A friend of mine was telling me about this the other day. Apparently they have now moved the proposed building site for the school and archaeological digs are on-going Caernarfon
Latest News
June 11, 2010
The National Trust is getting ambitious this year ......
The National Trust is getting into the outdoor festival spirit this summer with a chill out bar and a project to illuminate Glastonbury Tor during the Glastonbury Festival Weekend.
Festival goers may have spotted the Tor above Glastonbury in the past, but this year the landmark will be unmissable as St Michael’s Tower, which is perched on the top of the iconic ancient monument, will be bathed in light for the first time.
The Tor will be illuminated each night between sunset and sunrise during the five days of the world famous music festival, which is also celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2010. The lights will go on at 9.31pm British Summer Time each evening, the exact time of sunset.
“It’s the first time that the Trust will be at Glastonbury Festival, and we wanted to do something special to mark the important role that the Festival plays in Somerset life and to celebrate its 40th birthday,” said Andy Mayled, National Trust General Manager for the Somerset Countryside.
Much like the light shows on the Festival’s famous Pryamid stage, the latest LED technology will be used to light up the Tor in a variety of coloured light. The special lighting will however use a much smaller amount of energy – less than a third of the power of kettle – and give off less light pollution than conventional spotlights.
Warming to the festival theme, the National Trust will also be running the Outside Inn this year. Offering an escape from the crowds and thumping bass, the “fresh air bar” and chill out zone will feature soft pebbles and meadow grass to cushion people as they lie back with silent disco headphones playing the sounds of the outdoors.
“The National Trust’s heart beats to the rhythm of the natural world, and we’ve tried to capture this in the Outside Inn where you can get refreshment for the mind and soul,” added Mayled.
More information on the National Trust and the Glastonbury Festival (June 23-27) is available at: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/Glastonbury
culture24.org.uk/history+%2526+heritage/archaeology/art79460
June 10, 2010
5500 Year Old Shoe
Reported today in the open access journal PLoS One is the news of a 5500-year-old shoe, discovered in the Chalcolithic age deposits at Areni-1, a dry cave in in Vayots Dzor province of Armenia. The dry conditions of the cave have led to fabulous preservation, and the cave includes well-preserved occupations between the Neolithic and late Middle Ages.
More here:
archaeology.about.com/b/2010/06/09/5500-year-old-shoe.htm
June 9, 2010
Ramblers Scotland is backing a petition to force a Scottish Government review on unsightly vehicular hill tracks and electrified deer fencing in the Scottish countryside. “Neither requires planning permission and both cause scars on our wild landscapes” says Helen todd, Ramblers Scotland’s development officer. The e-petition was launched by Peter Peacock MSP with the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, and can be signed by visiting
www.ramblers.org.uk/scotland/ourwork_scotland/countryside/Planning
(I’ve just signed the petition/ Hilltracks campaign)
June 8, 2010
Archaeological Treasures Trail – Orkney
Orkney is one of the richest Neolithic landscapes in Europe – a place of stone circles, villages and burial monuments. Several monuments on Orkney are part of The Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (WHS) including the Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, Maeshowe, Skara Brae and the Stones of Stenness. All these monuments are relics of the period when great civilisations started to arise across the world.
Read more:
seasons.visitscotland.com/things_to_see_and_do/cities_and_culture/archaeological_trail/orkney.aspx
[EDIT – I should say I found this news here: orkneyjar.com/]
June 4, 2010
Fin Cop is going to be excavated again in July and August of 2010 by Clive Waddington of Archaeological Research Services in conjunction with the National Park Authority, Longstone Local History Group, English Heritage and Natural England and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Open days will be held every Saturday of the five week dig; July 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st meeting in the Monsal Head car park, overlooking the viaduct, at 11am and 1pm.
These pictures and papers have been gathered in honour of Daphne Home Lorimer MBE on the occasion of her retirement as Chairman of Orkney Archaeological Trust, to mark our affection for her as a friend, our respect for her as a colleague and our admiration for all that she has achieved.
