Current Archaeology 437
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Scotland’s first warriors: Interpreting evidence of conflict from the Neolithic to the coming of the Romans
Interpersonal violence has been a fact of human existence for much of our long history – but how far is this reflected in the archaeological record? With a major new exhibition now open at the National Museum of Scotland, Matthew G Knight and Hannah Boddy examine traces of past conflicts spanning 4,000 years, and consider how to present these stories to modern audiences.
Urban exploration: Revealing Roman and medieval York through ground-penetrating radar
Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been used to great effect to map underlying archaeology on open-area sites, but how well does it perform in urban environments? John Creighton, Thomas Matthews Boehmer, Martin Millett, and Lieven Verdonck describe the trials and triumphs of recent surveys in York’s historic centre.
Bamburgh Castle: digging the home of Northumbria’s kings
The Bamburgh Research Project is picking up the pieces of the archaeological work started by legendary eccentric Dr Brian Hope-Taylor, who had left virtually no record of his excavations – or so it was believed. The story of Bamburgh is two-fold: before properly investigating the site, the team must first excavate the archaeologist who worked there 60 years ago.
The Land between the Oceans: ships, metals and warriors (Part Two)
In the second part of our mini-series based on Barry Cunliffe’s new book Europe between the Oceans, our focus is the period c.2800-140 BC. We see the rise and fall of great civilisations, and a looming clash between a Mediterranean-based superpower and the Celtic peoples of Iron Age Europe. Once again, it is the movement of people, goods, and ideas that is central to Cunliffe’s vision of Europe’s distinctive history.
The Land between the Oceans: Europe’s ‘Neolithic Revolution’ revisited (Part One)
Barry Cunliffe’s latest book represents the synthesis of half a century studying the archaeology of Europe, an achievement comparable with that of Gordon Childe in the 1930s. In this article, and in two more to follow in succeeding issues, Current Archaeology summarises his conclusions.
The Tiles and Architectural Ceramics Society
Britain has literally thousands of voluntary heritage societies dedicated to diverse causes. In this series we profile some of the least known and most dedicated. This month, we take a look at…
Roman shopping centre found in Cirencester
The 1st and 2nd century structures were found in the basement of Cirencester Corn Hall
The Dissolution of the Monasteries: heritage in ruins
Apart from his red hair, beard, giant girth and his equally gargantuan appetite for wives, the one thing we all associate with Henry VIII is the event that the authors of 1066 and All That called, with an eye for a memorable spelling mistake, ‘the Disillusion of the Monasteries’.
This old house: excavations at Chiswick House
In the early 18th century, Palladian style ruled England as the most fashionable for a British country house or public building. The man responsible, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington (1694-1753), designed the building that started this architectural revolution. English Heritage archaeologists have recently had a rare chance to investigate Britain’s first ‘Palladian’ country house.
Before Stonehenge: village of wild parties
Stonehenge is merely one part of a much wider sacred landscape represented today by the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The evidence is mounting that Stonehenge itself represented a domain of the ancestors, and, as such, a place in which the final rites were performed in elaborate ceremonies marking the passage of the recently deceased from life to death.
Alchester: in search of Vespasian
Eberhard Sauer reports on the incredible discovery of a tombstone in Alchester, Oxfordshire; and not just any tombstone, but one which could rewrite the history of the Roman invasion and conquest of Britain.
Kew Palace: restoring a Georgian royal residence
Lee Prosser, curator at Historic Royal Palaces, tells us about the archaeology of a Georgian royal palace.
Where are the children?
There really have been so few instances when Time Team sites have yielded any evidence pertaining to children – despite having dug more than 150 sites over the 13 years the series has been running.
The Storegga disaster: in search of squashed Mesolithic people
Around 8000 years ago a huge underwater landslide off Norway triggered a tsunami (‘tidal wave’) that wreaked destruction along the coasts of Norway, Iceland and eastern Scotland. An archaeologist considers the contemporary (Mesolithic) Scottish scene in the next article. Here geographer David E Smith describes what Quaternary scientists know as the Storegga tsunami.