Latest News

The south Dorset Ridgeway project was launched in Portesham village hall. The three year project aims to protect historic monuments affected by erosion over the last forty years. The cash comes from the heritage lottery fund.

Just found a report from this weekend regarding new carvings found at Achnabreck after a recent storm.

New carvings found at Achnabreck

High Court action seeks to protect site near Tara
Irish Examiner – 06 February 2008
By Dan Buckley

A HIGH COURT action was launched yesterday aimed at protecting the Lismullin national monument near Tara. The action is being taken by Gordon Lucas, who is seeking to enforce EU directives on national monuments.
He is seeking an injunction and a declaration that the National Monuments Act 2004 is in breach of EU law. Lismullin was declared one of the top 10 most important archaeological discoveries in 2007 by Archaeology magazine, published by the Archaeological Institute of America. The Hill of Tara has also been placed on the 2008 list of 100 most endangered sites by the World Monuments Fund.

Last year, archaeologists working on the route of the motorway stumbled on a vast Iron Age ceremonial enclosure, or henge, surrounded by two walls. The 2,000-year-old site is about 2km from the Hill of Tara. The discovery of the henge, measuring about 260ft in diameter, confirmed the long-held belief that the area contains a rich complex of monuments. The extent of archaeological remains on the Hill of Tara — burial mounds, religious enclosures, stone structures, and rock art dating from the third millennium BC to the 12th century AD — makes it Ireland’s most spiritually and archaeologically significant site.

Lismullin and other sites that stand in the way of the new motorway are now approved for destruction. Although archaeologists are rallying support worldwide for the protection of the Hill of Tara, the iconic site remains in great peril, according to the lobbying group Tara Watch. The European Commission has initiated legal action against the Government over the M3, charging Ireland with failing to protect its own heritage.

A Red C opinion poll has found that almost two-thirds (62%) of Irish adults agree that the current format set down for the M3 is wrong, and that alternatives should be found to protect the heritage sites. More than half (58%) support a proposed heritage park solution, while 31% agree they would prefer to keep the M3 running through the valley as already agreed.

Vincent Salafia of protest group TaraWatch said: “This is a parallel case to the case being taken against Ireland by the European Commission, which states the Irish government is in breach of EU law. Work should cease immediately within the Tara archaeological complex, until this matter is resolved. “It is ironic that the Irish government is pushing its citizens to adopt the Lisbon Treaty, while they flatly refuse to obey current EU law with regards to protection of the environment and the national monument at Lismullin,” said Mr Salafia.

Hi Folks,

This year’s Rock Art Meeting (RAM’08), hosted by Richard Stroud, will be held on the Sunday, the 18th of May 2008.

Here’s a link to the RAM paper which will give you further information about the meeting place and targets for the day:
tinyurl.com/2u78be

We are looking forward to meet you all!

In a rare undertaking, archaeologists are planning to disassemble a portion of this site dating to about 2000 BC. Much of the stonework is threatened by coastal erosion so that salvaging and reconstruction of certain ruins is proposed for this burnt mound site. At stake is the preservation of one of the world’s oldest prehistoric stone water heaters. ....Read the full story by Gavin Morgan in The Shetland News.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/7223230.stm

Ron Cowell, the curator of prehistoric archaeology at Liverpool Museum, describes the finds of prehistoric flints and burnt hazelnuts. They’re an unusual discovery because of their lowland location. The site will be buried by a new link road for J6 on the M62 near Huyton. There’ll be a museum display of all the artefacts found.

From The Architects’ Journal:

English Heritage (EH) has confirmed it is looking at resuscitating previous visitor-centre proposals following the recent demise of Denton Corker Marshall’s (DCM) £67 million scheme.

A spokeswoman for EH told the AJ: ‘We are looking at all the old schemes and a [Cullinan] scheme is a possibility.

She added: ‘We have to move fast and we are looking at what we already have.‘

Robin Nicholson, practice director at Edward Cullinan Architects, said: ‘As soon as the other scheme (DCM) began to move into the sand we wrote to EH saying to them that there was no doubt that Larkhill is the best site – whoever does it.

‘The site is 1km north of the stones and the great thing is that you can see Stonehenge from the roof of the building but you can’t see the building from the stones.

