Latest News

From BBCi
An investigation has been launched into concerns that increased visitor numbers may be damaging the Stone Age village of Skara Brae on Orkney.
The heritage agency, Historic Scotland, has brought in state-of-the-art technology to determine whether stones are moving or developing cracks.
Read full article

It is claimed that Britain’s first underwater “Stoneage” site has been discovered. Go to: asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3425828

He comes from Des Moines, Iowa. Somebody had to. You can’t blame him for wanting to be here.

Mr Bryson has been a resident of the country, on and off, for the past two decades. He said: “I am taking this very seriously and I am honoured to be appointed. It’s not every day that an immigrant more or less fresh off the boat gets invited to help run a national institution.”

Read whole story here

Archaeology of social inter-reaction etc. New study.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3095018.stm

Looks Egyptian to me! Not a British find but worth a look.
Go to nature.com/nsu/030901/030901-6.html

Its published!
Here’s what the book reviewer of ‘The Independent’ thought of it.

Archaeologists from the University of Manchester have excavated a new stone circle in Callanish, Lewis, that is already widely acknowledged as being second only to Stonehenge. Although a destroyed circle was reported as far back as 1928, a team of eight archaeologists only recently excavated the site and have already uncovered 12 new stones. The stone circle, which is thought to be more than 3,000 years old — older than Stonehenge — has been discovered in close proximity to the four other existing stone circles at the famous standing stones of Callanish.

The new circle, called Na Dromannan (’The Ridges’), is around 30 metres in diameter — larger than the existing ones — and is situated on the crofters’ common grazings. It includes a regular outer circle and various stones irregularly placed in an inner ring. Each stone measures between 2.5 to four metres long and is made of Lewissian gneiss — a metamorphic rock containing feldspar, quartz and mica, which give it its sheen. The archaeologists excavating the site have been particularly intrigued by one of the stones exposed, which is covered by a complete layer of quartz.

The stones are of particular interest because of their unusual construction. Instead of being bedded in earth, they are situated on a rocky outcrop and were originally propped up by stones encircling their bases. As such, they were less stable and were found lying in the positions they fell in — some of them broken.

The team of Manchester undergraduate and postgraduate archaeology students on Lewis are being led by Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University, Dr Colin Richards, who has been working on a project for the last two years on the construction of stone circles in North West Britain, including Orkney and Arran. Dr Richards stressed that the discovery of the ancient stone circle was very exciting, particularly because the circle was built on the site of a quarry from which the stones probably came, and where the team has found a large monolith. Although archaeologists have geologically located the mountains which the stones to build Stonehenge would have come from, no evidence of the quarry has ever been found.

Dr Richards said: “We have uncovered 12 stones already. Some are rectangular and thick and some are smaller, thin stones. When we started taking the peat off, we realised how big these stones were. Some are up to four metres long.” Dr Richards acknowledged that a ‘destroyed circle’ was recorded in 1928 by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
“It was long thought that there may be a further stone circle on the site but, until now, it has lain undiscovered, buried in the peat,” he said. “When I came here last year, I could see the ends of stones poking up above the peat. We came up here again in late July and did two weeks. I then came up about a week ago. This is the result of around three weeks’ work. People have always assumed that the stone circles were built for a purpose, but I wondered whether these things were actually considered greatly. It could have just been the case of gathering people together socially to move the stones.”

Dr Richards added: “Why they chose this area and not somewhere else is very interesting. The site may have been special because the stones were sacred. I would date them around 3000BC.” He continued: “This site is kind of nice because you see sites like the main circle and it’s very manufactured and precise. This is good because it shows what happens when things go wrong. Because the stones are irregular, we don’t know how many we expect to find. It is very difficult to say, but perhaps 16 or 17 in the outer circle.”

