The investigations have produced evidence for 6,000 years of landscape and settlement evolution. Perhaps the most striking result is the evidence for continuity, rather than discontinuity, in the development of the landscape. The act of defining chronological periods, while essential in describing past human society, does tend to accentuate discontinuity. This applies both to individual monuments — some on the Biddenham Loop played a major part in people’s lives for many generations — and to the wider landscape itself. The Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments were incorporated into the middle Bronze Age field systems and some were still used for the burial of the dead. Continued use of these fields into the middle Iron Age and even the Romano-British period is clearly evidenced by the way in which later farmsteads were set up on their periphery. The positioning of the main early Iron Age pit alignment across the Biddenham Loop has elements of both discontinuity and continuity. It does ‘cut’ a number of ditched boundaries but does so at the corners of fields, so that over the majority of its course it crosses unenclosed land between two separate middle Bronze Age field systems. For the Roman–Saxon transition it is significant that the majority of the evidence for early Saxon settlement occurs in the vicinity of Romano-British settlements.

The excavations led by Margaret and Tom Jones on the Thames gravel terraces at Mucking, Essex, undertaken between 1965 and 1978 are legendary. The largest area excavation ever undertaken in the British Isles, involving around 5000 participants, recorded around 44,000 archaeological features dating from the Beaker to Anglo-Saxon periods and recovered something in the region of 1.7 million finds of Mesolithic to post-medieval date. While various publications have emerged over the intervening years, the death of both directors, insufficient funding, many organisational complications and the sheer volume of material evidence have severely delayed full publication of this extraordinary palimpsest landscape.Lives in Land is the first of two major volumes which bring together all the evidence from Mucking, presenting both the detail of many important structures and assemblages and a comprehensive synthesis of landscape development through the ages: settlement histories, changing land-use, death and burial, industry and craft activities. The long time-gap since completion of the excavations has allowed the authors the unprecedented opportunity to stand back from the density of site data and place the vast sum of Mucking evidence in the wider context of the archaeology of southern England throughout the major periods of occupation and activity.Lives in Land begins with a thorough evaluation of the methods, philosophy and archival status of the Mucking project against the organisational and funding background of its time, and discusses its fascinating and complex history through a period of fundamental change in archaeological practice, legislation, finance, research priorities and theoretical paradigms in British Archaeology. Subsequent chapters deal with the prehistoric landscape, each focusing on the major themes that emerge by major period from analysis and synthesis of the data. The authors draw on archival material including site notebooks and personal accounts from key participants to provide a detailed but lively account of this iconic landscape investigation.

This monograph details the results of major excavations in Southwark, London, detailing an archaeological sequence which spans the early prehistoric to very latest Roman periods. The site lay on the Southern outskirts of Roman London and was the location of a large Romano-Celtic temple complex. A very large finds assemblage includes a marble inscription, which is the earliest text found to mention 'Londoners'.

Malcolm Lillie presents a major new holistic appraisal of the evidence for the Mesolithic occupation of Wales. The story begins with a discourse on the Palaeolithic background. In order to set the entire Mesolithic period into its context, subsequent chapters follow a sequence from the palaeoenvironmental background, through a consideration of the use of stone tools, settlement patterning and evidence for subsistence strategies and the range of available resources. Less obvious aspects of hunter-forager and subsequent hunter-fisher-forager groups include the arenas of symbolism, ritual and spirituality that would have been embedded in everyday life. The author here endeavours to integrate an evaluation of these aspects of Mesolithic society in developing a social narrative of Mesolithic lifeways throughout the text in an effort to bring the past to life in a meaningful and considered way.The term ‘hunter-fisher-foragers’ implies a particular combination of subsistence activities, but whilst some groups may well have integrated this range of economic activities into their subsistence strategies, others may not have. The situation in coastal areas of Wales, in relation to subsistence, settlement and even spiritual matters would not necessarily be the same as in upland areas, even when the same groups moved between these zones in the landscape. The volume concludes with a discussion of the theoretical basis for the shift away from the exploitation of wild resources towards the integration of domesticates into subsistence strategies, i.e. the shift from food procurement to food production, and assesses the context of the changes that occurred as human groups re-orientated their socio-economic, political and ritual beliefs in light of newly available resources, influences from the continent, and ultimately their social condition at the time of ‘transition’.

