Latest News

Is it or is’nt it? but one thing is interesting in this new items is that Mr.Daw wants to have a Stone Circle Museum – not quite sure how that would work....

“A QUALIFIED surveyor claims a picturesque village on the Essex/Suffolk border might boast the only proper stone circle outside the west of England.

For generations the sarcen stones at Alphamstone near Sudbury have been at the centre of hot debate as to whether they were ever part of a stone circle.

There are two stones marking the entrance to St Barnabas Church and a number of others further back near – and in – the church, but they form neither a circle nor part of a circle.

But Paul Daw, a surveyor who has visited more than 300 of the 400 or so stone circles, timber circles and henge sites in England, believes he might have found the original location of a stone circle in the churchyard using the ancient technique of dowsing.

He believes the stones which visitors to the church can see have been moved away from a once-standing circle in a corner of the churchyard.

His claims have been questioned by Suffolk County Council’s archaeology team, which said whenever it has investigated the claims of dowsers they have never found archaeological remains.

But Mr Daw said he has had successes in the past and claimed he has had positive readings at Alphamstone suggesting a near-perfect circle of 10 stones.

“The find of a stone circle in East Anglia is unique, as all of England’s other stone circles, of which there were nearly 400, all occur in the West Country, the area once known as Wessex, the Pennines and in Cumbria.

“On the eastern side of England, circular earth monuments such as henges and causewayed enclosures, and the occasional timber circle, were built during the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age periods.”

Mr Daw, who is looking for funding to continue with his work and who wants to open a national museum devoted to stone circles, said he hoped there may be a possibility that part of the site which sits just outside the area of consecrated ground might be excavated in the future to see whether his findings using divining rods stands up.

Nobody from the church was available for comment at the time of going to press, but Edward Martin from Suffolk County Council’s archaeology service said while he had an open mind about dowsing’s ability to find water he had not experienced a positive result for stones or archaeological remains.

“Finding archaeological remains with dowsing doesn’t seem to work,” he said. “I would have great doubt about this being real. In south Suffolk you do get boulders which are very often used in foundations. But they would not make much of a monument because they are not huge stones. If we do get anything like that, we would have a timber circle rather than a stone circle.”

Divining rods used for dowsing have been used in various forms for thousands of years.

Scientific Dowsing has its supporters and its sceptics and research into the use of divining rods have not tended to prove it works.

During the 1960s some US Marines used dowsing to try and locate weapon stores beneath the ground.”

tinyurl.com/mlos9q

The skulls of scores of young men have been found in a burial pit on the route of a new road in Dorset.

So far 45 skulls, believed to be almost 2,000 years old, have been found, and more may be found as the pit is emptied. Archaeologists have called the discovery extraordinary, saying it could be evidence of a disaster, a mass execution, a battle or possibly an epidemic.

The bones recovered so far are still being examined but most appear to be of young men, and are believed to date back to the late iron age or early Roman period. They may be evidence of a fatal encounter between the invaders and the local population, buried at a site which had ritual significance for thousands of years before they died.

David Score, project manager for Oxford Archaeology, said: “There are lots of different types of burial where skeletons may be aligned along a compass axis or in a crouched position, but to find something like this is just incredible.

“We’re still working on carefully recording and recovering all of the skeletons, which will be taken back to our offices in Oxford for detailed analysis, and trying to piece together the extraordinary story behind these remains.”

As well as the skulls, the archaeologists found torso and leg bones buried in separate sections of the pit.

“It’s very early days, but so far, after a visit to the site by our head of burial services, the skulls appear to be predominantly those of young men,” Score said.

“At the moment we don’t fully understand how or why the remains have come to be deposited in the pit but it seems highly likely that some kind of catastrophic event such as war, disease or execution has occurred.”

The Oxford team completed the main excavation at Ridgeway Hill last year, uncovering a series of earlier burials, including cremated remains, skeletons and a man buried with a dagger under a round barrow. This year they had been monitoring the site as roadworks began, but the discovery a fortnight ago, was a complete surprise.

Construction work has stopped, the site has been fenced off and is under 24-hour security, and Dorset county council has appealed to the public to stay away and let the archaeologists get on with their work.

