This month’s issue covers about as broad a spectrum as you can get in archaeology: from prehistory to Boudica, commercial infrastructure projects, new community archaeology research and modern conflict archaeology. CA 247 is a showcase for the diversity happening in archaeology, and we’re very proud to capture that in our pages.Prehistory has dominated the archaeological news this summer with stunning finds from Orkney to Kent, and the recent discovery of a Neolithic house at Marden Henge (see News) tops the table. Is it possible that we must now think of the Vale of Pewsey landscape as having equal status with Stonehenge, Silbury and Avebury? Only time, and further excavation, will tell.
This month also sees the first of our four-part series on the archaeology of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger boom — not only is the sheer scale of the projects interesting, but so are the sharp differences between the Irish commercial methodology and ours in Britain. We wrap up the issue with Boudica, Neanderthals, and new research from the CBA.
FEATURES
WHEN THE CELTIC TIGER ROARED
The golden years of commercial archaeology in Ireland
First in a series on the big sites, finds and controversies of Irish archaeology’s boom years.
DIGGING UP PLUGSTREET
The archaeology of WWI
We follow the Australian 3rd Division from training on Salisbury Plain to battle in Belgium.
COMMON GROUND
The rise of community archaeology
Britain’s volunteer archaeology sector is growing; but can it co-exist with commercial units?
NEANDERTHALS IN BRITAIN
Flint finds open new era in prehistory
New evidence from Kent pushes back the presence of Neanderthals in Britain by 40,000 years.
BOUDICA’S FINAL BATTLE
An historical and archaeological account
Linking archaeology and military history offers fresh insight in examining this seminal event.
NEWS
Excavations at the Marden superhenge; origins of British farming; another Orkney Venus; community archaeology in Telford; Columban monastery on Iona; Roman villa confirmed in Wales; latest archaeology at risk statistics.
REVIEWS
The Making of the British Landscape; Empire Halts Here; Medieval/Anglo-Saxon Hartlepool; The Kingdom and People of Kent.
INTERVIEW
A small lesson in the big business of archaeology in Ireland, from Rónán Swan of the National Roads Authority.
LAST WORD
The difference between amateur and community archaeology, and, where do the professionals fit in?
ODD SOCS
The Ghostsigns Project.
