Ancient History Roundup
Trumpets, mammoths and feces!
Let’s kick start 2026 with an ancient history roundup, looking at some of the ancient history headlines that have caught my eye!
Iron age battle trumpet found in East Anglia
Some stories just tell themselves, with little need of explanation. Researchers have found a near-complete battle trumpet and a bronze boar head which would have been part of a military standard The hoard dates somewhere between 50 BCE — 50 CE, meaning these may have been seen by the Romans during Claudius’ invasion in 43 CE! Researchers have also pointed out that these items are also seen regularly on the European mainland, once again reminding us of the cultural connections between Britain and Europe at that time.
Ireland’s largest prehistoric settlement
Recent studies of Brusselstown Ring hillfort in Co. Wicklow, Ireland, have uncovered evidence of 600 house platforms and a purpose made cistern. The fort emerges sometime around 1200 BCE and with this new revelation it makes this the largest nucleated site in all of prehistoric Ireland or Britain. Indeed, it pushed back our estimates for proto-urabinsation in northern Europe by 500 years! An amazing discovery.
Mammoth-bone buildings in Ukraine
Another one from our childhood imaginations! Researchers have possibly cracked the mystery of some man-made structures dating back 18,000 years ago, made from the tusks of mammoths. Recent studies have dated some organic finds inside the structures and shown that these buildings were used over a period of 400 years but only for short periods at a time, suggesting that they were permanent shelters to be used for protection in harsh weather.
A sh!t life for Romans along Hadrian’s Wall
Anyone who has read The Far Edges of the Known World will know how much I am fascinated by the mundane. And nothing can be more mundane than toilets. But for archaeologists they are a treasure trove of information about the lives of ancient people. Recent studies of the crap found at the fort at Vindolanda shows that the soldiers were infected with parasitic worms and were dealing with diarrhoea. Not quite as romantic as our history books and movies make out …
Fantastic roundup! The Brusselstown Ring discovery really flips our understanding of protourbanziation timelines in northern Europe. Pushing back nucleated settlement patterns by 500 years isnt just a date change, it means we gotta rethink trade networks and social organization at that scale way earlier than we thought. I've always wonderd how these large prehistoric settlements managed resource allocation without the bureaucratic systems we see later.