The pit is on the outskirts of Weymouth, where a new relief road is being built, but stands by one of the oldest roads in Europe, the Ridgeway. The site was used for ritual burials for thousands of years before the young men died: the archaeologists had already found burials from neolithic to Roman times, as well as pottery, animal bones and flint tools.

guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jun/11/skulls-dorset-road-burial-pit

“A prehistoric complex, including two 6,000-year-old tombs, has been discovered by archaeologists in Hampshire.

“The Neolithic tombs, which until now had gone unnoticed under farmland despite being just 15 miles from Stonehenge, are some of the oldest monuments to have “been found in Britain.”

More here – timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6463970.ece
and here – themodernantiquarian.com/post/75242/news/new_forest.html

(With thanks to Ocifant for sending me this)

TWO 6,000-year-old tombs have been unearthed in Hampshire in one of the biggest archaeological finds for years.

The discovery, thought to be among the oldest ever made in the UK, is set to shed new light on the life led by the county’s earliest settlers.

Flint tools and fragments of pottery have already been retrieved from the Neolithic site at Damerham in the New Forest.

The nationally important find has been made by a team of experts from Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Dr Helen Wickstead said she and her colleagues were “stunned and delighted” when evidence of the prehistoric complex came to light.

She added: “Some artefacts have already been recovered and in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey on the site.

“If we can excavate, we’ll learn a lot more about Neolithic people in the area and discover things such as who was buried there, what kind of life they led and what the environment was like 6,000 years ago.”

The site, 15 miles from Stonehenge, is close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most thoroughly researched prehistoric areas in Europe.

Last night New Forest author and historian Peter Roberts described the find as extremely rare.

The former New Forest Verderer added: “It’s clearly very exciting and will throw new light on the settlements between Cranborne Chase and the Forest.”

The tombs were discovered after staff from English Heritage studied aerial photographs of farmland in the Damerham area and saw signs of buried archaeological sites.

Dr Wickstead said she was astonished that the monuments had remained undiscovered for so long.

She added: “Cranborne Chase is one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a mecca for prehistorians. You’d have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb.”

The team has vowed that any human bones found in the tombs will be treated with dignity.

“The recovery of ancient human remains is always handled sensitively,” added Dr Wickstead. “We feel respect for the dead people we study and we treat their remains with care.”

dailyecho.co.uk/news/4418901.Two_6_000_year_old_tombs_uncovered/

“Orkney Today” and “The Orcadian” of June 4th 2009 report the discovery of a potential tomb at Heathfield, beehive shaped and built straight into the bedrock. There is a lintelled space opposite the corbelled cell. Way back “The Orcadian” of March 1st 1864 reports that drainage works on a new Wideford Hill farm revealed a large coverstone in the cut with cells beneath. A roughly 2½’ long 2’ wide central passage, blocked with stones at the northern end, ran NNW/SSE The southern end widened out, opening into two chambers in opposite directions, the southern one with a floor 4” above both the northern one and the passage. Edge-set slabs form the sides and ends of the northern chamber, which measures 4” by 2½” and some 2’2” high and has a reduced entrance some 2½’ across . Except for one edge-set slab at the back the southern chamber is of walling, and it measures 3½” by 2’10” by 2’ and the passage enters directly into it. George Petrie took measurements and made a plan of it. As with the present site nothing marked the site on the surface.
If, as seems likely, this is the same site then there is less potential for new finds here.
Caroline Wickham-Jones differs “as this is away from the farm and not related to any previous drainage” and asks “whether there is more than one of these in the vicinity”

By David Leask

ITS beaches are as stunning as any in the Maldives – even if its weather isn’t.

Yet if the Orkney island of Sanday is very far from the Indian Ocean idyll, it looks set to share the same fate, as sea levels rise and storms become fiercer and more frequent.

Sanday, like the Maldives, may be “uninhabitable” by the end of the century, a leading climate scientist warned last night. More dramatically, some experts fear the long, low-lying spit of land could split into two or more islands within the lifetimes of its 500 residents.

Sanday, and neighbouring North Ronaldsay, are now seen as so-called bellwether islands. Their low elevation and exposed positions mean they will be among the first places in the western world to face the brunt of global warming, even if the most optimistic predictions come true.

