Current Archaeology 319

2 mins read

CA319_CoverWe now know that disaster swiftly struck Must Farm. Construction may not even have been complete when the flames took hold, and it is probable that the settlement was gutted within a year of being founded. For the inhabitants, the loss of their homes and possessions must have been devastating, but the archaeological windfall has been immense. As the roundhouses surrender their secrets, we are beginning to get a sense of what was normal in the Late Bronze Age.

Insights into day-to-day life in Roman Leicester are coming from the inhabitants themselves. Excavations in the city’s West End have revealed a curiously disordered cemetery. Those laid to rest within it are helping archaeologists to build up a picture of a place where the locals rubbed shoulders with incomers from the furthest reaches of the Empire.

Countless generations have contributed to the making of Upland Gwent. Prehistoric peoples hunted and farmed there, while Romans struggled to control it. More recently, industry has left its mark. We examine this rich heritage, and see how the valleys are turning green once more.

Over the last 25 years, HMS M.33 has also been transformed, in this case from a rusting hulk to a recognisable warship. But below decks a different approach to conserving historic ships has been attempted; we explore a First World War artefact.

Matt Symonds

IN THIS ISSUE:

FEATURES

MUST FARM

An extraordinary tale of the everyday
As the dig at Must Farm comes to a close, we take a look at the exceptional finds from the burnt roundhouses. Quantities of well-preserved pottery, tools, textiles, and more paint a picture of daily life in Bronze Age Britain in greater detail than ever before.


BURIED BETWEEN ROAD AND RIVER

Investigating a Roman cemetery in Leicester
Recent excavations at a burial ground near Leicester’s Western Road have made some intriguing discoveries, including an unusual mix of prone and decapitation burials. What can this surprising cemetery tell us about the town’s inhabitants in the 2nd-5th centuries?


WILD COUNTRY

The archaeology of Upland Gwent
Fieldwork in the Gwent Uplands over the last 15 years has revealed new signs of human activity dating as far back as the Mesolithic. How has this picturesque south Wales landscape been used over the millennia as an agricultural, military, and industrial space?


AN UNLIKELY SURVIVOR

Presenting the many lives of a First World War warship
HMS M.33 is one of only three Royal Naval warships to have survived from the First World War. We chart her remarkable voyage from unnamed Monitor-class vessel at Gallipoli to public display at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.


NEWS

Significant structures uncovered at Tintagel; Massive timber monument at Durrington Walls; Scotland’s largest Anglian building?; Iron Age inhumations at Duropolis; New insights into Anglo-Saxon Rothley; Mystery pits at Marden henge; Devon shipwrecks protected; Piltdown Man forger revealed?; Arbeia’s agricultural goddess


REGULARS

Context
Finding the Holy Island’s earliest monastery
Lindisfarne, Northumberland

Scottish Archaeology Month 2016 
Highlights from the month-long programme of events celebrating archaeology in Scotland

Reviews
Stonehenge: the story of a sacred landscape; Neolithic Horizons: monuments and changing communities in the Wessex landscape; Insight from Innovation: new light on archaeological ceramics; Archaeologists and the Dead

Sherds
Chris Catling’s irreverent take on heritage issues

Odd Socs
The Labologists Society

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