Images and fieldnotes for this broch, which is actually called ‘Minera’, can be viewed on TMA’s dedicated Minera page.
Latest News
February 14, 2021
North-east archaeological group wins national award after bringing the past to life in Deeside
There are no whips or sable fedora hats among the men, women and children who search for ancient artefacts across Aberdeenshire.
A large settlement, a Roman villa and many household objects are among the discoveries at an ancient site in Oxfordshire
More info :
theguardian.com/science/2021/feb/14/astonishing-dig-reveals-domestic-life-in-the-iron-age
February 12, 2021
One of Britain’s biggest and oldest stone circles has been found in Wales – and could be the original building blocks of Stonehenge.
Archaeologists uncovered the remains of the Waun Mawn site in Pembrokeshire’s Preseli Hills.
They believe the stones could have been dismantled and rebuilt 150 miles (240 km) away on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.
The discovery was made during filming for BBC Two’s Stonehenge: The Lost Circle Revealed.
The Welsh circle, believed to be the third biggest in Britain, has a diameter of 360ft (110m), the same as the ditch that encloses Stonehenge, and both are aligned on the midsummer solstice sunrise.
And one of the bluestones at Stonehenge has an unusual cross-section which matches one of the holes left at Waun Mawn, suggesting the monolith began its life as part of the stone circle in the Preseli Hills before being moved.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56029203
And was Kammer the first to recognise this?
themodernantiquarian.com/site/3992/waun_mawn_row_circle.html
February 11, 2021
Scotland’s remote St Kilda archipelago was inhabited as long as 2,000 years ago, according to archaeologists.
Archaeologists have discovered a Neolithic settlement 'on par' with the world famous Skara Brae
A 5,000-year-old settlement has been discovered in the Bay of Skaill, Orkney
It could rival the world famous Skara Brae and give new insights into ancient life
It was found after coastal erosion unearthed animal bones and a carved stone
The site is already under serious risk from climate change and rising sea levels
More info :
February 5, 2021
Man thrown down steep bank after altercation with off-road drivers in Wiltshire
Rogue 4x4 drivers a hazard at Avebury again.
Police are appealing for witnesses following the incident, which took place on a byway near Avebury.
At around 3.30pm on Sunday January 24 a man in his 50s – out walking with his family – was verbally and physically assaulted by another man belonging to a group of off-road drivers.
Following an altercation with the group, the victim was thrown down a steep bank and forced into a puddle; both he and his family were then verbally abused by members of the group. Fortunately, the victim was not seriously injured. The assault took place on the top of the byway which runs from Avebury Trusloe to the trees by Windmill Hill. Police are now hunting for a man they believe is responsible. He is described as white, in his mid-late 20s, 5ft 10ins tall, of heavy build with light brown hair, a goatee beard and moustache.
It’s believed he was driving a Land Rover with customised wheels. There were other vehicles involved, some of which did not have registrations plates. However, police believe that one of the registration plates contained the numbers 141 and letters BRM. PC Angela Holden said: “Despite the remote location we are asking if anyone out for a walk or run in this part of rural Wiltshire heard or saw anything suspicious during this afternoon.
“Perhaps you saw a convoy of off-road vehicles in the area or recognise the descriptions given.
“Please contact us on 101, quoting crime reference number 54210008149, if you can help.”
You can also report anonymously via Crime
stoppers on 0800 555 111.
......
February 4, 2021
Exclusive: experts also find neolithic pottery and mysterious C-shaped enclosure at A303 excavation site
More info :
January 21, 2021
The spectacular feature in the landscape is likely to have drawn people from all over a Scottish island around 5,000 years ago for ritual and ceremony.
More info :
January 9, 2021
It was not what archaeologists at an ancient Welsh hill-fort expected to find – a mountain of plastic.
More info :
January 5, 2021
England’s Rock Art (ERA) website to close
The Scottish Rock Art Project have issued the following statement on their Facebook page:
Today we have had the astonishing news that the England’s Rock Art (ERA) website is going to be closed down on 15 January, with no warning or explanation. Those of you that are familiar with the ERA website archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era/
will know that, since its launch in 2008, has been the key source of detailed information and images of rock art in England. These detailed records were compiled by trained community teams during the Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP) and Carved Stones Investigation: Rombalds Moor, and built on the pioneering work of Stan Beckensall and many others, including the Ilkley Archaeology Group and Paul and Barbara Brown. The ERA website also incorporates the digital Beckensall Archive, produced by Aron Mazel of Newcastle University. With the closure of the website, this wealth of information will no longer be publicly accessible.
Let us know what you think, and we’ll keep you posted!
December 8, 2020
Conservation work has been completed on an Iron Age drystone tower that was damaged by Victorian archaeologists.
More info :
December 2, 2020
English Heritage and Avon and Somerset Police are seeking witnesses after vandals daubed graffiti at Stoney Littleton Long Barrow, a 5,000 year old Neolithic chambered tomb at Wellow near Bath.
