Current Archaeology 435
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An enduring landscape: Uncovering 8,000 years of life and death on the Cotswold Edge
Recent excavations at Milestone Ground on the eastern edge of Broadway have revealed one of the most intriguing archaeological landscapes yet found in Worcestershire. Beneath quiet pasture lay evidence of human activity stretching back 8,000 years, including Mesolithic flint tools, Bronze Age burials, hundreds of Iron Age storage pits, a Roman farmstead, and the largest late Roman cemetery known in the county. Constance Mitchell reports.
Llanbedrgoch: Exploring a unique early medieval trading centre on Anglesey
Ninth-century Carolingian coins from the reigns of Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald are not the sort of objects you would expect to find on a remote farm on the Isle of Anglesey, so, when metal-detectorists began reporting these and other exceptional artefacts from the early medieval period, the National Museum of Wales (now Amgueddfa Cymru) sent Mark Redknap, then Curator of Medieval and Later Archaeology, to investigate. Between 1994 and 2012, Mark led ten seasons of fieldwork on the site, revealing the remains of a trading settlement with a form unparalleled in Wales. With the full report recently published, Chris Catling describes its key findings.
John Dee’s mirror and the magic of geochemical analysis
The geochemical compositions of ‘the John Dee mirror’ were found to match obsidian from Pachuca
Aerial archaeology
The distinctive lozenge-shaped ramparts of Whitley Castle Roman Fort, situated north-west of Alston in Cumbria, survive as earthworks that are clearly visible in aerial photographs like this one.
News in brief: Enabled Archaeology
A round-up of some of the latest archaeological stories in the UK.
Clerical sinners and forgeries
Quarreling was commonplace, especially over who was entitled to sit in ‘the best’ pews. Clergy complained about being assaulted: one Kentish aristocrat took his hawk to church in 1514 and punched the vicar in the face when chastised for doing so.
The Hadrian’s Wall Military Way: a frontier road explored
It is always stimulating to be reminded how much more remains to be said about Hadrian’s Wall, a Roman frontier system that is often believed – from an archaeological perspective – to
Roman sculptures unearthed in Stoke Mandeville
The busts appear to have been intentionally discarded: the adult ones were broken between the head and torso, perhaps before deposition, and only the head of the child survives.
Duck-shaped Roman lock component
Carrying on the ornithological theme from last issue’s ‘Finds Tray’, which profiled an early medieval brooch featuring a bird, this Roman lock component was cheerfully cast in the shape of a duck.
Ireland Encastellated, AD 950-1550: insular castle-building in its European context
Ireland has been very well served in recent years by modern scholarship on her medieval castellated landscape. This book by O’Keeffe takes this research much further, especially in the way he rightly
Medieval tannery found at Fountains Abbey
Animal hides, treated in tanneries, were used to produce essential materials like vellum for religious texts and leather for book bindings
Coin discovered under mast of HMS Victory
The ship is best known as Admiral Nelson’s flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar
The Abbey Cwmhir Heritage Trust
Suppressed in 1537, the abbey was plundered for its stone and five out of the 14 delicately carved 13th-century arcades ended up beautifying the church at Llanidloes, some ten miles distant.
Country House Collections: their lives and afterlives
‘Helicopters flew in, and prices flew up.’ James Miller’s summary of the Chatsworth attic sale of 2010 sets the tone for much of Country House Collections, a fascinating series of meditations on
Rethinking the jungle: the forgotten story of humanity and tropical forests
Humans and jungles are often seen as a poor combination. It is easy to write off the environment as challenging at best and a ‘green hell’ at worst. But could it be that tropical forests have repeatedly helped rather than hindered humanity’s progress? Patrick Roberts told Matthew Symonds why it is time to rethink the archaeology of the jungle.
Roman villa and mosaic depicting Homer’s The Iliad discovered in Rutland
The stunning mosaic depicts the concluding scene of the Trojan War, in which Greek hero Achilles battles Hector, the leader of the Trojans.
Earliest evidence of mercury poisoning identified in 5,000-year-old bones
The researchers attribute the incidence of mercury poisoning during the Chalcolithic period to the increased exploitation of cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral
Peru: a journey in time
The Incas dominate perceptions of Peru’s past, but their empire did not appear out of nowhere. Instead, it drew on traditions and concepts that developed across the central Andes for thousands of years, as Cecilia Pardo and Jago Cooper told Matthew Symonds.
Quantum Man: exhibition at Sicily’s Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park
The gravity-defying sculptures are the works of Venice-born artist Gianfranco Meggiato
Shops ‘of the plainest kind’? The architecture of England’s co-operative movement
Planners predict that our historic town and city centres will be transformed over the next decade as online shops take over from bricks-and-mortar retail outlets. But change in the High Street is nothing new. Chris Catling is reminded how we used to shop by Lynn Pearson’s recently published book on the architecture of England’s co-operative movement, winner of the Association for Industrial Archaeology’s Peter Neaverson Award for Outstanding Scholarship 2021.
The Treasures of Sanxingdui
The contents of those two pits amaze. They include some of the most remarkable bronzes from the ancient world: human face-masks with protruding eyes, thought to depict Cancong, the mythical first king of Shu.