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Holme Henge pushes up museum costs
07 October 2003
Lynn News.co.uk
lynnnews.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=991&ArticleID=670976

Plans to display half the Holme Henge timber circle in Lynn Museum have pushed up the cost of the museum’s development scheme to £1.2 million. Originally, it was expected to cost between £800,000 and £1 million to re-display the Market Street museum’s collections, which include a lot of West Norfolk Bronze Age material.
But now it has been agreed that all the timbers, which are currently being stored at Flag Fen Bronze Age site, near Peterborough, in chemically-treated water, can be housed at Lynn – half of them on permanent display.
An application for £940,000 is being made to the Heritage Lottery Fund and a bid sought for £80,000 from Norfolk County Council towards the cost of the expanded project.
Area museums officer Dr Robin Hanley said: “Including Holme Henge has increased the display costs quite significantly. We are planning to display it well and the plans are exciting and expensive.
“But with a monument of that international significance we need to ensure that the way we display it is right.”
The Holme Timber Circle Working Group, which comprises representatives from groups such as Holme Parish Council, West Norfolk Council and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, has already welcomed the idea.
And when the plans were explained at a public meeting in Holme on July 31, it was recognised that this offered a way to display the timbers in West Norfolk even if it was not the ideal solution of a purpose-built display in the village, Dr Hanley said.
He pointed out that Lynn Museum was a showcase for the whole borough and Holme Henge was important to the interpretation of the area’s archaeology.
Although only half the circle would be displayed in the museum, a suitable storage space would be found for the other timbers where people could access them, he said.
Dr Hanley said all the timbers would soon be going to a conservation laboratory to undergo “a very delicate and slow” freeze-drying process, so that they would not need to be displayed behind glass at Lynn Museum.
“The timbers will be capable of going on open display so that people can get close up to them,” he said.
The central stump could take up to five years to conserve, so a replica may be needed for the display until it is ready. Lynn Museum hopes for decisions from the Heritage Lottery Fund and county council by April next year, so that work on the project can start next September and be ready to open to the public in September, 2005.

From BBCi

Archaeologists believe they may have stumbled upon a major Stone Age site – on the route of a new bypass.

The site dates back between 250,000 and 300,000 years and may even provide evidence of one of the earliest uses of fire.

Archaeologists discovered a range of items at the location in Harnham, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, including 44 “very rare” flint hand axes – the earliest form of tool used by man.

Whole story here

From an article in the St Albans Observer by Claire Ling:

A rare coin that was made in St Albans 2,000 years ago is expected to fetch up to £1,300 when it goes up for auction in London. The Iron Age coin was struck in Verulamium [sic] between 10BC and 25 BC and horse-riding Celtic warriors are depicted.

More...

* Verlamiom = Pre-Roman Verulamium

Researchers at the University of Bristol (England) have developed the first direct method of dating ancient pottery, through analysis of animal fats preserved inside the ceramic walls. The new technique will allow more accurate determination of the age of pottery and, by extension, the age of associated artefacts and sites.

Although chemical analysis has, in the past, been used on residues found on the surface of pottery and shards, contact with the soil was always likely to produce corrupt data. Now research carried out by Richard Evershed, Ph.D and colleagues from the University has discovered that lipids (animal fats) are preserved through absorption into the material, in large enough quantities to allow radiocarbon dating. “Lipids are absorbed because most interesting pottery of any respectable age is unglazed,” says Evershed. “We’re taking a piece of pot and grinding it to a powder, and then extracting lipid that’s penetrated right down into the fabric.” A technique called capillary gas chromatography isolates the lipids. Purified compounds are then radiocarbon dated using an accelerator mass spectrometer at the Oxford University Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit.

Pottery is essential for dating archaeological sites. Although organic material can be dated by radiocarbon techniques, the results are not always reliable. Wood, for instance, can decompose over time; and animals often move bones around a site. Ceramics, on the other hand, have a long and stable lifespan. Later pottery can be easily dated by typology, but earlier ceramic material can be much harder because of its crude appearance. In the earlier research that led to the development of the new technique, Evershed’s team found the first direct evidence that people were dairy farming in Britain as long as 6,000 years ago. The prominence of fats in material from Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age sites is consistent with their wide range of uses in the ancient world: lubricants, waterproofing agents, cosmetics, ointments, perfumes, varnishes, etc.

