Strollology, Hedonia and Eudaimonia
Can you guess which of the following is a genuine university discipline: Strollology, Hedonia and Eudaimonia, or Happiness Studies? The answer is all of them.
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Great prehistoric sites: Kent and Sussex – Excavating the CA archive
In last month’s column, I explored Palaeolithic Norfolk and Suffolk, visiting some of the most important prehistoric sites not just in Britain but in the whole of western Europe. Here I will follow up on that review by moving south into Kent and Sussex
Folklore to the rescue of eels
Folk memory, songs, place names, and oral histories are being deployed by the Somerset Eel Recovery Project (SERP) in its work to bring this critically endangered species back to the Somerset Levels. Those stories and songs are a reminder that the Levels once teemed with eels.
Great prehistoric sites: Norfolk and Suffolk – Excavating the CA archive
In the previous few columns I have explored some of the great towns of Roman Britain – so, as a change of pace, here I will begin a new mini-series on the country’s great prehistoric sites. I will commence this month with a series of locations in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Monumental voyages
Discovered as recently as 1989, the Neolithic settlement submerged beneath the waters of Lake Bracciano, at La Marmotta, near Rome, Italy, has yielded rich evidence of life 7,000 years ago. New analysis of the five boats found at the site suggest that they could have been used for the sea voyages that led to the spread of Neolithic practices to the islands of the Mediterranean.
From ruins to riches
A well-worn joke goes that archaeologists find their careers in ruins. This is sometimes literally true: at least since the 1970s, and in cities on all inhabited continents, crises sparked by deindustrialisation, decay, and dereliction have been an assured portent of large-scale excavations. It is not just that when business goes down, archaeology goes in.
Salt of the earth
Yesterday, I was able to cross off another archaeological site from my ‘must-see-one-day’ list. It was Hallstatt, the settlement that has given its name to the early Iron Age of Europe’s past. First, I was lucky to visit the Natural History Museum in Vienna, where there is a major section devoted to this site.
Ian Nairn’s Morris Minor
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of a special edition of the prestigious Architectural Review. The June 1955 supplement was devoted to a now-famous single essay called ‘Outrage’, Ian Nairn’s critique of the ways in which Britain’s towns and cities were being rebuilt from the rubble and ruins of the Second World War.
Roman towns and cities: St Albans – Excavating the CA archive
To conclude my mini-series on the towns of Roman Britain, I will head to what may be the most famous Romano-British city of all: Verulamium, modern-day St Albans. With much of the city surviving, unexcavated, beneath modern-day park- and farmland, and upstanding elements visible alongside the award-winning museum that was founded by Tessa Verney Wheeler and Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s .
The UK’s first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp
Most of us associate prisoner-of-war camps with 20th-century conflicts, but an archaeological evaluation undertaken in July 2009 by Channel 4’s Time Team revealed that the first specially constructed camp dates to the late 18th century, when it was used for incarcerating thousands of enemy prisoners taken during the Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815.
Roman towns and cities: Lincoln – Excavating the CA archive
As part of my ongoing mini-series on the towns of Roman Britain, I will focus in this column on Roman Lincoln (Lindum), which was founded as a legionary fortress during the reign of Nero (AD 54-68), and subsequently developed into a colonia (a settlement for retired soldiers) after AD 86 during the reign of Domitian (AD 81-96).
Sharing cultural heritage
In its annual ‘watchlist’ of threatened heritage sites, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) has cast its gaze beyond our own planet and declared that the surface of the Moon represents a vulnerable cultural landscape.
Ratting out
If you want to know how liveable a city is, you can ask the rats. The cosmopolitan rodents will know exactly how resource-rich and wasteful in nutrients their human co-habitants are.
The flowers of Shanidar
A recent Netflix documentary, Secrets of the Neanderthals, has attracted a massive worldwide audience, and taken a major step forward in dealing with the widespread myth that Neanderthals were brutish and backward. As we now know from comparing their DNA and ours, we can count them among our remote ancestors.
War Classics – The Donkeys
‘Good-morning, good morning!’ the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ’em dead,
And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.
These lines from Siegfried Sassoon’s poem ‘The General’ were written in 1917.
The UK’s first crematorium
Sherds was intrigued to encounter two interesting items recently that have to do with the treatment of human remains. (Anyone who is grieving or has suffered a recent bereavement might like to skip over these reports.)
Roman towns and cities: Cirencester – Excavating the CA archive
This month’s column comprises the latest in a ‘Roman towns’ miniseries. I have recently visited Chester and Colchester, and next up is Cirencester (Corinium).
Retro Zoomers
Looking for signs of hope that heritage and culture will be safe in the hands of future generations, Sherds spotted a number of media reports recently that claimed to know the minds of young people. Recent surveys have stated that Zoomers (Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012) are currently into churchgoing, barn dancing, and buying telescopes.
Roman towns and cities: Colchester – Excavating the CA archive
Last month’s visit to Chester/Deva got me thinking about the other great urban sites of Roman Britain. I have previously visited Silchester/Calleva (CA 337, April 2018), Wroxeter/Viroconium (CA 338, May 2018), and London (CA 416, November 2024), but what about other Roman towns and cities?