Description
In this issue:
– Sailing on the Swan: piecing together 17th-century naval life
− Brochs and the Empire: the rise and fall of Leckie
− Exploring Harmondsworth Great Barn: the Cathedral of Middlesex
− Therapeutic archaeology: Human Henge, and life in ancient landscapes
− Hadrian’s cavalry: telling the stories of Rome’s riders
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
To step into Harmondsworth Barn is not just to enter a space so glorious that it was lauded as the ‘cathedral of Middlesex’ by Sir John Betjeman. It is also to experience a remarkably intact medieval interior. Among majestic oak trusses are opportunities to admire medieval technology that has weathered the centuries unaltered. After being rescued from neglect in 2014, though, the barn is facing an uncertain future once more. We tell its story.
Shipwrecks are another place where unexpected insights into past technology can be gained. In our cover story we explore a case in point: the Swan, a small warship wrecked in 1653. Finds reveal how its crew plundered their way up the Scottish coastline, while Davy Jones’s locker has even surrendered a 350-year-old industrial secret.
Surprising finds can also turn up on dry land, of course, and excavations at Leckie, near Stirling, provide a snapshot of life in a Scottish broch on the eve of not one, but two Roman invasions. While the most conspicuous marker of the army’s passing in the 1st century AD was an influx of fancy gifts, the 2nd century brought violent demolition. Neither approach secured peace.
Despite the power of such destruction to shape the archaeological record, today we usually see heritage sites as a point of calm in an increasingly frenetic world. Can therapeutic archaeology use the relics of our past to help mend the present?
Matt Symonds
Cover Date: Aug-2017, Volume 28 Issue 5