Skeleton found in a substantial stone cist, partially wrapped in animal/furs with a wicker basket over the skull area.
Links to BBC story with photo
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8261343.stm
and Scotsman article
news.scotsman.com/latestnews/39Whicker-Man39-tomb-to-yield.5661633.jp
By Marcus Smith
First Chance to Hear From the Experts Who Made the Discovery
Archaeologists from Sheffield and other universities have discovered a lost stone circle a mile from Stonehenge, on the west bank of the River Avon.
Read full article: Bluestonehenge: A New Stone Circle Near Stonehenge
Druids delight as Stonehenge road closure gets go ahead
Dr Clive Waddington and the Longstone Local History Group, excavated Fin Cop in July 2009, several open days for public viewing were held...
“It is believed the Iron Age hillfort is between 3,000 and 2,000 years old. Radiocarbon dating of surviving material is likely to enable more accurate dating. Tools and weapons made from stone from the Lake District and the Yorkshire Wolds or Lincolnshire were also found. The corpse will be analysed to try to determine its sex, age and origin. The adult skeleton, which had been thrown into a ditch and covered with stones, was uncovered during a three-week dig at the site”.
Liz Roberts Grough Website.
The results will be announced at a Derbyshire Archaelogical Day in Chesterfield in January next year.
Upcoming events of interest.....
Saturday 26th to Wednesday 30th September: LEYHUNTERS SEPTEMBER MOOT
Rougham conference centre, Lawney’s farm, Bury St.Edmunds
Prudence Jones,Jeremy Taylor, Edmund Marriage, Tim Holt-Wilson, Angus Wainright, Clare Higson, Will Lord (flint knapping) with field trips to Bury St.Edmunds,Suffolks Seven Wonders, Saffron Walden, Gog-Magog hills/Wandlebury camp (with Hugh Newman), Sutton Hoo, Eye & Grimes Graves. £25 for entire event or £10 per day.
leyhunter.org/meetings.htm
3rd & 4th October 2009: LIFEFORM: BIOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE
Coed Hills Rural Artspace, Cowbridge, South Wales
The BioArchitecture Foundation presents its first conference exploring biological architecture, holistic building systems and geomantic built environments followed by workshops in constructing energetically harmonious landscapes and life-supporting architecture. With Dan Winter, Michael Rice, Shaun Kirwan and others. Includes field trips to sacred sites. £15 per day.
biologicalarchitecture.co.uk/lifeform.html
Sunday 4th October: CONVENTION OF ALTERNATIVE ARCHAEOLOGY & EARTH MYSTERIES
The Brownsword Hall, Poundbury, Dorchester, Dorset.
Major assemblies bringing together enquiring minds who seek deeper truths about their ancient spiritual heritage. 6th annual convention organised by Peter Knight with guest speakers Gary Biltcliffe, Tony Kennish, Tony Peart and more. £20 advance
stoneseeker.net
Oct 17th & 18th: FOUNTAIN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE – Creating Sacred Space & Healing the World
The Memorial Hall, Castle Heddingham, Essex.
With speakers Hamish Miller, Hugh Newman, Giles Bryant, Christian Kyriacou, Chris Street, Stuart Mason and many more. £50 for weekend.
fountain-international.org
14th & 15th November: STARS & STONES FORUM
Rougham conference centre, Lawney’s farm, Bury St.Edmunds
Three days of lectures, networking, socialising, music and forums in a superb rural location. Including an optional Geomancy & Geobiology Workshop on Friday 13th with Stephane Cardinaux & Shaun Kirwan. Speakers include Antione Gilgal, Edmund Marriage, Hugh Newman, Celia Gunn, Bruce Lipton, Dan Winter and many others. £55 for three days.
starsandstonesforum.net
20th & 21st March 2010 – The Equinox Weekend – MYSTERIOUS EARTH CONFERENCE
Ladyholme Centre, Lake Road, Windermere
Covering many aspects of Earth Mysteries and with expert speakers from throughout Britain, including tours to Ancient, Mystical & Historical Sites. speakers include Ralph Ellis, Anthony Thorley, Philip Gardiner, Hugh Newman, Kate Masters and Neil McDonald. £15 per day in advance.
megalithictours.com/Conference 2010.htm
8th & 9th May 2010 – MEGALITHOMANIA CONFERENCE
Annual assembly of Megalithic scholars and alternative researchers including Paul Deveruex, Aubrey Burl, Robert Temple, Antione Gilgal, Walter Cruttenden, Shaun Kirwan, Gary Biltcliffe and more to be confirmed. Tickets £82 for full weekend (on sale in October) including film screenings and concert. Plus additional tours to ancient megalithic sites on the Friday and Monday with the experts.
megalithomania.co.uk
Article in National Geographic seems to show clear genetic differences between the first farming communities (circa 5500 BC) found and local hunter gatherer groups in the same regions.