Kevin Anderson, climate change expert and professor at Manchester University, said: “These islands are barometers of the changes we are all going to see if we don’t get our carbon emissions under control. What threatens them is a mix of quite small rises in sea level and a jump in the frequency and severity of storms. Storms that used to only occur occasionally will make some of these areas uninhabitable. People on these islands are vulnerable, but they will no doubt get help to relocate. Think, however, of more vulnerable people in poorer parts of the world with nowhere else to go”.

Sanday and North Ronaldsay – whose famous seaweed-eating sheep are under threat – have always suffered from the weather. Their sea defences have been breached many times. But storms, locals acknowledge, have been getting tougher and more regular. Sanday has suffered several bouts of flooding that has split one side of the island from another, albeit temporarily. “One day the waters will just stay and there will be more than one Sanday,” said one islander.

Liam McArthur, the Liberal Democrat who represents Orkney in the Scottish Parliament, was brought up on Sanday. He admits the island’s position is now “precarious”.

“There has always been a bit of gallows humour in Sanday,” he said. “My parents live in the north end of the island and I have joked we’ll need to get two ferries to see them, one to Sanday and another to the new island they will live on. The north end was cut off just two years ago.

“Obviously, we want to be hesitant about apocalyptic forecasts. But there is no doubt that, in a Scottish context, the first impact of climate change is in places like Orkney.”

McArthur, however, believes the north isles face more immediate challenges, including depopulation. The numbers on the islands north of the Orkney mainland have held steady for more than two decades, but only thanks to new migrants, many from mainland Scotland and England. New jobs can be hard to come by, he said.

Some islanders are now talking of giving land to newcomers in exchange for helping with engineering work to stave off the effects of climate change.

In North Ronaldsay – which has around 60 inhabitants, down from 500 a century ago – the stone dyke that surrounds the island could be an early victim of global warming. It was built in the 1830s to keep the island’s unique seaweed-eating sheep on shore; without it, the sheep would be lost. “It has already been replaced in parts by fencing,” said Sam Harcus, who represents the North Isles on Orkney’s council. “I think we are eventually going to have to offer people a croft and land in exchange for them giving up a day or two a week to maintain the dyke.”

Orkney’s internationally important neolithic sites are also at risk, with archaeologists now openly debating how and when they will abandon Skara Brae, the stone age village unearthed, ironically, by huge storms and now precariously nestled behind an eroding sandy beach.

Orkney’s council leader, Stephen Hagan, last night described changes in the islands’s climate so far as subtle. But he added: “There is nothing we can physically do to stop rising sea levels.”

news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Rising-seas-could-spell-doom.5319340.jp

Most people will probably have seen the advert but I thought I’d post this as I’d be gutted if I hadn’t heard and missed it.

It’s on this Monday night on channel 4 and incorporates all the findings and new theories from the last 6 years of digs by the Stonehenge Riverside Project run by Mike Parker Pearson, Julian Thomas and Colin Richards.

timeteam.k1z.com/

Archaeologists working for the National Trust think they have found west Dorset’s oldest human settlement.

Excavations over the last two weeks began when a number of artefacts were found by a man walking his dog.

Experts now believe people lived on Doghouse Hill on the Golden Cap estate up to 10,000 years ago.

Finds included a stone hearth, fire pit and pot shards from Bronze Age periods (2,500 to 1,000BC) and others from the Mesolithic Age (10,000 to 4,000BC)

Martin Papworth, from the National Trust, said: “Although it’s a stunning coastal site now, 6,000 to 8,000 years ago this area would have been over a mile inland.

Read the full story here.

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/8062513.stm

BBC web site has details of a new dating method for pottery based on the rate that it takes up water since firing.

If this works as stated here then it offers significant dating opportunities for sites where other dating approaches aren’t possible.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8058185.stm

Royal Society Link at royalsociety.org/news.asp?id=8527

Paper by authors from 2008 outlining the processes involved
mace.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/staff/academic/profile/publications/journal_pdfdownload.php?id=1766

The oppidum of Alésia is one of the most famous archaeological sites in France, but until recent years it was suffering from its lack of visibility and from the small surface of the museum in Alise-Sainte-Reine. A large part of the 7000 hectares (oppidum and Cesar’s fortifications) is covered by a forest that makes difficult to understand the site.