EH wants the centre to be up and running by 2012 to cater for the expected invasion of tourists arriving on the back of the London Olympics. EH will have ‘critical meetings in late January and February’ with stakeholders and representatives from UNESCO.

The full article

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 28th January 2008:

The remains of an Iron Age man found in a peat bog are leaving the British Museum for the first time in 17 years.

Lindow Man was found in a Cheshire marsh in 1984, nearly 2,000 years after his horrific death.

Chemicals in the bog preserved the body and researchers found his throat was slit and he was garrotted, possibly as a sacrificial victim.

Lindow Man is being moved from London to the Manchester Museum, on long-term loan, and will be displayed from April.

Read the full article...

Both these temples were closed on 5th November 2007 for conservation works. Heritage Malta’s website says until approx May 2008; the signs at the temples themselves are “for the foreseeable future”. The project, funded by the ERDF, is to erect shelters over the temples and construct a new visitors’ centre.

Jan 2008 – locals commented that there appeared to be very little activity around the sites and the general consensus of opinion is that they will not be open in May.

If these are essential to your visit, please check with Heritage Malta heritagemalta.org/index.html

Tom Peirce found the axe heads (over 260 of them) on farmland near Swanage. They were in three locations 50m apart. Wessex Archaeology have since been excavating the site.
There’s a photo of some of them at
dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=509542&in_page_id=1770&ito=1490
on the Daily Mail website.

The latest excavations at Lismullin revealed part of a large stone monument, or megalith, decorated with engravings dating to the Late Stone Age or about 4000 BC. Unearthed 50 meters from the temple, the megalith manifests a series of zigzags, concentric circles, and arcs. Archaeologist Mary Deevy asserted this megalith was likely a “curbstone from a passage tomb”. Read the full story by James Owen in National Geographic News.

Well would you wicca that.
A sneak peak at 2008 shows lots of weekend events under a big full moon..
August has both a Solar and Lunar Partial eclipse.

Feb : Fri 1st – Imbolc sunrise 07:39 set 16:48

March : Thur 20th – Vernal Equinox 05:48
Fri 21th – Full Moon 18:40 gmt (Good Friday)
Mon 24th – Easter Monday
Sun – 30th BST starts

May : Thur 1st – Beltane sunrise 05:31 set 20:24 bst
Mon 5th – Dark Moon 13:18 (Bank Holiday)
Tues 20th – Full Moon 03:11 bst

June : Wed 18th – Full Moon 18:30 bst
Fri 20th – Solstice sat 21 00:50 bst – Sunrise 04:43 set 21:21 bst

July : Fri 18th – Full Moon 08:59 bst

August : Fri 1st – Dark Moon 11:13
Fri 1st – Lammas – Partial eclipse of sun 09:04 till 13:38 bst
Sat 2nd – Lammas Games – no start or end time but most of afternoon
Sat 16th – Full Moon 22:16 Partial eclipse 20:36 til 00:45 sun morn bst
Mon 25th Bank Holiday Monday (Spirit Camp no.2 at Barbury Castle)
Sat 30th – Dark Moon 20:58

September : Mon 15th – Full Moon 10:13 bst
Mon 22nd – Autumn Equinox 16:44 bst

October : Tues 14th – Full Moon 21:02 bst
Sun 26th – bst ends
Tues 28th – Dark Moon 23:12
Fri 31th – Sahain sun rises 06:52 sets 16:34

December : Fri 12th – Full Moon 16:37 gmt
Sun 21st – Winter Solstice 12:04 sunrise 08:04 sets 15:54

For the full year – check out the Avebury pagan events calendar

Archaeology in Tipperary Seminar

19th January 10.00 am – 5.00 pm

In association with its exhibition Earthern Banks and Broken Walls, South Tipperary County Museum will host a one day seminar on Archaeology in South Tipperary. This seminar will outline and highlight some recent, current and on-going projects in archaeology in the County. Topics will include recent road projects and the Tipp Archaeological Survey amongst others.

Venue:
The Clonmel Park Hotel, The Poppyfield
Admission Free – all welcome
Contact: Julia Walsh. South Tipp Museum.
Tel: 052 34562 or email: [email protected]

The new prehistoric galleries are open – a limited amount of lovely things on show although sadly they seem smaller than they did previously.

