CA’s Editor in Chief discusses the evidence for climate change and wonders whether we are barking up the wrong tree. Our Archaeology 2010 conference at the British Museum was a great success – as recounted elsewhere in this issue. My main role was to chair a session on ‘climate change’, a subject that has become [...]
Quangos and Conferences
January 20, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk
CA’s Editor in Chief considers the impact of our next government on heritage issues, and relives his season’s epic round of conferences. An election is coming: by the time you read this, there will be a new government. The pundits tell us that whichever government is elected, a certain retrenchment may be needed in the [...]
Good idea, wrong architect?
January 20, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk
CA’s Editor in Chief evaluates the British Museum’s new expansion plan and considers whether the end will justify the means. The British Museum is expanding again. After the triumph of the Great Court building, which has been one of the most successful museum transformations in recent years, the museum is now launched on its next [...]
Who champions the amateur?
January 20, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk
CA’s Editor in Chief defines the difference between community and amateur archaeology, and cautions not to leave our past to the politicians. It is commonplace today to say interest in archaeology is growing – a feeling well-expressed by Suzie Thomas in her very interesting article Common Ground (p.28). Yet I can’t help feeling that something [...]
The Roman Baths: Britain's most profitable museum?
January 20, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk
I make a visit to the refurbished Roman Baths at Bath. On 9 September 2010, I was invited down to Bath for a Press Day at the Roman Baths. I had not been there for many years: indeed, I think I last saw the Roman Baths when Barry Cunliffe was still excavating there. I remember [...]
Celebrating 250 Issues of CA
January 20, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk
Editor in Chief Andrew Selkirk reminisces over 250 issues of Current Archaeology. When I launched Current Archaeology, way back in 1967, I never thought I would be around to see CA 250. Mind you, for the first 206 issues, CA was bi-monthly and since it has become monthly, the numbers are adding up rather more [...]
Barbarism and Civilisation
January 20, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk
A response to Miles Russell’s and Stuart Laycock’s theory of UnRoman Britain. In their interesting essay UnRoman Britain, in CA 249, Miles Russell and Stuart Laycock argue that Romanisation in Britain was only a veneer, and that most of the population of the country remained firmly ‘UnRoman’. I disagree. I think that their argument is [...]
After the Cuts: Scorched earth, or clean slate? (Part II)
January 4, 2011 By Filed Under: Andrew Selkirk, Features, News
Editor-in-chief, Andrew Selkirk offers his insight on some issues raised by spending cuts. How will universities fare under the new regime, where funds will go to students rather than to universities? Archaeology is not exactly a subject that will set you up to become a big earner, so will archaeology inevitably go into decline? I [...]
Contradictory policies; Coastal delights; Ringo's house; Museums 'best place to lose wallets'; London Lives 1690-1800
November 20, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Contradictory policies David Cameron marked the beginning of the holiday season (now but a distant memory) with a speech on tourism that included some startling statistics: did you know that Britain is only 22nd in the list of most popular destinations for Chinese tourists – by comparison, Germany is 10th. Or that the UK is [...]
The end to 'bad laws'?; Quirky collections; Museum of Leathercraft; re-branding towns and boroughs
October 20, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Plans to ‘de-regulate’ Britain ‘Help us repeal bad laws,’ said Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on 1 July, asking the public for feedback on unnecessary legislation the British people would like to see scrapped. One response, published in the Independent on 5 July 2010, was so witty, it deserves a wider audience. ‘In Hereford’s Cathedral [...]
Interview: Alice in Archaeologyland
September 24, 2010 By Filed Under: Lisa Westcott
Alice Roberts, one of the most popular presenters of archaeology on TV, discusses the bare bones of her new series with CA Editor Lisa Westcott. How did you get involved in TV archaeology? I started out in medicine and was a junior doctor in south Wales. But I wanted to indulge my interest in anatomy [...]
Heritage plaques; Heads at Westminster; Even infamy in fleeting; How much for Stonehenge?; How towns attract tourism.
September 20, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Heritage plaques Strict rules govern the erection of Blue Plaques, the circular memorial tablets in Wedgwood blue that mark the residences of celebrated historical figures. The person commemorated must have been dead for 20 years or have passed the centenary of their birth; should be considered eminent by other members of their profession or calling; [...]
Vikings: Raiders and traders
August 25, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling, Features
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 [...]
Freudian dating parties; Glamorous heritage; Archaeologist Sienna Miller?;The heritage buffs' anthem; Early Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
August 20, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Freudian dating parties Responding to the news that the National Trust and Mills & Boon have formed a partnership to publish bodice rippers set in historic houses, several CA readers have pointed out that the link between heritage and romance is far from new: museums and galleries have been exploiting their potential as trysting places [...]
Archaeology in action: Mike Heyworth
July 24, 2010 By Filed Under: Lisa Westcott
Dr Mike Heyworth, Director of the Council for British Archaeology, tells CA Editor Lisa Westcott about the CBA, pubs and politics. How did you first get involved with archaeology? When I was 14, I went along to a weekend excavation at Old Down Farm, near Andover. My main reason for wanting to go was that [...]
Sexing-up the heritage; Vexing the Viscount; The Profumo Affair; Pipe pilfering Queen
July 21, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Sexing-up the heritage Regular readers will begin to think that Sherds is obsessed with matters amorous, but in truth this is only a reflection of the extent to which the world is becoming ever more eroticised. Even Dr Who now has a feisty heroine who makes suggestive innuendoes about how long it is since the [...]
Ever been had?; Ooh lah lah; La Grande Horizontale; Our own dear queen; Cider with Rosie; the arsenic age
June 21, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Ever been had? What makes a good April Fools’ Day hoax? Certainly not the infamous spaghetti-tree documentary that was shown on Panorama in 1957, which is often cited by journalists too young to know as ‘the spoof that fooled the nation’. It didn’t, of course. A nation brought up on macaroni cheese and spag bol [...]
Does civilisation start with beer?; Grumpiness is a sign of advanced civilisation; and more…
May 21, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
Does civilisation start with beer? According to archaeologist Patrick McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the Neolithic Revolution was driven not by the desire for bread, rice, millet or sorghum, but by the thirst for soul food in the form of beer. In other words, we turned from the harsh and [...]
Interview: The Roman Glassmakers
April 24, 2010 By Filed Under: Lisa Westcott
CA editor Lisa Westcott is blown away by a demonstration of authentic Roman glassmaking. The Roman Glassmakers opened shop in 1989, and ever since have specialised in researching the techniques involved in making Roman glass vessels and in reproducing Roman glass (CA 186). Now, they have expanded into English Medieval glass, complicated Roman luxury items, and other [...]
Numerologists' triumph; Jacquetta Hawkes; Aliens and Woolworths; Ley line hunting
April 21, 2010 By Filed Under: Chris Catling
The triumph of the numerologists Chairing a meeting at the Society of Antiquaries on the life of Jacquetta Hawkes recently, the Society’s President (Geoff Wainwright) observed approvingly that she had had no time for numerologists with their cabalistic papers on the ‘megalithic yard’ (the unit of measurement supposed to underlie the layout of every megalithic [...]