The site at Mill Lane, Sawston, represents millennia of human activity within a dynamic and changing landscape setting. River valleys have been a focus for human activity since the early Holocene and, in addition to providing abundant archaeological evidence for this activity, the proximity to water also highlights the potential for the preservation of both archaeological remains and palaeoenvironmental source material. However, human activity within river valleys also commonly bridges areas of both wetland and dryland; ecological zones which are often approached using quite different archaeological methods and which present considerable differences in levels of archaeological visibility and preservation. The site at Mill Lane offered an uncommon opportunity to explore the interface between these two types of environment.Here we present the results of the study of a wetland/dryland interface on the edge of palaeochannels of the River Cam in Cambridgeshire. Through the integrated archaeological and palaeoenvironmental analysis of a site on the western edge of Sawston, a detailed picture of life on the edge of the floodplain from the late glacial to the post-medieval periods has been developed. At the heart of this is the relationship between people and their changing environment, which reveals a shifting pattern of ritual, occupation and more transitory activity as the riparian landscape in a wooded setting became a wetland within a more openly grazed environment. The presence of potential built structures dating to the early Neolithic, the early Bronze Age and the early Anglo-Saxon periods provides some sense of continuity, although the nature of these structures and the environmental context within which they were constructed was very different.

During the 18th century the expansion of the wealthy London parish of St Marylebone led to the development of two additional graveyards to relieve pressure on the church and churchyard on Marylebone High Street. The latest of these, on the north side of Paddington Street, was in use between 1772 and 1853. Archaeologists recorded 386 burials from 124 single, stacked and brick-lined graves at the western edge of this ground. The archaeological findings and detailed osteological analysis of 291 individuals are combined with documentary research to provide a fascinating account of a burial ground used predominantly by the middle and upper classes.

A complex enclosure identified by aerial photography at Dunragit Galloway, was demonstrated by excavation to have been of Late Neolithic date, and comprised three concentric timber ramped post-rings, 120–300 m in diameter. The two outer post-rings each comprised large uprights interspersed with smaller members, probably forming a continuous palisade. Each was a single-phase structure and the posts had rotted out. The inner ring had largely been made up of large, free-standing posts, most of which had rotted away, but some of which had been deliberately removed, the post-holes being considerably larger than those of the two outer rings. Where posts had been pulled out, a number of elaborate deposits had been placed in the crater left by the post-removal. The entrances to the post-rings are not aligned and the preferred interpretation is that the monument as a whole had two phases of construction, in each of which a timber circle was surrounded by a palisade, and in which the middle post-ring succeeded the outer, or vice-versa.The enclosure had been preceded by a post-defined cursus monument in which all the post had been burned in situ and numerous other post-holes were located on the same axis as the cursus, extending beyond the monument itself.The most elaborate entrance, connected with the middle post-ring, is composed of two parallel lines of features, presumably post-holes, opening toward the south, and aligned on a large earthen mound at Droughduil, 400 m away. Droughduil Mote, though recorded as a medieval motte, recalls the association of various very large mounds with with henges or palisaded enclosures, as at Silbury Hill, Wiltshire. Excavation demonstrated that it had been constructed with stepped sides, and that a stone cairn had been constructed on its summit. A series of optically stimulated luminescence dates on the accumulated sand over the surface of the mound demonstrated that it was certainly not medieval, and was probably Neolithic in date.

This latest CBA Practical Handbook forms part of the CBA-led project to record the physical legacy of the First World War on the Home Front in the UK. The book provides invaluable background information for anyone interested in identifying and recording the remains of the Home Front, from practice trenches to works by conscientious objectors to Homes fit for Heroes. Extensively illustrated, with both archive and modern images, the book also includes guidance on researching the Home Front. Mention of the First World War usually conjures up images of the trenches, the battles of the Western Front and the many cemeteries and memorials in Northern France and Belguim. Few will first consider the impact of the war here in Britain, yet the impact of the war on the Home Front was significant, affecting all aspects of life and introducing many changes, in industry, farming, housing and society. Little evidence of the First World War was thought to survive in the United Kingdom, but recent surveys have shown that much remains. With contributions from more than 25 authors, this book provides invaluable background information for anyone interested in identifying and recording these remains of the Home Front. More details on the Home Front Legacy project can be found at http://www.homefrontlegacy.org.uk.

