Latest News
March 9, 2011
NEOLITHIC men, women and children buried in Orkney’s internationally-famous Tomb of the Eagles suffered serious violence and possibly died of it, according to new research.
Archaeologists studied all 85 skulls from in and around the 5,000-year-old tomb and found that 16 of them have “clear evidence” of trauma.
The skulls – both male and female, children and adults – showed injuries caused by one or more blows to the head inflicted by a weapon.
Some of these severe head wounds healed, leaving people with painful head injuries.
But Orkney-based archaeologist David Lawrence, who led the investigation and revealed his preliminary findings yesterday, said it was very likely that many died of their injuries.
The findings go against the long-held belief that the people who lived in Scotland in the New Stone Age were peaceful farmers and the human race did not turn murderous and become warlike until later in pre-history.
Mr Lawrence undertook the research in a collaborative project between the University of Bradford and Orkney Museum, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
He said: “By checking if the wounds were healed or not, we can see if someone suffered from severe head trauma just around the time of their death. To say with absolute certainty if they actually died from it is very hard, but some attacks were so severe that the whole skull split in two.
“Other wounds are very subtle and are most easily observed inside the skull, where splinters have been bent inwards.
“Some were caused by a blunt force, like a stone or a mace. Other cases were caused by pointed objects, like a bone-headed arrow and there were also traumas caused by edged objects, like an axe.
“Some wounds did heal. There is a skull of a woman that has three healed wounds which were caused by blows from a blunt object. She also had a dislocated jaw which was badly healed. She must have suffered terribly”
The study’s main finding – that Scotland’s early settlers were not the friendly farmers that historians had thought them – is in line with recent results from studies and finds in Europe.
“For a long time it was thought Neolithic people were friendly farmers, but in recent years it has been proven that this was not necessarily the case,” said Mr Lawrence. “My study shows this again, but this time on an apparently remote island.”
Mr Lawrence is convinced that the people in the Tomb of the Eagles were not ritually killed.
He said: “There was a great variety in the places where people were hit and the instruments used. There is no simple pattern. This variety makes it very unlikely that they were killed in some kind of ritual.
“Some wounds are too directed to be an accident. Some went straight through the skull. Many were very likely caused by a mace, or even just stones, but certainly caused with intent. I think it is very likely that some of the head injuries were suffered during fights face to face. I can’t say if they were fighting each other or different tribes.
“It is hard to tell who these particular people were, and why they were buried in this tomb. There is still a lot of carbon dating to do, but most of the bones seem to date from the fourth millennium BC.”
Background: Farmer’s grim discovery: 16,000 human bones and eagle talons
Isbister Chambered Cairn – better known as the Tomb of the Eagles – sits on the south-eastern tip of South Ronaldsay.
Alongside 16,000 human bones, 70 talons from the white-tailed sea eagle were found within it. It is believed the magnificent birds, once common in Orkney, might have been a totem of the people who built the tomb.
The tomb is 3.5m high and consists of a rectangular main chamber, divided into stalls and side cells. It was discovered in 1958 by farmer Ronnie Simison, while looking for stone to make corner posts for fencing.
After digging for ten minutes he found a dark hole and, using a cigarette lighter, he revealed a chamber containing skulls.
news.scotsman.com/scotland/Tomb-of-the-Eagles-gives.6730778.jp?articlepage=2
March 8, 2011
On Wyre about to start again (May 2nd) and will continue posting at facebook.com/pages/Braes-of-HaBreck-Wyre-a-Big-Dig-on-a-Small-Isle/196853287006365 .
Le Grand Dolmen de Bagneux, its museum and adjoining restaurant/brassiere is for sale.
Along with this magnificent Dolmen, there is a:
•A building consisting of a business (now bar-brewery)
•An apartment of 63 m2
•Another apartment of 140 m2 on a plot of 2300 m2.
If you are interested, contact the current owners, Sylvie and Pascal Normand
Phone, fax and e-mail supplied on web site
March 7, 2011
A RARE piece of treasure which is believed to date back to pre-historic times could be the first find of its kind in Suffolk.
The British Museum said the gold personal ornament, which was found in Glemsford, near Sudbury, was an “important item”.
It is currently in the hands of the British Museum, which carried out the report into the object, but it could come home to Suffolk.
