Description
In this issue:
– Birmingham’s railway revolution: excavating the ‘world’s oldest roundhouse’
– Interpreting the Beau Street Roman hoard
– Archaeological secrets of the Forest of Dean
– Exploring the evidence for musical instruments in Iron Age Scotland
– Current Archaeology Digs Guide 2020
Plus: News, Reviews, Comment, Sherds, Odd Socs, and more!
From the Editor:
This month’s cover feature explores material remains of the railway revolution that transformed early Victorian England. Birmingham’s former Curzon Street Station was a key part of this flourishing transport network, and with the site set to become a rail hub once more as part of HS2, fascinating echoes of 19th-century journeys have come to light.
In the 1830s, railways were seriously cutting-edge technology, and science continues to make greatstrides today. Our first feature in this month’s magazine showcases what can be achieved with a strikingly modern methodology: thanks to extensive LiDAR survey in the Forest of Dean, we can no longer say that we can’t see the (archaeology of the) woods for the trees.
If piecing together that survey data has been painstaking, so too is the interpretation of a 17,000-strong Roman coin hoard. The Beau Street Hoard was found in Bath in 2007; over a decade on, conservation and cataloguing of its contents has shed intriguing light on why it was buried, and on the wider phenomenon of hoarding in the 3rd century.
On a much smaller scale, ‘In Focus’ explores two unassuming wooden finds from an Iron Age lake dwelling. Are they tangible evidence of music-making 2,500 years ago?
Finally, this issue contains our annual digs guide, featuring some of the excavations currently scheduled (at time of going to press) for this summer. For more complete listings, visit http://www.archaeology.co.uk/digs. The coronavirus situation is of course a rapidly evolvingone, and we do not yet know how digs will be affected, but we encourage our readers to check with individual projects and to follow government advice. Stay well, everyone – sending you all our best wishes.
Cover Date: May-2020, Volume 31 Issue 2