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An excavation begun 12 years ago by a lone amateur which has turned into one of the biggest and most important archaeological sites in the country has been awarded the first part of a grant that could be worth over £160,000 from a fund providing benefits to the community from the quarry industry.

The Bestwall Archaeological Project has uncovered more than 7,000 years of history at a 55 hectare quarry to the east of Wareham, Dorset. The quarry includes one of the largest areas of Middle Bronze Age landscape ever to be excavated and the most substantial ranges of Bronze Age pottery yet discovered in Britain. Also among the finds are Bronze Age ceremonial jewellery and an enormous Roman coin hoard.

Now English Heritage, who helps administer the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund, has allocated money to enable publication of the amazing results of the excavations which are due to finish later this year and which are set to add substantially to our knowledge about our distant past. Amateur volunteers from all over Dorset have carried out most of the excavation, led by Wareham historian Lilian Ladle who was asked to undertake archaeological excavations at the site prior to commercial gravel extraction. The project is seen as a shining example of how amateurs and professionals can work together to produce work of the highest standard.

Buzz Busby, Assistant Ancient Monument Inspector with English Heritage’s South West Region, who is overseeing the latest part of the project on behalf of the ALSF, said: “We are delighted to support this nationally important excavation through the ALSF. The project is extremely unusual as projects of this size are generally only carried out by professional archaeological units. Thanks to the support of the quarry owners and professional archaeologists, this truly outstanding research has been undertaken by local amateurs.”

Among the nationally important finds are rare domestic assemblages of beaker pottery from the Early Bronze Age, a feasting site with ritually placed copper alloy bracelets and ceremonial pottery drinking sets from the Middle Bronze Age and extensive evidence of pottery production from the Late Bronze Age. Altogether more than a twelve thousand pieces of Bronze Age pottery have been discovered,

A vivid picture of the Bronze Age Dorset, previously only visible as burial mounds, has now emerged. On the shores of Poole Harbour generations of prehistoric farmers living in large, well-constructed round houses grew wheat, tended flocks of sheep and enjoyed a good lifestyle. There was plenty to eat and, on occasions, great feasts took place. They made their own pottery, developed trade networks, spun wool and wove it into cloth and adorned themselves with attractive, high-class jewellery.

“English Heritage is now planning to investigate the area of the previously collapsed shaft. As part of this assessment we intend to test the consistency of the backfilling in the lower part of the shaft by drilling a borehole through it from the top. Another borehole will be drilled nearby as a control. The information gathered will help us design long-term remedial work.

The work is due to start during the first week of March 2003 and to be completed on site on 26 March 2003.”

dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20030224/stonehenge.html

Discovery News

Stonehenge Up Close

Feb. 28, 2003 —The design of Stonehenge, the 4,800-year-old monument in southwestern England, was based on female sexual anatomy, according to a paper in the current Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The theory could explain why the ancients constructed Stonehenge and similar monuments throughout the United Kingdom.

Anthony Perks, a professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of British Colombia in Vancouver, and a doctor at the university’s Women’s Hospital, first thought of Stonehenge’s connection to women after noticing how some of the stones were smooth, while others were left rough.

“It must have taken enormous effort to smooth the stones,” Perks, co-author of the journal paper, told Discovery News.

Thinking how estrogen causes a woman’s skin to be smoother than a man’s, the observation led Perks to further analyze the monument in anatomical terms.

He noticed how the inner stone trilithons were arranged in a more elliptical, or egg-shaped, pattern than a true circle. Comparing the layout with the shape of female sexual organs showed surprising parallels.

Perks believes the labia majora could be represented by the outer stone circle and possibly the outer mound, with the inner circle serving as the labia minora, the altar stone as the clitoris and the empty geometric center outlined by bluestones representing the birth canal.

In support of the theory, the body of a sacrificial child was found buried at the center of the circles at nearby Woodhenge, suggesting both monuments followed similar layouts. Perks even speculates a child’s body might lie buried at the center of Stonehenge.

Unlike other mounds in the U.K., very few burials are located around Stonehenge.

“I believe it was meant to be a place of life, not death,” said Perks, who thinks Stonehenge overall represents an Earth Mother goddess.

