Who were the people of Corinium? Were they lifelong locals, or had some travelled hundreds of miles before making this thriving city their home? This is what our project, Roman Britannia: Mobility and Society, has set out to uncover, through the clues preserved in the skeletons of people buried here nearly 2,000 years ago about where they spent their childhoods and the journeys they took during […]
Queen Mary I (reigned 1553—1558) is most well-known by her unpleasant nickname ‘Bloody Mary’ after she and her zealous companion Cardinal Pole burned 280 protestants in just three years. But her reign shows how she stood strongly in the face of the mountain of pressures against her. There were many things about Mary that early […]
Cotswold residents and visitors are invited to journey back in time this summer at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum, where medieval re-enactors will bring the Festival of Archaeology to life. Running from 18 July to 2 August, the event is part of a national initiative led by the Council for British Archaeology. This year’s theme, Archaeology and […]
Recently I was giving a short presentation to a Board of Trustees about a body of work that I had been wrestling with for a year. Afterwards, I was surprised to learn that the most interesting part of my talk for many of them was a two-minute section about how we accession, or take in, […]
Archaeologists working near Cirencester in the Cotswolds have discovered coins and iron spear heads, as well as miniature bronze shields and spearheads, at a major ‘votive’ site dating back to the late Iron Age (c.100BC- 43AD). The site was first discovered by a metal detectorist in 2020 when a hoard of more than 150 silver […]
Corinium Museum in Cirencester has secured a “hugely significant Iron Age hoard of more than 160 silver coins, after raising £13,250 for its acquisition. Originally discovered by a metal detectorist in Cirencester, the hoard dates back to the late 1st century BC and also includes miniature iron and copper-alloy shields and spearheads, which would have […]
Among the tissue-papered treasures in the Costume Store at Northleach is a pretty Edwardian blouse that shows evidence of having been a much-loved garment in its lifetime. Made from cream-coloured silk, this fragile piece of clothing has more than a dozen ‘mends’, all visible, but carefully matched to the original colour. The underside of the […]
There’s no disputing that the study of history has been interesting to humans since, well, humans began, but why are we compelled to look back and how has this cosmic navel gazing changed through time? And how do the professionals wade through not only historical context, but how do they avoid warping context through their […]
A rare collection of Early Bronze Age artefacts, including grave goods from a tribal ‘chieftain’, are now on display in the Corinium Museum’s Prehistory Gallery. The artefacts were uncovered in 2017 during archaeological investigations by Foundations Archaeology at the site of Lechlade’s Memorial Hall. Excavations revealed an Early Bronze Age barrow containing two burials placed […]
At the end of the February half term we ran our first official session of the Young Archaeologists’ Club at Corinium Museum. Many of our members were keen to explore fossils and so we made this the theme for February. We started off the session with a timeline of geological periods, such as the Jurassic […]
