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A spectacular new Norfolk treasure has been unveiled – after years of being used as a doorstop.

The 3,500-year-old Rudham Dirk, a ceremonial Middle Bronze Age dagger, was first ploughed up near East Rudham more than a decade ago. But the landowner didn’t realise what it was and was using it to prop open his office door.

And the bronze treasure even came close to being thrown in a skip, but luckily archaeologists identified it in time.

Now the dirk has been bought for Norfolk for close to £41,000 and is now on display in Norwich Castle Museum.

Dr John Davies, Chief Curator of Norfolk Museums Service, said: “This is one of the real landmark discoveries.”

The dirk – a kind of dagger – was never meant to be used as a weapon and was deliberately bent when it was made as an offering to the gods.

Only five others like it have ever been found in Europe – including one at Oxborough in 1988, which is now in the British Museum. But thanks to a £38,970 grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, following a £2,000 donation from the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, the Bronze Age treasure will now stay in the county.

Dr Tim Pestell, who is Curator of Archaeology with the NMS, has been negotiating with the (unnamed) landowner for almost a year. He said: “As soon as my colleagues told me about it we started to plan how we could acquire it, so it could stay in Norfolk and be on display here.”

Dr Andrew Rogers, whose team first identified the dirk, said he never expected the Oxborough discovery would be repeated. “It’s absolutely incredible. Gosh – to have a find like this twice in a lifetime – this is unbelievable,” he said.

The 1.9kg (4lb) dirk is made from bronze, which is nine-tenths copper and one-tenth tin. The nearest source for the copper is Wales, while the tin may have come from Cornwall.

Straightened out, it would be 68cm long, slightly shorter than the Oxborough example. It may even have been made in the same workshop, maybe even by the same craftsperson.

Sophie Cabot, president of the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, added: “We’re really excited – it would have been a great shame if we’d have lost it.”

edp24.co.uk/norfolk-life/archaeologists_hail_incredible_norfolk_bronze_age_discovery_1_3857540

From the BBC...

“An artefact thought to be 3,500 years old that was uncovered by the tide on a Western Isles beach has been excavated before being washed away.

The prehistoric basket was discovered in an area of shoreline where the sea has been eroding the land at Baleshare in North Uist.

Archaeologists have managed to remove the object with help from the local community.

It will be examined by AOC Archaeology Group.

The basket appears to contain animal bones covered in a layer of quartz pebbles.”

More here...

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-30055116

This is a bit enormous and a bit old.

archaeology.org/news/2680-141104-siberia-massive-moose-geoglyph

livescience.com/23910-russian-nazca-lines-discovered.html

Update for 2014.

Pre-history may have to be re-written following a recent dig by university students near Stonehenge.

Signs of human habitation 8,000 years ago have been discovered by Archaeology MA students from the University of Buckingham, led by senior research fellow David Jacques.
Mr Jacques said: “This year we’ve found burnt flint – a sign that people had made fires, so were in the area, around 8,000 years ago.

“The finds will have to be carbon-dated to get a precise date.

“It’s been wonderful that the first ever University of Buckingham archaeology students have unearthed mesolithic tools as part of the team of volunteers at the dig.”

The archaeologist, who is leading the new Archaeology MA course at the university, has just completed a two-week dig at Vespasian’s Camp, a mile from Stonehenge, at which MA students and University of Buckingham staff worked as volunteers, sifting through remains.

A number of ancient flint tools were among the finds.

More than 12,000 items from the mesolithic era (8000 – 3500BC) have been uncovered, including hunting tools, the cooked bones of aurochs – a gigantic cow-like animal – deer, wild boar, and even toads’ legs.

The finds have revealed that the site was in use continually for over 3,000 years, and could even be the reason why Stonehenge is where it is.

Mr Jacques suspects the site will contain evidence of settlements, which would be some of the earliest ever found in the UK and would completely change our understanding of this era.

Mr Jacques appeared on TV this year in BBC 1’s Operation Stonehenge and BBC 4’s The Flying Archaeologist.

And the MA students working alongside him at the dig a fortnight ago found themselves being filmed for a forthcoming episode of Horizon.

Digs at the site over the last few years have already yielded a staggering 32,000 artefacts dating from as far back as 7500BC.

Last year, the dig resulted in 8,000-year-old burnt frogs’ legs being found, revealing the delicacy was originally English and not French.

Earlier this year, carbon dating of finds from the dig led to the revelation that Amesbury is the oldest town in the country.

