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Saturday February 28, 2004 – The Guardian

A planned new quarry threatens to destroy the tranquillity of the Peak District’s finest megalithic monument. Chris Moss finds ramblers, locals and pagans united in opposition

Driving along the A6, it’s not immediately obvious that the Peak District might well be England’s most important national park. In fact, it’s easy to forget you’re in a park at all – there are plenty of pretty towns and old farms lining the river valleys, and old mills and stone-walled inns worthy of an urbanite’s cosiest drinking dream – but the dramatic, bleakly beautiful heights of the southern Pennines are most often obscured by steep dales or low mists.
The Peak (as locals call it) is about leisure as much as landscape. The 555 square-mile national park is a lung for the people of Manchester, Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke. The first national park, it was created in 1951 precisely to put a green belt between these sprawling conurbations. It’s visited by some 22m people each year (only Japan’s Mount Fuji’s national park tops it). And, if it lacks Cumbria’s photogenic lakes, the Peak’s landscape of gritstone outcrops, limestone crags, heather and peat moorland – Daniel Defoe called it “a waste and howling wilderness” – has a rugged, romantic appeal.

Among the Peak’s many secrets are vestiges of the bronze age: cairns, burial mounds, stone circles and hillforts. Outstanding among these is the Nine Ladies stone circle at Stanton Lees, between Bakewell and Matlock. Between 3,000 and 4,000 years old, these nine stumpy stones, probably built for rituals honouring the sun and moon, stand in a small circle like old teeth, surrounded by silver birch, ash and beech trees and, beyond these, a beautiful stretch of moorland dotted with further Neolithic remnants and ruins.

No wonder then that any attempt to make any inroads into this landscape that are not destined for boot-clad backpackers is resisted so fiercely by locals and tourists alike. Just beneath the Nine Ladies site is where Stancliffe Stone wants to quarry 3.2m tons of millstone grit for the building trade. While the development rights to this dormant quarry – on land owned by Lord Edward Manners, who lives in Haddon Hall, just a few minutes’ drive from the site – are legally binding, villagers, townsmen and scores of eco-minded travellers have come together to protect the ancient heritage and the tourism that is the region’s lifeblood.

Walking up to the site from the village of Rowsley (also owned by Lord Manners), I spoke to two of the protesters, Becky Walsh and David Connolly, who were out on a ramble between sessions of constructing ramparts to prevent the quarrying firm’s diggers from approaching the rock face. “It’s just big money trying, as always, to get what it can out of the land,” claims Becky. “But we’ve been here for about four years now and we know how precious it is to locals.

“It’s so peaceful – and if this goes ahead, there will be a massive hole just 100m away. As well as the stones, there are burial mounds here and lots of ruins that have never been investigated. These draw pagans who come to perform handfasting (pagan marriages) or to practise wicca mediation, and whirling dervishes use the site, too.”

Like many other circles, there is a rich pagan-cum-druidic folklore that extends way beyond the tentative specualtions of history books. One story is that the Nine Ladies were formed by people being turned to stone for dancing on the Sabbath – the “King Stone”, on a bank just a few yards away, was said to have been their fiddler. It is also said that when the moon is full, the stones move around in a ritual dance.

While we are talking, behind me, a young man starts to spin slowly in the centre of the circle – not quite my idea of a dervish, but his eyes are closed and his concetration absolute. He claims “most of the villagers are right behind the protesters, because they don’t want a four-ton truck loaded with gravel passing their little cottages at 6am, do they?”

Beyond the gentle stir of the wind in the leafless trees, you can hear the beeps and churning from Dale View quarry, less than a mile away. If digging was allowed any closer, the serentity and spiritual value of the Nine Ladies would be completely destroyed.

But it’s not all about pagans who cherish the site for sacral purposes. During the next afternoon, scores of couples, strolling families and locals walking their dogs pass by as they hike over the moors. There’s even a group of six or seven Sheffield youths having an impromptu picnic, despite the fact that the grass is damp and there’s a bitter nip in the February air.

Another walker, Jenny Blain, joins us on the grass at the centre of the circle, and tells me she is researching “how people relate to landscapes” at Sheffield Hallam University. She emphasises the academic value of the site: “This is important to archeologists with an interest in prehistory, who study the cairns and kist graves. Then there are archeologists of the early modern period, as well as scientists who come to study the bats here – there are two protected species.”

Jenny points out that “the special feel of the Nine Ladies comes from that fact that they are part of a bigger landscape. This means so much to so many people – and locals join in at festivals like Imbolc (ewe’s milk, for when sheep lactate in spring).”

The Peak District, like other national parks, came about when the gentry and working class ramblers united to stem industrial expansion; as that lobby has dwindled, new alliances are needed.

Lonely as it is on the hilltops and among the burial mounds, the Nine Ladies are close to dozens of villages. Old pubs and B&Bs – from farms to hotel-style townhouses. After a day of cold, clean air and Woden-knows-what spiritual blessings from the Nine Ladies, I am in my bed – in a converted barn -by 9pm.

The Peak District serves more than just the north-west, though – it is central enough for Londoners to get to the Nine Ladies easily, too. I travelled from south-east London to 2500BC in just three and a half hours.