The archaeologists are planning to leave Lewis on Saturday. The uncovered stones will be covered with plastic, until the team return next year to continue work at the site.

stornowaygazette.co.uk/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Newspaper/Article&pid=1034254631790&cid=1060350159439

Archaeologists from the University of Manchester have excavated a new stone circle in Callanish, Lewis, that is already widely acknowledged as being second only to Stonehenge.
Although a destroyed circle was reported as far back as 1928, a team of eight archaeologists only recently excavated the site and have already uncovered 12 new stones.
The stone circle, which is thought to be more than 3,000 years old — older than Stonehenge — has been discovered in close proximity to the four other existing stone circles at the famous standing stones of Callanish.
The new circle, called Na Dromannan (‘The Ridges’), is around 30 metres in diameter — larger than the existing ones — and is situated on the crofters’ common grazings. It includes a regular outer circle and various stones irregularly placed in an inner ring. Each stone measures between 2.5 to four metres long and is made of Lewissian gneiss — a metamorphic rock containing feldspar, quartz and mica, which give it its sheen.
The archaeologists excavating the site have been particularly intrigued by one of the stones exposed, which is covered by a complete layer
of quartz.
The stones are of particular interest because of their unusual construction. Instead of being bedded in earth, they are situated on a rocky outcrop and were originally propped up by stones encircling their bases. As such, they were less stable and were found lying in the positions they fell in — some of them broken.
The team of Manchester undergraduate and postgraduate archaeology students on Lewis are being led by Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University, Dr Colin Richards, who has been working on a project for the last two years on the construction of stone circles in North West Britain, including Orkney and Arran.
Dr Richards stressed that the discovery of the ancient stone circle was very exciting, particularly because the circle was built on the site of a quarry from which the stones probably came, and where the team has found a large monolith.
Although archaeologists have geologically located the mountains which the stones to build Stonehenge would have come from, no evidence of the quarry has ever been found.
Dr Richards said: “We have uncovered 12 stones already. Some are rectangular and thick and some are smaller, thin stones. When we started taking the peat off, we realised how big these stones were. Some are up to four metres long.”
Dr Richards acknowledged that a ‘destroyed circle’ was recorded in 1928 by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
“It was long thought that there may be a further stone circle on the site but, until now, it has lain undiscovered, buried in the peat,” he said.
“When I came here last year, I could see the ends of stones poking up above the peat. We came up here again in late July and did two weeks. I then came up about a week ago. This is the result of around three weeks’ work.
“People have always assumed that the stone circles were built for a purpose, but I wondered whether these things were actually considered greatly. It could have just been the case of gathering people together socially to move
the stones.”
Dr Richards added: “Why they chose this area and not somewhere else is very interesting. The site may have been special because the stones were sacred. I would date them around 3000BC.”
He continued: “This site is kind of nice because you see sites like the main circle and it’s very manufactured and precise. This is good because it shows what happens when things go wrong.
“Because the stones are irregular, we don’t know how many we expect to find. It is very difficult to say, but perhaps 16 or 17 in the outer circle.”
The archaeologists are planning to leave Lewis on Saturday. The uncovered stones will be covered with plastic, until the team return next year to continue work at the site.

https://212.137.46.186/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Newspaper/Article&pid=1034254631790&cid=1060350159439
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From the Evening Chronicle.

Iron Age skull unearthed in a back garden in North Tyneside.

Full story here

thisislancashire.co.uk/lancashire/lancaster/news/LANCNEWS8.html

THE Storey Gallery in Lancaster is hosting an exciting exhibition of archaeological sculpture, photography and paintings from Saturday.

The display – entitled the Segsbury Project – is a result of artist Simon Calleryís experiences of an archaeological dig at Segsbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort in Oxfordshire.

It includes a sculpture entitled Trench 10 made by pouring plaster directly on to the surface of a 20-metre Bronze Age ditch.

The exhibition will run until November 15

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3081532.stm

Thursday is the deadline for people to express their views over a proposed £193m road development around Stonehenge. It is hoped that the re-routing of the A303 road, and a £57m visitor centre, will rescue the World Heritage site from its label as “a national disgrace”. More than 1,000 people have already made their views known and a public inquiry is to be held early next year.

But the National Trust, while supporting the overall scheme, has reiterated its call for the 2.1 km tunnel proposed by the government, to be lengthened. Speaking in June, trust territory director Martyn Heighton said: “We are not convinced that the plan for a 2.1km tunnel will adequately safeguard the integrity of the site. There are strong archaeological and curatorial reasons for building as long a tunnel as possible, to preserve and enhance the qualities of the site.”

Landowners the National Trust, monument keepers English Heritage and the Highways Agency are working together on the scheme.

