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David Dawson, the Director of the Wiltshire Heritage Museum has obtained funding to run a ‘henge hopper’ initally for a three month period this summer.

stonehenge-avebury-bus.org.uk/

Today a trial run took place – the first part of the tour was to Stonehenge via Marden Henge, the River Avon, Durrington Walls/Woodhenge, Amesbury and Stonehenge. After a break break at Stonehenge the bus took off towards Avebury via the Alton Barnes White Horse, Adam’s Grave, Knap Hill, the Lockeridge Sarsen Drift, Overton Round Barrows, the Sanctuary, WKLB, Silbury and of course finishing at Avebury. Then back to Devizes as the ticket cost includes admission to the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. The itinerary will allow for people to leave the bus at various points and be collected later – it is also hoped that two buses will run on the same day to facilitate flexibility.

All in all the tour takes approximately three and half hours not including travelling time to Devizes.

A great initiative for the Wiltshire Heritage Museum.

independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ian-shepherd-archaeologist-who-led-the-way-in-scottish-research-1771219.html

Following on from drewbhoy’s post...

An Aberdeenshire tourist attraction facing closure after councillors decided to end a six-figure annual subsidy could yet be saved.

The trust that runs the Archaeolink Prehistory Park in Oyne said it was “fairly positive” about its future.

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-12932458

Writing in the The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald yesterday, Lewis Cowen reports that,

“The Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes has been awarded £58,200 to work on plans to create new Bronze Age galleries. The money has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund and now the museum will progress to the second stage of the HLF application process. The project will cost more than £200,000 and the museum, in Long Street, will have to contribute between £20,000 and £30,000. The new galleries will feature the rich finds from burials in the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site. The project will feature the unique gold and amber finds that define the Bronze Age Wessex culture and are currently locked away in the museum’s vaults. The most famous of these are the 4,000-year-old finds from Bush Barrow, including a gold lozenge, belt hook, stone mace and richly decorated bronze dagger. The new displays will also include objects excavated from Upton Lovell and Manton as well as recent finds from Marden Henge, near Devizes.”

More here – gazetteandherald.co.uk/news/8938471.__58_000_bronze_age_windfall_for_Wiltshire_museum/ and here – heritageaction.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/good-or-bad-news-for-wiltshire-heritage-museum/

Archaeolink needs an investment of up to £2 million to save it from closure, says board of trustees.

More info :

pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2200355

I know it’s way out of the normal geographical focus of TMA but there’s an interesting article on how Pre-historic midden dumps may have grown to become larger “islands” in the Florida everglades.

I wonder if they will find evidence of “Crannogs” as they dig down more?
news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/prehistoric-garbage-piles-may-ha.html?ref=hp

Already up to day 2 on 360 Productions’ YouTube channel (see links).

A hoard of Iron Age treasure which was unearthed by a novice metal-detecting enthusiast is being displayed at the National Museum of Scotland.

The four gold neck ornaments, known as torcs, date back to the 1st and 3rd century BC and were found by David Booth just six inches beneath the surface of a Stirlingshire field in September 2009. The treasure trove was allocated to the national collection in Chambers Street, Edinburgh – netting Mr Booth £462,000.

>> more: linlithgowgazette.co.uk/news/scottish-headlines/iron_age_treasure_goes_on_display_1_1525777

Britain is nominating a judicious mixture of natural, built and industrial sites, including the slate industry of north Wales with its spectacular shale heaps still bearing witness to the days when Welsh slate roofed half the world, the Jodrell Bank observatory in Cheshire, Scotland’s beautiful Flow Country, the endlessly repainted Forth railway bridge which had the longest single cantilever span in the world when built in 1890, Gorham’s cave complex in Gibraltar, and Cresswell Crags, the limestone gorge honeycombed with caves which has some of the earliest evidence of human habitation in Britain and the country’s only known Ice Age rock art.

guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/mar/22/uk-nominations-world-heritage-status

Laser scanners are being displayed in Orkney to record some of the island’s historical land marks.

More info :

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-10990965

Scotlands 5 World Heritage sites are to link up with a series of interactive events exploring the theme of cultural identity. Includes Neolithic Orkney.

More info :

Http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12800371

Discover the secrets of the first farmers with Archaeologist Dr Nick Snashall and Museum Curator Dr Ros Cleal as they investigate Earlier Neolithic Avebury. The day includes a field visit to West Kennet Long Barrow and draws on finds from Windmill Hill. Tickets include lunch, refreshments and parking for non-members of the National Trust or English Heritage.

Date: Sunday, 03 April 2011
Time: 10am – 4pm
Price: All Tickets £35 (£30 if booking 3+ Time Travellers’ Workshops)

More Information: The visitor services team, 01672 539250, [email protected]

nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-events-find_event.htm?propertyID=316&Period=Three+months

Another chance to hear Jim Leary talk about the Silbury book ...

JIM LEARY – on The Story of Silbury Hill
Central Library, Regent Circus, Swindon
Tel 01793 463238
7.30pm • 6 May • £5 (£4)

“What do you know about the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe? What do you know about the construction of Neolithic monuments? What do you know about the significance of Silbury Hill to communities that have lived around it and others who come to visit?

Jim Leary, prehistory archaeologist with English Heritage and co-author with David Field of The Story of Silbury Hill, with an introduction by David Attenborough, answers these and many other questions, with some fascinating twenty-first century insights into the significance of this mysterious local mound.”

Scroll down:
swindonfestivalofliterature.co.uk/06-fri.html

Just been up to the Thorn Stump and was delighted to see that nature is at work. There is a shoot starting to grow. Will submit a picture.