The following morning, before making the return journey, I drive up to Stanton Moor to see the Nine Ladies one more time. The daffodils are still there and, for the first time this weekend, there’s no one else around. After a quick look about me, I stride to the centre and stand in the empty space – and even gyrate slowly to see if any thing happens. My sullied modern sou is not transfigured, but the circle is profoundly calming and, thanks to Bronze Age man’s meterological intuition, protected from the harsh elements of the Peak winter.

After a quick stroll over the moor, frightenting partridges and watching the sun struggle to break through the clouds, I turn round and, cross the hill above the disused quarry. I head back down the side where the protesters are sleeping in their makeshift tree houses and where, just a mile or so down the valley, Lord Edward Manners is no doubt tucking into his breakfast of kippers and cold meats.

A vicious February northeasterly is now blasting and I leave the bare, exposed beauty of Neolithic England for the refuge of the car.

travel.guardian.co.uk/saturdaysection/story/0,8922,1157705,00.html

A village in Ayrshire has discovered that it could be the oldest continuously-occupied settlement in Scotland, dating back 5,500. Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of stone age houses in the middle of Dreghorn near Irvine.

They are having to re-write their local history in Dreghorn. Archaeologists have discovered that people may have been living here since 3500 BC – and it might make the village unique. They found evidence of occupation dating back to the Stone Age, through the Bronze Age to the medieval period.

Archaeologist Tom Addyman said: “People have always lived here, and have wanted to live here. Can’t think of any other site that has that depth and layering of occupation.”

The settlement has been found on the site of a modern housing development. Building work has been halted to allow the archaeologists to dig. They have made several intriguing finds.

Project supervisor Tom Wilson said: “It appears to be quite a large monument, like a standing stone, or some kind of totem pole, if you will, set up towards the centre of the settlement. That is an unusual thing to find in a settlement like this.”

Pre-historian Mike Donnelly said: “Well, what we found here looks like a prehistoric pottery kiln, which would be very unusual for mainland Scotland, it would certainly be the first for mainland Scotland.”

The archaeologists are noting down everything before the builders move back in. Dreghorn already had one claim to fame, as the birthplace of John Boyd Dunlop, the inventor of the pneumatic tyre; now it has a second, as – possibly – Scotland’s oldest village.

scotlandtoday.scottishtv.colo.ednet.co.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1_1_1&newsid=2863

WORKMEN digging up a city street in preparation for a new bus route have uncovered an Iron Age structure.

The remains of the 3000-year-old stone enclosure were discovered in the Broomhouse area.

Archeologists believe the 130ft by 100ft structure dates back to around 1000BC, making it from the late Bronze or early Iron Age.

The remains were uncovered by Balfour Beatty workmen excavating the site as part of preparation works for the West Edinburgh Busway.

The construction firm is carrying out works on behalf of Transport Initiatives Edinburgh near the Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line.

A fuller evaluation of the site is now being conducted by Headland Archeology.

A spokesman for the company said the structure would need to be closely examined before its secrets are revealed.

He added: “The development on this site has given us an opportunity to carry out research into the historical landscape of the Broomhouse area. It’s likely the timber structure was used as a farm steading enclosure or a corral for livestock.

“Excavating, recording and collecting artefacts from the site will give us a better understanding of what it was used for.”

Council archeologist John Lawson agreed the ancient structure was a significant find.

“This is the first such monument to be excavated within the city’s boundaries,” he said.

“It probably dates to the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age, although recent work in Scotland has shown that this type of enclosure may also date to the early medieval period, around the tenth to 13th century AD.

“Either way, it is an important site in Edinburgh’s history.”

The West Edinburgh Bus System will provide travellers with a bus service from Ingliston to the city centre, passing through residential areas such as Stenhouse as well as Edinburgh Park.

It has been described as a vital part of the city’s public transport scheme.

It is not known whether the find will delay work to the project, scheduled to finish later this year.

Councillor Ricky Henderson, executive member for sports, culture and leisure, said the find was a valuable part of the city’s history.

“The discovery of these remains at Broomhouse will further help piece together Edinburgh’s past,” he said.

“Preserving and recording the findings will add valuable information to the bank of knowledge the city has built up through its archeological finds to date.”

In July last year, the accidental discovery of a 200-year-old map led to the location of the long-lost settlement of Whittingehame in East Lothian, which dated from the seventh century but was abandoned nearly 300 years ago.

Investigations of the field near East Linton identified the site of old buildings, including the pub, a blacksmith’s and school, while a host of relics were brought to the surface by a farmer’s plough.

About 200 villagers lived at the site at one time, until the 18th century when agriculture declined and it was abandoned.

Further archeological work was to be carried out on the area to expose the foundations of the buildings where relics have been recovered.

news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=226522004

from The Cornishman
fuller version at thisiscornwall.co.uk

[Could be making a mountain out of a molehill if the stones are just sooty? There’s no mention of them being cracked. It’s surely likely the heather has been managed with fire for centuries..?]

“- The local farmer who had been asked to clear the gorse around the stones was retained fireman Station Officer Clive Williams, who has a management agreement with the county council’s Historic Environment Service to keep the circle and pathways clear of gorse.

He started the controlled fire to clear gorse that was encroaching on to the circle on the advice of Anne Preston-Jones, of the council’s environment service.

But angry locals and members of West Cornwall’s pagan moot, who have been caring for the circle over the past decades, say that five of the ancient standing stones have been scorched black as a result of the fire and four others have been partially blackened.

Gorse and heather have been stripped from around the stones, leaving them exposed in a blackened landscape. Slow growing lichens have also been stripped by the fire from the ancient monument.