Stoney Littleton Long Barrow is a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of English Heritage. It is one of the country’s finest accessible examples of a Neolithic chambered tomb dating from about 3500 BC.
avonandsomerset.police.uk/news/2020/12/neolithic-monument-vandalism-under-investigation/
Also; bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-55148335
Vandals who daubed red handprints on a Neolithic monument may have damaged it permanently, heritage experts fear.
The potential benefits to archaeology of road building projects is being reviewed by the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).
More info :
November 25, 2020
Prehistoric Rock Artists Were Stoned, Archaeologists Finally Prove
Altered states of consciousness have been posited for the artists of antiquity and finally archaeologists have found the smoking datura in California – but stress it neither proves nor disproves shamanic ritual
Were artists centuries ago stoned to the gills when painting or engraving on cave walls? The possible use of intoxicants in the artistic process during prehistory has been fiercely debated in archaeological and anthropological circles, as is the meaning of the depictions. It has never been proved one way or the other.
There could be different motives behind – and meanings ascribed to – art created in southeast Asia 60,000 years ago, the glorious animal images of paleo-Western Europe and fairly recent cave drawings in the Americas. Some may whisper of secretive shamanistic practices and maybe others were made by bored teenagers with ocher to spare. We cannot say all were driven by the same urges, but now, for the first time, researchers have proven the consumption of an intoxicant in a place where rock art was created: Pinwheel Cave, California, which had been used during the late prehistoric period and through the colonial period.
The archaeologists couldn’t prove directly that the early Californians were buzzing when decorating the cave. But they could demonstrate that quids (wads of masticated plant matter like quids of chewing tobacco) rammed into crevices in the cave ceiling contained the hallucinogenic agent datura, among other things.
November 19, 2020
It was lost to layers of peat over thousands of years with the ancient site hidden from view.
More info :
November 12, 2020
An investigation has begun into a west Cork farmer who reinstated a fallen Bronze Age standing stone on his land with the help of two druids.
The stone had been knocked over more than a decade ago by a bull who was using it as a scratching post.
The National Monuments Service confirmed it had begun an investigation into the actions of Donal Bohane on land rented from his cousin at Coolnagarrane, Skibbereen.
November 8, 2020
It has been bitterly debated for the past three decades, but the latest plans to partly bury the A303 in a tunnel beside Stonehenge may this week finally get approval from transport secretary Grant Shapps.
The £2.4bn scheme – which will see the traffic-choked road to the west country widened into a dual carriageway near the ancient site before shooting down a two-mile tunnel – has pitted archaeologists, local campaigners and even the nation’s druids against the combined might of Highways England, English Heritage and the National Trust.
theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/07/druids-face-defeat-as-bulldozers-get-set-for-stonehenge-bypass
Spot the howler in the headline!
November 6, 2020
The earlier excavation found remains of an Iron Age Village which centred round a broch, or a large stone tower, which was probably built between 400-200BC.
More info :
scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/van-load-artefacts-taken-pictish-era-site-shetland-3025449
November 5, 2020
The trial of a Fife farmer accused of damaging nationally important standing stones on an ancient Angus site has been delayed into next year.
More info :
October 2, 2020
Fife farmer, 80, to face trial accused of carving path through ancient Angus standing stones site
What an ar*sh*le
An 80-year-old Fife farmer has denied damaging standing stones in a nationally important Neolithic or Bronze Age Angus site by carving a path through it for tree-clearing works.
More info :
September 11, 2020
People have been left outraged after part of one of a historic monument in the Peak District was defaced.
More info :
derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/local-news/outrage-ancient-stone-circle-peak-4498472
September 7, 2020
An Aberdeenshire orchestra is performing as a group once more, with some perfectly-spaced ancient standing stones helping to keep them safely apart.
More info :
August 20, 2020
Discovery of marked plaquettes at Les Varines points to earliest evidence of human art in British Isles
They are small, flat and covered in what appear to be chaotic scratches, but 10 engraved stone fragments unearthed on Jersey, researchers say, could be the earliest evidence of human art in the British Isles.
The stones were found at Les Varines, on the island, between 2014 and 2018, and are believed to have been made by a group of hunters about 15,000 years ago.
While at first glance the engravings appear to be a haphazard array of marks, experts say a careful analysis has revealed the cuts were made in deliberate ways and in a clear order with straight lines made first and deeper, curved, lines made last.
August 16, 2020
The archaeologist who helped lead the dig that found Britain’s oldest house said the site was still giving up its secrets 10 years on.
Star Carr hit the headlines in 2010 when a circular Stone Age structure found was dated to about 8,500 BC.
Archaeologist Nicky Milner said working on the site was akin to time-travel.
“It’s as close as you can get to being in a Tardis. It was an absolute dream, it took up 15 years of my life,” Dr Milner said.
Ray Mears, bushcraft expert and TV presenter, was one of those who helped unlock the purpose of wood found at the site.
Star Carr is a Mesolithic, or Middle Stone Age, site near Scarborough in North Yorkshire dating to almost 11,000 years ago.