Latest News

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, stones were washed down to East Anglia with a vast river that cut through the middle of England. But what the experts are puzzling over today is where this river ran its course. If they can plot its course and date it accurately, they could prove there were humans living in Britain 500,000 years ago and fill a gap in the prehistoric knowledge. And a hand-axe discovered at Lakenheath in the 1800s could be the vital link they need.
This is part of an historical puzzle being pieced together by British archaeologists as part of the national Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB) survey. Members of AHOB were at Maidscross Heath, Lakenheath in Suffolk, taking samples from the site of the ancient riverbed to help them track its course. The site was chosen mainly because antiquarian geologist RW Flower found a hand-axe on the heath in 1869. In three pits, scientists have already found gravel deposits, which prove the river ran from the West Midlands down through Suffolk and Norfolk.
Archaeologist Nick Ashton, the British Museum’s senior curator in the department of pre-history and Europe, said they are trying to look at when humans were here and what kind of climate they were living in. The evidence suggests the hand-axe found at Lakenheath was probably carried onto the site by the river from somewhere else in England. “There is a huge gap in human occupation between 250,000 and 60,000 years ago. There seems to be a complete absence of humans in Britain – probably because of the creation of the English Channel” said Ashton. “We are looking at dating this site. The hand-axe found by Flower is slightly rolled smooth, caused by it rolling in river gravel. This (site) would not have been where it was made. The axe could have been eroded out of an even earlier deposit, which means it is at least 0.5 million years old, possibly even 600,000 years old,” he added.
Simon Lewis, a lecturer at Queen Mary College of London, said this river bed was an exciting find. “Drainage altered beyond recognition during glaciation 450,000 years ago.” At that time the River Thames flowed through Suffolk and Essex, but it was diverted to its present course by the pressure of the ice. At Lakenheath there is evidence of quartzite and quartz that has travelled from a very old deposit in the West Midlands. “Lakenheath is a fragment of this river’s story. It flowed out across to Great Yarmouth and out to a massive delta where it met the Rhine and other large continental rivers,” he said.

Source: EDP24 (28 January 2004)

An ancient rock covered in carved symbols has been discovered in a South American jungle by an archaeologist from Cornwall.

Julien Chenoweth, from St Mawes, said a date test showed the carvings were as old as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Whole story here at BBCi

Lucy Andrew
ABC Science Online
Friday, 30 January 2004

A Greco-Illyrian helmet found at the Cetina River valley in Croatia (University of Birmingham).

A waterlogged archaeological site in Croatia has given European archaeologists an insight into Bronze Age life.

Researchers from the U.K.’s University of Birmingham, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and the Museum of Croatian Archaeological Monuments in Split, Croatia have uncovered an underwater site.

The site is in the Cetina River valley in Croatia, which so far has yielded metal, stone and timber artefacts, some dating back to 6000 BC.

Project leader, Dr Vincent Gaffney, director of the Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity at the University of Birmingham, is excited about the find.

“The Cetina Valley is certainly the most remarkable site that I have, and will ever, have the privilege of being involved in ... I believe this to be one of the most important archaeological wetlands in Europe,” he said.

Balkan archaeologists have long known about the site but it is only now that the British researchers realised its significance.

Initial surveys of the site in October last year yielded artefacts from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

The Neolithic or New Stone Age was characterised by the use of polished stone tools and weapons; the Bronze Age was when the metal alloy bronze was made by combining copper and tin.

The archaeologists found artefacts including swords, helmets and a Roman dagger and sheath that date back to the Bronze Age. There were also jewellery, axes and spearheads.

The researchers could also see remains of wooden buildings from the Neolithic and early Bronze Age, submerged in the water at the bottom of the valley.

The fact that the site was waterlogged has led to exceptional preservation of the artefacts, said Gaffney.

The river would have been an important source of water for the people who once lived there, Gaffney said. Inhabitants seem to have thrown metal and stone objects into the water deliberately, possibly as an offering to river gods.

The Cetina valley, Croatia (University of Birmingham)
Team member and environmental archaeologist Dr David Smith said he planned to examine ancient plant and soil samples from the area.