He explained that both western Neolithic cultures and the early Celts believed in such a goddess. Hundreds of figurines representing the idea of an Earth Mother, he said, have been found in Europe. They were created at a time when mortality at birth was high, suggesting Stonehenge could have been used for fertility ceremonies, which may have linked human birth to the birth of plants and animals upon which the people depended.

John David North, professor of philosophy emeritus at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, outlines another theory in his book “Stonehenge: A New Interpretation of Prehistoric Man and the Cosmos.” North believes the stones in the monument have precise alignments to stars in the cosmos and that Stonehenge served as an astronomical observatory and a celestial map.

While Perks acknowledges the celestial link, he views it in a different light.

“At Stonehenge you see an arc of sky together with Earth on that open Salisbury Plain,” Perks said. “It is as though Father Sun is meeting Earth Mother in an equal way at a place looking towards the future.”

Orkney and Shetland, Scotland’s northern outposts, have become famous for their unrestricted vistas of land, sea and sky.

Now centuries of history and natural forces are to be defied. Plans are being laid to transform the scenery of the bleak Northern Isles with the planting of up to quarter of a million trees over the next three years.

Landowners, farmers, crofters and community groups are being offered government grants of up to £3,000 a hectare to reverse the islands’ treeless image and return them to a state that the Vikings would have recognised.

Ministers believe the ambitious tree-planting project will not only improve the look of the islands but also provide a boost for tourism.

“Orkney and Shetland are famed for their open landscapes but there is a strong local demand for more trees,” said Scottish Executive environment minister Allan Wilson. “Creating woodlands there will improve the environment for islanders and boost wildlife tourism which will strengthen the local economies.”

Pollen studies by scientists have revealed that both of the island chains were once covered in dense woodlands of birch, alder, willow, hazel, rowan and aspen. But Neolithic and Bronze age settlers from around 3000BC are believed to have been the first to start the process of cutting down the native woodland to provide wood for fuel and grazing for animals.

Jeremy Watson, ‘Scotland on Sunday’ 2/3/3

gleaned from ‘WeirdWiltshire.co.uk‘

15 FEB – 22 APRIL, DEVIZES: The current exhibition at Wiltshire Heritage Museum reviews the progress of the five year project, Repairing the Past, the Wiltshire Bronze Age Pot Project, funded chiefly by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to conserve 105 prehistoric pots from Wiltshire.

The delicate work is being undertaken by the county’s unsung heroes and heroines, the staff of Wiltshire County Council’s Conservation Laboratory at Salisbury.

For two-and-a-half years now they have been painstakingly removing rock-hard cement and other materials naively applied by pioneer 19th century archaeologists to the pots they had excavated in barrows around Wiltshire, in order, they believed – to preserve them the pots, which are up to 4,500 years old, are often highly decorated and are among the outstanding artistic and archaeological treasures of Wiltshire.

The early methods, used to ‘protect’ them were in fact only serving to further damage the pots. The project is now half-way through. Nearly 60 of the pots have been painstakingly restored and returned to the museum for display.

This exhibition illustrates the problems which have been suffered by the pots, the methods used by the Conservators to repair them and shows some of the complete pots and the horrendous discoveries made, such as the use of flowerpots, bicycle spokes and metal body filler!

It gives a rare insight into the fascinating world of museum conservators, the challenges they face and the successes they achieve, all for the benefit of the community.

Two ancillary events have been organised to link with the exhibition: On Sunday 2 March the museum is holding a ‘family day’ featuring Bronze Age re-enactors who will recreate different aspects of life in the Bronze Age, including pottery making.

On 2 April, Lynn Wootton, one of the Wiltshire County Council conservators will give a talk at the museum describing the work of the Conservation Laboratory in rescuing the South Cadbury Shield (a Bronze Age shield found at South Cadbury Hillfort, Somerset) and the Purton Ossuary (a Roman burial found at Purton, nr Swindon), two recent archaeological discoveries.

icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?objectid=12603054&method=full&siteid=50081

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icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?objectid=12648599&method=full&siteid=50081

From the Wokingham Times 20.2.03
By Ricky Hindmarsh

A fragment of an infant’s skull has been found near pig bones on a primary school playing field in Winnersh earmarked for a housing development. Experts believe the skull could be part of a much wider Bronze Age burial ground.The unusual historical relic surprised archaeologists who say it is unusual to find human and animal bones together.Police and the coroner’s office have not been officially informed of the find which was made in February last year.
Details have only now been made public.