The researchers have now analyzed 15 pieces of pottery ranging in age from 4000 BCe to the 15th Century AD. These were blind-dated using the new method and then compared with verified dates. In all cases there was good correspondence of blind and validated dates. Evershed and his colleagues now plan to study mummies. “A lot of mummies were exported out of Egypt by the Victorians, and they often applied modern treatments to preserve them.” The researchers hope to distinguish between modern treatment and the original embalming agent.

According to Evershed, his method could be used to date any material that has preserved organic compounds. “You could even isolate individual amino acids by this preparative GC approach, but no one’s tried that. That’s the next step.” Evershed’s findings were featured ‘Analytical Chemistry’, the journal of the American Chemical Society.

Stone Pages
Source: American Chemical Society (29 September 2003)

Posted in anticipation of The Megalithic European!

The mystery of a prehistoric site cited as, variously, a launch site for little green men or the tracks leading to Atlantis, could be finally solved.
Known as the Maltese Clapham Junction, the expanse of scrubby fields and barren rock is a bewilder ing complex of tracks believed to be up to 6,000 years old, gouged into solid limestone of the island whose megalithic temples are the oldest stone buildings in the world.
Now an Australian archaeologist, inspired by the evidence of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland, has demolished both the myths and the con ventional explanations. Claudia Sagona, from Birmingham University, suggests the site may be simply a relic of stone age agricultural enterprise. Whole story here...

It will soon be a shrine to the modern age of commercialism, where shoppers park their cars as they head into the city. But excavation work on the new park-and-ride site at Harford, south of Norwich, has revealed an insight into a rich and intriguing period of the area’s ancient history.
The discoveries made at the site, next to the junction of the A140 and A47 Southern Bypass, have been described as “one of the most important” finds ever recorded in Norfolk.

As well as evidence of settlements from a number of different ages, exciting finds relating to the Neolithic age between 4000 and 2300BC were made. Among them was a Neolithic timber structure.

Gary Trimble, project manager, said: “We already knew this was a very rich Bronze Age site but this is the first time we can push back time to the Neolithic age. It is tremendously exciting and a once-in-a-lifetime dig.”

Archaeologists were also excited by the discovery of what is believed to be a mortuary site – the first of its kind in Norfolk. Massive holes show where huge wooden poles would have been and indents reveal where timber walls would have run alongside.

The find has great similarities with a site discovered in Hampshire in the 1950s but, unlike that one, there was no mound at Harford, although it is possible it has been ploughed away.

Another major find was a rectangular enclosure, about 35-40m by 60m, which is also thought to have been used in mortuary activity. At the southern entrance there was a pit containing a broken flint axe.

And the finds did not end there. The dig took place over four months during spring and early summer this year, and items unearthed have now been removed from the site for restoration and cataloguing.

According to David Gurney, principal archaeologist for Norfolk Museum Service, what is particularly exciting about the site was the time-scale covered by the finds.
“It would have been good to have found just the Neolithic finds but to get the rest from the Bronze and Roman Age too is just remarkable. It is the sort of find you get once every 100 years,” he said.

Arrowheads and examples of Beaker pottery dating back the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age were also found, as was a cremation burial site containing two bronze axes and bits of burnt bone.

Close to the burial at the highest point of the site was the remains of a Roman aisled building that was possibly used for storage.

Mr Trimble, whose special interest lies in prehistoric archaeology, said the immediate area of the finds, close to a confluence of rivers, was very sensitive, with Arminghall Henge and the Roman fort at Caistor St Edmund nearby.

“I think it was when we found the mortuary structure that we realised we had something very significant and exciting because it was so different for the region. This was an important area where people would probably meet to trade and congregate or for a multitude of different reasons,” he said.

But he said it was difficult to be precise about the lifestyles of people from the Neolithic era from these finds. “What the settlement looked like is more complicated than we first thought and it is difficult to know how people lived,” he said.