Andy Norfolk, chairman of the Cornish Sacred Sites Protection Network, said that he feared the flames may have got into the fissures of the stones and may have caused irreparable damage. “But we won’t be able to tell how much damage has been done until the soot is washed off the stones,” he said. “We will probably get together a group of volunteers to clean the stones under the supervision of an archeologist in the coming weeks.”

Anne Preston-Jones said this week that she gave Mr Williams permission to burn the gorse around the monument. She said she visited the site after the fire and in her professional opinion she does not feel the stones have been too badly damaged.

“I accept that the blackened site does look awful as you approach it,” she said. “Twenty years ago the circle was completely blackened by a heavy burning of the gorse, but the area quickly recovered. I don’t think last week’s burning has damaged the circle, which isn’t perfect anyway, as part of it was reassembled some years ago from the bottom of tin pits.”

She added: “The lichens, gorse and heather will grow back again. In all honesty I don’t think the damage is as bad as it might at first look.” ”

Hoorah! A ‘good news’ story for once!

A 4,000 year old grave discovered in Chagford in 1879 is returning to Dartmoor.

The prehistoric grave will be relocated to the High Moorland Centre in Princetown early next month from Torquay Museum where it has been for 120 years. Torquay Natural History Society has loaned the grave to Dartmoor National Park Authority for an initial period of five years because it no longer has room for it at the museum.

It is one of two graves or cists (from the Germanic word kistvaen, literally meaning stone chest) which were discovered during the excavation of a prehistoric burial mound near Thornworthy Tor, Chagford in 1879. Burial cists date to the earlier part of the second millennium BC and consist of slabs of granite set on edge to form a box-like structure with another slab laid horizontally as a lid. They were usually sunk into the ground and covered with earth or stones, forming a mound and would have contained either a single burial or a cremation.

The first cist discovered at Thornworthy was excavated by Samuel Slade of Torquay, who decided to seek the help of William Pengelly, the Torquay geologist, in excavating the second cist at the site. By the time Pengelly reached the site the second cist had been looted and all that remained were pottery fragments and flint tools.

Robert Standerwick, the landowner, donated the second cist to Torquay Museum which Pengelly had been instrumental in founding in 1845. It was reconstructed in its original form on the museum floor and will be moved and resited by Dartmoor National Park Authority’s Conservation Team.

Communications officer for Dartmoor National Park Authority, Mike Nendick, said the cist would be rebuilt and installed in the Jack Wigmore garden, exactly as it was in the museum floor in 1880.

‘It consists of five blocks of stone, which weigh a quarter of a tonne each,’ he said.

‘The garden has been redeveloped to represent some of the natural and cultural aspects of the Dartmoor landscape, which is one of the most important areas in Northern Europe for Bronze Age archaeology. It is the perfect spot to have the cist, which will be an excellent addition to the centre — and it will be seen from the inside as well as the outside.‘

Copyright Tindle Newspapers Ltd, 26 February 2004

The remains of people who lived in Derby (England) 3,500 years ago have been found on the site of a derelict hotel in Littleover. Archaeologists say the Bronze Age cremation site, containing burial urns dating back to 1500 BCE, is the oldest historical exhibit found intact in Derby. A major highway used by Roman armies from 70AD was also discovered, along with the boundaries of what is thought to be an Iron Age field.

The finds were made as excavation work was carried out on the Pastures Hill side of the former Forte Post House hotel, which closed in 2001. The work was being carried out by archaeology experts ahead of a proposed housing development. Dr Andrew Myers, Derbyshire County Council’s development control archaeologist, said during the dig the team found a Bronze Age cremation cemetery. On excavating one of the six cremations, they found burnt human bones inside a burial urn. “It’s the earliest intact archaeology that has been excavated in the whole of Derby,” said Dr Myers. “There were also several pit-like finds in a row. They were identified as Iron Age, and may be part of field boundaries dating back to 500 BCE.

Joan D’Arcy, of Derbyshire Archaeological Society, said: “We had no idea that there was any Bronze Age or Iron Age occupation in that area.” When the discovered items have been investigated they will be displayed at Derby Museum and Art Gallery in the Strand.

stonepages.com/news/archives/000585.html

The fraction of left-handed people today is about the same as it was during the Ice Age, according to data from prehistoric handprints.
They were found in caves painted during the Upper Palaeolithic period, between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Left-handedness may have conferred prehistoric man advantages, such as in combat, say the researchers.

The research is published in the February issue of the journal Biology Letters.

Evolutionary advantages
When Stone Age man produced their remarkable cave paintings they often left handprints on the walls produced by blowing pigments from one hand through a tube held by the other hand.

Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond at the University of Montpellier, France, deduced the prehistoric cave painters’ handedness by spraying paint against cave walls to see which hand they pressed against the wall, and therefore did not use for drawing.

Looking at 507 handprints from 26 caves in France and Spain, they deduced that 23% of them were right-handed, which indicated that they were made by left-handers.

In the general population today about 12% are left-handed, though populations vary considerably, between 3 and 30%.

Because handedness has a genetic component the researchers wondered why the proportion of left-handers should have remained so constant over 30,000 years – the age of the oldest cave studied.

They suggest that because left-handedness is relatively rare it provides certain advantages over those who are right-handed, such as in solo and group fighting.

The researchers say their findings add to the evidence that the evolutionary forces that cause right- and left-handedness are independent of culture.

