Description
In this issue:
– Reconstructing Sherford: exploring millennia of settlement in Devon
– Grottoes, follies, and video games: unravelling the story of Fonthill Abbey
– A Viking anchor on the Isle of Skye?
– Resurrecting the Reno: unearthing the soul of a boundary-pushing Manchester club
– Picturing the past: visualising archaeology on Scotland’s National Forest Estate
– Conservation by Chinook: re-chalking the Bulford kiwi
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
Even a brand new town can hold ancient secrets. That is certainly the case at Sherford, currently under construction outside Plymouth, where wide-ranging excavations have revealed a wealth of clues to much earlier occupation spanning thousands of years.
Some of the Sherford structures are enigmatic, but the estate covered in our next feature is downright eccentric. Fonthill Abbey, an elaborate Gothic fantasy, was as much a folly as a luxury dwelling. Now long-vanished, what can we reconstruct of this remarkable residence?
Another mystery comes from the Isle of Skye. Could a corroded object found buried in an islander’s front garden be a rare example of a Viking anchor? We explore the multidisciplinary battery of tests brought to bear on this intriguing artefact, and their surprising results.
The building excavated in a recent community project on the outskirts of Manchester was easier to identify: this was the remains of the Reno, a boundary-pushing nightclub in the 1970s that was demolished in 1986. We consider what its resurrection means to local residents, for whom it was as much a family and a safe haven as a nightspot, and what archaeology can add to our understanding of sites still in living memory.
From traditional digging to cutting-edge technology, our penultimate feature takes us soaring high over a clutch of sites in highland and lowland Scotland to learn how digital imaging is helping to record and interpret them.
Finally, we remain airborne as we visit an unusual conservation project on Salisbury Plain, starring the Bulford kiwi.
Carly Hilts
Cover Date: Sep-2018, Volume 29 Issue 6