The ship that was buried in the seventh century at Sutton Hoo and excavated under Mound 1 in 1939, is now being reconstructed. This book, planned as the first of three, celebrates the artisans who built the original ship and the times they lived in, explores the crafts they practised and the...
Publications
See below for a selected list of Martin Carver's publications. For a full list of publications, including journal articles, see the complete list of publications.
Published:
2024
A multi-author monograph presenting the discoveries and interpretations made at Castronovo di Sicilia and its environs in central Sicily, relating to the Byzantine, Islamic, Norman and Swabian periods 550-1250. The data was won from surface and drone surveys, test excavation and area excavations...
Published:
2024
Published 18 Dec 2024 - Thoroughly updated second edition of Archaeological Investigation: 570pp, numerous illustrations in colour and monochrome. It covers the aims and methods of archaeological investigation from first acquaintance (Principles: Part 1) to beginner in action...
Published:
2020
The Sutton Hoo. A seventh-century princely burial ground and its context publication is available for public download via the links below.
This book was published in 2005 by the British Museum Press and The Society of Antiquaries of London (ISBN-13 978-0-7141-2322-...
Published:
2019
FORMATIVE BRITAIN came out from Routledge on 31 January 2019 after 10 years in the making. It offers a synthesis of the history of the whole island of Britain from the Fifth to the Eleventh century (c400-1100AD), using archaeology alone. It reviews the surviving prehistoric and...
Published:
2017
An up-to-date account of the archaeological explorations of the Sutton Hoo site, its three cemeteries of the 6th, 7th and 8-10th centuries,
their historical roles in the Deben Valley, in East Anglia, in northern Europe and in the wider world.
THE SUTTON HOO STORY is a...
PORTMAHOMACK on TARBAT NESS Changing ideologies in north-east Scotland sixth to sixteenth century AD
Published:
2016
The final report of the Portmahomack campaign by Martin Carver, Justin Garner-Lahire and Cecily Spall, co-directors.
Discoveries at Portmahomack in Easter Ross (1994 to 2008) were initially hailed as the first modern sighting of a Pictish monastery. The intensive period of post-excavation...
Published:
2016
Second edition fully revised in sync with the final report
Published:
2014
Field practice in archaeology varies greatly throughout the world, mainly because archaeological sites survive in very different ways in different counties. Many manuals see this as a problem - to be defeated by the imposition of standardised procedures. In this book we relish the variety of...
Published:
2011
Comprehensive multi-author review of the archaeology of Medieval Europe twelfth to sixteenth centuries
Edited by Martin Carver and Jan Klapste
Sixty eight contributors, 605 pp numerous illustrations
It includes the archaeology of towns, villages, castles, ships and...
Published:
2011
New directions for the joined-up practice of archaeology today
‘Archaeology is for people’ is the theme of this book. Split between the academic and commercial sectors, archaeological investigation is also deeply embedded in the needs of local communities, making it simultaneously...
Published:
2010
The excavation of the fort built by Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians in 913AD
The majority of our county towns, and the shires themselves, owe their origins to the campaigns of Alfred and his children Edward the Elder and Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, in the late 9th and...
Published:
2010
Latest ideas on the beliefs and practices of the pagan ancestors of the English
This multi-author book edited by Martin with Sarah Semple and Alex Sanmark throws new light on the intellect of the earliest English - the way they thought, the way they viewed the world, and the way...
Published:
2009
Archaeological Investigation is a modern manual on field practice for students, academics and contract researchers.
"This is the best book in the English language for fifty years or more on the practice of field archaeology" Richard Hodges, Director of University of Pennsylvania...
Published:
2008
Discovery of a super-rich site in Early Medieval Scotland
"A gripping tale of rediscovery and detection, at once accessible and scholarly" William Dalrymple
Portmahomack is a small fishing village on the shore of the Dornoch Firth in North-East Scotland, where a few chance...
Published:
2005
NOW ONLINE ON THIS WEBSITE
The definitive report on the Sutton Hoo Burial Ground
This book contains a detailed account of the five campaigns so far carried out at the Anglo-Saxon Royal Burial Ground at Sutton Hoo: 17th century, 19th century, 1938/9, 1965/71 and 1983-...
Published:
1998
The excavation and explanation of England's first royal bural ground and public execution site
"This book is a very good story - a story of people, both those who were buried on the site and those who dug them up. It compresses into a few short pages a wealth of information and...
Published:
1993
The Reinvention of the town in Europe
The Dalrymple Lectures delivered at Glasgow in 1990 were dedicated to the understanding of the early Medieval (ie Post-Roman) town in Europe. Martin Carver here mounted an assault against the mindless recording of "rescue" sites in European...