9.30 – Editted highlights of Time Flyers and discussion by Dave Macleod and Richard Maude, presenter and producer.
10.05 – Planning for Change – some current princeples and past lessons – George Lambrick Director of CBA
10.20 – A comparison with Stonehenge: linkages in the landscape – Mike Parker Pearson.
10.50 – The Neolithic in Yorkshire – Terry Manby
11.20 – The Neolithic and Bronze Age Complex of Thornborough – Dr Jan Harding
12.10 – panel discussion on conservation issues at Thornborough
12.40 lunch

2.00 – A community view on the archaeology of Thornborough – George Chaplin
2.30 – The Archaeology of the Nosterfiedl and Ladybridge Sites – Mike Griffiths Associates on behalf of Tarmac
3.00 – The NYCC’s role and consultation group – Simon Smales, NYCC head of Planning
3.30 – The English Heritage Position
4.00 – plenery discussion on policy implications

Location – Golden Lion, Northallerton. Saturday 27th March, price- £15.00 including lunch, £5.00 excluding lunch.

Bookings should be sent to John Sheehan, Hon. Secretary, CBA Yorkshire Group, 4 Arden Mews, Northallerton, DL6 1EN.

ALL the experts agree breast is best for baby – but it may be less traditional than we think. Yorkshire research suggests Iron Age infants were on the ancient equivalent of formula.

Molecular-level examinations of 2,000-year-old bones from the Wetwang burial site, near Driffield, East Yorkshire, have produced puzzling results, leading scientists to speculate that ancient people were even more concerned about food taboos than we are today.
Mandy Jay, of Bradford’s archaeology department, has examined the bones of more than 50 adults and 25 infants, analysing isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the collagen to see what kind of proteins the Iron Age people ate.

All the adults, from wealthy warriors interred with chariots in burial mounds to paupers buried in ditches, seem to have eaten plenty of animal protein, which produces the same type of collagen, whether dairy or meat.

That should mean bones of breast-fed infants would have even higher protein levels, as they would be drinking milk from mothers who were themselves nourished with animal proteins.

But instead, babies’ bones have levels comparable with a diet of cows’ milk.

Ms Jay said: “It may be a society where they didn’t want to breastfeed too long because they wanted to toughen the children up.
“If they were trying to feed their children cows’ milk, the chances are they would have a higher mortality rate, which is something I would have to examine.”

Alternatively, the low levels could also be due to women becoming vegan when pregnant or breastfeeding. A temporary change in diet wouldn’t show up in the women’s bones, as adult collagen is laid down over several years.

“It’s very difficult to understand what a different society would think. To them, drinking milk while producing milk may have seemed strange. There are societies that do all kinds of things with pregnant and menstruating women,” she said.

They certainly seem to have imposed plenty of other dietary restrictions. Bones more than 6,000 years old show Stone Age man suddenly stopped eating fish and shellfish, possibly because of taboos about wild food as people became settled farmers.

Fish wasn’t back on the menu until the Romans arrived, 4,000 years later.
Perhaps the most intriguing finds are two human bones from Wetwang, whose owners appear to have been vegan, though Ms Jay is cautious as to what they mean.

She said: “They could have belonged to a class that was being fed differently, such as a slave class, or they could have had some kind of disease and had to become vegan. We can’t really say, but I’m very excited about it.”

yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticleMore2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=740506&Page=1&ReturnUrl=NewsFrontMore.aspx

DEXTER SNIFFS OUT AN ANCIENT RARITY

DEXTER the labrador proved he had a nose for history when he unwittingly helped his owner make a significant archaeological discovery dating back more than 3,000 years.

Harvey Jones, of Cranleigh Gardens, Northwood, was walking boisterous two-year-old Dexter on Bembridge Down when he ran off into a massive gorse bush, dragging Mr Jones along with him.
The Bronze Age artefact was lying on the top of a rabbit hole in the middle of the bush – catching the eye of Mr Jones, who said: “It was only thanks to Dexter that I actually saw it.
“The thing about National Trust land is that you have to keep your pets on a lead, so wherever your pet goes you go and that meant accompanying Dexter into the bushes.
“When I picked up the axe head it was in perfect condition and looked almost brand new, like someone had dropped it there yesterday.”
Curious to know more about the piece, Mr Jones dusted himself down and took his find to Frank Basford, of the IW Archaeology and Historic Environment Service.
He concluded the axe head was a looped palstave dating to the middle Bronze Age, from 1500BC to 1200BC and that it had an unusual design on the metal with four lines carved into the bronze, making it unlike any others found on the Island.
Mr Basford said: “Quite a number of looped palstaves have been found but this is the first of this particular type found here and it is in great condition.”
After conservation work has been done on the palstave, it will take pride of place at the Guildhall Museum in Newport.

A gold sword belt ornament encrusted with garnets which could have belonged to the bloodthirsty seventh century Saxon king Caedwalla – and has been described as the missing link in Island history – looks likely to be lost to the Island.
The item was found on the beach at Bembridge by shop manager Darren Trickey and later declared treasure trove but its £50,000 valuation is beyond the £3,000 a year new acquisitions budget of the Guildhall Museum and could instead be bought by the British Museum.
It is felt that the only way it might be retained on the Island would be if locals were to raise around a quarter of the price, then seek grant funding to make up the difference.

iwcp.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1252&ArticleID=743664

A team of Australian archaeologists have sparked an academic row by claiming to have solved the riddle of a missing 1,000 years in human prehistory.