Janina Parol, assistant treasure registrar at the British Museum, said Moyse’s Hall Museum in Bury St Edmunds, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service and the British Museum were all interested in the ornament, which is thought to be from the Bronze Age.
In his report, Ben Roberts, curator of European Bronze Age at the British Museum, said: “The probable bead is very rare for Britain and Ireland though a necklace of similar beads from Ireland is in the British Museum.”
The ornament was classified as treasure at a treasure trove inquest in Bury St Edmunds yesterday.
Faye Minter, senior finds recording officer at Suffolk County Council, said it was discovered by Lindsey Holland, from Liverpool, who was at a metal detecting rally in cultivated land in Glemsford on September 25.
She said there had been some deliberation over its date, but the unusual object is believed to be late Bronze Age, from 1,100 to 800 BC.
The ornament, which is probably a bead, is cylindrical in shape with decoration across it.
Speaking after the inquest, Jude Plouviez, archaeological officer at Suffolk County Council, said: “I don’t think we have found anything similar in Suffolk for example. It is quite an unusual one.”
Miss Parol said if the local museums could not acquire the item, then it would remain at the British Museum.
No comment could be made on the value of the ornament as the valuation is yet to take place.
A rare silver Eadmund penny of early medieval date, which was found near Mildenhall, was also deemed to be treasure at yesterday’s inquest.
Miss Minter said it was found by metal detectorist Steve Foster on October 30 and he reported it to Suffolk County Council.
The coin, which is thought to be part of a previous hoard, dates to between 850 and 870.
Picture and story here:
eadt.co.uk/news/possible_prehistoric_bead_is_found_in_suffolk_1_761704
OFFSHORE wind farms could help reveal the ancient secrets of East Yorkshire.
Archaeologists believe plans to connect a network of huge wind farms in the North Sea to an existing sub-station in Cottingham offer the chance to unearth dozens of previously unknown settlements.
The Creyke Beck sub-station will be the connection point to the National Grid for up to 1,700 wind turbines expected to constructed in a 3,500 square-mile area of sea on the Dogger Bank.
A consortium of energy companies behind the ambitious project have yet to decide whether to lay underground cables from the coast to Cottingham or build overhead power lines.
A proposed route has also yet to be finalised.
But an expert from the Humber Archaeology Partnership said recent underground gas and water pipeline schemes in the area had revealed over 50 previously unrecorded settlements, monuments and ancient burial mounds.
Partnership manager Dave Evans said close liaison between project engineers and archaeologists would be essential over the next few years.
“Such an approach has paid dividends on both the Easington to Ganstead gas pipeline and the Easington to Paull gas pipeline,” he said.
“The on-site aspects of these two major schemes were undertaken between 2007 and 2010 and both passed through much the same landscape within the Holderess Plain.”
Mr Evans said before extensive fieldwork was carried out on both schemes, a desk-based survey of known records identified mainly medieval and post-medieval features along the routes.
However, geophysical surveys and subsequent trenching and excavations uncovered over 50 Iron Age and Roman settlements and burial sites.
Archaeologists also discovered evidence of major flint-working site near Wawne thought to date from at least 4000 BC.
In a consultation submission on the offshore wind farm scheme, Mr Evans added: “Precisely because the current proposed cable trenches would pass through much the same landscape, a similar density of archaeological settlement, funerary and early agricultural activity may be expected.
“It is clear that any proposed developments within this large area would have substantial archaeological implications, some of which would be readily apparent from visible and recorded remains, others of which may be currently masked beneath the surviving medieval landscape.”
MEGALITHOMANIA SOUTH AFRICA, 12-13 March- Watch Event Online
Megalithomania and Michael Tellinger have joined forces and invited a top line-up of international authors to Johannesburg, South Africa on 12th-13th March 2011. The event will be streamed online for those that cannot attend.
Featuring a line-up who will all be speaking on both Saturday & Sunday:
Graham Hancock, author of ‘Fingerprints of the Gods‘
Robert Temple, author of ‘Egyptian Dawn‘
Andrew Collins, author of ‘Beneath the Pyramids‘
Antoine Gigal, an Egyptologist, who has discovered pyramids on Mauritius
Hugh Newman, author of ‘Earth Grids‘
South African Wayne Herschel, author of ‘Hidden Records‘
Klaus Dona, who has accumulated the largest collection of ancient artefacts that defy explanation. Michael Tellinger, author of ‘Temples of the African Gods’.