The council of the French department of Côte d’Or, to whom the site belongs, decided to change this situation in 2004 and launched a big programme to build an open air archaeological park
The Bernard Tschumi Architects Agency won the project with an ambitious plan: a synergy between History and Landscape will help visitors to understand successively the besieger and the besieged points of view and to discover the different cultures that occupied the site during the first centuries A.D. The future park is divided in two parts:
- The Besieger Interpretation Center and a partial reconstruction of the roman fortified lines will introduce the Gallic War.
- The museum of Gallic civilization, the « excavation area », and the base of archaeological operations will explain more generally the human occupation of the site.

With a gradual opening that should begin in 2010, Alésia’s Park will be the biggest archaeological park of Europe and will give back to the site the recognition it deserves.

To find out more, contact the society in charge :
SEM Alésia – 25 bis, rue du Rochon – 21150 ALISE-SAINTE-REINE / Tel : 0033 (0)3 80 96 96 23
Website : alesia.com/

(Camille Daval – ArchéoMédia, March 2008)

For animations of the Alésia MuséoParc see:
youtube.com/watch?v=fg9KvdzzjGg

Download the English translation pdf at alesia.com/ fic_bdd/pdf_fr_fichier/11990978440_anglais.pdf

A grotesque carving in mammoth ivory is arguably the world’s oldest depiction of a human figure, scientists say.

The distorted sculpture, which portrays a woman with huge breasts, big buttocks and exaggerated genitals, is thought to be at least 35,000 years old.

The 6cm-tall figurine, reported in the journal Nature, is the latest find to come from Hohle Fels Cave in Germany.

Previous discoveries have included exquisite carvings of animals, and an object that could be a stone “sex toy”.

Moreover, the range and sophistication of similar materials found across the Schwabian region of southern Germany has led some researchers to believe cave complexes such as Hohle Fels could have been early artists’ workshops.

The Venus of Hohle Fels was found in six fragments in September 2008. It is still missing its left arm and shoulder, but researchers are hopeful these will emerge in future excavations of the cave’s sediments.

Read the full story here
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8047319.stm

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 13th May 2009:

A £25m plan to revitalise the world-renowned Stonehenge in Wiltshire, including diverting a nearby road, has been announced by the government.

Also included in the plan from the Stonehenge Programme Board are proposals for a new visitor centre at nearby Airman’s Corner.

Read the full article...

The annual MEGALITHOMANIA CONFERENCE returns for its fourth convention of the megalithic arts and sciences at The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury on 23rd & 24th May 2009. This year’s line-up includes Graham Hancock, Robert Temple, Christine Rhone, Michael Hodges, Robin Heath and many others. Since it’s humble beginnings in 2006, MEGALITHOMANIA has become Europe’s foremost assembly of scholars, authors and researchers on all things megalithic. The varied subjects blend academic disciplines with cutting-edge research from a variety of fields, including archaeoastronomy, geomancy, archaeoacoustics, geodesy, earth energies, navigation and geometry.

The pioneer of the earth mysteries renaissance, John Michell, passed away on Friday 24th April at 12.30am, so we are dedicating the conference to his memory. He was the main inspiration for creating the event, and even gave us permission to use the Megalithomania name (from his 1982 book). He has been involved in the first three events since its inception in 2006 and will be greatly missed by us all. The speakers forum on the Sunday afternoon will be about his life and work and how he has inspired generations of Megalithomaniacs with his cutting-edge discoveries, original ideas and visionary understanding of the ancients. There will be contributions from John Martineau, John Neal, Jamie George, Christine Rhone, Robin Heath and several others who were close to John.

A total of thirteen talks and one film screening are planned for the conference with book signings, a megalitho-market place, an extensive art exhibition and Glastonbury town on the doorstep of the venue. Tickets for the conference are £80/£45 day/£7 single talks. Field trips to Stonehenge and Avebury will take place on the Friday and Monday with ROBIN HEATH. There are still places available on these. Call +44 1458 831800 for tickets, email [email protected] or visit megalithomania.co.uk for more details.

