British Features
UnRoman attitudes: exposing the myth of Britannia
We traditionally see Roman Britain from the Rome-centred view; but how did the Britons really react? Now, a new book by Miles Russell and Stuart Laycock explores a different perspective, asking: what did the Romans truly ever do for us? In 2010, 1600 years after the traditional date when Rome cut the province of Britannia [...]
Vikings: Raiders and traders
A group of 51 fit and battle-ready Scandinavians met a brutal death in the years between AD 910 and 1034; crudely beheaded, their remains were thrown into a mass grave near Weymouth in Dorset. Chris Catling asks how this discovery fits in with our picture of the Vikings. Recent discoveries such as the Dorset Ridgeway [...]
Conservation in the community
American-born conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown has worked around the world and made numerous appearances on television. Now, her infectious enthusiasm is inspiring a band of volunteers based in the unlikely location of a Kent shopping centre. CA’s Caitlin McCall went to meet her. What does a conservator do? A conservator is responsible for the care, preservation [...]
Liquid History: Excavating London’s great river, The Thames
Prehistoric forests, the skull of a child, the slipway of a Victorian engineering masterpiece and part of a Tudor palace jetty: all have emerged from the mud and gravel on the foreshore of the Thames, thanks to an exciting new project to record the archaeology of London’s great river. Nathalie Cohen tells CA about the [...]
Howburn Farm: Excavating Scotland’s first people
At Howburn Farm in South Lanarkshire, a scattering of flints, discovered by the Biggar Archaeology Group, turned out to be evidence of the earliest human habitation in Scotland. Tam Ward and Alan Saville explain. How far north did Palaeolithic people settle in Britain? The general belief is that they did not go much further than [...]
Dark Satanic mills? The archaeology of the world’s first industrial city
By 1850, Manchester had a population of 300,000, and most of its 172 textile mills had already been built. Cotton goods were known simply as ‘Manchester goods’. Now, archaeology is adding new insights. We report on ten years’ digging of Manchester’s industrial history. In 1814, Johann Georg May wrote: ‘Manchester is famous throughout the world [...]
Lanton Quarry: New evidence in northern Northumberland
A routine investigation ahead of gravel quarrying has turned up some exciting results: has the ‘support centre’ for the elite Anglo-Saxon settlement of Yeavering been found? Clive Waddington discusses the evidence. In the very north of Northumberland lies an old, dried-out glacial lake that is surrounded by raised gravel terraces, known as the Milfield Basin. [...]
Magic and Mining at Alderley Edge
Listening to tales told by his blacksmith grandfather in the semi-darkness of his fire-lit forge, Alan Garner absorbed the Cheshire folklore that he then transformed into a classic work of fiction – The Weirdstone of Brisingamen. Inspired by Garner’s story, archaeologists have recently begun to unravel the truth behind the legends of Alderley Edge, as [...]
Preserving Britain’s Glories
When Sir Neil Cossons retired as Chairman of English Heritage in June 2007, his farewell party was held in a building overlooking St Pancras Station. This was a fitting venue given the extent of Neil’s personal involvement in the transformation of William Henry Barlow’s revolutionary train shed – the world’s largest singlespan structure when it [...]
Mick Aston reveals the secrets of Time Team
The Time team is Britain’s longest running archaeology TV series. Here, Professor Mick Aston, the leader of the Time Team, reveals the secrets behind the programme’s success.