Watch LIVE online for two days every talk at the conference (16 of them), plus for two weeks after in our online archive. Sign up online and more Info at: megalithomania.co.uk/southafrica2011.html
February 27, 2011
From Western Morning News Feb 26th 2011
Nomination for project to save cairns on moor
A project to improve the condition of prehistoric cairns on Dartmoor has been nominated for a national award.
The Dartmoor Cairn Repair Project has been shortlisted for the Marsh Archaeology Award, organised by the Council for British Archaeology.
The award is given to a voluntary project which has worked to improve the condition of the nation’s heritage.
There are more than 1,200 known round cairns on Dartmoor. The majority are thought to date to around 3,500-4,000 years ago, although some may be even older.
The project between Dartmoor National Park Authority (NPA), English Heritage and the Dartmoor Preservation Association saw volunteers carry out surveys and repairs under specialist supervision.
It has resulted in 31 of the scheduled monuments being removed from the English Heritage “at risk” register.
NPA archaeologist Andy Crabb said: “This is great recognition for a fantastic project which has surveyed and repaired over 45 prehistoric cairns in the last five years.
“The cairns repaired by the project had become damaged through disturbance such as the remodelling of the stone material to create shelters. This can expose fragile archaeology once contained within the cairn and destroy its distinctive profile.”
James Paxman, chief executive of the Dartmoor Preservation Association, added: “This is tremendous news and proves what an enormous amount can be achieved by volunteers working together with other organisations.
“The team has become a highly skilled and close knit unit. Besides the actual restoration work the quality of their field survey drawings is outstanding and provides an important new source of information about Dartmoor’s cairns.” The winner will be announced in March.
February 25, 2011
“The interim report on the ongoing excavations at the Links of Notland, in Westray, has been published by Historic Scotland.
Shifting Sands: Links of Noltland, Westray presents an interim account of the excavation findings so far. It documents some of the most remarkable discoveries, including the Westray Wife and the “Cattle Skull Building” with its foundation deposit of skulls built into the walls.
The Links of Noltland site lies on the exposed coastline of Westray and was buried beneath sand dunes until recently. With the rapid onset of erosion, the prehistoric remains were exposed and at extreme risk of being lost forever. A major programme of fieldwork, commissioned by Historic Scotland, is now being undertaken by EASE Archaeology. Discoveries include a Neolithic farmstead, field walls, cultivation remains and artefact-rich middens, together with six Bronze Age buildings and a contemporary cemetery.
Written by Hazel Moore and Graeme Wilson, the archaeologists in charge of the dig, the report also describes the Bronze Age remains, which represent the largest and most complete settlement of this date in Orkney.
The report provides an up-to-date statement on the archaeological discoveries, together with specialist analysis of artefacts recovered during the excavation.
Shifting Sands: Links of Noltland costs £12.95.”
February 23, 2011
Robinson hopes that attempts to reopen Archaeolink are successful.
More info :
...but how?
Reporting for BBC News Wales, Neil Prior writes -
“New research has cast fresh doubt on the journey which the Stonehenge Bluestones took from Pembrokeshire to the site of the pagan monument. Since the 1920s, geologists have strongly suspected that the ‘spotted dolerite’ Bluestones, which form Stonehenge’s inner ring, originated from Mynydd Preseli in the north of the county. However, whilst the new findings have also linked a second type of stone – rhyolites – to the area, they call into question how the stones arrived in Wiltshire.”
More here – bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-12544924
February 22, 2011
The Nottinghamshire public are being offered a rare opportunity to handle a 75,000-year-old axe and other ancient artefacts at a local museum.
The University of Nottingham Museum of Archaeology is putting on a Prehistory Day on 23 February 2011, in conjunction with the BBC’s Hands On History.
Full details at:
news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9398000/9398611.stm
Researchers Map Out Ice Sheets Shrinking During Ice Age
A set of maps created by the University of Sheffield have illustrated, for the first time, how our last British ice sheet shrunk during the Ice Age.

Link below with some graphics
archnews.co.uk/featured/5322-researchers-map-out-ice-sheets-shrinking-during-ice-age.html
Sheffield Uni press release at:
shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2011/1842-ice-sheet-age-melt-maps.html
More details and graphics at:
physorg.com/news/2011-02-ice-sheets-age.html
Hopes that outside investment will be found to save business branded a ‘white elephant’.
