When was Britain first colonised by early humans? The famous Boxgrove bones, found in the 1990s, date back about 500,000 years, and are still the earliest hominin fossils yet found on these shores. Flints from the Cromer Forest Bed, Norfolk, though, are increasingly pointing to a much longer duration. We explore how the story of early human activity in Britain, currently the subject of a major Natural History Museum exhibition, has come to span almost one million years.
You probably already know there is a new experience awaiting people at Stonehenge. We take a close look at the long-awaited visitor centre, and ask whether its opening marks the dawn of slow tourism or disenfranchises the ten-minute visitor? Chris Catling and Andrew Selkirk offer two contrasting takes on the successor to facilities condemned as a ‘national disgrace’.
A recent arrival at RAF Museum Cosford remembers a very different national emergency. Dornier Do17 bombers were widely used by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Now recovery of one that ditched in the sea is shedding light on a bomber arms-race, and the desperate aerial combat raging over England in 1940.
Traces of violence have been detected, too, on skulls deposited on the banks of the Walbrook in London. Dating to the Roman period, do these testify to a previously unknown blip in the Pax Romana, or provide a grisly insight into public entertainment, criminal justice, or the treatment of prisoners of war?
Also this month, we travel to Winchester for a special news report on the latest attempt to recover the remains of a missing monarch.
FEATURES/n
COLONISING BRITAIN/n
One million years of the human story
When did our early ancestors first arrive in Britain? The latest findings from a 13-year investigation suggest hominins could have reached these shores twice as long ago as previously thought.
WELCOME TO THE NEW STONEHENGE/n
Making a Neolithic circle fit for purpose
Twenty years after the monument was declared a ‘national disgrace’ by the House of Commons, we visit the brand-new Stonehenge Visitor Centre to learn about how the site’s presentation has been transformed for modern visitors.
LAST OF THE MANY/n
Raising the Goodwin Sands Dornier Do17
The chance discovery of the sunken wreck of a German Second World War bomber presented a rare opportunity to archaeologists and conservators. What light can it shed on this dynamic period of aviation history?
ROMAN HEADHUNTERS IN LONDON?/n
The mystery of the Walbrook skulls
Once interpreted as victims of the Boudiccan revolt, the human skulls recovered from London’s Walbrook river have long been a subject of archaeological speculation. We explore the latest thinking on the origin of 39 skulls excavated in 1988.
NEWS/n
Roman coffins and rinderpest at Dickens Square, London; Lost Viking loot at the British Museum; Broxmouth hillfort: earliest evidence of steelmaking in Britain; HMS Amethyst: lost and found off Plymouth Sound; A burning question: Pentrefelin’s Medieval mound; Expanding Silchester’s Iron Age hallmarks
SPECIAL REPORT/n
The search for Alfred the Great
REGULARS/n
Conference
Further details of Current Archaeology Live! 2014.
Reviews
The Ruin of Roman Britain; Living and Working in the Roman World; The Emergent Past
Sherds
Chris Catling’s irreverent take on heritage issues
Last Word
Andrew Selkirk reflects on his recent trip to the new Stonehenge visitor centre
Odd Socs
The West Gallery Music Association