A brief resume of all that has happened regarding the destruction of this rather precious site. The ‘trial’ of the eleven protestors will take place on the 28th January 2008.

indymedia.ie/article/85637

The label “national disgrace” has for too long been attached to our national icon. But now the failure to deal with it after so many years is creating the appearance of a national humiliation.

The most recent scheme (the Stonehenge Project) was cancelled by the government in December 2007. Quite properly in our view since it aimed to improve the immediate setting of the stones but at the cost of vast collateral damage to the wider surrounding landscape and was consequently strongly opposed by most archaeological and heritage bodies. (For more, see our previous Summary and our Journal article, Stonehenge Saved). The government has also made clear that no other large scale schemes are to be considered.

However, this means the way is now clear for the programme of smaller-scale but urgently needed improvements long called for by the Stonehenge Alliance, Save Stonehenge and others. We have termed it Achievable Stonehenge......

heritageaction.org/?page=heritagealerts_stonehenge

Historian Alan Brydon has been instrumental in protecting the Midshiels site which dates back to approximately 2000 BC. Midshiels, which comprises a standing stone and an ancient burial mound, were under threat due to ScottishPower’s renewal of power lines and poles in the area. Due to Brydon’s quick response a compromise has been reached on the power line geometrics, which is expected to result in sparing or minimising impacts to Midshiels....Read the complete Dec. 20, 2007 news article in the Hawick News by Graham Ford.

A new structure has been discovered beneath beach sands on Westray in the Orkney Islands at the Links of Noltland. This Neolithic find is constructed with dressed stone and was clearly intended to look impressive from the outside. Dating to approximately 2000 BC, the building is quite different from most Bronze Age structures in this region......Read the full article by Caroline Lewis.

heritageireland.ie/en/Solstice2007/

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 7th December 2007:

A 29,000-year-old skeleton is being displayed in Wales for the first time since it was discovered in a Gower cave in the 1820s.

The Red Lady of Paviland, actually the remains of a young male, is the earliest formal human burial to have been found in western Europe.

It is going on show on Saturday at the National Museum in Cardiff.

Artefacts also include a 13th Century figure of Christ, Bronze Age jewellery, a Viking sword guard and a Roman cup.

All were found at various locations throughout Wales and are brought together for the first time for the exhibition Origins: In Search of Early Wales.

Read the full article...

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7130666.stm

“No-one with any sense wanted a tunnel, a flyover, a dual carriageway, and two whacking great interchanges here”

Chris Woodford, Save Stonehenge spokesman

English Heritage said it is very disappointed plans for a 2.1km bored tunnel taking traffic away from Stonehenge have been shelved.
The announcement, made in a parliamentary statement, concluded the £540m for the proposed tunnel scheme could not be justified.

English Heritage said it was encouraged the setting of the stones and a visitor centre were still a priority.

The cost of the 2.1km-long (1.3 mile) scheme had soared from £223m.
After careful consideration, we have now concluded that, due to significant environmental constraints across the whole of the World Heritage Site, there are no acceptable alternatives to the 2.1km bored tunnel scheme.

“The government recognises the importance of the A303 Stonehenge improvement scheme and that the announcement would come as a considerable disappointment for the project’s supporters.”

He said the Highways Agency would investigate possible small-scale improvements to the A303 as part of its overall stewardship of the route.
The tunnel scheme was deemed the best alternative scheme for an area which suffers major traffic hold-ups.

The decision was welcomed by the Save Stonehenge organisation.

Spokesman Chris Woodford said that only a 1.3-mile section of the proposed 7.7-mile route would have been underground and that the decision “was the only sensible outcome”.

“Christmas has come early for Stonehenge. No-one with any sense wanted a tunnel, a flyover, a dual carriageway, and two whacking great interchanges here.

“It’s just not acceptable to build 1950s-style motorways in places like this anymore,” he said.

Denise Carlo, of the Campaign for Better Transport (formerly Transport 2000), said: “We’ve been saying for years that the plan to build a tunnel and road through the Stonehenge World Heritage Site would be an environmental and financial disaster.”

But shadow transport secretary Theresa Villiers said: “Stonehenge’s World Heritage status will be in jeopardy if this problem remains unsolved.”

Ms Villiers said the United Nations’ cultural arm Unesco had called on the government in July to explain its lack of progress on the scheme, which was announced in 1998.

