Showing 1-20 of 238 news posts. Most recent first | Next 20 
Excavations of Cursus at Tormore
Archaeologists have been excavating the recently-discovered 1.1km long cursus on the island of Arran. The article in The Scotsman shows the Lidar scans that alerted them to the parallel mounds (now merely 30cm high). Few examples are known from the west coast of Scotland.
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Oldest decoratively carved timber in Britain
Historic England show off the most ancient decoratively carved piece of wood yet found in Britain - recently carbon dated to around 4620BCE, about 500 years older than the oldest previously known example. The Mesolithic timber was found in peat not far from the River Lambourn, by Derek Fawcett, about four years ago. You can spin a 3D model around on the link. (Don't expect anything too decorative about the markings(!) but you can indulge in some wonder that someone made them 2000 years before Stonehenge was built).
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Source of sarsen stones pinpointed
David Nash and his team of researchers believe the sarsens come from West Woods, south west of Marlborough, and 25km from the circle. They've geochemically matched the site using a chip from Stonehenge that was taken during a restoration project in the 1950s. Two of the fifty remaining stones at Stonehenge don't match the West Woods site though...
Article on today's Guardian website.
The research paper can be read here in Science Advances.
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Mesolithic dog on long walk from Yorkshire?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/07/archaelogists-evidence-earliest-known-journey-uk-history-stonehenge-wilsthire-mesolithic-man-dog
David Jacques and his team have found a dog's tooth at Blick Mead. It dates from 7000 years ago. So people had dogs at the site all that time ago, it's a nice thought. But more interestingly, they found that the isotopes in its enamel match those in the water in the Vale of York. Suggesting that dog and owner had walked all that way.
Which, one might suggest, wouldn't be unreasonable if you were a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer roaming around Britain? And maybe that if you were in Wiltshire that year you might pop in. But Jacques suggests Yorkshire's too far away for that and they must have deliberately been drawn in from a long way away, as were others, especially for whatever exciting and famous stuff was going on at Amesbury at that time.
The article also includes a nice bit of anti-tunnel sentiment.
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English Heritage analysis of 3D scanning
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/stonehenge-solstitial-function/
"The laser scan has revealed significant differences in the way the stones were shaped and worked. These differences show that Stonehenge was not only aligned with the solstices, but that the view of the monument from the Avenue, its ancient processional way to the north east, was particularly important. "
Also they have discovered 71 ! new carvings of axes.
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£10m grant for centre from Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund announced last night that they'd be giving ten million pounds towards the Stonehenge visitor centre improvements. Government axes £10m. HLF provides £10m. See we're all in this together and charities can make up the slack. Keep buying those scratchcards. Yes I am being sarcastic. By the way, if you've got a spare nine million pounds then that'll make up the total that EH are going for.
http://www.hlf.org.uk/news/Pages/10minvestmentfromtheHeritageLotteryFundforStonehenge.aspx
Nothing on the EH website yet though, slightly curiously.
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New information about life in Gough's Cave
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/20/ice-age-cannibals-britain-earliest-settlers
A new carbon dating technique ('ultra filtration') has suggested that the cave was colonised very quickly from further south in Europe after the retreat of the glaciers. It was inhabited for a few hundred years c. 14,700 years ago (a shorter time than previously thought), and it was probably only a intermittent retreat, not a permanent home. Human bones from the cave show traces of being butchered just like animal bones, to remove the flesh and marrow (and the brain, tongue and eyes, for those wanting more gruesome detail) - but still, it's not possible to say whether this was due to hunger or cultural practice. After this period the ice returned and Britain was completely depopulated again. Chilly.
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Retesting of bones gives new occupation date
Bones from Gough's Cave have been re-radiocarbon-dated, giving a new date 14,700 years ago. This matches the archaeological evidence better than the previous radiocarbon tests.
The date suggests Cheddar Gorge was one of the earliest places in Britain that was colonised after the Ice Age.Members of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) project now think the bones from Gough's Cave could have accumulated over just two or three human generations. The occupants might have been following horse migrations across Doggerland. After this there was a very short period of rapid climate warming, in which birch forests flourished, and the horses were less numerous. People then moved out of the caves to look for other food.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8151524.stm
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Free lecture on Monkswood Hoard
"The Monkswood hoard was found in the St Catherine's valley near Bath during the construction of a reservoir in the 1930s. It contains 38 pieces of Bronze age metalwork. This talk by Stephen Clews, Manager of the Roman Baths & Pump Room, looks at the objects in the hoard from the perspective of what they can tell us about people and society in the area around Bath nearly 3,000 years ago."
The Guildhall, Bath
Tuesday 17 February 2009, 1.10- 1.45pm
Refreshments on sale from 12.45pm
Admission free
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Talk on Cave project, 1st April
There has been a major research project on Kendrick's Cave, and this talk explaining it will be by Jill Cook, the deputy keeper of prehistory and early Europe at the British Museum. She will also reinterpret the 19th century excavations by Thomas Kendrick.
Meanwhile, the 'Sharing Treasures' exhibition will open at Llandudno Museum, at which the mesolithic finds from the cave (including art and jewellery) have been reunited from various collections 'for the first time in 100 years'.
Was the cave just a campsite or a place of more special significance?
Sounds all very interesting. The talk is at 7pm, in Llandudno Town Hall, on Tuesday 1st April. Entry is free but donations to the Museum are welcome.
http://www.newswales.co.uk/?section=Community&F=1&id=13599
More about the art on a horse's jawbone found in the cave at
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/news/wales-news/2008/03/19/is-jawbone-the-ancient-souvenir-ancestor-of-the-humble-snow-globe-91466-20643806/
- it's thought to be 13,000 years old!
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Prehistoric finds at new M62 junction
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7223230.stm
Ron Cowell, the curator of prehistoric archaeology at Liverpool Museum, describes the finds of prehistoric flints and burnt hazelnuts. They're an unusual discovery because of their lowland location. The site will be buried by a new link road for J6 on the M62 near Huyton. There'll be a museum display of all the artefacts found.
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New date for Paviland skeleton
Apparently, because of contaminants from preservatives used in the 19th century, previous tests have underestimated the age of the skeleton. It's now thought that he's 29,000 years old (4000 years older than before!).
This could mean that people living in these islands were the first in Europe to bury their dead in such a way, and that perhaps the custom spread from here (ah it's always seen to be a bonus when a Briton invents something).
It also means that Mr Paviland would have lived in a warm era, rather than a cold period as previously thought.
He will be going back to Wales for an exhibition at the National Museum in Cardiff, starting on December 8th. The 'Origins' gallery has been redeveloped. It's got some very interesting things.
http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/846/
information from C4 article at:
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/red+lady+skeleton+29000+years+old/979762
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Showing 1-20 of 238 news posts. Most recent first | Next 20 |
This hill, it has a meaning that is very important for me, but it's not rational. It's beautiful, but when you look, there's nothing there. But I'd be a fool if I didn't listen to it.
-- Alan Garner.
...I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn...
-- William Wordsworth.
Some interesting websites with landscape and fairy folklore:
http://earthworks-m.blogspot.co.uk
http://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.co.uk
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