Crowd puller

Paul Roberts

"Newhenge" was very interesting (feature, Jan/Feb). When the question is put forth, "What was the purpose of Blue Stonehenge?", I think what comes in mind is that it was a place for a gathering of people for special events, such as executions, sacrifices, the observation of the heavens, burial of the elite and festive moments in which beating drums would pulsate off the columns, entrancing the crowds.

Paul Dale Roberts, Elk Grove, California

In context

Tony Kesten

I read your editorial in this month's issue with great interest (Mar/Apr). I am active on two Roman sites – Vindolanda at Hadrian's Wall, where I'm just a digger working for one of the best managers I've ever encountered, Justin Blake, and the Whitehall Roman villa just north of Towcester in Northants (volunteers welcome, no experience required), where I am a permanent member of the context team. Your focus on context set out exactly why it is central to what the team does at Whitehall and, with a very different approach, to what happens at Vindolanda once we diggers have gone off each day to the pubs, hotels and campsites we enjoy.

Tony Kesten

Watch that Goth

Lindsay Dannatt

Great cover picture on the Mar/Apr edition. However, the two Goths nonchalantly looting would not look so relaxed if a horse at full gallop ridden by a man wielding a torch had really passed by quite so close to them. Also, the hoof on the horse's right foreleg appears to be on backwards.

Lindsay Dannatt, Swindon

• Cover illustration 'Barbarians at the Gate' by Severino Baraldi (1981), Look & Learn Magazine Ltd. Ed

Missing survey

Vincent Megaw

The feature on the recent results of the Stonehenge Landscape Project made fascinating reading (Mar/Apr), but maybe was a little light on the history of surveying the site. I missed a reference to Flinders Petrie's survey undertaken with his father between 1874 and 1880. Less worthy of note perhaps is the contoured survey – at three inch intervals – which formed part of the Stone-Atkinson-Piggott excavations of the 1950s. I know because, to adapt Mortimer Wheeler's famous expression, "I was there when the measurements were written down".

Vincent Megaw, Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide

• To coin another famous expression, "The records are missing". Ed

[When managing clubs in Spain and Italy] his holidays were often spent visiting archaeological sites. Chris Bowlby reveals that Fabio Capello, England football team’s Italian manager, has a passion for archaeology and museums. BBC Radio 4 Profile Jan 6