It is now his job to write up his finds in a book. The site is currently being turned into a 1100-capacity car park and in January, the area of land which has been rich in archaeological pickings will begin its new phase.

megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146411134

Source: Norfolk Now 02/10/2003

Prehistoric Long Man is ‘16th century new boy‘
By David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent
(Filed: 02/10/2003) Telegraph

news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&xml=/news/2003/10/02/nchalk02.xml

The origins of England’s tallest chalk hill figure, the Long Man of Wilmington, have puzzled historians and archaeologists for generations.

Carved into a steep slope on the South Downs in Sussex, the imposing figure has been claimed as an Anglo Saxon warrior, a Roman folly and an Iron Age fertility symbol. But acccording to a team of researchers, the Long Man may be a relatively recent addition to the landscape. Tests carried out this summer have produced compelling evidence that it dates from the mid-16th century.

The findings have surprised the experts and will cast doubt on the age of other supposedly prehistoric carvings, including the Cerne Abbas giant in Dorset.

Standing 226 feet tall, the Long Man of Wilmington is one of the largest carved figures in the world. It dominates the grassy downland at the village of Wilmington near Eastbourne, holding a stave in each hand.

Although the earliest known record of the figure comes from 1710, many scholars have argued that it already existed when the Romans invaded Britain.

The new findings come from a team of researchers led by Prof Martin Bell, an environmental archaeologist at Reading University. Their research is part of Figures in the Chalk, broadcast on BBC2 tonight at 7.30pm.

“I didn’t expect this date at all,” Prof Bell told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. “I expected it to be no later than Anglo Saxon.”

Prof Bell’s conclusions come from an analysis of chalk fragments washed down the slope over the past few thousand years.

The analysis revealed little activity on the hillside during the Iron Age, Roman occupation or Medieval times. But about 500 years ago there was a sudden change when a layer of chalk rubble swept down the slope. Prof Bell believes that the chalk debris may have been come [sic] from the freshly cut Long Man.

Museum chiefs are awaiting the outcome of a funding bid which could pave the way for Seahenge to go on public display in West Norfolk.

Norfolk’s museums and archaeology service has submitted a £900,000 bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the redevelopment of Lynn Museum at King’s Lynn.

Earlier this year county councillors decided that the Bronze Age timber circle, which was discovered on the Le Strange estate at Holme near Hunstanton in 1998, should form the focal point of the £1.2m project.

Organisations including West Norfolk council have already agreed to make financial contributions towards the revamp.

A bid for £85,000 capital funding from Norfolk County Council has also been submitted.

Area museums officer for West Norfolk, Robin Handley, said that they should know the outcome of both bids in the spring.

“We have obviously put in as strong a bid as we can. We have had support from heritage organisations to demonstrate to the Heritage Lottery Fund that the bid is supported locally”.

“The borough council has indicated its support as has English Heritage. It is a really substantial piece of work and it has taken six months for us to put together,” he said.

Dr Handley said that Seahenge would form part of a display telling the story of Lynn and West Norfolk.

“We want to put Seahenge in the context of the archaeology of the area,” he said.

“We are not only wanting to create an exhibition but to put in lots of interactive elements and real objects on display. We have an excellent collection and during a consultation of people before the bid was put in they said they wanted to see lots of artefacts.”

From the EDP website.

From this week’s New Scientist (reporting on a story in Nature vol 425)

‘Neolithic people quickly rejected fishing in favour of agriculture, an analysis of ancient British diets has revealed.

The accepted view was that converting to farming was so complex it took 1000 years to make the change. But Michael Richards at the university of Bradford and his team have found evidence that the switch to a farmed diet happened much more quickly right across Britain.

They analysed the ratio of carbon isotopes in bone collagen from 164 early Neolithic skeletons between 4500 and 5200 years old, and 19 skeletons dating from 5200 to 9000 years ago. The isotope ratio revealed whether the people lived primarily on fish or terrestrial animals.

Before the change, 5200 yrs ago, there was a mix of diets but within 200 years all the Neolithic people had begun to eat food grown on land, suggesting that farming quickly won out over fishing.‘

Rather raises some questions about where the skeletons were from, what ratio of farming:fish you decide means they had switched, etc... might be worth looking at the original article?

