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Milestone Ground at midsummer
The description of 59 pits forming a long, neat line at the Milestone Ground, Worcestershire (CA 435) is intriguing, especially as such features found elsewhere in prehistoric Britain remain enigmatic. I suggest a clue is the reported north-east to south-west alignment – we usually say the sun rises in the east, but in midsummer that can actually be very much northwards, as is the comparable sunset.
If these pits are post-holes then a shadow would briefly be long and straight, say at the midsummer sunrise. As the sun moves round, each post gives its own shadow northwards, graded post heights could perhaps even ensure 59 shadows focus on one specific location. Any other time of the year, there would be darkness, or an irrelevant shadow, ‘out of line’.
On site, I would have gone to hole 29 or so, ‘midday’, and looked where the post shadow points – ‘That be where the treasure lay, me dears!’
Michael Matthews, London
Checking out churches
I was fascinated to read the article about Norwich’s medieval parish churches in CA 438. I lived in Norwich in the mid-1980s, and during that period I visited each of the 31 churches that still stand in the city as a personal project. I was unaware at that time, though, of the fact that there had been so many more that are no longer with us – and so I was very interested to read about the 28 others mentioned in the recent feature.
While the sites of some of the missing ones are currently unknown, I was encouraged to see that some of them are known – so, when I am next in Norwich, I will make a point of going exploring again (armed with the map in CA 438) so that I can see what, if anything, is present on the spots where churches are known to have once stood.
Richard Hilts, Hannington, Northamptonshire
Edible Archaeology
My son asked me to recreate the Rosetta Stone for his 9th birthday, though he wanted me to write ‘Happy Birthday Edmund’ in hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek instead of the original text because ‘we don’t need any yapping about God’. I wouldn’t rate my translations, and I copied most of it from the original instead, but it did taste good.
Polly Mackenzie, London
CA ONLINE: What you shared with us this month
Instituto de Arqueología-Mérida (IAM-CSIS) @IAM_CSICLa revista @CurrentArchaeo dedica su portada de julio a la copa de Berlanga, una pieza excepcional que representa por primera vez los campamentos del este del Muro de Adriano.
[The magazine @CurrentArchaeo dedicates its July cover to the Berlanga Cup, an exceptional piece that depicts, for the first time, the eastern forts of Hadrian’s Wall.]
Bloomsbury Classical Studies & Archaeology @BloomsburyClass
A lovely review from @CurrentArchaeo Heading on your travels? Get your copy of Roman Britain in Twenty Towns: bit.ly/3Sjz9Dh
We asked: With the summer excavation season in full swing, we’re curious: what dig first got you hooked on archaeology? Share your story below!
Christopher Long @calong.bsky.social
It was 1964 at Aveley in Essex when the Natural History Museum asked me to volunteer in a rescue dig: a race against time to disentangle a mammoth from an elephant! An addictive experience… though it was many years before I could wield a trowel at will…
