With this issue we celebrate 30 years of Current Archaeology.
Current Archaeology has always sought to present the best of British archaeology, but how many of these projects are important on a world-wide scale? In this issue we have chosen three major projects which in their different ways, demonstrate that the best of British archaeology is indeed among the best in the world.
We begin with the quarry at Boxgrove, already famous round the world as the home of Boxgrove man, or rather his tibia, dated to over half a million years ago. But how was he dated, and what was his life style? Unlike most other palaeolithic excavations, this was not just a single site, but a whole landscape, where we discover the secrets of life half a million years ago.
What was life really like for a soldier on the frontiers of the Roman empire? At Vindolanda, along Hadrian’s Wall, the discovery of wooden writing tablets has provided an unsuspected insight into everyday life in the Roman World, an insight unequalled in any other province, apart (perhaps) from Egypt. Two years ago the numbers of writing tablets were vastly increased by the discovery of the bonfire where the tablets were being burnt when a sudden storm extinguished the bonfire and preserved the tablets. Robin Birley describes the discovery and his work in setting up a new open air museum.
Finally at Colchester, Roman history is being rewritten. Tacitus claims that the Romans treated the Britons with brutality. However at Stanway a burial ground of the native princes is being excavated, dating to the early Roman period, which demonstrates the luxuries with which they were buried. The latest discovery is of one of the subsidiary graves, that of a doctor, buried complete with surgical instruments and his gaming board.
Finally, may we offer a big thank-you, not only to our loyal subscribers, but also to the many contributors who have enabled us, throughout our first thirty years, to celebrate the Best of British Archaeology.