“A hoard of Iron Age metal found at a Leicestershire site could go on permanent display, archaeologists say.
The dig at Burrough Hill, near Melton Mowbray, has uncovered one of the biggest collections of Iron Age metalwork found in the East Midlands.
The finds include spears, knives, iron brooches, reaping hooks and the decorative bronze trim from a shield.
Burrough Hill is the site of an Iron Age fort but no major excavation had taken place there since the 1970s.”
More on the BBC here...
Dr. Schoch will be delivering two lectures at Megalithomania in May. At the Megalithomania conference on 18th May and on Monday 20th May at The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury.
megalithomania.co.uk
Robert M. Schoch earned his Ph.D. (1983) in Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. In the early 1990s, Dr. Schoch stunned the world with his revolutionary research that recast the date of the Great Sphinx of Egypt to a period thousands of years earlier than its standard attribution. In demonstrating that the leonine monument has been heavily eroded by water despite the fact that its location on the edge of the Sahara has endured hyper-arid climactic conditions for the past 5,000 years, Dr. Schoch revealed to the world that mankind’s history is greater and older than previously believed. Dr. Schoch’s latest research, put forth in his newest book, “Forgotten Civilization: The Role of Solar Outbursts in Our Past and Future”, points to the astronomical cause of the demise of antediluvian civilizations, as well as the scientific and archaeological evidence that supports his conclusions. Robert joined Megalithomania on the Peru and Easter Island expedition in November 2013. As well as presenting twice at Megalithomania 2013 – on Saturday evening and Monday evening, he will be a special guest on all of the scheduled tours and the speakers forum on Sunday. robertschoch.com
Was over at WK long barrow today when I bumped into a rather large but very well behaved group of people (inside the barrow). Dr Nick Snashall was leading a ‘walking through the landscape’ guided walk on behalf of the National Trust. The little bit of the talk I caught about WKLB sounded informative and, yes, I did learn something in a few short minutes.
Dr Snashall told me there is another such walk on 8th May (see her blog).
English Heritage recreates prehistoric houses in Wiltshire based on local excavations that will be rebuilt for outdoor gallery
guardian.co.uk/culture/2013/apr/16/neolithic-homes-stonehenge-visitor-centre
nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12109.html
Sorry if this has been posted before. I thought it might be of interest
Your chance to own it! Well actually the house with the plaque built into its wall. The barrow is now not visible, but who knows what lies in the garden? Timeteam are you listening??
Following the cancellation of Time Team by Channel 4, an online community has been set up with the aim of getting the programme recommissioned on another channel. The URL is www.timeteamfans.com and the site includes a petition with upwards of 3,000 signatures. There is also a twitter feed at @savetimeteam.
New College in Swindon is running an eight week course on the prehistoric sites of Wiltshire.
newcollege.ac.uk/course-information-sheets/prehistoric-wiltshire
Course starts 30th April, includes three field trips, cost £60.
An archaeology site in West Cornwall has been damaged. The Bronze Age monument known as Men-an-Tol, was found with cattle hair and hoof prints in the ground.
Locals action group ‘Save Penwith Moors’ say it has been caused by cattle introduced under a Natural England scheme. They are calling on English Heritage and Natural England to take action.
itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2013-04-02/bronze-age-monument-damaged-by-cattle/?
“Four Neolithic houses found in a Berkshire quarry are thought to make up one of the oldest permanent settlements ever found in England.
Archaeologists unearthed the 5,700-year-old foundations at Kingsmead Quarry, near Windsor.”
More here...
Thousands of people came from across Britain to help build Stonehenge, experts investigating the origins of the monument have said.
........
New 90 minute documentary on channel 4 next Sunday night.
Stonehenge is Britain’s greatest prehistoric monument and, for many centuries, has also provided perhaps our greatest prehistoric mystery.
One man believes he has found the vital clues to solve this puzzle, and this programme follows him through a series of discoveries that rewrite the story of Stonehenge.
Buried beneath the stones are ancient bodies, and a research team led by world-renowned archaeologist Professor Mike Parker Pearson has been granted special permission to analyse them for the first time.