More info :
CONSTRUCTION OF the proposed Slane bypass in Co Meath could have implications for the world heritage status of Brú na Bóinne, the site that is home to the megalithic tombs of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, a planning hearing was told yesterday.
An international expert on heritage sites said construction of the bypass was likely to result in Unesco “monitoring” the impact on the world heritage site.
Dr Douglas Comer told the An Bord Pleanála hearing that “failure to maintain the outstanding universal value of a world heritage site can threaten its status as such”.
Meath County Council is seeking permission from the board to build the road and the oral hearing is expected to continue until early next month.
Dr Comer, an archaeologist and international expert on culture sites, said there could be “a very large adverse impact” on the site because of the proposed route of the road. He was asked by the council to prepare a heritage impact assessment of the road plan. He said “one might reasonably expect that the bypass will be seen as a further, incremental intrusion on the landscape”.
Dr Comer’s report said that if assurances are given that the bypass will not stimulate new construction in the vicinity of the heritage site and if it is only visible from the top of Knowth, then it would represent a minor change with a moderate/large adverse effect.
However, without such assurances and if the road can be seen from several locations in the Brú na Bóinne site, then it would have a “large/very large adverse impact”, he concluded.
The 3.5km dual carriageway would bypass Slane to the east of the village at a cost of €46 million and divert traffic from the village and Slane bridge where 22 people have died in traffic accidents in recent years.
Archaeologist Finola O’Carroll, who assessed the scheme for the council, said the new road would be visible from Knowth and Newgrange but the long-term impact of this was “in the visual and landscape assessment deemed respectively to be ‘medium and neutral’ and ‘low and neutral’.”
She said that the design of the bridge and the road seeks to minimise the visual disturbance in accordance with the principles of cultural heritage management.
Landscape architect Declan O’Leary said that to reduce the impact of the 200m long bridge, it is designed to sit within the existing topography. It will be 21m above the valley floor and made from a steel/concrete composite. Its crossing is set at a level to reduce the cutting into the valley sides, “limiting the impact on the Boyne valley”, he added.
irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0222/1224290514228.html
February 21, 2011
European Prehistoric Art: inventory, contextualisation, preservation and accessibility
EuroPreArt aims to establish a lasting data-base of European prehistoric art documentation, to launch the base of an European institutional network devoted to this domain, and to contribute to the awareness of the diversity and richness of European Prehistoric Art, as one of the oldest artistic expression of Humankind.
It will improve methodologies on techniques of inventory, storing data, interdisciplinarity, networking and accessibility/diffusion, namely using new information technologies.
The project will focus on selected clusters, from rock art to mobile art, from Palaeolithic to the Iron Age, from old stored records to modern field work studies.
The project intends to create a model, introduce textual and image data, publish a guide of good conduct and present the results to the wider public on this web-site, open to other contributions.
EuroPreArt, funded by the European Union, Education and Culture 2000 Programme
TMAEds – Could not find a “slot” for this one as pan-european.....
February 20, 2011
Writing in the Observer today, Laura Cumming reports on the Watercolour exhibition now showing at Tate Britain and running until the 21 August.
The exhibition includes a watercolour of The Vale of the White Horse (circa 1939) by Eric Ravilious. Something, “...conjured entirely out of cross-hatchings, strokes, dabs and striations of faint colour, frail contour against pale line, with the white page breathing airily in between, is almost nothing, a see-through dream. But it is uniquely strange, starting in reality and ending in its own radiant elsewhere.”
More here – guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/20/watercolour-tate-britain-review-cumming
February 18, 2011
Archaeolink staff given notice as council withdraws funding.
More info :
“This project will provide a united historic environment research agenda and strategy for the Avebury and Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The two parts of the World Heritage Site currently have separate research frameworks that were created at different times and in different formats. The project will update and harmonise the existing frameworks to create a single research framework comprising a resource assessment and a single research strategy with a five-year currency.”
More here – wessexarch.co.uk/projects/wiltshire/stonehenge-avebury-rrf
February 17, 2011
Museum has been allocated the 6,000 year old treasure which is just one of the finds north of the border.
