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Society wants Moors stone to go on display – taken from the article by Julie Hemmings in Yorkshire Post Today
yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=912795

One of the country’s last surviving literary and philosophical societies may challenge the decision to deny it the chance to display an important archaeological discovery.

Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society, which runs the town’s museum, was disappointed to miss out on a significant carved stone, more than 4,000 years old, which was found on the North York Moors near Fylingdales.

The stone was one of thousands of archaeological remains exposed by a major fire on the moors last year and archaeologists believe it is of national importance.

Since the fire in September last year, conservationists have been working to restore the landscape to its original condition. As well as preserving the ecology of the area, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, the work is intended to protect the artefacts and earthworks from erosion by the weather. These efforts will continue for some months but the carved stone already has been returned to the earth where it was found. Before this was done archaeologists laser-scanned and photographed it.

Neil Redfern, English Heritage’s inspector of ancient monuments, said the stone had been reburied as it “belongs on the Moors”, adding that putting it in a glass case in a museum would not have made it any more accessible to the public. He said the image scanned from the stone might serve in the making of a replica, which could be touched, unlike the precious original.

However, some historians are arguing the stone should have been put on on public display and are disappointed not to have been consulted about its future. Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society chairman Fred Payne is meeting members next week to discuss the matter. “We feel it should be exposed, rather than buried again,” said Mr Payne.
“It should be on display, and in Yorkshire, if not in Whitby then at the Yorkshire Museum in York.
“To my knowledge, no-one locally was consulted.”

Peter Barfoot, the authority’s head of advisory services, said the laser-scanned image showed more detail on the stone than could be seen with the naked eye.

CONTROVERSIAL plans to turn fields near Coate Water into houses and a university campus have taken a huge step forward.

A Government report published this week by an independent panel has given the go-ahead to the divisive development.

It says that the development of the new campus for the University of Bath in Swindon along with 1,800 new house on land between the Great Western hospital and Coate Water is appropriate and provides a good basis for development over the plan period of 1996-2016.

Full story

Nb: Apparently any development has to keep the circle but presumably will change its surroundings completely.

How the powers of avarice move unseen . . . hadn’t realised that the British Camp had been under threat from the Coca-Cola conglomerate; happily the Environment Agency and English Nature have prevented them from destoying the Malverns (so far). Interestingly, they were attempting to use a Celtic well for extended production . . . more at:

avantgo.thetimes.co.uk/services/avantgo/article/0,,1419014,00.html

The axe found at Bubbenhall Quarry is to be displayed at Warwickshire Museum’s Market Hall site in Warwick.

It’s made of andesite – which must have come from the lake district or north wales, according to the museum’s curator.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/4117227.stm

icteesside.icnetwork.co.uk/thejournal/news/tm_objectid=14996465%26method=full%26siteid=50081-name_page.html

From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 20th December 2004:

During the Iron Age it stood up to marauders, protecting the people of ancient Leicestershire against anyone that might do them harm. But a couple of thousand years later Burrough-on-the-Hill was in need of a little defending of its own.

They might not sound as fearsome as a neighbouring tribe, or even the might of the Roman Empire, but the ancient hill fort has recently been under attack from the local rabbit population.

However, under the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme, farmer and Country Park Ranger, Tim Maydwell, has been fighting back.

Read the full article...

From an article by Richard Moss, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 20th December 2004:

Archaeologists are pondering one of the most intriguing archaeological discoveries for some years after a fire revealed a unique carved stone thought to be 4,000 years old.

The find came to light after a blaze in 2003 at Fylingdales near Whitby consumed two and a half square kilometres of heather moorland before being brought under control by hundreds of fire fighters and a water-dumping helicopter.

However, in the fire’s aftermath archaeologists were astonished to find a vast array of archaeological remains – uncovered by the intensity of the blaze, which burnt away much of the peat.

“The fire had a devastating impact, but it also revealed an astonishing archaeological landscape,” said Neil Redfern, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments.

Read the full article on the 24 Hour Museum web site or see the BBC article about the same news item.

Norfolk’s famous Bronze Age timber circle should finally go on public show in 2007.

A display of part of Seahenge, which in 1999 was controversially dug up from the shoreline at Holme, near Hunstanton, will form the focal point of a major redevelopment of Lynn Museum at King’s Lynn.

The scheme, costing just over £1m, is due to start next summer, with the museum reopening in early 2006.

But it is not expected that conservation of the 55 posts forming the 4000-year-old ring will be completed until mid-2006.

Specialists at the Mary Rose Trust in Portsmouth are carrying out the painstaking process of freeze-drying the wood after it has been impregnated with poly-ethylene glycol – nicknamed “peg”.

