From The Journal online:
The damage was reported at 11am on Saturday, after names were carved into the historic rock art at Lordenshaw in Rothbury, Northumberland
Latest News
April 8, 2014
From The Journal online:
Seventeen of the mysterious cup and ring carvings in Northumberland have been scheduled as Ancient Monuments by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following advice from English Heritage.
Examples in the North East of some of the earliest art in Britain have won national recognition.
Seventeen of the mysterious cup and ring carvings in Northumberland have been scheduled as Ancient Monuments by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following advice from English Heritage, drawing on the work of volunteers in the region.
At Ketley Crag, near Chatton, the stone base of a rock shelter has been extensively carved with a complex and fluid range of motifs, complete with well preserved pick marks made by the instrument used to make the carvings.
Some of the other rock art sites added to the National Heritage List for England are a panel at Whitsunbank and a group of panels in Buttony, near Doddington Moor, displaying a variety of carvings ranging from cups and rings to the more unusual circular grooves and rosette forms.
The artivle also displays also a top notch photo of Ketley Crag by TMA’s Rockartwolf and a shot of Stan The Man to whom the vast majority of the credit for this good news must go.
The Stonehenge Neolithic Houses – Latest pictures and background links
An English Heritage experimental archaeology project to build houses from 2500 BC at Stonehenge.
Follow their blog on twitter for updates! – twitter.com/NeolithicHouses
and get the whole story on wordpress – neolithichouses.wordpress.com/
April 4, 2014
A cist burial spotted hanging from a cliff on the edge of Scotland came from the ceremony of a Bronze Age adult cremated swiftly after their death, say archaeologists investigating the bones of a body whose skull carried a tumour.
Cracks and warping of the remains, which belonged to someone of indeterminate gender, suggest the body was still fleshed when it was cremated in a service accompanied by a tonne of burning wood.
The bones were secured in a daring rescue mission on the eroding face of a sand cliff at Sannox, on the Isle of Arran, where experts used a mechanical cherry picker and balanced on harnesses to remove two cists.
“All the bone was uniformly white and in a similar condition, which is evidence for a hot cremation pyre reaching temperatures in the order of 650 to 950 degrees,” says Iraia Arabaolaza, who led the team responsible for the excavation.
“It is likely that the cremation occurred soon after death.
“The smaller average weight of the bones in this cist, as well as the absence of axial [head and trunk] bones, is a common trait in some Bronze Age cremations.
“The lack of remains such as substantial amounts of charcoal associated with a pyre also reinforces the idea of a selected burial.”
Some of the bones may have been kept back or lost to erosion on the cliff.
Arabaolaza says a mysterious green stain, examined once the team had moved the remains to Glasgow, could be copper – demonstrating poor preservation conditions.
A food vessel and a sharp knife, made with Yorkshire flint and found with the body, served both as tools and grave goods.
“Although the burial customs of the Scottish early Bronze Age varied greatly, across the period as well as from region to region, scale-flaked and plano-convex knives clearly represent an important tool,” says Torben Bjarke Ballin, a lithic expert from the University of Bradford.
“Flint knives frequently formed part of the period’s burial goods.
“The Scottish scale-flaked and plano-convex knives are most likely to also be sickles, and they probably carried out the same work as the crescent-shaped sickles of southern Britain.
“Although the piece from Sannox Quarry does not have any gloss, small flat chips were detached along its edge, indicating that it had been used prior to deposition in the cist.”
Beverley Ballin Smith, an archaeology researcher who works with National Museums Scotland, says the water-damaged vessel is unusual.
“In the suite of Bronze Age funeral ceramics, food vessels are not as common as beakers and urns and are less well known,” she explains.
“In mainland Scotland, they are frequently associated with cists with cremations.
“Although the Sannox pot follows some of the decorative motifs of Scottish food vessels, such as its bevelled rim and the slightly uncommon herring bone design, its decoration is in character comparable to those from the east coast.”
