Cover Story
Lost orders: Time Team and the Knights Hospitaller of Halston Hall The Knights Hospitaller were forged in the fury of the Crusades, providing protection, hospitality, and medical care for travellers in the Holy Land, and building fundraising communities back in Britain. Few of these sites have been excavated in detail, but… Features
The Bare Bones: Presenting a very regional Neolithic During the early Neolithic period, a distinctive regional tradition of funerary architecture developed on either side of the waters stretching between Northern Ireland and south-western Scotland. Matt Ritchie explores how… 
Fortress Londinium: Tracing London’s Roman defences This summer, a museum displaying a portion of the wall that once encircled Roman London has opened, and three sections of the settlement’s riverside defences have been granted scheduled status.… 
One and all: Discovering the distinctiveness of Cornish buildings The Cornish Buildings Group recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. Dedicated to preserving and improving Cornwall’s built heritage, the Group has marked its half-century by publishing a short history of its… News
Science Notes: New calculations to help restore and conserve historic masonry Although humans have been building impressive, gravity-defying architecture for thousands of years, we still have a limited capacity to quickly and effectively diagnose any developing faults in these structures –… 
Bronze Age burnt mound brought to light in Suffolk Excavations in the winter of 2021 at Framlingham Road in Laxfield, Suffolk, have revealed a palimpsest of prehistoric settlement activity, including an enigmatic Bronze Age burnt mound. Bronze Age burnt… 
World News More still to uncover at Pompeii While investigations at Pompeii have been ongoing for centuries, much of the site remains unexplored, and new excavations have recently begun in one such… 
A Roman transport canal into Leicester? After years of research, Steve Mitchell and John Poulter hypothesise that the Raw Dykes – a double-banked ditch located 2km south of Leicester’s Roman public baths – is a remnant… 
In search of the prehistoric landscape of Ceredigion Excavations on a farm in Talsarn, Ceredigion, have found evidence for late Mesolithic and late Neolithic activity, helping illuminate a period that has been little explored in this region of… 
Plague DNA identified in Bronze Age remains The bacteria that caused the Justinian Plague in the 6th century AD and the Black Death in the 14th century AD – Yersinia pestis – has recently been identified in… 
Uncovering the origins of Exeter Cathedral Recent excavations within the cloister of Exeter Cathedral have unearthed significant structures and artefacts spanning the Roman, medieval, and post-medieval periods, including traces of a legionary fortress. The project has… 
Oldest decoratively carved wood in Britain identified A large piece of oak, found in Boxford, Berkshire in 2019 and dated to the late Mesolithic period, has been identified as the oldest decoratively carved wood currently known from… 
Archaeology in Alderney: Excavating the biggest Iron Age and Gallo-Roman site in the Channel Islands In June 2017, contractors digging an electricity service trench, just inland from Longis Bay in Alderney, began to find human bones. Archaeologists from Guernsey quickly flew up to investigate, and… Views
Excavating the Current Archaeology Archive Comment Joe Flatman explores over half a century of reports from the past. 
Festival of Archaeology What's on Join in this July with the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology! The theme for 2023 is ‘Archaeology and Creativity’, which will be explored online and in-person across the… 
Museum news and exhibitions Museum, What's on The latest on exhibitions, acquisitions, and key decisions. 
Finds tray – Neolithic flint chisel Objects This unusual stone tool was recently discovered in a back garden in Hastings, East Sussex. It is a Neolithic polished flint chisel, or possibly axehead, that appears to have been… 
Farrah the Fox featuring at Hi! Street Fest – Woolwich, Greater London The Picture Desk This fox puppet, called Farrah, was made by Historic England in partnership with Emergency Exit Arts to celebrate Hi! Street Fest – the final part of the High Street Heritage… 
Current Archaeology’s July Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home What's on There are many great ways to get involved with archaeology and heritage this summer, including new exhibitions, events, activities, and more. Or, if you would prefer to get your history… 
The privatisation of objects Comment Christopher Catling, Contributing Editor for CA, delves into the eccentricities of the heritage world. 
