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.
World news in brief: Morocco, China, and the United States
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the world, including: evidence of an ear infection identified in 100,000-year-old remains; analysis of ancient Chinese bronze formulae; and a rethinking of how Cahokia’s North Plaza was used.
A battle in the mists of the Lake District? Ambleside Roman fort under attack
Recent research has shed new light on a Roman fort in the Lake District, and the violent events that may have taken place there. Manuel Fernández-Götz, John Reid, Lawrence Keppie, and Ian Hardwick report.
8,000 years of footprints preserved at Formby
The tracks of 593 individual animals were identified, representing 401 large animals and 192 humans – making this one of the largest-known concentrations of predominately prehistoric faunal tracks in the world.
UK news in brief: discovering SS Mesaba, St Saviour’s Priory, and a Roman ford
A round-up of some of the latest archaeology news from around the UK.
CA Letters 393 – November
Your views and opinions on issues raised in CA, plus information about CA Live! 2023!
Ancient DNA and ‘Anglo-Frisians’
I have a personal dislike of the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ to describe the people and culture of southern and eastern Britain from the 4th to the 8th centuries because it is anachronistic – it implies homogeneity where I see much more interesting diversity
A Cult Centre on Rome’s North-West Frontier: excavations at Maryport, Cumbria 1870-2015
Maryport is home to one of the largest and most-impressive collections of Roman altars in the world, with the role of religion at the site debated by academics and archaeologists over many
Piecing together the puzzle: understanding the Late Roman hacksilver from the Traprain Hoard
Excavation work at Traprain Law, an Iron Age hillfort in East Lothian, some 30km east of Edinburgh, was interrupted by the turmoil of the First World War. Two weeks after work began again on 12 May 1919, George Pringle loosened the soil with the tip of his pick and pulled out a Roman silver vessel. This was the first artefact to be found from what would prove to be the largest hoard yet known of Late Roman hacksilver – silver which has been chopped, cut, and crushed. More than a century later, an equally massive 784-page study has been published that tells us what the hoard represents in terms of the art and lifestyles of people from both sides of Hadrian’s Wall, as Chris Catling reports.
A Viking Market Kingdom in Ireland and Britain: trade networks and the importation of a southern Scandinavian silver bullion economy
This book is the third in Routledge’s ‘Archaeologies of the Viking World’ series, and maintains the high standard of the others in terms of content. The book’s core idea is that groups
Little London: Nero, Silchester, and building infrastructure in the new province
Distinctive tiles stamped with the name and titles of the Roman emperor Nero have been found at only two sites from Roman Britain, both in Hampshire. Michael Fulford explores what this might mean.
Cereal consumption at Hebridean crannogs
Chemical analysis of pottery found in the waters surrounding crannogs in Scotland has revealed that cereals were cooked in pots and mixed with dairy products, and occasionally meat.
Caistor St Edmund: excavating an aqueduct in Roman Norfolk
Archaeological investigations in a field outside Norwich, close to the remains of a Romano-Celtic temple, have uncovered further evidence of activity associated with the religious complex. Carly Hilts reports on a recent visit to the site.
Museum news: from unlocking past lives at the Museum of East Dorset, to changing perceptions at the Museum of Homelessness
The latest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key decisions
Recovering an anchor from the North Sea
Through the combined efforts of ScottishPower Renewables and Maritime Archaeology Ltd, with support from Historic England, a wrought-iron anchor, possibly dating from the Roman period, was successfully raised from the North Sea
Revealing royal Rendlesham: luxury living in early medieval Suffolk
A second summer of excavation at Rendlesham, four miles from Sutton Hoo, has uncovered further evidence of a high-status settlement that thrived from the late 5th to the early 8th century. Carly Hilts spoke to Faye Minter and Professor Christopher Scull to find out more.
Excavating Scotland
Moving geographically west to east, we then come to Bearsden on the north-west outskirts of Glasgow. This site is, if not the most excavated of Antonine sites, then certainly that most visited by Current Archaeology.
Stonehenge and Middle to Late Neolithic Cremation Rites in Mainland Britain (c.3500-2500 BC)
In the middle-to-late Neolithic in southern and eastern Britain a number of important monumental landscapes were host to a series of cremation cemeteries, the deposition of the dead in some cases being a
Coring crannogs: a multi-pronged approach to assessing lake sediments
Biomolecular and mineralogical techniques applied to lake settlements obtained from Scottish and Irish crannogs have yielded genetic and environmental data, providing evidence of animal butchery and feasting.
Chedworth Roman Villa: exploring over 150 years of interpretation
Chedworth Roman Villa, near Cirencester, has been open to visitors since its discovery 158 years ago – but, until today, the site never had a formal academic publication. A new monograph has now drawn together decades of research, as Simon Esmonde Cleary, Jason Wood, Emma Durham, Martin Papworth, and Julie Reynolds report.
The Wesley Historical Society
Non-conformist chapels and meeting houses have greatly enriched our townscapes, though we have been slow to recognise their merits. Indeed, the late Princess Margaret, when opening the Keele office of the Royal