H

Planning Solutions Consulting Ltd has been commissioned to carry out a feasibility study for the Barbury Castle Country Park project which includes a cafe and education facility. During the summer of 2010, Swindon Borough Council received planning approval for facilities that include:

* Indoor and outdoor cafe facilities
* A flexible meeting space that can be used both for educational purposes and also as somewhere for clubs and societies to meet
* Bike racks and bike wash facilities
* Horse tethering pens
* Improved toilet and shower facilities
* A viewing platform for all to enjoy the views across Swindon, the Marlborough downs and the wider North Wessex Downs AONB

Note: As an ‘interested local’ I have contacted the company undertaking the consultation to ask that information boards be included detailing the site’s prehistoric status as an Iron Age hillfort; also, because it is now a designated nature reserve, wildlife (butterflies) and flora.

Protestors say a major archaelogical area would be blighted if turbines get the go ahead.

(In an area that has a broch, cairns and standing stones.)

More info :

pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2184826

A contentious plan to erect a wind turbine near a historic stone circle in Aberdeenshire will be considered by councillors today.

The proposed development at Newbigging Farm, Chapel of Garioch, near Inverurie, lies just north of the Easter Aquhorthies monument.

The stone circle is thought to be one of the earliest built in Aberdeenshire, and is classed as a scheduled monument, which is a protected site of national importance.

Historic Scotland has objected to the application to build the 150ft wind turbine, which it believes would have a “significant impact” on the setting of the circle.

In a letter to Aberdeenshire Council’s planning department, Historic Scotland’s inspector of ancient monuments Martin Brann states that the monument is “characteristic of the Neolithic and early Bronze Age in Grampian”.

He states that the proposed wind turbine would be about 2,000ft from the stone circle.

“In this location, the turbine will be prominent in key views to and from the monument and we consider that it will have a significant adverse impact on the setting of the scheduled monument.”

The monument consists of 11 stones up to 8ft high with a total diameter of just under 65ft. One large 12ft stone lies horizontally, or recumbent, flanked by two of the upright stones.

Stone circles are believed to have arrived in the Aberdeenshire landscape in about 2000BC, but this particular circle also has a dry stone wall, which is thought to be a more recent addition, in either the 1700s or 1800s.

The applicant, Alan Bruce, of Newbigging Farm, was previously granted permission for a smaller turbine to the north of the property.

The British Airports Authority (BAA) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) were consulted by council officials, but did not object to the plan.

However, representatives of Nats, the National Air Traffic Service, initially objected before withdrawing after a detailed technical and operational assessment was conducted.

Council planners have recommended members of the area committee refuse planning permission on the basis that the turbine would “detract from the quality and character of the landscape.”

Read more: pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2179091?UserKey=#ixzz1GhC06bbb

This quarter’s ‘Archaeology Ireland’ has a three page feature on Stone Circles, by Muiris O’Sullivan and Liam Downey.

“The architecture and orientation of stone circles were inherently symbolic, reflecting in a fundamental way a sense of spirituality and belief in the otherworld...”

So there you are.

Article on the dig here at
pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/03/2011/marden-henge-excavations-opens-window-on-neolithic-ritual

A New path links the Crinan canal with Carnasserie Castle. (Kilmartin is nearby)

More info :

pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/2175522

Many roads long thought to be Roman in origin could turn out to be substantially more British than scholars previously assumed. Archaeologists have discovered Britain’s oldest properly engineered road – a discovery that could change the way we look at a key aspect of British history ...

independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/what-did-the-romans-ever-do-for-us-if-they-didnt-build-our-roads-2238592.html

Archaeologists working on a housing development in Oxfordshire claim to have found one of the oldest complete pots in the country (5,500 years old).

Nice photo at
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-12698321

“Stonehenge is being scanned using modern laser technology to search for hidden clues about how and why it was built. All visible faces of the standing and fallen stones, many of which are obscured by lichen, will be surveyed. Some ancient carvings have previously been found on the stones, including a famous Neolithic “dagger”. The survey is already in progress and is expected to finish by the end of March. “The surfaces of the stones of Stonehenge hold fascinating clues to the past,” said English Heritage archaeologist Dave Batchelor. The team will be looking for ancient “rock art”, but also for more modern graffiti, in a comprehensive survey of the site.”

More here – bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12688085 and here – english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/stonehenge-in-high-definition/

And a video here – youtube.com/watch?v=qxAnanfB_rg

“Throughout his career as an artist, Paul Nash (1889-1946) had a special affinity for the wooded hills in South Oxfordshire called The Wittenham Clumps.

“First encountering them in his late teenage years, he was immediately caught by their atmospheric shapes and mystical associations. The Clumps became a rich source of inspiration for him and he returned to paint them many times during his life.”

More here – nashclumps.org/index.html

The world is set to experience the biggest full moon for almost two decades when the satellite reaches its closest point to Earth next weekend.

On 19 March ( zenith 18:10 GMT UK), the full moon will appear unusually large in the night sky as it reaches a point in its cycle known as ‘lunar perigee’.

Stargazers will be treated to a spectacular view when the moon approaches Earth at a distance of 221,567 miles in its elliptical orbit – the closest it will have passed to our planet since 1992.

The full moon could appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter in the sky, especially when it rises on the eastern horizon at sunset or is provided with the right atmospheric conditions.

uk.news.yahoo.com/38/20110309/tsc-world-to-see-biggest-full-moon-in-tw-98fda55.html