This late 13th century floor tile is one of many found during the excavation of Grey Friars in Leicester in 2012. The tile is of a ‘Stabbed Wessex’ style, commonly found across the English midlands, and it would have originally been laid in the chancel of the friary church, most likely in the choir area….
Tag: Leicestershire
Secrets of other Grey Friars skeletons revealed…
King Richard III was not the only person to be buried inside the Grey Friars church in Leicester. Over the course of the 2012 and 2013 excavations, archaeologists identified a further ten potential graves inside the chancel of the church including a mysterious stone sarcophagus found close to the site of Richard III’s hastily dug…
FIND SPOTLIGHT: Leicester’s link with Roman Egypt
This small, rectangular ivory panel (just 57mm long) was found during the excavation of a large Roman townhouse in Leicester’s north-east quarter (today situated beneath the John Lewis car park on Vaughan Way). It is from a box and it is an extraordinary find. Relief-carved ivory boxes are extremely rare discoveries and this fragment is exceptional…
FIND SPOTLIGHT: The Papal Bulla of Pope Innocent VI
This papal bulla was found during the excavation of St Peter’s church (the site today lies beneath the John Lewis store in Leicester’s Highcross shopping centre). It would originally have been attached by a cord to the bottom of a letter or charter issued by Pope Innocent VI (1352-1362) to authenticate it. In this case,…
FIND SPOTLIGHT: Britain’s oldest coin?
This Roman Republican silver denarii was found in the Hallaton treasure hoard. It was struck in Rome before the Roman general Scipio defeated Hannibal and could have been made as far back as 211 BC, which would make it one of the oldest coins found in Britain. The coin depicts the goddess Roma on one…
FIND SPOTLIGHT: The art of medieval ice skating
With the recent cold spell in mind, let us first look at winter pastimes in medieval Leicester. These are perhaps best illustrated by the discovery of a late 13th century bone ice-skate in the town’s north-eastern quarter, near the site of St Michael’s church (today located beneath the John Lewis multi-story car park on Vaughan…
Free online course provides insights into Richard III reinterment
The third run of the free popular ‘England in the Time of King Richard III’ online course will be launching on Monday 16 February – and will offer a fascinating insight into life during 15th century England in the build up to the reinterment of Richard III on Thursday 26 March. The course, which is…
Archaeologists return to Roman mosaic site
In Autumn 2014, ULAS archaeologists returned to a site in Leicester, that they first investigated in 2012, to carry out a second phase of work. The site is on the corner of Highcross Street and Vaughan Way, between All Saints’ Church and the John Lewis multistory car-park. In 2012, archaeologists excavated seven trenches in order…
Flint knife found near Asfordby
Recent fieldwork near Asfordby in north-east Leicestershire has recovered a significant assemblage of seventy-four worked flints, including forty tools; comprising cores, scrapers and piercers. The remainder of the assemblage was made up of flakes, some of which had been retouched. One noteworthy find was an unusual scale-flaked knife (which coincidentally resembles a leaf-shaped arrowhead). The…
Rediscovering Coleorton Pottery
Monitoring of the clearance of the former Coleorton Pottery site at Lount in north-west Leicestershire in 2012 has given ULAS archaeologists a rare opportunity to excavate a series of 19th and early 20th century kilns in the county, which has far fewer recorded potteries than Staffordshire or Derbyshire. The Coleorton Pottery was established in 1836…
2014: A year in reflection
As the year comes to an end Patrick Clay (co-director) looks back at the highlights for ULAS during the year. Some have already featured in our blog, others we will take a closer look at in the new year. The overwhelming impression of this year has been that it has been the busiest in over…
King Richard III Identity: CASE CLOSED AFTER 529 YEARS!
An international research team led by Dr Turi King from the University of Leicester Department of Genetics has published overwhelming evidence that the skeleton discovered under a car park in Leicester indeed represents the remains of King Richard III, thereby closing what is probably the oldest forensic case solved to date. The team of researchers,…
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