We're thrilled to be hosting the Theoretical Archaeology Group conference in December here in Exeter. Sessions are now online, and paper proposals open!

@tag26exeter.bsky.social · last mo.

Our call for papers is now open! Head to our website to check out the amazing 35 sessions that will be hosted during the conference. Deadline to submit abstracts is 5 pm BST, 7 September 2026.

Fieldschool 2026 has started! This year we're excavating a Roman villa near Halberton, Devon. It's part of the bigger SHARE project, partly funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund.

We're hugely pleased that the archaeology side of our department has been ranked 34th in the QS World University Rankings! These prestigious annual rankings assess global university performance based on research, teaching, employability, and internationalisation.

This display, created for the @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social International Women's Day event on Monday, was made by students Jo, Lilian & Georgie. It focuses on the achievements of Lady Aileen Fox, lecturer here 1947-71, who was instrumental in founding the teaching of archaeology @exeter.ac.uk.

The event will be hybrid, with both in-person attendance and a Zoom option. Please register via the SAL website: it is required to join online. You can catch the livestream on the SAL YouTube channel with no registration needed. 🍽️ Catering will be available afterwards, so stay and mingle!

Discover the ancient art of tattooing! On Thursday, 12 Feb (12:35 - 13:55 GMT), join us online for a seminar with Dr Aaron Deter-Wolf from the Tennessee Division of Archaeology. Dive into 5,000 years of tattoo traditions from North America, Europe, and the Andean Pacific coast.

This time last week we held a CBM (Ceramic Building Material) workshop, training keen students how to identify and record Roman tiles! This collection is from an important site in the centre of Exeter. They all know their imbrex from their tegula now! Huge thanks to Naomi Payne for leading the day.

Research funding news! Our very own Prof Naomi Sykes will be spending the next three years working on a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, providing important context on the value of archaeological archives. More details here: news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

New research fellowship seeking to address the UK’s ‘crisis’ of archaeological curation

A leading authority on the interaction between animals, humans and the environment through history has been awarded a prestigious national fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust, focusing on the crisis ...

news.exeter.ac.uk

📢NEW POST: a report on Chris Hoban's recent performance of music inspired by our wills at a sold gig for Topsham Folk Club 📢 📜🎶🎻🪗🪕 @leverhulme.ac.uk @uniofexeterhass.bsky.social @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social

Dr Laura Sangha@lsangha.bsky.social · 6mo ago

'What a brilliant night! Wills: dry, formal, boring? This was story telling at its best: intriguing, engaging, human!’ In this new blog post, find out what happened when Chris Hoban and his band, The Executors, played to a packed house in Topsham sites.exeter.ac.uk/materialcult... #EarlyModern 🗃️

The Exeter Live Podcast is launching! With free entry for both students and staff, hear live discussions and get to know the History Department better. Tickets are not needed for this event. Find out more here: fixr.co/event/the-re...

So pleased to announce that with our partners (Devon County Council, Tiverton Archaeology Group and Sampford Peverell Society) we've have been awarded a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant to rescue a threatened and rare Roman villa site in Devon: news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...

New archaeology project awarded grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to unearth and save a rare Roman villa in Devon

A new research and community project, funded by a £249,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, will excavate a rare Roman villa in Devon containing archaeologically significant mosaics. The...

news.exeter.ac.uk

Our fieldschool! Thanks for reminding us of last year's great summer excavation!

National Trust Archaeology@nattrustarch.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Last May saw the University of Exeter’s Archaeology Field School return to the Killerton Estate in Devon to continue investigations into the search for the lost Elizabethan manor at Columbjohn, with support from Killerton’s HART team and NT Archaeologist, Cat Lodge. 🧵

Our first archaeology research seminar of 2026 is a cracker! On Thursday 15 Jan at 12.35pm, Dr Emma Stockley of @archanchistleic.bsky.social will be coming to talk to us about prehistoric lithic landscapes on Dartmoor. In preson and online, all welcome!

Join our PGTs for their annual conference! 📢 Researching the past 📅 Thursday 11 December 9.30-4.30 📍 Talks in Streatham Court LTC and posters displayed in Marchant Syndicate Room A in Building One Do come along to support our students and socialise ❤️

We're very excited that our next research seminar will be given by Dr Lee Bray of Dartmoor National Park, giving us an update on the fascinating Cut Hill Bronze Age cist excavation. Thursday 4 Dec, 12.30pm. DM us for the Teams link if you'd like to join!

