“In this second session we will be looking at the Mesolithic period and making a ‘Star Carr’ type shale pendant. The Mesolithic is the period when people repopulated Britain after the last major Ice Age event. ”
eventbrite.com/e/making-a-mesolithic-star-carr-type-pendant-tickets-80688061163
Evidence of a “massive” lightning strike has been found at the centre of a stone circle in the Western Isles.
A single large strike, or many smaller ones on the same spot, left a star-shaped magnetic anomaly at the 4,000-year-old site in Lewis.
Scientists made the discovery at Site XI or Airigh na Beinne Bige, a hillside stone circle now consisting of a single standing stone.
The site is at the famous Calanais Standing Stones.
Scientists said the lightning strike, which was indentified in a geophysics survey, could show a potential link between the construction of ancient stone circles and the forces of nature.
They said the lightning struck some time before peat enveloped the stone circle at Site XI 3,000 years ago. The discovery is detailed in new research published online.
Analysis of birch tar describes a female hunter-gatherer with dark skin and blue eyes
At the dawn of the Neolithic era, a young woman discarded a lump of ancient chewing gum made from birch tar into a shallow, brackish lagoon that drew fishers to the coast of southern Denmark.
Nearly 6,000 years later, researchers excavating the site spotted the gum amid pieces of wood and wild animal bone and from it have reassembled her complete DNA and so painted the broadest strokes of her portrait.
More: theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/17/neolithic-dna-ancient-chewing-gum-denmark?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Had the fantastic pleasure of a brilliant lecture from Dr Fraser Hunter with stunning slides (in amazing resolution) at Lanark on Monday 9th December.
blog.nms.ac.uk/2019/05/12/a-century-of-silver-the-traprain-treasure-on-its-hundredth-birthday/
There is a new, rather pricey book coming out. The images are simply stunning and the finds shed new light on the context of Traprain from Bronze Age through to the Iron Age. Maybe one for the Santa wishlist.
bookdepository.com/Late-Roman-Silver-Treasure-from-Traprain-Law-Fraser-Hunter/9781910682234
Another very recent find (from some lovely Detectorists) over in Fife.
blog.nms.ac.uk/2017/08/01/rebuilding-roman-silver-a-fantastic-find-from-fife/
While the archaeologists have been busy finding new monuments of interest, the State has been busy facilitating their systematic removal
Mon, Dec 9, 2019, 05:00
Mark Clinton
According to the legal definition, there are five alternative criteria under which a monument qualifies as a national monument. Defying alphabetical order, “historical interest” is the first listed criterion. In 2003 the Carrickmines Castle site was recognised as a national monument before the Supreme Court. And now we are launching the history of the settlement and fortification, its long-term occupants the Walshes, their cousins in Shanganagh, Kilgobbin, Balally, etc, and, among many other players, that of the besieger of Carrickmines in March 1642, Sir Simon Harcourt. It is a colourful story, with a big finale. Truly, a site worthy of its national monument status.
And yet, the site, the national monument, is no more, save for some sad remnants, scattered about a busy roundabout. Ah yes, the Carrickmines junction. A junction not connecting with any national routes or, indeed, with a road of any significance. A junction whose planning origins remain unknown despite the best efforts of the Flood-Mahon tribunal. One of a daisy-chain of junctions along a motorway originally designed to carry national traffic unimpeded around Dublin city. A junction that effectively destroyed the integrity of the national monument. How did this happen?
The National Monuments Act, passed in 1930, brought legal protection to our ancient built heritage. On a number of subsequent occasions the Act was amended and strengthened to remove weaknesses and loopholes. Particular credit should go to former ministers Michael D Higgins and Síle de Valera for their significant contributions to the protective legislation.
Members of the public are helping to document the effects of weather and vandalism at some of Scotland’s most historic sites.
More info :
Found during work at the Finstown sub-station “A team from ORCA Archaeology, carrying out exploratory excavations at the proposed site of an electrical substation development in Orkney, has unearthed nine, half-metre tall stone-carved objects.” orkney.com/news/finstown-finds plenty of lovely images shown
The remarkably well preserved bronze shield, with a swirling pattern design, formed part of a unique chariot burial, which also contained the upright skeletons of two ponies found on a building site at Pocklington in 2018.
Its owner, a highly regarded member of his community, was in his late 40s or older when he died, between 320BC to 174BC.
He was given a spectacular send-off, with his body placed in the chariot behind the horses, placed to look as if they were leaping out of the grave.
An expert gasped when he saw coins unearthed by two men now convicted of theft
On a sunny day in June 2015 amateur metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies were hunting for treasure in fields at a remote spot in Herefordshire.
The pair had done their research carefully and were focusing on a promising area just north of Leominster, close to high land and a wood with intriguing regal names – Kings Hall Hill and Kings Hall Covert.
