Description
In this issue:
– Stonehenge: tracing the origins of the people buried at the monument
– Excavating outside the walls of Venta Icenorum
– Searching for Winchester’s Anglo-Saxon minsters
– Rethinking Pleshey Castle: new discoveries from old records
– The archaeology of satire and subversion
– Piecing together Civil War iconoclasm in Cambridgeshire
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
On 26 October 1918, the nation received an unusual gift: Stonehenge. The monument had been bought at auction by Sir Cecil Chubb, who later presented it to the British government. Marking the centenary of this episode, we are exploring one of the newest discoveries from the site: the origins of some of the people whose cremated remains were buried there in the earliest days of its construction.
The Roman regional capital of Venta Icenorum (modern Caistor St Edmund) remained a focus of local power into the 8th-9th century. Previous work within its walls revealed a wealth of finds, and this summer the Caistor Roman Project has been investigating the remains of a temple and corridor villa at an enigmatic site just outside its bounds.
If early medieval Caistor was an influential place, late Saxon Winchester was on another level. The city’s minsters star in a new book that traces their 1960s excavation and reconstructs these impressive structures in detailed drawings. At its height, Pleshey Castle would also have been imposing – today, it is one of England’s best-surviving examples of a motte-and-bailey castle. Recent research has illuminated how it developed.
Castles and minsters are bastions of authority – but what can archaeology tell us about those who refused to conform? A new exhibition at the British Museum showcases objects that preserve the voices of rebels ancient and modern.
Sometimes, though, rebellion against the status quo can have devastating consequences: the culmination of the English Civil War saw churches across the country attacked in a wave of iconoclasm. What has a project in Cambridgeshire revealed about this ecclesiastical upheaval?
Carly Hilts
Cover Date: Nov-2018, Volume 29 Issue 8