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The archaeology of modern cities has grown enormously over the past half-century, driven in large part by developer-funded urban renewal. This activity has utilized a diverse array of methodological approaches, research paradigms and scales of analysis — a diversity increasingly reflected in the pages of Post-Medieval Archaeology. In this paper, we review the development of urban archaeology, with a particular focus on material remains from the past two or three centuries. We emphasize the role played by commercial archaeology and the growing importance of community engagement, along with changing theoretical models and the emergence of new analytical technologies.

The reported absence of distinguishing features upon British Gypsy-Traveller memorials has been used to support the widely accepted, and influential, argument that dead people are not the focus of social continuity within Gypsy-Traveller society. However, based upon cemetery surveys and interviews with members of the Gypsy-Traveller community in Sheffield, England, this paper demonstrates that explicit displays of ethnicity are now common upon memorials, and describes their characteristics. The reasons behind this apparent shift in mortuary practices are discussed in relation to wider socio-political factors. Based upon these findings, we argue for a reconsideration of the relationship between living and dead people within British Gypsy-Traveller society, and a recognition of the importance of commemoration in the negotiation of identity and social reproduction within these communities.

The French immigrants of early modern London are recorded as having been a clearly recognizable community with similarities in language, religion, occupation and material culture. However, analysis of the excavated and documentary evidence of their domestic artefacts reveals few differences when compared with their English counterparts. Although isolated artefacts may reasonably be linked to an immigrant identity, the majority of refugees do not appear to have commonly expressed their group identity through their domestic material culture in historically identifiable ways. This may indicate that the nature of French immigrant identity was more complex and varied than contemporary accounts imply.