This symbolism from the other side of the land may prove that the objects were used in material exchanges.
“The paired and single incised half-circle motives can be mirrored in many places – not least York, Northumberland, Angus, Fife, and Kinross,” says Ballin Smith.
“In spite of its cracks, the pot is intact but there are significant areas of damage. These are mainly around the base, the body of the vessel just above it, and the bottom of the pot internally.
“The damage is partly due to a loss of surface caused by spalling and erosion of the fabric, partly because the vessel may have lain on the floor of the cist, and possibly because of how it was used and fired.
“The appearance of the vessel suggests that it may have stood in a hot fire. There is no sooting from flames, but the base of the pot indicates heat erosion.
“One interpretation could be that the vessel was positioned on the edge of the funeral pyre, perhaps in order to fire it during the cremation of the body.
“In doing so, it received damage as it was not protected from direct flames or very hot ashes.”
One of the bones from the burial – radiocarbon dated to between 2154 and 2026 B – was rounded into a button shape, suggesting an osteoma benign tumour which may not have caused its bearer “distress or symptoms” during their life.
At a time when wood was a scarce resource in Scotland, the size of the pyre shows the importance given to funerals by Bronze Age society. A “good ceremony” could have enhanced the status of the individual or their community.
Read the full report (opens in PDF).
April 3, 2014
April 1, 2014
Today’s Courier tells of the reserection of the Dane’s Stone.
March 24, 2014
An archaeological excavation of Ynys Môn’s least known Neolithic chambered tomb – Perthi Duon, west of the village of Brynsiencyn on Anglesey – has begun. The work is being carried out by a team from the Welsh Rock Art Organisation under the direction of Dr George Nash of the University of Bristol and Carol James.
Perthi Duon, considered to be the remains of a portal dolmen, is one of eighteen extant stone chambered monuments that stand within a 1.5 km corridor of the Menai Straits.
The antiquarian Henry Rowlands reports in 1723 that beneath the large capstone were three stones, possibly upright stones or pillars. However, by the beginning of the nineteenth century the monument was in a ruinous state, incorporated into a north-south hedge boundary, itself now removed.
Perthi Duon was visited by the Reverend John Skinner, parish vicar and amateur archaeologist, during his ten day tour of Anglesey in 1802. He sketched the site, then called Maen Llhuyd, and described how its cap stone and three supporters remained on the spot but had “long since been thrown prostate on the ground”.
For the current excavation, two trenches have been dug based on the results of a geophysical survey undertaken by the team in early 2012. The probable orientation of the entrance is east-west, with its concealed chamber at the western end. During Neolithic times, the dead would have probably entered the monument via the small entrance, before being deposited within the chamber, either as a cremation or as disarticulated remains.
The international team of archaeologists have so far uncovered several significant features including areas of compacted-stone cairn that would once have formed a kidney-shaped mound, surrounding the chamber of the monument.
Team director, Dr George Nash said: “This discovery, along with other excavated features clearly show this monument to be a portal dolmen, one of the earliest Neolithic monument types in Wales, dating to around 3,500 BC.
“More importantly, the architecture of Perthi Duon appears to be a blueprint for other portal dolmen monuments within what is termed the Irish Sea Province. We hope, by the end of this excavation to gain a better understanding of the burial and ritual practices that went on at this site, some 5,500 years ago.”
March 22, 2014
Not sure if anyone has mentioned these, fancy having to go to Malta for the news.....
team of volunteers are recreating a piece of Neolithic history at Stonehenge in the UK.
They are building five houses to give an authentic glimpse of life at the time the World Heritage Site was constructed.
The 60-strong team – which includes a lawyer, teachers and a tour guide – are weaving hundreds of hazel rods through the main supporting stakes and thatching the roofs with hand-knotted wheat straw. Later, the walls will be covered with a daub of chalk, straw and water.
When completed in April, the three-month project will have used 20 tons of chalk as well as 5,000 rods of hazel and three tons of wheat straw.