Hypothesis is that the earliest farming communities were incomers who arrived with pre-existing farming skills and domesticated animals in tow.
Link
news.nationalgeographic.co.uk/news/2009/09/090903-europe-first-farmers.html
“These monuments were irretrievably damaged, however, in some cases destroyed and for what? The route chosen wasn’t the only possibility, but viable alternatives were dismissed without a second look. In hindsight and given the collapse of the economy, the motorway itself may not even have been necessary. Some people obviously thought so. As has recently been revealed, Eurolink were given a minimum traffic guarantee, which surely indicates prior consideration, if not expectation, of low usage levels.
“Anyone with half an eye on national events will concede that this is a country where the elite are in and out of each others pockets, smoothing their respective ways along. You wouldn’t have to be particularly conspiracy-minded to smell something fishy in the alterations of laws when they prove inconvenient to ‘progress’. Or the swift ‘about-face’ of the Greens when they arrived in Government. Why was this route and project, opposed by the EU, prominent archaeologists and a significant body of the public, untouchable?”
More here – heritageaction.wordpress.com/2009/09/18/m3-co-meath-the-end-of-the-road/
A remote Neolithic burial mound on an Orkney island may contain carvings of human eyes and eyebrows, it has been revealed.
The stone is inside the Holm of Papa Westray tomb.
Historic Scotland believes it is linked to the find of a carving believed to be Scotland’s earliest human face, dating back thousands of years.
That small Neolithic sandstone human figurine at Links of Noltland was believed to be up to 5,000 years old.
Richard Strachan, senior archaeologist with the Historic Scotland cultural resources team, said: “Initial comparisons do show a similarity in use of this eyebrow motif and may point to the possibility that the markings in the cairn are meant to show human eyebrows and eyes, as the style is very similar to the figurine.
The previous carving find was said to be of great importance
“Alternatively, we may be seeing the re-use of a motif familiar to the carver and applied to different contexts with different meaning.
“This is highly intriguing and raises yet more questions about Neolithic people’s attitudes to artistic representations of human beings.”
He added: “Images of people are very rare indeed, which some people believe suggests that it was considered taboo.
“But the discovery of the figurine shows there were some exceptions, and the lintel in the tomb may suggest that there were situations where particular features could be shown.”
The Holm of Papa Westray tomb’s remote location can only be reached by private boat hire.
Experts described the previous find of the figurine as one of “astonishing rarity”.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/8260611.stm
Fascinating photo.....
“The Annual General Meeting of the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society will take place at Devizes Town Hall, commencing at 2.30pm (10 October, 2009). This will be followed by a lecture from Prof. Mike Parker Pearson.
“Mike’s talk is entitled ‘The Stonehenge Riverside Project – Recent Results’. It is sure to be very popular so advance booking is essential. If you are interested in attending the lecture contact 01380 727369...”
More here – wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=442&prev=1
Hampshire, UK, 08 September 2009 –
The New Forest National Park Authority is using detailed marine mapping from SeaZone to undertake an archaeological assessment of its coastline in response to changing sea levels. Part of a nationwide programme of Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys supported by English Heritage, the study will help with the development of long term coastal management plans by identifying archaeological and historic sites, and protecting them where possible or making provision for their recording where this may not be possible. There is a need to protect archaeological sites and artifacts from rising sea level and flooding as well as increasing pressures from industrial, residential and leisure developments.
Using SeaZone HydroSpatial together with additional historic records such as aerial photographs many dating back over 90 years, the study aims to identify and record previously undiscovered archaeological sites and artifacts along the 86 kilometres of New Forest and National Park coastline. Supplied as a multi layered theme the digital data is easily used in the Authority’s Geographical Information System (GIS).
‘The SeaZone data is invaluable in identifying changes to the landscape over the past 8,000 years,’ commented Mark James, Maritime Archaeology Project Officer. ‘For example the bathymetric layer gives us a greater understanding of the sea bed and helps us identify previous water courses and ancient river and stream channels that are now submerged in the Solent. In addition the Wrecks and Obstruction data has the potential for discovering archaeological sites helping us identify locations for further investigation.‘
[from agi.org.uk on 14 Sept 09 – not much in the way of news, more a product placement, but hopefully more will emerge in due course]
Archeologists find the remains of a 2000-year-old roundhouse.
