Feature

BELOW Lying off the west coast of Scotland, the tiny island of Iona with its 6th century monastery was a beacon of Christian scholarship and creativity during the Medieval period.

Exploring Scotland’s most sacred place

The Scottish island of Iona was one of the most influential Christian centres in Early Medieval Europe. But how much of its first monastery, built in the 6th century, has survived to the present day? As 2013, the 1,450th anniversary of its foundation, approached, it was time to find out, as Peter Yeoman explains.

Hoppenwood Bank: exploring a burnt-mound landscape

Burnt mounds are an archaeological enigma: recent discoveries at Hoppenwood Bank, a bog near Bamburgh in Northumberland, call into question even the little we thought we knew. They show that some of these mainly Bronze Age features date back to the Early Neolithic, and are associated here with a series of substantial timber platforms. Graeme Young, of the Bamburgh Research Project, explains.

Above A wall painting from Pompeii, depicting a bundle of asparagus on a bench, with a range of other culinary delights.

Asparagus in the Roman World

As the asparagus season gets under way, and possible Romano-British asparagus beds are discovered in Cambridge, Stefanie Hoss explores how a Mediterranean passion for this delicacy developed offshoots in the northern provinces.

Above Thornborough village lies in the centre of the photograph, at the eastern end of the cursus; the road from Thornborough that passes the central henge runs south of, and parallel to, the cursus, whose western terminal lies towards the bottom edge of the photograph.

Earth and sky: the Thornborough Henge monument complex

Few archaeologists had even heard of the Thornborough henges until 2002, when a local campaigning group started to kick up a fuss about gravel- and sand-extraction in the vicinity of the monuments. Now Thornborough is routinely described as ‘the Stonehenge of the north’. As Chris Catling reports, a decade of research has transformed our understanding of one of the most important monuments of its kind in Europe.

ABOVE Overlooking Dorstone Hill’s short lived Neolithic halls. They were burnt down and converted into burial mounds. LEFT Whereas the early stages of the Neolithic are built on plant and grain husbandry, the later stages are based on the ownership of large cattle herds. This striking image of a prehistoric farmer in Neolithic Central Europe imagines that the patterns found on the Early Neolithic Linear Pottery (Bandkeramik) might also have been used as a form of body decoration.

Invasion, colonisation or imitation? Debating how and why Britain joined ‘The Neolithic Club’

The Neolithic was a period of momentous change in which can be seen the birth of our modern world. It marks the moment when humans took control of the planet (not necessarily for the good), rather than simply existing upon it. Chris Catling reports on a recent debate hosted by the Royal Archaeological Institute focusing on why Britain and Ireland finally became Neolithic almost 1,000 years after farming had become the predominant lifestyle on the Continent.

Above Excavations under way on Carn Menyn. Outcropping high on the Preseli Ridge, the bluestones used in the construction of Stonehenge were quarried from this region. A decade of survey in the area has identified a range of tantalising parallels between the Stonehenge and Preseli landscapes.

Stonehenge and Preseli: exploring the meaning of the bluestones

Why were the bluestones used in Stonehenge transported more than 200km from Preseli in Wales? The survey of the eastern Preseli Hills and investigation of selected sites by Timothy Darvill and Geoff Wainwright have exposed some uncanny parallels with the Stonehenge landscape. Could these help explain the meaning of the famous stone circle?

Above One of the more modern wrecks covered by English Heritage’s survey: the remains of a U boat surrendered after the First World War, which now lies in Stoke Saltings on the north coast of Kent. Her identity remains unknown, but it has been suggested she could be UB 122, which was lost while being towed for breaking in 1921.

When Britannia ruled the waves: exploring shipwreck heritage

From sea shanties to the shipping forecast, boats and the sea are woven into the fabric of English life and culture, and yet we only began to take shipwrecks seriously as historical and archaeological monuments in the 1970s. Chris Catling looks at what we have gained in the 40 years since the passing of the landmark Protection of Wrecks Act in 1973.

Above Overlooking the collapsed remains of the main dolmen a type of Neolithic chambered tomb at Garn Turne in Pembrokeshire.

How to build a dolmen: exploring Neolithic construction at Garn Turne

Well known on the Continent and scattered along the coasts of Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, dolmens are an immediately recognisable form of chambered tomb. They represent remarkable achievements for their Neolithic builders, crowned with stones weighing as much as 160 tonnes. Vicki Cummings and Colin Richards investigate how these distinctive monuments were constructed – and what happened when a project did not go to plan.

Above An aerial view of the Hellenistic theatre at Butrint.

Butrint: finding a timeless oasis

Shortly after the end of the Cold War, exactly a decade before CWA was launched, Richard Hodges walked through the ruins at Butrint. Here, he looks back over 20 years of discovery and excavation at this ancient city that sits on the idyllic shores of the Ionian Sea.

