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“The Wiltshire Heritage Museum has been awarded £370,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to support plans to create a new gallery focusing on their outstanding Bronze Age archaeological collections. This will tell the story of the people who built and used the world renowned monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury. The new Prehistoric Galleries will provide an opportunity to display for the first time in generations the unique gold and amber finds from Wiltshire that date back to the Bronze Age, over 4,000 years ago. This was a time of shaman and priests, learning and culture and contacts across Europe. The Museum will be able to build on its existing learning and outreach programme, and inspire local people and visitors to become engaged and informed about the prehistoric landscapes of Wiltshire.

“The story to be told at the Museum forms part of an integrated approach to the interpretation of Stonehenge. The Stonehenge Museums Partnership links the Museum with new galleries being developed at the Stonehenge Visitor Centre by English Heritage and new galleries being planned at the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. English Heritage is supporting the project with a major grant to the Museum. Wiltshire Council have also helped behind the scenes.”

Further information at wiltshireheritage.org.uk/news/index.php?Action=8&id=150&page=0 See also a lunchtime talk about the Project by David Dawson, Director, Wiltshire Heritage Museum on Thursday, 12 April 2012 at wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=739&prev=1

Researchers at the Nottingham Trent University have gathered new evidence that a 4000-year-old monolith was aligned to be an astronomical marker. The 2.2 metre high monument, located in the Peak District National Park, has a striking, right-angled triangular shape that slants up towards geographic south. The orientation and inclination of the slope is aligned to the altitude of the Sun at mid-summer.

alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=118759&CultureCode=en

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17537147

The Welsh Rock Art Association are holding a field school in Preseli Pembrokeshire in Sept to Oct 2012.

Quite expensive, but thought I’d add it here

rock-art-in-wales.co.uk/top/events.html

Roddenbury hillfort to undergo major work to repair damage caused by off-road biking.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-17515415

Archaeological excavations in 2009-2011 at Kanaljorden in the town of Motala, Ostergotland in Central Sweden unearthed a great Mesolithic site with ceremonial depositions of human crania in a former lake.

More info :

pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/03/2012/skulls-on-stakes-in-sweden-date-to-the-mesolithic

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17463275

This government has a lot to answer for. Flying in the face of strong local feeling and the decision made last year by Swindon Borough Council to finally reject the development at the land surrounding Coate Water Country Park (with all its archaeological and historical associations).

I received this email last night from the Chair of Wiltshire Ramblers Association.

“I had a letter from this morning advising that the Secretary of State had granted planning permission for the development of the land at Commonhead! It says the decision is final unless it is successfully challenged in the High Court and what would that cost?!!!”

PS: Commonhead is the name the developers have given the site to disguise its associations.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-17397694

From ‘WRAO’ on Facebook:
“Six? possible cup-marks on a stone re-used as a gate post. The hole in the centre is for a gate bolt and is distinctly different in character to the standard bowl profile of the cup-marks. This stone is of an unusual geology but does contain fossils which could cast some doubt over its validity as a Neolithic / EBA stone. However there are a number of factors which work in favour of this hypothesis, which we will go into in more detail as we add it to the database.”

facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150659020813087&set=a.316542978086.148860.139105033086&type=1

There is a picture on the site.

From the RCAHMW blog at
heritageofwalesnews.blogspot.com/2012/03/prehistoric-landscape-uncovered-at.html

“It’s a race against tide this week at Borth in Ceredigion. Archaeologists have a short window of opportunity to record, excavate and carry out palaeo-environemntal sampling of a large expanse of peat recently exposed beneath the sands on the beach. The peat together with a number of tree stumps and branches, provide a glimpse at the earlier Prehistoric environment, a time when the sea shore lay further west and this was an area of salt marsh. Of particular interest are the series of human and animal footprints fossilized in the now hardened peat surface, a line of post holes perhaps part of a causeway that once crossed the marsh, and also scatters of burnt stone, possible burnt mounds that are often associated with the Bronze Age.