By Donna MacAllister.
News emerged 10/9/09.
Press and Journal 11/9/09.
(This story was brought to my attention, on Monday 14th., after the site tours. Sorry!)
More info and pictures on :
“They were carved out of stone and squeezed out of clay 9,000 years ago, at the very dawn of civilisation.
“Now archaeologists say these astonishing Stone Age statues could have been the world’s first educational toys.”
An ancient monument in Guernsey could be fenced off because of repeated anti-social behaviour.
The Culture and Leisure Department has applied for planning permission to put up a fence around the Cists in Circle at Sandy Hook in St Sampson.
It said fly-tipping, littering, fires and moving the stones had all been problems at the site for years, and were the reason for the application.
The site, which was excavated in 1912, dates from about 2,500 to 1,800 BC.
The plans include a gate which would allow access to the site, but only with the use of a key held by Guernsey Museum.
The museum operates a similar system for several other sites, including Victoria Tower in St Peter Port.
If the plans are approved, archaeologists and historical sites staff will work to restore the ancient monument.
“About 4,500 years ago some inhabitants of Britain suddenly started wearing and being buried with jewellery. Subsequent centuries saw objects being fashioned out of amber, jet, gold, copper, bone and faience in a bewildering variety of forms.”
A lecture entitled ‘Prehistoric Jewellery in Britain and Beyond’ by Ben Roberts will be held at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes from 2:30 pm on Saturday, 24 October 2009. More here – wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=444&prev=3&catID=4
OUT OF THE ORDINARY FESTIVAL – 18th – 20th September, Near the Long Man of Wilmington, East Sussex
OOTO is 3 day eco & family friendly festival set in the beautiful Sussex Landscape celebrating the Autumn Equinox. Solar powered stages and wind generators powering fascinating talks and workshops plus children’s activities, a green market place plus many more out of the ordinary surprises! Get adult tickets for only £65 here: outoftheordinaryfestival.com /ticketshop/">outoftheordinaryfestival.com/ticketshop/
Avalon Rising and Stoneseeker Tours are coordinating the....
SPEAKERS FORUM:
FRIDAY
12 – 1pm: OPENING CEREMONY IN PEACE CIRCLE
1 – 2.30pm: KATE MASTERS: Megalithic Sites in France
2.30- 4pm: HELEN SEWELL: The Astrology of 2012 – Roadmap of Global Change
4 – 5.30pm: NATHAN WILLIAMS: Galactic Centre: Still Point of the Turning World
5.30 – 7pm: HUGH NEWMAN: Fertility & Earth Energy Technologies of the Ancients
7 – 8.30pm: PETER TAYLOR: What’s Going on? Climate Change & Global Cooling. A Shamanic & Scientific View.
8.30 – 10.00pm: ANDY THOMAS – The Truth Agenda: Unexplained Mysteries and Cover-Ups
10 – 12am: JOHN HARRIS: It’s an Illusion
12.30am: Films and Documentaries
SATURDAY
10 – 11.30am: HOLLY PAIGE: Food for Consciousness
11.30 – 1pm: ALAN BOWER: Ley Lines: A New Understanding
1 – 2.30pm: INTI GNOSTIC SHAMAN: Tiwanaku – Shamanism & the Dawn of Civilization
2.30 – 4pm: GARY BILTCLIFFE: The Belinus Line – The Spine of Albion
4 – 5.30pm: GREGORY SAMS: Sun of gOd: The Conscious Star
5.30 – 7.30pm: JOHN HARRIS: Common Law & the Lawful Rebellion. Discussion & Q&A
8.30 – 10.30pm: DAVID BRAMWELL: sing-along-a-Wickerman show
9.30 – 11pm: CLOSE
11pm : Films and Documentaries
SUNDAY
10.30am – 12.00pm: JINPA SMITH: Feng Shui Workshop
12.00pm – 1.30pm: PETER KNIGHT: The Wessex Astrum
1.30pm – 3.00pm : SHAUN KIRWAN: What on Earth is Geomancy?
3.00 – 4.30pm: JONATHAN CAINER : Cosmic Insights from the popular astrologer
4.30 – 6pm: EDMUND MARRIAGE: Surveyors and Astronomers of the Ancient British Isles
6pm: CLOSING CEREMONY IN PEACE CIRCLE
7.30 – 9.00pm: GEOFF STRAY: 2012 Prophecies – The Maya and the Hopi.