The volunteers have also helped in the collection of the coppiced hazel, in some cases using prehistoric-style tools such as flint axes.
The houses, which are being constructed outside the newly-opened visitor centre, are closely based on the remains of Neolithic houses discovered in 2006 and 2007 just a mile from Stonehenge at Durrington Walls.
Radiocarbon dates have shown that these buildings dated from around the same time the large sarsen stones were being put up at Stonehenge, in approximately 2500BC.
Experts believe the original occupants might have been involved with the construction of, and celebrations at Stonehenge.
Remains of houses from the late Neolithic period are extremely rare in the British Isles, with others known only from Orkney and at a handful of other locations.
Those found at Durrington were remarkably well preserved and the excavation uncovered the floors of the houses and the stakeholes where the walls once stood, and provided valuable archaeological evidence for the size and layout of the recreated huts.
Each house contained a hearth. Puddled chalk was used to make the floor and the spacing of the upright stakes suggest that hazel of about seven year growth was used to weave the walls.
Susan Greaney, senior properties historian at English Heritage, said: “One of the things we’re trying to do at Stonehenge is to reconnect the ancient stones with the people that lived and worked in the surrounding landscape.
“We hope these houses will give visitors a real insight into what life was like at the time Stonehenge was built.
“They are the product of archaeological evidence, educated guess work, and a lot of hard physical work.”
English Heritage is currently looking for volunteers to work inside the completed houses which will be furnished with replica Neolithic artefacts and lit with fires.
timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20140321/world/Neolithic-homes-at-Stonehenge.511549
March 19, 2014
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-23316621
Archaeologists believe they have discovered the world’s oldest lunar “calendar” in an Aberdeenshire field.
Excavations of a field at Crathes Castle found a series of 12 pits which appear to mimic the phases of the moon and track lunar months.
A team led by the University of Birmingham suggests the ancient monument was created by hunter-gatherers about 10,000 years ago.
An artist’s impression of the site shows burning material in one of the “calendar’s” pits.
The BBC’s Huw Edwards spoke with Professor Vince Gaffney, an expert in landscape archaeology.
March 18, 2014
From BBC News bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-26621146 (via Richard Mikulski)
“Efforts are under way to identify ancient human remains found on a Cornish beach.
Archaeologists believe the bones, exposed by storms in a cliff at Harlyn bay near Padstow, could be those of a young iron age or bronze age woman.
Once they have been radiocarbon dated it is hoped they will go on show at the Royal Cornwall Museum.
Archaeologist Andy Jones said there had been a lot of Bronze and Iron Age burials in the area.
Mr Jones, from Cornwall Council’s historic environment service, said: “Based on what has been found before from the vicinity we thought there was a very good chance they were either going to be Bronze Aged or Iron Aged.”
A member of the public reported the discovery to the police after noticing the cliff face had changed and the bones were in view following this year’s winter storms. The passerby suspected the remains to be human.
Police and council officers then visited the site and an exhumation followed.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-26629162
A stone circle believed to have been built 4,000 years ago has been vandalised.
Residents living near the Nine Ladies stone circle near Stanton Moor in the Peak District found the stones had been painted over the weekend.
The ancient monument dates back to the Bronze Age and is popular with walkers and pagan worshippers.
English Heritage said it was working with the local authority and police to investigate the damage.
Walkers spotted the stones had been painted yellow and green.
Nine Ladies vandalism
Each of the stones were drawn on with green and yellow paint
Anna Tattler, who lives nearby, said: “It is atrocious. It is a really special place and used for people to come and spend quiet, contemplative time here.
“It is a real shame the vandals have not recognised their importance and to deface them like that is pretty awful.”
In 2000, environmental protesters had camped at the site in a long-running campaign against plans to reopen two dormant quarries near the monument.
Permission for the planning application was eventually revoked in 2008.
An English Heritage spokesman said the site may need specialist conservation work to remove the paint in order to avoid further damage.
He added: “Please don’t try to remove the paint yourself as it could cause further damage.”
