimed to tie up a few niggling questions that have developed over the years and have another look at the external settlement, previously looked at in 2011. Trench 10 was located in the centre…

‘Bloody will be thine end’ – Perimortem trauma in King Richard III

Today the fifth peer-reviewed paper on Richard III is published in The Lancet, providing a blow-by-blow account of the injuries inflicted on King Richard III’s body at the Battle of Bosworth Field on August 22, 1485. The remains of King Richard III—the last English monarch to die in battle—were found under a car park in…

Hallaton’s Lost Chapel

ULAS archaeologists have been working with local volunteers to uncover the lost chapel of St Morrell overlooking the small village of Hallaton in east Leicestershire. The Fourth year of excavations with the Hallaton Fieldwork Group (HFWG) has revealed the full plan of the chapel as well as the cemetery and evidence that the hillside has…

Icknield Way and Roman settlement excavated at Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire

Over the summer, a team of archaeologists from ULAS led by Mathew Morris and Roger Kipling have been excavating a nine-acre site in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire. Commissioned by developers Taylor Wimpey, the work is being carried out before work begins on a new housing development. So far, the excavation has found evidence of Iron Age…

Welcome to the news blog ULAS News

Welcome to the news blog for University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS), sharing the latest archaeological discoveries from the University of Leicester. Out aim is to provide an emersive news magazine highlighting important and interesting discoveries made in Leicestershire and the Midlands, and anywhere else our work takes us. We have already created a small archive…

Evidence of Ice Age hunters found in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire

In February, Bradgate Park Trust commissioned ULAS to investigate remains found at the Little Matlock Gorge site – a project that, by its conclusion two weeks later has revealed that Ice Age hunters targeted Bradgate Park as an ideal hunting ground. The gradual erosion of a footpath at the eastern end of the site in…

Archaeologist of the Year 2014

ULAS can add another distinction to its list of successes as co-director Richard Buckley has been named Current Archaeology’s ‘Archaeologist of the Year’. He receives the accolade for his work on the Dig for Richard III – which won the ‘Research Excavation of the Year’ award last year from the same publication. The winners of…

ULAS collects Queen’s Anniversary Prize

On 27 February, ten members of the university led by the Chancellor Lord Grocott and the Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Robert Burgess received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. These prestigious biennial awards are the highest form of national recognition open to a UK academic or vocational…

Roman ‘smoke-house’ found at Pineham, Northamptonshire

From April to November 2013 one of the largest (7.5ha) single-phase ULAS excavations took place at Pineham, Northamptonshire. Directed by James Harvey and Dr Gavin Speed the site is located in the Nene Valley, 4km south-west of Northampton. The excavation revealed evidence for human activity from Upper Palaeolithic artefacts through to post-medieval ploughing, with the…