A previous public lecture by Mr Jacques at the university drew a packed audience.

Following the latest dig, Mr Jacques is returning to deliver another public lecture on Thursday, November 13.

The free event will take place at 6.30pm, in the Chandos Road Building, as part of the university’s autumn concert and lecture series.

In the lecture, Mr Jacques will unveil startling new evidence showing how the mesolithic period influenced the building of Stonehenge.

The lecture will focus on the area around the dig, Blick Mead, which features a natural spring, which would have attracted settlers to the area.

The warm spring water has caused stones to turn a bright puce, a colour of stone not found elsewhere in the UK.

David Jacques was elected a Fellow of the Society of the Antiquaries (FSA) in recognition of the importance of his discoveries there.

buckinghamtoday.co.uk/news/more-news/groundbreaking-finds-by-stonehenge-team-1-6390477

Evidence of prehistoric man and the woodland clearances of the Iron Age are found at the site of two hillforts near Edinburgh

Peat from a bog near Edinburgh contains 11,500-year-old vegetation and glimpses of the impact made by humans on the landscape from as far back as the Neolithic period, say experts who have foraged seven metres into the earth across parts of a site previously known for prehistoric settlements.

Ravelrig Bog, where an early Iron Age palisaded homestead was found during preparations for a quarry extension, contains two hillforts. Kaimes Hill offers evidence of human activity from the Mesolithic period, while the unexcavated Dalmahoy Hill is thought to have been occupied during the pre-Roman Iron Age and early medieval times.

Woodland resources for fuel and building material, found at the homestead, have been radiocarbon dated to between 400 and 800 BC.

“The bog started out as a small lochan [lake] within a rocky hollow that was formed at the end of the last glacial period,” says archaeobotanist Susan Ramsay, discussing pollen analysis on the Ravelrig core as part of a report concluding that there is “plentiful archaeological evidence” of the people who once roamed the region.

“Aquatic plants gave way to marshland and finally raised Sphagnum bog as natural succession progressed.

“During the early Holocene, the woodlands of the area were dominated by birch, hazel and willow but developed into mixed oak, elm and hazel woodlands by the mid-Holocene.

Most previous studies of the vegetation history of central Scotland have concentrated on the last 3,000 years of environmental history.

“This has tended to be because extensive industrial and agricultural activity in the central belt of Scotland, which was the industrial heartland of the country, has removed many potential sites of palaeoenvironmental importance over recent centuries, and so there have been few chances to construct a pollen diagram from this region that covers most of the Holocene period.

“The presence at Ravelrig Bog of an area of deep peat in an area that has a rich archaeological record and is also located close to agricultural land provided a unique opportunity to study the effects of human activity on the environment of this part of Scotland.”

An initial survey, in 2007, revealed the incredible scientific potential of a core deposit covering more than 10,000 years of history.

“Previous studies have suggested that the first major woodland clearances in central Scotland occurred in the pre-Roman Iron Age, with the cleared agricultural landscape being maintained throughout the Roman period,” says Ramsay.

“However, at Ravelrig, human impact on the landscape is recorded from the Neolithic period onwards, with increasing woodland clearance and agricultural activity in the Bronze Age and a peak in activity in the pre-Roman Iron Age.

“Pastoral agriculture was the dominant form of farming in the area, although there is evidence for the cultivation of cereals from the later Bronze Age onwards.

“These periods of agricultural intensification appear to correspond with known periods of occupation at the nearby hillforts.”

A slight decline in agriculture between 250 BC and AD 150 could have followed the abandonment of Dalmahoy and the Roman invasion.

“Birch pollen levels increased significantly, suggesting that land that was previously farmed was abandoned and was gradually colonised by birch woodland,” says Ramsay.

The birches gave rise to the oak and elm trees which later colonised the woods.

A slight increase in activity, between AD 400 and 600, could show that the hill fort was set for reoccupation during the early medieval period, although the subsequent 850 years saw alder and birch growth take over, chiming with evidence from other sites in central Scotland at the time.

“It is not clear what the cause of this agricultural decline might be but further work may be able to determine a more precise date range for this event,” believes Ramsay.

“It has been suggested that there were some reversions to a colder and wetter climate during the sixth to ninth centuries AD, which could explain why areas once suitable for agriculture perhaps became too wet to grow crops and agriculture had to be moved to sites with better drainage.
“This explanation could account for the significant increase in alder – a tree of wetter areas and river banks that is seen at Ravelrig during this period.