Initial evidence points to the remains being more than 100 years old.
A process called Carbon 14 dating is being used to determine the exact date, but a Bronze Age burial site found in the 1960s, just 100 yards away, suggests it could be a small satellite addition to the central site. Now Kev Beachus, senior archaeologist at BABTIE, Wokingham District Council’s highways consultants which surveys all large building applications, says the top-soil will have to be stripped off to search for the rest of the skeleton to comply with the letter of the law. There is no evidence of foul play and a thickening of the two-inch piece of skull suggests that death could have been caused by meningitis, it is thought.
Mr Beachus, who is unable to speculate on how the bone came to rest with the pig remains, said too little was known about Bronze Age settlements to be entirely sure of what else could be found.
He said: “Finding the infant’s skull with the pig bones did lead us to think of some terrible things, but it was found separately in the same ditch we were digging. It is unusual and in my 15 years I have never come across anything like this. In law, human remains have to be found ‘in totum’, which is why I will insist that further work be done.”
...
When the topsoil is peeled off, which could take about six weeks, the site will be opened to the public for one day only...

theherald.co.uk/news/archive/13-2-19103-0-27-44.html

John McEarchran – The Herald
PREHISTORIC Scots snubbed the seafood which has since become world famous, it was revealed yesterday in the results of tests on 5500-year-old human bones. Neolithic settlers on the banks of Loch Fyne, Argyll, turned up their noses at the area’s legendary oysters, mussels, herring, and mackerel to dine on sheep, cows, and pigs.

The results have surprised scientists who examined the remains from a National Trust for Scotland archaeological site at Crarae on Loch Fyne which have been in storage for 50 years. Derek Alexander, an NTS archaeologist, said: “It is very exciting. It’s incredible what the re-examination of old excavations can still tell us using modern techniques.”

The bones from the chambered tomb at Crarae Garden were dug up in the early 1950s. New tests can determine different types and levels of carbon and nitrogen in bone, showing whether the long dead human ate meat or fish. Analysis of bone collagen from Crarae has now revealed that prehistoric dinner consisted mainly of beef, mutton, and pork.

Dr Rick Schulting of Queen’s University, Belfast, and Dr Michael Richards, of Bradford University also found that the early inhabitants of Scotland changed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers more rapidly than was previously believed. Dr Schulting said: “The shift from hunting and gathering to farming is one of the most important and interesting periods of prehistory. “New results from sites like Crarae are changing the way we think about this shift.”

edp24.co.uk/content/News/story.asp?datetime=11+Feb+2003+20%

A new exhibition charting the incredible story of Norfolk’s Seahenge is set to hit the road this summer.

Archaeologists are putting together a travelling exhibition, focussing on the Iron Age monument’s discovery and its controversial removal from the beach at Holme, near Hunstanton.

Brian Ayers, Norfolk’s archaeology and environment officer, said it would be launched in Holme in May or June.

“It will be a mobile display we can take to other locations in North West Norfolk,” he added.

“It will be talking about the history of the excavation and what this has told us about the technology of that time.”

The timber circle, which was uncovered by the tides in early 1999, was hailed as one of the most important archaeological discoveries for decades.

But there were angry protests over the decision to remove the 4000-year-old relic from the beach.

The 55 timber posts which made up the circle and its central tree stump are currently being conserved at Flag Fen, near Peterborough.

When the preservation process is complete, in two years’ time, archaeologists hope it will be put on display somewhere along the stretch of coastline where it was found.

Axe marks gave new insights into the tools used during the period. Electronic scans showed 38 different axe heads were used to shape the timbers – at a time when metal technology had only just arrived on our shores.

The marks – believed to be the earliest tool marks found in Britain – show the society that inhabited the wild North West Norfolk coastline was far more advanced than was previously thought.

From an article on the BBC News Web site, published 10th February 2003:

The Bronze Age cairns at Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor have been daubed with pro-hunting graffiti and a viewpoint indicator has been damaged.

The words “no hunt-no deer” were sprayed over the cairns, between mid-afternoon on Sunday and early Monday morning.