Hope the badgers are fighting back! but.....
Historic monuments are being saved across the Whitby region thanks to the hard work of volunteers.
Working alongside landowners, the volunteer teams are playing a key part in helping the North York Moors National Park and English Heritage save the park’s 840 historic monuments.
Mags Waughman is the national park’s monument management scheme officer and she said that 99 of the monuments are at risk, while another 240 are vulnerable. Among these are a Bronze Age burial at Danby Beacon, a prehistoric field system at Eden House on the Mulgrave Estate and Allan Tofts in Goathland.
English Heritage provided a grant of £100,000 over three years, later doubled to £200,000 to tackle threats caused by coastal erosion, ploughing and badger activity. Mrs Waughman added: “The initial target was to reduce the risk to 50 monuments. The scheme is having a huge positive impact on the large number of scheduled monuments in the National Park, in terms of improving their condition and management, and in increasing the potential for visitor enjoyment.”
Thanks to the volunteers, action has taken place at 184 monuments and a new volunteer project is being carried out to monitor potentially-damaging effects by badgers.
In the past two years, 43 monuments have been removed from the English Heritage ‘at risk’ register or are expected to be, said Mrs Waughman.
A further 19 on the vulnerable list have had their status reduced.
whitbygazette.co.uk/news/environment/north-york-moors-fighting-bracken-and-badgers-1-6504073
March 17, 2014
A recent CPAT dig has unearthed a burnt mound and there are some good photographs with this article from The Leader newspaper.
leaderlive.co.uk/news/131942/-fantastic-discovery-from-bronze-age-era-near-cilcain.aspx
March 10, 2014
Stone box contains earliest examples of wood-turning and metal-working, along with Baltic amber and what may be bear skin
Some 4,000 years ago a young woman’s cremated bones – charred scraps of her shroud and the wood from her funeral pyre still clinging to them – was carefully wrapped in a fur along with her most valuable possessions, packed into a basket, and carried up to one of the highest and most exposed spots on Dartmoor, where they were buried in a small stone box covered by a mound of peat.
The discovery of her remains is rewriting the history of the bronze age moor. The bundle contained a treasury of unique objects: a tin bead and 34 tin studs, which are the earliest evidence of metal-working in the south-west; textiles, including a unique nettle fibre belt with a leather fringe; jewellery, including amber from the Baltic and shale from Whitby; and wooden ear studs, which are the earliest examples of wood turning ever found in Britain.
The site chosen for her grave was no accident. At 600 metres above sea level, White Horse hill is so remote that getting there even today is a 45-minute walk across heather and bog, after a half-hour drive up a military track from the nearest road. The closest known prehistoric habitation site is far down in the valley below, near the grave of the former poet laureate Ted Hughes.
Analysing and interpreting one of the most intriguing burials ever found in Britain is now occupying scientists across several continents. A BBC documentary, Mystery of the Moor, was first intended only for local broadcast, but as the scale of the find became clear, it will now be shown nationally on BBC2 on 9 March.
Scientists in Britain, Denmark and the Smithsonian in the US have been working on the fur. It is not dog, wolf, deer, horse or sheep, but may be a bear skin, from a species that became extinct in Britain at least 1,000 years ago.
“I am consumed with excitement about this find. I never expected to see anything like it in my lifetime,” Jane Marchand, chief archaeologist at the Dartmoor National Park Authority said. “The last Dartmoor burial with grave goods was back in the days of the Victorian gentleman antiquarians. This is the first scientifically excavated burial on the moor, and the most significant ever.”
It has not yet been possible definitively to identify the sex of the fragmented charred bones, though they suggest a slight individual aged between 15 and 25 years.
“I shouldn’t really say her – but given the nature of the objects, and the fact that there is no dagger or other weapon of any kind, such as we know were found in other burials from the period, I personally have no doubt that this was a young woman,” Marchand said. “Any one of the artefacts would make the find remarkable.”