“Through examination of pollen cores and peat samples from within the basin we can gain a real insight into the everyday life of the people; the food they ate, the crops and animals they kept, and the crafts and activities they pursued.”

River sediments will provide information about the Croatian environment over the past 10,000 years, said Smith.

The researchers will go back to the Cetina valley in April or May this year to continue their search for more clues to its past.

abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1032539.htm

Egypt, Local, 1/29/2004

The Italian team excavating at Madi city in Fayyoum has unearthed an open structure dating back to the Ptolemaic age.

The floor is composed of a single large block of limestone with a groove 10 cm deep and 20 cm wide. In the middle there is a 12 cm-square hole.

The team found two balls of polished limestone, one of which fits the groove and the other the square hole. The structure is like no other found in the ancient world.

After study it was proposed that it might be a first attempt at the practice of bowling.

The pre-sumed bowling track was found next to the remains of a number of houses each made up of two rooms with a large hall.

The team has recently found papyri scrolls dating back to the Ptolemaic period, pottery shards, glass utensils, copper tools and some pieces of faience in the area.

The archaeological site of Medinet Madi is one of the most complete. The oldest of its monuments is a 12th Dynasty temple dedicated to the harvest goddess Renenutet and the crocodile-god Sobek.

The temple is magnificently decorated with reliefs showing the kings of the 12th Dynasty worshipping the gods.

arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040129/2004012928.html

A harp enthusiast is hoping to recreate the first working copy of the famous Harp of Ur, which was vandalised in Iraq’s national museum following the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Andy Lowings, 52, from Cambridgeshire, wants the replica instrument to be as close to the 4,750 year-old original as possible, even down to the source of the wood.

His £25,000 project caught the imagination of a nearby RAF squadron who agreed to collect two pieces of cedar wood from Basra and presented it to Mr Lowings on Wednesday.

The musical director of the Stamford Harp Festival was moved to act last April when the harp’s remains were among antiquities destroyed by thieves in Baghdad’s main museum.

“I want it to continue as a playing instrument to bring very early Iraqi and Arabic culture to people’s attention again,” he said.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cambridgeshire/3445049.stm

Gold earring found buried under a few inches of soil in a ploughed field in East Yorkshire could be more than 3,000 years old.

A metal detector enthusiast, part of a group from Durham, stumbled across the treasure near Driffield last year.
The late Bronze Age ring has narrow stripes of yellow and paler gold and when analysed by experts at the British Museum was found to be 73 per cent gold and 23 per cent silver. Tests showed that the precious metals covered a hoop of base metal.
Weighing just 10gms, it was dated between 1150BC and 750BC.
There is no idea yet of the value, which will be settled next month by an independent valuation committee. Both the British Museum and local museums will be given the first chance to bid.
An inquest in Hull heard the earring was found by Gary Turnbull in around six inches of soil.
Yesterday, after the ring was declared treasure, the landowner said she hoped it would go to a local museum.
The farmer, who asked not to be named, said: “These metal detectorists have been coming for a few years but this is the first thing to come to light.”

yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticleMore2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=731820&Page=1&ReturnUrl=NewsFrontMore.aspx

thisissouthdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=102060&command=displayContent&sourceNode=100885&contentPK=8674870

The caves will reopen on Saturday, February 7, and the whole £600,000 project will be finished in late spring. There will be a 80-seater visitor centre and reception area, including a coffee house, shop and exhibition galleries. The cavern now also has a licence to operate a function bar and hold events underground.

New exhibition galleries will hold the artefacts that have been found over the last century.

“Carved Stone Balls – a Prehistoric Mystery”
The exhibition runs January 19 – March 31 2004 at the Marischal Museum in Aberdeen.

No-one knows exactly what the balls were used for, but the exhibition includes suggestions from archaeologists, the children of Woodside School and the sculptor Keiji Nagahiro (two of whose sculptures are included in the exhibition).

For further information contact Dr Hilary Murray on 01224 274305 or visit the website at www.abdn.ac.uk/marischalmuseum
or
abdn.ac.uk/marischalmuseum/exhibitions/current.hti

“As over 70 stone balls will be on display this is a unique opportunity to see one of the largest collections of these enigmatic carvings.”