There is a new Manchester Museum website covering their four years of research at Alderley Edge. Some good photos, a searchable database, teaching materials AND a downloadable for the first recorded instance of the Wizard Legend (only two printed copies survive – one in the Bodleian, one in the British Library.) I was involved with this – a fascinating project. PP

www.alderleyedge.man.ac.uk

A Quarry worker could have discovered proof of prehistoric life close to the River Trent (England). Part of a skull was found at a working gravel pit off Pasture Lane, Long Eaton, by a worker from RMC Aggregates (Eastern). Initial tests date it back to the prehistoric age.
After finding the skull, worried workers phoned the police and the site was closed, as officers began a search and investigation. But the investigation took on more of a historical angle when tests indicated the skull was thousands of years old. DS Rohan Catlow, based at Long Eaton, said: “We had experts come to the site and they believe it is a human skull from the prehistoric age, or maybe a primate, such as an ape.” The skull was taken to Long Eaton police station, where experts are due to examine it in more detail.

stonepages.com/news/#341 Source: Evening Post (25 September 2003)

Extracts from the full article at www.thisiscornwall.co.uk

---

DELIGHT AS PREHISTORIC BARROW IS WITHDRAWN
JONATHAN CARTER
09:00 – 25 September 2003

A BRONZE Age burial mound which sits on a Cornish hilltop went under the hammer at auction this week, attracting hundreds of potential buyers.

But the 4,000-year-old monument, which has belonged to the family of 1970s’ rock musician Nic Potter for more than half a century, was withdrawn from the sale after bidding failed to reach the reserve price of £20,000.

Afterwards, Mr Potter – who was the bass player for Van Der Graaf Generator – told of his relief that he still owned the 11.5 metres-wide monument on a hilltop between St Ives and Penzance.

“I have been lying awake at night thinking how much I love the barrow,” he said.

“To me it’s a place full of life. I go there for peace and inspiration.”

Chariot proves Iron Age links with Europe
by STEPHEN STEWART, September 25 2003

ARCHAEOLOGISTS studying an ancient chariot burial have found evidence that Iron Age Scots had far closer ties with Europe than previously thought.
Experts examining the unprecedented find at Newbridge, west of Edinburgh, have proved it is the oldest chariot in the UK and uncovered great similarities between the vehicle and associated burial rites found on the Continent, indicating a close familiarity with mainland European practices. Whole story here

A cave in the Mendip Hills in southwest England has been revealed as the earliest scientifically dated cemetery in Britain.

The age of the cemetery makes it an important European site
The site at Aveline’s Hole, near Burrington Combe, contained human bone fragments that have now been confirmed to be between roughly 10,200 and 10,400 years old.

More...

The Welsh version of Stonehenge is under construction. Tim Halewood from the Vale of Glamorgan is constructing the area’s first solar lunar circle. The ancient timepiece, designed to act as a solar lunar calendar, is being built from stone by the local community at Coed Hills Rural Art Space in St Hilary.

“This will be one of the only working solar lunar calendars in the UK,” said Mr Halewood, who studies sacred geometry. “It is a similar concept to Stonehenge but ours will be fully functional. It will act as a great communal focus point for St. Hilary and it will be something the whole community can work together on as we study it.” The event is the result of months of research by Tim and a volunteer group exploring ancient sacred geometry and the study of solar lunar circles.

Monica Mahoney, community support worker at Wales Council for Voluntary Action said, “There are about 250 active Millennium Award projects in Wales. Tim’s scheme is a great example of how these awards can benefit the whole community. The potential for the grants is wide-ranging. We are always open to new ideas like Tim’s, so if anyone has anything in mind, they should apply for a You and Your Community Millennium Award.”

The Vale of Glamorgan project qualified for an award from the programme which offers people grants to improve their lives and benefit themselves and their community.

From stonepages.com Source: The Western Mail (21 September 2003)

A massive blaze has devastated a large area of the North York Moors near Whitby.

An ecological expert fears the moorland at Fylingdales could be a barren wasteland for years.
More than 50 firefighters from across North Yorkshire – a quarter of the county’s force – tackled the blaze, which covered an area of about four square miles.

WhitbyToday

AN emergency meeting has been called to save an Iron Age fort in East Lothian threatened by a massive blaze which has burned for a fortnight.

Council bosses and environment watchdogs are drawing up an action plan to salvage the fort and hidden archaeological treasures on Traprain Law which may have been destroyed by the huge grass fire.