This will remove all the water vapour and preserve the sponge-like cell structure of the timbers, which would crumble to dust if left to dry out. The work is being paid for by English Heritage.

“What we are looking to do is reopen the museum building, once the building works have been completed, with temporary displays and we will wait until we’ve got the Seahenge timbers ready before installing the permanent displays,” explained area museums officer Robin Hanley.

“Obviously it’s a very complicated preservation job and it’s ground-breaking in many respects, but it looks like the ring timbers will be coming out of conservation in the middle of 2006.

“We will look at mounting a display at the beginning of 2007 and then it will hopefully be finished by the summer of 2007.

“What we didn’t want to do is keep the museum closed until the timbers are available,” said Dr Hanley.

“We do need a period of time, once the timbers have come out of conservation, to design a display around them. It will require custom-built fittings for all the timbers.

“We want to do the very best we can, which is why at the moment we are looking at a whole range of different approaches to the display.

“When the Seahenge timbers come in they are going to be a key part of telling the West Norfolk story, which is what the permanent displays will do.”

Preserving the large upturned tree stump which was at the centre of the circle is expected to be a much longer undertaking.

“It’s such a massive piece of timber,” said Dr Hanley. “It may take an additional couple of years before the central stump is ready.

“What we are expecting that we will need to do in the short-term is to have a replica of the stump alongside the original ring and replace that with the original one when it comes out of conservation.”

The museum closed at the end of September so preparations for the project, which has a £778,500 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, to begin. It will result in a better entrance, a new study area and extra learning space on a mezzanine floor and removal of the suspended ceiling, revealing the interior of the historic converted chapel building.

Dr Hanley promised that although the finished displays would not be ready for the reopening “there will be lots for people to see and activities”.

Sue Skinner. EDP24 website.

Carved from the trunk of a woolly mammoth, made in two pieces glued together, archeologists are unsure whether the flute was used for recreational or religious purposes.

More here.... guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1375665,00.html

From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 16th December 2004:

A Stone Age hand axe dating back 500,000 years has been discovered at a quarry in Warwickshire.

The tool was found at the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry at Waverley Wood Farm, near Coventry, which has already produced evidence of some of the earliest known human occupants of the UK.

It was uncovered in gravel by quarry manager John Green who took it to be identified by archaeologists at the University of Birmingham.

“We are very excited about this discovery,” enthused Professor David Keen of the university’s Archaeology Field Unit.

Read the full article...

Environment Minister Dick Roche has reportedly stated that he does not have the power to significantly alter the proposed route of the M3 motorway through Co Meath.

Campaigners are urging Mr Roche to re-route the road away from the Tara-Skryne valley due to the archaeological and historical importance of the area.

The proposed route of M3 would pass close to the Hill of Tara and would also lead to the destruction of dozens of archaeological sites.

However, reports this morning said the minister had insisted that his only role in the controversy is to decide on the method of preservation for archaeological sites.

Under a recent amendment to the National Monuments Act, Mr Roche has the power to order the in-situ preservation of such sites, a move that would necessitate a change in the route of the M3.

From Breaking news.ie

A half size replica of a Bronze Age boat that was found at North Ferriby will be sailed on the Humber as part of SeaBritain 2005, a celebration of our maritime heritage.

The original 16-metre boat wasn’t a dug out but used sophisticated techniques and carpentry skills that are difficult to match today. The replica’s planks are cheatingly fixed together with polyester rope, rather than the yew stitches used to sew the oak timbers on the original.

The Hull amateur archaeologist, Ted Wright, who impressively found no less than three boats between 1937 and 1963, always wanted to see them recreated. With extra funding it’s possible that a full-scale version will be built.

You can see the half-size replica in the meantime at the Streetlife Museum in Hull.

Read more at the Yorkshire Post’s site:
yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=904948

Contrary to press reports in August, the National Museum of Ireland did not rule out that Ireland could have been Atlantis (Full text). The previous reports were apparently the result of quoting out of context.

There is a new website for the theory now, AtlantisInIreland.com, which includes a blog and an invitation to a real time debate.

Neolithic villagers brewed alcohol as far back as 7.000BCE.
More here.. newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996759

Within the past few months, hunt – supporting vandals have painted the slogan “NO BAN”, in letters which must be at least 8 feet high, roughly 200m to the left of the long man of wilmington. Unlike previous “pranks” involving paint, this has been done by burning the grass away completely, I think they may have used creosote. This crass piece of political graffiti, executed by individuals who claim to love and respect the countryside, may be visible for years to come unless some sort of re-turfing occurs. I’m on to the powers that be to find out more, will keep y’all posted...