He was a giant of a man, a chieftain who ruled with a royal sceptre and a warrior’s axe.
When they laid him to rest they dressed him in his finest regalia and placed his weapons at his side. Then they turned his face towards the setting sun and sealed him in a burial mound that would keep him safe for the next 4,000 years.
In his grave were some of the most exquisitely fashioned artefacts of the Bronze Age, intricately crafted to honour the status of a figure who bore them in life in death.
For this may have been the last resting place of the King of Stonehenge – and the treasures that are effectively Britain’s first Crown Jewels.
Now the entire hoard, recovered from the richest and most important Bronze Age grave on Salisbury Plain, is set to go on permanent display.
But 21st-century Britain has thrown up a problem that never troubled ancient man. The artefacts are so rare that they have been kept in a bank vault for the past three decades because they are too precious to put on show without extensive security.
So today the Wiltshire Heritage Museum at Devizes is announcing a £500,000 appeal to fund a secure gallery. It will allow the treasures to be displayed alongside some of the many other wonders of Stonehenge, giving a fascinating glimpse of what life was like some 1,800 years BC. .....

read on;-

tinyurl.com/r5v4ch

Published Date: 08 May 2009

By sjb

IT may have been around for millions of years, but Creswell Crags has often remained something of a mystery to generations of local people.
But all that has changed, thanks to a £14 million investment in the site to make it more visitor-friendly than it has ever been before.

Around £4.5 million of the cash has paid for a brand new on-site museum and education centre – a magnificent building created to help people to take a look at and even change their established view of pre-history in the UK

And now, with the building work completed the move into the new premises has finally begun

Anticipating the event, site manager Nigel Mills had said that pre-history had always started with the Romans, taken a brief look at Stonehenge and that was about it..........

Much more here.....

worksopguardian.co.uk/news/New-45-million-visitor-centre.5244738.jp

Apr 29 2009 By Elgan Hearn

ANCIENT artefacts, more than 2,000 years old, should be brought back to Anglesey claims an island politician.

A large hoard of Iron Age materials were discovered in Llyn Cerrig Bach, Llanfair-yn-Neubwll, in 1942.

The items are currently kept in Cardiff, but local councillor Gwilym O Jones believes the treasure troves should brought back and displayed at Llangefni’s Oriel Môn.

And the council agrees, explaining they are currently in talks on that very subject.

Cllr Jones said: “Many on Anglesey know the tale of how they were found during the extension of RAF Valley.

“I understand why the treasures were taken down to the National Museum in Cardiff.

“At the time there was nowhere secure enough on Anglesey to keep them.

“But that has changed in recent years.

“Oriel Môn was built under Government Indemnity Scheme conditions which means that it’s purpose built to keep precious artefacts secure.

“We’ve seen programmes on television and recordings made of the island’s druidic history in the last couple of years, so I feel that now is the time to campaign to bring the treasures back.

“I’m not talking about bringing them back permanently, but I feel they should here for part of the year, say through the summer months.

“I think many people would be interested in seeing them.”

“It would be of benefit to Oriel Môn to have them, as a lot of people aren’t fans of art but might like to see part of the island’s heritage.”

Chariots, weapons, tools and decorated metalwork items were cast from a causeway or island into Llyn Cerrig Bach between 300BC and AD100.

They were discovered in 1942 by William Roberts as the airfield was being extended to accommodate the US air force bomber, The Flying Fortress.

The site was investigated by Sir Cyril Fox, the then keeper of archaeology at the National Museum of Wales in 1946.

Llyn Cerrig Bach is of especial interest in its possible association with the druids.

Roman writer Tacitus chronicled the infamous confrontation between the Roman general Suetonius Paulinus and the druids of Anglesey in the mid first century AD.

Tacitus presents a graphic description of the druidic grove, grisly with the remains of human sacrifices, and the shores of the island guarded by black-clad women who screamed curses at the Romans about to destroy their sanctuary.

It is likely he was writing about Llyn Cerrig Bach.

Anglesey County Council’s head of museums, archives and culture, Pat West, said: “We have a good working relationship with the National Museum and are in negotiations with them about holding a short term exhibition of the artefact found at Llyn Cerrig Bach.

“As yet we have no set date for an exhibition but it would be in the next two to three years.”

tinyurl.com/dcpxlw

In yesterdays Western Morning News...

thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk/livingcornwall/Tomb-ancients-saved-future/article-946502-detail/article.html

From The Portsmouth News:

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth believe they have solved an ancient Mediterranean mystery.
The mystery of how 2ft deep tracks were cut into the rock of Malta has been a puzzle for years.

