Latest News

National Trust press release:

The National Trust is advising people wishing to come to Avebury for Summer Solstice this year to arrive by public transport. In order to comply with an Enforcement Notice served on the Trust by Kennet District Council, the Trust regrets that it will be unable to open its Avebury visitor car park for Summer Solstice this year as an overnight site for campervans, motorhomes or caravans.

The Enforcement Notice, which came into force on 1 January this year, obliges the Trust to stop tolerating the occupation of the car park for overnight stays at pagan observances. In order to comply with the enforcement notice the Trust has had no choice but to apply for planning permission to install a height barrier at the car park, which will prevent the entrance of caravans and motorhomes, which are specifically cited in the Enforcement Notice.

The height barrier will prevent all high-sided vehicles from entering the car park, irrespective of their use, as the Trust cannot and would not discriminate against one group of people at one particular time of year.

Brendan McCarthy, Regional Director for the National Trust commented: “While we deeply regret having to take this decision, it is the only way that we can comply with the terms of the notice. Unfortunately, there is no suitable alternative site for overnight camping this year, so we are advising people not to travel to Avebury with camper vans, motorhomes or caravans for this solstice and, due to the limited nature of car parking, to consider coming on public transport.”

“We are committed to ensuring access to Avebury for those who wish to worship at Solstice and other important times of year. We are endeavouring to remedy the camping and parking facilities for future years.”

There will be a very limited number of car parking spaces available at a charge (for vehicles under 2.1 m high) on the evening of Solstice itself, Wednesday 20 June. There will be no additional car parking for people arriving in the days before and after Solstice evening itself.

For the past ten years, until January 2007, the Trust, with the knowledge of the local planning authority, has allowed the pagan community to park their motorhomes and vans in the car park at pagan observances to alleviate the potential knock on effect of camping elsewhere in the village or within the World Heritage Site.

The National Trust is still working towards a medium-term solution to parking and camping at Avebury. The National Trust has presented its options appraisal, which includes nine potential sites identified by the Trust, to Kennet District Council with regard to the future of car parking and overnight stays during pagan observances at Avebury. The appraisal will form the basis of an ongoing consultation process with stakeholders on how best to work towards a consensual and sustainable solution to these twin issues.

Any solution needs to balance the interests of Avebury’s disparate groups as well as protect the archaeology of the World Heritage Site, minimise disruption to the village, ensure access for worship for the pagan community and conform with police concerns over traffic flows.

In the long term, the National Trust remains committed to removing vehicles from within the World Heritage Site.

Update from the Western Daily Press:

‘WARLIKE PAGANS’ UP IN ARMS AT CAR CRACKDOWN

The National Trust has called on solstice-goers to stay away from the West’s biggest stone circle this summer because of an ongoing row with council chiefs.But the new stance at Avebury in Wiltshire has sparked anger among “radical” pagan groups, and some have warned trouble could be in store for this June’s event.

National Trust chiefs say they have to abide by tough new planning regulations from council chiefs which effectively end the free-for-all in the village at solstice time.

For years local residents have complained of disruption, all-night parties, noise, anti-social behaviour, traffic and parking problems in the days either side of the important midsummer festival.

And, even though Stonehenge has been opened for the solstice night for more than five years, the popularity of Avebury has mushroomed in recent years.

Village opposition and council action has focused on the National Trust-owned car park on the edge of the village, which becomes an unofficial campsite and traveller camp for a week around the solstice. The trust has been forced to ban campervans and will probably have to ban tents too. Those new rules, and tough police action over parking, mean that it will be difficult for people to park anywhere in Avebury. So yesterday, they sent out a stark message for the first time – go by bus or do not go at all.

Trust regional director Brendan McCarthy said: “We know we can’t put a fence around Avebury or restrict access to it, but clearly the current situation can’t continue.

He said: “There are bound to be people who will come regardless, but we want the message to go out there that this car park fills up quickly, they won’t be able to stay here or park anywhere else.

“Our hands are tied by the council’s actions but we recognise the knock-on effect the solstice has on the residents here. The simple message is we’d rather thousands of people didn’t come but if they do they should come by bus,” he added.