Also why not see Annabel Carey’s batiks of standing stones, “Spirit of Stones”, also on at the museum until the 19th of February. Her inspirations include well known north-east sites such as Sunhoney, Cullerlie and Loanhead of Daviot. An example is on the website above.

Full details at ‘this is amesbury‘
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/amesbury/news/AMES_NEWS3.html

English Heritage bosses are to be told by the people of Durrington and Larkhill to rethink their plans for a land train to ferry visitors to the World Heritage site at Stonehenge.

Durrington parish council chairman David Healing told a public meeting in the village last Friday night that the proposed route for the land trains would pass very close to the rear of houses in Strangways and Fargo Road, in Larkhill.

More than 100 Durrington and Larkhill residents attending the meeting, held at Durrington village hall, recognised that visitors would have to be transported to Stonehenge but unanimously agreed that the parish council should oppose the planned route and put forward viable alternatives.

They also signed a petition which, when completed, will be handed to English Heritage.

From the BBC -

‘The Neanderthals were not close relatives of modern humans and represent a single species quite distinct from our own, scientists say.
3D comparisons of Neanderthal, modern human and other primate skulls confirm theories that the ancient people were a breed apart, the researchers report.

Others claim Neanderthals contributed significantly to the modern gene pool. ‘

Those scientists just can’t seem to agree on Neanderthals. Full story at -

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3431609.stm

Conservation Audit of Archaeological Cave Resources in the Peak District and Yorkshire Dales

There is a public meeting to be held at the Medway Community Centre, New Street, Bakewell, Derbyshire on Monday 9th February 2004 at 7 pm.

The meeting is to allow interested members of the public a chance to meet us and to share our collective knowledge about the caves of the Peak District.

Archaeological remains, such as pottery, metalwork, stone tools and bones, are often preserved within deposits in natural caves, fissures and rock shelters. However, caves that contain archaeological remains are vulnerable to intrusive disturbance, and it is often not known which caves in a region are likely to contain archaeologically important material and whether the archaeological deposits are adequately protected for future generations.

The project is being funded by English Heritage and is based at the Universities of Sheffield and Bradford and the worked is being carried out by ARCUS, the archaeology consultancy unit at Sheffield. The aims of the study are to assess the archaeological potential, current management and potential threats to the integrity of deposits in archaeological caves within the National Parks.

The project team are particularly keen to involve members of the public in this study. For this reason, the project team are organising separate public meetings in the Peak District and in the Yorkshire Dales, at which archaeologists, cavers and representatives of conservation organisations and interested parties can discuss the project and provide suggestions for ways in which our knowledge of cave archaeology can be improved.

Contact Details
I would like to involve as many people in the consultation and if further details are needed or that you have information that you think would be helpful to us, please contact Helen at [email protected] or telephone (0114) 222 2934

Archaeology buffs are invited to a presentation on the Yorkshire Dales next month. The presentation, by local expert Alex Eckford, will be at the next meeting of Bedale Archaeology and History Society on February 3 at Bedale Hall from 7.30pm. Admission £2 for non-members. For more information contact programme secretary Patricia Tricker on 01677 450176

Source
The Evening Gazette 24-01-03

Where next????

World heritage site faces quarry threat – John Ross, The Scotsman

news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=84342004

Residents living close to an island quarry fear its planned expansion could affect an internationally renowned archaeological site.

Orkney Islands Council will next week consider a planning application to extend the islands’ largest quarry on Heddle Hill in Finstown which is near the Neolithic sites of Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar, the Stones of Stenness and Skara Brae, classed as a World Heritage Site.

Opponents of the planned expansion by Orkney Aggregates Ltd say that it would breach council regulations and have significant visual, geological and environmental impacts.

Simon Treasure, who lives near the site, claimed information supplied by the company with the application is out of date and said that a full assessment would have to be made of the impact of the expansion.