A submerged forest to the north of this site has previously been studied by archaeologists coflein.gov.uk/en/site/506500/details/SUBMERGED+FOREST%2C+BORTH+SANDS/

The emergency archaeological work is being carried out by staff and students of the School of Archaeology, History and Anthropology at the University of Wales Trinity St David. The Royal Commission has provided survey support, mapping the extents of the peat and other exposed features.”

From thisissomerset:

Investigations into the damage to Priddy Circles on the Mendip hills have been completed.

A 72-year-old man has been released from police bail and the case has been passed to the jurisdiction of English Heritage who are expecting to decide what action, if any, to take in the next few weeks.

The Priddy Circles are one of the most important neolithic monuments in the country.

The circles, which are contemporary with the first stages of Stonehenge, are a scheduled monument.

One of them was damaged at some point between May 1 and June 23 last year and the damage to the circle outraged the archeological community.

There have been calls for the damaged sections to be reinstated by archeologists at the expense of those responsible.

If convicted those responsible could be fined anything up to £20,000.

They could also be jailed for up to six months and could have to pay to have it reinstated.

The circles could also be compulsorily purchased by the government in order to protect it.

Anyone accused of damaging a monument can say in their defence that they tried to protect the monument while carrying out work. They can also say that they had to carry out the work for safety reasons or did not know that the monument was within the area affected by the works or that it was a scheduled monument.

An English Heritage spokesman said: “A detailed investigation has been carried out by English Heritage in partnership with Avon and Somerset Police into the circumstances surrounding damage to one of the Priddy Circles.

“The evidence gathered in the course of the investigation is now with English Heritage to consider and a decision as to any further action will be taken in the near future.”

Putting this up as news though the stunt has now vanished.....

A 3,000-YEAR-OLD hill carving of a horse now has a JOCKEY thanks to bookies Paddy Power.

Locals woke up to find the rider had been secretly added overnight to the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire to promote next week’s Cheltenham Festival.

The 110ft tall and 200ft wide temporary installation was pinned to the ground with tent pegs five feet from the original chalk marking to avoid causing damage.

The stunt is part of Paddy Power’s We Hear You campaign.

And the firm now hopes the Uffington Rider will become a site of pilgrimage for racing fans from all over the UK in the run-up to the festival.

A spokesman said: “Funnily enough, the idea for our Uffington Rider came from a tweet from one of our customers.

“He was responding to our We Hear You campaign asking if we had any mischief planned for Cheltenham in the wake of our giant Hollywood sign a few years ago.

“We simply couldn’t resist the challenge and needed to come up with something spectacular to measure up to the giant sign. I think we’ve achieved this.”

Paddy Power has made a donation to the National Trust, which maintains the Uffington White Horse.

thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4180538/Paddy-Power-puts-a-jockey-on-the-Uffington-White-Horse-to-promote-Cheltenham-Festival.html

Note; a spokesman for the National Trust says....

“This has been done without the knowledge of the National Trust and, as far as we can tell, without any Scheduled Monument Consent.”

Permission refused for proposed Slane bypass
   
An Bord Pleanála has refused permission for the proposed Slane bypass in Co Meath, a decision which has infuriated some local residents.

Local residents who had been campaigning for a bypass are angry

An Bord Pleanála has confirmed it has refused permission for the proposed Slane bypass in Co Meath.
The agency decided to reject the planned bridge and roads around the village because the proposal was located very close to the World Heritage Site at Brú na Bóinne.
Other factors included the belief among board members that it had not been proven that no appropriate alternative was available, and it could have diverted traffic off the M1 tolled motorway.
An Bord Pleanála’s decision has been greeted with anger by local residents who had been campaigning for a bypass.
Residents say the bypass is essential to improve road safety in the area.
They claim that 22 people have died in accidents on the bridge or on its approaches and are warning more could die as a result of today’s announcement.
The Bypass Slane Campaign said it is ‘’shocked and dismayed’’ by the decision. The group was formed in April 2009 in the aftermath of a serious road traffic incident in the village.
In a statement, it said: ‘’Life in the village, over generations, has been overwhelmed by the dangerous volumes of traffic and by the constant threat to life it brings.

