Sutton Hoo is back in the news. A chance find in a field followed by a major dig under the new Visitor Centre have revealed a second cemetery. It lies just to the north of the famous shipburials and is about fifty years older. Have we found the final resting-place of King Raedwald’s ancestors? Our first article explores this question with dig director John Newman and other Anglo-Saxon specialists.
For another major story we turn to London, where the recent Gresham Street dig has produced internationally important discoveries showing how the Romans lifted water from wells. A difficult, deep, waterlogged excavation produced the remains of wooden boxbuckets and the connecting iron links from two bucket-chains. Then another was found on a second City dig, and yet another was recognised in the records of an excavation fifty years ago. With only one Roman bucket-chain ever found before – anywhere in the empire London is suddenly in the forefront of research on Roman water-lifting devices.
Then we go to Cheshire to look at a long-term project investigating the origins of a Cistercian monastery in the twelfth-century. The Cistercians were the ‘back-to-basics’ reforming monks of the period, keen to set up monasteries in desolate spots and reclaim land from the wilderness. Poulton was one of the sites they abandoned early – unlike famous sites such as Rievaulx – so this is a chance for Mike Emery and team to find out how it all started.
Our fourth main feature takes us to the western hinterland of Cambridge, where university redevelopment in recent years has led to some big rescue digs. The hinterland was surprisingly full in Roman times, and here we look at a major settlement about a kilometre from the Roman small town. But what was it? A private estate-centre? A rural market? Land belonging to the emperor? And why is there such a substantial settlement so close to Cambridge?
With this issue, the XV volume of Current Archaeology comes to an end, and we conclude with an index. May we also thank all those who have helped us in this volume – the contributors, the ‘sources’ the photographers, the illustrators and all those who have made the articles possible. And our thanks too, to you, our readers, for your support, stimulus and inspiration!