He said: “Heddle quarry is highly visible, indeed it is the most visible man-made object in Orkney, seen by ships 50 miles to the east on a clear day. It is the nearest thing in Orkney to industrial pollution. It is at the top of a 400ft hill.
The south-west approach to Heddle Hill is less than 2,000 yards from Maeshowe and the Stones of Stenness.

“The western boundary of the quarry is probably less that two miles from the WHS. At present the quarry is only visible from the north and eastern approach to Finstown, not from the south or west. We recognise the importance of a suitable quarry within the county. Heddle quarry has good stone and has been in operation, satisfying a high demand from customers, for 100 years, the principal current customer being Orkney Islands Council.

“However, given the intense natural sensitivity of the Orcadian landscape and the importance of the WHS, it is felt that, whilst trying to keep Heddle quarry in operation, permission for any extension can only be granted after fully meeting the demands imposed by statutory local planning policy and of a fully independent environmental, visual and geological impact assessment process in the clear light of day and with the total involvement of relevant outside agencies.”

He added: “It is our contention that the views of the hill will be affected from all sides, including most notably those from Stenness and the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site at the Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness and Maeshowe.

“We may be wrong. But there is no supporting evidence to tell either way. Blowing two million tonnes of rock up is not something that can be undone.”

The application will be discussed by the council’s environment, planning and protective services committee on 28 January. A council spokesman said the authority did not wish to comment ahead of the meeting.

Roy Brown, a director of Orkney Aggregates, said: “A topographic survey is being carried out and we expect the consultant to confirm our view that the World Heritage Site will be unaffected by the quarry extension.

“All necessary reports and surveys have already been commissioned, including a visual impact assessment and a botanical and habitat survey.”

Susan Denyer, secretary of ICOMOS-UK, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, said her organisation has not objected to the proposal.

“We would get involved if we believe a development would be damaging to a world heritage site, but we have to be selective in the causes we take up,” she said. We have looked at this case and although the WHS is visible from the site, it is some distance from it.”

It is understood that Historic Scotland, a statutory consultee, has also not objected to the planned extension as it is felt it would not impact on the WHS or scheduled ancient monuments.

However a spokeswoman for the agency would only say: “We have sent our comments to the council but it would not be appropriate to make these comments public before the application is considered.”

It appears that the Neanderthal people were unable to cope with the increasingly cold weather despite migrating south and were supplanted by a more technologically flexible group, our ancestors.

Full story newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994586

More at www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk

Holidaymakers will be able to spend a week living in the Iron Age at a new tourist attraction being planned in the Forest of Dean. Tourists will give up their clothes and modern items and dress in costume and spend time living in the village of Cinderbury. They will sleep in primitive huts and will have to cook for themselves, mine ore, make tools and weapons and look after the village’s animals.

Mobile phones and watches will be confiscated and the project website says that “make-up, jewellery, hair products and perfumes are strongly discouraged and will possibly be mocked”.

The living history project is being created near Clearwell.

Although corporate funds are still needed it is hoped the village will be open by May.

For more information about Cinderbury or for anyone interested in funding the project go to www.cinderbury.co.uk

Anyone fancy ‘persuading’ your work mates to do something for an ancient site? I found the following opportunity as part of the National Trust Employee volunteering programme at nationaltrust.org.uk/employeevolunteering

“Leigh Woods is well-known to many as the backdrop to the Clifton Suspension Bridge and is used as an escape from the bustling city of Bristol by thousands of people every year. Come and help the National Trust to remove encroaching vegetation from the Iron Age hill-fort of Stokeleigh Camp within the heart of the woods. Overlooking the Avon Gorge, volunteers will work alongside National Trust wardens to conserve this important archaeological feature and show these impressive ramparts at their best! Suitable for groups of ten people.”

WHAT: practical work and diy
WHERE: Leigh Woods, near Bristol
WHEN: November – March
YOU NEED: Old clothes and stout footwear

Interested? Call the EVP Team 01793 462787 or email to – [email protected]

Long article on Knoxnews.com all about these 4.5 – 10,000 year old glyphs covering the Judaculla Rock in North Carolina, with info on folklore and history too.

knoxnews.com/kns/news_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_359_2585278,00.html

In the Arkon Beacon Journal long article on hotel’s collection of rock art versus a state park’s outdoor rock art, the question of which is the best way and of Native American sensibilities.

ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/living/7705929.htm

Fragments of femur excavated from an Iron Age burial site in east Yorkshire (England) have been analyzed by the department of archaeological sciences at Bradford University. For scientists, bones such as these contain a key piece of information about ancient societies: what people ate. Remarkably, bones retain a chemical signature of what went into making them in the first place: what it was in the diet that provided the raw materials for the bone to grow. By examining bone in this way, the Bradford researchers, led by Dr Mike Richards, have made a number of significant discoveries. The most intriguing is that around 6,000 years ago Stone Age man in Britain seems suddenly to have stopped eating fish and shellfish. This dietary restriction persisted for the better part of 4,000 years, until the Romans arrived.

Mandy Jay has been examining the diet of people buried at the largest Iron Age cemetery in Britain at Wetwang, on the Yorkshire Wolds. The cemetery dates from the 3rd or 4th century BCE, and contains around 450 people. “The cemetery was used over a period of about 200 years, and there is a very particular pattern to the burials,” says Jay. “There are five chariot burials, where bodies have been buried with chariots. It is assumed that these were the highest-status individuals. There are remains of bodies that were buried under specially constructed mounds, or barrows, which presumably was also indicative of status, and finally bodies buried in the ditches surrounding the barrows – suspected to be the lower status.”

“The question I wanted to ask is whether we could see a difference in diet depending on the assumed status of the individuals,” says Jay. Following isotope-ratio analysis on almost 50 samples, Jay has concluded that there is no difference between the three groups in terms of the source of their protein. “All of the samples showed quite a lot of animal protein in the diet,” she says. The proportion of animal and plant protein remained similar throughout the period that the cemetery was being used. This suggests that the community was highly economically stable over this time, with the same farming practices persisting for two centuries. “The other thing that we can say with some confidence is that there is no evidence of any marine protein having been consumed,” says Jay. “Things like fish and shellfish were absent from the diet.” This fits in with a recent finding by Dr Richards that people simply did not eat seafood at this point in history.

“We know that about 6,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, there was a revolution in the way people lived. People stopped being nomadic hunter-gatherers and started to farm animals and crops, and live in villages.” said Dr Richards. There were big cultural as well as economic changes at this time. Domesticated animals were brought over from the Continent, and wheat and barley appeared. Pottery began to be made, and elaborate burial monuments started to appear. “From a dietary point, before this time there was only wild food,” says Dr Richards. “If you do isotope analysis of bones found at coastal sites, you find evidence of a large amount of marine food in the diet. But after about 4,000 BCE suddenly there is no marine food in the diet. People simply stopped eating fish and shellfish.”

The reasons for this are not clear. One school of thought suggests that a shift in climate at that time, causing sea levels to rise, made fishing difficult. Other archaeologists think that the advent of farming made the food resource much more secure – there was no need to harvest wild food. Dr Richards believes that the radical change in diet reflected larger changes in society. “It coincides with the appearance of pottery and of big monuments and new burial practices,” he says. “My hunch is that there was a spread of a new kind of belief system, a new way of looking at the world, and a big part of that could have been a change in diet. But it is rare that you see such sudden changes.”

Fish seems not to have appeared again on the menu until the Romans arrived, 4,000 years later. The pattern is confirmed in Jay’s findings. She has looked at samples of Iron Age bone from two coastal sites, in Cornwall and East Lothian. These, too, are devoid of any evidence of a marine diet. “We know that the technology for fishing existed and you would have thought that a ready source of food would be exploited. It might have been that seafood in some way became taboo. Even now there are dietary taboos – for example we balk at the thought of eating horsemeat or dog, but these are eaten in some societies. In fact we know that people in the Iron Age did eat dogs and horses.” says Jay.

Source: The Independent (14 January 2004)

Black coverings put on parts of an English white horse landmark to advertise a car have been torn down by a protester. A restoration group allowed panda markings to be put on the historic white horse at Cherhill in Wiltshire in return for a donation. The publicity stunt was connected with the launch of a Fiat car and the black vinyl sheets were due to be removed after a few days. The National Trust had given permission but there were complaints that the transformation at the ancient hillside site had not turned out as planned.