More here: rte.ie/news/2012/0307/slane.html

Not megalithic, I know, but part of the landscape, and I know some folk out there will be interested...

“A greying white horse hillfigure in Wiltshire is to be cleaned in time for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The Westbury white horse has “deteriorated substantially over the last 12 months” and is a “matter of local concern”, said the local council.

It is maintained by English Heritage and last underwent a £20,000 refurbishment in 2006.

A £10,000 grant has been awarded by Westbury Town Council and Westbury Area Board to clean the “grubby” horse.

Area board chairman, Julie Swabey, said the horse had become “so grey and dirty” it was “hard to distinguish it as a landmark”.

“It is sad to see her in such a poor state,” she said.

“But, hopefully working together with the town council and groups who have offered to help with its brush up will see the horse finally white again.”

‘Natural weathering‘

English Heritage was originally approached, and whilst appreciating the landmark had been affected by “natural weathering” said it was “not at risk of serious damage or disrepair”.

“English Heritage continually monitors its condition and regularly removes graffiti from it,” said Stuart Maughan, property manager for Wiltshire.

“We care for over 100 historic sites in the South West alone and, therefore, funding is limited.

“So we are delighted that Westbury Town Council has offered to raise funds to repaint the white horse. We are working closely with them to share our expertise to ensure this much-loved local landmark is continually cared for.”

Once restored, the town council is planning to illuminate the carving with searchlights as part of Westbury’s Jubilee celebrations.

Westbury’s horse is said to be the oldest in Wiltshire. It was restored in 1778, but many believe it is far older than that.

It is thought to have been originally carved in 878 AD to commemorate King Alfred’s victory over the Danes at the Battle of Ethandune.”

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-17237313

“Renowned Bronze Age archaeological site Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire will host a first-of-its-kind dig that makes the public integral to the project.

The idea combines both “crowdfunding” and “crowdsourcing”; for contributions starting at £125, donors can get their hands very dirty and dig for a day.

The venture’s website will also stream live video from the dig as well as host lectures and interviews with experts.”

More here...

bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17211285

Mainly Danebury; Paintings inspired by the Iron Age Hill Fort A collection of artwork by local artist Nat Lewis For many years I have been fascinated by Danebury, not only its history and the artefacts in the Museum, but also by the atmosphere inherent in the location... Ancient Danebury became relevant to the 21st century inspiring a series of Abstract paintings ..The paintings progress through various styles and represent my artistic development over a period of nearly ten years.

www3.hants.gov.uk/hampshire-museums/andover-museum/andover-museum-events-detail?id=135448

A 64-year-old farmer has been fined €25,000 at the Circuit Criminal Court in Tralee for destroying a 1,000-year-old ringfort, which was a protected national monument.
In one of the first prosecutions of its kind to come before the courts, John O’Mahony pleaded guilty to carrying out work on the fort on his farm at Causeway in Co Kerry in February 2008, without notifying the National Monuments Service in advance.

More here:
rte.ie/news/2012/0302/omahonyj.html

3,000-year-old Carpow logboat comes home to Perthshire

One of the finest archaeological finds ever made in Perthshire has taken up residence at Perth Museum and Art Gallery

The Bronze Age Carpow logboat has been transported to the town and painstakingly lifted into its new home by conservation specialists.

One of the oldest and best preserved in Scotland, the 3,000-year-old logboat will be at the heart of the museum’s new exhibitions, offering an insight into local life in the distant past.

Since its excavation from the River Tay, near Carpow, in 2006, staff at the National Museums Scotland’s conservation and analytical research department have been restoring and preserving the boat.

On its return to Perthshire, the logboat was manoeuvred into Perth Museum in sections by conservators from National Museums Scotland and a team from TG McDonald Engineering.

Over the next few weeks, the logboat will be made whole again and take centre stage in an exhibition on its Bronze Age origins, opening on March 19.