Although Dartmoor is speckled with prehistoric monuments, including standing stones, stone rows, and hundreds of circular hut sites, very few prehistoric burials of any kind have been found. What gives the White Horse hill international importance is the survival of so much organic material, which usually disintegrates without trace in the acid soil.
Apart from the basket, this burial had the belt; the ear studs – identical to those on sale in many goth shops – made from spindle wood, a hard fine-grained wood often used for knitting needles, from trees which still grow on the lower slopes of Dartmoor; and the unique arm band, plaited from cowhair and originally studded with 34 tin beads that would have shone like silver. There were even charred scraps of textile that may be the remains of a shroud, and fragments of charcoal from the funeral pyre.
Although tin – essential for making bronze – from Cornwall and Devon became famous across the ancient world, there was no previous evidence of smelting from such an early date. The necklace, which included amber from the Baltic, had a large tin bead made from part of an ingot beaten flat and then rolled. Although research continues, the archaeologists are convinced it was made locally.
The cist, a stone box, was first spotted more than a decade ago by a walker on Duchy of Cornwall land, when an end slab collapsed as the peat mound that had sheltered it for 4,000 years was gradually washed away. However, it was only excavated three years ago when archaeologists realised the site was eroding so fast any possible contents would inevitably soon be lost. It was only when they lifted the top slab that the scale of the discovery became apparent. The fur and the basket were a wet blackened sludgy mess, but through it they could see beads and other objects. “As we carefully lifted the bundle a bead fell out – and I knew immediately we had something extraordinary,” Marchand said. “Previously we had eight beads from Dartmoor; now we have 200.”
The contents were taken to the Wiltshire conservation laboratory, where the basket alone took a year’s work to clean, freeze dry, and have its contents removed. The empty cist was reconstructed on the site. However, this winter’s storms have done so much damage the archaeologists are now debating whether they will have to move the stones or leave them to inevitable disintegration.
The jewellery and other conserved artefacts will feature in an exhibition later this year at Plymouth city museum, but although work continues on her bones, it is unlikely to answer the mystery of who she was, how she died, and why at such a young age she merited a burial fit for a queen.
Maeve Kennedy
theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/09/dartmoor-burial-site-bronze-age-history
March 9, 2014
Antiquity via Past Horizons:
“Did Neanderthal hunters drive mammoth herds over cliffs in mass kills? Excavations at La Cotte de St Brelade in the 1960s and 1970s uncovered heaps of mammoth bones, interpreted as evidence of intentional hunting drives. New study of this Middle Palaeolithic coastal site, however, indicates a very different landscape to the featureless coastal plain that was previously envisaged. Reconsideration of the bone heaps themselves further undermines the ‘mass kill’ hypothesis, suggesting that these were simply the final accumulations of bone at the site, undisturbed and preserved in situ when the return to a cold climate blanketed them in wind-blown loess.”
PDF download here:
antiquity.ac.uk/ant/088/ant0880013.htm
Past Horizons article here:
pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2014/no-mammoth-mass-kill-by-neanderthals-at-jersey-site
Via the Heritage Journal:
Northumberland County Council planning officers had recommended approval for two wind turbines close to the monument but now they are advising the Council to throw out the plans – on the back of a recent decision to allow another turbine to be erected in the area.
More here:
heritageaction.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/take-heart-oswestry-theres-been-a-complete-u-turn-at-duddo/
March 7, 2014
TWO of Scotland’s main heritage bodies are to merge, it has been confirmed.
The Scottish Government published a strategy document for the “historic environment” yesterday as Fiona Hyslop, the culture secretary, launched a Bill to address the management of the nation’s built heritage.
The Historic Environment Scotland Bill will bring together Historic Scotland and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS).
The new body will be called Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
The organisation will “be expected to play a key role in delivering the strategy, developed in partnership with stakeholders” which include the Built Environment Forum Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland, the Society of Antiquaries, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and others.
The new strategy, Our Place in Time – A Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland, is now online.
