REVIEW BY AMARA THORNTON Popular histories of archaeology have been published, in one form or another, for centuries. These narratives, at least those produced for European and American readers, frequently lean heavily on adventures and derring-do, thrilling revelations of ancient…
REVIEW BY AB In the 1990s, archaeologists excavating in West Sussex made a remarkable discovery: human remains belonging to ancient humans who lived around half a million years ago. These discoveries from Boxgrove continue to represent the oldest human remains…
REVIEW BY CHRIS JONES This important book is the product of 11 seasons of careful fieldwork by members of the Northumberland Archaeological Group. The book is structured around the five main areas of the project, beginning with the geoarchaeological survey…
REVIEW BY DEREK ALEXANDER Eilean Donan Castle is indeed a Scottish icon, featuring on many calendars and in movies – Highlander for one. You can’t fail to notice it if you are driving to the Isle of Skye, as it…
REVIEW BY ROB IXER Broken fragmentary Niedermendig (Banfield convincingly suggests that Mayen is the better term) lava is commonly recorded, but seemingly in passing, from Roman (and later) sites. This 190-page, very well-figured text corrects this slight, and must now…
REVIEW BY HOWARD WILLIAMS A truly stupendous achievement of synthesis and evaluation, Life in Early Medieval Wales is a first for Welsh archaeology. Nancy Edwards’ concise prose draws on the experience of a lifetime spent teaching and researching early medieval…
REVIEW BY HILARY WILSON Histories of ancient Egypt have traditionally been written from a royal perspective, due largely to the availability of source material. This approach underestimates the role of the provinces, their administration and social structure, in the overall…
REVIEW BY ANNA GARNETT The Cambridge Elements: Ancient Egypt series delves into wider Egyptological themes and debates in fresh ways, beyond traditional approaches. Specialist authors collate primary source materials to illustrate complex themes in a way that readers can easily…
REVIEW BY SARAH GRIFFITHS Aidan Dodson’s Lives and Afterlives series continues with the often-neglected Twenty-fifth Dynasty: the Kushite kings who ruled Egypt for nearly a hundred years (c.755-656 BC). Nubia and Egypt were intimately linked throughout most of pharaonic history,…
REVIEW BY AB Until the mid-20th century, England was covered with orchards. But these quintessential features of the historic landscape did not simply spring into being: the story of England’s orchards is filled with generations of people who cultivated them.…
REVIEW BY KK With additional contributions by I M Betts, Lyn Blackmore, Julian Bowsher, Jacqui Pearce, and Alan Pipe, this latest book on London by John Schofield and Stephen Freeth offers a comprehensive assessment of life on the Thames during…
REVIEW BY JACQUELINE PITT This monograph successfully compiles the results of a series of excavations into a comprehensive chronology of a former MOD site south of Bicester. Evidence for prehistoric to modern activity was identified, along with a significant medieval…
REVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER EVANS Thoroughly researched and well-written, this is simply a very good read, one informed by its author’s long experience of archaeological fieldwork. In it, Mackay tracks down the route of Boudica and her rebel followers, as well…
REVIEW BY ECKART FRAHM Mesopotamian history, Amanda Podany argues in the introduction to her new book, ‘is more of a weathered mosaic than a grand narrative’. What she provides in her long but never boring account, which covers events and…
REVIEW BY SHERRIE-LEE EVANS Archaeology in Antarctica is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the history of archaeological practice in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic. The authors have researched published, unpublished, and oral accounts of all past archaeological work in…
REVIEW BY ANDREW SELKIRK What fields are left for Barry Cunliffe to conquer? After the Celts and the Bretons, Europe between the oceans, the Atlantic Ocean, the Scythians, and the Steppe, he has now turned his attention to Africa, and…
REVIEW BY GERALD LALONDE Activity of the Earth’s tectonic plates affects geography, and geography affects the activity of humans. Sliding of the Africa–Arabia plate under the Eurasia plate in the Miocene and Oligocene ages raised mountains from the Pyrenees in…
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles.
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD Ian Knight has gained a deserved reputation as an expert on the Anglo-Zulu War. In Warriors in Scarlet, he turns his attention to a broader canvas. His subject is the British army in the first half…
REVIEW BY PATRICK MERCER I thought I knew a fair bit about Winston Churchill, but I have just discovered that he had skin ‘about the size of a shilling’ taken from his arm and grafted on to a brother officer…
REVIEW BY COLIN POMEROY Luck of the Draw, which has just been adapted by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks into the new television series Masters of the Air, is in effect the autobiography of the late Frank Murphy. It tells…
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON Throughout the Cold War, various American presidents liked to say that the West and the Soviet Union had never fought one another directly, with the obvious implication being that they wanted to keep it that way.…
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE One of the major issues in Egyptology is how prone we are to repeat assertions that were made – often provisionally – more than a century ago. Thus the lazy explanation of ancient Egyptian society as…
REVIEW BY IAN RALSTON This monograph on Welsh hillforts is by a man who knows them well. It builds on Driver’s innovative doctoral examination of those in Ceredigion, and his general book on Cardigan Bay, to consider the entirety of…
REVIEW BY KK This volume brings together the current evidence of dogs in the past: from their evolution from wild animals to domesticated pets, to their presence in the archaeological record, through to their importance in myths and legends. Combining…
REVIEW BY PETER HALKON This book aims to provide a guide to the main sites of prehistoric Yorkshire that remain above ground and are possible to either visit or to view from a distance. It begins with an introduction to…
REVIEW BY AB It is easy to think of castles as a static part of the historical landscape, towering relics of a bygone era, but these buildings have rich stories, many of which are still being written. In Castles of…
REVIEW BY MARC DESANTIS In ancient times, following the fall of Carthage, only Persia on Rome’s eastern frontier would be, to adopt a modern term, her ‘peer adversary’. It was the only state that bore any comparison in power and…
REVIEW BY GRAHAM GOODLAD Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted the appearance of several books, setting the war in its historical context. This is the first study, however, to view the conflict in the long-term perspective of military history since…
MHM’s round-up of the latest military history titles
REVIEW BY KAVEH FARROKH With this book, Nicholas Morton has filled a gap in the field in the study of the Mongol military genius and the immense impact of their conquests in the 13th century. This impact was truly international…
REVIEW BY CALUM HENDERSON Leningrad – today known as St Petersburg – was a key military and industrial target in the early years of the Second World War. But the city also held a psychological attraction for the invading armies…
REVIEW BY COLIN POMEROY Despite the title of this book, there is little detail about the Mosquito’s development or performance within its pages. But that is the only disappointment, for Rowland White’s new history of the ‘wooden wonder’ is otherwise…
REVIEW BY ANDREW MULHOLLAND Few recent military books can have been quite as timely as this one. For while conceived several years ago, Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman’s study of the British Army brings us right up to date and…
REVIEW BY CH This magazine should reach you in November, bridging the period between Hallowe’en and Christmas – both dates traditionally associated with the sharing of spooky stories. If you would like your frights to have an archaeological flavour, this…
A selection of the latest publications on Egypt and Egyptology, assessed by AE’s team of experts.