The logboat was recovered from the Tay Estuary by the Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust after being discovered in 2001, buried in the intertidal sands and gravels of Carpow Bank, at the head of the Tay Estuary.

Carved from a single tree, the simple craft are the first known boats in existence.

A radiocarbon date verified that the Carpow boat was 3,000 years old, dating to 1130-970BC and excavations in 2002 and 2003 established the full length of the boat at around 9m.

While the bow of the boat had been eroded by tidal action, the buried hull and stern remained in excellent condition.

The site could only be accessed over the summer for around three to four hours each day, and was reburied in tidal mud and sand at each high tide.

The exploratory excavations did, however, identify Carpow as one of the best-preserved prehistoric logboats ever found in Britain.

It was eventually decided to recover the vessel for study and conservation after its exposed bow was found to be eroding.

Excavation was just the beginning of work to preserve the vessel as the team revealed that the oak boat had only survived because it had remained waterlogged.

Once out of the water, the vessel was at risk of disintegration and had to be cleaned, preserved and freeze-dried before it was safe to display in a museum.

Perth Museum and Art Gallery has been closed since January to prepare the galleries for the logboat and to allow for the first stage of improvement works in the entrance hall to be completed safely.

It will reopen on March 5 with the Dinosaurs Unleashed exhibition, featuring life-size dinosaurs, holographic video presentations by wildlife expert Chris Packham, real and replica fossils and interactive exhibits.

Entry is free and the exhibition runs until May 5.

Lifelong learning convener Councillor Liz Grant said: ‘’Painstaking work has enabled the Carpow logboat to be made ready for display so that we can all discover more about life locally thousands of years ago.

‘’It’s great that we have the chance to highlight the ancient history of the Perth and Kinross area as the Museum reopens after important improvements.’‘

? Editor’s link: The Carpow Logboat, on the Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust website

thecourier.co.uk/News/Perthshire/article/21324/3-000-year-old-carpow-logboat-comes-home-to-perthshire.html

The excavation on the Ness of Brodgar has been named the winner of the 2012 Andante Travels Archaeology Award.

The Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology/Orkney College UHI project was runner-up in the international award scheme in 2008, and went on to take the Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year title last year.

Previous winners of the annual Andante Award include the Via Consolare Project in Pompeii; the Stonehenge Riverside Project and Kerkenes Dag, Turkey.

Excavation director Nick Card commented: “Once again, it is really wonderful for Orkney, highlighting that our archaeology is up there among the best in the world. Congratulations to the whole team.”

orkneyjar.com/archaeology/2012/02/29/another-award-for-the-ness-of-brodgar-excavations/

Slightly out of TMA’s geographic remit, but some may find this interesting:

“The colorful pebble bearing a sequence of lines dates back 100,000 years and may be the first evidence of abstract art.

A colorful pebble bearing a sequence of linear incisions may be the world’s oldest engraving.

The object, which will be described in the April issue of the Journal of Archaeology, dates back approximately 100,000 years ago and could also be the world’s oldest known abstract art. It was recovered from Klasies River Cave in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

“Associated human remains indicate that the engraved piece was certainly made by Homo sapiens,” co-author Riaan Rifkin of the University of Witwatersrand’s Institute for Human Evolution told Discovery News.

Rifkin and colleagues Francesco d’Errico and Renata Garcia Moreno performed extensive non-invasive analyses of the object. Methods like X-ray fluorescence and microscopic analysis enabled the researchers to examine every minute detail of the ochre pebble, which appears to have split off from a once larger piece.”

Full story: news.discovery.com/history/engraving-oldest-122302.html

New clues have emerged in what could be described as the world’s oldest murder case: that of Ozeti the “Iceman”, whose 5,300 year old body was discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991.

More info :

bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17191398

“New archaeological evidence suggests that America was first discovered by Stone Age people from Europe – 10,000 years before the Siberian-originating ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World.”

more info:

independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/new-evidence-suggests-stone-age-hunters-from-europe-discovered-america-7447152.html

Work by Malvern Hills Conservators to preserve Midsummer Hill on the Malvern Hills has been criticised by a local resident.