More: theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/21/detectorists-hid-find-that-rewrites-anglo-saxon-history
The heaviest intact prehistoric gold hoard ever found in Ireland has gone on public display at the
Donegal County Museum in Letterkenny.
More: rte.ie/news/ulster/2019/1119/1092820-donegal-gold-hoard/
The results are now in! Did the Bronze Age gold, found in a burial close to Stonehenge, came from Britain, Ireland or Brittany.
Located close to Stonehenge, Bush Barrow is Britain’s richest Bronze Age burial. The most remarkable discovery was a gold-studded dagger pommel, set with thousands of microscopic gold studs thinner than a human hair. Using a recently developed scientific technique, Dr Chris Standish of Southampton University, has identified the most likely source of the gold used to make this amazing object – answering a question that has puzzled archaeologists for decades?
Dr Standish has developed a metallurgical technique that analyses the proportions of different isotopes within the lead impurities in the gold. These proportions were compared with information about gold from known sources in Ireland, Cornwall, Wales and Brittany. A single gold stud was used for the analysis using X-ray Fluorescence – a non-destructive technique.
The blade of the Bush Barrow dagger is of a type found in both Brittany and Britain and gold-studded pommels have been found on both sides of the English Channel. Some archaeologists have thought that the dagger pommel was made in Brittany as more have been found in Brittany but the craft skills needed to make the dagger pommel are higher than used in any other goldwork in either Britain or France at this early date.
The dagger was buried with a Chieftain who died in about 1950BC at a time when Stonehenge was at the centre of an internationally important ceremonial landscape – the sarsen stone trilithons were erected in about 2,500BC and the bluestones from Wales were placed in their final positions at the site in about 1,600BC before Stonehenge finally went out of use in about 1,500BC.
Analysis undertaken 30 years ago of gold objects from burials in the Stonehenge landscape suggested that the gold used came from Ireland. Analysis by Dr Standish of gold objects found in Ireland has shown that many are made of gold from Cornwall (see this article in the Independent by David Keys) and gold from Cornwall was also used in the famous Nebra Sky Disk found in Germany and displayed at the State Museum of Prehistory in Halle (see this article about the analysis of the Sky Disk).
A meeting of Sligo County Council has heard there is an incredible amount of damage being done to one of the most significant historic monuments in the country, the stone cairn over Queen Maeve’s grave on the summit of Knocknarea.
Sinn Fein Councillor Chris MacManus says a small number of people climb on top of the cairn while Fine Gael Councillor Sinead Maguire says people can be seen coming down the mountain carrying rocks from the cairn.
A local resident in the area also told Ocean FM News recently that some people have been digging up quartz stones from around the base of the cairn.
More (including a short poscast): oceanfm.ie/2019/11/12/conservation-plan-required-for-cairn-of-queen-maeve/?fbclid=IwAR1a2nXG8r302c0nimDg6CjVi-rTSgn2ZOhumlnKeEYZfIlfPttgmVOE-xA
should make parking and crossing the road interesting for visitors. :(
More here:
Police are investigating a reported unauthorised excavation at an Iron Age site in the Western Isles.
More info :
When they first unearthed the container near a broch at South Ronaldsay, archaeologists knew it was a hollowed out whale vertebra.
More info :
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-50308033
Archaeologists have returned to an Aberdeenshire woodland to uncover further secrets and shed light on what life was like for north-east peoples thousands of years ago.
More info :
The river bed of the Boyne is being searched by archaeologists.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE IDENTIFIED what could be Neolithic log boats as well as boulders, perhaps intended to be used in the building of Newgrange or Knowth, in the river bed of the Boyne, near to the famous monuments.
More: jrnl.ie/4878107
His genetics were found to be most similar to other Iron Age individuals from the Knowe of Skea in Westray in Orkney.
More info :
The water level of a Highlands loch likely dropped to its lowest in at least 750 years in May this year, according to archaeologists.
Info about the crannog :
A £60,000 research project is to be undertaken to create a ‘Neolithic Landscapes of the Dead’ chambered tomb trail in Orkney.
More info :
In 1963, the Spanish government under Francisco Franco built the Valdecañas Reservoir, which brought water and electricity to underdeveloped parts of western Spain. However, the creation of the reservoir flooded some inhabited areas as well as large stone (megalithic) monuments. After 50 years of being submerged, one of these ancient monuments—the Dolmen of Guadalperal—has resurfaced due to dry, hot conditions in 2019.
More information at https://allthatsinteresting.com/dolmen-de-guadalperal.
Scientists find 257 prints that were preserved in wind-driven sand 80,000 years ago
Scientists have found hundreds of perfectly preserved footprints, providing evidence that Neanderthals walked the Normandy coast in France.
The prints suggest a group of 10-13 individuals, mostly children and adolescents, were on the shoreline 80,000 years ago.
Neanderthals, the closest evolutionary cousins to present-day humans and primates, have long been thought to have lived in social groups, but details have been hard to establish.