The scientists from Melbourne’s La Trobe University have found remnants of grains on the shore of the Dead Sea in Jordan that they believe help fill the 1,000-year gap in our knowledge of man’s transition from nomad to farmer.

But not everyone agrees, and the Australian team is now muscling up for an academic arm wrestle next month with the exponents of different theories in France.

The debate is all about the period when man shifted from being a nomadic hunter-gatherer to settling down as a sedentary farmer.

Conventional wisdom is that the transitional period, known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) period, finished about 9,200 BC.

But La Trobe’s Archaeology Program Coordinator Dr Phillip Edwards says the university’s discovery of wild ancestors to domestic crops in Jordan now proves the PPNA in fact lasted until 8,300 BC.

This period saw “pre-domestication cultivation” of barley, wheat, pulses and pistachio nuts.

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“The theory holds that our forebears certainly began planting crops from about 9250 BC, but the grains they planted for around 1,000 years continued to be wild varieties, leading to the mistaken conclusion that they had been gathered in the wild during those 1,000 years and not cultivated,” he said.

This view remains a minority one, with most archaeologists still accepting that man had not begun farming cultivated crops at this time, so the stage is set for a good old academic stoush.

The arena for the bloodletting will be the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Workshop at Frejus, France next month.

Members of the La Trobe team will feature in a documentary on the origins of farming life, Stories from the Stone Age, which will screen on the ABC later in the year.

theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/19/1077072756313.html

Summarised from the This Is Devizes site:
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/devizes/news/DEVIZES_NEWS_LOCAL16.html

The finds from the Bush Barrow will be going to the museum in Halle, Germany, for an exhibition running from October to April.

The exhibition will centre around the recently uncovered Nebra Sky Disk, a Bronze Age disk embossed in gold leaf with the images of the sun, moon and 32 stars, and will bring together for the first time Bronze Age objects found all over Europe.

Dr Paul Robinson, curator at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, said: “The participation of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in the exhibition is an acknowledgement of the international importance of the Devizes collection which attracts visitors from all over the world.”

The latest set of geophysics scans on the Ness o’ Brodgar continue to shed light on the Ring o’ Brodgar and the landscape around it – in particular another massive settlement discovered immediately to the north of the stone circle.

Full story at: orkneyjar.com/archaeology/brodgargeophs2.htm

Proposed road cutting would dominate World Heritage Site, say Salisbury Greens. If the A303 proposals were approved, the new road cutting would become the most prominent monument within the Stonehenge World. Heritage Site: the 21st century monument to the car, a kind of inverted Cursus, rivalling the original Cursus in size.”

That’s the warning Salisbury Green Party will present to the public inquiry that begins on Tuesday (17th February).

Local spokesperson Hamish Soutar will tell the inquiry that the damage caused by the new road would far outweigh any benefits from closing the existing roads. He will call for a return to the consensus reached at the 1995 Red Lion Planning Conference. “The Conference agreed with the aim of removing the roads entirely, at least from the area known as the Stonehenge Bowl. There is no surface route for a new road that would meet either with that objective, or with the government’s international obligations to protect the World Heritage Site. English Heritage and the present government are betraying the public by backing the proposed road scheme.”

Local Greens say no new road should be built, leaving the current A303 where it is but implementing road safety measures such as closing the junction with the A344 (something first recommended nearly 70 years ago). But if the government is determined to press ahead with its road-building plans, they say the only solution is a long tunnel under the entire World Heritage Site, as originally proposed by the National Trust and English Heritage and backed by the 1995 Conference.

Hamish Soutar says: “We don’t really want the tunnel, but we are putting it forward because it is important that the Inquiry should consider it. We will argue that any tunnel design has to include every available safety feature, whatever the cost. We will also argue that there are benefits to be had from putting the whole project on hold for twenty years or so. Technology is changing, transport policy changes, and Stonehenge itself is old enough to wait.”

Finally, he adds: “The most important World Heritage Site that we need to protect is the world itself. Our uncertain future will not be helped by continuing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on vast new roads. Our duty to conserve Stonehenge for future generations is pointless unless we ensure that they have a world fit to live in.

Green Party WebSite

All news filed 17 Feb 2004
From itv.com: itv.com/news/764237.html
From ananova.com: ananova.com/news/story/sm_866864.html?menu=
From ‘The Independent’: news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=492143
From ‘Leisure Opportunities’: leisureopportunities.co.uk/newsdetail.cfm?codeID=7002
From ‘Country Life’: countrylife.co.uk/countrysideconcerns/news/stonehengeenquiry.php
From ‘The Guardian’: guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1150112,00.html
From Aunty Beeb: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3489985.stm
Two pieces from The Telegraph: news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&xml=/news/2004/02/18/nhenge18.xml and telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/02/17/ustone.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/02/17/ixportaltop.html

After continually reading about destruction of sacred landscapes around ancient sites and monuments The Noise Room (https://www.thenoiseroom.com) has set-up an online petition along with information pages on sites currently under threat in the UK.

The site intends to submit the petition to the UK government by the end of the year at the latest or earlier if we reach our initial target of 1500 signatures.

The site is currently highlighting the plight of the Thornborough Henges in Yorkshire, The Nine Ladies in the Peak District and The Orkney World Heritage Site.

