Durham Archaeology
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Durham Archaeology
@arcdurham.bsky.social
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Archaeology at Durham University - News about our staff, students, partnerships and research from across archaeology.
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📣 New senior academic job opening 📣

We are looking for an outstanding candidate to join us as Professor of Cultural and Natural Heritage!

Learn more and apply: durham.taleo.net/careersectio...

📅 Closes 31 Jan 2026, 11:59pm GMT
Photograph from the bottom up of Durham Cathedral, standing against a blue sky dappled with white clouds. There is bright yellow sunlight illuminating the sky in the lower left of the photo, from the sun that is just hidden by one of the cathedral's walls.
November 19, 2025 at 1:50 PM
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📸🦣 Snapshots from our recent return to Moldova - hard at work at a 25,000-year old Upper #Palaeolithic campsite! We were also delighted to receive a visit last week from Samantha Smith, the British Deputy Ambassador to Moldova.

Learn more about what we've found: www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...
Two students crouch in an archaeological section excavating mammoth bones. A label reads 'Excavating mammoth bones!' Paul Pettitt stands by a table with several small finds in clear bags. He is speaking to Deputy Ambassador Samantha Smith who is holding a small find in her hand. Archaeological excavation section showing mammoth thoracic vertebrae and ribs with stone tools. There is a metre stick for scale.
August 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM
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We're delighted to announce that our Professor Sarah Semple has been made a Fellow of The British Academy 👏 Congratulations Sarah on her well-deserved achievement!

Learn more about this honour in the article below!
www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

@britishacademy.bsky.social #DurhamUni #DUresearch
Profile photo of Professor Sarah Semple on a sunny day. In the background are grassy fields and green hills.
July 18, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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Meet PhD candidate and Egyptologist Ariadne Agryos. When asked what is research like, she replied, "This is what research looks like—slow, sacred, and filled with discovery."

#ArchaeologyInAction #PhDLife #Egyptology
July 17, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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Hot off the press! #NewResearch undertaken in part at our DARC lab (Durham Archaeomaterials Research Centre)

🛠️Ancient Innovation at Tell el-Burak 🍇🏺

New research has revealed what may be the earliest known use of the cocciopesto technique to produce hydraulic mortar in #IronAge Phoenicia. (1/4)
One of the plastered installations at Tell el-Burak. This photo shows the wine press, taken from the west side (courtesy of the Tell el-Burak Archaeological Project).
July 9, 2025 at 8:54 AM
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🎓 Studied with us in #Archaeology? 🎓

Your voice matters.
Have your say in the Global Alumni Survey 2025.

💡 Check your inbox for your personalised link
⏳ Closes Monday 30 June at 11:59pm (BST)!

#DUAlumniSurvey25 #DurhamAlumni #HaveYourSay #MakeYourMark #Archaeology #DurhamUni
June 23, 2025 at 3:04 PM
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#FindsFriday - the 2018 discovery of a #prehistoric decorated stela at Las Capellanías, S. Spain, sparked a series of exciting fieldwork initiatives, co-directed by our Dr Marta Díaz-Guardamino.

Our own #archaeology students joined in the excavations, making extraordinary further discoveries!💡(1/2)
Six archaeologists around a newly excavated decorated stela, discovered in its original context. A stela is an upright stone slab, inscribed or carved, used as a monument.
June 13, 2025 at 12:48 PM
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Delighted to share that our professionally accredited degrees have been renewed for a further five years!

