Sites in Central London

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Images

Image of Central London by thesweetcheat

The Battersea Cauldron (dating to 800-650 BC), on display in the British Museum.

“This cauldron is a late example, dating to the beginning of the Iron Age. It was made from seven sheets of bronze, carefully shaped and riveted together. The upper sheets are sharply out-turned and corrugated for strength. A tubular binding was added to the rim and two ring-handles were attached by riveted strips.”

Image credit: A. Brookes (4.11.2012)
Image of Central London by Chance

The Battersea Shield

Found in the River Themes at Battersea Bridge, London – Around 350-50 BC

The Battersea Shield is one of the finest examples of La Tene, or Celtic art, from Britain. It was deposited in the river perhaps as an offering to the Gods. The shield is decorated with three raised circular panels. The decoration is enhanced with inlayed red glass or enamel. The thin metal and short length of the shield would not have provided adequate protection in battle. Instead the shield was probably made for flamboyant display. It is made of several bronze sheets and a binding strip, held together with bronze rivets. Originally these bronze sheets would have formed the facing for a wooden base, which no longer survives.

Text by British Museum

Image credit: British Museum - Chance

Articles

The British Museum – Ice Age art exhibition

Ice Age art – arrival of the modern mind

An exhibition 40,000 years in the making

7 February – 26 May 2013

Discover masterpieces from the last Ice Age drawn from across Europe in this ground-breaking show. Created between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago by artists with modern minds like our own, this is a unique opportunity to see the world’s oldest known sculptures, drawings and portraits.

Book online

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Drowned Landscapes exhibition at Royal Society 3 – 8th July

A huge area of land which was swallowed up into the North Sea thousands of years ago has been recreated and put on display by scientists.

Doggerland was an area between Northern Scotland, Denmark and the Channel Islands. It was believed to have been home to tens of thousands of people before it disappeared underwater. Now its history has been pieced together by artefacts recovered from the seabed and displayed in London. The 15-year-project has involved St Andrews, Dundee and Aberdeen universities.

The results are on display at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London until 8 July.

sse.royalsociety.org/2012/exhibits/drowned-landscapes/

more at

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-18687504

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7,000-year-old timbers found beneath MI6 Thames headquarters

Archaeologists hail oldest wooden structure ever found on river, despite security services’ armed response to researchers.

When MI6 set up home on the banks of the Thames one secret escaped its watchful eyes. The oldest wooden structure ever found on the river, timbers almost 7,000 years old, have been discovered buried in the silt below the windows of the security services’ ziggurat headquarters at Vauxhall, south London.

The archaeologists who uncovered the six hefty timber piles had to explain to the security services what they were up to when armed police turned up after they were spotted pottering about on a foggy day in the mud, armed only with tripods, cameras and measuring equipment – not, as one spectator had apparently reported, shoulder-mounted rocket launchers.

“They accepted there wasn’t much damage we could do with a tripod,” said Gustave Milne, the archaeologist who leads the Thames Discovery programme that has been surveying the entire prehistoric foreshore, uncovering centuries of ancient wharves, fish traps, jetties and ship timbers.

The timbers, partly scoured bare by erosion of the river bed, the largest up to a third of a metre in diameter, were discovered in work during exceptionally low tides last February, but carbon dating work – revealed in the new edition of London Archaeologist journal – has only recently been completed, proving that the trees were felled between 4790 BC and 4490 BC.

Full story in The Guardian

'Stone Age Survival' talk at London's FESTIVAL OF LIFE this weekend........

with HUGH NEWMAN – Sunday 5.30pm

a multimedia presentation at The FESTIVAL OF LIFE, St Paul’s Steiner Project

1 St Paul’s Road, Islington, London N1 2QH

STONE AGE SURVIVAL: Earth Energies, Megaliths & Ancient Nutrition

Hugh Newman has studied Naturopathic nutrition and alternative therapies for seven years. He also organises the ‘Megalithomania’ conference in Glastonbury and is an international speaker on megalithic science. His two favourite subjects, nutrition and megaliths have at last come together in his new research on stone age survival techniques. newhuman.co.uk , megalithomania.co.uk

In this talk Hugh will explore how the ancients used dowsing, big stones and magnetic earth energy currents to enhance seeds, promote fertility and re-mineralise their food. Agriculture began at the same time as the construction of stone circles. Is there a connection and do we need this knowledge today?

THE FESTIVAL OF LIFE is London’s First Vegetable Oil Powered Event! Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd September – 11am to 7pm@ St Paul’s Steiner Project

1 St Paul’s Road, Islington, London N1 2QH

0870 7344 888 – [email protected]

festivaloflife.net

Miscellaneous

Central London

london under the dust

we walk with the past

though arches and down ancient roads

the past, our past is not

just out there

but beneath our feet

around our ears

beneath our noses

john dee and canary wharf

makes sense to me