“We know Orkney has a rich archaeological heitage, but Daphne Lorimer’s commitment has ensured that interest in its discovery and conservation has the recognition it properly merits. To know Daphne is to be infected by her enthusiasm, and the study and pursuit of archaeology in Orkney has been so much enriched by her enthusiasm and interest.” – Jim Wallace MSP March 2004
“Meath which opens today. Protests are expected from a range of environmentalists and heritage activists, including the campaign group Tarawatch who complained the route of the motorway is unacceptably close to the Hill of Tara.”
ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE: THE M3 motorway which cost an estimated €1 billion will be officially opened today.
The 61km motorway linking the Dublin/Meath border with the Meath/Cavan border is believed to be the largest single road project to be constructed in Ireland and incorporates bypasses of Dunshaughlin, Navan and Kells.
In addition to the motorway itself, the overall project involves a network of 49km of ancillary public roads and 34km of farm access roads.
Private security and a large contingent of gardaí will be in place for the opening ceremony, which is to take place near Kells, Co Meath, at 11am.
Protests are expected from a range of environmentalists and heritage activists, including the campaign group Tarawatch who complained the route of the motorway is damaging to the area and passes unacceptably close to the Hill of Tara.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) said anyone who feared the impact of the motorway on the Hill of Tara, the historic seat of the ancient high kings, should “assess it for themselves” over the bank holiday weekend or in the coming weeks.
“The weekend is a perfect opportunity for those who are concerned to get out and see what the fuss was all about,” said a spokesman.
It is also the latest of the State’s new motorways to be tolled. Motorists will face two tolls, at Clonee and Kells, under a public-private partnership between the State and a consortium involving civil engineering companies Ferrovial, Siac and Budimex.
Tolls will be set at €1.30 each, fixed in line with inflation. Despite assertions to the contrary from Tarawatch, the roads authority has insisted it is confident vehicle targets will be met in the first year of operation.
Following the completion of the major inter-urban motorways to Limerick and Waterford this October, all of the motorways between Dublin and the regional cities, as well as the Border, will feature tolls.
The roads authority said yesterday that private finance is likely to be involved in a greater share of its projects in coming years.
Current public-private partnerships in development include the Gort to Tuam motorway in Co Galway; the upgrade of Newlands Cross, Dublin; N11 improvements in Co Wicklow; and the southern section of the M20 Cork to Limerick road.
Construction of the M3 was controversial not only because of its proximity to the Hill of Tara, but also because it was used by the European Commission as an example of non-compliance by Ireland with European planning directives.
In 2007, then EU environment commissioner Stavros Dimas said the commission considered Ireland’s approach to decisions involving the destruction or removal of historic structures and archaeological monuments to be in breach of EU rules.
irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0604/1224271819706.html
June 3, 2010
heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/good-heavens-astronomer-bids-to-rejuvenate-stone-circle-1.1032060
It was created in the late 1970s to mirror the rise and fall of the moon and sun across Glasgow on a site of ancient astronomical interest.
Now efforts are being made to rejuvenate the Sighthill Stone Circle, created by amateur astronomer and science writer Duncan Lunan, who brought Britain’s first authentically alligned stone circle in more than 3000 years to Glasgow’s inner city.
More than 30 years later, Lunan hopes to revive interest in the stone circle, which was built by the Glasgow Parks Astronomy Department using funds from the former Jobs Creation Scheme.
When money for the project was abruptly scrapped by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher, four pieces of stone never made it to the circle and are now stashed under a nearby bush in Sighthill Park. It is hoped the circle can now be completed as Lunan intended.
At the stones yesterday, Lunan said: “There is still nothing up here to say who built the circle, who it was built for or how it works. I have been told that nowadays children are afraid of it, that they think it is linked to black magic, that sort of thing. That is something I want to change.”
The site of the stones may not at first seem a likely spot of spiritual significance given that they are surrounded by 1960s tower blocks, acres of plain parkland and a belching incinerator.