Learn more about our accredited degrees (CIfA & UAUK) and how they can enhance your learning, career and network 👇

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

#ArchaeologyCareers #CareerDevelopment
Person with long brown braided hair and red shirt kneeling on a mat and using a trowel to clean a section during an archaeological excavation. There is a bucket of soil next to them. Two Archaeology placement year students in a lab space, cleaning and examining artefacts
May 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
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This project at an #IceAge camp site uncovered 15,800-year-old engravings of fishing - learn more in the news story below! 👇

www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

#DUresearch #Archaeology #Palaeolithic #IceAgeArt #AncientArt #Engravings
Image credit: Robitaille et al., 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0. The engraving, located in the central part of a fragmented, flat-surfaced plaquette, measures 6 cm by 5 cm. The fish is fusiform in shape, showing the head, dorsal, and ventral sections, with a partially visible forked tail. The fish was engraved first, with a net added afterward, placing the fish at the center.
May 12, 2025 at 11:00 AM
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Dr Louise Loe presents @oxfordarchaeology.bsky.social Max Mill Lane project at #CIfA2025, exploring how a highly polluted environment impacts health & mortality of infants in Roman Britain. Featuring work by our #DurhamUni commercial archaeology isotope team, Prof Janet Montgomery and Dr Jo Moore
Dr Louise Loe giving a conference presentation in a seminar room with dim purple lighting. The presentation slide is about a 'Large Roman nucleated settlement/'small town', with 'Very deep stratigraphy with extensive archaeological remains, rich in artefacts and environmental samples'.
May 2, 2025 at 1:24 PM
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💡Burial attires in ancient Spain💡

Our Department's Dr Marta Díaz-Guardamino was involved in uncovering remarkable new insights into sophisticated craftsmanship, social organization, and female power in Copper Age Iberia.

Learn more below 👇
www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

#archaeology #DUresearch
Excavation process (by Alvaro Fernandez Flores). Three archaeologists in protective gear excavating an ancient burial site, with aid from large lamps.
April 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM
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Exploring the MSc Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology Program🔬⚖️

Our graduate Cyrus Edgecombe provides insight into this amazing programme with so many opportunities to learn about this incredibly important aspect of #archaeology!

Find out more: www.durham.ac.uk/departments/...

#DurhamUni
March 21, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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Students are currently producing posters on select grave monuments from the churchyard, shining lights on people, professions and places of 18th and 19th century Durham. Leaders of local graveyard recording projects and the staff at The Story, Durham, have contributed to their learning.
Two students in St Oswald's Churchyard documenting grave monuments using surveyor's tape measure and a ranging pole.
March 13, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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Bringing the Dead to Life in Durham

Students who chose the Communities and Cemeteries option, one of many in our second-year Advanced Skills module, were out in the field in St. Oswald’s Churchyard on a sunny day two weeks ago, learning surveying and photogrammetry techniques.

#Archaeology
Two students using a surveying machine in St Oswald's Churchyard. Two students and a staff member documenting grave monuments in St Oswald's Churchyard.
March 13, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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🌍 We are delighted to share that globally we are ranked 6th in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025 - thank you to everyone contributing to this Department! 🌍

#DurhamUni #DUresearch #DUinspire
#QSWUR #QS #ArcDurham #ArchaeologyDepartment
Infographic made from a photo of an excavation, with a QS World University Rankings by Subject badge for Archaeology ranked 6th place, the Durham University Archaeology Department logo, the QS world university rankings logo, and white text reading "We are delighted to share that we have been ranked 6th in the world!"
March 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
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In the spirit of #InternationalWomensDay tomorrow, we're delighted to share a blog post written by our Department's Assistant Technician, Aimee Parker!

Find out more about Aimee's role, her experience as a #WomanInSTEM and valuable advice 👇: staffblog.webspace.durham.ac.uk/meet-aimee-p...
Photo of Aimee Parker smiling, wearing a buttoned up white lab coat and glasses on top of her head.
March 7, 2025 at 5:32 PM
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💡 New #OpenAccess research! 💡

Our Department's Néhémie Strupler's 'Metamorphoses of a Monument' examines how the documentation of archaeological objects, like rock figure in Turkey, shapes our understanding of the past.

Read more 👉: doi.org/10.1017/eaa....

#Archaeology #History #Karabel
Drawing from H. Kiepert (1842) of the rock figure at Karabel, a monumental Bronze Age bas-relief in Turkey.
March 7, 2025 at 11:45 AM