Stonehenge ‘King’ Came from Central Europe

LONDON (Reuters) – The construction of one of Britain’s most famous ancient landmarks, the towering megaliths at Stonehenge in southern England, might have been supervised by the Swiss, or maybe even the Germans. Archaeologists studying the remains of a wealthy archer found in a 4,000-year-old grave exhumed near Stonehenge last year said Monday he was originally from the Alps region, probably modern-day Switzerland, Austria or Germany.
“He would have been a very important person in the Stonehenge area and it is fascinating to think that someone from abroad -- probably modern-day Switzerland -- could have played an important part in the construction of the site,” said archaeologist Andrew Fitzpatrick in a statement.

The so-called “Amesbury Archer” was found in a grave about three miles from the landmark, buried with 100 items, including gold earrings, copper knives and pottery. Researchers hailed the find -- dating from about 2,300 B.C. and the oldest known grave in Britain -- as one of the richest early Bronze Age sites in Europe. He was dubbed “The King of Stonehenge” because of the lavish items found in his grave, including some of the earliest gold objects ever found in Britain.

It was tests on the enamel of his teeth that revealed he was born and grew up in the Alps region. “Different ratios of oxygen isotopes form on teeth in different parts of the world and the ratio found on these teeth prove they were from somebody from the Alps region,” said Tony Trueman from Wessex Archaeology. “It is important proof that culture imported from the continent helped bring Britain out of the Stone Age,” he told Reuters.

(see Phil’s post below for the original discovery of the Archer)

It seems after 10 years of constant protests and local opposition the French Government seems set to scrap it’s contovertial sceme for the development of the Carnac alignements, dubbed ‘Menhirland’ by its detractors. The plan was to reroute the road which lies by the Alignements (causing numerous compulsary purchases of farmland and buildings many of which have been in the same families for generations), to build three massive carparks on the main road into Carnac, to charge an expected six to seven pound entry fee and to continue with the policy of no public access within the Alignements themselves.
The project has been fought for many years, not least by the wonderful ‘Menhirs Libre’ (Free the Menhirs) organisation, who staged a peaceful occupation of the official visitor centre for over two weeks last September. This latest news will be welcomed by thousands of local residents and visitors who have signed the petition against ‘Menhirland’ over the years. This is how the news was reported in the Morbihan edition of Ouest-France on Saturday last (I take all responsibility for the translation although I believe it to be as correct as it can get, if a little clumsy):

The Minister of Culture Entrusts the Realisation of the Project to the Prefect of Morbihan

Menhirs: A Less Restrictive Project

This was announced by Jean-Jacques Aillagon, the Minister for Culture, in light of his visit las December. It was confirmed on January the 20th in a letter sent to Gilles Bouillhageut, the Prefect. The ‘Menhirland’ project must be reviewed and a new plan formulated. The commitee charged with the task will reassemble on Feb 28th.

“The planned works (moving roads, contstruction of a carpark, a visitor centre, a cafe...) seem to me to be constraining and involve too many compulsary purchases. I don’t feel the project is respectful enough to the region and the environment”. The letter addressed to the Prefect, which arrived mid-January, was very explicit. Jean Jacques Aillagon wishes the proposed works at Carnac to be revued and corrected. The new project, the details of which were given to Gilles Bouillhaguet, concerns the Alignements complex. Yesterday morning, in the Prefect’s office in Vannes, the representatives of the State and the three local authorities spoke about the great lines. Jacques Bruneau, mayor of Carnac; Aimé Kerguéris, the conseil général; Bernard de Cadenet, the conseil regional and Jean-Paul Kihl, sub-Prefect of Lorient, organised a team composed of the relevant state services.

Many Interested Parties

“The Minister is very insistant that we liase on the project with the various local groups, organisations and residents” detailed the Prefect “The first project was all bound up with Paris, raising a hue and cry with the electorate. It has been a worry for many years, notwithstanding the numerous hostile demonstrations. We were concerned with maintaining public order and making money. Today this decentralised commitee will allow us to find and refine, in our own area, the views on the works. We are wiping the slate clean!” The project will guarantee the presevqtion of an archaeological site which is exceptional but fragile, and preserve its natural cover of vegetation. The mild works, perfectly integrated into the countryside, will be provided for welcoming and informing the public. The existing buildings will be respected, where possible. Public access will be managed and remain free of charge. Only those roadwroks necessary for the equilibrium and balance of the site will be realised. The public will be able to walk through the site on a path created to connect Menéc, Kermario, Kerlescan and Petit Menéc. The fences surrounding the site will be removed and replaced by low hedges.