Please follow this link and sign the petition to support this effort.
thenoiseroom.com/sos/sosIndex.html

At the risk of repeating...

“Plans to build a road tunnel under Stonehenge are to be examined at a public inquiry. The project’s aims have widespread support, but campaigning groups argue the proposed 2.1km (1.3 mile) tunnel is too short and will damage the site.

The government scheme will take the A303 under the World Heritage Site to reduce traffic congestion around the stones and improve visitor facilities.

The inquiry will begin in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Tuesday.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said the government’s plan did not go far enough.

The group said the road would have a “major impact” on the site, with tunnel portals degrading the landscape near the ancient stones and the road and associated earthworks affecting a large area.”

Continues here: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3493649.stm

by John Vidal, environment editor of The Grauniad
14 February 2004

One of Britain’s most historic landscapes is about to become the scene of a passionate encounter between conservationists, local communities and industry as protesters start to flock to a small valley in the Peak District national park.

At stake are the long abandoned Endcliffe and Lees Cross quarries at Stanton Lees in Derbyshire. Overgrown with ash, birch and beech trees on steeply sloping land leading up to the bronze age Nine Sisters stone circle ancient monument on the moor above, they have been worked for many centuries on a small scale to provide local stone. But they are about to be massively expanded to provide 3.2m tonnes of some of the most sought-after sandstone in Britain.

Before work can start, however, a battle of the intensity of the road protests at Twyford Down and Newbury in the 1990s looks inevitable. The 32-acre site has been occupied for four years by protesters who have already built more than 25 tree houses and dug a com plex of deep tunnels and defences in stone cavities. After a high court case last week, which gave the Stancliffe Stone company permission to evict them, they expect hundreds of people to join them. ...continues here...

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Walking in the Western Desert

Feb. 12, 2004 — Tourists traversing Egypt’s desert may solve a mystery that has puzzled archaeologists for centuries: what happened to the 50,000-man Persian army of King Cambyses.

Set up by tourist operator Aqua Sun Desert, the Cambyses project will comb the desert sands using four-wheel-drive vehicles packed with paying tourists eager to find the remains of the lost army swallowed in a sandstorm in 524 B.C., according to the account of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus.

“The project is approved by the Ministry of Tourism after the agreement of Ministry of Antiquities. Any evidence will have to be reported to the authorities,” Hisham Nessim, manager of Aqua Sun Desert, told Discovery News.

Running between 10 and 22 days, the desert safari expeditions will follow a special route in the Western Desert, one of the world’s most beautiful and inhospitable deserts.

Particular attention will be given to an area not far from the Siwa oasis near the Libyan boarder, where four years ago a team of Egyptian geologists stumbled on bits of metal resembling weapons, as well as fragments of human bones.

First thrilled by the news, scholars then reacted with skepticism.

“As nothing was published and no pictures released it is hard to tell whether those were the remains of the lost army. Skeletons can belong to anyone, and without a thorough anthropological study, or any accompanying artifacts, it is hard to judge these allegations,” Egyptologist Salima Ikram of the American University in Cairo told Discovery News.

Herodotus reported that after the Persian occupation of Egypt in 525 B.C., Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, sent 50,000 soldiers west from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa and destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun, who, according to legend, would have predicted his death.

After walking for seven days in the desert, the army got to El-Khargeh, presumably intending to follow the caravan route via the Dakhla Oasis and Farafra Oasis to Siwa.

But after they left El-Khargeh, they were never seen again.

“As they were at their midday meal, a wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear,” Herodotus wrote.

The sandstorm was probably caused by the khamsin — the hot, strong, unpredictable southeasterly wind that blows from the Sahara desert over Egypt.

Nessim will continue the Cambyses expeditions for the next five years.

“If we discover anything about the lost army, it will be the discovery of the century,” he said.

According to Ikram, there might be a chance that tourists find something in the desert.

“There is a lot there. Whether or not it has anything to do with the Persians in Egypt is unpredictable. More likely not, but who knows,” Ikram said.

dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040209/cambyses.html

reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=4332908&section=news

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egypt’s ancient pyramids are probably a byproduct of a decision to build walls around the tombs of kings, a leading expert on early Egyptian royal burials said Wednesday.

Guenter Dreyer, director of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, said he based his theory on similarities between Egypt’s first pyramid, built at Saqqara south of Cairo for the Pharaoh Zozer in about 2650 BC, and the structure of the tomb of one of his immediate predecessors.

The Saqqara pyramid, known as the Step Pyramid because of its unique shape, began as a flat mound about eight meters (25 feet) high built over the burial chamber of the pharaoh.

At the slightly earlier tomb of the Pharaoh Khasekhemwy, at the old royal cemetery at Abydos in southern Egypt, German excavators found evidence of a similar flat mound covering the central part of the underground burial complex.

The walls in the central part of the tomb were compacted to about twice the thickness and half the height of the walls to the sides, suggesting a heavy weight had once stood on top, Dreyer told Reuters in an interview.

Khasekhemwy’s complex also had one of the niched enclosure walls which later became a distinctive feature of the dozens of pyramids built along the western edge of the Nile Valley for hundreds of years to come, he said.

MOUND OF CREATION

But in the Abydos example, the enclosure wall was much further from the tomb than in the case of Saqqara.

“My theory is that...these two elements (the mound and the wall) were united at Saqqara by his successor Zozer and then something happened. The mound on top of the tomb was hidden by the large surrounding wall -- it was not visible.