More info :
February 16, 2011
Hands on History: Ancient Britain
“Hands on History helps you discover history on your doorstep – from ancient Britain to the history of the high street. Watch ep 2 of A History of Ancient Britain on Wed 16 Feb and have a look at our events and downloads.”
Loads more:
bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/
February 15, 2011
Investigators made their first expedition onto a wild and windy Rombalds Moor in a project to capture the images from hundreds of ancient carved stones.
The 30-plus CSI – or Carved Stone Investigation – volunteers began their first practical day of training on Saturday for a survey aiming to record prehistoric rock carvings for posterity.
Volunteers will spend the next three years investigating more than 300 carved stones scattered across Rombalds Moor.
As well as detailed written records of the ancient carvings, the teams of five will use photogrammetry techniques to create 3D computerised images of each stone.
The aim is to record the carvings before the destructive power of wind, rain, and growing vegetation erases them permanently.
The intensive survey is taking place with the help of cash from Pennine Prospects’ £1.9million Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
Community Archaeologist Gavin Edwards, said: “The survey on Rombalds Moor will be the most comprehensive undertaken in over two decades, and with the help of the volunteers, we will have gathered very valuable information.
“Prehistoric carvings are a unique and valuable part of our heritage, providing a direct link with the people who lived here over 5,000 years ago.
” It is important to try and capture a detailed record of the carved stones and their surrounding landscape both for current studies and to guide conservation management, so we can protect them for future generations. Existing records indicate that over 300 carved panels lie on the moors between the rivers Wharfe and Aire.”
Overseeing the volunteers are Tertia Barnett, who has worked on a range of international archaeological projects, rock art expert Kate Sharpe, and rock art researcher Richard Stroud.
Ilkley Gazette 11/02/11
gazetteandobserver.co.uk/news/news_local/8845120.Volunteers_gearing_up_for_carved_stone_survey/
Telegraph & Argus 11/02/11
thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/archive/2011/02/11/Ilkley+%26+Wharfedale+News+%28ilkwharfe_news%29/8845120.Volunteers_gearing_up_for_carved_stone_survey/
It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in an eternal embrace and buried outside Mantua, Italy, just 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet.
After being found at the site where a factory is planned, people worldwide have speculated on the circumstances surrounding the couple’s deaths. They are thought to have died young because they both had all their teeth intact. But beyond that, the skeletons are a mystery. Archaeologists announced Monday that they will move the entire block of earth the skeletons are resting in for further study and eventual display in a museum.
Read more: news.cnet.com/2300-11395_3-6158705.html?tag=mncol;1n#ixzz1E0j2dJfI
February 14, 2011
A building whose foundations were unearthed during an excavation at Marden Henge near Devizes last summer could have been a Neolithic sauna.
Archaeologist Jim Leary told his audience at Devizes town hall on Saturday that the chalk foundations contained a sunken hearth that would have given out intense heat.
“It brings to mind the sweat lodges found in North America,” he said. “It could have been used as part of a purification ceremony.”
Also found was a midden or rubbish heap with dozens of pig bones, some still attached, likely to be the remains of a huge feast that took place 5,000 years ago.
Mr Leary was supposed to give his talk at the museum, but such was the interest in his subject that it was transferred to the town hall. All 150 tickets were sold and people queued for returns.
Mr Leary said Marden Henge is the biggest henge in England but because it did not have a stone circle associated with it, tended to be overlooked. Before Professor Geoffrey Wainwright examined its northern sector in 1969, it had not been investigated since the early 19th century.
A huge mound, like a smaller version of Silbury Hill, named Hatfield Barrow, once existed there, but it collapsed after a shaft was dug through its centre and was levelled shortly afterwards.
The English Heritage team investigated that area as well as two sites further south, and it was at the area known as the Southern Circle that they made their most exciting discoveries.
It was in the bank of this henge within a henge that they found the chalk floor. Mr Leary described the dig as a work in progress. He said: “We are at a very early stage and there is a lot more to be found. But our fate is in the hands of the government cuts.
“Clearly there is more work to be done, at least another season, but we need funding to do any further investigation.”
thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/8845131.The_heat_was_on_at_Marden_Henge/?ref=rss
February 12, 2011
Posted on Facebook by digitaldigging.co.uk/index.html
Heritage police to guard historic icons in Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire – will also guard against illegal metal detecting.
thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Heritage-police-guard-icons/article-3212734-detail/article.html