“The Minister has imposed a strict timescale” explained Gilles Boillhaguet. The first elements of the project must be in order by March 15th. The choice of the manager of works must be made before the summer. The project commitee, composed of the regional department of cultural affairs, the national centre for monuments and the regional department of works and estates, will reconvien on Feb 28th. A consultation commitee will be put in place to ensure the works go to plan and to take the advice of the partners.

So there you go, most amazing is that the awful fences that have surrounded the Alignments for nigh-on 10 years are to come down and that at least some degree of access be permitted.

Now we’ll just have to wait and see...
I’ll keep yas posted,

Spaceship Mark
Nantes 060203

icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?

Yeavering Bell Conference
A national conference will be held next month to examine Yeavering Bell, the biggest and most spectacular hill fort in Northumberland.
The fort, on the edge of the Cheviots, protected at least 130 roundhouses and was occupied for around at least 500 years.
There are still places available for the conference on March 29-30 at Bede’s World in Jarrow and bookings should be made by February 20 by contacting Paul Frodsham on (01434) 611509.
The event will also look at the Seventh Century palace site of King Edwin, which is overlooked by Yeavering Bell, and the prehistoric henge landscape of the nearby Milfield plain.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for local people to listen to experts discussing all aspects of Yeavering from early prehistory until medieval times. It is an event not to be missed by anyone with an interest in Northumberland heritage,” said Paul.

Hillforts Project
An unspoilt Northumbrian valley has been hailed as one of the finest ancient landscapes in Europe. In July the final excavation in a 10-year series will start in the Breamish Valley as part of a programme of discovery spanning 10,000 years. The wealth of finds and knowledge gained has stunned experts from Durham University, Northumberland Archaeology Group and Northumberland National Park who have been partners in the project.

“We knew when we started that it was a special landscape. Although we have only scratched the surface in a few tiny places we can now say that it is unsurpassed in interest throughout Europe,” said national park archaeologist Paul Frodsham. “There is nothing better in Europe. We will never know the full story because of a jigsaw of 1,000 pieces we now have only about two.”

The venture has unearthed Bronze Age burial cairns of around 4,000 years ago on Turf Knowe, overlooking the valley, which contained five intact cremation urns now being examined at Durham. The burial site itself used what had been a summer hunting camp for Stone Age people from 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists have also looked at three of the valley’s 12 hill forts. Brough Law fort has been dated to 300BC while at Wether Hill it has been found that a stone and earth fort replaced an earlier timber palisade stronghold.

Experts believe that as the climate became colder and wetter from 1,200BC, the hundreds of people who were then living in the valley stopped putting effort into ceremonial burial places and began building forts instead.
“Some agricultural land would have gone out of use because of the deterioration in the climate and cattle became the new wealth. The situation would not be dissimilar to the times of the Border Reivers with cattle being driven into the hill forts in times of danger,” said Paul.

The national park’s £1m Discovering Our Hillfort Heritage project has also been granted a two-year extension until 2004. It is evaluating the 50 or so forts in the park and this spring leaflets outlining trails to ancient settlements in the College Valley, Breamish Valley, Humbleton Hill, Lordenshaws, Kirknewton and Yeavering will be available so that the public can enjoy the area’s prehistoric heritage at first hand.

Cornish newspaper “The Cornish Guardian” reported on 30 January 2003

A major archaeological project has been set in motion on Bodmin Moor ... over 150 years after the event which triggered it.

In 1837, workmen searching for stone to use in building unearthed the 3,000 year-old Rillaton Cup, which proved to be one of Cornwall’s most spectacular historic finds.

The solid gold object, standing just 8cm high, was found in a burial cairn near Minions. Underlining its significance, the cup was recently voted one of Britain’s top ten treasures by experts at the British Museum.

Interest in it was re-ignited by the discovery of a similar cup at Ringlemere in Kent a year ago.

Now the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, English Heritage and the British Museum are planning the first-ever comprehensive study of the site.

Jacky Nowakowski, a senior achaeologist with the Cornish unit, said the project was still being developed but had already created a lot of interest and excitement.

