The island of Rousay is barely round 4 miles lengthy, however it boasts such a unprecedented richness of archaeological stays – with websites virtually outnumbering folks – that it has earned the nickname ‘the Egypt of the North’. Our cowl story this month represents the concluding a part of the Orkney trilogy that now we have been operating, drawing on my go to to the archipelago final summer season. During this journey, I went to see the excavation on the Knowe of Swandro, an impressively long-lived website, however one whose stonework is being quickly eroded by the ocean.
A comparatively newer feat of masonry is the main focus of our subsequent characteristic: St Bartholomew the Great in Smithfield, at this time hailed as London’s oldest surviving parish church. As this ecclesiastical edifice marks its 900th birthday, we hint its historical past again to its earliest origins because the brainchild of an ailing ex-jester.
We then discover Arminghall Henge in Norfolk, dwelling to a mighty timber monument that was described as a ‘second Woodhenge’ when it was found in 1929. The website was first excavated in 1935, and final yr archaeologists reopened this unique trench, revealing glimpses of the timbers’ fiery finish.
Finally, our common contributor Joe Flatman guides us by means of the myriad roles fulfilled by archaeologists inside the National Trust, and updates us on latest analysis regarding a few of its websites.
I hope to see numerous you at our annual convention, which returns as an in-person occasion later this month; click on right here for the most recent particulars of the occasion (and easy methods to guide your ticket in case you haven’t already performed so!).
P.S. Details of all of the content material of the journal can be found on our new website, The Past. Here it is possible for you to to learn every article in full in addition to the content material of our different magazines, Current World Archaeology, Minerva, and Military History Matters. Subscribers ought to see the advert contained in the journal for a really particular supply!
In This Issue:
FEATURES
Excavating eroding archaeology on Rousay
In the third a part of our Orkney trilogy, we go to a multi-period website on Rousay. The Knowe of Swandro spans the Neolithic, Iron Age, Pictish, and Norse intervals of Orkney’s previous, however archaeologists are in a race towards time and tide to doc its stays earlier than they’re misplaced to the ocean.
Tracing the historical past of London’s oldest surviving parish church
One of the few buildings within the City to have survived the Great Fire of London, St Bartholomew the Great started its life as a priory and hospital, based by Henry I’s minstrel and courtier Rahere, after he fell sick on a pilgrimage to Rome. Here, we discover its 900-year historical past.
RE-EXCAVATING ARMINGHALL HENGE
A burnt timber circle from prehistoric Norfolk
What can the re-excavation of a trench, first dug by Grahame Clark at Arminghall Henge virtually a century in the past, inform us concerning the website’s monumental timber circle and its fiery finish?
FROM RAT NESTS TO ‘LOST’ MINES
Exploring archaeological pathways within the National Trust
The function of a National Trust archaeologist is numerous and ever- evolving. Joe Flatman delves into the various obligations of this place, relating latest analysis that NT archaeologists have been concerned in, in addition to the totally different routes into the career.
NEWS
Bronze Age goldworking toolkit revealed; Neolithic axe-grinding website found close to Stirling; Elizabethan- period ship found in Kent quarry; Further finds alongside the A428; Mysterious ‘Eadburg’ etched into early medieval manuscript; Science Notes; Medieval market city revealed in County Kilkenny; Finds Tray
NEWS FOCUS
Ritual stays: excavating a Bronze Age barrow and a Roman ‘shrine’ in Overstone
REGULARS
COMMENT
Joe Flatman excavates the CA archive
CONTEXT
Defending the dreaming spires: Civil War ramparts found in Oxford
REVIEWS
Canterbury Cathedral, Trinity Chapel: the archaeology of the mosaic pavement and setting of the shrine of St Thomas Becket; Wroxeter: ashes below Uricon; Waterlands: prehistoric life at Bar Pasture, Pode Hole Quarry, Peterborough; The Book of the Skelligs; Heritage Dynamics: understanding and adapting to vary in numerous heritage contexts; Excavations at Chester: Roman land division and a possible villa within the hinterland of Deva – excavation at Saighton Army Camp, Huntington, Chester
MUSEUM NEWS
The newest on acquisitions, exhibitions, and key selections
EXHIBITION
Gladiators: a cemetery of secrets and techniques on the Corinium Museum, Cirencester
LISTINGS
Our choice of exhibitions and occasions, in addition to historic, archaeological, and cultural assets from world wide which can be nonetheless out there on-line.
PROFILE
Roman girls: monitoring down feminine archaeologists of the Roman frontiers
CONFERENCE
The newest particulars of Current Archaeology Live! 2023
SHERDS
Chris Catling’s irreverent tackle heritage points
ODD SOCS
The British Cartographic Society
Have all this delivered on to your door each month – click on right here to search out out extra about subscribing to Current Archaeology, the UK’s favorite archaeology journal.