The results of that investigation overturn the accepted view on when Stonehenge was built and what it was built for, providing compelling evidence that it once united the people of Britain.
The programme proves that the monument we know today was not the original Stonehenge and answers the mystery of its sudden decline.
EUAN MACKIE has just confirmed he will be speaking at the next Megalithomania in Glastonbury on 18th – 19th May 2013. 5 days of tours have also been confirmed. So keep your calendar free for seven days of pure Megalithomania this May! Early-Bird Tickets here: www.megalithomania.co.uk/booking.html
MEGALITHOMANIA TOURS 2013:
(please note these have changed slightly)
All Tours include Coach Journey, Entrance to Sites, Guidance with experienced Megalithomaniacs and Geoff Stray driving the Bus! Robert Schoch will be co-hosting all the tours listed below.
Friday: Stanton Drew and Stoney Littleton. Afternoon tour with Anthony Thorley. £30
Monday: Avebury, Silbury Hill, Waylands Smithy, Uffington White Horse. A megalithic and geomantic view of these incredible sites with Gary Biltcliffe and Maria Wheatley. £50
Tuesday: Belas Knapp, Hetty Peglars Tump and the Rollright Stone Circle. A full day tour with Gary Biltcliffe, based upon his new book, The Spine of Albion. £50
Wednesday: Glastonbury Walking Tour & Stonehenge private access. Morning tour with Anthony Thorley. After lunch we go to the area around Stonehenge where we meet Maria Wheatley, exploring Durrington Walls, Woodhenge, the Cursus and numerous mounds, before heading in to Stonehenge for our private one-hour access. £62
Thursday: The Cerne Giant – Landscape and the Stargate. Peter Knight (author of the new book on the Giant) will lead us around this sacred Dorset landscape. We shall view the Iron Age Giant, and learn of its connection with the Stargate of Egyptian myths. The tour will also visit other local sites, such as a sacred spring, the abbey site, churches, isolated megaliths and wayside crosses. £50
If you cannot book online, please send a cheque payable to ‘Megalithomania’ to: Megalithomania, 149 Brickley Lane, Devizes, Wiltshire, SN10 3BL (please add £2.50 for P&P).
If you have an enquiry please email us at [email protected] – Phone: 07779 11354
Is time running out for Trethevy Quoit and other such unprotected Scheduled Monuments? A new video by Roy Goutté on the disruption (and potential damage) caused by horses/ponies and vehicles to the ground immediately surrounding Trethevy Quoit in Cornwall. The video shows startling and dramatic new evidence of that recent damage.
Amazing’ treasures revealed in Dartmoor bronze age cist
A rare and “amazing” burial discovery dating back 4,000 years has been described as the most significant find on Dartmoor and has given archaeologists a glimpse into the lives of the people who once lived there.
The discovery of a bronze age granite cist, or grave, in 2011 in a peat bog on White Horse Hill revealed the first organic remains found on the moor and a hoard of about 150 beads.
As the National Park’s archaeologists levered off the lid they were shocked by what lay beneath.
The park’s chief archaeologist, Jane Marchand, said: “Much to our surprise we actually found an intact cremation deposit [human bones] which is actually a burial alongside a number of grave goods.
“What was so unusual was the survival of so many organic objects which you never usually get in a grave of this period, they’ve long since rotted away.”
Amongst the grave goods was an animal pelt, containing a delicate bracelet studded with tin beads, a textile fragment with detailed leather fringing and a woven bag .
Ms Marchand said: “The whole thing was actually wrapped up in an animal pelt of fur. As we lifted it up very carefully a bead fell out and the thrill of realising that actually this is a proper burial, this is a bead which belonged to a burial.
“That’s what’s so exciting, you wouldn’t expect to find any archaeology somewhere like this stuck out on this peak hag. You’ll never be able to top this ever.”
Despite there being about 5,000 remnants of buildings and 200 burial cists on Dartmoor the moor has offered up few of its secrets.
English Heritage archaeologist Win Scutt said: “A lot of it’s to do with robbing, some people have actually robbed the stone, some have robbed the artefacts.
“But the biggest loss we’ve got is all the organic stuff, the bones have all been dissolved by the acid soil up here. The flowers, the gifts of drink and food which would have gone in, most of their life was organic, it was stuff that would rot away.