“What we want to do is study the whole of the landscape,” she said. “There are a lot of upstanding prehistoric remains in that area and the key thing we want to look at is the significance of the Rillaton barrow in relation to that landscape and how it has developed over time.”

The first phase of the project, which could start this summer, would involve an assessment of the landscape around Rillaton to identify potential excavation sites.

The next two years would see extensive fieldwork followed by a further two years of analysis resulting in the publication of findings.

One of the key sites, said Ms Nowakowski, was likely to be Stowe’s Hill, on which the naturally-formed Cheeswring stands.

“There are two neolothic enclosures, one smaller which is defined by stonework which is still visible, and one larger which contains the remains of roundhouses,” she said.

“What we hope to do is find dating evidence from those sites and try to understand the development of the area over the next 1,000 years in which we built the Hurlers ceremonial monument and the Rillaton burial monument.”

In a television programme aired on New Year’s Day, the cup was named as the tenth most important discovery ever made in Britain.

Made from a single piece of beaten gold, it was discovered by workmen in a stone-lined vault along with human remains, a sword, bronze dagger, glass beads and flint arrowheads.

It is thought the round-bottomed cup – a symbol of huge wealth and power – may have been made for a tribal chief or leader and then buried with them in the specially constructed barrow.

The online version of this article can be found at....
thisiscornwall.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=85071&command=displayContent&sourceNode=85070&contentPK=3874915

From an article by David Prudames, published on the 24 Hour Museum Web site (www.24hourmuseum.org.uk) on 15th January 2003:

Vandals have inflicted further damage on the Maiden Bower Iron Age fort in Bedfordshire.

English Heritage carried out an initial investigation of the damaged site near Dunstable on January 8, but have since been informed by the police of more damage, apparently caused over the weekend.

The original attack is thought to have occurred before Christmas when vandals used a stolen mechanical digger to damage earthworks surrounding the Iron Age fort and cut a number of holes from its centre.

It is believed the damage was caused by off-road motorcyclists, who, according to local sources, have been using the site for some time.

AN ANCIENT monument is set to have a big say in the future of the University of Bath in Swindon.

The university is hoping to build a new 8,000-student campus next to a stone circle dating back 4,500 years on the edge of the Commonhead site next to the Great Western Hospital.

The circle of five stones poking through the ground form part of an ancient tribal gathering point of similar significance to the 5,000-year-old Avebury stones, and are visible from Day House Lane off Marlborough Road.

story at:

thisiswiltshire.co.uk/wiltshire/swindon/news/SWINDON_NEWS2.html

Stone age man drank milk, scientists find
By Steve Connor Science Editor
28 January 2003
The Independent

Early britons drank milk as far back as 4,500BC, according to a chemical analysis of pottery fragments unearthed at several stone age sites in southern England.

Scientists have identified the chemical signature of dairy products such as milk, cheese or yoghurt inside a variety of cooking pots used for preparing food in neolithic Britain.

Mark Copley, an organic chemistry researcher at Bristol University, said the discovery suggested dairy products formed an important part of the stone age diet almost immediately after the introduction of livestock farming to Britain some 6,000 years ago.

Although it was known that ancient Britons kept livestock for meat, it was not clear whether the milk from the ruminant animals – sheep, goats and cows – was also collected for human consumption.

The question of dairying is important in understanding the nutrition and culture of ancient Britain but until now archaeologists have had little to go on other than the odd discovery of specialist vessels or putative cheese strainers.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, confirmed the presence of dairy products dating back more than 6,000 years. “The results provide direct evidence for the exploitation of domesticated ruminant animals for dairy products at Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements in Britain,” the researchers report.

“Most significantly, studies of pottery from a range of early Neolithic sites confirmed dairying was a widespread activity in this period,” they add.

Dr Copley said he and his colleagues analysed more than 950 pottery fragments from 14 archaeological sites, including the stone age forts at Windmill Hill in Wiltshire, and Hambledon Hill in Dorset.

From an article by David Prudames, published on the 24 Hour Museum Web site (8th January 2003):

Archaeologists in Bedfordshire are angry after discovering serious damage to the remains of an Iron Age fort near Dunstable just before Christmas, apparently caused by a mechanical digger.

Considered to be one of the most significant Iron Age monuments in the county, the Maiden Bower site was left scarred in what appears to be an act of vandalism.

