The Current Archaeology Awards celebrate the projects and publications that made the pages of the magazine over the past 12 months, and the people judged to have made outstanding contributions to archaeology.
These awards are voted for entirely by the public – there are no panels of judges – so we encouraged you to get involved and choose the projects, publications, and people you wanted to win.
We have 4 categories:
- Archaeologist of the Year
- Book of the Year
- Research Project of the Year
- Rescue Project of the Year
You can vote for the latest awards here
| Year | Archaeologist | Book | Research Project | Rescue Project |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Jane Kershaw | Marion Dowd, Robert Mulraney, and James Bonsall: An Irish Civil War Dugout: Tormore Cave, County Sligo | Carlisle Cricket Club | The Melsonby hoard |
| 2025 | Joyce Tyldesley | Alice Roberts, Crypt: life, death, and disease in the Middle Ages and beyond | Pioneering spirit: exploring the archaeology and history of The Glenlivet whisky | From stronghold to Steel City: uncovering the ‘birthplace of Sheffield’ |
| 2024 | Nick Card | Luc Amkreutz and Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof (editors), Doggerland: lost world under the North Sea | The Ness of Brodgar: marking 20 years of Neolithic discoveries | The Knowe of Swandro: excavating eroding archaeology in Orkney |
| 2023 | David Jacques | A. Brend, N. Card, J. Downes, M. Edmonds, and J. Moore, Landscapes Revealed: geophysical survey in the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Area, 2002-2011 | Prehistoric pioneers: how female migrants changed the face of Bronze Age Orkney | Archaeology adrift? A curious tale of Lego lost at sea |
| 2022 | Raksha Dave | Melanie Giles, Bog Bodies: face-to-face with the past | Bridge over troubled water: Roman finds from the Tees at Piercebridge and beyond | Building a Roman Villa: a Romano-Celtic temple-mausoleum and evidence of industry at Priors Hall, Corby |
| 2021 | Paula Reimer | Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Kindred: Neanderthal life, love, death, and art | The problem of the Picts: searching for a lost people in northern Scotland | A unique glimpse into the Iron Age: excavating Clachtoll Broch |
| 2020 | Alison Sheridan | Alexander Smith, Martyn Allen, Tom Brindle, Michael Fulford, Lisa Lodwick, and Anna Rohnbogner, Life and death in the countryside of Roman Britain | Life beside the lake: opening a new window on the Mesolithic at Star Carr | Roman writing on the wall: recording inscriptions at a Hadrian’s Wall quarry |
| 2019 | Richard Osgood | Andy Burnham (ed), The Old Stones: a field guide to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland | Prehistoric pop culture: deciphering the DNA of the Bell Beaker Complex | A landscape revealed: exploring 6,000 years of Cambridgeshire’s past along the A14 |
| 2018 | Hella Eckardt | Mark White (ed), Lost Landscapes of Palaeolithic Britain | Blick Mead: exploring the ‘first place’ in the Stonehenge landscape | An Iron Age chariot burial: excavating a square-barrow cemetery at Pocklington |
| 2017 | Mark Knight | Paul Bahn, Images of the Ice Age | Rethinking Durrington Walls: a long-lost monument revealed | The Must Farm inferno: exploring an intact Late Bronze Age settlement |
| 2016 | Roberta Gilchrist | Marion Dowd, The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland | Recapturing Berkeley Castle: one trench, 1,500 years of English History | The Drumclay crannog-dwellers: revealing 1,000 years of lakeside living |
| 2015 | Michael Fulford | Paul Bahn (ed), The History of Archaeology | Maryport’s Mystery Monuments: investigating gigantic timber structures from the Imperial twilight | First Impressions: discovering the earliest footprints in Europe |
| 2014 | Richard Buckley | Julian Bowsher, Shakespeare’s London Theatreland | Return to Star Carr: Discovering the true size of a Mesolithic settlement | Sands of Time: Domestic rituals at the Links of Noltland |
| 2013 | Phil Harding | Rebecca Jones, Roman Camps in Britain | Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king | Folkestone: Roman villa or Iron Age oppidum |
| 2012 | Tony Wilmott | Joe Flatman, Becoming an archaeologist: a guide to professional pathways | Massacre at Fin Cop | Sea of Troubles: Scotland’s eroding heritage |
| 2011 | Sam Moorhead | Julian Bowsher and Pat Miller, The Rose and the Globe | The Ness of Brodgar | The Frome Hoard |
| 2010 | Mike Parker Pearson | Barry Cunliffe, Europe Between The Oceans | Bluestonehenge | The Staffordshire Hoard |
| 2009 | David Breeze | Roger White, Britannia Prima | South Shields: Rebuilding a Roman Fort | The Chiseldon Cauldrons |