REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH The Oman Peninsula and the surrounding Gulf States have been the focus of archaeological research for at least 120 years. Although the region’s archaeological record extends as far back as the Middle Palaeolithic – including evidence…
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON St Petersburg has an immensely dark history. Built largely by slave labour on the orders of Peter the Great in the early 1700s, it has endured more than its fair share of assassination, revolution, flooding, and…
REVIEW BY JONATHAN EATON In recent years, historians have increasingly sought to understand major conflicts from a genuinely global perspective. While this approach has perhaps always been synonymous with the Second World War, where the shape of the conflict was…
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER If, as a youngster, you enjoyed those wonderful films Khartoum, The Four Feathers and Young Winston, you were not alone. I sat as transfixed as the spear that skewered General Gordon, as the bayonets that shimmered…
REVIEW BY MARK DeSANTIS The Battle of Midway in early June 1942 is arguably the most significant naval encounter of the Second World War, and easily one of the most notable battles in all history. The three-day fight in the…
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
REVIEW BY RACHEL BALLANTYNE Fabulously comprehensive and systematic, this is primarily a resource assessment of later prehistoric structural footprints for homes – places of social reproduction, craft activities, food storage and consumption. Of note are the many composite illustrations that…
REVIEW BY REBECCA JONES This is not a traditional archaeology or history book. It defies conventional modern categorisation, taking its inspiration from the writings of antiquarian travellers, such as Jessie Mothersole. Indeed, the author is an expert in antiquarians, and…
REVIEW BY STEPHEN R COSH David Neal’s autobiography is a candid – sometimes perhaps too candid – account of his personal life and almost 70 years involvement in archaeology, lavishly illustrated. From humble beginnings, David’s interest in archaeology and talent…
REVIEW BY EDWARD STEWART This volume brings together an exciting range of contributions to provide new insights into the cultural landscapes of the north-east of Scotland, a region that has seen many exciting archaeological investigations in recent decades. The book…
REVIEW BY KEVIN MOON This monograph details the archaeological works undertaken by ARCUS (2004) and ARS (2015 and 2019-2022) at Holme Hall Quarry, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire. It is largely focused on the Roman field system dating from the mid-late…
REVIEW BY ANDY KING This is a book arising from the author’s excavation of the small castle at Edlingham in Northumberland, and it concerns the life and career of Sir William de Felton, the man who – probably – built…
REVIEW BY JPP This is a beautifully presented book, amply illustrated with full-colour photographs throughout. The author uses the ancient Egyptian dating system of regnal years, seasons, months, and days for events, which (although more accurate than BC dates) is…
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE It is a frequent complaint that, despite the great fame of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb (KV62) in 1922, the rate at which material from the tomb has been published in any depth has been very…
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT This volume is the first to be published from BAR International’s exciting new specialist sub-series focused solely on the archaeology of Egypt and Sudan. Sue Kelly explores the roles of women at the very beginning of…
REVIEW BY ROGER FORSHAW Nigel Fletcher-Jones’ Ancient Egypt: a photographic history offers a visual overview of more than 3,000 years of Egyptian civilisation. With 200 well-presented photographs, the book provides a chronological record that spans from Egypt’s earliest beginnings to…
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS Students of Egyptian history have been denied books on the Ptolemaic rulers as, according to Guy de la Bédoyère, ‘some Egyptologists visibly wince when pressed by publishers to include a section on Ptolemies’. This has been…
REVIEW BY RUPERT TILL I first came across Graeme Lawson’s work about 16 years ago. He is a pioneer in exploring musical instruments in the archaeological record. His work is always highly detailed, applying an archaeologist’s methodological rigour to provide…
REVIEW BY TADGH O’KEEFFE Back in the 1980s, when the study of settlement and landscape in high and later medieval Ireland began to take off in earnest, little attention was paid to the world of the native Irish. Things have…
REVIEW BY JAMES O’DRISCOLL It is safe to say that I, and many others interested in the later prehistory of Ireland, have been waiting for this book for decades. This volume documents the excavations undertaken at the multivallate hillfort of…
REVIEW BY RP Have you ever wondered about the ancestor of the quiche? How about the origins of French toast? Who do we need to thank for the improvement of English cheese-making? Emma Kay has been foraging for tasty titbits…
REVIEW BY ROB IXER Many recent popular archaeology books are text-heavy, with indifferently reproduced black-and-white illustrations printed on poor-quality paper, and with a few token colour plates. This wonderful paperback, a landscape book in both senses of the word, is…
REVIEW BY JODIE LEWIS This monograph presents the results of excavations at five Bronze Age round barrows located on or near the north Cornish coast, undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit. Each barrow has a separate chapter, allowing readers to…
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH Given the severity of the ongoing war in Ukraine, it is no surprise that the rich prehistoric archaeology of the country has been largely forgotten, especially within its southern and eastern regions, but it makes this…
REVIEW BY QUITA MOULD In this volume, the author describes a range of Roman shoe- and foot-shaped artefacts and considers the cultural significance of such representations. She summarises the ancient written sources available and the thoughts of previous researchers, before…
REVIEW BY KATHERINE V BOYLE This book looks at an often-overlooked aspect of European prehistory, more specifically the Neolithic/Eneolithic, but one that, fortunately, is gradually changing with work undertaken in recent years by scholars across Europe. The subject is the…
REVIEW BY FRED CHIAVENTONE The American Revolutionary War of 1775 to 1783 had plenty of ‘turning points’, as might be the case with any war that lasted for the best part of eight years, but have they not all been…
REVIEW JONATHAN EATON In reading about the Second World War, it is easy to lose sight of the brutal realities of the conflict, whether revealed through acts of unfathomable evil or deeds of immense personal courage. In The Last Days…
REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND Most of us have an opinion about the two atomic attacks made by the United States on Japan in August 1945, which brought about the end of the Second World War, and most of us probably…
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
REVIEW BY SOPHIE AMBLER Battlefield commemoration has hitherto been the territory of historians of the modern age, leaning too heavily on the First World War and US Civil War, and linking battlefield memorialisation to the rise of nationalism. Atherton instead…
REVIEW BY TOBY DRIVER Richard Hayman is an established author on a range of historical, archaeological, and industrial topics, and here he turns his hand to an appreciation of the historic Welsh landscape, in all its forms. During the confinement…
REVIEW BY LISA BRUNDLE The archaeologist Michael J Jones, having worked for 40 years in Lincoln, provides a unique personal account of archaeological discoveries in the former colonia city of Lindum prior to commercial development. For those of us who…
REVIEW BY HARRIET HAUGVIK Ben Paites’ addition to the ‘50 Finds’ series is a well-researched and nuanced exploration of the history of sexuality through material culture. The book approaches the topic from five distinct angles: from the more standard ‘Historical…
REVIEW BY CH This beautifully illustrated book highlights the vital work of the Portable Antiquities Scheme in documenting finds made by members of the public, and celebrates the remarkable artefacts and insights that have been brought to light through the…
REVIEW BY MARK BRENNAND The North Pennines is a bleak old place. I absolutely mean no offence, but its barren, windswept moors, studded with disused mines, are not an easy place to make a living. And yet there is rich…