It is believed a mechanical digger found at the scene was used to cause severe damage to surrounding earthworks and create a number of holes inside the fort.

Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent
Monday January 13, 2003
The Guardian

Road excavations in Northern Ireland have unearthed what appears to be evidence of the island’s earliest settlers and first farmers.

As the diggers moved in to work on the Toome bypass, outside Toomebridge in Co Antrim, archaeologists found more than 10,000 artefacts, including stone age axe heads and flints from 9,400 years ago, through to bronze age times about 4,500 years ago.

Paul McCooey, of Northern Archaeological Consultancy, said the area was particularly significant because it was a rare transitional site, charting the change from the hunter gatherer life to farming, and providing a fascinating insight into how our ancestors lived.

“From the material we’ve uncovered so far, it seems farming in Ireland started about 200 years earlier than had previously been supposed,” said Mr McCooey, who heads a team of 17 archaeologists working on the site.

“These people came to Ireland several thousand years after the last ice age, paddling across the Irish sea from Scotland in dugout canoes covered in skins. They were hunter gatherers at first. Then they appear to have settled on a drumlin [a hill formed by glacial activity] surrounded by fields which would have flooded when it rained.”

The size of the houses – one was 12 metres in diameter – suggested that the settlement became permanent, rather than being a nomadic hunting camp. The inhabitants are thought to have fished and grown cereal crops.

Mr McCooey’s team also found the remains of bronze age cooking pits, also used for bathing and religious rituals. They were lined with clay or wood to make them waterproof.

“One of the most thrilling finds has been a two-bladed bronze age knife, the size of a man’s hand, carved from flint,” he said. “It’s extremely rare and beautiful. I’ve never seen one outside a textbook before.”

Archaeologists are flocking to the site. The Ulster Museum in Belfast is keen to give the artefacts a home when excavation have finished next month. Mr McCooey wants to stage an exhibition in Toome first. He would like some pieces to remain permanently on display locally.

He insisted that his dig was not holding up progress on the bypass.
“Cooperation with the construction workers has been excellent,” he said. “We simply work on different parts of the site, but they are very interested in what we are doing and when there is a big find, everyone cranes round for a look.”

This is quite old news but I’d not read about it before and thought it may be of interest. It comes from British Archaeology Magazine, Issue 59, June 2001.

A complete Middle Bronze Age village has been excavated in Essex. Such settlements are very rare in East Anglia, where the shortage of building stone has meant the survival of few substantial prehistoric remains.

At the heart of the village was a massive, imported standing stone that had been ceremonially buried next to what seems to have been the settlement’s main public building.

The rectangular village enclosure, defined by hedges, contained a number of timber-post roundhouses and rubbish pits, clustered around a large circular building some 15m in diameter which was entered along a long corridor of timber posts. Next to this possibly ceremonial building was a large pit containing a huge, 1-tonne sandstone megalith.

No clues were found to where or when the stone had originally been erected – perhaps in the Neolithic – and it may have been transported to the settlement over some distance. The nearest standing stones known today are several miles to the north in Cambridgeshire. ‘What is particularly interesting is that the stone was ritually decommissioned,’ said site director Nick Shepherd of Framework Archaeology. ‘It is very enigmatic.‘

The Bronze Age settlement lay at the heart of a well-populated landscape of smaller, less well-defined settlements and may have acted as a kind of ceremonial and social ‘capital’ of the region. Less than a mile away was a contemporary cremation pyre site by a stream. Its surrounding ditches were filled with charcoal and bits of human bone. Between the pyre and the settlement lay a cremation cemetery which was not well preserved.

The site was found as part of an unusually large-scale excavation project covering some 57 acres (23 hectares) in advance of carpark construction at Stansted airport. The project has shed light on the intensity of landscape occupation in the Middle Bronze Age, when settlements were spaced at roughly one-mile intervals, and again in the Mid-Late Iron Age. Previously, the low-lying claylands of southern Essex were assumed to have been densely wooded right up to the Roman period.