“Why has this government taken 10 years only to come back to square one? This is one of the most notorious traffic bottlenecks in the country, it impacts on great swathes of the south west who will feel betrayed by this announcement.

“One of our greatest cultural icons has been left in limbo for a decade as a result of this government’s total inability to make a decision or deliver on their very clear promises.”

First Tara.. and now the welsh assembley has followed suit by sneaking through the distruction of one of the most sacred sites on anglesey.
2km from Holyhead is Ty Mawr and Trefignath and surrounding tombs and circles.
Excavators are currently ploughing up the area so as to build a buisness park on the site.
Three archioligists are struggling to record the newly unearthed cyst tombs being discovered on a site orientated to the western sunset.
Please write to the welsh assembley and try to get this work halted.

Govt fails to protects our heritage at Tara again

Yet another find over the past few days of Neolitihic underground chambers has been made at Tara and which have been kept from public knowledge by the Government and the road contractors. For more details see the brief report below.
A team of activists over the past few days have uncovered the remains of 6 chambers at the souterrain (underground pit) beside the Lismullen Henge, but due now only 2 to 3 chambers remain.

In one of the chambers, there is still a good bit of the passage which is quite long and zigzags connecting the chambers. The flagstone is Neolithic and may have been recycled from the souterrain which are often lined with such flagstones. There is also rock art and it has two interconnected circles and above a line of zigzags. This is similar to the types of designs one would see in NewGrange. All of this raises the very strong possibility that the whole area is very significant and has other findings yet to be demolished for the sake of the motorway.

Mechanical diggers are working on this site for the next few weeks. This is how the government now looks upon our great heritage.

For pictures follow the link
indymedia.ie/article/85303&comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false#comment214378

Winterbourne Stoke’s bypass is also threatened
Plans for a tunnel taking traffic away from Stonehenge are likely to be scrapped within days.
The BBC has learned the government believes the tunnel’s cost of £510m is too expensive.

Transport correspondent Paul Clifton said an announcement was due next week which will “almost certainly spell the end of the tunnel”.

He said Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly would announce another review of the options, the 10th such review to date.

ALTERNATIVES TO THE TUNNEL
A northern route – which would have a junction with the A360 then go south of Larkhill and rejoin A303 at the Countess roundabout at Amesbury. It would involve a cut-and-cover tunnel
A southern route – which would have a junction with the A360 then go south of Stonehenge before rejoining the A303
A cut-and-cover tunnel – like the first tunnel scheme – but closer to the surface than a bored tunnel
A partial solution – which would include closing the A344 at its junction with the A303 and offer options for the end of the Winterbourne Stoke bypass

English Heritage has refused to comment on the story until the government makes an official announcement.

A Department of Transport spokesperson would only say: “An announcement will be made in due course”.

The 1.3 mile (2.09km) tunnel was recommended after a public inquiry in 2004 but was put on hold by the Department for Transport (DfT) when its costs rose to £510m.

The DfT insisted on re-examining some of the options the public inquiry ruled out.

Four options to protect the World Heritage site and provide a bypass for the nearby village of Winterbourne Stoke had previously been unveiled by the Highways Agency in February 2006.

They included a “cut and cover” tunnel, which is cheaper than a deep-bore passage and involves creating a shallow channel and covering it with a roof and a bypass to the north or south and changes to the Countess Roundabout.

News the tunnel is now unlikely to be built has a knock-on effect for the people of Winterbourne Stoke which has the A303 as its main street and had been promised a bypass as part of the wider plan.

Councillor Ian West, who lives in the village, said: “We should be challenging them now to disconnect the two objects because Winterbourne Stoke is still suffering from over 30,000 vehicles a day thundering through it.

“We went through the public inquiry and there were no contentious issues on the line so what we want now is it disconnected then let’s do Winterbourne Stoke and they can argue about Stonehenge for another century if they wish.”

To date the total amount spent on the A303 Stonehenge Improvement from the time the scheme entered the roads programme in the late 1990s is £19m.

The cost of the public inquiry which was held in 2004 was £3m.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7103371.stm

High tides and winds that have battered our shores have unearthed a burial mystery for archaeologists.

Erosion by the sea and weather has revealed what seems to be the remains of a Bronze Age child.

But what puzzled archaeologists was a layer of hard white material which appears to have been moulded around the body, like a casing.

More at the following link....

dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=493609&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow