Protestors who have been camping on the Hill of Tara since the Summer Solstice on June 21, have been ordered to leave by the Office of Public Works (OPW), according to protest group TaraWatch.
From BreakingNews.ie
breakingnews.ie/2006/07/14/story267769.html
“An excavation on the town’s earliest known settlement began this week as the Marlow Archaeological Society (MAS) attempted to find out more about our ancestors in the Thames Valley.”
Plans to build a new visitor centre, with its own rail link, at Stonehenge have been approved by councillors.
English Heritage’s original application was refused by Salisbury District Council amid fears a rail link would damage the environment.
But after an appeal, planners on Monday approved the scheme with conditions.
The development cannot start until the government has sanctioned improvements to the nearby A303, including a tunnel through the Wiltshire countryside.
World heritage site
Councillor Mike Hewitt said the plans had met with some opposition.
“None of us like the application 100%, but it is the best we have got at the moment,” he said.
“The current visitor centre is not a good advertisement for the UK. It is cramped and there is nowhere to shelter from the rain.
“After all, it is a world heritage site, one of those things you are supposed to see before you die and if you went down there you’d wonder what we were expecting people to pay for.”
Radio Orkney reports that a socketed bronze axe-head was found a few months ago whilst digging in the Highland Park peats in the Hobbister area of Orphir. This LBA artefact is [believed to be] the first of its kind from Orkney.
Story and pics orkneyjar.com/archaeology/socketedaxe.htm
PRESS RELEASE
TaraWatch
29 June 2006
‘Chief Justice Postpones Setting Hearing Date for Hill of Tara M3 Case‘
The setting of a hearing date in the Hill of Tara / M3 motorway case was postponed today by the Chief Justice, the Hon. Mr. Justice John Murray. He said he will set a hearing date after written submissions were received by The Attorney General, The Minister for the Environment, Meath County Council, and the National Roads Authority, due on 24th July.
Gerard Hogan, SC, Counsel for the Appellant, Mr. Vincent Salafia, asked for an early hearing date to be set, since he had given undertakings in the High Court that he would do so.
Chief Justice Murray questioned whether there was any urgency in the case, since there is no injunction in place and no stoppage of works.
Counsel for Meath County Council argued that there as a “considerable shadow” hanging over the project in relation to the public private partnership contract, which cannot be signed until the matter is through the courts.
This morning Chief Justice Murray also set a date of July 28th for
delivery of judgment in the Carrickmines Castle case, which has been postponed a number of times already. The judgment in this case will have a significant impact on the Tara proceedings, since it will address whether or not there is a constitutional duty on the Government to protect the national heritage. Justice Laffoy had stated in her High Court opinion that there was in fact a “constitutional imperative” to protect these assets.
ENDS
PRESS RELEASE
TaraWatch
29 June 2006
‘Early Supreme Court Hearing Date Sought in Hill of Tara / M3
Motorway Case‘
The first appearance before the Supreme Court for the Hill of Tara / M3
motorway case will take place Thursday, 29th June, at 11.00AM.
The case of Vincent Salafia -v- Minister for the Environment, Heritage
and Local Government; The Attorney General; Meath County Council and
the National Roads Authority is being appealed from the High Court
decision of Mr Justice Thomas Smyth, wherein he denied relief to Mr.
Salafia in March 2006.
Mr Salafia is judicially reviewing the Directions given my Minister
Dick Roche in May 2005, under the National Monuments Act 2004, in
relation to excavation and demolition of 38 archaeological sites, along
one of five sections of the M3, between Navan and Dunshaughlin.
Mr Salafia is claiming that the Directions, along with the Act, are
unconstitutional and that the M3 motorway passes through the Tara
national monument, as well as associated national monuments.
Counsel for the Petitioner, Mr. Salafia; Gerard Hogan, SC; Frank
Callanan, SC; and Colm MacEochaidh, BL, will be seeking an early
hearing in the case.
Mr Salafia said:
“There has been no delay in the M3 caused by this case, as
archaeological works are proceeding as planned and are due to be
completed in early 2007.
“We are anxious to have the legality of the works determined as quickly
as possible, so as to avoid any unnecessary delays or costs.”