“If we could get the perishable items, the organic materials, it would really shine a big light into pre-history.”
This discovery has provided a rare glimpse into history with an ear stud or libret found in the bag while it was being examined at the Wiltshire Conservation Lab.
Ms Marchand said: “I don’t remember studs being recorded at any other excavation from this period. I’ve worked on Dartmoor for over 20 years and never anticipated getting anything like this.
“It’s just amazing, it suddenly brings them to life and actually you feel much closer to them because this is someone who likes their jewellery, I like jewellery, and actually you can identify with that side of things.
“We’re only at the beginning really I just can’t wait for the results to start coming in.”
Find out more on BBC Inside Out South West, on BBC One on Monday, 18 February at 19:30 GMT.
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-21442474
BBC 1 News item here bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_one_london/watchlive
from about 13.21 pm.
Breaking news.
“Without a care in the world it would seem, horses and ponies had been allowed to run free in the field without making any attempt whatsoever to protect the monument. Not even the simplest of electrified animal fencing had been installed which was simply inviting disaster. Due to our overly wet winter in Cornwall, and the horses galloping around like mad things, the ground had become so churned up that the grass in places had been replaced by mud and was no longer visible! Naturally the English Heritage Officer was as equally appalled as I was and immediately took notes and photographs to report back with.
“Today (the 16th February) I made a return visit and was even more horrified. The horses had either been removed or out being ridden for a few hours, but the field area around the quoit was much, much worse than it had been before with huge tractor tyre tracks around it and hoof prints encroaching up to and onto the low remaining banked cairn surrounding the base of the quoit. It was in danger of becoming unstable if this was to continue as the side orthostats/slabs of the tomb rely on the banked cairn being there to keep their base in place! The consequences of this banking becoming dislodged or destroyed didn’t bear thinking about!”
Full article and photographs by Roy Goutté of the ground damage around the monument here – theheritagetrust.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/trethevy-quoit-put-at-risk-2/
“Fears about the number of visitors a new 45-mile walking route will bring means proposed improvements to some rights of way cannot go ahead.
“As a result, a grant offer from the European Union of £27,700 for the scheme linking the World Heritage sites of Stonehenge and Avebury has been withdrawn.
“The Great Stones Way would run from the Iron Age hill fort of Barbury Castle on the Ridgeway National Trail, past the current end of the trail at Overton Hill near Avebury, along the Avon Valley to Amesbury, to end at historic Old Sarum near Salisbury.”
More here – gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/10225316.Avebury_stone_Way_hits_stumbling_block/
Museums in Wiltshire have told the council they can no longer accept artefacts excavated during development.
Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum said their archaeological stores were full.
David Dawson, from Wiltshire Heritage Museum, said: “We’ve got about 5,000 boxes of archaeological finds at the museum – and have no more space.”
Wiltshire Council said it “recognises the need” and is “proposing a new large storage facility for these items”.
“We’ve got about 400,000 archaeological artefacts everything from fragments of pottery and shards of flint to carts and wagons,” said Mr Dawson.
“And we get about 50 to 100 boxes a year from developers.
“Salisbury museum has been full for 10 years and we had to get an off-site store to continue to take in artefacts but now that’s full.”
Stuart Wheeler, from Wiltshire Council, said it was important that the county’s “historical artefacts are kept for future generations”.
He said: “Heritage centres have been doing a wonderful job of preserving these finds for many years.
“We are now proposing a new large storage facility for these items which would ideally be funded by developers who uncover archaeological items on their site.
“This facility will be supported by the museums.
A Neolithic grave in Guernsey could be half-buried in soil and grassed-over to preserve it.
Guernsey Museums and Art Galleries has asked for planning permission to conduct the work in Delancey Park and put up an information sign.
States Archaeologist Dr Philip de Jersey said covering part of the stones would hopefully protect them.
He said: “People have lit fires in between them so they crack... there’s been graffiti... we want to stop that.”
The grave was discovered and excavated in 1919, 1932 and in the summers from 2009-2011.
States Archaeologist Dr Philip de Jersey said covering part of the stones would hopefully protect them.
