Latest News
September 1, 2017
August 29, 2017
An Iron Age home in the Highlands appears to have been hastily abandoned after a fire broke out either accidently or in an attack.
August 28, 2017
scotsman.com/news/the-return-of-the-2-500-year-old-ballachulish-goddess-1-4542330
The 2,500-year-old Ballachulish Goddess has “returned” to the Highland lochside where she was found after the Iron Age figure was recreated by a team of archaeologists. The life-size carving, which dates to around 600BC, was discovered face down in Highland peat by workmen in 1880 .....
found during present excavations archaeologyorkney.com/2017/08/28/amazing-finds-at-cata-sand-early-neolithic-houses-and-19th-century-whales/
August 14, 2017
Prehistoric Britons ate their dead and carved mysterious markings on their bones
Cheddar Gorge in Somerset’s Mendip Hills is one of Britain’s most beautiful natural wonders, with its sweeping limestone cliffs, and striking natural rock chambers.
But new evidence suggests the picturesque site had a deeply sinister past.
Paleontologists have discovered that around 15,000 years ago, British cave dwellers filleted and ate their dead relatives before inscribing markings on their bones in grisly prehistoric rituals.
It is the first time that such practices have been found in the Paleolithic, or Old Stone Age – which dates from 2.6 million years ago to around 12,000BC – anywhere in the world.
telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/08/09/ancient-britons-ate-dead-carved-mysterious-markings-bones/
August 12, 2017
Danny Healy-Rae and the Little People: Fairies to blame for problems on bad road, says TD
It was a puzzling case of Danny Healy-Rae and the ‘little people’.
The Kerry TD is blaming poor road conditions around Killarney on fairies, according to his daughter.
Mr Healy-Rae believes that mythical creatures are at work on the main route between Killarney and Cork and that they are responsible for the appalling condition of the road.
August 10, 2017
A new year-long archaeology festival aims to uncover new information about Iron Age brochs and also encourage greater public awareness of them.
August 7, 2017
NEW archaeological evidence has suggested that an ancient stone monument near Davidstow was used for moonlit rituals during the Bronze Age, and could top Stonehenge for being the ‘most decorated stone in southern Britain’.
The Cornwall Archaeological Society has found new evidence, suggesting that the Hendraburnick ‘Quoit’, situated near Davidstow, was used for moonlit rituals or ceremonies during the late Neolithic and bronze age period.
The work conducted on Hendraburnick Quoit, was funded and carried out by the Cornwall Archaeological Society and led by Dr Andy Jones, an archaeologist from the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, and Penzance-based Tom Goskar, an archaeologist with a specialism of using digital technologies to find new evidence within artefacts from the past.
Speaking about the new evidence, Dr Jones told the Post: “We’re really pleased. It’s something we’ve known about for quite a long time, but it’s really, really good — a remarkable find.
“It (the Hendraburnick Quoit markings) is a unique find. There are lots of decorated monuments in the UK, but for southern Britain, it’s very remarkable.”
And so forth...
August 6, 2017
From the New Yorker:
newyorker.com/tech/elements/an-ancient-lunchbox-emerges-from-the-ice
Skara Brae made Number Nine in The Daily Record’s top ten of Trip Advizer scathing reviews of Scottish Tourist Attractions.
dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/10-times-tourists-scotland-were-10934794
Lovely.
July 31, 2017
AN archaeological investigation of an eroding mound on the island of Rousay in Orkney dig is revealing extensive settlement.
But there is a battle against time to find the whole truth hidden under the ground at Swandro as the sea continues to eat away at the land.
The dig is being led by the University of a Bradford and Orkney College UHI, and the ancient settlement was discovered by Dr Julie Bond in 2010.
She had spotted a few odd stones only just visible among the pebbles. Since then, the excavation has been changing the understanding of this site.
The tops of stones partly buried by the boulder beach turned out to be set uprights forming part of a prehistoric building around the high tide mark.
Although the tops of the stones are worn and battered by the sea, the beach has partly protected the deposits. Animal bone and pottery were recovered, finds suggesting an Iron Age context.
continued...
July 27, 2017
elpais.com/elpais/2017/05/12/inenglish/1494584904_820305.html
“Death caught up with Elba on a Spanish hillside 9,300 years ago. She is thought to have been following her herd of aurochs, an extinct breed of large cattle, along an ancestral trail that is now a paved road. In fact, it is the same road that Google suggests as the best route between the localities of O Courel and Pedrafita do Cebreiro, in Galicia’s Lugo province, in northwestern Spain.
Her herd was made up of three aurochs: an enormous male with massive horns and two younger specimens. It might have been early spring or early winter, and the ground was covered by a blanket of snow thin enough to make for easy walking, yet thick enough to conceal some of the geographical features lying beneath.
As a result, she did not see the hole that had opened up in the earth. All four of them fell into the gap created by the collapse of the roof of a cave known today as Cova do Uro, or Aurochs’ Cave in the regional Galician language .... ”
July 25, 2017
New Pictish remains have been discovered at a fort thought to have been largely destroyed by a 19th-century development.
Archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen uncovered a longhouse and an 1,100-year-old anglo Saxon coin in a dig at Burghead Fort near Lossiemouth, Moray.
Experts believe the fort was a significant seat of power within the Pictish Kingdom, dating between 500 CE and 1000 CE.
Read the STV News Report.
July 22, 2017
Archaeologists say they have unearthed the remains of a so-called incense pot at the Ness of Brodgar in Orkney.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-40681085
July 19, 2017
“Neolithic markings carved into a stone in Orkney that were missed for years by archaeologists have been discovered by chance.
The faintly incised “butterfly-like” motifs were revealed on Tuesday as sunlight lit up the rock at the “right moment, at the right angle”.
Experts believe the marks were deliberately made to be delicate and to catch light at certain times of day.
The find was made during excavations at Ness of Brogdar.
The incisions are so faint they do not show up in photographs taken so far of the stone.
The block formed part of wall of a structure at the dig site. It has since been moved to safe location.”
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-40653877
Dig diary date;
July 18, 2017
heritagedaily.com/2017/07/archaeologists-unearth-ancient-origins-new-forest-town/115980
A high-tech survey at Buckland Rings Iron Age hillfort in Lymington has revealed evidence of 2,000 year old roundhouses within the fort’s ramparts.
The geophysical survey was led by the New Forest National Park Authority with local volunteers and students from Bournemouth University.
Up to seven prehistoric dwellings were identified, which would have once housed a community of hunters and farmers that would grow into the modern Lymington. Trading throughout Britain and across the sea, these ancient ancestors would have lived in round wooden buildings caked in a soil-based mixture.
Continued ....
Archaeologists are thrilled by the discovery of a Roman coin during the excavation of an archaeological site in Orkney.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-40606908
July 13, 2017
An Iron Age broch recreated in Lego goes on public display this week.
July 12, 2017
July 10, 2017
As expected UNESCO award World Heritage status to the Lake District.
July 9, 2017
Ancient stone monuments may have been used for Mysterious moonlit ceremonies, say archaeologists
The rationale for the headline produces some wonderful one liners .
Did someone actually say ““When we went out to some imaging at night, when the camera flashed we suddenly saw more and more art, which suggested that it was meant to be seen at night and in the moonlight.”
Laughter aside , the important thing is that there are some genuine markings in an area where they are far from common .
July 6, 2017
https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk/
I have spent some time examining this database, which was released into the public domain in June 2017, most particularly with respect with the area I am most familiar with: The Isle of Skye.
You would have anticipated that, following five years in its compilation, this atlas would be fully comprehensive. Despite claiming to be an atlas of hillforts, the 51 entries for Skye consist of an eclectic mix of hillforts, promontory forts and brochs. In total there are actually over 90 such sites on the island known to me, though to be fair, the Atlas does include seven entries that are not indicated on the OS maps, and which are new to me.
The actual selection of sites shows remarkable inconsistency. Along the east coast of Sleat, at the south of Skye, are the sites of at least ten known promontory forts yet the Atlas includes only four! In Waternish in the north, brochs Dun Gearymore and Dun Hallin are included yet Dun Borrafiach which lies between them is not. In Duirinish, Dun Colbost is included while the much more deserving Dun Boreraig is not. The latter is a particularly fine example of a coastal broch. These selections defy reason.
And most curious of all, just across the water on the mainland, the Atlas lists Eilan Donan Castle, apparently on a whim, because it: ”may have occupied the site of an earlier fort” (something that has not been established).
Personally, I’m mightily disappointed. Canmore is far more comprehensive and will remain my primary source of information on hillforts. It is to be hoped that other areas within the British Isles have been much more carefully compiled, and provide the user with all the information they require.
June 29, 2017
An ancient “square stone circle” has been discovered under the Neolithic stones at Avebury in Wiltshire.
June 28, 2017
Predictably perhaps, the National Trust has purchased the historic URC Chapel which stands within the Avebury Stone Circle. They are inviting people to come along in the afternoon and early evening (up to 7.00pm) on 5th July to share their views about its future use.
June 27, 2017
Little is known about the Iron Age fort, with mysteries and theories around when it was built and why it was built on the low land rather than, as the name suggests, on a hill.
The two-week excavation dig, which is being led by archaeologists DigVentures and A Forgotten Landscape, a South Gloucestershire Council-funded landscape partnership, is hoping to turn back the hands of time to find out more about the purpose of the hillfort.