English Heritage plans for a new Stonehenge visitor centre are being recommended for approval.
Salisbury District Council had refused the original plans amid fears a train to ferry visitors to the site would damage the environment.
There were also concerns about whether the nearby A303 would be upgraded.
The plans have been resubmitted following an appeal and a final decision on the centre will be made by the council on 10 July.
Planning officials have advised the council they can make approval of the visitor centre conditional on improvements to the A303 going ahead.
1,000 comments
A consultation period is now complete and the plans will go before a special meeting of the council for comment on 4 July before another meeting is held for a final decision six days later.
At both meetings – to be held at 1630 BST at Amesbury Sports Centre – time will be set aside for the public to have their say.
When it received the original planning application in September 2004, more than 1,000 comments were received from members of the public.
Since the application was resubmitted in April a further 77 comments have been received.
All comments received since 2004, along with the views of statutory consultees, will feature in a report going to both committees.
When the planning and regulatory committee has made its decision, the government can choose to refer the decision to a public inquiry.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/5114602.stm
“Construction work begins on Monday and volunteers are invited to help and also learn about archaeological theory on roundhouse design.
Throughout the building work, which is due to be completed by the end of July, there will be a series of walks and talks for families, schools and colleges to find out more about the project.”
Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is the broadest range of elaborately decorated prehistoric pottery ever found in Scotland, at the site for the new Kincardine Bridge. Other finds included ceremonial and working axes made with stone from the Ochil Hills.
The finds demonstrate just how far the River Forth has receded, as the “highly cultivated” site, which is three-quarters of a mile inland, was once on the waterfront.
see the rest of the article by George Mair at the Scotsman.com
news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=900472006
“Kingship & Sacrifice” will be officially opened by Arts Minister John O’Donoghue this afternoon at the Museum of Ireland in Dublin.
It’ll include the recently found bog bodies from Oldcroghan, Co Offaly and Clonycavan, Co Meath.
Admission is free. There’s a tour on the 24th June from 14:00-15:00.
museum.ie/index.asp
(spotted at online.ie
online.ie/News/News.aspx?newsId=385385
The next meeting of the Bronze Age Forum will be hosted by the School of Archaeology, University College Dublin. The meeting is open to anyone with an interest in the Bronze Age archaeology of Ireland, Britain and our nearest Continental neighbours.
Date 17-19 November 2006
Further information regarding the meeting will be made available soon at: www.ucd.ie/archaeology/groups/BronzeAgeForum
A quarry company yesterday confirmed it is to challenge the rejection of controversial plans to extract sand and gravel from land close to a 5,000-year-old monument site.
Tarmac Northern employs 15 full-time workers at Nosterfield quarry, between Bedale and Ripon, in North Yorkshire, where supplies are expected to be exhausted within the next two years.
It sought planning consent to extract 2.2m tonnes over four years from 112 acres at nearby Ladybridge Farm, half a mile from the nearest of three Neolithic earthwork henges outside the village of Thornborough.
The henges have been described as the Stonehenge of the North.
The site represents a scheduled ancient monument with legal protection, but campaigners who bombarded North Yorkshire County Council with protests insisted that its immediate surroundings, including Ladybridge, must be saved from the effects of more quarrying.
In February, the application was rejected by six votes to three by the county council’s planning committee.
Tarmac, which warned that the decision could lead to job losses, said yesterday it will appeal and seek a public inquiry, but a spokesman indicated that this was still not the end of the story.
Bob Nicholson, Tarmac estates manager for the area, said: “We are anxious to safeguard employment and maintain supply from the quarry to the construction industry.
“We are also discussing the possibility of a revised application for a smaller extraction area at Ladybridge, avoiding areas which were the subject of archaeological concern.
“Nosterfield is recognised as being a well-run quarry, close to the A1 for transport purposes, with a good record of co-operating with the community and with the various archaelogical, environmental and wildlife protection agencies.
We hope to achieve a fair balance taking account of all interests, including continuity of employment and supply of construction materials.”