Druid Terry Dobney, Avebury’s keeper of the stones, said radical pagans were far from happy with the move.

He said: “People decide to come for the solstice often at the last minute and I feel sorry for the spontaneous people who will find it very difficult.”

Resident and district councillor Gretchen Rawlings said: “Everyone is very concerned about what will happen at solstice time and I don’t know what the solution is. Nothing will stop people coming and it has to be properly managed.”

All sides in the dispute are now working on setting up a park-and-ride scheme for the event, and investigating a long-term solution for the years to come.

A metal-detecting novice who unearthed an “extremely important” hoard of Bronze Age artefacts has said his discovery was due to “sheer luck”.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6586331.stm

Cain Hegarty and Katherine Toms will be examining more than 15,000 aerial images of Exmoor. Cain suggests the research could double the number of sites currently on the Sites and Monuments Record.

The survey has been set up by English Heritage and will use photographs from local archives and a Cambridge University collection – with some images dating back to the 1940s.

The results “will be showcased at a forum in 2008 and plans for a book are also under discussion”.

from The Western Daily Press
westpress.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=146278&command=displayContent&sourceNode=146274&contentPK=17046115&folderPk=75999&pNodeId=146265

The Carpow logboat was discovered in the bed of the River Tay in 2001, and recovered last year. It’s the second oldest to be found in Scotland, and dates from the late Bronze Age.

The exhibition at the Laing Museum in Newburgh is a display of photographs about its discovery and excavation – the actual boat is still at the National Museum of Scotland undergoing conservation work.

The exhibition also shows other objects found in the Newburgh area including flint arrowheads, stone axeheads, pottery food vessels, and funeral urns.

The exhibition has been put together in conjunction with Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust and runs until September 30, from noon-5 p.m. daily.

Information from the Fife Herald
fifenow.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=1020&ArticleID=2229646

Laing Museum info:
fife.gov.uk/atoz/index.cfm?fuseaction=facility.display&FacId=07D6F0EA-CC4B-11D5-909E0008C7844101

Front page news from The Cumberland & Westmorland Herald 24/03/07

Unlocking Mysteries of Ancient Stone Circle

An Eden student is leading the way in unlocking the mysteries of a ‘forgotten’ ancient stone circle, Long Meg and her Daughters, near Little Salkeld.

Sarah Potter, of Yanwath, who is in the third year of a degree in archaeology at the University of Manchester, carried out the first complete geophysics survey of the stone circle over a three day period last week.

Long Meg is the third largest stone circle in Britain, following Avebury outer stone circle and Stanton Drew, in Somerset. The circle consists of 68 stones, of which 27 are still standing, and an outlier stone called Long Meg.

After being granted permission by English Heritage, Sarah used modern resistivity equipment to conduct the field work which will form the basis of a 12,000 word dissertation. Her findings will also be published in an archaeological journal next year. The Long Meg pillar, which is made of local red sandstone, is believed to have come from the source of the nearby River Eden, and all of the other stones are glacial erratics. Four of the stones are made of quartz, also known as crystal stones.

“There has never been any excavational work done on the site,” said Sarah. “It seems to have been forgotten about. There is not enough money in Cumbria for excavational work other than rescue excavation.”

But, she said, now there were some good results which would point experts in the right direction as to where to look for further clues. An excavation would enable a date to be pinpointed for the stone circle. At present it is believed that the stones were collected and erected during the Neolithic period (4000-2250 BC) – when the introduction of farming and the domestication of animals began.

The resistivity equipment which she used sends a current of electricity into the ground to receive back different readings. Dry areas, such as stone, send a different reading to moist ditch deposits.

Sarah, the daughter of Helen and Malcolm Potter, was helped by her friend, Leon Williams, from Cork, Southern Ireland, to carry out the work. She said ground conditions were perfect. “I now believe that Long Meg is no longer an outlier stone, but in fact was one of a pair of stones which flanked the entrance to the circle,” said Sarah, who is a former Ullswater Community College and Clifton Primary School pupil.

Another interesting finding which Sarah made is that there might have been a large bank which encircled the stones. Other anomalies were also found under the ground which only excavational work will be able to fully explain.