Dr de Jersey said the “gallery” grave was “the only known example in Guernsey”.
He said other Neolithic graves in the island tended to be passage graves with a wider chamber.
Part of it is having better interpretation so people actually know what they’re are looking at”
Dr de Jersey said damage to the site was mainly believed to have been caused by people.
“We don’t get a huge amount of frost here and there is what looks like some frost shattering on a couple of the pieces of granite so it [covering the site] might help stop that as well, but the main problems have been human,” he said.
“The absolute last resort is fencing the site off... so I hope this will be a compromise, that people can still see it, but it will prevent damage.”
Dr de Jersey said of the site currently: “It’s collapsed, the capstones have long since vanished and what we have now are just the prop stones along each side, which have all fallen over in the past few thousand years.
“It’s not a great deal to look at, it is a heap of stones and if you don’t know anything about it you’re none the wiser.”
Archaeologist Dr George Nash, who led the most recent work, recommended the site should be enhanced and marked as one of educational value.
Dr de Jersey said: “There’s not really anything more archaeological we can get out of it.
“[The plan is to] effectively partially rebury the site, it won’t be completely covered you’ll still be able to see the top foot or so of the stones.
“The idea is that you can walk around it, you can still walk on the stones, but they’ll be that much more protected.
“Part of it is protecting the site, but leaving it still visible and part of it is having better interpretation so people actually know what they’re are looking at.”
He said the plans were put forward with the support of the Admiral de Saumarez Trust, which is behind moves to upgrade and refresh the park and has offered to pay for materials.
Dr de Jersey said the plans involved “a layer of something inert like sand or gravel, which marks where previous excavations have got to, and then we’ll put topsoil on top and fence it off to let the grass seed grow”.
If the plans are approved work, which should only take a few days, is expected to start in March or April.
News from the World Archaeological Congress WAC-7
“Divers at an ecolodge in West Papua have been instrumental in the discovery of new rock art from a lost civilisation.
Divers from the Misool Eco Resort spotted the previously unreported rock art and contacted Jean-Michel Chazine, a research engineer from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS-France) three years ago to survey the discovery.
Jean-Michel Chazine presented his research at the international World Archaeology Congress in Jordan this week and commented “It is a small paradise for archaeologists. The paintings are very ornate and beautiful.”
The recent second survey of a new cluster of paintings upon cliffs sinking in the ocean in the Misool islands archipelago has provided new insights. Seven new sites, which enhanced already the total of sites to thirteen, have been discovered in the vicinity of the previous located sites. These new sites present also a large number of hands stencils, which would appear, apart two cases, in all painted places.
The other confirmation in content and expression concerns the subject of the paintings, which are in majority related to the sea fauna. Tuna, sharks, dolphins and general more or less large fishes’ features compose the main core of representations. Being represented in majority up or down in a vertical position, they would obviously correspond to a basic symbolic figure. Many signs, dots, patches, thin or bold lines circling cupules, are also scattered within paintings.”
The full article at: wac7.worldarchaeologicalcongress.org/wac7_news.html
HARDY snow fans took their sledges to Badbury Rings at the weekend, despite signs asking them not to.
The Iron Age fort, near Wimborne, proved a hit for a around 500 people with toboggans and sledges following inches of snow falling across the county.
The National Trust had placed signs around the area advising people not to use the site as a ‘winter sports venue’ with their sledges, skis and snowboards on the grass – but the signs were ignored, with one sledger scrawling “get a life” on them.
David Roberts, General Manager at the Kingston Lacy Estate, says the ban on sledging is because of the measures that the National Trust have put into place to preserve the land.
He said: “It is a very important archaeological site.
“We have had to cover some of the areas with mesh, which is under the grass, held in place with pegs. Over time, the grass has grown over them and so they cannot be seen so well.
“It is fine to walk on, as you can’t feel them under foot, but a toboggan is a completely different type of thing, as it can catch on the pegs.
“Two years ago, we had a father and son, who went on their toboggan on Badbury Rings, and the boy came off and badly gashed his thigh on one of the pegs.
“If people choose to use their toboggans on the land, we can’t stop them, but we would strongly advise them not to.”
