The Bayeux Tapestry
Britain has been overcome by Bayeux Tapestry fever (as has CA: see our feature on here and more in Sherds on here) with the famous embroidery returning to British soil for the first time since its creation almost 1,000 years…
Book Review
Stonehenge: the story of an icon
This Stonehenge paperback will sell, probably deservedly, very well. Its text gives a suitable level of detail, while also reflecting current mainstream (and therefore English Heritage) views, and hence is correctly pitched for its audience – namely the interested bystander,…
Hunting: the pursuit that shaped humanity
This sweeping history of hunting is the archaeologist and anthropologist Brian Fagan’s final book, helped into publication by his friend and collaborator Nadia Durrani. Fagan was an extraordinarily prolific writer, and his ability to communicate with popular audiences is much…
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
Castlehill Wood (re-)Dun: reinterpreting a Stirling oddity
Castlehill Wood, located south-west of Stirling, has historically been labelled a ‘dun’ – a poorly defined term that is usually used to describe an unroofed enclosure that is smaller than a hillfort but more fortified than a farmstead. Situated within…
The Archaeology of Leicester in 20 Digs
This is the latest in the ‘…in 20 Digs’ series. Gavin Speed has been involved in Leicester’s archaeology for more than 20 years, and he has produced a well-illustrated account of 20 key sites in Leicester (with a bonus 21st…
Surviving Rome: the economic lives of the ninety percent
Sometime in the 1st century AD, a crass graffiti artist carved a 2m-long graffito into the wall of a stairwell within the House of Julia Felix at Pompeii. The mudslinger didn’t mince words. In it, they mocked a man who…
Alexander: god, king, man
Every new book about Alexander the Great needs to have its own unique selling point if it is to fight its way successfully into public consciousness. In the case of Edmund Richardson’s Alexander: god, king, man that USP is the…
Travels through Prehistoric Spain: a guide
In Travels through Prehistoric Spain, Jude Brown and Gary Lock provide a richly rewarding and deeply engaging exploration of Spain’s prehistoric heritage. Written with enthusiasm, knowledge, and genuine affection for both archaeology and the Spanish landscape, their book succeeds not only…
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
Ancient Egypt: A Journey Down the Nile
Nigel Fletcher-Jones presents a richly illustrated and engaging survey of ancient Egypt’s enduring and much-examined cultural landscape. Written with an assured handling of the material, the book follows the geographical course of the Nile, using the river as a framework…
Pets & their People
Why do so many of us choose to share our lives – and our homes – with at least one animal? Pets & their People (published to accompany an exhibition of the same name – see here – and written…
The Chalcolithic and Bronze Age in Jersey
This book is part of Jersey’s Archaeological Research Framework, which also oversaw the publication of The Neolithic in Jersey by Alison Sheridan, Emmanuel Ghesquière, and Cyril Marcigny (reviewed in CA 431). The Framework was commissioned by Jersey Heritage and led…
Fractured Britannia: the twilight of Roman Britain
The end of Roman rule in Britain is not a niche topic: it is one that has been intensely studied for decades. And yet we still have so much to learn about how it unfolded and how much of a…
Making Art in the Ice Age: the story of how our ancestors made images
Ice Age art engages something within us that feels deeply and inherently human. Most of us feel it immediately: awe, curiosity, and perhaps even sometimes a feeling that borders on spiritual. Yet, while this response is nearly universal, the opportunity…
Cremation in the Early Middle Ages: death, fire, and identity in north-west Europe
REVIEW BY SAM LEGGETT This volume reads as a ‘Who’s Who’ of early medieval cremation research, with most of the top historians, funerary-, and bio-archaeologists assembled. Williams and Lippok have been truly innovative here with how they have assembled the…
From Coast to Fen: archaeology in a dynamic landscape, the archaeology of the Triton Knoll Electrical System, Lincolnshire
REVIEW BY JONATHAN LAST Cable routes and similar projects are a challenge to archaeologists because their narrow footprints are not necessarily representative of the broad landscapes they pass through. Yet they often offer glimpses into areas little touched by other…
The Neolithic in Jersey
REVIEW BY KK This book synthesises what is currently known about the Neolithic in Jersey, highlighting the fact that while our knowledge for some areas of the island and for some phases of the Neolithic is fairly extensive, for other…
The Story of English Banknotes
