ULAS News

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – Animal Bone Discoveries

In our latest blog from the Leicester Cathedral Revealed project, Environmental Supervisor William Johnson-Moss, tells us about the assessment of the animal bones and what they tell us about life in Leicester in the past. During the excavations at Leicester Cathedral a total of 10,516 fragments of animal bone were recovered. These came from features…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – St Martin’s and the 1645 Siege of Leicester

Our team are nearing the end of their assessment of the archaeological material from the Leicester Cathedral Revealed excavation and will soon have lots of new information to share with us. In the meantime, excavation director Mathew Morris, takes a moment to reflect on the anniversary of one of the most violent events in the…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – The story is in the stratigraphic sequence

Saying it’s been a wet winter is an understatement! It’s been terrible for archaeological excavations, with flooded sites, high water tables and mud, glorious mud! For Leicester Cathedral Uncovered, this has been a bit of a blessing, with staff, rained off other projects, devoting a considerable amount of their winter cleaning the skeletons from the…

Stepping out of the Dark: Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Eye Kettleby

In the mid-1990s, one of the largest known early Anglo-Saxon settlements in the country was excavated by University of Leicester Archaeological Services at Eye Kettleby in Leicestershire. Now the results of the work have been published in a new book titled The Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Eye Kettleby, Leicestershire. The book forms the latest addition to…

Eye Kettleby: The development of a prehistoric landscape

One of ULAS’s first major excavations was a large multi-period site at Eye Kettleby near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. A new book detailing the important Anglo-Saxon discoveries is soon to be released. To celebrate this, Dr Gavin Speed, Project Manager at ULAS, looks back at the equally significant prehistoric discoveries from the site. Mesolithic and…

‘With luck and good management’: Jean Mellor and the transformation of Leicester’s archaeological landscape

International Women’s Day has been celebrated on the 8th of March each year since 1911. The theme for 2024 is #InspireInclusion. The day promotes equality and illuminates women’s achievements in many different fields. In this blog, ULAS Project Officer Jen Browning celebrates the career of one of Leicester’s great archaeologists, Jean Mellor. Archaeologists aren’t alone in…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – Discovering more about John Wilson Ottey (1810 – 1851)

Over a year ago, we learnt about John Wilson Ottey (1810-1851) and uncovered what historical records can tell us about his life. John Ottey, one of a few of the named dead excavated from Leicester Cathedral, is well documented in newspapers for his youthful indiscretions. However, his death, many years later, marked him as a…

Roman Leicestershire Unearthed

A new student archaeology training excavation in Laughton, Leicestershire has been launched by ULAS and the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History. The project enables undergraduate students at the University, along with members from local heritage groups, to develop their archaeological skills. The settlement site, discovered only recently in rural Leicestershire, dates…

Leicester Cathedral Revealed – Leicester Uncovered

It’s been a while since we posted about the archaeology at Leicester Cathedral. The digging is now done and the project has moved into its post-excavation phase, and the Cathedral has reopened its doors to the public again. This is a good time, then, to resume our regular posts on the archaeological discoveries. In this…

Coventry Charterhouse – A tale of two trenches

In this month’s instalment from Coventry Charterhouse we move clockwise around the footprint of the former monastery and move from the eastern range of cells to the southern range. Site director, Andrew McLeish tells us more… While geophysical survey can often give us an idea of what might be under the ground it has its…

Globalisation: The Republic of Venice in Tudor Leicester

The history of Leicester contains a great variety of different stories, peoples, and historical events. Archaeologist Joshua Cattermole investigates the Tudor town’s links with the Republic of Venice. During the transition from the medieval to modern era we see much tumult, including some of the great national events of the age: the Wars of the…

Coventry Charterhouse – If you want answers dig holes!

We return to the Coventry Charterhouse and in this blog, site director Andrew McLeish takes a look at the (re)excavation of two of the monks’ houses on the eastern range of cells in the summer of 2020 and how archaeology has progressed in forty years. The title of this particular post I can attribute to…