Book of the Year 2019

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Sponsor of the 2019 Book of the Year award.

The Old Stones: a field guide to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland wins Current Archaeologys prestigious Book of the Year award for 2019

Andy Burnham collects the award for Book of the Year 2019 at the Current Archaeology Awards.
Andy Burnham collects the award for Book of the Year 2019 at the Current Archaeology Awards. (Photo: Adam Stanford/Aerial-Cam)

Winner of the award for Book of the Year 2019 was The Old Stones: a field guide to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland, by Andy Burnham and published by Watkins Publishing. This 400+ page field guide of over 1,000 sites does everything it promises and is another dedicated testament to the might of the ‘amateur’. It is not an academic book for archaeologists, but one for the be-wellied, mobile petrophile this field guide is an excellent resource for amateur archaeologists on their hunt for the best monuments across Britain and Ireland.

Accepting the award, Andy Burnham said:

“I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has helped with the book, it was very much a joint effort – thanks too to everyone who has contributed to the Megalithic Portal website. Thanks too to the voters for believing in amateurs and for recognising what has been a giant community project.”

Below are all the nominees in this category:


The Friaries of Medieval London: from foundation to dissolution

Nick Holder
Published by Boydell & Brewer
(CA 335)

Drawing on archaeological, architectural, and documentary evidence, Nick Holder’s study of the London friaries provides one of the most in-depth looks at medieval monasticism in the city.

Read the full review here.


A Life in Norfolk’s Archaeology, 1950-2016

Peter Wade-Martins
Published by Archaeopress
(CA 336)

This is Peter Wade-Martins’ account of his life in archaeology. Beginning when there was scant legal protection for Britain’s heritage and ending with the realities of developer-led archaeology, it is also the story of archaeology in the modern era.

Read the full review here.


Winchester: an archaeological assessment – St Swithun’s ‘City of Happiness and Good Fortune’

Patrick Ottaway
Published by Oxbow Books
(CA 337)

This publication brings together evidence from the many excavations that have taken place in Winchester to provide a clear, in-depth look at the development of the city, period by period.

Read the full review here.


Britannia Romana: Roman inscriptions and Roman Britain

Roger Tomlin
Published by Oxbow Books
(CA 339)

Tomlin illustrates the history and character of Roman Britain through his selection of inscriptions, examining their language, meaning, and context to learn more about the people of Britannia.

Read the full review here.


Writing and Power in the Roman World: literacies and material culture

Hella Eckardt
Published by Cambridge University Press
(CA 340)

Gathering a huge amount of research and information from multiple disciplines, this is a well-rounded and in-depth study of literacy in the Roman world.

Read an excerpt of the feature here


Kingdom, Civitas, and County: the evolution of territorial identity in the English landscape

Stephen Rippon
Published by Oxford University Press
(CA 343)

Stephen Rippon demonstrates that territories and administrative boundaries in England have endured in some form since the prehistoric, and that Britons were key to their survival.

Read the full review here.


Sacred Britannia: the gods and rituals of Roman Britain

Miranda Aldhouse-Green
Published by Thames and Hudson
(CA 344)

Spanning the period from Julius Caesar’s invasions to the formal ‘end’ of Roman occupation, Miranda Aldhouse-Green offers a critical analysis of literary, archaeological, and iconographic evidence for the beliefs and ritual practices of Iron Age Britons.

Read the full review here.


The Old Stones: a field guide to the megalithic sites of Britain and Ireland

Andy Burnham
Published by Watkins Publishing
(CA 345)

Across more than 400 pages and over 1,000 megalithic sites, this field guide is an excellent resource for amateur archaeologists on their hunt for the best monuments across Britain and Ireland.

Read the full review here.


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