“This was a problem, because this mound I think represented the primeval mound of creation and guaranteed the resurrection of the king,” said Dreyer.

The architects of the Saqqara complex solved the problem by building another smaller flat mound on top of the first and then decided to extend it upwards by adding more mounds.

The Sakkara pyramid is an intermediate stage between the flat mounds, known as mastabas, of the earlier period and the smooth-sided classical pyramids of the type found at Giza, just outside the modern city of Cairo.

Archaeologists have long speculated that the pyramids are an extension of the mastaba concept but Dreyer’s theory adds the enclosure wall as an explanation for the transition.

Dreyer, who has spent the last decade studying the kings who ruled in southern Egypt in what was called the pre-dynastic period, before about 3100 BC, said he now believed he had identified another king from the period, known by the name of Horus or Hor, the same as that as the falcon god.

He is basing his theory on a close analysis of two ancient palettes, flat ceremonial stone plates on which early Egyptians appear to have recorded historical and mythological events.

Two palettes show a Horus falcon in a context which Dreyer interprets as the place where the name of a king should appear.

Several palettes have been interpreted as commemorating the conquest of Nile Delta towns by the kings from the south, a process which later led to the political unification of Egypt.

The conquest has traditionally been attributed to either King Narmer or King Aha, who lived about 200 years later.

“He (King Horus) started the whole thing, conquering the Delta, several generations before Narmer. Why? He wanted to safeguard trade routes to Palestine which ran along the Delta, where the Egyptians brought all the wine in,” Dreyer said.

An Ancient burial site, which was unearthed by workers preparing land for a massive gas pipeline, has proved to be a mine of information about Scottish people of the Bronze Age. Archaeologists at the 3,500-year-old cemetery, found in a field near Auchnagatt (Aberdeenshire), say the discovery also reveals important clues about ancient burial rituals in the north-east. They are analysing pottery urns, containing cremated human remains.

The Bronze Age graveyard was found in the summer of 2001 on the route of a major Transco pipeline development from St Fergus to near Aberdeen. The find was the first of its kind in Aberdeenshire for more than 30 years.

Melanie Johnson, field officer at CFA Archaeology, said: “The cemetery consisted of almost 40 pits containing cremations, 11 of which were contained inside pottery urns,” she said. “The site was unusually well-preserved.” A number of cremations have now been dated, using the latest advances in radiocarbon dating of human bones. Ms Johnson said: “This shows the cemetery was in use from about 1900 BCE to 1600 BCE. “The urns are currently being conserved at Aberdeen’s Marischal Museum, while analysis of the cremated human bones will reveal all sorts about the person who died, including their sex, age and whether they were in good health.”

Source: Aberdeen Press & Journal (15 January 2004)

The CAPE (Culture, Archaeology, Prehistory Experience) Project comprises the construction of a visitor centre highlighting the Bronze Age and Celtic culture of north east Wales that could attract up to 150,000 tourists a year. At the core of the new visitor attraction, drawing on Arthurian connections, would be the famous gold Bronze Age Mold Cape, currently held in the British Museum.

Experts have drawn up a study and believe that such a centre is feasible, probably on land next to Clwyd Theatr Cymru. To get the project going, the report will suggest trying to establish an academic centre first which could be a base for archaeological dig teams. “We urge local people to take an interest and get involved. It is vital we now widen the debate and engage local people at the earliest opportunity in the future planning of the project in the hope that they will get behind it, ” said Project chairman Adrian Barsby.

The whole idea was sparked by a drive in the town for the return of its famous Bronze Age cape. It was discovered by labourers in pieces at Bryn yr Ellyllon (Hill of Elves) just off Chester Road, Mold, in 1833 along with the bones of a man. It is dated between 1900 and 1600 BCE and is made from the equivalent of 23-carat Irish gold.

Sources: Daily Post, icNorthWales, North Wales Weekly News (6 February 2004)

Report filed Feb 11 2004 by Robin Turner, The Western Mail

A pair of psychic investigators looking at the healing properties of an ancient stone circle claim it has made them seriously ill.

Brian Perinton and mother-of-two Claire Williams visited Carn Llechart stone circle in the Swansea Valley three months ago. They planned to investigate the healing properties and positive energy which standing in the centre of circle, said to have been constructed in around 2,000BC, was reputed to give to people.

Mr Perinton said yesterday, “I have never seen anything like it. Claire was bodily thrown from the centre of the circle by some kind of force. I felt it too. It was like being punched in the stomach.”

“Since our visit we suffered severe headaches, stomach problems, lethargy and general illness. It was almost as if our energy was completely sapped by whatever was in the centre of those stones.”

“We are starting to recover now but we want to find out if anyone else has had similar experiences. We would love to speak to them to find out if the illnesses and general feeling of weakness are the same.”

“Then we can start some kind of scientific investigation into what could be causing this.”

Mr Perinton, 65, and Ms Williams, 32, run a ghost detective agency in Swansea and have been called to offices, houses and other buildings in which owners or occupants claim to be troubled by spirits or apparitions.

In a recent mission they helped a pub in Neath to rid itself of an angry spirit, said to have been the ghost of a former regular who did not want to leave.

Carn Llechart stone circle, high above Pontardawe, is said to be one of the finest examples of a stone ring cairn or burial chamber in Wales.

