This year, the Research Project of the Year award went to Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king, featured in CA 272.

The University of Leicester Archaeological Services’ discovery of Richard III under a Leicester car park grabbed the headlines around the world. This astonishing achievement has finally allowed the lurid comments by Tudor chroniclers about the physique of this most controversial king to be assessed objectively.

Accepting the award was the project’s lead archaeologist Richard Buckley.

He said: ‘I am very grateful that the readers of Current Archaeology have chosen our project as Research Excavation of the Year — for me, what is really nice, having done so much archaeological work in Leicester over the decades, is that this discovery has focussed international attention on Leicester’s fantastic archaeology, which is some of best in Britain.

‘I am proud to accept this award for the Grey Friars Project, and in particular I want to thank Philippa Langley, who raised the money for the investigation and never doubted for a minute that we would find Richard III. This discovery is down to the hard work by our team, particularly Mathew Morris, who led the work on site, and our scientific team, who did the osteological and forensic work back at base camp. Jo Appleby, the team’s osteologist, and Turi King, who masterminded the DNA, deserve special mention.’

Below are all the nominees in this category:

Lost city of the legion

(CA 268 — Cardiff University/UCL)

Investigations at Caerleon have revealed a monumental building complex outside the Roman fortifications.

The Iceni under Rome

(CA 270 — University of Nottingham)

New findings from Caistor St Edmunds have challenged views of the city as having been imposed by Rome for the Boudican revolt.

Stonehenge: exploring the greatest Stone Age mystery

(CA 270 — Stonehenge Riverside Project)

Some 45 excavations have uncovered a wealth of information about Stonehenge and its prehistoric landscape.

Vespasian’s Camp: Cradle of Stonehenge?

(CA 271 — Open University)

Finding Salisbury Plain’s oldest domestic site could represent the Stonehenge landscape’s Mesolithic ‘missing link’.

Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king

(CA 272 — University of Leicester Archaeological Services)

Archaeological detectivework setting out to find a lost friary and the final resting place of England’s last Medieval king.

Finding HMS Namur

(CA 273 — The Historic Dockyard Chatham/University of St Andrews/Oxford Archaeology)

Revealing the identity of part of a warship hidden beneath the floor of a wheelwright’s shop, and why she was there.

Voting has now closed, and the winners will be announced at Current Archaeology Live! 2013. For more information about the event, click here.