As the sun has proven somewhat unreliable this summer, let’s talk about the moon instead. Stonehenge is best known for its solar alignments, but was its design also influenced by a once-in-a-generation lunar phenomenon? This month’s cover feature discusses an ongoing project that is documenting the effects of a Major Lunar Standstill in real time.
Three articles then spotlight a trio of very different site visits from June and July (we also have a News Focus drawing on a recent trip to Sutton Hoo; if you would like CA to come to your dig, do get in touch – have notebook, will travel!). We begin near Boden in Cornwall, where a long-running community excavation is uncovering the remains of an Iron Age fogou – an enigmatic form of underground passage – as well as unusual Romano-British remains nearby. Our next destination is Hadrian’s Wall, where we report on the final season of a four-year project that has been investigating the civilian settlement outside Birdoswald Roman fort. How has the story changed since our visit last year? Finally, we travel to Wessex Archaeology’s excavation on the site of Sheffield Castle, where they have uncovered impressive medieval fortifications, as well as traces of the Steel City’s influential industrial heritage.
From the urban setting of the Sheffield finds, our next article discusses something more bucolic: orchards. A long-standing feature of historic landscapes, how have they evolved in England from the medieval period to the present day?
Finally, we head to Anglesey in north Wales, to learn about the excavation of a Neolithic dolmen and the identification of a previously undocumented ceremonial landscape surrounding it.

CARLY