The new Historic Environment Scotland body is expected to be launched in 2015 if the Bill, which has been welcomed by the National Trust for Scotland, passes through parliament.
It will be established in two stages, with the inauguration of the body and a board appointed in April 2015, and the transfer of powers to the new body in October 2015.
Ms Hyslop said: “Combining the skills, expertise and professional experience of Historic Scotland and RCAHMS, HES will take a lead in protecting Scotland’s rich historic heritage to ensure it can be enjoyed now and the future.”
heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/scottish-heritage-bodies-to-merge.23596654
breconbeacons.wordpress.com/2014/03/06/first-prehistoric-rock-art-discovered-in-the-brecon-beacons/
Very similar to the beeb story posted yesterday which I suspect was based on this. With the following at the end which may be of interest to some:
The National Trust’s Council for British Archaeology Community Archaeologist, Charlie Enright will be arranging a number of archaeological and survey days in the area in the coming weeks. He added: “This is a fantastic opportunity to get local people involved in an exciting archaeological project. They’ll be working alongside and learning from professional archaeologists and other likeminded people, acquiring new skills and contributing to our understanding of this fantastic site. If people are interested then they should contact me straight away to book – places are limited!”
Volunteers will be undertaking a range of archaeological activities including:
Recording the stone with Dr George Nash.
Conducting a geophysical survey in the area surrounding the stone to see if we can find any evidence of past human activity below the surface.
Condition monitoring and a topographical survey of the surrounding archaeology.
If you are interested in taking part – places are limited so please book by contacting Charlie Enright, Community Archaeologist at the National Trust, at: [email protected]
March 6, 2014
Rare, prehistoric rock art which could be more than 4,000 years old has been discovered in the Brecon Beacons.
The Bronze Age discovery was made late last year by national park geologist Alan Bowring.
Experts claim the stone probably served as a way marker for farming communities.
Similar stones have been found in other parts of Britain but they are thought to be rare in mid Wales.
Its exact location in the Brecon Beacons is being kept a secret and news of its discovery comes after archaeologists found a similar ancient rock in the Scottish Highlands.
The Welsh stone is about 1.45m (4ft 9in) long and half a metre (1ft 8 in) wide, with 12 cup (hollow) marks of various shapes and sizes on the face.
It now lies flat on the ground but experts say it could have once stood upright.
There are no other later prehistoric standing stones within this part of Wales that are cup marked, making this one rather unique”
Mr Bowring was working on land maintained by the National Trust when he spotted the rock.
Sensing it was unusual, he sought advice from national park archaeologist Natalie Ward, who had experience of recording similar artefacts in the north of England.
“I often find myself working and walking in remote locations, and encountering hidden features in the landscape of south and mid Wales that few others will have seen,” said Mr Bowring.
“But this chance discovery, made whilst looking for clues to the site’s exciting geological history, appears to be significant in our understanding of human cultural history in the region.”
The National Trust’s own archaeological survey had already highlighted Bronze Age features in the area, giving some context to the stone’s past.
Dr George Nash, archaeologist and specialist in prehistoric and contemporary art at Bristol University, confirmed Mr Bowring had discovered the first prehistoric rock engraved panel recorded in the Brecon Beacons.
Dr Nash added that based on the shape of the stone and its engravings it probably came from the early to middle Bronze Age period – 2500 BC to 1500 BC – and it probably served as a way marker.
“We might have been able to predict a discovery of this kind considering the large amount of prehistoric ritual sites in the Brecon Beacons but this is the first evidence of prehistoric rock art to be ever recorded [in the Beacons],” Dr Nash said.
“There are no other later prehistoric standing stones within this part of Wales that are cup marked, making this one rather unique.”
He said the cup marks were the most common later prehistoric rock art form in Britain and Europe, but their occurrence in mid Wales was rare.
March 5, 2014
The House of Commons held a debate in Westminster Hall on 4 March 2014 about the A303 in the Stonehenge area.