“I want to raise awareness of the vast Cumbrian prehistoric landscape which is unique to England and is comparable to the area around Stonehenge,” said Sarah

“English Heritage today welcomed the Government’s decision to grant planning permission for new visitor facilities at Stonehenge.”

Full story:
Wiltshire Times
English Heritage

Living in an age of stone – Gabriel Cooney
The Rhind Lectures for 2007. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.

27.04.2007 to 29.04.2007
Free and open to all – no ticket required

This series of Rhind lectures will examine how people lived with stone during the Neolithic in Ireland and Britain, how they engaged with this remarkable material in all its diversity, using it to make new worlds, to establish, maintain and change cultural relationships and connections across geographical space and through time. Material and case studies from stone-using societies in different parts of the world will be drawn on to provide a wider context for the discussion. It will be suggested that looking at the processes of the working of stone, the creation of things, big and small, and their uses provides us with a way of linking objects and monuments which we often tend to see as unrelated phenomena with very different senses of scale and purpose. Focusing on the way in which people engaged and worked with stone provides a new perspective and insight into cultural knowledge during the Neolithic in Ireland and Britain. Free and open to all. No ticket required. For more information, contact [email protected].

added for
Erin Osborne-Martin
Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

From the Kildare Nationalist, March 15th:

By: Ashling Mackey
It has been alleged that there were attempts to remove a dolmen at Grangebeg between Monasterevin and Kildare Town recently.

“The dolmen is under severe threat of damage due to building work that is being carried out on the site,” said Barry Walsh, secretary of the Monasterevin Historical Society.

Another member of the historical society noticed that some work was being carried out on the site last Saturday week (3 March). He went back to the site on Monday at 7am and noticed that the earthwork surrounding the dolmen had been bulldozed and the stones had been covered by hedges and trees that had been uprooted from another part of the site.

“I believe that hedges and trees had been gathered to be burned and this would have caused serious damage to the stones,” he told the Kildare Nationalist.

The concerned historian also alleges that a rath was removed from the site and is worried that another site of archaeological interest close by could also be in danger.

“I contacted the council offices when they opened at 9am and they sent out an enforcement officer from the planning department at 11am,” he said.

According to Barry Walsh: “Work stopped immediately on the site and as far as I am aware work is still suspended.” On Tuesday, when the men returned to the site, all the shrubbery had been cleared away, but it appeared that there had been some damage done to the stones. Members of the historical society feel that the dolmen should be restored to its original position. “We would also like to see a public access route to it and a protective fence put around it,” said Mr Walsh. “It is important to protect it as there aren’t many in Kildare and it could be developed as a tourist attractions.”

May the fairies get them for their lack of respect.

Perhaps someone knows the grid reference of the stones that this refers to?

Saturday 6th October 2007

Appleby Archaeology Group Autumn Conference – People and the Land Settlement in the Eden Valley: Prehistoric to Present Day at Appleby Grammar School. Event takes place between 9.30am and 4pm. Contact Harry Hawkins on 01768 864340.

Saturday 21st July 2007

A visit to Two Cumbrian Henges with Helen Caffrey. Event takes place at Eamont Bridge, near Penrith. Henges are circular ceremonial sites dating from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. Find out more about these impressive structures as you explore King Arthur’s Round Table (reasonably accessible to those with limited mobility) and Mayburgh. To book a place on this free tour of these sites contact Lancaster University on 01524 592623/4. Early booking advisable.

Saturday 28th April 2007

Aspects of Prehistoric Cumbria – CNWRS study day to be held at Penrith Methodist Church, Wordsworth Street, Penrith in conjunction with the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society. Various speakers including Dr Aubrey Burl who will speak about Cumbrian Stone Circles – Are they Really? and Professor Mark Edmonds of University of York who will talk about The Neolithic in the Central Fells. Event takes place between 9am and 5pm. Follow the link at the bottom of the page for further information and booking details.

cumbria.gov.uk/planning-environment/countryside/historic-environment/events.asp

Latest RC dating on skull reveals that the man died around 2150 BCE;

edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=401752007

FOR more than a century the skull has lain in storage as part of the national museum collection.