Alwyn Shaw, head of minerals at the county council, said no revised planning application had been received.
link
here
From the Oxford Mail, 2nd June 06
A wooden cross that stood high over south Oxfordshire has been pulled down after a six-year planning wrangle.
The 16ft-high wooden cross at Churn Knob, near Blewbury, marked the spot where St Birinus converted Wessex to Christianity in 634AD, and was the starting point of an annual pilgrimage.
It was put up by the Rev Edwin Clements, the parish priest for Hagbourne, Upton and Blewbury, in 2000.
But in 2003, despite the fact the cross had planning permission, English Heritage objected to it being placed at the Iron Age burial mound.
Last month the row came to a head when the Vale of the White Horse District Council gave Mr Clements 30 days to take it down.
Its removal ends a three year ‘passive protest’ by Mr Clements and his parishioners but he vowed the cross would be reinstated as close as possible to its original location.
Mr Clements said: “It was taken down, but we have had to leave it up there, it was so heavy.
“It will be put back up, but it’s a question of selecting a visible site.”
He added it was a sad day when the cross, which was visible from five of the six parishes in his district, was removed, because of what he called nit-picking.
Mr Clements, who has always maintained the cross was not on the mound itself, added: “A lot of people are disappointed it’s not there and I have had lots of comments.
“Locally no-one was offended by it, everyone thought it was the ideal spot.”
“But we had to give in in the end. I was afraid they might have taken it down and then charged us for it.”
He said he was hoping to find a new location for the cross, close to its original site, and reinstate it later this summer.
Last month the Vale of the White Horse District Council confirmed it had asked Mr Clements to move the cross to an agreed location 100m from the burial mound, because of objections from English Heritage.
The conservation body said the cross had been erected without the necessary applications to make changes to a scheduled monument
It seems you can go on a tour of the fort on the 29th June:
rspb.org.uk/england/central/events/index.asp?id=tcm:5-99339
also, from Biggleswade Today
biggleswadetoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=182&ArticleID=1529221
Excavations to try and unearth buried secrets of an Iron Age fort began at a Sandy nature reserve this week.
Archaeologists are carrying out a one-week dig on Sandy Warren’s Galley Hill Fort in a joint project between English Heritage and the RSPB.
It is hoped the £12,000 project will shed light on who lived there and what the area, believed to date back to 250BC, was used for.
Peter Bradley, RSPB site manager, said: “The reason for the work is, as far as we know, it has never been dug in the past and we would like to know more about it, particularly for when it is opened up to the public in a couple of years’ time.
“The idea is it would be seen from a very long way away by other tribes. It could have been defensive or a market place, or where people lived. We don’t know yet what use this fort had.”
A JCB digger is being used to excavate the banks and bore holes will be dug to uncover any remains.
[Lots of the land at the RSPB site here is being cleared of trees to return it to heathland – so it should be easier to see how it fits into the local landscape?]
As you may have seen in the Press English Heritage recently announced the appointment of engineering contractor Skanska to take forward the next stage of repair work to Silbury Hill. Skanska will now begin working with English Heritage to draw up detailed repair plans for the Hill.
The repairs will tackle the damage caused to the Hill after a collapse of the infilling to a shaft at the top of the Hill in 2000. The brief for engineers was prepared by English Heritage and a team of expert advisors, and its aim is to find the best method for returning the Hill to its original state and preserving its long term stability. As well as permanently infilling the collapse to the head of the shaft, the works will involve the thorough backfilling of tunnels at the base of the hill, and repair the slumping on the sides of the Hill. The chosen method for backfilling is to re-enter the Hill through the 1968 Atkinson tunnel to its centre.
Skanska won the work after presenting a detailed submission covering practical design and construction techniques, risk management plans and an approach integrating the archaeological and construction elements of the project. The firm proposes using the Atkinson’s original supports and additional temporary props to keep disturbance of the Hill’s archaeology to an absolute minimum. Archaeologists will be working alongside the contactors to make a record of the internal structure of the Hill and take samples to recover palaeoenvironmental evidence and material for radiocarbon dating.
Skanska has worked with English Heritage on Silbury Hill in the past, contributing to the specialist stability survey work carried out on the Hill since 2000. The firm was selected for this phase of the work because the project board felt their submission best demonstrated how the brief could be safely met with the least risk of disruption to the Hill’s archaeology and within a realistic timeframe and budget.