Built on a hilltop with dramatic views across the city, they incorporate the line of the midsummer sunset across the city, which is historically mapped by Dobie’s Loan from the neolithic site, where Glasgow Cathedral now sits, to Summerhill.
It was here where midsummer parties were held to celebrate the sun at its highest and most powerful, where bonfires were lit to hail the light and ward off evil spirits believed to roam freely as the sun turned southwards again. The Pagan-style parties continued until the 17th century, when they were halted by the church.
Lunan would like to revive the celebrations of the midsummer sunset at Sighthill, with a
gathering planned for the night of June 21.
Whereas in Neolithic times stone circle creators would take 100 years to observe the movement of the moon, the earth and the light of the sun, Lunan had a matter of months to work out the necessary co-ordinates on his New Stone Age calendar.
“Getting the precision right was the really hard part. And the winters of 1978 and 1979 were really terrible too, you could hardly see a thing,” he said.
Photographs and astronomical graphs gave Lunan and his colleagues the necessary guide with the last of the 17 stones lowered into place by an RAF helicopter from HMS Gannet.
“The moon stones were too big to be brought by helicopter so it was the sun stones and the star stones that came by air. That was a hell of a day,” he said.
At first the project was to build a replica Stonehenge and Callanish Stones using modern materials, but given the significant astronomical setting it became a true stone circle of which Lunan remains proud.
He built it in tribute to four academics at Glasgow University who are responsible for the promotion and understanding of ancient astronomy; Professor Archie Roy, Dr Ewan McKay, Professor Alexander Thom and his son, Dr Archie Thom. “It started with Alexander Thom who, between the two world wars, was inspired by the falling moon over the Callanish Stones,” Lunan said.
“He became convinced that they used astronomy and mathematics on an advanced scale.”
The work was continued by his son and explored further by McKay and Roy.
“This was at a time when most archaeologists wouldn’t go near this stuff, claiming that primitive society was not capable of such understanding. It is very fitting that this stone circle is in Glasgow, as a tribute to them.”
Lunan would ultimately like the stone circle to be a key feature of a city-wide astronomy map, with the entire solar system represented on the correct scale within the city limits. If the stone circle represented the sun, Pluto would be at Cathkin Braes, Lunan said.
An illustrated talk on the Sighthill Stone Circle will be held at the Ogilve Centre, St Aloysius Church, Rose Street, Glasgow, on Monday June 21, followed by a visit to the circle for midsummer sunset from 9.30pm to 10pm.
Stone Age Color, Glue 'Factory' Found
The Stone Age version of successful businessmen like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates might have been involved in the color and glue trade.
A once-thriving 58,000-year-old ochre powder production site has just been discovered in South Africa. The discovery offers a glimpse of what early humans valued and used in their everyday lives.
The finding, which will be described in the Journal of Archaeological Science, also marks the first time that any Stone Age site has yielded evidence for ochre powder processing on cemented hearths -- an innovation for the period. A clever caveman must have figured out that white ash from hearths can cement and become rock hard, providing a sturdy work surface.
“Ochre occurs in a range of colors that includes orange, red, yellow, brown and shades of these colors,” project leader Lyn Wadley told Discovery News. “Yellow and brown ochre can be transformed to red by heating them at temperatures as low as 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit).”
Wadley, who authored the study, is a professor in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies and in the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand. She said ochre has been found on bone awl tools probably used for working leather, so it is possible that the ancients sported colorful leather clothing and other leather goods.
Red-hot leather clothing is still found in stores today, but the probable wearers then were a far cry from today’s fashion elite.
Ochre is derived from naturally tinted clay that contains mineral oxides. In addition to coloring objects, it makes a compound adhesive when mixed with other ingredients, such as plant gum and animal fat.
“This glue would have attached stone spear or arrowheads to hafts, or blades to handles for cutting tools,” Wadley explained.
Ochre can also be used as body paint and makeup, as a preservative and as a medicinal component, so it could have served many different functions during the Stone Age.
Wadley analyzed the ochre “factory” at the large Sibudu rock shelter north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The site consisted of four cemented hearths containing the ochre powder. The cement workstations could have held grindstones and/or served as storage receptacles for the powder, according to Wadley, who also excavated about 8,000 pieces of ochre in the area.