Now Professor Derek Mottershead, of the university’s geography department, has followed generations of scholars to unravel the mysteries of the Maltese landscape.

The tracks, or ruts, were almost certainly caused by carts because the rock was not strong enough to support the wooden wheels of loaded carts.

They are up to 2ft deep and more than 30km of them run in pairs criss-crossing the island.

Professor Mottershead’s team came up with a design of a cart to fit the field evidence, estimated its weight and calculated the stresses involved.

They discovered that in some places the rock was so soft that after heavy rain a single passage of a cart could cause the rock to fail.

Professor Mottershead said: ‘The ruts have been studied and talked about for centuries and though it is obvious they are related to vehicles nobody understood how they were made or even when.

‘The underlying rock in Malta is weak and when it’s wet it loses about 80 per cent of its strength.

‘What is unique to Malta is the sheer number of ruts. For years they have attracted the attention of archaeologists but until now we didn’t have a convincing explanation of the mechanics of how they could have been formed.‘

The team included Dr Alastair Pearson and Martin Schaefer, also of the University of Portsmouth. Their research was published in the journal Antiquity.

October 2009
Over 4 days the entire hill will be illuminated in a sensational display of lighting and pyrotechnics.
Open-air artworks will be positioned around the fields below the hill and perfomers, fellrunners and hillwalkers will add to the spectacle.

Watch this space
odinsglow.co.uk/

The annual MEGALITHOMANIA CONFERENCE returns for its fourth convention of the megalithic arts and sciences at The Assembly Rooms, Glastonbury on 23rd & 24th May 2009. This year’s line-up includes Graham Hancock, Robert Temple, Christine Rhone, Michael Hodges, Robin Heath and many others. Since it’s humble beginnings in 2006, MEGALITHOMANIA has become Europe’s foremost assembly of scholars, authors and researchers on all things megalithic. The varied subjects blend academic disciplines with cutting-edge research from a variety of fields, including archaeoastronomy, geomancy, archaeoacoustics, geodesy, earth energies, navigation and geometry.

A late addition to the 2009 line-up is Robin Williamson, a master bard and storyteller, who founded The Incredible String Band. He is also a researcher of ancient myths and legends of the British Isles, and will be performing a Bardic account about the Tuatha de Danaan; notably the two battles of Moytura, the sacred megalithic complex at Sligo in Ireland. An ancient oral tradition that recounts conflicts of the ancestors at the dawn of the world, gleaned from Irish mythology. He will be presenting on Saturday afternoon and also be doing an exclusive Saturday evening concert.

Robin Heath, author of Sun, Moon & Stonehenge will be guiding full-access tours to Stonehenge and Avebury on the Friday and Monday and also presenting his groundbreaking new research on an ‘ancient national grid’ across Britain at the conference on the Sunday. On a similar note, Tom Brookes will be screening his new film about a prehistoric geodetic survey of Southern England linking earth-mounds, standing stones and other archaeological features into a coherent, scientific system that has been completely ignored by the academic fraternity. He has been studying this subject for nearly fifty years, contacted every University in Britain about his discoveries, published a book on the subject, but his conclusions has been dismissed as ‘arcane’ and simply ‘impossible’ for such a developed standard of surveying to have existed 5,000 years ago. Both Robin & Tom have hit ‘brick walls’ when presenting their findings to the academics and this is an ongoing problem encountered by many researchers; a theme that will be discussed at the event.

On the other side of the Atlantic, in the North Eastern states of America are a remarkable network of megalithic sites that, again, have been placed in the archaeological trash by the historical establishment. Hugh Newman, author of Earth Grids: The Secret Patterns of Gaia’s Sacred Sites, spent a month exploring the hundreds of ancient chambers, menhirs, dolmens and stone circles in New England, that are another stunning example of a worldwide megalithic effort to construct such sites. Even the Native Americans do not know who constructed many of these sites and there is abundant evidence that this part of the US was visited by advanced civilisations in prehistory that are remembered in many of the legends of the area. Hugh will be speaking on the Sunday morning.

One must ask who these people really were and why did they go to so much effort to construct such great megalithic temples across the entire planet that would withstand the tests of time? Find out this and much more at this year’s MEGALITHOMANIA conference. With a total of thirteen talks, a megalith-forum, tours to Stonehenge and Avebury and an extensive megalithic art exhibition it is your opportunity to officially become a Megalithomaniac!

