 Over the field seasons of 1924 and 1925, Wheeler ran excavations of the Roman fort of Y Gaer near Brecon, a project aided by his wife and two archaeological students, Nowell Myres and Christopher Hawkes. During this project, he was visited by the prominent Egyptologist Sir Flinders Petrie and his wife Hilda Petrie; Wheeler greatly admired Petrie's emphasis on strong archaeological methodologies. Wheeler published the results of his excavation in The Roman Fort Near Brecon. He then began excavations at Isca Augusta, a Roman site in Caerleon, where he focused on revealing the Roman amphitheatre. Intent on attracting press attention to both raise public awareness of archaeology and attract new sources of funding, he contacted the press and organised a sponsorship of the excavation by the middle-market newspaper the Daily Mail. In doing so, he emphasised the folkloric and legendary associations that the site had with King Arthur. In 1925, Oxford University Press published Wheeler's first book for a general audience, Prehistoric and Roman Wales; he later expressed the opinion that it was not a good book.