But now radiocarbon testing has established the remains – discovered in a stone box grave in Edinburgh by 19th century workmen – are hundreds of years older than anyone realised.

It has become clear the skull belonged to a Bronze Age man who lived in the area which almost 4000 years later became Juniper Green.

The discovery has added a new dimension to the area’s 300th anniversary celebrations this year.

The skull was found in a carefully-constructed cist, or stone box grave, during excavations in 1851. It was handed over to archaeologists at the time and ever since has been kept in a collection which became part of the National Museum of Scotland. However, no-one realised the significance of the find, until now, with little known about the precise age of the skull.

The discovery of its great age came after it was chosen to take part in a £500,000 international research project using modern dating technology.

Radiocarbon dating was carried out on the skull by the museum and the results revealed the man died between the ages of 40 and 55 around the year 2150BC.

Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis at Leipzig University in Germany has revealed more about the man, including that his diet was high in animal protein, although he didn’t eat fish.

Work is continuing at the university in the hope of shedding more light on Bronze Age life in the area.

The discovery has already established the likelihood of a previously unknown settlement in the Juniper Green area.

Dr Alison Sheridan, head of early prehistory at the National Museum of Scotland’s archaeology department, said: “It is fascinating that within all the celebrations of Juniper Green’s past we have been able to confirm that there was life in the area long before the village was formed.

“We are certain that he lived in the area – he was bound to have. We know that Bronze Age cemeteries and settlements were pretty close but nobody has found the settlement yet.”

It was one of 250 skulls being studied as part of the Beaker People Project being run between Sheffield and Leipzig universities and the Museum of Scotland.

It was originally found in 1851 in a house which is now the Scotts butcher shop on Lanark Road.

Professors at Leipzig are now awaiting results of strontium and oxygen tests on the enamel of the skull’s back teeth to see whether the man was born in the area.

The revelation about Juniper Green’s history is an important addition to the understanding of Edinburgh’s Bronze Age past.

It means that it joins a growing number of sites where Bronze Age activity has been noted, including Cramond, Traprain Law, Broomhouse and Huly Hill.

Archaeologists date the earliest inhabitants of the Lothians – and Scotland – to 8000 BC following the discovery of a Mesolithic house in East Barns, near Dunbar.

The dating of the skull has left residents in Juniper Green taken aback, especially at the butchers shop that it was first found at.

Colin Hanlon, owner of Scotts, said: “It’s a huge shock that there were people here all that time ago.

“The whole community is alive with all this at the moment – everyone’s talking about it. We may arrange something to celebrate that it was here that the village’s oldest resident was found.”

Prof Cliff Beevers, who set up the Juniper Green 300 website and has been arranging many of the celebratory events, said: “We are all delighted to hear that there is evidence of people living here 4000 years ago – not just 300 like we thought. We are building up a living memory of the village and this discovery is a great help in doing that.”

Dr Sheridan will present her findings in a presentation at Juniper Green Parish Church at 7.30pm on Thursday.

A 200-YEAR-OLD tree at the centre of worship by druids and witches has been chopped down to size after it became diseased.

The 80ft beech at Winterbourne Abbas has been reduced to a 10-metre stump by English Heritage because of fears it would die and fall over.

The tree has become a dominant feature at the site, famous for the ancient stone circle standing beneath its branches.

More here
dorsetecho.co.uk/display.var.1254034.0.0.php?utag=34317

Bones found at a prehistoric burial site indicate they belonged to victims of an ancient massacre, say scientists.
Remains of 14 people were discovered at Wayland’s Smithy, near Uffington White Horse, Oxfordshire, in the 1960s.

Latest techniques date the bones at between 3590 BC and 3560 BC, and have led experts to believe the people may have died in a Neolithic Age massacre.

English Heritage carried out the work with the help of Cardiff University and the University of Central Lancashire.

Michael Wysocki of the University of Central Lancashire says the findings suggest the Neolithic Age was more violent than previously thought.

This dating programme demands a revolution in our thinking about prehistory.
Alex Bayliss, English Heritage

The victims – three of them probably killed by arrows – could have died in a rush for land or livestock, he added.

