Topic description and stories

Milecastle 39 on Hadrian's Wall

Extreme drought contributed to barbarian invasion of late Roman Britain, tree-ring study reveals

17 Apr 2025

Three consecutive years of drought contributed to the ‘Barbarian Conspiracy’, a pivotal moment in the history of Roman Britain, a new Cambridge-led...

Read more
Devínska Kobyla Forest steppe in Slovakia

Drought encouraged Attila’s Huns to attack the Roman empire, tree rings suggest

15 Dec 2022

Hunnic peoples migrated westward across Eurasia, switched between farming and herding, and became violent raiders in response to severe drought in...

Read more
Characters from the Cambridge Latin Course, Book One

New Cambridge Latin course reflects diversity of the Roman world

11 Jul 2022

̽»¨Ö±²¥latest edition of the leading Latin course has been designed to more accurately depict the roles of women, minorities and enslaved people in the...

Read more

View of the city of York in England including walls and cathedral

Road radar to reveal York's Roman secrets

01 Mar 2022

̽»¨Ö±²¥biggest investigation ever undertaken into Eboracum, the Roman city buried beneath York, is set to begin this summer. Ground penetrating radar...

Read more

Evidence of a Roman crucifixion found in Cambridgeshire

08 Dec 2021

̽»¨Ö±²¥finding in the village of Fenstanton is the only known example of a Roman crucifixion anywhere in the British Isles, and perhaps the best...

Read more

̽»¨Ö±²¥city rises: Cambridge archaeologists reveal an entire Roman city without digging

09 Jun 2020

For the first time, a team of archaeologists has succeeded in mapping a complete Roman city, Falerii Novi in Italy, using advanced ground penetrating...

Read more

Epic issues: epic poetry from the dawn of modernity

02 Aug 2018

Epic poems telling of cultures colliding, deeply conflicted identities and a fast-changing world were written by the Greeks under Roman rule in the...

Read more
 ̽»¨Ö±²¥sundial pictured after excavation

Archaeologists uncover rare 2,000-year-old sundial during Roman theatre excavation

08 Nov 2017

A 2,000-year-old intact and inscribed sundial – one of only a handful known to have survived – has been recovered during the excavation of a roofed...

Read more
Example of a modified skull, a practice assumed to be Hunnic that may have been appropriated by local farmers within the bounds of the Western Roman Empire.

Tiller the Hun? Farmers in Roman Empire converted to Hun lifestyle – and vice versa

22 Mar 2017

New archaeological analysis suggests people of Western Roman Empire switched between Hunnic nomadism and settled farming over a lifetime. Findings...

Read more

Tin toys from the 1930s–1950s.

̽»¨Ö±²¥archaeology of childhood

30 Jan 2016

A sledge made from a horse’s jaw, the remains of a medieval puppet, the coffin of a one-year-old Roman child, and the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon girl...

Read more
Left: Roman latrines from Lepcis Magna in Libya. Right: Roman whipworm egg from Turkey

Roman toilets gave no clear health benefit, and Romanisation actually spread parasites

08 Jan 2016

Archaeological evidence shows that intestinal parasites such as whipworm became increasingly common across Europe during the Roman Period, despite...

Read more
Roman toilets

Opinion: Why the Romans weren’t quite as clean as you might have thought

06 Jan 2016

Piers Mitchell (Department of Biological Anthroplogy) discusses what Roman toilets did for the health of the population.

Read more

Pages