This new book, Finds Identified, is a chunky volume celebrating the rich material culture of England and Wales. Brimming with information on archaeological objects dating from the prehistoric to the modern period, it is richly illustrated with images from the online database of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).

This book is a prime example of how combining historical, genealogical, and archaeological research can bring to life the individuals represented in an archaeological assemblage. Each discipline on its own can only provide glimpses into our past, but brought together they can provide much more vivid representations.

This book is a considerable achievement, being the first time that all available human burials from the middle Neolithic to middle Bronze Age in Wales have been catalogued, analysed, and presented in one volume.

The Selhurst Park Project, an investigation some 10km north-east of Chichester, comprised metal-detecting and geophysical surveys, but principally an excavation at Middle Barn of what was identified in aerial photographs as a ‘banjo’ enclosure and a series of conjoined plots.

Whether you are an academic reviewing the history of lime kilns across Britain or simply an enthusiast who is interested in understanding more about how your local lime kiln functioned and how it fits into the wider historic landscape, this book is an easy and enjoyable read. David Johnson’s passion, knowledge, and enthusiasm for these historic structures is evident throughout.

Clifton Quarry is a key site for the prehistory of the West Midlands. The outstanding discovery was an early Iron Age settlement, dating from a short period in the 6th to 4th centuries BC, consisting of numerous four-post structures, but curiously with no clear evidence for roundhouses. Charred grain and charcoal from the post-holes of the four-posters suggest that they burnt down and supports the idea that such structures were granaries.

Asked to think about catacombs, our minds might initially turn to the grand subterranean ossuaries of, say, Rome or Paris. However, London is not without its own underground burial places. In this brief but enjoyable book, authors Robert Bard and Adrian Miles take readers on a tour of former and extant catacombs and other hidden structures within and below some of the best-known cemeteries in the capital.

Robin Derricourt’s book is an overview of current and past research on the nature of the evidence for children in prehistory. As he points out, children are likely to have comprised about 50% of the population of most prehistoric societies, and so it is high time they were studied to the same degree as adults.

Over the recent past there has been a flurry of literature concerned with the Neolithic of the British Isles, each book promoting a new interpretation on the life and death of its people. This book is no exception. The literature has clearly shown that the Neolithic is a complex world of social relations and entanglement with ramifications to our present: we are products of this significant period in our history.

The decades leading up to the Roman conquest of Britain must have been a dynamic and turbulent time, a period of tribal manoeuvrings, with alliances made and loyalties tested in the face of increasing political and material influence from the Continent. From an archaeological perspective, however, the period can be frustratingly bland, with many sites in southern Britain lacking closely dated ceramics, giving only a hedge-betting chronology either side of AD 43. That late Iron Age Calleva presents solid evidence for pre-Conquest occupation, with more than a hint of the political and social complexities, is just one of the aspects that makes this a welcome and exciting volume.