Current Archaeology gets back to the trenches! Included in this edition is our annual Dig Supplement. Editor in Chief, Andrew Selkirk, shares his view of the recent newsworthy excavations at Stonehenge where, as ever, the Romans are making their presence felt.  But were they really successful in Britain? Our ‘Britannia’ feature profiles modern events that shed [...]

Special Tudor Edition The Tudor dynasty ruled England from 1485 to 1603: chock-full of colourful characters and big events, the Tudor continue to capture modern attention in popular films, stage productions and literature.  The film The Other Boleyn Girl is a perfect example of just how much we enjoy imagining the bodice-ripping adventures that accompanied this [...]

Leading with a profile of Sir Neil Cossons and his work, we celebrate 50 years of industrial archaeology with a look at the newly reopened St Pancreas Station. We look at the hit film Beowulf – and with so much archaeology in the media, surely it is time to ask the question: is it just [...]

The Celts loved feasting, and the communal cauldron from which the chieftains speared the ‘champion’s portion’ was central to Celtic epic.  What were the 12 Iron Age cauldrons doing stacked together in a field in Wiltshire? This issue of CA tells the story. we also examine preconceived notions about the Industrial revolution: why did Birmingham [...]

Anthony Emery gives us a privileged look behind closed doors inside the great houses of medieval England, where we see a still-breathtaking display of medieval wealth and power. The pace never slows, as we move from evidence of a new prehistoric henge through to glimpses of the Romans at table; finally, we meet London’s last [...]

This issue is about taking a fresh look at some old problems. When did Roman Britain end? What was the point of rock art? When did medieval halls go out of fashion? How reliable are old excavation records? These are the big questions addressed in our main features this issue. In the Late Roman Empire, [...]

In this issue, we also go deep inside Silbury Hill and show you what the tunnels were really like, and why it is necessary to seal the mound forever. Braving the chill Yorkshire winds, CA visits York’s biggest excavation in the past 25 years as well as a newly opened reconstruction of a centurion’s house at [...]

From prehistory to modern times, CA explores controversy, scandal and success in the archaeological world.  We bring you several top notch site reports as well as a case study in conscientious metal-detecting, and News is chock-full of exciting happenings. Chris Catling chimes in with a Diary of topical issues in a new section entitled ‘Sherds’, and, [...]

We hear a lot about Vikings in early medieval history books like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. But when it comes to archaeology, Vikings are rather hard to find. So when metal-detectorist Peter Adams turned up first one, then a second Viking 'tortoise' brooch on a Cumbrian hilltop, local archaeologists got interested.

Radiocarbon dating revolutionised the study of prehistory. Then it was discovered you had to calibrate dates or you could be centuries out. Calibration was the second radiocarbon revolution. Now there is a third.

The Dark Ages, when Christianity was coming to Britain and our country was beginning to take on its present form, was an age of forgotten saints and forgotten monasteries, and in this issue we look at a forgotten saint, St Chad and a forgotten monastery at Portmahomack.

Northern Britain was a military zone in Roman times. There were no towns or villas, but instead a series of army bases guarding the uplands. While the fat-lands of Wessex, East Anglia and the Midlands were ruled by Romanised gentry, the North was under army commandants. How did it work? What was the relationship between [...]

When we started the Developer Funded Archaeology Award, a biennial prize to celebrate the best of professional archaeology, we knew it would uncover some real archaeological scoops. But this year there have been 12 entries, and we have struggled to work out where to put it all.

Where was Cassivellaunus’s stronghold? Cassivellaunus is the first named character in British history – named by Caesar as leader of the resistance to his invasion in 54 BC. The stronghold stormed by Caesar that year is usually assumed to have been Wheathampsted in Hertfordshire. But was it?

The discovery of the past depends extensively on enthusiasts who pursue their vision over many years; two such enthusiasts feature in this issue of Current Archaeology. The first is Bryony Coles, Professor of Archaeology at Exeter, who realised in the 1970s that the cut marks on some pieces of Neolithic wood she was examining were [...]