Ian Kirk, 53, from Broadstone took these pictures.
He said: “I was at Badbury Rings on Monday, where I spoke to a National Trust ranger, who said there was about 500 people sledging on the ground.
“It also seems that there was a trail of blood left in the snow, where someone had obviously hurt themselves.
“Some people had been quite obnoxious when they had seen the signs and had written things on them, including ‘Get a life’ and much worse.
“Where the snow had worn down, where people had been on it, you could see the stakes and the pegs.
“What I find funny is that the signs were up, to tell people not to sledge on it, and yet they still were in their hundreds.”
From Planet Earth Online:
Mummified bodies made of chopped up people? It’s not a legend from ancient Egypt but a find from the Outer Hebrides. Tamera Jones finds out how the latest forensic techniques were applied to the mystery of Britain’s first prehistoric mummies.
When Professor Mike Parker Pearson from the University of Sheffield started excavating the Bronze Age Cladh Hallan settlement on South Uist, one of the first things his team found was a row of three roundhouses. Radio-carbon dating showed they were built around 1100 BC.
Further digging revealed several burials directly under the houses. Not so unusual in itself, but the archaeologists were surprised by the contorted and scrunched-up positions of the skeletons, which looked similar to mummy bundles found in Peru.
‘We also noticed that the male skeleton had a full set of teeth in his lower jaw, but the upper set was completely missing,’ says Pearson. ‘Our first thought was that this was some kind of Bronze Age torture victim.‘
But forensic pathology showed the two jaws didn’t match at all. Several months of painstaking analysis revealed that in fact the man’s skull, mandible and torso came from three different people.
‘It looked like these individuals had been cut up and put back together to look like one person,’ says Pearson.
Then the mystery deepened even further. When the bodies were dated they turned out to be several hundred years older than the houses, which meant they had been stored for several generations before they were buried.
The position of the bones in both adult skeletons suggested they had still been held together by soft tissue when they were buried, so they had been stored with particular care.
Pearson and biomedical archaeologist Professor Terry Brown from the University of Manchester, took the remains to NERC’s Isotope Geosciences Laboratory where scientists used a range of techniques to work out where the bodies might have been kept. These included the rather grisly mercury intrusion porosimetry, which shows how far gut bacteria has eaten into the surrounding bones after death. In this case, not very far; decay had started in the male’s torso but then something had stopped it, and there was no sign of decay in the female corpse at all.
Other techniques showed Pearson and his colleagues that the surfaces of the bones had become demineralised, something that happens in an acidic environment. All the forensic evidence suggested that the bodies had been preserved in a peat bog for several months before being taken out and dried. They must then have been stored above ground for hundreds of years before being merged with other mummified individuals and finally buried.
‘At the time this was the first ever evidence of mummification outside of South America and Egypt,’ says Pearson. ‘Before this, mummification in the British Bronze Age was unheard of.‘
Most recently, DNA from the female’s skull, jaw, arm and thigh bones has shown that, just like the male, the woman’s skeleton was made up of at least three individuals – and the cranium and mandible were male.
What led our ancestors to mummify and combine these bodies is anyone’s guess. But Pearson thinks it has something to do with merging ancestries.
‘Lots of fields and ditches were being built across Britain in the middle Bronze Age’, he says. ‘An obvious thing to do would be to coalesce ancestors’ remains as a way of asserting rights over this newly enclosed land.‘
The team that looks after the landscape of the Mendip Hills has been given more than £200,000 to help with its conservation.
The Heritage Lottery Fund money will be spent on teaching people about the history and archaeology of the Black Down and Burrington Commons.
The area above Cheddar covers the highest point on the Mendips.
The Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership, said it was “delighted” to get the grant.
Councillor Dawn Hill, the organisation’s chairman, said: “Black Down is one of the most fascinating sites in the Mendip Hills AONB,” she said.
“With this funding we can bring the special stories of the site to life and encourage people to take an active role in caring for this special place.”
Erosion and damage
The grant will employ a full-time project officer for three years, and pay for new volunteering and training opportunities.
