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Great British Railway Journeys goes to Ireland where Michael Portillo visits the Cromlech stones of Dundalk
...not that I am a train spotter or anything!...
watch it before its pulled on Feb 10th 2012.
:o)
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Chippenham exhibition to explore pre-history
A winter exhibition of artwork inspired by the pre-history of Wiltshire titled The Past is Another Country will be showcased at Chippenham's Museum and Heritage Centre early next year.
The exhibition will include the ideas and inspirations of six different artists who are members of the Elementals Art Group, with the project being as much about the process of developing an idea as the finished artwork.
Elemental, which includes Jenny Ford, Jan Knight, Julia Leyden, Christine Shorney, Josephine Sumner and Charlotte Sainsbury, studied archival maps and diagrams, artefacts in museums and photographic aerial views of the landscape from which they distilled their own personal and emotional responses.
Ms Leyden said: "We've been working on the project for a few years. We started the group in 2006 but wanted to do something with a theme because there could be so many different views.
"We're all Wiltshire-based and wanted to do something pre-Wiltshire. We ended up looking at the Bronze Age.
"Jenny, Jan and Josephine were really interested in the stone circles, so spent hours walking and looking and sketching.
"We enjoyed this project so much that we've started a new one on pathways and routes in Wiltshire."
The exhibition will run from Monday, January 9, until Tuesday, April 10, and includes paintings, printmaking, and a 12-verse illustrated poem reflecting each artist's take on the project.
Melissa Barnett, curator of Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre, said: "This is the first time we've had an exhibition of this nature and it is of wonderful quality."
The heritage centre will also be displaying archaeological artefacts as complementary material to the projects
http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/chippenhamheadlines/9443062.Chippenham_exhibition_to_explore_pre_history/
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Stonehenge most visited tourist spot in South West
Stonehenge has become the most visited paid-for tourist attraction in the South West.
Figures from tourist board Visit England show that last year the iconic Wiltshire attraction had more visitors than the Eden Project in Cornwall.
Over 1m people visited the stone circle in 2010, up 1.9% on the previous year.
It is the first time it has surpassed the Eden Project for visitor numbers since the Cornwall tourist attraction opened in 2001.
David Andrews, chief executive for Visit Wiltshire, said: "Stonehenge is a fabulous site and we're extremely lucky to have it in the county."
Yes we are and this news is quite amazing considering a lot of people leave disappointed.
Link here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-14554689
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Iron-Age brewing evidence found in southeastern France
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the occupants of southeastern France were brewing beer during the Iron Age, some 2,500 years ago.
A paper in Human Ecology outlines the discovery of barley grains that had been sprouted in a process known as malting; an oven found nearby may have been used to regulate the process.
Beer brewing's heritage stretches back to the Bronze Age in China and the Middle East, but this is the earliest sign of the practice in France, where wine-making had already taken hold.
The recent find was in Roquepertuse, close to modern Aix-en-Provence, and was excavated in the 1990s.
Archaeologist Laurent Bouby from France's National Centre for Scientific Research has been studying "archaeobotany" - preserved plant remains - in the region around Roquepertuse for more than a decade.
Wine not
Dr Bouby and his colleagues have now analysed the "macrobotanical" remains found at three sites during those digs: a paved floor near an oven and hearth of a home dated to the 5th Century BC, and a ceramic vessel and a pit that were near storage containers.
Ninety percent of the barley grains that were recovered from these locations had been induced to sprout.
The malted grains and the arrangement of the finds led the team to surmise a "home-brew" scenario, which they note requires no specialised equipment.
"All that is needed is an amount of grain, some water, containers (commonly pottery vessels) in which to soak the grain, a flat paved area - possibly the floor - to spread out and turn the grain during germination, an oven to dry it in order to stop germination, domestic grindstones to grind the malted grain, hearths and again containers for fermentation and storage," they wrote.
"Evidence for all of these sorts of equipment is reported from the Roquepertuse dwelling."
Prior studies suggest that a variant of the barley plant known as six-row barley was the primary cultivated plant in the region at the time; the authors of the study now suggest that beer production may have been one of the principal reasons for this.