A total of thirteen talks and one film screening are planned with book signings, a megalitho-market place and Glastonbury town on the doorstep of the venue. Tickets for the conference are £80. Field trips to Stonehenge and Avebury will take place on the Friday and Monday. Field trips are not included in the price. Call +44 1458 831800 for tickets, email [email protected] or visit megalithomania.co.uk for more details.

SCIENTISTS have unearthed what appears to be a mammoth wooden version of the famous Stonehenge monument at the Hill of Tara.

In a revealing new RTE documentary, many theories and insights into the country’s prehistoric past and 150,000 ancient monuments are unveiled and explained.

For the first time, people will be able to view a computer-generated recreation of what archaeologists believe was a major wooden structure -- a version of Britain’s Stonehenge -- at the ancient seat of the Irish high kings in the Hill of Tara in Co Meath.

Archaeologist Joe Fenwick revealed a LiDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) laser beam had been used to scan the ground surface to create a three-dimensional map, which revealed more than 30 monuments around Tara.

Using another technique -- described as taking an X-ray through the hillside -- archaeologists discovered the huge monument, a ditch stretching six metres wide and three metres deep in the bedrock.

The ditch, circling the Mound of the Hostages passage tomb, separated the outside world from the ceremonial centre of Tara.

It was believed the ancient architects had also surrounded the ditch with a massive wooden structure on each side -- a version of Stonehenge -- on a large scale. Its sheer size meant a whole forest would have had to be cleared to build it.

“In scale, it is comparable, for example, to Croke Park’s pitch. The Hill of Tara had enormous ritual significance over the course of 5,000-6,000 years, so it’s not surprising that you get monuments of the scale of the ditch pit circle,” said Mr Fenwick, from the Department of Archaeology, NUI Galway.

Cutting-edge technology is helping to provide a new insight into the lives of our ancestors, according to the documentary makers behind ‘Secrets of the Stones’.

Civilisation

It shows Ireland’s first civilisation began 7,000 years ago, they withstood major climatic changes and voyaged throughout Europe, returning with new religions and mementos.

An RTE spokesman said the broadcaster, along with the Department of Education, would be sending two free copies of the book accompanying the series to all second-level schools in the country.

The first part of the ‘Secrets of the Stones’ will be shown on RTE One at 6.30pm on Easter Monday.

- Louise Hogan

independent.ie/national-news/wood-you-believe-it-stonehenge-find-at-tara-1706040.html

Scotland’s most ancient home found – at 14,000 years old

news.scotsman.com/edinburgh/Scotlands-most-ancient-home-found.5161087.jp

Date: 10 April 2009
By Jenny Haworth
Environment Correspondent
AMATEUR archaeologists have uncovered evidence of Scotland’s oldest human settlement, dating back 14,000 years.

The team dug up tools that have been shown to date from the end of the last Ice Age.

It is the first time there has been proof that humans lived in Scotland during the upper paleolithic period.

This was a time when nomadic humans hunted giant elk and reindeer using bows and arrows, and when mammoth and rhino also roamed the land.

Flint arrowheads were discovered in a field by the Biggar Archeology Group. The tools had been made in a way that identified them as belonging to about 12,000 BC.

At that time, the North Sea was an expanse of land, around which the nomadic humans roamed. Similar tools have been found in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, but never before in Scotland.

Dr Alan Saville, a senior curator at the National Museum of Scotland, who helped identify the objects, said he was “very excited” when he saw them. “This is the breakthrough,” he said. “Now we are able to say for absolute certain that we had human settlement at that time in Scotland.”

He added: “Of course, it must be remembered that most of the North Sea was dry land at 12,000 BC, probably supporting a human population that would have links both east and west.

“But to have found our first British site of this period right in the middle of southern Scotland is remarkable.”

Previously, the earliest evidence of human habitation in Scotland was thought to be at Cramond near Edinburgh, which had been radiocarbon dated to around 8,400 BC.

Next month, the archaeologists will return to the spot at Howburn Farm, near Elsrickle, to carry out a larger excavation and see what else they can find.

Tam Ward, project leader from Biggar Museums, said he was “gobsmacked” when he found out how old the tools were.

