Despite the title, this book is about far more than the archaeology of Roman Cambridge and its western hinterland. It includes associated research into human landscape evolution, historiography, and biography, as well as a history of the 20th-century development of the university, and the homes and activities of its academics and antiquarians.

Hugh Willmott’s important new book seeks to redress the balance by providing a more-rounded and -nuanced explanation of the processes involved in the Dissolution (which were unquestionably complex and far-reaching), as well as the reasons for it. He does not hide away from any aspect of the events or people involved, and provides copious examples across a wide variety of themes centred on them.

Within its 225 square miles, the Isle of Man boasts an impressively diverse historic landscape spanning some 10,000 years of human activity. In this compact but wide-ranging book, our guide is Matthew Richardson, curator of social history at Manx National Heritage.

Among the 856 heraldic shields emblazoned on the ceilings of the cloister of Canterbury Cathedral is hidden a story of the social and political history of 14thand 15th-century England. In this large and intensively researched volume, Paul A Fox sets out to unravel the connections between the families and individuals recorded here, and the man behind its construction, Archbishop Thomas Arundel.

Sharing elements with a standard regional study of a hillfort in geographical context, this series of papers is distinctly wider in scope. It is neither underpinned by recent excavation, nor by reassessment in detail of the 1930s interventions. Instead, ten authors tackle three themes in 14 chapters. They examine the detailed configuration and Iron Age regional setting of the hillfort, before assessing aspects of its cultural biography and that of its surroundings over more-recent centuries, continuing through to military impact during the World Wars. A critical examination of the planning framework and decision-making in regard to housing developments that threatened (and seemingly still threaten) to encroach on the site’s setting follows.

This volume in the British Archaeological Reports series presents the results of excavations by Archaeological Solutions Ltd in advance of gravel-quarrying on a hilltop next to the Thames Estuary in Essex, just to the south-west of the Mucking ridge, where comparative Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon occupation is well documented.

Within the context of burial and ritual, archaeologists have found it near-impossible to understand why mundane objects became the focus for ritual deposition. I suppose it is all too easy to look at anthropology and ethnography to get some of the answers, especially when we look at our own throwaway society. Clearly, objects in late and early prehistory took on several roles through the duration of their use: from utilitarian tool to a venerated item that would have possessed supernatural power and provided essential help for the afterlife (and beyond).

Published 500 years after the event took place, this book serves as a quincentenary celebration of the legendary first meeting between Henry VIII, the English king (r. 1509-1547), and Francis I, the French king (r. 1515-1547). Known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold, the festivities were held over the course of two weeks in June 1520 and served as an attempt at brokering a friendship between the two often-combative nations.

Dorset is rich in heritage, with an array of historical sites and towns, as well as unique natural landmarks. This book offers a beautifully illustrated introduction to the county’s history through a selection of pictures from the Historic England Archive.

This is a comprehensive report on archaeological investigations that occurred at Guiting Power, Gloucestershire, in the 1990s. It highlights the medieval finds of the excavations, while two other recent Archaeopress publications focus on the prehistoric and Roman discoveries.