“The last major episode of woodland clearance began around AD 1450, with the cleared landscape continuing until the present day.”

The full results of the research, funded by Tarmac Ltd have been published at archaeologyreportsonline. com.

taken from: culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art503348-bog-material-reveals-years-of-scottish-history-at-prehistoric-hillforts-near-edinburgh

A hoard of 2,000-year-old coins found in a cave in the Peak District have gone on public display.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-29754949

exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Devon-treasure-hunter-locates-Bronze-Age/story-23349132-detail/story.html

A Devon treasure hunter has stunned professional archaeologists by locating a Bronze Age settlement using Google Earth.

Howard Jones shunned the usual methods of finding ancient communities and relied on the internet instead.

He trawled satellite images for the sort of terrain that would have offered food, water and shelter for a prehistoric settlement.

Howard used Google’s overheard mapping site to zoom in on fields and farmland before pinpointing a spot in the South Hams.

The former Royal Marine then sought permission from the local landowner before heading down there to scour for remains.

He soon unearthed old flint tools, pottery shards and scraps of metal thought to date back 5,000 years.

Howard called in Devon County archaeologist Bill Horner who carried out a geophysical survey using ground-penetrating radar equipment .

The two men found two large buried structures that they believe are farm buildings dating back to the bronze or iron age.

Howard, a commercial diver from Plymstock, said: “Night after night I looked at Google Earth asking myself the question ‘if I was alive 3,000 years ago where would I live’.

“I would need food, water, shelter, close to Dartmoor for minerals, close to a river to access the sea and trade routes .

“After a few weeks I put an ‘X marks the spot’ on the map – that was where I would live.”

Not knowing who the site belonged to, Howard was initially unable to test his theory until he tumbled across the landowner by chance.

He said: “At kids rugby training one night I remembered that one of the other coaches was a farmer and I asked him if I could field walk and detect on his land.

“As I didn’t know where his farm was, I arranged for my family and I to meet him and he gave us a tour of his fields.

“It was then I found out that my ‘X marks the spot’ was on his land – it was unbelievable.”

Howard has previously searched for ancient artefacts underwater and in 2010 he was involved in the discovery of the 300-year-old Dutch merchant vessel the Aagtekerke off the Devon coast.

But after deciding to switch his search inland because of this year’s storms he hopes his latest find will prove his best yet.

Mr Horner has arranged for a series of trench digs, which could take place as early as February next year.

He says Howard’s web-inspired find could offer new insights into Bronze Age trading outposts.

Mr Horner said: “The survey shows two or three probable farmsteads which look to be late prehistoric, bronze age to iron age.

“Other parts of the underlying settlement possibly continue to the Romano-British period, around 1,500-2,000 years ago.

“The images also show tracks and enclosures, as well as a number of pits, which alongside Howard’s findings, looks like evidence of metal works.”

“We know that Devon’s mineral resources were being traded along the coast and along the channel in prehistoric times.

“While Dartmoor is famous for preserved historic sites, the same is not true of coastal areas. So this could be the missing link between those moorland sites and the evidence we have of trading.”

More fascinating discoveries.... by Richard Moss in Culture24

A hoard of rare bronze fittings from a 2nd or 3rd century BC chariot, which appears to have been buried as a religious offering, has been found at the Burrough Hill Iron Age hillfort, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire.

Students from the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History found the remains during their ongoing excavation of the site while digging a pit near the remnants of a house within the hillfort.

A group of four students found a piece of bronze in the ground before uncovering a concentration of further parts very nearby.

The artefacts, which as a group are covered by the Treasure Act, were soon identified as a matching set of bronze fittings from a mid to late Iron Age chariot. They appear to have been buried in a box together with a series of tools and accoutrements.

After cleaning, decorative patterns became visible in the metalwork – including a triskele motif showing three waving lines, similar to the flag of the Isle of Man. It is thought the chariot would have belonged to a high-status individual, such as a “noble” or “warrior”.

One of the students, Nora Battermann, described the moment she and her colleagues found the remains.

“Realising that I was actually uncovering a hoard that was carefully placed there hundreds of years ago made it the find of a lifetime,” she said. “Looking at the objects now they have been cleaned makes me even more proud, and I can’t wait for them to go on display.”

