Cover Story
Must Farm revisited: Extraordinary insights into everyday Bronze Age life Between 2015 and 2016, Cambridge Archaeological Unit excavated Britain’s most completely preserved prehistoric settlement outside Whittlesey, near Peterborough. As a time-capsule of late Bronze Age life, Must Farm is unique; now, with post-excavation analysis published in full, Carly Hilts explores… Features
Gone, but not forgotten: Personalising the anonymous medieval dead Medieval cemeteries often contain individuals whose names have been lost to history, buried in strikingly uniform ways. How can we understand their experiences as individual people? Craig Cessford and John…
Excavations over the White Cliffs of Dover: Uncovering the Second World War story of Fan Bay and its surroundings As we mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings this month, Carly Hilts reports on a visit to Fan Bay, near Dover, where Jon Barker showed her fascinating traces…
Stepping stones: Travelling on the trail of the Stonehenge bluestones Professor Keith Ray completed his 222-mile journey from the Preseli Hills to Stonehenge on Sunday 21 April. Carly Hilts joined him for the final few miles of his adventure.
Rolling stones From the Preseli Hills of Wales to the site of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain is 120 miles as the crow flies. That is quite some distance for the young farmers… News
World news Stunning painted banquet hall uncovered in Pompeii A banquet hall boasting some of the finest frescoes found in Pompeii has recently been uncovered by archaeologists working in Regio IX. The…
Sheffield Castle excavations reveal undiscovered steelworks A previously undocumented steelworks dating to the 19th century has been discovered in Sheffield as part of continuing excavations, which began in 2015 to uncover the ‘lost castle’ (CA 351).…
UCL creates 3D digital model of Welwyn Roman Baths Recent photogrammetry work on Welwyn Roman Baths, Hertfordshire, hopes to aid conservation and enhance public engagement on the site. In March, experts Dr Kris Lockyear and Antonio Reis from UCL…
New Woodhenge dating aligns chronologically with Stonehenge Radiocarbon dating at Woodhenge has revealed that it was built at almost exactly the same time as the circle at neighbouring Stonehenge. This exciting new data shows that Stonehenge was…
Science Notes: Tracing the origins of silver in medieval Europe’s revolutionary coins In CA 411, we carried a news story about the exciting implications of recent research into early medieval silver coinage; for this month’s column, we delve deeper into the science…
York Station excavations yield Victorian and medieval finds Excavations as part of a project to create a new entrance to York railway station have revealed the original Victorian paved approach to the station, as well as ditches littered…
LiDAR uncovers evidence of Middle Neolithic activity in Ireland Recent LiDAR work intended to record the state of the landscape in Baltinglass, Ireland, has revealed a complex of five Neolithic cursus monuments, shedding new light on the importance of…
Only UK example of Tyrian purple found in Carlisle Testing on organic matter discovered by archaeologists from Wardell Armstrong has identified it as the first example of Tyrian purple pigment found not just in the UK, but in the… Views
Finds Tray – Glass bead Objects This glass bead was a surface find by a metal-detectorist in Wanston. It is an example of an ‘eye’ bead, possibly dating to the Early Iron Age (c.800-c.350 BC), and…
Sherds CA 412 Comment A new organisation has come into being in Wales, in a bold move designed to increase the capacity of the four Welsh Archaeological Trusts (WATs) to compete for major developer-funded…
Current Archaeology’s June Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home What's on There are many great archaeological events coming up this summer, from festivals and conferences to new exhibitions and recently reopened museums. If you would prefer to enjoy history and heritage…
Go digging! What's on Following on from our coverage in CA 410 and 411, this selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects in Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire.
Seeing the invisible: Stonehenge, Wiltshire The Picture Desk For more than a decade, Adam Stanford and English Heritage have periodically recorded the parch marks that appear at Stonehenge in the summer, when conditions are right. Until recently this…
Excavating the CA archive Comment In my columns to date I have barely mentioned Stonehenge. This is deliberate: for all that I worship archaeology, I am an atheist about this most famous of sites.
The British Society of Master Glass Painters Groups As the name suggests, this was originally a guild-like society, founded in 1921 by professional stained-glass artists to promote good practice and maintain high standards of design and workmanship. As… Reviews
Current Archaeology’s June Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home There are many great archaeological events coming up this summer, from festivals and conferences to new exhibitions and recently reopened museums. If you would prefer to enjoy history and heritage…
Go digging! Following on from our coverage in CA 410 and 411, this selection of summer digging opportunities includes projects in Staffordshire, Wiltshire, and Hampshire.
The Britannias: An island quest REVIEW BY ANNE MITCHELL Alice Albinia spent some weeks at the Ness of Brodgar in 2017, and she writes of her time there as part of her Orkney experience in…
The archaeology of wild birds in Britain and Ireland REVIEW BY JULIA BEST This engaging volume explores human interactions with birds from the end of the last Ice Age to around 1650 AD. An expert in avian zooarchaeology and…
Iron Age Wetland Deposition: Case studies from Wales and Scotland REVIEW BY GRAEME CAVERS This volume comprises an assessment of the evidence for Iron Age object deposition from two study areas, modern Wales and Scotland, with the objective of identifying…
Death in Irish prehistory REVIEW BY EILEEN MURPHY Exploring the mortuary record for Ireland from 8000 BC to AD 400, Death in Irish Prehistory is an inspirational book. Professor Gabriel Cooney draws on his…
Evolution of a Romano-British Courtyard Villa: excavations at the former Dings Crusaders Rugby Ground, Stoke Gifford, 2016-2018 REVIEW BY TONY WILMOTT This volume describes the archaeology of some four centuries of the life of a rural farm/villa of modest wealth. It is also accompanied by a highly… 
From the editor
Almost a decade ago, I stood on a viewing platform at Must Farm in Cambridgeshire, spellbound by the Bronze Age settlement spread before me. We first featured its astonishing archaeology in CA 312, so it feels fitting that it is issue 412 that returns to this unique site now that analysis has been published in full.
Still in Cambridgeshire, our next feature explores thought-provoking research into medieval cemeteries, asking: when faced with uniform ranks of anonymous skeletons, how do you restore their individuality?
We then travel to the famous White Cliffs of Dover, where long-buried Second World War sites are being brought to light once more.
Returning to prehistoric matters, we next trace Professor Keith Ray’s journey from Preseli to Salisbury Plain, walking more than 200 miles in the wake of the Stonehenge bluestones. Chris Catling and I were among the 20 lucky ‘co walkers’ invited to spend a day with Keith during his travels – here Chris explores the initiative’s broader themes, while I add a few memories of its final stretch.
Speaking of adventures, Deputy Editor Kathryn has gone on maternity leave. I hope you will join me in wishing her all the best, and welcoming Rebecca Preedy, who is covering her role – and who heroically held the fort while I disappeared on honeymoon for most of May (hence the change to my usual photo: Simon and I were married on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex at the end of April), with the much-appreciated support of Amy, our Editorial Assistant. Thanks, both!
CARLY




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