The people who lived in England before the First World War now inhabit a realm of yellow photographs. Theirs is a world fast fading from ours, yet they do not appear overly distant. Many of us can remember them as being much like ourselves. Nor is it too late for us to encounter them so intimately that we might catch ourselves worrying that we have invaded their privacy. Digging up their refuse is like peeping through the keyhole. How far off are our grandparents in reality when we can sniff the residues of their perfume, cough medicines, and face cream? If we want to know what they bought in the village store, how they stocked the kitchen cupboard, and how they fed, pampered, and cared for themselves there is no better archive than a rubbish tip within which each object reveals a story. A simple glass bottle can reveal what people were drinking, how a great brand emerged, or whether an inventor triumphed with a new design. An old tin tells us about advertising, household chores, or foreign imports, and even a broken plate can introduce us to the children in the Staffordshire potteries, who painted in the colours of a robin, crudely sketched on a cheap cup and saucer. In this highly readable and delightfully illustrated little book Tom Licence reveals how these everyday minutiae, dug from the ground, contribute to the bigger story of how our great grandparents built a throwaway society from the twin foundations of packaging and mass consumption and illustrates how our own throwaway habits were formed.

The exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ‘Wessex Culture’ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research project that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body.Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites.

Between 2008 and 2011 excavations were undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit at Tremough, near Penryn, Cornwall. The site is situated on a plateau overlooking the Carrick Roads, historically one of the busiest waterways in Cornwall.The excavations led to a large number of significant archaeological features being uncovered ranging from Neolithic pits to Bronze Age structures and late prehistoric enclosures. Foremost of these sites were a Middle Bronze roundhouse (circa 1500-1300 cal BC) and a large circular Late Bronze Age enclosure (circa 1000-800 cal BC).Importantly, the roundhouse was found to contain stone moulds associated with the production of socketed tools and pins, and traces of metalworking were found inside the building. As such, the excavations have provided the first evidence for metalworking inside a Middle Bronze Age roundhouse in southern England, as well as radiocarbon dating for a range of metalwork forms. As part of the project finds of metalwork from other roundhouses in the South West region have been reassessed.The Late Bronze Age enclosure is the first of its type to found in the South West of Britain. It encircled a large number of pits and postholes, some of which were associated with rectangular post-built structures. A carefully made cairn of burnt stone beside a large pit and a second large pit containing burnt stone and pottery were also investigated. These may have been associated with cooking or perhaps with a small-scale episode of metalworking, as the tip of a sword mould was found in one of the pits.The significance of the investigated sites is fully discussed with regard to their relationships with other prehistoric sites on the plateau and in terms of their wider context with other sites in the South West and beyond.

Roger, Bishop of Salisbury (1102–39, built Sherborne Old Castle within his episcopal estate at Sherborne, in north-west Dorset, in about 1122–35. The fortified palace was one of several major building projects undertaken by Bishop Roger; among the others were the rebuilding of Old Sarum cathedral and castles at Devizes and Malmesbury. Although Sherborne Old Castle was altered over the next four centuries, most of its original structural elements were retained until the buildings were slighted in 1645. This report describes and analyses the information obtained from all the archaeological investigations undertaken at the castle since the early twentieth century, including those of A E Rawlence (1932), C E Bean (1932 to 1954), and the authors of this report, Peter White, then Inspector of Ancient Monuments, between 1968 and 1980and the late Alan Cook (1980–95).An analysis of the results, together with continuing historical research, have revealed much more about the major periods of the castle’s construction and use. It is now possible to describe and source more exactly the sophisticated design of Roger’s castle and the high quality of the craftsmanship employed in its construction and decoration; the later phases of development during the medieval period including the improvements to the castle’s defences and accommodation when held by the Crown between 1183 and 1354; the post-1357 alterations after the castle had been regained by Bishop Wyvil of Salisbury, and the important fifteenth-century building programme carried out by Bishop Thomas Langton. A much clearer assessment has been made of the impact of the works undertaken by Sir Walter Ralegh in his abortive attempt to remodel the castle as his country seat after he obtained the estate in 1592.Finally, although much of the fabric of the castle was destroyed following its surrender to a Parliamentary army in 1645, new documentary evidence and structural analysis has revealed how, during the eighteenth century, the Digby family developed and maintained the ruins as a romantic feature on the northern boundary of their landscaped park.