Transcript here:
publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140304/halltext/140304h0001.htm#14030456000001
March 4, 2014
“The giant bluestones of Stonehenge may have been chosen because of their acoustic properties, claim researchers.
A study shows rocks in the Preseli Hills, the Pembrokeshire source of part of the monument, have a sonic property.
Researcher Paul Devereux said: “It hasn’t been considered until now that sound might have been a factor.” ”
More here...
March 3, 2014
The Welsh Government would like your comments on a new proposal to give more effective protection to scheduled ancient monuments.
Between 2006 and 2012, Cadw received reports of 119 cases of unlawful damage to scheduled ancient monuments in Wales. However, there has been only one successful prosecution under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 in the last 25 years.
A number of respondents to last year’s consultation on proposals for the historic environment, ‘The future of our past’, expressed concerns about the rarity of successful prosecutions. Some called for changes to the Act’s permitted defence of ignorance of the status or location of a monument to make it easier to secure convictions for illegal damage.
Accordingly, the Welsh Government would now like to receive your views on a proposal to amend the offences and defences in the 1979 Act to modify the ‘ignorance defence’.
More details on the proposal are contained in a consultation document, which is available, along with a response form, on the consultation pages of the Welsh Government website.
Since responses are only being sought on a single proposal, the consultation period will be limited to six weeks running from 3 March to 14 April 2014. The consultation results will be available while there is still time to shape the provisions of the Heritage Bill, which is scheduled for introduction to the National Assembly for Wales in spring 2015.
Your thoughts on this proposal could help to improve the protection of scheduled ancient monuments in Wales, so be sure to take part in the consultation by submitting your reply by 14 April.
TV archaeologist Stewart Ainsworth has claimed ancient hillforts should be “treasured” – and insisted surrounding fields should also be protected from development.
The Time Team archaeologist said areas surrounding the likes of Oswestry’s Iron Age hillfort – which he described as “spectacular” – were just as important as the hills due to their historical and religious significance.
He made the comments while attending a seminar event at Oswestry Memorial Hall, which was held by campaigners fighting plans to build 117 homes near the town’s hillfort.
More than 100 people attended to hear a number of expert speakers from across Europe discuss the the context of the hillfort, its historical significance and some of the archaeological finds made at the site.
The homes off Whittington Road have been included in Shropshire Council’s Site Allocations and Management of Development (SAMDev) plan, which will see more than 20,000 homes built across the county by 2026. Two further proposals to build homes near the hillfort were last week omitted from the planning blueprint, which had initially proposed about 200 homes would be built in the area.
Mr Ainsworth, a regular on the Channel 4 programme, said: “This is a spectacular hillfort. One of the impressive things about it is there are some unusual features which we don’t quite understand, which makes it unique and really quite unusual.”
“It’s important that we treasure the past. The zones around the hillfort, the penumbra, are just as important as the hill. Even in prehistory these areas had meaning for religion and history.”
Mr Ainsworth, who lives in Chester, has been studying Iron Age hillforts for 40 years and said he had long had an interest in the hillfort in Oswestry. “I’ve got a professional and personal interest in any development which potentially affects a major Iron Age centre,” he said.
Among the speakers at Saturday’sevent was Dr George Nash, professor of archaeology and anthropology at IPT in Portugal. He said: “Judging by the audience that turned out, clearly there’s an opposition against this ridiculous planning proposal. We’ve got to keep our green and pleasant land free of development for future generations.”
Maggie Rowlands, one of the organisers of the seminar, said: “We had a fantastic turnout. ”
Town councillors are due to meet tomorrow to form a response to the proposals.
shropshirestar.com/news/2014/02/24/national-experts-talk-about-oswestry-hillforts-future/
February 28, 2014
Seeing as nobody else has posted it... ;)
“A rare example of prehistoric rock art has been uncovered in the Highlands.
Archaeologists made the discovery while moving a boulder decorated with ancient cup and ring marks to a new location in Ross-shire.
When they turned the stone over they found the same impressions on the other side of the rock. It is one of only a few decorated stones of its kind.