REVIEW BY KK This is a nice short book on the history of the English banknote, and is rather timely, with the era of the banknote seemingly coming to an end as online transactions and credit card payments become ubiquitous.…
Winchester: city of kings
REVIEW BY SIMON ROFFEY Winchester: city of kings presents an authoritative exploration of one of England’s most historic cities, and one that has been the subject of extensive archaeological research. Consequently, this book traces the evolution of Winchester from its…
Delta Reports 1: Research in the cultural history of the Ancient Egyptian Nile Delta
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS ‘Without the Nile Delta, ancient Egyptian culture could not have emerged’. This bold statement begins the first of a new series of volumes that aims to publish more rapidly the fieldwork reports from sites across north…
Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt – Volume 1: Akhmim and Sohag
REVIEW BY MICHAEL TUNNICLIFFE This is a paperback edition of a work following the Third International Symposium on Christianity and Monasticism in Upper Egypt. There is a particular focus on the life and writings of St Shenoute, who was a…
Visualizing Egypt: European Travel, Book Publishing, and the Commercialization of the Middle East in the Nineteenth Century
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE This book takes as its subject a relatively unusual theme: books written about Egypt. But it is one that will probably interest Egyptophiles because many of us are avid collectors of books! As the author makes…
Threads of Contact: Tracing the relationship between Egypt and the Southern Levant through textile tools
REVIEW BY HILARY WILSON Spinning and weaving are among the earliest ancient technologies, and implements used in textile production turn up in archaeological excavations worldwide. Introducing this volume, part of Oxbow’s ‘Ancient Textiles’ series, Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi emphasises the rarity of…
Ancient Egypt in 50 Discoveries: Highlights from the first century of the Egypt Exploration Society
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS This new publication developed from the first Egypt Exploration Society online course, taught in 2020, and includes contributions from 26 international experts. The book presents a curated journey through 50 key discoveries made by the EES,…
Floreat Salopia: a celebration of Shropshire’s history and archaeology
REVIEW BY BRANDON BRAUN The Latin motto for Shropshire – Floreat Salopia, ‘may Shropshire flourish’ – has been used since at least the 17th century, so it is a fitting title for the 100th volume of the Transactions of the…
MHM 149 Competition
Put your military history knowledge to the test with our competition.
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.
The Stones of Britain: a history of Britain through its geology
REVIEW BY ROB IXER This is a peculiar hybrid of a book. It is a pretty good generalised account of British ‘historical geology’, namely a description of the occurrence of all the rocks given in stratigraphical order from the earliest…
Neolithic Tombs of Wales
REVIEW BY KEITH RAY Neolithic Tombs of Wales is a revised edition of a book with similar scope that was published 20 years ago by the same publisher. It is fundamentally a field guide to around 100 sites whose remains…
A Medieval Cabinet of Curiosities
REVIEW BY KK The title of this book explains it all. Reading it is like stepping into a dimly lit, 19th-century hall of curiosities, with various unusual artefacts covering every available surface. By giving a tour through this bizarre exhibition,…
Magic in Roman Britain
REVIEW BY MIRANDA ALDHOUSE-GREEN This monograph examines the important, yet underestimated subject of the magical objects that form part of the archaeological footprint left by Roman Britons. It focuses on – so often neglected – small objects that form a…
The House of Wolf
Review KK This debut novel by Tony Robinson, of Time Team and Blackadder fame, takes us on a tour of 9th-century Europe: from the Holy Roman Emperor’s royal residence at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in Francia, to the home of the Pope…
The Vikings in the Hebrides
REVIEW BY ALEXANDRA SANMARK This book is a welcome addition to our knowledge about Viking Age and Norse colonisation and settlement in the Hebrides, and provides the first overview of this time period in western Scotland. The book is structured…
CA 428 Letters – October
Roman Morris Having just received the latest issue of Current Archaeology, I placed it on our recently purchased tablecloth, the pattern of which is based on the ‘Blackthorn’ design by William Morris. As can be seen in the photo (above),…
In Brief
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history releases.