The pieces appear to have been gathered in a box, before being planted in the ground upon a layer of cereal chaff and burnt as part of a religious ritual. The chaff might have doubled as a “cushion” for the box and also the fuel for the fire.

After the burning, the entire deposit was covered by a layer of burnt cinder and slag – where it lay undisturbed for more than 2200 years until the team uncovered it.

Dr Jeremy Taylor, Lecturer in Landscape Archaeology at the University’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History and co-director of the Burrough Hill field project, confirmed the finds were a matching set of highly-decorated bronze fittings from an Iron Age chariot.

“This is the most remarkable discovery of material we made at Burrough Hill in the five years we worked on the site,” he added. “This is a very rare discovery, and a strong sign of the prestige of the site.

“The atmosphere at the dig on the day was a mix of ‘tremendously excited’ and ‘slightly shell-shocked’. I have been excavating for 25 years and I have never found one of these pieces – let alone a whole set. It is a once-in-a-career discovery.”

The School has led a five-year project at Burrough Hill since 2010, giving archaeology students and volunteers valuable experience of archaeological excavations.

John Thomas, co-director of the project, added: “It looks like it was a matching set of parts that was collected and placed in a box as an offering, before being placed in the ground. Iron tools were placed around the box before it was then burnt, and covered in a thick layer of cinder and slag.

“The function of the iron tools is a bit of a mystery, but given the equestrian nature of the hoard, it is possible that they were associated with horse grooming. One piece in particular has characteristics of a modern curry comb, while two curved blades may have been used to maintain horses hooves or manufacture harness parts.”

The parts have been taken to the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History for further analysis and will be temporarily displayed at the Melton Carnegie Museum, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, from Saturday October 18 until Saturday December 13.

More information about the Burrough Hill project at www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/burrough-hill

culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art502651-archaeologists-make-once-in-a-career-discovery-of-bronze-remains-of-iron-age-celtic-chariot-at-hillfort

Interesting article in the ‘Post Hole’ relating to recent (2013) excavations at Hendraburnick: theposthole.org/read/article/298

Extensive rock art has been found, along with several datable finds from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

The deputy Prime Minister has just said he wants the Government to sanction plans to rebuild the A303 before the next election. Since the 3 options just published for the Stonehenge section consist of 2 versions of a short tunnel plus an unrealistic northern bypass – and no long tunnel – it seems likely that what he is effectively pressing for is a short tunnel. As for the timing, he says he very much hopes we can see “diggers in the ground” well before 2017/18.

Here are a couple of questions about what’s some would see as a looming World Heritage Scandal:

First, we previously wrote to English Heritage asking what they meant when they said they’d argue for the tunnel “with all our strength” – a long one or a short one? In April they replied:
“It is not possible to comment on this, or provide documentation that supports a decision regarding which scheme English Heritage would support, for the simple reason that we have not yet been presented with scheme options to advise upon. When DfT presents us with their potential scheme options, then we will be able to advise upon their heritage impacts and relative merits.”

Well, the options have now been published (sans a “long tunnel”) and the Stonehenge Alliance, for one, has made a formal response. Will English Heritage now clarify their position and will they, like the Stonehenge Alliance has done, call for the “long tunnel” option to be reinstated as an option on the grounds that the other options are hugely damaging to the World Heritage Site they are charged with protecting?

heritageaction.wordpress.com/2014/10/13/has-nick-clegg-become-the-latest-supporter-of-a-short-tunnel-at-stonehenge/

Evidence has emerged that one of Avebury’s Neolithic stone circles originally had one more stone than previously thought.

Read more @

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-29505170

:)

bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-29415716

The first excavations on Skomer, in Pembrokeshire, have revealed huge burn mounds made by hungry prehistoric settlers

A cattle tooth left in a cooking mound and fire-cracked stones used for boiling water have paved the prehistoric way to dating the sweeping settlement of Skomer Island in Pembrokeshire, where archaeologists say the ancient, well-preserved field systems date from between 520 to 458 BC.

This was the first time archaeologists had been allowed to excavate on the island. Opening a trench, they aimed to explore the “long and complex” history of settlements and farming on Skomer, informed by three years of careful research by wildlife and science experts and universities.

“Already we have discovered previously unknown Neolithic and Bronze Age ritual stone settings, and demonstrated that the field systems may date back to at least the later Bronze Age.

“But despite half a century of modern archaeological interest, we still had no scientific dates for the roundhouses and fields on Skomer.