John Wombell, of North of Scotland Archaeological Society (NOSAS), said: “This is an amazing discovery.”
Susan Kruse, of Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands (ARCH), first discovered the stone at Heights of Fodderty several years ago when out walking.
The second set of cup and ring marks were uncovered recently when archaeologists were moving the stone to a new site at nearby Heights of Brae Neil Gunn Viewpoint.
From the Neolithic or Bronze Age, the art was created between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago.”
Full story and pics: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-26366644
February 21, 2014
Irish Early Christians, Not So Christian After All?
heritagedaily.com/2014/02/irish-early-christians-not-so-christian-after-all/102191
Excavations at Caherconnell in the Burren region of county Clare on Ireland’s western coast are revealing some interesting practices undertaken by Ireland’s early Christians.
It is traditionally accepted that Christianity arrived in Ireland some time before the middle of the 5th century AD. You might be forgiven, then, for assuming that Christianity and Christian practices could be found throughout Ireland within a century or two of this date.
On a low rise to the side of a shallow valley in a place that later became known as Caherconnell in western Ireland an elderly woman and two babies were buried. Their remains were placed in two carefully constructed stone boxes called cists, both covered by a single low mound of earth and stone. This took place in the second half of the 6th century AD / first half of the 7th century AD.
Recent excavations by the Caherconnell Archaeology Field School are proving otherwise. It was discovered in the summer of 2013 that Caherconnell cashel or ‘caher’ (a circular drystone enclosure containing dwelling houses and other domestic structures) had been deliberately constructed over the top of an earlier burial mound.
This small mound covered two limestone cists. Although disturbed at one end, their contents were still present. The smaller of the two cists contained the remains of a young child, between one and two years of age, and the bones of a baby who was either stillborn or died shortly after birth. The larger cist was only partially present inside the cashel, the rest of it being buried beneath the 3m-wide cashel wall. It contained the skeleton of a woman, at least 45 years of age. She suffered from joint disease, probably as a result of much physical labour over the course of her lifetime.
The results of radiocarbon dating have just arrived, dating the human remains to 541-645 AD and 535-649 AD. This places them well within the chronological bounds of what was once termed ‘Early Christian Ireland’. Clearly, though, these people were not buried in a purely Christian fashion, rather in a mixture of traditional pagan and newer Christian burial practices.
Following the Christian tradition, the bodies were unaccompanied by grave goods and were laid out almost east-west. They were not, however, interred in a Christian cemetery. Instead, they were placed in slab-built cists beneath a low stony mound. Such cists and mounds are commonly found in the pre-Christian prehistoric past. These people appear to have combined their traditional belief system with elements of the ‘new’ religion – hedging their bets maybe?!
The story of these people does not end there. Several centuries after their deaths, in the 10th/11th century AD, the high status cashel settlement called Caherconnell (the caher or cashel of Conaill) was built at this location.
The builders of this new home did not clear this mound and its contents out of their way, nor did they site their enclosure so as to avoid the mound. Instead, they built the drystone wall of their enclosure directly over the top of the mound, leaving approximately half of the mound intact and visible inside the new enclosure. It seems probable that knowledge of the mound and what it contained survived into the 10th/11th century AD, and that the new occupants of the spot deliberately incorporated these ancestors into their settlement. Was this, perhaps, an attempt to legitimize their rule of the area? Like the earlier burials themselves, this practice also has pre-Christian associations.
It seems that being linked with the ancestors, whether by using the same burial method or by physically including them in your home, was a practice that survived the introduction and establishment of the Christian religion in Ireland. Some might say that an obsession with ancestors and where we come from is just as important to us today…
Summer 2014 will see the Caherconnell Archaeology Field School excavate the centre of Caherconnell cashel. The main dwelling house is typically located in this part of the settlement enclosure. With almost 700 artefacts recovered from ‘open’ space inside the enclosure entrance, hopes are high for a very rewarding season this year!