Since 2015, CWA’s wonderful cartoonist Doug has delighted us with his sketches exploring the quirky and comedic sides of archaeology. Whether reflecting on the challenges faced by modern archaeologists, imagining the idiosyncrasies of daily life in the ancient world, or…
REVIEW BY RICHARD BRUNNING Footmarks is a long and pleasant walk through the mind palace of prehistorian Jim Leary. Along the way, Leary’s delight in the mysteries of past human behaviour gushes forth in an engaging torrent of information, loosely…
Alexander the Great: the making of a myth is at the British Library in London until 19 February 2023.
What Carter and his Egyptian team found at the bottom of the stairs and along a short corridor stunned the world, of course – especially those countries barely beginning to recover from the dreadful losses of the First World War.
Laura Knight was blessed with some of the essential qualities of any great artist: a broadness of outlook and a fascination with the riches of ordinary life. A new exhibition of her work at the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes…
Though he was 67 when the Second World War broke out, the celebrated cartoonist William Heath Robinson – best known for his drawings featuring crazy inventions – continued to produce memorable comic images during the conflict, as he had done in the First World War.
As museums and heritage sites reopen, we’re looking forward to visiting our favourite spots as soon as possible – but there are still plenty of resources available online from historical, archaeological, and cultural institutions and sites around the world, as well as podcasts, TV shows, social media content, and more. Current World Archaeology's Amy Brunskill has put together another selection of options, as well as summarising some of the places that have recently reopened.
With the arrival of spring and the promise of lockdown restrictions lifting over the next few months, we are looking forward to visits to museums and heritage sites in the not-too-distant future. For now, though, there are still plenty of things to keep you busy at home, whether you are looking for online exhibitions, craft ideas, or even some of the talks from Current Archaeology’s annual conference! Amy Brunskill has put together another selection of the latest options.
Details of the latest and most interesting exhibitions.
Last March, museums and heritage sites across the world closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, we created ‘Heritage from Home’ to share the many wonderful ways that you can get your fix of archaeology, history, and culture without leaving the house. Amy Brunskill has put together a roundup of highlights featured so far.
As we find ourselves back in lockdown, the vast quantity of resources available online seems more valuable than ever. Amy Brunskill has put together a selection of some of the many ways you can get involved in archaeology, history, and heritage from home, to help you explore the past until museums and heritage sites are able to open once more.
This latest book in the ’50 Finds’ series from the Portable Antiquities Scheme is the first to focus on a specific artefact type rather than on a region or period. Roman coinage is a fitting choice for this new approach,…
This book provides a brief history of how humans have dealt with their dead over the centuries – mainly focusing on the early medieval period through to the modern day. It is, at times, a dizzying whirlwind of a tour,…
‘The past lies in fragments… one might just as well try to reconstruct the idea of a tree from its leaves, or an ocean wave from a dripping tap.’ So writes Max Adams, author of The First Kingdom, a wide-ranging…
More than a decade in the making, this book was well worth the wait. It is a thorough compendium of knowledge on not only the history and (bio)archaeology of leprosy, but also its epidemiology and evolution. At its heart, it…
Classical Caledonia explores the antiquarian rediscovery of Scotland’s Roman remains, and how these have influenced and continue to influence Scottish identity, impacting on our interpretation of Roman Scotland today. Various populist and misleading tropes, such as Hadrian’s Wall forming the…
Sheffield Castle is a rare archaeological treat put together by a university team working with local authorities and professional archaeologists. It is about a place that has topographical and historical meaning thanks to recent well-designed rescue excavations and sleuth-like digging…
Oliver Gilkes contemplates an ancient masterpiece plucked from the sea.
The exhibition Iron Age – Europe without Borders is divided into cultural-historical, chronological, and geographical sections. In addition to relics of largely unknown cultures, the exhibition focuses on the legacies of peoples such as the Celts, Etruscans, Scythians, and Sarmatians.
The report on this significant site is most welcome. While earlier and later prehistoric features were present, as well as a small Roman cemetery, the chief interest lies with the mid-Saxon oven/grain-dryer complex. This feature was clearly explored most determinedly,…
Think of the archaeology of Oxford and thoughts will inevitably turn to the historic city centre. In the suburbs, however, there is a heritage every bit as rich and distinct. The Archeox project was set up to investigate the archaeology…
Bagendon has long been the poor relation of British late Iron Age oppida, lurking on the distribution’s western fringe. Its extensive, intermittent ramparts have long been known, but only in the 1950s did limited excavations reveal its character. Tom Moore’s…
The archaeological societies founded in the 19th century embraced all aspects of the discipline, and from about the beginning of the 20th century societies came to be formed. In recent years, they have been joined by more-specialist societies and journals.…
Do we need another book on Hadrian’s Wall? The answer in this case is a resounding ‘yes’. The authors curate the magnificent collections derived from several centuries of research, excavation, and antiquarian collection along the frontier. Their expertise and knowledge…
This is a welcome addition to the literature on confinement, a topic that has developed from a little-studied phenomenon into one of most vibrant areas within the subdiscipline of Conflict Archaeology. Gilly Carr has been a part of this through…
The Ness of Brodgar: as it stands Nick Card, Mark Edmonds, and Anne Mitchell (eds) The Orcadian, www.orcadian.co.uk/shop, £35.99 ISBN 978-1912889082 Review CH
Hillforts of the Tay: community archaeology at Moncreiffe Hill and Castle Law, Abernethy AOC Archaeology Group Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust, £5 ISBN 978-527264052 Review Miles Russell
Gloucester: the Roman forum and post-Roman sequence at the city centre H E Hurst Gloucester Archaeological Publications, £25 ISBN 978-0948386022 Review Richard Hodges
Excavations at Chester: the northern and eastern Roman extramural settlements, excavations 1990-2019 and other investigations Leigh Dodd Archaeopress, £30 IBSN 978-1789696271 Review Nick Hodgson
Hinterlands and Inlands: the archaeology of west Cambridge and Roman Cambridge revisited Christopher Evans and Gavin Lucas McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, £45 ISBN 978-1902937892 Review Kasia Gdaniec
The Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s was one of the most-important religious, political, and social events ever to unfold in England and Wales. This act, and the associated (but separate) Reformation of the Church, brought about fundamental change…
Reviewing the best military history exhibitions, with Marc DeSantis
MHM's round-up of the latest military history titles
Penned by former RAF Navigator and Gulf War veteran John Nichol, Lancaster is one of the most enthralling aviation history books I have read. But its succinct title does not do it justice. Its pages narrate not only the history of the legendary bomber but also of those who flew her.
Edward Henry Hynman Allenby was born in 1861 in Brackenhurst, Nottinghamshire in comfortable circumstances – a Victorian squire perhaps destined to help govern the British Empire on behalf of the Queen-Empress.
To oppose the Munich Agreement of 1938 was once considered something close to treason. The prime minister of the day had met an intimidating opponent and had extracted from him a pact that would save the world from war. Who could possibly object to that?