Archaeologists believe fingerprints left on a piece of Neolithic pottery belonged to two young men.
More info :
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-57440206
Latest News
June 14, 2021
June 12, 2021
A project to remove electricity pylons from a protected landscape has led to archaeological discoveries dating back 6,000 years.
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Fire destroys Scottish Crannog Centre
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-57452498
twitter.com/HistEnvScot/status/1403620276726910985
Just terrible news. Such a wonderful place.
June 4, 2021
I visited this rather lovely exhibition yesterday – lots of quite old paintings of Stonehenge and Avebury plus other aspects the Wiltshire landscape, such as the white horses, which make Wiltshire a unique county.
Definitely worth a visit – very quiet when I visited but booking ahead is advised. Ends 30th August 2021.
June 1, 2021
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) said the carvings – thought to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old – were discovered inside Dunchraigaig Cairn in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll.
They are thought to date to the Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and include images of deer.
Hamish Fenton, who has an archaeology background, found them by chance.
Kilmartin Glen is viewed as one of the most important concentration of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains in mainland Scotland.
Valuable as sources of meat, hides, and with bones and antlers used for a variety of tools, HES said deer would have been very important to local communities at the time.
May 12, 2021
Cerne Abbas Giant: Why the Anglo-Saxons created England’s most macho hillside chalk figure
Until now archaeologists and historians had thought that a 55-metre tall figure, cut into a hillside in Dorset, the so-called Cerne Abbas Giant, was prehistoric or Roman – or that, alternatively, it had been created in the 17th century,
independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/cerne-abbas-giant-anglo-saxon-b1845636.html
May 10, 2021
From the Orkney Archaeology Society.
“Sad news today from the Tomb of the Eagles, that they have made the decision to permanently close.
I’m sure we’d all agree this is a great loss to the range of archaeology experiences across Orkney, and wish them all the very best for their future.”
April 30, 2021
The Office of Public Works has said a security company will carry out a patrol of Loughcrew in Co Meath every evening, in light of recent vandalism at the historic site.
Earlier this week, it emerged that graffiti had been scratched into a stone at the Neolithic burial monument and an investigation was launched.
The OPW and the National Monuments Service said it is latest in a series of acts of vandalism at the national monument site.
April 29, 2021
The 200kg quernstone was uncovered by Chris Gee near Saverock, St Ola, earlier this month.
More info :
news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/neolithic-grind-stone-older-than-skara-brae-ploughed-up?noq
April 28, 2021
Anthony Murphy, who discovered the famous ‘Dronehenge’ near Newgrange, made the discovery using a drone
A citizen archaeologist who discovered the world famous ‘Dronehenge’ near Newgrange, county Meath during the heatwave of 2018, appears to have found another potentially significant discovery in the Boyne Valley using a drone – a logboat that could date to Neolithic times.
Anthony Murphy said, “I went looking for a dolphin. I didn’t find him but I did find a logboat.”
Made by hollowing out a tree trunk, such logboats or dugout boats have, according to Dr Stephen Davis, UCD School of Archaeology, “an immensely long history of use in Ireland, with examples known from the Neolithic right the way up to Medieval times.”
“Closer investigation will be able to show more – for example tool marks would be able to tell whether it was made with metal or stone tools, and radiocarbon dating give an approximate age,” he added.
In the heatwave of 2018, a previously unknown henge was found near the Newgrange monument by Mr Murphy and Ken Williams.
More: independent.ie/news/citizen-archaeologist-discovers-ancient-logboatin-the-boyne-valley-40366402.html
April 23, 2021
A fingerprint left on a clay vessel made by a potter 5,000 years ago has been found in Orkney.
More info :
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-56858268
April 21, 2021
Police slam vandals’ spelling after graffiti scratched onto ancient monument in Derbyshire
April 16, 2021
By Seán Mac an tSíthigh
Iriseoir Fise
An ancient tomb, described by archaeologists as “untouched” and “highly unusual” has been discovered on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry.
The tomb was uncovered in recent days during land improvement works being carried out by a farmer.
The National Monument Service has requested that the location of the structure should not be disclosed in order to prevent the possibility of disturbance.
The tomb was uncovered by a digger during land reclamation work when a large stone slab was upturned, revealing a slab-lined chamber beneath.
On closer inspection an adjoining sub-chamber was found at what appears to be the front of the tomb.
The tomb contained an unusual smooth oval-shaped stone and what is believed to be human bone.
More:
rte.ie/news/2021/0416/1210287-tombs-kerry-dingle-peninsula/
April 8, 2021
New research has uncovered rare evidence of people living in Scotland’s mountains after the end of the last Ice Age.
More info :
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-56661834
March 31, 2021
Archaeologist says neolithic discovery may be among oldest salt-processing sites in western Europe
Neolithic people were manufacturing salt in Britain almost 6,000 years ago, before the building of Stonehenge and more than two millennia earlier than was first thought, a new archaeological discovery suggests.
