contents highlights

'Invasions' are one of the hottest topics in British Archaeology. Fifty years ago invasions were seen as the driving force for change in British prehistory, but today they are right out of fashion and have become little more than a dirty word. The fiercest arguments come over the 'Beakers' which appear in the third millennium BC, buried under round barrows: do these mark a 'Beaker invasion'? Last year a very rich Beaker burial was discovered at Amesbury - an archer buried with several beakers, three copper knives and nearly a hundred artefacts in all. However, scientific analysis of his teeth now suggests that he may have been brought up in central Europe. Was he a Beaker invader? Read our article for full details of this controversial discovery.

The Vikings are similarly controversial. Were they traders or raiders? Vikings are hitherto little known in Wales, but at Llanbedrgoch on Anglesey a settlement has been discovered with numerous Viking affinities. Were these raiders, perhaps expelled by the Irish from Dublin? or were they traders? Again our full article gives all the details.

The Vikings are out in force for this issue, for at Ingleby, in Derbyshire, is the only known Viking barrow cemetery in England. What were Vikings doing cremating their dead in the heart of Christian England? And how does this cemetery relate to the settlement at nearby Repton, where the Vikings over-wintered in B73?

For Romanists, we turn to Frilford, near Oxford. This has become a classic site of a rural shrine beginning in the Iron Age and continuing into the Roman period. Recent excavations located a great circular structure: Was it really an amphitheatre? Or something else?

Finally, we have the latest news on the Newport ship. The 'Welsh Mary Rose' has lain in the mud since the 15th century, but has been the subject of a major campaign to excavate it and preserve it. Here we present the first full account of what has actually been discovered.

regulars news

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Roulston Scar Iron Age hillfort; the Inchmarnoch 'Hostage' Stone.

diary

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University Teaching Quality Assessment; launch of Heritage Link; and APPAG

AlfiilEOLOGY184

books.................................... .... 66 Newgrange; Medieval Ireland; The Souterrains of Ireland; Iron Age and Roman Wychwood; and Great Excavations: Catholme; and Dunadd. Also poem: The Knowth Troweller - homage to George Eogan.

letters Stonehenge; That Neanderthal woman; The Ackworth Milestone; Which Ebbsfleet?; Community Archaeologist; and Waterwheel Reconstruction.

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