“It was decided to target a prehistoric burnt mound or cooking mound of fire-cracked stones, which stands immediately outside one of the paired roundhouses.

“This mound built up from numerous cooking episodes in the adjacent house. Our excavation discovered a cattle tooth from within the mound of stones, which has now been radiocarbon dated to the late Iron Age.

“Beneath the mound we found a sealed land surface containing Neolithic or Bronze Age worked flint tools.

“A second radiocarbon date from blackthorn charcoal, in the upper soil layers, gave an early Iron Age date, possibly from burning and clearance on the land, which showed our burnt mound and the houses it belongs to arrived after the early Iron Age.

“Both dates are accurate to within 62 years.”

The boiled water took around three hours to cook a joint of meat. The burnt mounds outside the roundhouse clusters are said to be “huge”, dominating the Iron Age landscape alongside the conical thatched house roofs.

“Skomer is a fragile protected landscape, and our archaeological research to date has focussed on non-invasive investigation of the prehistoric fields and settlements,” said Dr Driver.

“This has included new aerial photography, airborne laser scanning, ground geophysics and walkover surveys.

“These new dates confirm pre-Roman settlement on Skomer. Even so, the burnt mound covers a substantial earlier field wall showing that the island was already well settled and farmed in previous centuries.”

As well as its huts and fields from the prehistoric period, the island is well-known for its puffins and breeding seabirds.

culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art501691-archaeologists-find-prehistoric-cattle-tooth-within-mound-of-iron-age-stones-in-skomer

“A government planning inspector is beginning the process of deciding whether a 74m (242ft) turbine can be erected at Shoreswood Farm, close to the ancient Duddo Stone Circle near Berwick, following the quashing of the existing planning permission.”

chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/call-arms-protect-ancient-stones-7821413

Info on how to register an objection is here:

duddo.org.uk/index.php/about-duddo/duddo-five-stones/guardians-stones/shoreswood/

Some of the most high status pieces of prehistoric ‘bling’, prized by Stonehenge’s Bronze Age social elite, are likely to have been made by children, according to new research.

An analysis of objects, found near the ancient stone circle, shows that the ultra-fine craftwork involved such tiny components that only children or myopic (short-sighted) adults could have made them.

The research into the human eyesight optics of micro-gold-working in the Bronze Age has considerable implications for more fully understanding the nature of society in Western Europe some 4000 years ago.

“The very finest gold work involved the making and positioning of literally tens of thousands of tiny individually-made components, each around a millimetre long and around a fifth of a millimetre wide,” said David Dawson, Director of the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes where the world’s finest prehistoric micro-gold working achievements are on display as part of a major permanent exhibition of Bronze Age gold treasures.

“Only children and teenagers, and those adults who had become myopic naturally or due to the nature of their work as children, would have been able to create and manufacture such tiny objects,” said a leading authority on the optics of the human eye, Ronald Rabbetts, who has been assessing the human eyesight implications of Bronze Age micro-gold-working – implications that are examined in detail in a BBC Two documentary ‘Operation Stonehenge’, this evening, Thursday.
“The implication is that there would almost certainly have been a small section of the Bronze Age artisan class who, often as a result of their childhood work, were myopic for their adult life. They would therefore have been unable to do any other work apart from the making of tiny artefacts and would have had to be supported by the community at large,” he said.

The Stonehenge area object with the largest number of ultra-small gold components is a dagger made in around 1900 BC – and now on display in Devizes’ Wiltshire Museum. Crafted more than 1100 years before the invention of the first magnifying glass, the dagger’s 12 centimetre long handle was adorned with up to 140,000 tiny gold studs – each around a millimetre long and around 0.2 of a millimetre in diameter. Even the heads of each stud are just a third of a millimetre wide. They were set, with great manual dexterity and remarkable skill, into the surface of the wooden dagger handle – with more than a thousand studs neatly embedded in each square centimetre.

The prehistoric gold micro-working process appears to have had at least four stages. First, Bronze Age craftsmen manufactured lengths of extremely fine gold wire, almost as fine as a human hair. Then they flattened the end of a piece of wire to create the first stud-head – and cut the wire with a very sharp flint or obsidian razor a mere millimetre below the head. This delicate procedure was then repeated literarily tens of thousands of times – to decorate just one dagger handle! Next, a tiny bronze awl with an extremely fine point was used to create minute holes in the dagger handle in which to position the studs. Then a thin layer of tree resin was rubbed over the surface as an adhesive to keep the studs in place.