9.00 – 10.30pm: MIKHAIL BAKER: The Spirit of Community – the day of the lone wolf is over
10.30 – 12am : LOUIS STANDEN: Galactic Superwaves and How to Survive 2012
12am: FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES
Bronze Age replica made from a single tree.
by Alison Middleton. First published in the Press and Journal 2/09/09.
A replica Bronze Age boat has successfully completed her maiden voyage across Loch Tay.
The rest of the story :
An Taisce and Dr. Mark Clinton warn of the threat posed by the proposed extension for the development of Drogheda Port. Less than a week left to object.
“The forces are powerful but we must try, at least. Try not to stand by and let it happen again.”
heritageaction.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/bremore-renewed-threat-to-passage-tombs/
ARCHEOLOGISTS have unearthed evidence that a hill fort in Denbighshire is more than 3,000 years old.
An excavation of Moel y Gaer in Llanbedr, which sits on a spur off the Clwydian Range, has uncovered Iron Age remains.
But experts say parts of the site could be older than first thought after samples of metal slag and dry stone facing suggest they may date back to the Bronze Age (2,300 BC to 700 BC).
The investigation is being jointly carried out by Bangor University and Denbighshire’s Heather and Hillforts Project and new evidence indicates the possibility of earlier entrance at the hillfort.
Professor Raimund Karl, the university’s head of school and professor of archaeology and heritage, said: “We have recovered some quite substantial charcoal samples so we can try to arrange carbon dating, which should hopefully narrow down our dating range for the construction of the rampart.
“I consider the dig to have been a great success.”
Taken from The Daily Post....
dailypost.co.uk/new[...]-first-thought-55578-24585279/
[Moss, I have attached your news to this particular Moel Y Gaer as the grid reference seems to match the one you provided. If it’s still incorrect please say.
TMA Ed.]
Culture minister Barbara Follett has announced a £150,000 grant for the Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes. The grant will be used to create a new Bronze Age Gallery to house material excavated from the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
More here – wiltshireheritage.org.uk/news/index.php?Action=8&id=83&page=0 and here – nce.co.uk/news/structures/4m-construction-grant-for-uk-museums/5207448.article
A new dig at Kents Cavern neat Torquay starts next week to continue excavations looking for more evidence of Neanderthal occupation.
The cavern will be open from September 10 and visitors will be able to view the dig.
Link to article
thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Caves-secrets/article-1291040-detail/article.html
A renowned musician has written an iconic composition which will be the basis for a lasting Homecoming legacy in the North-East.
Fiddler Paul Anderson was commisioned by Aberdeenshire Council to compose a piece of music and created Land Of Standing Stones to celebrate Homecoming Scotland.
The piece was inspired by Aberdeenshire’s dramatic natural scenery and in particular the large concentration of standing stones which are a significant feature of the local environment.
The work was played at a ceremony at Easter Aquhorthies Stone Circle near Inverurie on Tuesday afternoon.
Composer Paul Anderson said he wrote the piece at the Tomnaverie Stone Circle near Tarland as it is a place he often goes to compose music.
He said “The title of the piece was partly inspired by it being composed as Tomnaverie, but its more to do with it being representative of the whole of the North-East. I believe we have one of the greatest concentrations of standing stones and stone circles in the world and so Land of the Standing Stones seemed very appropriate as a title.”
Turriff Advertiser, Inverurie and Ellon editions also.
Friday 28th August No. 4847
The report goes onto to say background stuff and how local musical organisataions can be become involved. I have a recieved a copy of the invite so if you know of anybody wanting to contribute let me know in the comments posts. I’ll pass it on.
For further information:
aberdeenshirearts.org.uk/landofthestandingstones
(slightly easier listening than Mr Birtwhistle but beware some of it is Trad Scots........listen to often and a woolly jumper appears from nowhere!!)
A 3,000 year old Scottish cave dedicated to dead children has been brought to life for the first time.
First reported 2007.
More info :
The American property developer Gerald Hines is trying to persuade the City of London authority to let him re-house the stone in the foyer of the redeveloped Cannon Street station.
It’s true that this is nearer to it’s original horizontal position – albeit several meters up in the air from the original ground height where it stood.
There hasn’t been any movement on the proposed relocation of the stone to the Museum of London and almost anything would be preferable to the way it is currently housed.
The Guardian has gone absolutely mad on archaeology articles this morning........
A dig in Devon reveals how life was lived 3,500 years ago: from cookery to DIY
The nearest proper road is a couple of miles away. The toilet is an energetic yomp down a steep slope and through the conifers. When it rains – and here on Dartmoor it really does pelt down – the only shelter is project supervisor Simon Hughes’s old VW Golf. “It’s started to smell like a dead dog,” he says with a big grin.