The publishing of the report sets off a 12-week public consultation period.

Work will start by 2005 if the scheme is approved.

ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_politics_100014_04/09/2003_33683

An archaeological dig on the island of Chios has unearthed evidence of a successful head operation carried out over 2,000 years ago in accordance with the writings of Hippocrates, the most famous of ancient doctors.

From BBCi, 4 September 2003
Next Thursday is the deadline for people to express their views over a proposed £193m road development around Stonehenge. It is hoped that the re-routing of the A303 road, and a £57m visitor centre, will rescue the World Heritage site from its label as “a national disgrace”.
Read whole story here....

Ok, so they’re doing it for their own ends, because they might have to dredge some of it. But they could find all sorts of Prehistoric Stuff.

royal-navy.mod.uk/rn/content.php3?page=1&article=725

Wrecks and ‘drowned’ prehistoric settlements may be among the mysteries of the Solent that could be discovered during the most scientifically advanced survey of the area, being undertaken by the Royal Navy.

New hi-tech equipment is being used to produce pictures of what is on and below the seabed in an area that will have to be dredged if it is chosen as the new route into Portsmouth Naval Base for the navy’s new and much larger generation of aircraft carriers.

The geophysical survey – part of a £150-£200 million Portsmouth regeneration scheme – is being conducted by the RN Hydrographic surveying squadron’s smallest vessel, the 35ft long HM Survey Motor Launch (HMSML) Gleaner. With her small crew under the command of Lieutenant Commander Matt Syrett, the Gleaner started her survey task on Monday (September 1) and will continue the work until September 12.

Working under contract to the ministry of defence, the commercial company Wessex Archaeology is assisting the survey which will be carried out using a multi-beam echo-sounder, high-frequency sonar which can detect small items on or below the seabed and, for the first time, a computer-controlled camera system known as Remus.

Also new will be a Canadian-developed system – Caris – which will be used to process the data at the end of the operation. That data, which should be ready before the end of the year, will be provided to the organisations being consulted as part of an environmental impact assessment already announced.

Among the organisations being consulted are local authorities in the area, English heritage and the Mary Rose trust, who have a keen interest in the results of Gleaner’s survey of the Mary Rose wreck site, where the ship’s bow castle is thought to be lying under the seabed.

An initial assessment provided for mod by Wessex Archaeology has found that there are 174 known and documented wrecks and seabed obstructions in the Solent, including the remains of the Portsdown steam ferry which lies on the route of the navy’s preferred channel.

Much earlier wrecks could also be found as the Romans used the Solent sea routes. Other artefacts and structures may date back to the stone and bronze ages as 18,000 years ago the Solent was dry land that gradually became inundated.

from Farming Life, 3-9-03

Northern Ireland is well known for the diversity of its landscape features, particularly the many archaeological sites which are scattered throughout the countryside.

Examples of the many different types of site include standing stones, stone circles, raths, forts and underground souterrains (tunnels).

However, many important sites have been lost or damaged over the years.

Protection of these unique landscape features is paramount as they not only preserve a visible link with the past, but also contain a wealth of information about the way of life of our ancestors.

These sites can be safeguarded under the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) Scheme and the Countryside Management Scheme (CMS).

In these schemes, the farmer receives an annual payment for the positive management of an archaeological feature.

Read whole story here....

Do I detect the hand of our very our BrigantesNation at work here?!

From www.24hour museum.org.uk
Archaeologists and local campaigners have expressed their concern at the possibility of further gravel extraction close to the Neolithic complex of henges at Thornborough in Yorkshire.

What a great news story!

From an article by Alan Hamilton, published in The Times, on 3rd September 2003:

Cryptic runic symbols discovered on a block of granite in Norfolk, initially thought to be of huge archaeological significance, have been found to be just eight years old.

The two-tonne rock, imported from Norway in the 1980s to strengthen sea defences at Gorleston-on-Sea near Great Yarmouth, was exposed this year by high tides. It was engraved with intertwined serpents and runic symbols which, it was felt, had a definite 2,000-year-old Norse look about them. Dr John Davies, chief curator for North Norfolk Museums, declared it unlikely to be a fake.

“It looks genuine; not the sort of design someone would doodle,” he said. The town’s local newspaper reported a “potentially very important discovery” — but the sculptor then confessed. Barry Luxton, 50, an unemployed construction worker with an interest in druids, said that he cut the design with a hammer and chisel over three days in 1995 to coincide with May Day celebrations.

“It is hilarious that they were taken in,” he said yesterday. “I certainly did not intend to deceive anyone.”

The newspaper carries a photo of the Mayor of Great Yarmouth proudly studying the carving, and another of Mr Luxton carving the symbol (page 11). Great stuff!

The Ananova version of the same article is also entertaining.

A time-travelling family is back in the 21st century this week . . . after going back to the Bronze Age!

For the Pogmores are now enjoying the luxuries of modern life after taking part in a reality TV programme on ITV’s Central News. As revealed last month, dad Phil (38), mum Vickie (35) and six of their seven children had to face life without coffee, chocolate and mobile phones for the week, filmed at archaeological site Flag Fen in Peterborough. But after returning back to a normal family life again, dad Phil reckoned life back in 3000BC wasn’t all that bad.
“I’d go back like a shot. I loved it,” he said. “There were no telephones, TVs or computer games, no hustle and bustle . . . it was great.”
...story continues here...

Interviewed on BBC Regional Television this evening, a Newage bargee admitted that he had carved the rock with a labyrinth, runes and a dragon. Mixing Viking runes with Bronze Age spirals caused the local archaeologist to comment that it was very unusual to find the two together. With no intent to fool anyone, the sculptor just wanted to do it. A photograph shows him working on the rock some time ago.

observer.guardian.co.uk/cash/story/0,6903,1032434,00.html

Budding archaeologists and historians will get a chance to bid for their own slice of ancient history next month, when one of the biggest Bronze Age barrows in Cornwall is put up for auction.

This chap is offering an internet-based archaeology course on world archaeology,
which will run from 5 October until 30 November 2003. The cost is £30/$50.
All the materials are provided for you. The course itself is divided into
four modules, each last two weeks with one week dedicated to reading and
the second week to e-mail discussions.

1. Introduction to and history of archaeology, evolutionary theory, dating
techniques, and the Oligocene and Miocene apes
2. Our early hominin ancestors, an overview of Multiregionalism and
Out-of-Africa, and an indepth examination of the southern African site of
Swartkrans
3. The Middle Stone Age-Later Stone Age and Middle Palaeolithic-Upper
Palaeolithic transitions, disperal into the Americas and an indepth
examination of the southern African site of Duinefontein 2
4. The Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent, early state formation,
carbon isotopes and an indepth examination of the site of Great Zimbabwe

antiquityofman.com/course_worldarchaeology.html

Looks interesting.

Bulgarian archaeologists say they have found evidence of the earliest known metalworking foundry in Europe.

voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=D7E35539-7A9E-4982-8731B34AA74C0E0C

By Ian Johnston of the Scotsman:

The number of visitors to Skara Brae on Orkney – one of the world’s leading Stone Age attractions – may have to be cut amid fears they are damaging the monument, Historic Scotland has admitted.

The heritage agency has launched an investigation to discover whether the thousands of people who visit the ancient village each year are causing serious damage to the walls of the unique dwellings.

Every year up to 55,000 tourists explore the site, which dates back to 3200BC, but numbers may now have to be limited to help preserve the buildings.

A chambered burial cairn known as Maeshowe is also being examined for potential damage as part of the study.

Jon Lowry, chairman of the Friends of the Thornborough Henges, has received a letter confirming that Tarmac Northern Ltd, which is already quarrying in other areas around the henges, “is shortly to submit a planning application for the Ladybridge Farm area.”

ripontoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=18&ArticleID=650053

A proposed skip yard near Waddon Ponds could drain the River Wandle and destroy the remains of a Bronze Age settlement, a local historian has warned.

Plans to house the storage site on derelict land on the corner of Croydon Road and the Purley Way have outraged local residents and environmentalists.

Their case was strengthened this week by local historian Raymond Hague, who said the yard would devastate the local ecology and destroy an area of archaeological value.

He warned that building work could disrupt or drain the Wandle and cause environmental damage to the Waddon Ponds beauty spot...

...read whole story here.