Bob Husband of the White Horse Restoration Group said : “It’s a fair representation of the sketch we were shown but what it looks like is probably either unprintable or unspeakable.” Summer St John of Earth Energies, who works to protect sacred sites, said the marketing stunt was “disrespectful”. Then an anonymous protester took direct action and removed the black sheets. He telephoned the parish council to say what he had done. Eighteen months ago the Cherhill white horse, Wiltshire’s second oldest, had a makeover by specialist teams using local chalk.

Source: BBC News (16 January 2003)

Historic Scotland are to start referring to two of Orkney’s best known monuments by their rightful Orcadian names.

The government agency are to stop using the name “Ring of Brogar” when referring to the Ring o’ Brodgar in Orkney’s West Mainland.

In addition, they are to revert to the local one-word spelling of Maeshowe, doing away with the “Maes Howe” spelling that does not reflect the Orcadian pronunciation.

Full story on Orkneyjar

Increasing visitor numbers is not having a detrimental effect on one of Orkney’s top visitor attractions, according to initial findings.

State-of-the-art technology was brought in by Historic Scotland scientists concerned for the future of Maeshowe and Skara Brae.

The Orcadian revealed last year that detailed analysis was being carried out to discover whether the walls were moving and being eroded at both sites. Interim results for Maeshowe have suggested that visitor numbers are not a problem.

Full story on Orkneyjar

A Ceredigion paintball company based on land adjacent to Old Warren hillfort have recently caused a stir among some local residents by applying for planning permission to extend their operations. The Cambrian News recently carried an article about it, by Scarlet Jones. Most of the article focused on the alleged detrimental effects that paintballing has had on wildlife in the area, but it briefly alluded to the hillfort:

“The woodland itself is separated by means of a footpath from Old Warren Hill, the largest single ditched hill fort in Wales and a designated nature reserve.”

“I don’t think it would be suitable to have a paintball area so close to such a valuable piece of historical land.”

The application hasn’t yet been heard by Ceredigion County Council Planning Committee, but the consultancy period expired in December.

Source: The Cambrian News, Thursday 1st January 2004

A Bronze Age axe head unearthed in a Lincolnshire field is baffling archaeologists – because they think it is too heavy to use.

Made of stone, the axe head weighs 4.4lb and was produced some time between 2000BC and 1600BC. It was found when a walker stumbled across it last summer in a farmer’s field near Scotter, north of Gainsborough.

Once the axe head was cleaned it was reported to the Portable Antiquities Scheme – a project run by North Lincolnshire Council which records artefacts found by the public.

The artefact is a traditional axe shape and features a hole through the middle where a stick would have been placed as a handle. Archaeologists often refer to these items as axe hammers.

But principal keeper of archaeology Kevin Leahy (57) said the artefact would have been hard to use. Continues here...

An eagle-eyed walker’s stroll in English countryside has turned up a piece of history going back at least 3000 years. Michael Lowsley was on one of his regular walks through the picturesque Crimple Valley when an object sticking from the soil suddenly stopped him in his tracks. “I thought straight away it looked interesting. But I had no idea how interesting until I picked it up and gave it closer examination,” said Mr Lowsley, countryside secretary of Harrogate Ramblers’ Association.
The find was eventually declared a Neolithic stone axe after being taken to officials at Harrogate Museums service who sought confirmation from an expert at Manchester University. The discovery has fuelled speculation of a Neolithic settlement in the valley and the possibility of a geological survey by experts.
Alistair Smith, assistant curator for Harrogate Museums and Arts, described the axe head as a very interesting find. It had been declared stone, not flint. The axe head is believed to be the first discovery of its kind in the valley, although development works in Harrogate have produced historical finds in the past.
Although it was found by a walker while on a public right of way the axe head was on privately owned land and belongs to the landowner. Mr Lowsley said following a “very positive” meeting the landowner had agreed to donate it to the museum with the intention of its being displayed in the near future.

Source: Harrogate News (9 January 2004)