A rare Iron Age horse brooch has been made the subject of a temporary export ban in the hope it will be acquired by a UK museum.
Sites in Hampshire
Articles
Hampshire, UK, 08 September 2009 –
The New Forest National Park Authority is using detailed marine mapping from SeaZone to undertake an archaeological assessment of its coastline in response to changing sea levels. Part of a nationwide programme of Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys supported by English Heritage, the study will help with the development of long term coastal management plans by identifying archaeological and historic sites, and protecting them where possible or making provision for their recording where this may not be possible. There is a need to protect archaeological sites and artifacts from rising sea level and flooding as well as increasing pressures from industrial, residential and leisure developments.
Using SeaZone HydroSpatial together with additional historic records such as aerial photographs many dating back over 90 years, the study aims to identify and record previously undiscovered archaeological sites and artifacts along the 86 kilometres of New Forest and National Park coastline. Supplied as a multi layered theme the digital data is easily used in the Authority’s Geographical Information System (GIS).
‘The SeaZone data is invaluable in identifying changes to the landscape over the past 8,000 years,’ commented Mark James, Maritime Archaeology Project Officer. ‘For example the bathymetric layer gives us a greater understanding of the sea bed and helps us identify previous water courses and ancient river and stream channels that are now submerged in the Solent. In addition the Wrecks and Obstruction data has the potential for discovering archaeological sites helping us identify locations for further investigation.‘
[from agi.org.uk on 14 Sept 09 – not much in the way of news, more a product placement, but hopefully more will emerge in due course]
(With thanks to Ocifant for sending me this)
TWO 6,000-year-old tombs have been unearthed in Hampshire in one of the biggest archaeological finds for years.
The discovery, thought to be among the oldest ever made in the UK, is set to shed new light on the life led by the county’s earliest settlers.
Flint tools and fragments of pottery have already been retrieved from the Neolithic site at Damerham in the New Forest.
The nationally important find has been made by a team of experts from Kingston University in London.
Archaeologist Dr Helen Wickstead said she and her colleagues were “stunned and delighted” when evidence of the prehistoric complex came to light.
She added: “Some artefacts have already been recovered and in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey on the site.
“If we can excavate, we’ll learn a lot more about Neolithic people in the area and discover things such as who was buried there, what kind of life they led and what the environment was like 6,000 years ago.”
The site, 15 miles from Stonehenge, is close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most thoroughly researched prehistoric areas in Europe.
Last night New Forest author and historian Peter Roberts described the find as extremely rare.
The former New Forest Verderer added: “It’s clearly very exciting and will throw new light on the settlements between Cranborne Chase and the Forest.”
The tombs were discovered after staff from English Heritage studied aerial photographs of farmland in the Damerham area and saw signs of buried archaeological sites.
Dr Wickstead said she was astonished that the monuments had remained undiscovered for so long.
She added: “Cranborne Chase is one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a mecca for prehistorians. You’d have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb.”
The team has vowed that any human bones found in the tombs will be treated with dignity.
“The recovery of ancient human remains is always handled sensitively,” added Dr Wickstead. “We feel respect for the dead people we study and we treat their remains with care.”
dailyecho.co.uk/news/4418901.Two_6_000_year_old_tombs_uncovered/
“A retired fisherman has discovered an ancient stone head which experts say could be 24,000 years old – the oldest found in Britain.” The five-inch stone head was found off Long Island in Hampshire and according to archaeologists could be a piece of Neanderthal art. “A similar stone head was found in a Neanderthal cave in northern France and was dated back to 28,000 BC.”
Full story and photo appear on page 7 of The Times, 2 October 2004.
Dog-walker Jamie Stevenson took a stroll along the beach – and stumbled across an axe head dating back to the stone age.
Mr Stevenson, a Radio Solent newsreader, said: ‘My dog Woody likes chasing stones when I skim them on the water, and so I just happened to pick it up.
‘It felt different and looked different. It moulded nicely into my hands. When I looked at it more closely I saw that the edges were cut to be sharp.‘
Mr Stevenson took the stone he found on Prinsted Beach to Havant Museum.
It was forwarded to Kay Ainsworth, the keeper of archaeology at Hampshire Museums Service.
She said: ‘This is a very nice example of a flint Mesolithic era axe. The general shape suggests that it was used as an adze – a stone-age carpentry tool.‘
Mr Stevenson said: ‘The museum dated it to around 8,500BC.
The axe head was returned to Mr Stevenson, who plans to keep it safe.
From Portsmouth Today
Whilst constructing a reservoir at Testwood just outside Southampton, Southern Water uncovered the remains of a Bronze Age bridge.
Ok, so they’re doing it for their own ends, because they might have to dredge some of it. But they could find all sorts of Prehistoric Stuff.
royal-navy.mod.uk/rn/content.php3?page=1&article=725
Wrecks and ‘drowned’ prehistoric settlements may be among the mysteries of the Solent that could be discovered during the most scientifically advanced survey of the area, being undertaken by the Royal Navy.
