Cover Story
If walls could talk: Reconstructing Roman London’s fashionable frescos Recent excavations in Southwark have uncovered one of the largest collections of painted Roman wall plaster ever found in London. Carly Hilts spoke to Han Li about ongoing efforts to piece this 2,000-year-old jigsaw puzzle back together. Features
Riverine reflections: Visiting the natural and cultural heritage of the Rother Valley The valley of the western Rother is best known to archaeologists as the location of Butser Ancient Farm and Bignor Roman villa, as well as the Weald and Downland Museum… 
Little End: Tracing the archaeology and social history of a long-vanished community Excavations at Eaton Socon, near St Neots, have revealed illuminating traces of a rural hamlet and the experiences of its working-class inhabitants over the course of more than a century.… 
Expanding frontiers: Celebrating the Mothers of Romano-British studies The early days of Romano-British research are often thought to have been dominated by male excavators, but many female archaeologists also made vital contributions to the discipline, in spite of… News
Science Notes: Tracing the origins of the Bedale Hoard In CA 426’s exploration of the impact of the Viking Great Army on the north of England, we mentioned research that had shed light on the make-up of a Viking… 
Rediscovering Hannah Newton’s house An excavation led by archaeologists from the National Trust and York Archaeology, with the help of local volunteers, has helped unearth the remains of a house originally built for Hannah… 
Rediscovering Welwyn Roman Baths The Welwyn Roman Baths, preserved under the A1(M) in Hertfordshire, opened to the public 50 years ago this year (CA 27). In the lead-up to this milestone, Dr Kris Lockyear… 
Rare Anglo-Saxon coin found near Norwich This past autumn a rare gold shilling – called a thrymsa – was found in a field near Norwich by a metal-detectorist. It represents a completely new type of coin,… 
Discovering the secrets of Gloucester Cathedral Work has begun on conserving Gloucester Cathedral’s Great Cloister, an intricate and important undertaking as this structure features the earliest surviving fully developed fan vault. The project was undertaken after… 
World news ‘Venus’ found in Poland The Museum of Polish Arms has conducted new research into a small limestone statuette, which was first discovered in Kołobrzeg in 2022. The team found that… 
DNA reveals details of Anglo-Saxon diversity Newly published research has added more evidence to our growing understanding of kinship and migration in Anglo-Saxon England, revealing that two 7th-century individuals, buried over 250km (153 miles) apart, each… 
Revealing Rathgurreen Ringfort Recent excavations at Rathgurreen Ringfort, on the Maree Peninsula in County Galway, have revealed new details about the site’s history, indicating that it may have evolved from a late Bronze… Views
Jewry Wall Museum: A real Roman experience, Leicester Museum, What's on Closed since 2017 for a major refurbishment, Leicester’s Jewry Wall Museum has recently reopened with new interactive displays shedding vivid light on the city’s Roman past. Carly Hilts reports. 
CA Letters 427 – September Letters A High Street highlight Kathryn Morrison’s Chain Stores in the Golden Age of the British High Street, (‘Cathedrals of commerce’, Chris Catling, CA 426) excellently complements books on other types… 
Current Archaeology’s September Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home What's on There are lots of great ways to get involved with history and archaeology over the next few months, including exhibitions, lectures, and conferences exploring a wide range of subjects. If… 
Ian Nairn’s Morris Minor Comment This year marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of a special edition of the prestigious Architectural Review. The June 1955 supplement was devoted to a now-famous single essay called… 
Roman towns and cities: St Albans – Excavating the CA archive Comment To conclude my mini-series on the towns of Roman Britain, I will head to what may be the most famous Romano-British city of all: Verulamium, modern-day St Albans. With much… 
Norwich Castle & Art Gallery Museum, What's on Norwich’s imposing Norman keep has reopened after a five-year transformation project, boasting an interior restored to 12th-century finery and an atmospheric new medieval gallery. Carly Hilts reports. 
The Trimontium Experience What's on The Trimontium Museum in Melrose is using Virtual Reality technology to vividly evoke a Roman assault on a hillfort community. Carly Hilts visited to learn more. 