She believes the natural material was collected just over a half a mile away from the site, where it would have been heated and ground or just ground directly onto coarse rocks.
Francesco d’Errico, director of research at the National Center of Scientific Research at the University of Bordeaux, said pigment material is found in bits and pieces at various early sites. However, not much was known in detail before about how it was processed and used.
Based on the nature of the cemented ash and the geology of the Sibudu site, d’Errico believes that people 58,000 years ago intended to produce large quantities of red pigment in a short time frame.
He now thinks ochre pigment was a “fundamental constitute of Middle Stone Age culture, and that its production likely involved the work of several members of the group.”
news.discovery.com/archaeology/prehistoric-color-glue-factory.html
Inverness project engineers find protected species and a prehistoric pot shard.
by Iain Rammage.
Published 3/06/2010.
pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1766008
What happened in Belfast now happens in Inverness.
June 2, 2010
“Archaeologists have found what they say is the earliest evidence of Neanderthals living in Britain.
Two pieces of flint unearthed at motorway works in Dartford, Kent, have now been dated to 110,000 years ago. ”
Full story from the BBC -
June 1, 2010
Had been thought to be Bronze Age but according to Dr. Kenneth Brophy in a talk tonight the C14 dates came back Fiday and place it in the Neolithic with dates in the range 3000-2800 B.C.E. pre-dating the henge and the timber circle
Uist volunteers clear up former archaelogy site.
With the offering thread in full swing, archeaologists sometimes leave things lying about as well.
pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1760165
Published 1/06/2010.
May 31, 2010
Australian Rock Art may be 40,000 years old
Interesting article at link below – “An Australian Aboriginal rock art may depict a giant bird that is thought to have become extinct some 40,000 years ago, thereby making it the oldest rock painting on the island continent. ”
scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2010/05/australian_aboriginal_rock_art.php
May 30, 2010
The West Kennet Avenue at Avebury. Photo by Heritage Action member Jim Mitchell, one of the winners in this year’s National Trust competition for photographs of Avebury.
Photo here -
heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/05/30/avebury-photo-competition/
And here -
themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/76270.jpg
(Well done Jim :-)
May 26, 2010
A nature reserve in Bournemouth is set to get a new visitor centre.
The borough council has been planning to create a visitor centre at Hengistbury Head for the past 10 years.
Proposals to convert the thatched barn at the site in Dorset to house displays about the archaeology and wildlife of the area will now go on display.
Residents can see and comment on the plans next to the Hiker cafe from 2 to 6 June. If approved for funding, the new centre would be completed in 2012.
It will feature displays showing the nature reserve’s plants and animals and their habitats.
The centre will also have archaeology exhibitions about Hengistbury Head, chronicling its history from 60 million years ago when it was beneath a tropical sea, through to the Stone Age when humans hunted and camped there, to the Iron Age when it was an important trading port.
Mark Holloway, senior community parks and countryside officer, said: “We plan to use display panels, videos and audio to show off the nature reserve at its best.
“There will be cameras to bring live pictures from nesting birds and activities for children and adults alike to get involved in the conservation of the reserve.”
Bournemouth Borough Council said it hoped to secure most of the funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and through other grants and donations and the centre would be run by volunteers.
A planning application will be submitted during the summer and a funding request will be put to the Heritage Lottery Fund in November.
If agreed by the fund, building work is expected to start in 2011 and be completed by the summer of 2012.
May 21, 2010
Not strictly stone news, but the good news that a landscape is being preserved and getting some money as well! Especially after the closing down of the Sweet Track Centre....
Today (Thursday 20th May), the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has earmarked a first-round pass* of £1,867,900 – including £95,400 development funding – under its Landscape Partnership (LP) programme, for Natural England to progress its plans for the Avalon Marshes Landscape Partnership Project.
The announcement was made by Simon Timms, in his first engagement as newly-appointed chair of Heritage Lottery Fund South West committee.