Firefighters have been battling every day for two weeks to control the fire, thought to have been sparked by a discarded cigarette, which is continuing to burn underground. The hill has been closed until fire chiefs and council bosses are sure the blaze is completely out.

East Lothian Council officials and Scottish Natural Heritage are drawing up an action plan to determine the extent of the damage to archaeological treasures and botanical life. Due to the intense heat, archaeologists from East Lothian Council and Historic Scotland have been unable to get close enough to accurately gauge the damage.

Heritage officer Biddy Simpson said she was hoping to get a team together to carry out a survey as soon as the site is safe.

She is concerned that the site has been badly damaged and the fire could have exposed new archaeological finds to the elements.

“It is really difficult to say how much damage will have been caused, but the fire will almost certainly have exposed new finds which will start to deteriorate rapidly if the ash covering them is blown away.”

Patches of fire continue to flare up and it is thought only heavy rainfall will extinguish the fire completely.

Five fire crews and 28 firefighters from Haddington and East Linton stations were called out to Traprain Law when the fire broke out two weeks ago.

From Edinburgh Evening News
edinburghnews.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1053682003

Detailed mapping of the sea bed beneath the Channel and North Sea should reveal signs of human habitation when the land bridge to Europe was intact. Go to: observer.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,1596,1046445,00.html

The landscape around Stonehenge and Avebury has yielded more of its secrets during a new investigation. Archaeologists have spent the last three weeks walking 90 hectares (222 acres) of private land around the monuments to look for prehistoric flint.

A polished stone axe head from the Neolithic period, dating to around 3,000BC-2,500BC, and a leaf shaped arrowhead from the same period have been found near Stonehenge. This type of axe, which usually had a wooden shaft, would have been used to cut down trees, though this axe head has not been used. The stone it was made from is not local.
Read Wessex Archaeology’s press release

Read 24 Hour museum’s story

Archaeologists have discovered a significant Romano-British shrine in Hertfordshire to a goddess whose name has not been heard before: Senua. The similarities between this shrine to that of Sulis at Bath, the fact that Senua, like Sulis, is identified with Minerva and also the resemblance of the Sen sound to our word Sun makes me suspect that this goddess could be a descendant of the ancient Indo-European Sun & eye goddess Suil, though I must also add that my interpretation is to some extent speculative.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS exploring Avebury’s prehistoric past showed off their findings during an open day yesterday.

The experts, who are halfway through the month-long Negotiating Avebury Project, thrilled crowds with a guided tour.

One of the key tasks of the team is to learn more about Beckhampton Avenue ­a form of prehistoric hallway ­which leads to the world-famous stone circle.

Melanie Pomeroy-Kellinger, Avebury World Heritage site officer, is delighted with the progress so far.

“This project is about transforming our understanding of the prehistoric landscape relating to Avebury,” she said.

“It is the final part of a five-year archeological research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board.”

The team have unearthed several pieces of Neolithic and Roman pottery as well as mysterious large stones.

From www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk

A public inquiry will decide the fate of controversial road plans for Stonehenge, it was confirmed this week.

An inquiry had been on the cards since the £193m scheme for ridding the world heritage site of traffic and returning the stones to an ancient setting was first announced.

Now transport minister Alistair Darling has announced that, because of the barrage of objections to the project, there will definitely be a public hearing, and that it will begin on February 17 next year.

thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/amesbury/news/AMES_NEWS1.html

from BBCi
Plea to walkers over relics

A Cumbrian museum has urged hill walkers to leave Neolithic relics where they find them on the fells. Stone axes are often found on Lake District scree slopes, and the Tullie House Museum in Carlisle is showing people how to recognise them, enjoy them but not to take them home.
Whole story here

The latest four week archaeological excavation at Minehowe in Tankerness came to an end last week – but although it confirmed the extent and importance of metalworking around the enigmatic Iron Age site, it has again left the experts with as many questions as answers.

orkneyjar.com/archaeology/minehowe2003.htm

According to the East Lothian Courier, the grassland on top of Traprain Law was ablaze last weekend. The fire was believed to have been started by a dropped cigarette end. Archaeologists are apparently currently excavating the site, and were this week trying to decide how much damage had been caused to the hill fort. One hopes that the fire and the presence of archaeologists who smoke are unconnected.

More at
news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1014022003