Above The Coronation Chair and Stone of Scone. Constructed in the 1290s on the orders of Edward I, this famous throne recently received its first comprehensive archaeological study. The results emphasise how the current form of the Stone of Scone can only be understood alongside the evolution of the chair that held it.

The Coronation Chair: anatomy of a medieval throne

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II prompted the first comprehensive archaeological study of the Medieval throne on which British monarchs are crowned. It has been battered and vandalised over the ages, but unpicking this majestic artefact’s evolution shed new light on both its original form and that of the enigmatic Stone of Scone, as Warwick Rodwell reveals.

LEFT The human remains discovered in trench 1 of the Grey Friars dig laid out for study in the lab. The skeleton’s feet were destroyed during an earlier disturbance of the grave, while the severe sideways curvature or scoliosis of the spine is clearly apparent. Following detailed analysis, the team concluded that these are the remains of Richard III, the last Medieval king of England.

Reconstructing Richard III: discovering the man behind the myth

On Monday 4 February the results of tests on a skeleton found beneath a Leicester carpark were announced to a global media audience. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley stated ‘our academic conclusion, beyond reasonable doubt, is that the individual exhumed at Grey Friars in September 2012 is indeed Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England.’ Matthew Symonds and Carly Hilts look at what this momentous announcement tells us about Richard, and why the Leicester team are so confident they have got their man.

Above Students from Bradford, William Paterson, and New York (CUNY) universities fight against time and tide in 2012 to reveal the full extent of an enigmatic circular structure revealed in the previous year.

Rescue on Rousay: racing against sea and tide

The breathtaking monuments on Rousay, Orkney, have made an internationally celebrated contribution to archaeology. Now, with marine erosion increasingly threatening the island’s coastal heritage, a team has been put together to investigate sites in danger of being lost forever. Steve Dockrill and Julie Bond explain how this work is overturning long-held beliefs.

Opposite page Still growing, this olive tree at Azorias, on Crete, is a staggering 3,250 years old; its fruit may well have been harvested for the earliest known production of olive oil. above The Palace of Knossos, with olives visible in the background.

Olives: oiling the wheels of civilisation

Olive trees thrive on poor soil where little else will grow, which means land that would otherwise be barren can produce food. This realisation triggered a true agricultural revolution – but when and where did it take place? Colin Renfrew and Evi Margaritis believe the clues were grown on Crete.

Left Today aerial photography is seen as an indispensable archaeological tool, but it was not always so. Here the mid 1st century AD Roman fortlet at Old Burrow, Devon, is positioned to allow a wide vantage over the Bristol Channel. It was photographed on 12 February 2008.

The past from the air: the origins of aerial photography

Today we take it for granted that aerial photographs are an essential tool for understanding the historic environment, but for the pioneers of aerial photography it was a struggle to gain acceptance, as Chris Catling, who has been reading Martyn Barber’s new book, A History of Aerial Photography and Archaeology, now relates.

Main Image This is believed to be the earliest surviving portrait of Richard III. Executed within about 25 years of his death, it was probably based on a lost original painted during the king’s lifetime.

Richard III: the search for the last Plantagenet king

On 12 September the University of Leicester held an extraordinary press conference. They announced that a three-week dig seeking the remains of Richard III had ‘entered a new phase’ with DNA testing under way on an adult male skeleton. So what had they discovered? Richard Buckley, Jo Appleby, and Helen Foxhall Forbes told Matthew Symonds and Carly Hilts.

Opposite Prior Park, home of philanthropist Ralph Allen, who transformed Bath’s small scale stone mining industry into a major commercial venture. In the foreground can be seen the wooden railway Allen built to transport the stone. above An artist’s impression of working in the part of the quarry known as the ‘Grand Canyon’.

Hollowed Ground: the archaeology of Bath’s stone mines

The hills around Bath look solid enough but below the surface they are riddled with tunnels and stone quarries. When some of these began to collapse, putting the village of Combe Down at risk, Oxford Archaeology was called in to record this vast labyrinth before it was filled with concrete. Chris Catling reports on the record they made of an industry that helped create the beautiful buildings of Georgian Bath’s ‘Golden Age’.

RIGHT The face of Late Roman Winchester? This skull from a 26 to 35 year old male hints at a multicultural 4th century AD city. A number of features including the low bridged nose, slightly projecting jaw, and small brow ridges are more in keeping with Black and Asian groups than Caucasians.

Lankhills: ethnicity and death in Late Roman Winchester

Lankhills, Winchester, is a landmark site for Roman cemetery studies. Excavations there in the 1960s set new standards and explored the evidence for different ethnic groups. More recent redevelopment provided an opportunity for Oxford Archaeology to test these findings, and make major new discoveries. The final report by Paul Booth, Andrew Simmonds, Angela Boyle, Sharon Clough, Hilary Cool, and Daniel Poore cements Lankhills’ status.