The Stereoscopic Society Groups Stereoscopy is as old as photography itself. The techniques for tricking the suggestible brain into seeing three dimensions by placing two overlapping images side by side was first described in… 
The Hunterian Museum, London Museum, What's on England’s largest public display of human anatomy has reopened after five years’ closure and a £4.6 million redevelopment. Carly Hilts visited to learn more about the new displays, and the… Reviews
The First Stones: Penywyrlod, Gwernvale, and the Black Mountains Neolithic long cairns of south-east Wales REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH The two Cotswold-Severn Neolithic burial-ritual monuments of Penywyrlod and Gwernvale occupy the western hinterlands of the Black Mountains in Breconshire, Wales. Both monuments are only part… 
Chariots, Swords, and Spears: Iron Age burials at the foot of the East Yorkshire Wolds REVIEW BY ANGELA BOYLE This monograph presents the results of excavations at Burnby Lane and The Mile in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, which were carried out in several phases between 2014… 
A Mighty Fleet and the King’s Power: the Isle of Man, AD 400 to 1265 REVIEW BY ALLISON FOX Tim Clarkson’s aim, to ‘present a narrative political history of the Isle of Man’, is achieved in this book, which covers the pre-Viking era through to… 
An Archaeological History of Hermitages and Eremitic Communities in Medieval Britain and Beyond REVIEW BY DUNCAN W WRIGHT In An Archaeological History of Hermitages, Simon Roffey directly addresses a hitherto neglected area of scholarship by providing a wide-ranging survey of the material evidence… 
Death in the Iron Age of Eastern England: an interdisciplinary analysis of human remains from 800 BC to AD 60 REVIEW BY JENNIFER FOSTER This most useful, extensive analysis concerns Iron Age inhumed bones in eastern England. The burial types start in the late Bronze Age, with most people buried… Festival of Archaeology Join in this July with the Council for British Archaeology’s Festival of Archaeology! The theme for 2023 is ‘Archaeology and Creativity’, which will be explored online and in-person across the… Current Archaeology’s July Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home There are many great ways to get involved with archaeology and heritage this summer, including new exhibitions, events, activities, and more. Or, if you would prefer to get your history… 
Lessons from Our Ancestors: equality, inclusivity, and sustainability in the Ancient World REVIEW BY JOE FLATMAN I begin with an admission of bias: I have known Raksha Dave for many years, and I was always confident that she would become a major… The Hunterian Museum, London England’s largest public display of human anatomy has reopened after five years’ closure and a £4.6 million redevelopment. Carly Hilts visited to learn more about the new displays, and the… 
From the editor
This month’s cover feature takes us back to the time of the Crusades, telling the story of the Knights Hospitaller, a military religious order that became a powerful political and economic force in England and Wales. Only one preceptory (administrative centre) associated with the Hospitallers has ever been excavated in detail in England, but Time Team have been working to redress the balance at Halston in Shropshire.
From there, we move further south west, to explore the architecture of Cornwall. This is a county that I have recently returned from myself, partly on CA business – watch out for site visits and an exhibition review in future issues – and partly to support my other half and the ‘Wellington Wailers’ (http://www.thewellingtonwailers.com) at the International Sea Shanty Festival in Falmouth. From prehistoric quoits and settlements to non-Conformist chapels, there is a host of diverse and distinctive structures to explore.
Masonry also forms the focus of our next feature, which takes us to the heart of Roman London. By the 3rd century, the settlement was ringed with an imposing stone circuit that ran around all three landside edges and along the Thames foreshore. As this summer has seen the opening of a new museum showcasing a section of the landward wall and a mighty bastion, as well as three portions of the riverside wall gaining scheduled status, we explore what is known about Londinium’s defences.
Finally, we travel to the North Channel between south-west Scotland and Northern Ireland to learn more about the regionally distinctive Neolithic burial monuments that developed within this area, and how archaeologists are tackling the challenge of presenting often abstract ideas to a younger audience.
