Mention Iron Age settlement, and most people’s minds turn to hillforts, oppida, or even the evocatively named banjo enclosures. One thing all of these sites have in common is earthworks that encircle or at least sketch out the bounds of occupation. ‘Duropolis’ is different. Excavations at Winterborne Kingston are revealing a dense cluster of roundhouses seemingly lacking anything that might pass for defences. Inside this settlement, the inhabitants committed to the earth mysterious skeletons created from a medley of different animals.
Hybridisation of another kind was under way at Ditherington during the height of the Industrial Revolution. Replacing wood with iron created a mill that has been fêted as ‘the father of the skyscraper’. We take a look at the buildings that fearlessly pushed the boundaries of design to realise the potential of new technology.
There has been no shortage of realising potential at Little Carlton. An eye-catching array of Anglo-Saxon finds from the parish pointed to the presence of an important site. Now excavation has revealed an island settlement, complete with a quay to help bind its inhabitants into the wider world.
Connectivity is a perennial problem, as London’s Crossrail project demonstrates. This audacious scheme has produced vivid tableaux of activity stretching back as far as the last Ice Age, allowing us to explore London from below.
Matt Symonds
IN THIS ISSUE:/n
FEATURES/n
FINDING DUROPOLIS/n
A new kind of Iron Age settlement
Large Iron Age settlements are traditionally associated with mighty defensive earthworks – so what does the discovery of a substantial but apparently unenclosed site in Dorset mean for our understanding of the period?
THE MILL’S TALE/n
Ditherington and the Industrial Revolution
Work to restore a pioneering industrial complex has revealed a story of engineering ingenuity that made possible the birth of the skyscraper.
THE MYSTERY IN THE MARSH/n
Exploring an Anglo-Saxon island at Little Carlton
An impressive array of Middle Saxon metalwork held the key to identifying one of the most important high-status settlements found in Lincolnshire. We explore the archaeological detectivework that brought this community to light once more.
FAST TRACK TO THE PAST/n
Celebrating Crossrail’s archaeology
A major infrastructure project created one of the largest archaeological programmes ever undertaken, revealing a wealth of secrets hidden beneath modern London.
NEWS/n
Rare Romano-British fresco found in London; Bronze Age village found on Sanday; Men, women, and children buried at Stonehenge; Rolling out the past at Must Farm; Gifts for the dead at Lopness?; Leicester’s roads to Rome revealed; Investigating Newhaven’s man of mystery; New community fund for radiocarbon dating
REGULARS/n
Reviews
The Fields of Britannia; Archaeology of Salt; Understanding Roman Frontiers; Death in the Close
Museum Review
We meet the ancestors at the Natural History Museum’s new Human Evolution gallery
Sherds
Chris Catling’s irreverent take onheritage issues
Odd Socs
The Friends of Williamson’s Tunnels