Great news! Our AHRC-funded Warhorse book has been nominated as Book of the Year in the 2026 Current Archaeology Awards. Prof Oliver Creighton's 'From Bayeux to Bosham' project is also up for Project of the Year! Voting is open at www.archaeology.co.uk/vote

There was a great turnout yesterday to Prof Alex Pryor's (birthday) talk on 'Hunters of Giants: How to kill an Upper Palaeolithic mammoth, revealed by stable isotopes and DNA'. This was part of our Centre for Human-Animal-Environment Bioarchaeology (HumAnE) series of events, to which all welcome!

On 18 November we organised an Employability Event attended by over 70 Undergraduate and Postgraduates from across the HASS Faculty. The panellists provided advice, guidance and perspectives on how they had utilised archaeology and history degrees in their careers. Many thanks to the panel!

History in the spotlight! On 12 Nov, a moving premiere of 'Albert Figg & the Battle for Hill 112' showed the courage and sacrifice of 7,000 men in one of WWII's bloodiest battles. Hosted by Prof Richard Follett & Rear Admiral Chris Snow CBE DL, showing the resilience of those West Country regiments

Here at Exeter we are offering three AHRC-funded PhD scholarships in humanities subjects. Please contact us if you'd like to come and research archaeology or history? Apply by 23 February: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...

PhD: AHRC Studentship | University of Exeter

Project descriptionThe University of Exeter is offering up to three fully funded AHRC doctoral studentships and training and development opportunities across a range of the AHRC’s disciplines for cand...

exeter.ac.uk

Next up in our archaeology seminar series is a talk by Dr Duncan Wright from Newcastle University on how medieval aristocracy established their authority through lordly centres. All welcome! Thursday 20 November, 12.30pm. Online - Teams meeting details on image.

🔥Hot off the press: Extensive dog diversity existed thousands of years before humans began selective breeding 🐩 “These results highlight the deep history of our relationship with dogs,” said Dr Carly Ameen “Diversity among dogs is a legacy of thousands of years of coevolution with human societies”

Join us for the Movember Special History Talk! 🧔To Beard or Not to Beard: The History of Facial Hair in Britain 1650-1900 with Dr Alun Withey 📅 Wednesday 19 November 🕰️ Doors open at 6pm, start at 18:15 🎫 fixr.co/event/movemb...

📚 News from the world of peace and economic history ☮️ Dr Marc-William Palen’s Pax 'Economica: Left-Wing Visions of a Free Trade World' has just received the Elise M. Boulding Prize in Peace History🏆 for groundbreaking work that rethinks how free trade once carried hopes for ending empire and war🌍

Come join us (for a little while at least)! Associate Lecturer job at Exeter in archaeology (especially people with human osteology, zooarch or forensic skills), until 30 April 2026: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPI165/a...

Associate Lecturer in Archaeology (Education and Scholarship) at University of Exeter

Searching for an academic job? Explore this Associate Lecturer in Archaeology (Education and Scholarship) opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

jobs.ac.uk

Congratulations to Dr Aaron Deter-Wolf, one of our PhD by publication students, who successfully passed his viva yesterday. Aaron is one of the world’s leading experts on ancient tattoos & was recently featured in National Geographic magazine: www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

How scientists are cracking the secrets of the world’s oldest tattoos

Turns out, ancient body art is a lot more common than we once thought—and it's providing historians with new ways of understanding our ancestors.

nationalgeographic.com

🐾 Explore 'Do Not Feed the Animals?' where science meets art to reveal the surprising stories behind why we feed animals, from home to zoo. Experience vibrant artworks, hands-on research and reflect on your own animal encounters!🦉 📍Queens Building, Streatham campus 📆Until 12 December, all welcome

Staff member Joe Hirst has a new paper out! 'Modelling Maize Agriculture by the Pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture of Amazonian Bolivia: An Agent-Based Approach', is published in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation: www.jasss.org/28/4/5.html

Modelling Maize Agriculture by the Pre-Columbian Casarabe Culture of Amazonian Bolivia: An Agent-Based Approach

by Joseph Hirst, Joy Singarayer, Umberto Lombardo and Francis Mayle

jasss.org

A round up of recent @materialwills.bsky.social project news below 👇 Including recent @zooniverse.bsky.social milestones, project meetings, and new blog posts! #earlymodern #history #skystorians @leverhulme.ac.uk @uoearchhist.bsky.social @cemsexeter.bsky.social

The Material Culture of Wills Project@materialwills.bsky.social · 9mo ago

It's been a busy week for the project! 1. A huge milestone: we're delighted to share that our @zooniverse.bsky.social volunteers have now checked ALL images! 🎉 Thank you to everyone who has contributed. We're going to pause Zooniverse for now while we evaluate if more training is required. 🧵1/4

Last week some of our first year students got to head out into Dartmoor and see some archaeology. They visited Merrivale, and also Lydford Saxon earthworks and castle/prison and were very glad the rain held off!