When did the typical English Village begin? The traditional story was that the English Village was first settled by the invading Saxons in the 5th century AD. More recently the date has been put back first to the advent of Christianity in the 7th and 8th centuries, and then even as late as the Norman Conquest. Professor Mick Aston, now best known as the leader of TV’s ‘Time Team’, has for the past 8 years been tackling this problem on a comprehensive scale. The village he has chosen is Shapwick in Somerset and in this major article we look at all aspects of his attack. This is a longer article than usual, but then it covers many different aspects of research.. .
Road archaeology in advance of new roads often produces unexpected results, but a particularly splendid example has recently been seen at Monkton on the Isle of Thanet in Kent. Here, instead of the archaeologists digging trial trenches, they stripped the entire length of the road – a mile and a half long – with two most remarkable discoveries. There was a strange village of early Roman date – is this a village of immigrants? And then there were a number of barrows: was this a ‘ritual landscape’ in the Bronze Age?
How did the Romans build a road in a hurry? At Scaftworth on the Nottinghamshire/ Yorkshire border, a Roman road has been discovered, laid down on a timber raft of logs, dragged into position to build a road over boggy ground – fast.
Science also plays its usual major role in this issue with Leo Biek describing how to make glass beads look like gold and John Musty unveiling the secrets of the Indian Rope Trick.
Finally, our next issue will also contain our free annual supplement The Directory of British Archaeology. All archaeological organisations should have received forms to fill in and return. If you have received a form, please return it quickly. If you have not received a form and think that you ought to have done, please contact us immediately.