In what would appear to be a victory for good sense, the town & district councils have stepped in at the eleventh hour to buy this historic site for the town of Penzance; hopefully this will ensure the preservation of what remains of this much abused antiquity. On visiting the site today to take the accompanying pictures, I was rather dismayed by the amount of dog-fouling present.

See BBC News web site for more details.

Archaeologists are planning to build a copy of an ancient boat found in Dover and sail it from Britain to France. The original was found by chance in 1992 in a water filled shaft during roadworks in the town. It was one of the best preserved examples of a coastal vessel from the Bronze age ever found. Studied intensively by experts at Dover museum, the only way they say they can find out more is to build a replica... John Iverson from Dover museum describes it as “a remarkable feat of engineering” and will copy the materials of the original: yew timber, bees wax and moss.

A section of the boat has already been reconstructed but the project is expected to cost £200,000 in total. Funding is now being sought, but some may be available from the EU, as French museums are involved in the project. The boat will probably take three years to complete and after the crossing, it is hoped it will go on tour in Britain and France.

(adapted from the article at
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/4056021.stm)

Tuesday November 30, 2004, The Guardian

A carpenter’s new theory on how Stonehenge came about could roll away old theories on Britain’s megalithic monument, finds Patrick Weir

For more than 20 years, Derbyshire carpenter Gordon Pipes has been striving to find an answer to a 4,000-year-old question that still confounds archaeologists; namely how, without roads or wheels, did Neolithic man transport 80 sarsen stones, each weighing an average of 30 tons, 20 miles from the Marlborough Downs to Salisbury Plain to construct Stonehenge? The site also comprises 98 blue stones, each weighing six tons, from the Preseli Mountains in Wales. The question of how these were conveyed over land – it is agreed they must have been ferried in boats along the Severn Estuary and River Avon – is also unanswered. But Pipes is convinced he has found the solution.

“What fired my imagination was a book about the stone statues on Easter Island by Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl,” he explains. “Working out how the ancients were able to move such heavy megaliths became an obsession.

In terms of Stonehenge, theories that one stone could have been dragged a mile a day by 700 men using rope and wooden rollers seemed as viable to me as alien involvement. The rollers wouldn’t have taken the weight and the physical effort required would have been super-human.

Continues here

From The Scotsman, 24 November 2004

Archaeologists in Scotland have made a “hugely significant” discovery by unearthing the best and most comprehensively-dated Bronze Age site in the UK, The Scotsman has learned.

The tightly clustered group of 29 cremation pits, one containing eagle talons, was uncovered at Skilmafilly when the gas maintenance company Transco was excavating and installing its £56 million gas pipeline from St Fergus to Aberdeen.

With no previous indications of the burial site, either from ground-level observations or aerial photographs, the pits were stumbled on by chance. Transco called in archaeological contractors to check the site while the pipeline was being installed. continues...

From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 19th November 2004:

Written in Stone?, on show at the Museum of Antiquities in Newcastle until January 8 2005, presents a series of colourful contemporary cast glass sculptures on display alongside fragments of ancient rock carvings.

Taking their inspiration from their Northumbrian ancestors, the modern work was created by a group of young people from Greenfield School, Newton Aycliffe.

“This is a really unusual project which has reaped enormous benefits, both for the schoolchildren and for the museum,” explained Lindsay Allason-Jones, Director of Archaeological Museums at Newcastle University.

“We jumped at the opportunity to get involved, because we saw this as a way of engaging people all around the region with our collections, and it has also enabled us to creatively display this exciting new work alongside our existing exhibits, giving them a new dimension too.”

Read the full article...

by Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent, The Guardian, Monday November 22, 2004

Stonehenge’s past brought to light
The sign advises the solitary car pootling down the deserted road, past the reassuring AA phone box, to “fork left for Exeter” – unless the driver decides to fork right onto the infant A344, park on the grass verge, and pop in for a quick wander among the towering columns of Stonehenge, or for a nice cup of tea and a Bath bun in the newly built Stonehenge Cafe.

The photograph, one of hundreds excavated for a new book by archaeologist Julian Richards, from the National Monuments Archive in Swindon and other public and private archives, dates from around 1930. The car is passing the exact spot of the current furore over what to do about the world’s most famous prehistoric site. Read whole article here...