Finds Tray: Ware bowl Objects Found late last year on the Thames foreshore, this is the base of a small Samian ware bowl with a maker’s stamp. Based on its size, approximately 42.5mm (1.7in) in… 
Friends of Highgate Cemetery Trust Groups Highgate Cemetery, consecrated on 20 May 1839, was created to provide a more hygienic alternative to ‘intramural’ burial (within church walls) or in overcrowded church- and chapel yards. Today, Highgate… 
Surveying Verulamium: St Albans, Hertfordshire The Picture Desk In CA 310, we reported on surveys undertaken by the Community Archaeology Geophysics Group (CAGG) of the Roman city of Verulamium (St Albans, Hertfordshire). At that time, the group, led… Reviews
Jewry Wall Museum: A real Roman experience, Leicester Closed since 2017 for a major refurbishment, Leicester’s Jewry Wall Museum has recently reopened with new interactive displays shedding vivid light on the city’s Roman past. Carly Hilts reports. Current Archaeology’s September Listings: exhibitions, events, and heritage from home There are lots of great ways to get involved with history and archaeology over the next few months, including exhibitions, lectures, and conferences exploring a wide range of subjects. If… Norwich Castle & Art Gallery Norwich’s imposing Norman keep has reopened after a five-year transformation project, boasting an interior restored to 12th-century finery and an atmospheric new medieval gallery. Carly Hilts reports. The Trimontium Experience The Trimontium Museum in Melrose is using Virtual Reality technology to vividly evoke a Roman assault on a hillfort community. Carly Hilts visited to learn more. 
Medieval Warhorse: Equestrian landscapes, material culture, and zooarchaeology in Britain, AD 800-1550 REVIEW BY SUNNY HARRISON The mounted knight remains one of the iconic images of England in the Middle Ages, evoking King Arthur, massed charges, and the very notion of chivalry… 
Late Iron Age to Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon Settlement at Barton Seagrave, Northamptonshire REVIEW BY ANDY CHAPMAN This monograph does everything that it says on the packaging in the quoted book review. It contains, ‘high quality data with extensive and thorough reporting by… 
The Watermills and Landscape of the River Great Ouse, Cambridgeshire REVIEW BY MAGNUS ALEXANDER This is a fascinating landscape history of a medieval ‘watermilling powerhouse’, which demonstrates that over 1,000 years of watermilling has had a huge impact on an… 
The Trading and Consumption of Roman Glass in Britain 43-500 CE REVIEW BY RACHEL TYSON This study analyses the glass from 29 sites across Roman Britain to provide us with a picture of its consumption within different socio-economic groups and gain… 
Cotton ‘Henge’ to Craft: Neolithic to Anglo-Saxon remains at Warth Park, Raunds, Northamptonshire REVIEW BY ADAM SUTTON Thanks to the Raunds Area Project of the 1980s and 1990s, the site discussed in this volume is located in one of central England’s most intensively… 
Life in the Viking Great Army: Raiders, traders, and settlers REVIEW BY COLLEEN BATEY The arrival of the Great Army on the shores of East Anglia in AD 865 was a seminal moment in English history. This marked the move… 
From the editor
This month’s cover feature showcases a colourful discovery from Roman London: vibrant fragments from one of the largest collections of painted wall plaster of this period ever found in the capital. Once part of fashionable frescos, thousands of pieces of plaster had been dumped in a pit associated with the demolition of a high-status building that stood in Southwark almost 2,000 years ago. Now, work is ongoing to piece this ancient jigsaw puzzle back together, revealing fascinating insights into the tastes and cultural connections of Londinium’s social elite.
From the luxurious residences of Roman Southwark, we then explore the remains of rather humbler dwellings. Archaeological investigations outside St Neots have uncovered traces of a now vanished rural hamlet; excavated evidence and historical research have now combined to illuminate the its working-class inhabitants.
For our third feature, we widen our focus from a single settlement to an entire archaeological landscape, tracing thousands of years of human activity within the Rother Valley.
Finally, we examine an often-overlooked chapter within the history of archaeology itself. Descriptions of the early days of Romano-British studies tend to be dominated by the achievements of male excavators, and we often hear of the ‘Fathers’ of archaeology – but there were a number of female archaeologists who also made vital contributions at this time. In our fourth feature, we share the stories of some of these pioneering individuals and explore the social and academic barriers that they faced.
CARLY
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