Excavations at a site at Street House farm in North Yorkshire have revealed evidence of the earliest salt production site ever found in the UK and one of the first of its kind in western Europe, dating to around 3,800BC.
The finds, uncovered at a coastal hilltop site near Loftus, include a trench containing three hearths, broken shards of neolithic pottery, some still containing salt deposits, shaped stone artefacts and a storage pit – all key evidence of salt processing.
A massive ceremonial site where people gathered almost 6,000 years ago is believed to have been discovered in the south west of Scotland.
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March 25, 2021
Eight “internationally significant” Bronze Age wooden boats found in a quarry have been awarded funding for ongoing conservation work.
The vessels were discovered by archaeologists as they excavated land at Must Farm near Peterborough in 2011.
Historic England has awarded £73,261 to preserve the log boats as part of a three-year project.
Tony Calladine, from the heritage organisation, said the boats were “incredibly rare”.
March 19, 2021
Good News for people visiting Dyke Hills
March 14, 2021
Some of these ancient mounds date back to 3000 BC, but many are buried under motorways
Manchán Magan
As our faith in fairies has receded in recent years, the fate of Ireland’s 32,000 remaining fairy forts has become increasingly perilous. Many of these circular earth mounds are over 1,000 years old, the remains of stone or wooden forts which housed an extended family in early medieval times. Others are remnants of underground passage tombs dating back to around 3000 BC.
In 2010 the environmentalist and author Tony Lowes first wrote about farmers destroying the forts on their land in the name of modernity and progress. A man on the Dingle Peninsula levelled a large part of the 3,000-year-old Dún Mór fort while the government was in negotiations with him to purchase it, and a farmer near Mallow in Cork destroyed the half of an extensive ringfort that lay on his own land, then tore down the other half when his neighbour was at a family funeral. There was also the story of a Cork dairy farmer who demolished two ringforts on his land, and whose family had previously destroyed three others.
The title of Lowes’ article in Village magazine was The Men Who Eat Ringforts, in recognition of the fact that these farmers (and developers and engineers) are invariably male. The title has been adopted for a volume of book art, Men Who Eat Ringforts, published by the conceptual artists Sean Lynch and Michele Horrigan of Askeaton Contemporary Arts. It’s a large-format book designed by Daly+Lyon, with thought-provoking essays by Sinéad Mercier and Michael Holly exploring the determined desecration of our ancient past.
March 11, 2021
A prominent prehistoric burial site near Augher was ransacked by “40 bikers” last weekend, a Clogher Valley councillor has said.
Speaking at a meeting of Mid Ulster District Council’s environment committee, Councillor Sharon McAleer told “how up to 100 bikers” arrived at Knockmany Forest on Sunday.
The SDLP representative claimed 40 bikers were seen going over Queen Anya’s burial site at the summit of Knockmany Hill and branded this act “not acceptable”.
“I have just been made aware of an issue that happened at Knockmany on Sunday [March 7] where up to 100 bikers had come to the car park and taken up all the parking spaces,” said Cllr McAleer.
“Unfortunately at Queen Anya’s burial site 40 bikers were counted going over the burial site which is just not acceptable.
“They have dug up all the ground and then proceeded to go down through the forest and destroy the wildlife, nature and fauna along the way.
“Lots of people in the community are annoyed about this as the place is packed with walkers.”
'Give Stonehenge back': Calls for ancient stone circle to be returned to Wales
A tourism boss has called for Stonehenge to be returned to Wales – so it can become an attraction for millions of visitors.
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Researchers in Murcia find exquisite objects at women’s graves later used as sites for elite warrior burials
A burial site found in Spain – described by archaeologists as one of the most lavish bronze age graves discovered to date in Europe – has sparked speculation that women may have been among the rulers of a highly stratified society that flourished on the Iberian peninsula until 1550BC.
Since 2013, a team of more than a dozen researchers have been investigating the site of La Almoloya in the southern Spanish region of Murcia.
Home to the El Argar, a society that was among the first to utilise bronze, build complex urban centres and develop into a state organisation, the site is part of a vast territory that at its peak stretched across 35,000 sq km.
Research published on Thursday in the journal Antiquity has documented one of the site’s most tantalising finds: a man and a woman buried in a large ceramic jar, both of whom died close together in the mid-17th century BC.
More:
theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/11/bronze-age-burial-site-in-spain-suggests-women-were-among-rulers
March 1, 2021
A rare and complete metal spearhead dating back thousands of years to the Bronze Age has gone on display in Jersey after being found on the island.
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February 20, 2021
A well-preserved skeleton which could be more than 4,000 years old has been found by a farmer close to Skara Brae on Orkney.
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February 19, 2021
An archaeological dig at a site earmarked for housing has uncovered more than 300 stone age tools and artefacts.
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