Each stud was then carefully placed into its miniscule hole – probably with the help of a very fine pair of bone or wooden tweezers, because the studs are too small to have been placed in position directly by the artisan’s fingers.

“We estimate that the entire operation – wire manufacture, stud-making, hole-making, resin pasting and stud positioning – would have taken at least 2500 hours to complete,” said David Dawson.

The dagger – and another probably less decorated similar weapon found with it – are believed to be the only such ultra-fine micro-worked artefacts to have survived from the prehistoric period anywhere in the world. But the high level of skill involved suggests that it was not a one-off creation, but was instead probably a product of a wider micro-gold-working tradition in at least part of Bronze Age western Europe. It is likely that the tradition was centred in Brittany in what is now western France.

It is also conceivable that Bronze Age craftsmen used comparable micro-working skills to create ultra-fine textiles.

The gold-studded daggers were discovered in 1808 inside Bush Barrow, a substantial Bronze Age burial mound, located almost a thousand metres from Stonehenge. However, it is only now that the eyesight and other human implications of its manufacture have been examined in detail.

independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/stonehenges-most-intricate-archaeological-finds-were-probably-made-by-children-9738993.html

An ancient bog body has been discovered at a midland bog where a similar find was made two years ago.
The remains were found by a Bord na Móna worker at Rossan Bog on the Meath/Westmeath border on Saturday morning.
A Bord na Móna spokesman said: “The remains of a bog body were found in Rossan Bog two miles from Kinnegad on the Meath and Westmeath border.”
The spokesman said the employee discovered the remains prior to beginning work and immediately put Bord na Móna’s protocol in place.

More:
rte.ie/news/2014/0916/644192-bog-body/

Archaeologists are inviting the public to witness the excavation of a 4,000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound

Emmet’s Post, named after one of several pillars built to divide Lee and Shaugh Moors in 1835, is being investigated as part of a government-approved quarry expansion on the edge of Dartmoor.

The mound of the post, on the boundaries of a china clay pit, was confirmed as a Bronze Age bowl barrow during a dig in 2011. Oxford Archaeology have been granted Scheduled Monument Consent by English Heritage in a bid to discover how the site was constructed and used over the centuries.

‘‘The barrow at Emmets Post, with its slightly hollowed-out top, is not the best-preserved of these Bronze Age monuments,” said Andrew Josephs, an archaeologist for Sibelco, the minerals firm paying for the project.

“The excavation has the potential to further characterise the full extent of the barrow and potential ditch, possibly identifying buried surface deposits and phased construction horizons.

“Environmental remains will add to the regional studies of the wooded prehistoric landscape that was very different to that today.”

Having offered a limited number of volunteer placements at the start of the project, which began on September 1 and will run until September 26, the team are inviting enthusiasts to enjoy an open day on Sunday (September 21), when experts will answer questions and discuss the Post’s history at the site.

Visitors can reach the barrow via a 1.5-mile unfenced single road track from Cadover Bridge. There is a small car park nearby, and waterproofs, warm clothes and stout footwear are recommended.

culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art499019-Public-invited-to-see-excavation-of-4000-year-old-bronze-age-barrow-on-dartmoor-edge

Steve Marshall will be giving a talk on springs, rivers & the Avebury monuments in Swindon!
Friday 26th Sept, 7.30pm, Swindon Museum & Art Gallery, Bath Road.
Museum Friends £3.50, Non-members £4.50

As part of the national heritage open days scheme, Wiltshire Museum will be open for free to the public this Saturday, 13 September between 1000-1700

heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/wiltshire-museum

The Museum and Library have been at their current location in Long Street since 1873, occupying first the old Victorian Devizes Grammar School, then the two Georgian houses on either side of the Entrance Hall. Further extensions have increased its size to the present day. It has overseen many of the famous excavations on Salisbury Plain and the Marlborough Downs made by the Cunnington family and is a repository of the artefacts and writings of earlier antiquaries such as Sir Richard Colt Hoare of Stourhead House.

Wiltshire Museum
Long Street, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 1NS

Find out what’s open in your local area – Every where listed is free for the day!

heritageopendays.org.uk/directory/advanced-search

For more information about the European Heritage Days, visit www.ehd.coe.int

In the UK, there are altogether five open day schemes that are part of European Heritage Days:

England: Heritage Open Days (11-14 September 2014)
London: Open House London (20-21 September 2014)
Scotland: Doors Open Days (every weekend in September)
Wales: Open Doors (every weekend in September)
Northern Ireland: European Heritage Open Days (13-14 September 2014)

Heritage Open Days was established in 1994 as England’s contribution to the European Heritage Days.

