Archaeologists do not often get the chance to excavate Hadrian’s Wall. The monument is well protected by law (rightly so) and spared from development, meaning that invasive investigations are few and far between. While that is good news for the preservation of the Wall, it can make resolving long-standing questions about, say, construction or chronology difficult. The exposure of a length of Wall at Wallsend between 1988 and 2015 in a series of excavations ahead of the creation of an archaeological park was therefore an exciting prospect.

Although attempts have been made to strip away later activity and present Roman – usually specifically Hadrianic – ruins to modern visitors, traces of the Wall’s afterlife still endure. Such sparse survivals, though, do not reflect the rich legacy of Hadrian’s Wall. That is the story that Richard Hingley, Professor of Archaeology at Durham University, sets out to tell in a fascinating volume that leads us from the Roman period to the 21st century.

David Breeze’s new book on Hadrian’s Wall began as a series of lectures to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Even wonderful lectures do not always translate well to print, but there are no such fears with this volume, a (forgive the pun) breezy tour of the Wall and its study.

How do you explain the latest thinking about a 73-mile-long monument to the public? Visitors to Hadrian’s Wall in recent years may have noticed some changes at the English Heritage sites and museums on the Roman frontier. Frances McIntosh takes us on a tour of the latest developments.

This slim but hugely informative book describes the excavation of the grave, presents the detailed reports on artefactual and scientific analyses, and offers a discussion that places the grave in its archaeological and historical context.

Operation Diver is the definitive account of how Anti-Aircraft Command attempted to counter the V1 threat. It describes the work by army boffins to piece together the fragmented intelligence, the evolving pattern of gun emplacements, and the men and women who defended the Home Front.

The lives of the Iron Age inhabitants of a coastal settlement in the most northerly of the Shetland Isles are captured in this fascinating excavation report. Over 12 centuries and the rhythms of the seasonal cycle, successive generations farmed the land, herded livestock, gathered and preserved food, made the tools and objects they needed, and maintained their settlement.

‘This is an archaeological book, I make no pretensions to write history.’ So writes Martin Carver in his wide-ranging new book – yet the more than 700 pages that follow represent a sweeping and impressively comprehensive account of Britain’s past, spanning the 5th to 11th centuries AD.

This collection of papers examines the place of humans within their global ecosystem, along with their long-term modification of, and responses to, it. The book brings together contributors and subject areas from the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and landscape history in order to address major environmental issues, including lessons to be learned regarding water security, sustainable agricultural practice, and nature conservation.

Making a Mark focuses on decorated portable artefacts from mainly the Neolithic, and provides the reader with an excellent discussion forum. Across the book’s 15 chapters, the authors discuss a number of issues, such as the would-be relationship between certain motifs found on both portable and static art (for instance, passage grave megalithic art). For this, the authors use several core areas of Neolithic Britain and Ireland.