Read it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13776499
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North Wales hillfort test of Iron Age communication
An experiment has shed light on how Iron Age people communicated from their hilltop homes 2,500 years ago.
About 200 volunteers stood on the summit of 10 hillforts in north Wales, the Wirral and Cheshire, and signalled to each other with torches.
Their aim was to learn if communities used the summits to warn each other.
"It was a success," said archaeologist Erin Robinson. "It captured the public's imagination and we made extra links we did not think were possible."
Saturday night's Hilltop Glow event was rescheduled after December's severe weather.
The ancient sites used were on the Clwydian Range; Halkyn Mountain, near Holywell, Flintshire; a lowland site at Wirral; and the Sandstone Ridge, Cheshire.
Summit of Penycloddiau The view towards Moel Arthur and Moel Famau from Penycloddiau which is the location of one of the fires
Beacon fires have previously used on hilltops around the UK to mark the Queen's golden and silver jubilees.
"Most of the hill forts across the surrounding landscape can be seen from each other," explained Ms Robinson from Denbighshire's Heather and Hillforts project.
"The experiment was aiming to see if the glowing fires could have been seen across the hills and acted as a communication or warning system."
Ms Robinson, who climbed to the Moel y Gaer hillfort, near Mold, Flintshire, said she was able to see signals from high-powered torches from all but one hill top.
"It was fantastic," she said. "We saw all the way to a hilltop in Cheshire, which we weren't sure we'd be able to do."
Ms Robinson said the furthest link was made between hills at Burton Point on the Wirral and Maiden Castle, at Bickerton Hill in Cheshire, a distance of approximately 25km (15.5 miles).
"It was a hard thing to organise but it seems to have captured the imagination of the communities involved. We brought the hills alive."
Both the Heather and Hillforts and Habitats and Hillforts projects are Landscape Partnership Schemes funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-11832323
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This maybe of interest to some:
The Wiltshire Victoria County History Trust presents its Annual Lecture
16/4/2011
The Druids by Professor Ronald Hutton
At Chippenham Town Hall 2.30pm, followed by an informal time including tea or coffee
Tickets £10.00 Available from Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre or by post from Wiltshire VCH Trust, 21 Elizabeth Drive Devizes SN10 3SB
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Stone Age door unearthed by archaeologists in Zurich
Archaeologists have found a "fantastically preserved" 5100-year-old door in the Swiss city of Zurich.
The door could have been made in the year 3063 BC, chief archaeologist Niels Bleicher said.
The find is one of the oldest doors ever found in Europe and remarkable "because of the way the planks were held together", Mr Bleicher said.
The find was made at a dig preceding the construction of an underground car park for Zurich's opera house.
The door, which is 153cm (5ft) high and 88cm wide, was among the traces of at least five Neolithic villages believed to have existed at the site.
It is made of poplar wood and "solid and elegant" with well-preserved hinges, Mr Bleicher said.
The door would have been part of a wooden stilt house designed to keep out the cold winds blowing across Lake Zurich, the archaeologist added.
"It's a clever design that even looks good," he said.
The archaeologists plan to exhibit the door once it has been carefully removed from the ground and soaked in a special solution to prevent it from rotting.
Read it here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11593005
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Heritage path agreed by Devizes Area Board
A proposed footpath between the World Heritage sites of Avebury and Stonehenge has been approved by Devizes Area Board.
Although The Great Stones Way, the 29-mile walk through some of Wiltshire's most famous prehistoric sites, will touch Devizes only in passing, the town is likely to benefit from the tourism attracted to the area.
Ian Ritchie, chairman of the Friends of the Ridgeway, which is spearheading the £105,000 scheme, said the proposed route is the missing link along the Ridgeway, the oldest road in Europe.
He said: "We estimate the new route will attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors a year and bring in £6million a year to the local economy.
"It will ensure the survival of village shops, post offices, pubs and B&Bs."
Mr Ritchie has forecast that the new path could rival Hadrian's Wall as the UK's most popular walk.
The Friends of the Ridgeway are aiming to open the route to the public some time next year.
Read it Here:
http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/towns/devizesheadlines/8437618.Heritage_path_agreed_by_Devizes_Area_Board/
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