It’s worth noting here that Norse or Viking settlers from Scandinavia had moved into Orkney in considerable numbers by the ninth century AD and they adopted many of the prehistoric sites, giving them Norse names, such as Brodgar. They also left graffiti behind, the best of which are in the tomb at Maes Howe. My personal favourite, carved alongside

In some strange way, the process of discovery made you part of the ancient world you were investigating. It happened many times: I would be working away and then, sometimes quite abruptly, I would realize I understood how or why something – often something quite minor – was achieved in the remote past: maybe shaping a stone, butchering a joint of

The recut ditches of the second-century AD settlement at Fengate produced large quantities of pottery made in the semi-industrial workshops of the nearby Roman town of Durobrivae (modern Water Newton) just 11 kilometres (7 miles) to the west. In among the pottery were a few pieces of Samian ware, glossy and finely finished red pottery that was made

We see the shift towards more local control in the new religious rites that start to appear in the centuries prior to 1500 BC. These do not centre on massive shrines or large Ritual Landscapes; instead, people chose to convene more locally at rivers or wet places, where they made offerings to the waters. We can tell by the objects that were placed

the people who built and worshipped at Stonehenge certainly produced some remarkable structures. But we also know for a fact that there were hundreds of other henge sites – some made from wood, others from stone – right across the British Isles, and most of them were similarly surrounded by rich, so-called ritual landscapes, where people processed

The Romans undoubtedly brought to Britain some very important technical innovations, ranging from the first use of new ploughs that actually turned the soil over (earlier ones had simply cut deep channels in it), to the introduction of cement and plaster, bricks and tiles. The Romans also introduced writing and efficient systems of governance

Modern archaeology is a science-based humanity that sets out to reveal the way various communities interacted and how this in turn led to their rise, or decline. But you cannot do this simply by studying artefacts. You must also pay close attention to the landscapes where people lived: to changes in the local vegetation, forest cover, crops,

Onions provide the basis for many modern dishes, but the large cultivated varieties originated in the Middle East and Asia and probably only reached Britain in Roman times.

With most of its soil removed by natural erosion, the solstice-aligned natural cracks in the exposed chalk of Salisbury Plain filled with rainwater and melted snow. During the bitter temperatures of night, the ice froze and expanded with enormous force. This pushed the chalk apart and at the same time it shattered its surface, giving rise to the