Despite the tough conditions, Hughes and his team are relishing working on the Bellever roundhouse. “It’s a great project for us,” he says. “It’s a chance to really try to find out what was going on here 3,500 years ago.”
There are lots of roundhouses on Dartmoor (5,000 stone ones and more wooden ones that have rotted away without leaving any trace), but most were studied a century or more ago. They used to dig one a day then, rather than taking weeks over it as they do now.
So when two years ago a great storm felled a plantation of conifers at Bellever, disturbing the roundhouse’s granite structure, archaeologists argued that they ought to have another look. It is an exciting project: only the second roundhouse to be excavated in the area in the last 20 years and a chance to learn more about the people who, at a time when the climate was much more clement than it is now, were able to live and work here.
By the time the bronze-age people arrived on Dartmoor, the slopes had been cleared of trees so that crops could be grown and animals – cattle and sheep – grazed. Blocks of land may have been controlled by groupings of people or tribes. Some of the roundhouses have porches, protection against the weather, others seem to have been divided into rooms. Roofs built from timber may have been covered in turf, heather, gorse or thatch.
In October last year, the Dartmoor National Park Authority commissioned a small excavation here by a professional firm of consultants, AC Archaeology. Just under a quarter of the house, which has a diameter of 8m, was dug but many interesting and well-preserved features, including a mysterious nearby cairn and well-preserved paved flooring made up of granite slabs, were found.
More than 30 fragments of bronze-age pottery were recovered. Another intriguing find was a piece of worked timber, which may have formed part of the original structure.
“It blew us away,” says Andy Crabb, an archaeologist who works for the national park and for English Heritage. “Dartmoor is very wet, very acidic, so bone, ceramics, organic material gets eaten away, but here we found a whole sequence of occupation and abandonment.” In other words, evidence that people had lived there, moved on, been replaced by others. Clearly the site warranted further exploration.
Financing such a project is key. It was decided that volunteers would be used to clear the vegetation, topsoil and peat. AC Archaeology won the contract for the next stage, funded by the national park and other bodies at a cost of £7,500.
July’s nasty weather has made it a tough dig. Which is why Hughes’s car is so smelly. It’s his call when rain stops play and he admits that they tend to keep going until the point where the roundhouse is flooded and the site could get damaged. He jokes that the state of his and his co-workers’ joints is secondary.
The team, usually three or four strong, remains cheerful. “We’re like a little archaeological family,” says Kerry Dean, 24. “The banter is good and we bring cakes up sometimes to share and keep us going.”
Hughes produces a chunky piece of pottery from an old ice-cream tub. At first it looks like the kind of thing you might come across in the garden while you’re harvesting the potatoes. But, like just about everything here, it gives an intriguing glimpse into bronze-age life.
Its thickness shows it must have been part of a large bowl, and was almost certainly used for cooking. Analysis of the fragment has revealed that it is made of gabbroic clay from the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall – 100 miles away.
“We took it and showed it to a local potter,” says Crabb. “She was amazed at the quality of it. Remember they wouldn’t have had wheels. They were throwing these very large and heavy pots by hand.”
These sort of details have brought the site to life for local people. Around 600 traipsed up the rough track to the spot for an open day and, almost every day, hikers stop to look and wonder at what life was like here 3,500 years ago.
This summer’s dig has raised many more questions about how this roundhouse was used. The pottery (there are up to 69 pieces now) has been found only in one half of the structure – the half that would have enjoyed more of the sunlight. One theory is that the people spent the day in this half and slept in the other. Frustratingly, they have found no evidence of a cooking area. It may be that a smaller roundhouse nearby was the kitchen.
As they have probed further down, gone back further in time, they have found that the roundhouse was used over a period of roughly 200 years. The post holes suggest that the living space was re-ordered – ancient DIY.
The cairn remains a mystery. It seems to have been built on top of “tumble” from the wall, indicating that it was built after the roundhouse was abandoned. In Ireland, evidence of cremation or burial has been found under such structures, but not here. Clearly it was important – but the reason remains unknown.
Soon Hughes and his team will pack up their tools and head off to another site in his smelly car. The conifers will start growing again. “They’re like triffids,” says Crabb. The information they have collected will be stored away and the Bellever roundhouse and its mysteries will be left alone again.
guardian.co.uk/science/2009/aug/28/archaeology-bellever-dartmoor-bronze-age
Excavations will target some of the pre-Roman features shown up by the geophysical survey of 2007.
