ULAS News

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…

Iron Age activity found near Broughton Astley

Roger Kipling has recently completed a 71 trench evaluation of two areas to the east and west of Broughton Way at Broughton Astley, Leicestershire. As anticipated by a previously undertaken geophysical survey, a small ditched enclosure of Iron Age date was located in the central eastern area. Its fourth (eastern) side was absent, likely due…

Investigating lime production at Barrow Upon Soar

Grizzled veterans Leon Hunt and Jon coward (assisted by young upstart James Harvey) decamped to Barrow Upon Soar, Leicestershire for a few weeks to evaluate a large field (‘The Breaches’) where a recent geophysical survey had located a few dozen kilns or dumped material associated with kilns, along with many pits and other anomalies including…

Romano-British occupation found at King Edward VII School, Melton Mowbray

Fresh from Greyfriars II and making a point of only undertaking digs with a monarch in the title, Leon Hunt and Mathew Morris found themselves in the playing fields adjacent to the now disused King Edward VII School (where Monty Python’s Graham Chapman went, no less) for a 20 trench evaluation. A geophysical survey had…