He said: “We know one person was shot through the lower abdomen because we have found the tiny tip of a flint arrowhead embedded in their pelvic bone.

“We also know that the bodies of two people were scavenged and partially dismembered by dogs or wolves before their remains were buried in the monument.

“All this new evidence suggests that the period between 3625 BC and 3590 BC may have been one of increasing social tension and upheaval.”

The research also indicates that the use of Neolithic long barrows was short-lived – and did not take place over hundreds of years as previously thought.

English Heritage radiocarbon dating expert Alex Bayliss said: “With this research, we can now think about the Neolithic period in terms of individuals and communities and make useful and revealing comparisons between their choices and behaviour in the remote past.

“This dating programme demands a revolution in our thinking about prehistory and not just that of early Neolithic burial monuments in southern Britain.”

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/6439401.stm

Archaeologists have found traces of a Roman settlement at a 5,000-year-old landmark man-made hill in Wiltshire.

English Heritage believes there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago.

The 130ft Neolithic mound near Avebury – one of Europe’s largest prehistoric monuments – is thought to have been created some 3,000 years earlier.

Experts carrying out a project to stabilise the hill say the site may have been a sacred place of pilgrimage.

Human activity
English Heritage geophysicist Dr Neil Linford said: “We are really excited by this discovery because we had no idea that a Roman village of such a size lay this close to Silbury Hill.”

The evidence suggests the Roman community was based on an area the size of 24 football pitches at the base of the hill.

The find was made using caesium magnetometers which can detect changes in the ground’s magnetic field caused by human activity.

The settlement was on the road from London to Bath, which is the modern-day A4, where it crossed the Winterbourne river.

Stopover?
English Heritage regional director Dr Bob Bewley says it will be “exciting” to try to find out more about the Roman presence.

“Without further investigation it is difficult to say, but it could be that what we have here is something like a roadside village, where Roman travellers would have changed horses and stayed overnight on the way to Bath, but also a place of pilgrimage focused on the hill,” he said.

Mystery surrounds why the hill, where stabilisation work will take place from May to September, was built in the first place.

Heavy rains in May 2000 caused substantial damage to the hill, with the collapse of an 18th century shaft.

From the BBC website >>

The oldest solar observatory in the Americas has been found, suggesting the existence of early, sophisticated Sun cults, scientists report.
It comprises of a group of 2,300-year-old structures, known as the Thirteen Towers, which are found in the Chankillo archaeological site, Peru.

The towers span the annual rising and setting arcs of the Sun, providing a solar calendar to mark special dates.

The story on the beeb

Saturday 10 March 2007, 9:50am-4.30pm
Durham County Council’s Archaeology Department will be holding its 3rd Annual Conference. The day will offer talks on recent archaeological discoveries, community excavations, recording and research. There will be talks on the following subjects:
• Hannah Wiggens, Durham County Council – County Durham Historic Landscape Characterisation project
• David Mason, Durham County Council – The Peter Scott excavations at Piercebridge Roman Fort
• Martin Roberts, English Heritage – Middridge Grange – historic farm building and Grade 1 listed building
• Richard Annis, Archaeological Serives Durham University – Excavations at East Park Sedgefield 2006
• Richard Hewitt, Archaeological Research Services – Archaeological Assessment of the aggregate producing areas of the County Durham Magnesium Limestone plateau
• Robin Taylor-Wilson, Pre-Construct Archaeology – Roman Chester-le-Street
• David Butler, Local Historian – Aykley Heads House, Durham
Tickets must be purchased in advance and are now on sale. Tickets cost £8.50 (the cost has increased slightly this year due to increases in catering costs) and will include a buffet lunch and tea and coffee in the morning and afternoon. There will be stalls in the Durham Room during the morning tea break and lunch which will include local historical and archaeological societies as well as bookstalls.

durham.gov.uk/durhamcc/usp.nsf/pws/Archaeology+2001+-+Archaeology+News+and+Events

From an article published on the BBC News web site on 27th February 2007:

A drink of milk was off the menu for Europeans until only a few thousand years ago, say researchers from London.

Analysis of Neolithic remains, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests no European adults could digest the drink at that time.