Sally Gibson, who lives at Coombe Green, close to the hill, says she and her two daughters were “horrified” to see trees being cut down and taken away.

But the Conservators say the work is necessary to preserve Midsummer Hill’s Iron Age fort and enhance the wildlife.

More at : malverngazette.co.uk/news/9552522.Tree_felling_not_what_it_appears/

An elite force of prehistoric
warriors – carved from solid rock in the western Mediterranean 2700 years ago –
is rising from oblivion.

Archaeologists and conservation experts on the Italian island of Sardinia have succeeded in re-assembling literally thousands of fragments of smashed sculpture to recreate a small yet unique army of life-size stone warriors which were originally destroyed by enemy action in the middle of the first millennium BC.

It’s the only group of sculpted life-sized warriors ever found in Europe. Though consisting of a much smaller number of figures than China’s famous Terracotta Army, the Sardinia example is 500 years older and is made of stone rather than pottery.

After an eight year conservation and reconstruction program, 25 of the original 33 sculpted stone warriors – archers, shield-holding ‘boxers’ and probable swordsmen – have now been substantially re-assembled.

The warriors were originally sculpted and placed on guard over the graves of elite Iron Age Sardinians, buried in the 8 century BC. The stone guardians are thought to have represented the dead individuals or to have acted as their eternal body-guards and retainers.

However, within a few centuries, the Carthaginians (from what is now Tunisia) invaded Sardinia – and archaeologists suspect that it was they who smashed the stone warriors (and stone models of native fortress shrines) into five thousand fragments. It’s likely that the small sculpted army – and the graves they were guarding – were seen by the invaders as important symbols of indigenous power and status.

The site was abandoned and forgotten. Carthaginian control of Sardinia gave way to Roman, then Vandal, then Byzantine, Pisan, Aragonese, Spanish, Austrian, Savoyard and finally Italian rule.

The thousands of fragments were rediscovered only in the 1970s – and were excavated in the early 1980s by Italian archaeologist Carlo Troncheti. Two of the statues were then re-assembled – but the vast majority of the material was put into a local museum store where it stayed until 2004 when re-assembly work on the fragments was re-started by conservators in Sassari, northern Sardinia.

Sardinia’s newly recreated ‘stone army’ is set to focus attention on one of the world’s least known yet most impressive ancient civilizations – the so-called Nuragic culture which dominated the island from the 16 century BC to the late 6 century BC. Its Bronze Age heyday was in the mid second millennium BC – roughly from the 16 to the 13 century BC, when it constructed some of the most impressive architectural monuments ever produced in prehistory.

Even today, the remains of 7000 Nuragic fortresses (the oldest castles in Europe) still dominate the landscape of Sardinia. Several dozen have stood the test of time exceptionally well – and give an extraordinary impression of what Sardinian Bronze Age military architecture looked like.

The re-assembled stone army is expected to go on display from this summer at southern Sardinia’s Cagliari Museum, 70 miles south-east of the find site, Monte Prama in central Sardinia.

Many of the stone warriors are armed with bows or protected by shields – and wear protective carved stone armour over their chests and horned stone helmet over their heads. Some of the fighters – those believed to portray boxers – carry shields in their left hands, held aloft over their heads. These ‘boxers’ may well have represented or embodied shield-bearers serving the high-ranking members of the Sardinian Iron Age interred in the adjacent graves.

There were also a series of at least ten model Nuragic castles of different designs – some single-towered and others sporting more elaborate ‘multi-tower’ fortifications.

It’s likely that the models represent the actual monumental buildings (Bronze Age fortresses transformed into Iron Age ‘ancestral’ shrines) associated with each buried individual’s immediate family.

The ruling elite of this part of Sardinia may well have been a relatively tightly knit group of closely related individuals. For scientific work carried out on the skeletal material at a laboratory in Florence, suggests that most of the dead individuals were from just two generations of a single extended family.

independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/prehistoric-cybermen-sardinias-lost-warriors-rise-from-the-dust-6988952.html