The team led by Mr Ward, an electrician who has been an amateur archaeologist for 30 years, spotted the site when they noticed a large number of artefacts on the surface of the ploughed field.

This was in 2005, and at first it was assumed the items belonged to the neolithic period, dating to about 3,000 BC, making them far less extraordinary.

It was not until now that they have been officially identified as belonging to a far earlier age by Dr Saville and his colleagues, after they caught sight of a few particularly unusual tools in the collection.

A technique used to fashion the blades known as “en eperon” made it clear they belonged to the upper paleolithic period.

Aileen Campbell, south of Scotland MSP, said the find was “just incredible”.

“To know there is hard evidence that human beings had settled in the Biggar area some 14,000 years ago is quite inspiring, and helps put modern life into a bit of perspective,” she said.

Thursday 9th April, BBC news item about article in British Archeology Magazine:

“Archaeologists have discovered the earliest evidence of human beings ever found in Scotland.

The flints were unearthed in a ploughed field near Biggar in South Lanarkshire. ”

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7992300.stm

Heritage Action is pleased to announce the relocation of their Heritage Journal. You can link to it via Heritage Action’s main website or visit it direct at heritageaction.wordpress.com/ All previous Heritage Journal articles from March 2003 to March 2009 can also be accessed via the main website.

Though mainly British orientated, we hope our new Journal will be of interest to both the megalithic community in this country as well as those abroad. If you have any concerns over heritage issues, whether they be the outright destruction of ancient sites or the litter that is now increasingly found at those places, please let Heritage Action know and we’ll try to give your concerns as much publicity as possible. The Heritage Journal is also widening its remit from a mainly watchdog one and will now include more general news items, lecture announcements etc of megalithic or ancient site interest. Also, if you have an interesting image (old or new) a story or a personal observation that falls within the Heritage Action remit let us know and we’ll do our best to publish it.

Meanwhile, please see the Journal’s most recent features for a glimpse of things to come – ie the astonishing Bartlow Hills complex in Cambridgeshire, the fascinating connection between William Wordsworth’s second cousin, Emmeline Fisher, and the 19th century tunnelling of Silbury Hill, and the ‘activities’ of French metal detectorists in Britain.

Archaeologists say project would damage integrity of prehistoric astrological structure

Numerous prehistoric archaeological finds have been discovered around a proposed giant windfarm which the Scottish Government is said to be poised to approve.

A new publication highlights the negative impact the controversial 53-turbine Eishken windfarm would impose on the significance of the world-famous Callanish Stones complex.

Local archaeologists Margaret Curtis and her late husband Ron have extensively researched the huge Callanish complex of which the Eishken hills are a part.

Their findings, which are widely accepted by other experts, stress that Callanish is not just one stone circle but actually encompasses about 30 satellite sites in a major prehistoric astronomical observatory across the southern part of Lewis.

Their submission, entitled Callanish: Stones, Moon and Sacred Landscape, to a Scottish Government public inquiry over the £185million wind scheme has now been published.

It coincides with mounting speculation that planning permission will be announced as Enterprise Minister Jim Mather visits the Hebrides next week to discuss building windfarms and economic issues.

The Curtises calculate that many of the hills in Eishken are integral to a rare natural phenomenon which only occurs every two decades.

Instead of being linked to the sun like Stonehenge and numerous other stone circles, the Callanish landscape is now uniquely believed to be a massive astronomical observatory used to calculate the movement of the moon.

Central to the idea is a range of hills earmarked for the turbines, which resemble a woman sleeping on her back.

Last year Western Isles Council gave the go-ahead to build 13 turbines, a sub-set of a larger scheme, on Feirosbhal and Beinn Mheadhanach — two of the sites the Curtises say would harm the 5,000-year-old lunar observatory.

The size of the Eishken scheme was originally set at 133 huge machines but was slashed in a move to ease the proposal through planning and achieve speedy permission.

Building more turbines in a second phase is not ruled out.

Developer Nick Oppenheim of Beinn Mhòr Power said about 95 jobs will be created to build the scheme, but eventually only 10 staff are needed for its operation.

He will hand six sites over to a community windfarm trust established by himself, though villagers have to raise about £20million to develop their project.

One-third of the community revenues will have to be paid to a council-led Western Isles-wide development trust.

Published: 06/04/2009

pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1156810?UserKey=