Read the full article...

An Iron Age boat found when Poole Harbour was dredged in the 1960s is nearly ready for display after extensive conservation work overseen by York Archaeological Trust. You can visit it when the Poole Museum reopens in June. From the

Just before Christmas the Wiltshire Archaelogical and Natural History Society, which maintains the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, library and gallery in Devizes, heard from the county council that their grant for 2006/7 (£24,500) would not be renewed in 2007/8. One of the oldest of its type in the country, the society was founded in 1853 and has been at its current premises since 1873. Its Stourhead Collection, finds from excavations around Stonehenge by William Cunnington and Richard Colt Hoare, is recognised as one of the most outstanding groups of prehistoric artefacts in Britain. The society said the grant withdrawal threatened the future of the museum.

From British Archaeology March/April 2007

ROME – It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.

“As far as we know, it’s unique,” Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. “Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging.”

The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.

Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site’s age and how old the two were when they died, she said.

Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome’s National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum, said double prehistoric burials are rare — especially in such a pose — but some have been found holding hands or having other contact.

The find has “more of an emotional than a scientific value.” But it does highlight how the relationship people have with each other and with death has not changed much from the period in which humanity first settled in villages and learning to farm and tame animals, he said.

“The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society,” he said. “It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed.”

The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, possibly an indication of sudden and tragic death, Bondioli said.

“It’s rare for two young people to die at the same time, and that makes us want to know why and who they were, but it will be very difficult to find out.”

He said DNA testing could determine whether the two were related, “but that still leaves other hypotheses; the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ possibility is just one of many.”

Full story: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070207/ap_on_sc/italy_prehistoric_love_7;_ylt=AtzuwCQvG_OH.iwT.ih6MTIiANEA
and more at: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_on_sc/italy_prehistoric_love;_ylt=Agb1NwCd0bnoMrKkLO67grRxieAA
(both include slideshow and video links!)

The English Heritage exhibition traces the importance of aerial photography to archaeology through photographs dating back to 1906.

The exhibition is in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes, Wiltshire up until 18th February.

Entry is free.

Wiltshire Heritage Museum

Tel 01380 727369

My latest issue of the Cornwall Archeological Societys newsletter has a nice feature on the work of the Cornish Ancient Sites Protection Network. cornishancientsites.com/index.html
They have a number of site clearence days coming up througout the year (see website) which I might try to make and are also working to erect boulders at the entrances to sites with engraved phone numbers on them to ring to report vandalism or damage and also info about respecting sites.

Full marks to them!

Archaeologists say they have found a huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge.
Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument, uncovered remains of ancient houses.

People seem to have occupied the sites seasonally, using them for ritual feasting and funeral ceremonies.

In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain.

The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC, the same period that Stonehenge was built.

“In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards,” said archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

He said he based this on the fact that houses have exactly the same layout as Neolithic houses at Skara Brae in Orkney, which have survived intact because – unlike these dwellings – they were made of stone.

The researchers have excavated eight dwellings in total that belonged to the Durrington settlement. But they have identified many other probable dwellings using geophysical surveying equipment.

The archaeologists think there could have been at least one hundred houses.

Each one would have measured about 5m (16ft) square: “fairly pokey”, according to Professor Parker Pearson.

Full story >

The Iron Age man (usually found at the British Museum) should be around “between April next year and March 2009 and the museum wants to hear the views of local people on how the remains should be displayed. A museum spokesman said: “We are particularly interested to reflect a range of different points of view in our interpretation of the body, including those of archaeologists, museum curators, and special interest groups as well as members of the public. “We will not be telling one story, but looking at Lindow Man from many different perspectives. We are very interested, for example, in gathering evidence of how Lindow Man is important to the local community.”

The spokesman said: “We would be very interested to hear from members of the public who have particular memories about Lindow Man, either because they live near the site where he was found or because they remember coming to see him on display at the Manchester Museum, or for some other reason.”

Anyone who wants to share thoughts and memories of Lindow Pete should email the museum at: mailto:[email protected] You should get in touch before February 10. ”

From the Manchester Evening News
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/234/234533_lindow_man_comes_home_to_his_roots.html