This volume celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Society of Medieval Archaeology, established in 1957. It recalls the origins of the society, with Donald Harden the editor, David Wilson, secretary, and John Hurst, treasurer. Christopher Gerrard recalls the early years when annually a summary was produced of digs and finds; great weight was given to British archaeology, perhaps at the expense of internationality. Rosemary Cramp contributes an essay on milestones in early medieval archaeology, commenting that information about Anglo-Saxon settlement sites now balances the former overwhelming data on cemeteries. Messrs Gardiner and Rippon recognize that there is a deep rift between academic study and research on the one hand and contract or development-led survey and excavation on the other. In the meantime, open-area excavation as practised at Wharram Percy, Yeavering and Winchester revealed the potential to unravel the complex layers of these key sites, while interdisciplinary landscape-based projects, such as Raunds, Shapwick and Whittlewood, shed light on whole medieval landscapes. Abroad, further chapters reveal that there was a tendency for archaeology to be geared towards serving the political agenda of the present. Spanish and south-eastern European archaeology was distorted by the totalitarian regimes they served.

Part III deals with medieval landscapes, settlements and material culture. Grenville Astill emphasizes the non-economic functions of towns, and describes them as centres of strategic importance or of political, secular or religious power. He notes that British towns were less independent than their continental contemporaries; they were important tools of royal or aristocratic power, sustained by open fields and commons and owing population growth to local countryside migration. Else Roesdahl, while reviewing Scandinavian housing, stresses that we are no longer just interested in plans and construction materials of buildings but now focus in a more general way on their functions, the individual rooms being identified by artefacts and ecofacts. The Norse Greenland farms, left to decay when their owners sailed away, are recognized as being the best-preserved examples of housing in medieval Europe. One fascinating observation is that they were provided with in situ heating systems by being built on highly organic heat-producing compost. Geoff Egan's article on non-ceramic finds is really an extended bibliography (and, as such, very useful). His conclusion is that the picture of regional variation in material culture so strongly evident in ceramic studies seems not to be valid after the Norman Conquest, at least not for metalwork.

Part IV is concerned with scientific perspectives. Charlotte Roberts thinks that people living in the early medieval period were healthier than those who came later: the latter suffered the results of urbanism through its poor air quality, hygiene and sanitation and with its denser population herded into inadequate housing. In particular, they were victims of respiratory problems, bringing on sinusitis and (connected with increased sugar consumption) dental decay. Gundula Mülner investigates medieval diet and society by stable isotope analysis. An increase in the consumption of fish is found across much of northern and central Europe. Partly this resulted from an improvement in the technology of marine fishing, because fish was a fasting food and a sign of religious devotion. It was also a matter of status. Bishops from Whithorn cathedral priory had consumed more marine fish than those of lower status. Naomi Sykes studies medieval society through animal bones. Those of deer, large wild fowl and various large sea creatures are found exclusively on high-status sites. Wild boar was consumed by a secular aristocracy to embolden themselves and increase their military prowess. Religious sites produced bones from animals deemed to be meek such as roe deer, thought to be chaste and pious.

Andrew Reynolds maintains that power and authority were reflected in medieval society by the erection of gallows along kingdom boundaries and main roads. Rapid communication was possible across large areas of landscape via beacons. Roberta Gilchrist argues that the translation from timber to stone in churches represented a new cycle in the life of the Church. A durable substance such as stone had a promise of spiritual eternity, symbolizing the enduring permanence of the community of saints. Churches built in the Romanesque style and in Roman materials evoked the Roman past and the contemporary connection with the Papacy.

Mark A Hall brings the book to an end and up to the present by reviewing cinematic narratives of the Middle Ages. The anachronistic combination of objects and contexts has never been a bar to creative story-telling. They rely resolutely on certain mythologized characters, such as King Arthur and Robin Hood.