It will also go towards the restoration and repair of badly eroded paths, as well as protecting the area’s wildlife habitats and archaeology.
The AONB said in recent years an increase in visitor numbers had resulted in problems of erosion and damage to specific features and the site in general.
“It’s the largest area of common land in the Mendip Hills,” said Andy Mallender from the partnership.
He added: “Part of the site is a designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the valuable wildlife habitats found there.
“Another large part of the site is designated a Scheduled Monument because of the wealth of archaeology on the site.”
The Black Down has three Scheduled Monuments dating from the late Stone Age and Bronze Age through to World War II.
This is a long article in Current Archaeology filed under news, not sure if it is news but interesting all the same, go to the link for photos...
January 17, 2013 By Carly Hilts
Rapid erosion has revealed spectacular Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology on the coast of Westray, Orkney. Contemporary with the Ness of Brodgar’s religious monuments but with a domestic focus, what can this settlement tell us about daily life in prehistoric Orkney?
Hazel Moore and Graeme Wilson explained.
Overlooking the North Atlantic on the island of Westray, the Links of Noltland boasts an impressive prehistoric landscape stretching over 4ha. Comprising the well-preserved remains of over 20 buildings – including Neolithic structures contemporary with, and comparable to, the famous ‘village’ at Skara Brae – together with extensive middens, field systems, and a cemetery, the site is revolutionising knowledge of Neolithic and Bronze Age Orkney.
Noltland’s wealth of archaeological features is in danger of being lost, however. Facing into the wind and exposed to almost constant salt spray, the site is at severe risk of erosion, with the dune system that has protected it for millennia rapidly depleting. Designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a property in care of Scottish Ministers, managed on their behalf by Historic Scotland, the settlement has been closely monitored for change since the 1980s, but by 2005 it was clear that – for reasons still not fully understood – the scale of erosion was accelerating at an unprecedented level. Matters had become urgent.
In response, Historic Scotland launched a rolling campaign of assessment and conservation works, and rescue excavations undertaken by EASE Archaeology, directed by the authors and project managed by Historic Scotland Senior Archaeologist Richard Strachan. Since 2006 these have revealed a large number of hitherto unsuspected Neolithic and Bronze Age remains, with a highlight of the most recent season being the discovery of two carved stone figurines similar to the celebrated ‘Orkney Venus’ (CA 236).
Local soil conditions favour the preservation of skeletal material, meaning that there is a large amount of animal bone available for study, providing valuable opportunities to examine husbandry and butchery practices. Such bones, from both wild and domesticated animals, were crafted into a wide range of tools and decorative objects from beads and elaborate dress pins to mattocks, awls, polishers, and points. Bone-working debris is rarely encountered on archaeological sites of this period, and study of this material is providing a glimpse of manufacturing processes employed by prehistoric craftsmen.
Neolithic Noltland
While the Neolithic remains at the Links of Noltland bear comparison with those at Skara Brae on Orkney Mainland in terms of both age and architecture, at Noltland erosion of the ground surface over such a large area has permitted a far more extensive investigation of the site’s hinterland, making it possible to examine the settlement’s evolution over a long duration. Beginning in the 3rd millennium BC and enduring into the Bronze Age, the site’s inhabitants saw dramatic changes to both their built and natural environments during the settlement’s lifespan.
In Structure 10 we found structural modifications suggesting that the building had seen later phases of occupation, with tantalising glimpses of the original walls visible beneath. These were extremely well constructed, and it appears that the interior was deliberately backfilled with midden material and rubble prior to the later use. From this infill material we recovered a carved stone ball – an enigmatic type of prehistoric artefact found mostly in Scotland, with five discovered at Skara Brae alone. While the purpose of these objects is still open to debate, with suggestions ranging from ceremonial use to a function as a projectile for taking down wild animals, this was a significant find since few have been found in secure archaeological contexts, most coming to light as stray finds.
The earliest occupational evidence revealed by our excavations so far was a farmstead, dated to at least 2800-2500 BC. Set inside a stone-walled enclosure, this complex stood on a ridge surrounded by cultivated fields, with its finest, and perhaps earliest, building (Structure 10) in the centre, constructed from neatly coursed quarried stone. Over time, more buildings were added and older elements were modified and reused, creating a series of closely packed rooms and passages. We investigated the interiors of two (Structures 10 and 19) during the most recent phase of work. These represent two of the larger rooms, both rectilinear in form, with upright stones used to divide up internal space.
