With Volume 23(2) the BHA completes its 23rd year as a bi-annual publication, in the form it has been since I became its editor in 2003. In 2014 this will change. The hard-copy version of the BHA Volume 24 (and subsequent volumes) will appear as an annual – that is there will only be one issue per year. Our friends at Ubiquity Press have advised that this will allow for a more effective translation into hard copy of works first published on line. We will now publish in November of each year, while maintaining our regime of continuous publication in our on-line environment. Rest assured the BHA will become even better value than before!

Our link with Ubiquity Press has greatly expanded our audience and allowed authors to publish quickly and effectively, and to have their work contribute to a global conversation about the history of archaeology. Of course we need for this to keep going, so prospective authors should visit our website (www.archaeologybulletin.org) where the workings of the Bulletin are fully explained. As I have mentioned before I will continue to accept submissions direct, so if you are more comfortable submitting this way please do so. The on-line environment also allows readers to register as potential reviewers, and I encourage you to do this, not just because it reduces the load of those hardy individuals who are on our list, but because it provides excellent experience for potential authors as well.

This hard-copy issue collects 3 papers and 3 book reviews that have appeared in our on-line version. The three papers continue our tradition of promoting diversity of subject and method. The first paper, by Mathew Goodrum, revisits one of the most important passages in the nineteenth century history of prehistoric archaeology, that of the development of a language of description and analysis of prehistoric stone implements – this time from the perspective of Belgian archaeology. The second paper, by Sarah Scott, continues our recent spate of papers concerning the archaeology of Roman Britain during the early nineteenth century – this time through the life and work of antiquary Samuel Lysons. The final paper, by David Browman, presents a detailed discussion of the work of William Nickerson and Frederick Starr and the development of the ‘Chicago Method’ of excavation. Readers might wish to dig deeper into this interesting history by consulting the recent biography Frederick Starr (AltaMira, 2012) by one of our subscribers, Donald McVicker. Stephen Leach contributes a review of L. C. Carr’s biography of the fascinating Tessa Wheeler; I review B. Sunday Eiselt’s path breaking historical archaeology of the Jicarilla Apache Becoming White Clay; and Margarita Díaz-Andreu reviews the biographical study of Carlos Benito González de Posada, an eighteenth century antiquarian who was interested in the archaeology of Asturias and Tarragona, in Spain.

And now for my bi-annual homily about the place of the BHA in the rapidly expanding field of the history of archaeology. The expansion of interest in our field, and the rapid expansion in the size and diversity of the communities who are involved, make it very important that we keep lines of communication as open as possible. For this reason the BHA has long sought information from readers and subscribers about research projects, doctoral dissertations, and symposia/conference sessions relevant to our field. Information about these fundamental activities is just as welcome as papers and book reviews and I encourage all readers and subscribers to use the BHA as a vehicle for disseminating this.

It remains for me to thank our contributors to the final issue of Volume 23, and our steadfast anonymous reviewers without whom we would not be able to function. The same applies to our production team of Wei Ming and Susan Bridekirk, and our subscriptions manager, Emily Dutton, all of La Trobe University. The assistance of La Trobe in supporting our enterprise is, as usual, very gratefully acknowledged.