According to Mr Shepherd, occupation seems to have fallen back dramatically in the later Bronze Age, when climatic conditions worsened, and again in the Saxon period following the collapse of the late Roman rural economy. ‘The soils here are heavy and difficult to work,’ he said. ‘The evidence implies that settlement in this marginal area was only worthwhile when conditions were good.‘

Framework Archaeology, a joint venture between Wessex Archaeology and the Oxford Unit, was set up to undertake commercial excavations within a ‘research framework’, and the Stansted excavation is being conducted accordingly. Instead of sampling the whole site, in the normal manner, and analysing the finds only at the end of the excavation, finds are studied as they come out of the ground. Decisions on where to excavate next are then taken on the basis of new questions that need to be answered. ‘At a normal dig, you find you collect masses of material that turns out to be worthless. That is not happening here,’ Mr Shepherd said.

The buried megalith is likely to be re-erected close to its burial site at the entrance to one of the airport carparks.

King Arthur is planning a dramatic return to his native North Cornwall next year – by standing for election to the newly-established Camelot ward of the district council!

Members of the council decided to name the ward, which includes Michaelstow, St Teath and Tintagel, “Camelot” after a review of boundaries completed earlier this year.

Now Arthur Pendragon (right), the self-styled King of the Britons, from Farnborough in Hants, has announced that he is considering standing as one of the two councillors who will represent the new ward.

“I’d love to become King of Camelot again,” he said. “It’s something I’m certainly considering.”

The former Hell’s Angel, soldier and gardener who changed his name by Deed Poll, is under no illusions about returning to his former glories at the Round Table.

“I don’t imagine that any of the councillors are called Lancelot or Galahad, but it’s worth fighting for anyway!”

He added that if he was elected and managed to become the council’s leader he would think about moving the council’s headquarters to Tintagel.

Annie Moore, spokesman for NCDC, said the council welcomed anything which raised the profile of local government elections.

“Obviously Mr Pendragon will have to meet the residency criteria to stand as a local councillor,” she said.

A 3,000 year-old gold cup found on Bodmin Moor – and once used by King George V as a handy pot for his collar studs – has been named as one of Britain’s top ten treasures.

The Bronze Age Rillaton cup was discovered by workmen in 1837 in a burial cairn near Minions.

Searching for stone they stumbled across a vault, or cist, in which they found human remains, the gold cup, a sword, dagger and glass beads.

Such was the importance of the find that experts at the British Museum have now classified it as the 10th most important historical find ever made.

Jacky Nowakowski, a senior archaeologist with the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, said: “The Rillaton Cup is very important because it is a unique object and since the discovery of the Ringlemere Cup in Kent just over a year ago, interest has been renewed in it.

After the workmen’s surprise discovery the artefacts were sent as Duchy treasure trove to William IV, who reigned from 1831 to 1837.

Despite their significance, they then fell into obscurity among the royal possessions, only to be picked out by King George V in the early 20th century as a handy container for his collar-studs.

It remained in that service until shortly after the King’s death, at which point its true identity and importance were re-established and it was placed in the British Museum.

Little is known about how the round-bottomed cup, which stands just 8cms high, was buried or where the gold was mined.

But what is clear is that the valuable item was interred with someone of great wealth and power.

Jacky said: “It was a great period of monument building, the early stages of Stone Henge were constructed in the Bronze Age and a lot of investment was made in building large barrows, stone circles and henges.

“In Cornwall, exactly the same thing was going on and people were using these monuments to make a statement about their position.”

Over the next three months the Ringlemere Cup is on temporary display alongside the Rillaton Cup while the British Museum raises funds to acquire it.

Source: www.thisiscornwall.co.uk

Earliest House In Scotland Found At Lafarge’s Dunbar Cement Works Quarry.

Archaeologists undertaking advanced investigations for Lafarge Cement UK on the site of the next area of mineral reserves to be worked in the quarry to the north of its cement works at Dunbar, in East Lothian have uncovered evidence of possibly one of the earliest ‘houses’ in Scotland.

John Gooder, senior project officer with AOC Archaeology Group, has managed the project. He said:

“What we have unearthed here is evidence of a Mesolithic family of hunter-gatherers who roamed the Scottish landscape between 8,000 and 4,000 BC. It’s a very exciting find. Structures of this period are extremely rare, and there are only a handful of comparable examples in the British Isles and this is the only example so far found in Scotland.

construction-uk.co.uk/con_news.taf?_function=detail&_record=128567&_UserReference=616F070F40F5CC03C1C6A53B&_start=1