A joint action by the Council of Europe and the European Commission, the scheme was initiated in 1991 by the Council of Europe to raise appreciation for Europe’s rich and diverse cultural assets and their need for care and protection. The central principle was as simple as it was compelling: to throw open the doors to historic monuments and buildings, in particular those normally closed to the public. One of the key requirements was to offer free access to all properties taking part in the European Heritage Days.

Today, European Heritage Days are held annually in September in 50 signatory states to the European Cultural Convention. From the Baltic to the Balkans, from Iceland to the Iberian Peninsula, thousands of events not only highlight the dazzling diversity of Europe’s heritage, but also its intercultural links. As varied as the cultural landscapes are the approaches in putting the idea into practice.

A fur pelt found in an ancient burial chamber suggests that bears once roamed Dartmoor, it has been claimed.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-29067027

“How cool is this” – BBC Points West publish a photo of President Obama strolling around Stonehenge this evening.

On Facebook under Points West.

Derby Telegraph
By Kelly Tyler

The Nine Ladies stone circle at Stanton Moor, near Bakewell, was mysteriously draped in pink fabric.

The striking dressing of the Nine Ladies monument, believed to have been built more than 4,000 years ago, was spotted by a walker on Monday.

A cryptic note left at the circle signed by the “Spirit Wrestlers” said the gritstone blocks were decorated as an “act of love and gratitude for their eternal being”.

English Heritage, which owns the site at Stanton Moor, near Bakewell, said it is not known exactly why the material was placed over the stones.

A woman who came across the unusual sight said: “As I approached I thought the stones had been – as had happened a few months ago – vandalised with pink paint.

“However, as I neared the stone circle, it was apparent the Nine Ladies had been seemingly dressed in a bright pink fabric.

“A note had been left in the middle of the stones referring to the earlier attack and also the troubles in the world today. Interesting, I thought, if not a little strange.

“This is the Nine Ladies though, I suppose, so anything is possible.”

The ancient monument dates back to the Bronze Age and is popular with walkers and pagan worshippers.

The stones were traditionally believed to be nine ladies turned to stone as punishment for dancing on Sunday.

The site was vandalised in March this year by offenders who sprayed yellow and green paint on the rocks.

A note left at the spot said the stones were wrapped as a “direct response to an act of vandalism on the Nine Ladies some months ago and the knowledge that the Universe must be realigned.”

It went on to say: “The consequences of our actions will only become apparent over time.

“Do something to make the world a better place, whether this act is large or small matters not.

“Doing it is what drives us forward. Whatever next?”

An English Heritage spokesperson said: “Having been contacted about the sighting of pink material on the stones earlier yesterday, we visited the site to investigate this afternoon and it would appear it has since been removed without trace.

“We are not treating this as an act of vandalism”

derbytelegraph.co.uk/English-Heritage-satisfied-pink-drapes-Ladies/story-22870940-detail/story.html

Mounting evidence suggests Neanderthals were not the brutes they were characterised as decades ago.

But art, a high expression of abstract thought, was long considered to be the exclusive preserve of our own species.

The scattered candidates for artistic expression by Neanderthals have not met with universal acceptance.

However, the geometric pattern identified in Gibraltar, on the southern tip of Europe, was uncovered beneath undisturbed sediments that have also yielded Neanderthal tools.

Details of the discovery by an international team of researchers has been published in the journal PNAS.

There is now ample evidence that Neanderthal intellectual abilities may have been underestimated. Recent finds suggest they intentionally buried their dead, adorned themselves with feathers, painted their bodies with black and red pigments, and consumed a more varied diet than had previously been supposed.

One of the study’s authors, Prof Clive Finlayson, director of the Gibraltar Museum, said the latest find “brings the Neanderthals closer to us, yet again”.

Continued on the link below...

bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-28967746

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, is a four-year collaboration between a British team and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria that has produced the first detailed underground survey of the area surrounding Stonehenge, totaling more than four square miles. The results are astonishing. The researchers have found buried evidence of more than 15 previously unknown or poorly understood late Neolithic monuments: henges, barrows, segmented ditches, pits.

smithsonianmag.com/history/what-lies-beneath-Stonehenge-180952437/?page=1&no-ist