New hi-tech equipment is being used to produce pictures of what is on and below the seabed in an area that will have to be dredged if it is chosen as the new route into Portsmouth Naval Base for the navy’s new and much larger generation of aircraft carriers.
The geophysical survey – part of a £150-£200 million Portsmouth regeneration scheme – is being conducted by the RN Hydrographic surveying squadron’s smallest vessel, the 35ft long HM Survey Motor Launch (HMSML) Gleaner. With her small crew under the command of Lieutenant Commander Matt Syrett, the Gleaner started her survey task on Monday (September 1) and will continue the work until September 12.
Working under contract to the ministry of defence, the commercial company Wessex Archaeology is assisting the survey which will be carried out using a multi-beam echo-sounder, high-frequency sonar which can detect small items on or below the seabed and, for the first time, a computer-controlled camera system known as Remus.
Also new will be a Canadian-developed system – Caris – which will be used to process the data at the end of the operation. That data, which should be ready before the end of the year, will be provided to the organisations being consulted as part of an environmental impact assessment already announced.
Among the organisations being consulted are local authorities in the area, English heritage and the Mary Rose trust, who have a keen interest in the results of Gleaner’s survey of the Mary Rose wreck site, where the ship’s bow castle is thought to be lying under the seabed.
An initial assessment provided for mod by Wessex Archaeology has found that there are 174 known and documented wrecks and seabed obstructions in the Solent, including the remains of the Portsdown steam ferry which lies on the route of the navy’s preferred channel.
Much earlier wrecks could also be found as the Romans used the Solent sea routes. Other artefacts and structures may date back to the stone and bronze ages as 18,000 years ago the Solent was dry land that gradually became inundated.
An ancient British , used to stamp a horse design on Iron Age gold coins, has been found near Alton in Hampshire.
A member of the public handed it in at the Curtis Museum where it caused huge excitement, with curator, Tony Cross, describing it as “the most significant find in Alton since the discovery of the Alton Buckle some 40 years ago”.
So rare is the die that the British Museum has only ever seen one before.
Ancient forger’s coin die found – The coin die was used to make Iron Age coins
An ancient British coin die – used to create the design on gold coins in the Iron Age – has been found in Hampshire.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/dorset/3156829.stm
guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,722701,00.html
Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Monday May 27, 2002
The Guardian
A time capsule from the stone age, described by English Heritage chief archaeologist David Miles as unique in Britain and of international importance, is threatened by a combination of changing sea levels, dredging and trawling, and the wakes of boats and ferries crossing the Solent straits between the Hampshire coast and the Isle of Wight – as well as the effects of the weekend’s gales.
Parts of the site lost six inches of protective silt and peat this winter alone.
On the sea bed, which was dry land until 6,000BC, prehistoric stone tools still lie where they were made or dropped, among the roots of giant oak trees. The first finds, including flint arrows and knives, recently brought up by archaeologist divers, are so perfectly preserved they look like modern replicas.
The first excavators were blue lobsters, which archaeologists gradually realised were kicking out ancient man made stone tools, as they dug themselves into the muddy seabed.
Tree roots and branches have come up with the marks of stone tools. Finds of organic material, including timber, leather, and animal and possibly human remains, are confidently expected, preserved in the deep layers of silt and peat.
Further surveying and excavation work planned by the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology has become a giant piece of rescue archaeology, as material is laid bare by every tide: once exposed to air, any organic material starts decaying instantly.
Archaeologists had believed all trace of human habitation had been swept away in the inundation which created the Isle of Wight. Recent discoveries prove that the land flooded more gradually, as the sea broke in through the sand bars protecting the salt marshes. However, the flooding was fast enough to force the rapid abandonment of habitation sites, flint working sites, and killing sites where prey species were trapped, slaughtered and butchered for thousands of years: the date of the finds ranges from stone hand axes 30,000 years old, to the flint tools made by the last inhabitants before the water broke through.
On the Isle of Wight, county archaeologists Frank Basford and Rebecca Loading are patrolling hundreds of endangered sites in the inter-tidal zones, recording and recovering artefacts which include ancient causeways and fish traps, and a tangle of Roman rope in the mud of a modern harbour.
More modern objects from countless shipwrecks are also at risk. Recent finds include a syringe from the medicine chest of a 17th century ship’s surgeon, for injecting mercury into the urethra of any luckless sailor who had contracted syphilis.
English Heritage will be monitoring and grant aiding the work, as an Act of Parliament, which becomes law on July 1, extends its powers to cover maritime archaeology.
An astonishing report compiling aerial photography and other surveys in the chalkland area between the Itchen and Test rivers. A must for the Hampshire Antiquarian! There are many possible sites in here that were never known about before!
In case you’re visiting sites in Hants and wondering what formicaant, pure joy, jimit and others are referring to, this is it. Indispensible but only as good as its sources. Refers often to PHFC (Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club, which is now published as Hampshire Studies, an annual journal), which is available at the Hants Record Office next to Winchester railway station.