The development of detailed repair plans is now expected to take six months. Depending on the outcome of this development work, English Heritage hopes to commission the full repairs by Skanska and announce the start of repair work in Spring 2007. The repair project will be accompanied by a programme of archaeological investigation, recording and sampling.
We are working on the outreach and publicity programme. The relevant pages on the EH website will soon be up-dated which you will be able to access for future information.
Yours sincerely
Dr Robert H Bewley
Planning & Development Regional Director SW
English Heritage
OK, so not UK/Ireland news, but v interesting nonetheless- from the BBC news site;
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5031974.stm
Italian archaeologists digging in the Roman Forum have found a well-preserved skeleton of a woman who lived 3,000 years ago.
The astonishing fact about this discovery is that it dates back to at least 300 years before the traditional date of the founding of Rome, 753 BC.
It has long been known that Bronze Age people were living on the site where the ancient Romans founded their city.
But few traces of their society have ever been brought to light.
Anna De Santis, who took part in the dig, said the woman whose bones have been found was aged about 30 when she died.
She was evidently of high birth, for she was wearing an amber necklace with a gold pendant, a bronze hair-fastener and a bronze ring on one of her fingers.
The archaeologists also found four bronze clasps, two of which may have been used to hold her shroud in place.
It was the custom for most prehistoric ancestors of the ancient Romans to cremate their dead and place their ashes in funerary urns.
Experts in Roman pre-history are interested that the new burial site, not far from the forum where Caesar’s body was burned after his assassination 1,000 years later, marks a transition in social habits, from cremation – the customary form of burial at that period of pre-history – to burial in the ground.
Hi All.
I am very concerned about the new proposal to site a mobile mast at the White Horse Stone. As a voluntary guardian for nearby Coldrum Longbarrow I view this stone as a vital and integral part of the Medway Valley sacred landscape.
Luckily the Odinic Guardians have been very successful in their efforts to protect it so far and I wish them all strength to their current campaign. I have emailed their Guardians section to offer any assistance I can.
Many non Odinists are also getting involved including members of my Druidic Order (LAW) and OBOD as well as many other Pagans, the general public and nature protection groups etc.
Maidstone Council are considering this latest application, but with luck and given the environmental protections supposed to cover the area, plus all the protest letters being sent Orange will once again fail.
If you are concerned about this threat please join us by writing to Maidstone Council to register a protest.
Many Blessings.
Oriondruid.
From Radio Orkney this morning ; a just completed survey (jointly funded by the Flaws family and the O.I.C.) of the island of Wyre [Weir/Veira] found five mace-head fragments and also miniature soft stone axes in a field, made from non-local stone (Hebrides suggested as source).
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/wyresettlement.htm
The Evening Standard ran a story yesterday to confirm that the stone will finally be moving – to the Museum of London. The building in which it is presently housed is being demolished (thankfully).
I suppose it doesn’t really matter – it has been moved several times from it’s original supposed location and at least it will be well and informatively housed in the museum.
What’s more interestingn is the whearabouts of the rest of it under the road outside the station.....
The following is copied from the Druid Network forums verbatim:
This was taken from the Odinic Rite mailing list, such a shame after all the work the Rite has put into preserving this important site.
The Ancient White Horse Stone Under Attack!
Once again the ancient White Horse Stone in the county of Kent, England and the area around it has come under attack from the mobile phone company Orange! Only two years ago Orange proposed to put a mobile phone mast and cabin next to the White Horse Stone, that application was rejected by Tonbridge and Malling council thanks to the support of many hundred of caring people, now Orange has applied for planning permission to erect an 8m high Double mobile phone mast less than 100m away from the White Horse Stone. (This time they have applied to Maidstone council as the proposed site is just on the other side of the boundary)
The White Horse Stone is an ancient monument of significant historical, archaeological and cultural importance. A sacred site to Odinist’s the world over and seen by many as the birth place of the English nation.
Unbelievably Orange’s proposed site is just 5m from the edge of Boxley Warren Nature reserve, an AONB and SSSI area. It is also just 5m from the North Downs Way, a long distance national trail.