Archaeologists say a site in South Carolina may rewrite the history of how the Americas were settled by pushing back the date of human settlement thousands of years

Scientists and volunteers at the site in Allendale have unearthed hundreds of possible implements, many appearing to be stone chisels and tools that could have been used to skin hides, butcher meat or carve antlers, wood and ivory. The tools were fashioned from a substance called chert, a flint-like stone found in the region.

cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/17/carolina.dig/index.html

This brief piece from the Irish Examiner website:

Minister signs order protecting Bronze Age sites – 17/11/2004

The Minister for the Environment has signed a preservation order to protect two Bronze Age sites in Co Wicklow.

The move is being seen as showing fresh Government commitment to the safeguarding of archaeological monuments throughout the country.

The protection orders were signed following reports that a prehistoric settlement near Blessington had been damaged.

The Bronze Age sites include a stone circle and a number of burial mounds.

breakingnews.ie/printer.asp?j=102235440&p=yxzz36xzx

Summarised from James Goffin’s article, “Norfolk’s changing landscape set for web”, published on 17.11.04 by EDP24.

The Norfolk Historic Environment Record (NHER) could be made available to the public over the internet in a £140,000 project. It contains more than 40,000 entries detailing archaeological activity, sites, finds, cropmarks, earthworks, industrial remains, defensive structures and historic buildings in the county.

It’s currently held on a computer database with built-in digital maps, and there are more detailed paper records for many of the sites.

Currently the records are only available by appointment at the archaeological services’ base at Gressenhall, near Dereham. However, the Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service is bidding for lottery funding to make easily understandable summaries of the records available on the web.

A decision on the lottery application should be made by March. If successful the scheme could start in July and be completed by June 2007, with records being made available in batches as the project progresses.

Concerns as Iron Age Fort Goes on Market – From This is Cornwall, 11:00 – 15th November 2004

An Iron Age hill fort is due to go under the hammer next month – to the delight of entrepreneurs but the concern of historians and locals. Lindsey Kennedy reports

Historians and a school have raised concerns about the sale of an historic hill fort in Penzance, which is to be put up for auction next month. Historians and a school have raised concerns about the sale of an historic hill fort in Penzance, which is to be put up for auction next month.

Lescudjack Hill Fort, the area’s largest Iron Age settlement, is for sale through Fulfords Estate Agents in Penzance, with a guide price of £28,000.

The estate agent said there had been “a lot of interest” in the site.

The area of land off Pendennis Road, Penzance, extends to around one hectare or 2.5 acres – and has breathtaking views over Penzance to Mount’s Bay and the Mousehole Peninsula.

In the sale particulars, the estate agents suggest the land is suitable for “general amenity, equestrian or perhaps parking on the quarry area to the south-east” subject to planning permission.

The historic site will be put up for auction on December 2 at the Novotel, Marsh Mills, Plymouth, unless previously sold,

Ian Addicoat, a local author and historian, is among those expressing concern about the pending sale.

He said: “Clearly it is imperative that such an historic and important site is maintained and preserved correctly”.

“I think if there were any plans to develop such an important site there would be an outcry, and I would be very surprised if the planners would allow it”.

He said the site was currently overgrown, adding: “I hope whoever takes it on appreciates its history and considers allowing it to be used as an amenity”.

“I’m not sure the public is aware of its significance. They probably think it’s a field with a nice view. But historians are certainly aware of what it represents”.

Historian and writer Craig Weatherhill, who mentions the hill fort in his book Belerion, said it dated back to around 300BC.

“It is extremely important to Penzance and over the decades it’s been treated pretty shamefully”, he said.

Hill forts were fortified settlements which began to appear in upland areas, especially in southern England.

They were often massive, complicated structures with surrounding ramparts and ditches. Some of them served as small towns and administrative centres, as well as fortifications at times of conflict.

Although the Penzance hill fort is overgrown, the site has never been properly explored and could reveal many archaeological secrets.

Mr Weatherhill added: “Some 15 to 20 years ago there was a proposal to do a hefty excavation but it came to nothing. It has never really been dug properly”.

“I would be delighted if local historical groups are successful, because they would have the well-being of the site at heart”.

Nikki Owen, headteacher of Penzance Infants School, which is close to the ancient site, said the news of the sale was “very disappointing”.

Two years ago children from the school gave some serious consideration to what they would like to see happen to the old Lescudjack Hill Fort site.

The children made the site their summer project and set about gathering names on a petition calling on the local councils to carry out some improvements.

Some 30 children from Year Two visited the then Mayor of Penzance, Ruth Simpson, and presented her with a 500-name petition calling for the site to be refurbished.

“It took us some time to track down the owner of the site, who turns out to be somebody in Newlyn,” Mrs Owen said.

“It is very disappointing that it is being sold off.

“I only hope that any future owner will develop it as a public amenity and show its historic significance.”