Structure 19, by contrast, appears to be one of the later buildings within the complex. While radiocarbon dating results are still awaited, the structure was found to have been built over the original enclosure wall. It was entered via a narrow entrance passage that opened into a central floor area surrounded by peripheral recesses or ‘box-beds’, which were separated from the main space with upright slabs, one measuring over 2m in length. Opposite the entrance were the footings of a dresser similar to those seen in houses at Skara Brae, while later floor layers inside the structure produced very large quantities of decorated Grooved Ware pottery dating to the early 3rd millennium BC, together with a wide range of stone and bone tools.
Midden management
The settlement is surrounded by extensive contemporary middens. These are directly responsible for the preservation of many of the site’s buildings, absorbing the structures as they fell out of use. They are also proving a productive source of new information about the settlement. While Noltland’s house-proud inhabitants generally kept their floors clean, discarding few artefacts inside the structures, the middens hold a vast amount of material, in places reaching over 1m in depth.
We have excavated considerable areas of midden to reveal the structures hidden beneath, and in so doing, we recognised that at Noltland these were not merely refuse heaps – they were used for a variety of activities, including animal butchery and craft working. Stone pathways lead through the deposits, while specific areas appear to be reserved for specific activities. There are butchery zones, for example, where we found rough ‘skaill knives’ made from split beach pebbles, as well as worked flints that would have been used to dismember animals. Elsewhere, caches of tools such as bone mattocks and bead-making debris suggest that, in addition to sourcing their raw materials, bone implements were being manufactured here as well.
Close analysis of this wealth of discarded material has provided many details of what life was like at Neolithic Noltland. We now know that the inhabitants were predominantly cattle farmers, but also kept sheep; that they had access to abundant wild resources including numerous species of bird and fish, together with deer, marine mammals and shellfish; that they cultivated barley, and that their dogs regularly came to gnaw at the meaty scraps of bone. We can reconstruct other aspects of their world from the farming and craftworking tools that they left behind, alongside decorative items such as dress pins and beads, as well as worked shell.
One of the most exciting aspects of the midden investigations has been the discovery of bizarre ‘compositions’, consciously and sometimes elaborately arranged groups of materials. In one instance, a scallop shell was placed between the horns of a sheep skull while a flint tool was set inside. In another, numerous animal jawbones were arranged together, perhaps votive offerings associated with the killing and butchering of animals. We have also noticed composite items of bone and clay, equally tantalising, but sadly less well preserved.
Outside the clustered farmstead, several other Neolithic buildings have been identified during our work, including two houses with a cruciform interior. The first (Structure 9), located just outside the enclosure wall, had 28 cattle skulls, two of which have been dated to the mid-3rd millennium BC. Deliberately placed within its foundations, they would have been an important gesture from this community of cattle farmers. Standing further apart, the other building
(Structure 7) – home to the site’s second dresser – seems to have been enclosed by a series of ‘casement’ walls – concentric ‘skins’ of stone, producing massively thick structures.
The most complete building to have been excavated at Noltland so far, however, is a subterranean house and annex (Structure 18), isolated from the other structures and of very different construction. Dubbed the ‘Grobust house’ after the bay it overlooks, the structure was built in a large pit cut into a sand dune and comprises two unequal sized rooms joined by a passage. While Noltland’s other buildings are freestanding, the Grobust house has revetted drystone walls. In places still standing up to 1.1m high, these are probably preserved to almost the original roof height.
Originally discovered and partially excavated by Dr. David Clarke of the National Museums of Scotland in the late 1970?s – who revealed that part of the building may have been deliberately filled with soil at the end of its life, from which large numbers of flint tools, worked bone, pottery and stone objects, were recovered – there was a lag of over 30 years before work resumed on the house. This was the main focus of our 2012 excavation, during which the last remnants of infill were removed. With the interior of the building finally fully uncovered, we were able to explore the house’s entire layout for the first time.