We need your support to fight this application and to protect this ancient monument, our countryside and the environment from this insidious attempt to destroy our heritage and what remains of our green and pleasant land.
Please give your support to our campaign to save the White Horse Stone and the environment around it from this deliberate attempt to destroy our Heritage, we say deliberate because Orange know very well the history of this area and how people feel about it, yet they have once again targeted this sacred site. Orange’s arrogance is clearly demonstrated as two months ago they had over 150m of underground duct work and cable installed up to the proposed site before they had even applied for planning permission. Are they hoping this will be just a rubber stamp job! We hope the Local Planning authority will treat this arrogance with the contempt that is deserves and reject this application.
Below we have given some suggested points which you could raise in your objection letters to the council. Please do not copy them word for word, individual letters have a much greater impact than mass produced objections. Please ensure your mention that this application will have a harmful effect on the environment, especially as this area has been designated as both AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).
The White Horse Stone is a listed ancient monument of both historical and cultural importance.
The White Horse Stone is held in great reverence as a site of significant spiritual importance by Odinist’s and other Pagan traditions. The siting of a mobile phone mast in such close proximity would have a very negative affect on this holy site.
Archaeological evidence has clearly proved that this whole area is a site of high status and of significant historical importance to the county of Kent and England.
The siting of mobile phone equipment just 5m from the Boxley Warren Nature reserve, an AONB and SSSI area would have a detrimental effect on this area by visually scarring the approach to the Nature reserve, an AONB and SSSI site.
Siting of mobile phone equipment within close proximity of an AONB, SSSI, North Downs Way and Nature reserve would present an impression that these designations have no importance or integrity and can be ignored.
If this application is approved it will open the door to other mobile phone network operators to also develop this area.
The siting of mobile phone equipment on this site will have a detrimental effect on the enjoyment of the many thousands of visitors that come to this area for leisure, walking, cycling, horse riding etc.
The siting of 3G mobile equipment will have a detrimental effect on the wildlife in this area. There is concern that 3G’s more powerful signal strength could cause long term health problems. (you do not have to provide proof that there are health issues, it is merely the concern or fear caused by the mobile equipment, real or not, that interests the Local Planning Authorities)
Lastly please ensure your objections are clear, polite and to the point. Please ask your family to send a letter as well. Letters from children always carry an impact so if you have children please encourage them to send letters also.
The more letters and e-mails we send the greater the chance we have of stopping this at the first stage. Our heritage, our environment and our holy site is in danger, please send your objections to the following address. Please be sure to give your address so that may reply.
Remember your letters / e-mails must be in by the 6th June 2006.
Maidstone Borough Council
Katie Lazam. Planning Dept
13 Tonbridge Road
Maidstone
Kent, ME16 8HG
England
You may e-mail your objections, but we would prefer you to send letters if possible.
e-mail: Katie Lazam at Maidstone Council
Please give the following reference number in all your communications to the council.
Planning Application Reference: MA/06/0792/N
” The 2006 Rock Art Meeting (RAM’06) is sheduled for
Sunday 4th of June 2006 in Wooler, Northumberland
You are most welcome to take part in this meeting. Bring camera’s, childern, wellies, lunch packet, water and good weather! After coffees between 10.30 and 11.00 AM at ‘The Mother of all B&B’s’; Weetwood Farm Guesthouse, West Weetwood, Wooler NE71 6AQ, phone: 01668 281497 (see: map) we’ve planned to visit the rock art sites of Gled Law, Buttony and West Horton and maybe a surprise site as dessert.”
“Aerial Photography and Archaeology – 100 Years of Discovery”
This travelling exhibition will display historic and modern photos and illustrations. It will be at Stonehenge from August 1-7, when a Virgin balloon will give ‘some visitors’* the chance to take their own aerial snaps.
The exhibition will also be shown at Old Sarum, the Alexander Keiller Museum in Avebury, Salisbury Museum, Devizes Museum, and the Royal Engineers’ Museum in Gillingham.
*whatever that means.
courtesy of Hob, two links to more information:
24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART38599.html
