Historic England’s laboratories at Fort Cumberland, near Portsmouth, recently reopened after major refurbishment. Carly Hilts visited the new facilities and spoke to Gill Campbell, Jen Heathcote, Ian Morrison, Simon Mays, Francesca Gherardi, and Angela Middleton to learn about some of the latest advances in archaeological understanding to which the site’s specialists have contributed.
Correction: A 64m-Long Roman Building in Sussex? Well, not quite! I’m afraid the structure mentioned on p.22 of CA 423 in ‘A Roman landscape revealed’ suffered from the curse of metric measurements, i.e. the missing decimal point. It should have…
• Revealing a Roman landscape: 20 years of the Culver Archaeological Project
• The Melsonby Hoard: exploring unprecedented insights into Iron Age Yorkshire
• Paradise lost: rediscovering Attingham Park’s forgotten pleasure garden
• Building the past: Butser Ancient Farm’s new Neolithic structure
• From gasholders to chic apartments: tracing the history of an industrial icon
REVIEW BY JO DAY Imagining Roman baths conjures up scenes of mosaics and frescoes, perfumes, hot rooms and cold pools, and steamy air thick with watery sounds and chattering. These structures were so much more than just a place to…
REVIEW BY KK Opening with a brutal account of fratricide between the sons of the pioneering physician who first described Down’s syndrome, this book about boathouses is unexpectedly gripping. The rest of the publication is not nearly so dramatic, but…
Graham Goodlad analyses Britain’s role in the long-running struggle against French domination of the Low Countries.
The ballots have been cast, the votes counted, and we are delighted to announce the winners of the MHM Book Awards. We curated a list of 2024’s best military history titles, and asked you, our readers, to vote for your…
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions with Carly Jones.
Two decades of excavations in East Sussex farmland have uncovered the remains of an unusual enclosed settlement linking the Roman road network with the River Ouse. Rob Wallace and David Millum explain more.
World’s oldest waterworks? Chris Catling, in his excellent piece on those temples of engineering, the waterworks (CA 421), refers to a Boulton and Watt beam engine at Kew dated 1820 as being the oldest working beam engine in the world.…
The Westminster Government has published its revised National Planning Policy Framework amid a flurry of boosterish phrases about ‘backing builders not blockers’, ‘unleashing billions in economic growth’, and introducing ‘seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker’.
Formed in 1975 (and thus celebrating its first half-century this year), the Fortress Study Group (FSG) is devoted to the study and preservation of artillery fortifications. While early examples of these structures are found in Norwich and Southampton, it was…
This coin, found by a metal-detectorist near Basingstoke in Hampshire, was minted in North Africa during Julius Caesar’s Civil War (49-45 BC), and is a fascinating example of Roman Republican propaganda. At the time the coin was issued, Caesar’s army…
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 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…
An East Sussex landmark has reopened following a £7.5 million transformation. Carly Hilts reports on a recent site visit.
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…
This recent addition to the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s database, originally found by metal-detectorists in Winchester in the mid-1990s and since donated to the Hampshire Cultural Trust, is a particularly eye-catching example of an early medieval zoomorphic mount. It dates to…
Almost every TV costume drama begins with the sound of horses’ hooves and the rumble of carriage wheels as members of the cast arrive at some stately home or other, ready for the story to unfold. And no royal or…
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…
In the final part of our occasional series on the rise of Britain’s imperial navy, Graham Goodlad reviews the remarkable career of Admiral George Anson.
Archaeologists have confirmed ‘beyond all reasonable doubt’ the site of the long-lost home of Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England – thanks in part to a medieval toilet. Harold ruled as the English monarch for only nine months…
With Marc DeSantis
Recent discharges of raw sewage into the UK’s rivers and streams are a reminder of the sanitary crisis of the 1840s to 1860s, when water pollution was identified as the major cause of rising mortality rates from ‘fever’. The response – albeit slow – involved a huge investment in waterworks that transformed public health. As revealed in a book by James Douet on water and sewage architecture, it also resulted in distinctive new building types, as Chris Catling reports.
Recently published archaeological research has shed vivid light on the power centres of the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy that were swept away by the Norman Conquest – including a site associated with Harold Godwinson. Carly Hilts spoke to Duncan Wright and Oliver Creighton to learn more.
Recently published research focused on the bones of birds of prey spanning the early Bronze Age to the medieval period has revealed striking differences between their eating habits and those of modern raptors. Researchers at the University of Reading analysed…
The invention in 1900 by Eastman Kodak of the Brownie camera, selling for the equivalent in today’s money of £28, brought the watercolour age to an end. This too had begun, in the mid-18th century, with technical innovations, such as…
My ‘great’ site this month comprises two sites – actually, two ships – linked by common stories of survival against the odds. In September 1992, the remains of a boat dating to the Middle Bronze Age were discovered in central Dover by workers constructing part of the A20 link road leading to Folkestone.
REVIEW BY RP The early medieval period is often thought of as a hotbed of violence. It is perhaps, then, a surprise to learn that only around 90 reported murders exist from five centuries of Anglo-Saxon England. Annie Whitehead’s book…
REVIEW BY ALISTAIR FAIR Simon Jenkins’ Short History of British Architecture ranges over several thousand years of cathedrals, castles, and grand buildings. Jenkins enjoys a good example and a memorable phrase. Inevitably in a survey, there is some unevenness, with…
Analysis of hundreds of human and animal bones recovered from a Roman quarry shaft at Ewell, Surrey, has revealed the presence of a red-painted dog baculum (penis bone), which may have had some religious significance. The Nescot shaft, as the…
Archaeological work centred on an early medieval cemetery near Canterbury has uncovered a number of high-status graves, one of which produced an exceptionally well-preserved 6th-century sword. The weapon is being worked on by archaeologists from the University of Central Lancashire…
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD Nicholas Rodger began his monumental history of British sea power, tracing its development from Anglo-Saxon times to the end of the Second World War, almost three decades ago. The second volume, which took the story from…
Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy’s The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World was so significant a book in its day that it would have sat in the libraries of middle-class households alongside the Bible, Shakespeare’s Complete Works, and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
A new statue of Winston Churchill that ‘honours his passion for the arts’ has been unveiled to mark the 150th anniversary of his birth. The bronze monument, created by award-winning sculptor Paul Rafferty, will feature as a permanent display in…
The historian and best-selling author on her obsession with espionage, and why she will always admire Edith Cavell.