Working with local communities, partners and visitors, this exciting project will celebrate the outstanding natural and cultural heritage of the area through new heritage conservation, education, interpretation and rural skills training activities.
The Avalon Marshes comprise the low lying land of the Brue Valley which extends from Glastonbury in the east, towards Bridgwater Bay in the West. A nationally and internationally important wetland habitat, it is rich in wildlife and steeped in archaeological heritage. Home to ancient Neolithic trackways, stunning wildflower meadows, and thousands of wintering wildfowl, this landscape has many ancient and modern stories to tell.
The plans that Natural England and partners are seeking HLF support for aim to develop access, interpretation, education, and economic opportunities, with heritage at the heart of supporting a future for rural communities in the Avalon Marshes. Access to the landscape will be improved through new heritage interpretation using modern technology, new boardwalks and hides, and new access routes.
The project aims to revive traditional heritage skills such as thatching, willow weaving and green woodworking and will deliver specialist courses and training, in particular for young people, underprivileged groups and the unemployed.........
naturalengland.org.uk/regions/south_west/press_releases/2010/200510.aspx
May 20, 2010
News from the Ashmolean
A while back, I posted something about the Art Fund Prize with a list of shortlisted museums; I found this update on their Facebook site this morning. Hope it makes sense!
“Double win for Ashmolean as it scoops share of £75,000 Art Fund Collect funding pot and makes Art Fund Prize shortlist!
The Ashmolean is one of five museums to win a share of £75,000 to buy their selected object thanks to Art Fund Collect, an initiative aimed at championing contemporary craft and increasing its presence in UK collections. Art Fund Collect is run by membership charity the Art Fund and the Crafts Council, the national development agency for contemporary craft in the UK.
Timothy Wilson, Keeper of Art at the Ashmolean, is one of five winners of Art Fund Collect. He selected Calm Contortion Wine Cooler, 2008 by Ndidi Ekubia for £28,500. This large-scale, tactile vessel is made from hammer-raised Britannia silver. Manchester-born Ekubia is recognised as an outstanding young talent, following in the footsteps of renowned silversmith Hiroshi Suzuki.
News of this win comes one day after it was announced that the Museum has also made the shortlist of the prestigious £100,000 Art Fund Prize.”
May 19, 2010
Wiltshire Heritage Museum will be organising an outing to the Rollright Stone Circle on Saturday, 7 August 2010. The outing will be led by David Dawson, Director of the Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society.
More here – wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=530&prev=1
And here -
heritageaction.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/outing-to-the-rollright-stones/
May 17, 2010
Iron Age visitor attraction shows stinging weed’s many applications.
Nettle soup anyone?
More at :
pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1739118
(Published 17/5/2010)
May 14, 2010
Westray schoolchildren met Scotland’s oldest face — the Orkney Venus — at the Westray Heritage Centre today, Friday, May 14. The children were the first visitors to the Westray exhibition, which opens to the public on Saturday, May 15.
The visit is part of the official opening of the exhibition, which sees the figurine return to Westray for the summer, after a tour of sites across Scotland.
During the day, the children from Pierowall school were joined by residents of the local care home, then, in the evening, there will be an open evening for the community at night.
The 5,000 year old figurine — known locally as the Westray Wife — attracted international interest when it was discovered last summer by archaeologists working on Historic Scotland’s excavation at the Links of Noltland, in Westray.
The figurine is the only known Neolithic carving of a human form to have been found in Scotland.
The exhibition will run in Westray until October, before the carving completes its tour at the Orkney Museum, in Kirkwall.
The new galleries are open.
The London before London display is great.
New online fabulous collection of images of the masses of prehistoric artefacts found in the area:
museumoflondon.org.uk/English/Collections/Prehistoric1700/Prehistoric.htm
May 6, 2010
Neanderthal genes 'survive in us'
‘Many people alive today possess some Neanderthal ancestry, according to a landmark scientific study. . . The genomes of 1% to 4% of people in Eurasia come from Neanderthals.‘
from the BBC -