The unusual circle is 40ft across and consists of 25 stones leaning slightly outwards giving a crown of thorns effect.

No one is entirely certain why the stone circles were created but they are a Celtic phenomenon. Archaeologists believe they could be giant calendars with stone shadows tracing the alignment of the moon and sun.

It could be the stones are tributes to the dead buried in the circle and some have even speculated they could be used to harness the energy of ley lines, thought to be lines of magnetic energy running across the earth.

Professor Clive Ruggles, of the University of Leicester, says great care is needed in interpreting them.

He said, “Just because a monument is aligned in a certain direction we might be tempted to interpret it as astronomically significant.”

“But the Bronze Age people were not astronomers as we know the term today. However, celestial cycles and objects were extremely important to them.”

Certain circular tombs in Britain have been found to point towards the rising sun and winter solstices.

Many believe stone circles have magic or healing powers, so much so that English Heritage was forced many years ago to fence off the country’s best known stone circle, Stonehenge.

Scientists have carried out experiments at a variety of stone circles finding that the huge rocks tend to generate their own weak magnetic fields. But whether these can combine at certain times of the year as some pagans claim, so as to concentrate energy at a central point, has never been proved.

Mr Perinton said, “We would like anyone who has had a similar experience to contact our agency so we can build up a picture of what is happening.”

The agency’s number is 01792 417693.

Road plan would make Stonehenge site “a monument to the car”

From the Green Party’s website
The proposed road cutting would dominate the World Heritage Site, say Salisbury Greens. If the A303 proposals were approved, the new road cutting would become the most prominent monument within the Stonehenge World Heritage Site: the 21st century monument to the car, a kind of inverted Cursus, rivalling the original Cursus in size.”

That’s the warning Salisbury Green Party will present to the public inquiry that begins on Tuesday (17th February).

Local spokesperson Hamish Soutar will tell the inquiry that the damage caused by the new road would far outweigh any benefits from closing the existing roads. He will call for a return to the consensus reached at the 1995 Red Lion Planning Conference. “The Conference agreed with the aim of removing the roads entirely, at least from the area known as the Stonehenge Bowl. There is no surface route for a new road that would meet either with that objective, or with the government’s international obligations to protect the World Heritage Site. English Heritage and the present government are betraying the public by backing the proposed road scheme.”

Local Greens say no new road should be built, leaving the current A303 where it is but implementing road safety measures such as closing the junction with the A344 (something first recommended nearly 70 years ago). But if the government is determined to press ahead with its road-building plans, they say the only solution is a long tunnel under the entire World Heritage Site, as originally proposed by the National Trust and English Heritage and backed by the 1995 Conference.

Hamish Soutar says: “We don’t really want the tunnel, but we are putting it forward because it is important that the Inquiry should consider it. We will argue that any tunnel design has to include every available safety feature, whatever the cost. We will also argue that there are benefits to be had from putting the whole project on hold for twenty years or so. Technology is changing, transport policy changes, and Stonehenge itself is old enough to wait.”

Finally, he adds: “The most important World Heritage Site that we need to protect is the world itself. Our uncertain future will not be helped by continuing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on vast new roads. Our duty to conserve Stonehenge for future generations is pointless unless we ensure that they have a world fit to live in.

SHARJAH – An Australian-American archaeological team hosted by the Antiquities Directorate of the Sharjah Department of Culture and Information from December 2003 till last month, conducted detailed inspections of the Iron Age site found earlier in Muweileh in Sharjah.

The site, located 15km west of Sharjah city, has already revealed substantial evidence for a 3000-year old settlement which is one of the largest sites dating back to that age discovered so far in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Previous finds included the oldest writing found in the UAE, the oldest Iron-Age artifacts and many buildings including a columned hall that must have functioned as the centre of an economic and political power within the settlement.This season’s excavations, the eighth at the same site, revealed several buildings inside the fortification wall, said a spokesperson of the department. “Previously, we had assumed that the central area of the site consisted of an open courtyard, but it appears that it is not the case,” the spokesperson said, adding that the recent excavations also revealed a new gateway in the eastern side of the settlement. “

This was constructed from stone and had a hardened plaster floor and had evidence for holes for large wooden doors. Several complete painted vessels and some iron artifacts were found associated with this gateway. To the south, a new building adjoining the fortification was also unearthed. This house is larger than most at the site and had plastered floors. A stone incense burner was found on the floor of one of the rooms of this building,” he said.

He said the joint team found evidence throughout all these buildings of a fiery destruction that brought the settlement to an end around 750BC. “This conclusion was drawn from the fact that a lot of archaeological materials have been discovered including pots, clay ovens, animal bones, burnt dates and date-seeds and shells that would have been obtained by the old inhabitants from the coast for eating,” the spokesperson observed, revealing that continued analysis of these finds will provide unparalleled data on how people lived 3000 years ago in Sharjah.

“It is now clear that the ancient settlement of Muweileh was larger and more complicated than we originally thought. We look forward to continued research at the site with the support and collaboration of Sharjah Archaeological Museum,” said a spokesperson for the Australian-American team.

Meanwhile, a Spanish Archaeological expedition from Otonoma University arrived in Sharjah last week to conduct excavations at Ak Thaquiba site in Al Madam Plain.

The Spanish team will focus on resuming excavations of ancient canals of water springs discovered last season in addition to digging other parts of this agricultural settlement which dates back to the first millennium B.C.

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