The prehistories of Britain and Ireland are inescapably entwined with continental European narratives. The central aim here is to explore ‘cross-channel’ relationships throughout later prehistory, investigating the archaeological links (material, social, cultural) between the areas we now call Britain and Ireland, and continental Europe, from the Mesolithic through to the end of the Iron Age. Since the separation from the European mainland of Ireland (c. 16,000 BC) and Britain (c. 6000 BC), their island nature has been seen as central to many aspects of life within them, helping to define their senses of identity, and forming a crucial part of their neighbourly relationship with continental Europe and with each other. However, it is important to remember that the surrounding seaways have often served to connect as well as to separate these islands from the continent. In approaching the subject of ‘continental connections’ in the long-term, and by bringing a variety of different archaeological perspectives (associated with different periods) to bear on it, this volume provides a new a new synthesis of the ebbs and flows of the cross-channel relationship over the course of 15,000 years of later prehistory, enabling fresh understandings and new insights to emerge about the intimately linked trajectories of change in both regions.

Excavations near the Roman forum on Londinium’s eastern hill (modern Cornhill) have revealed archaeological evidence from the earliest period of London’s history. There was intensive domestic occupation on the site from c. AD 50–5, which was interrupted by the Boudican fire of AD 60/61. The north-east corner of a temporary fort of c. AD 63–85 was found immediately to the east, at Plantation Place, and reconstruction of the plan of this fort indicates that 20 Fenchurch Streetsite would have lain within it. Scant evidence for this was recovered but finds include lorica segmentata armour fittings and a possible spear butt. Possibly fort-related features include clay-and-timber buildings, a large timber-lined water tank and a metalworking workshop. After the fort was demolished, the later 1st-century AD occupation of the site was again domestic in character, with a succession of short-lived clay-and-timber buildings constructed across the area.During the 2nd century AD the pattern of activity changed, with longer lasting masonry buildings replacing the clay-and-timber constructions. The final Roman structure on the site was a 3rd-century masonry cellar.The finds recovered have a heavily domestic bias, with household and personal items, including a large group of dress accessories. A comprehensive collection of pottery, with a wealth of early Roman material, includes mid 1st-century AD wares.

The nine papers presented here set out to broaden the recent focus of archaeological evidence for medieval children and childhood and to offer new ways of exploring their lives and experiences. The everyday use of space and changes in the layout of buildings are examined, in order to reveal how these impacted upon the daily practices and tasks of household tasks relating to the upbringing of children. Aspects of work and play are explored: how, archaeologically, we can determine whether, and in what context, children played board and dice games? How we may gain insights into the medieval countryside from the perspective of children and thus begin to understand the processes of reproduction of particular aspects of medieval society and the spaces where children’s activities occurred; and the possible role of children in the medieval pottery industry. Funerary aspects are considered: the burial of infants in early English Christian cemeteries the treatment and disposal of infants and children in the cremation ritual of early Anglo-Saxon England; and childhood, children and mobility in early medieval western Britain, especially Wales. The volume concludes with an exploration of what archaeologists can draw from other disciplines – historians, art historians, folklorists and literary scholars – and the approaches that they take to the study of childhood and thus the enhancement of our knowledge of medieval society in general.

Archaeological work ahead of pipeline construction in East and South Devon led to the excavation of over thirty sites spanning the earlier Neolithic to early modern times. Early features included a wide scatter of pits dating to the Neolithic and Beaker periods (c. 3700–2000 BC), and a variety of Middle Bronze Age features that included evidence for land division in the Otter valley and South Devon. Iron Age activity was relatively uncommon but included iron smelting near Dartington in South Devon and piecemeal settlement more widely.Later remains included evidence for a hillslope enclosure close to the River Dart and an open settlement engaging in pewter manufacture close to the River Avon, which were both Roman in date. There was also a medieval sunken outbuilding near Powderham containing charred cereals (believed to be a first for Devon), as well as a cob linhay relating to the mapped 19th-century rural landscape near Exton. Although none of the sites were particularly rich in artefacts, more than fifty radiocarbon dates have added considerably to our understanding of the changes in human activity, land use and environment over the past 5,000 years across these parts of Devon.