Bronze Age spearhead found at Cirencester sewage works
A rare Bronze Age spearhead has been found by workers while developing a wetland in Gloucestershire.
Experts discovered it at Cirencester Sewage Works, near South Cerney, earlier this year and on 10 May estimated it is about 3,500 years old... continues...
BU archaeologists uncover 6,000-year-old long barrow in the Cotswolds
A 6,000-YEAR-OLD PREHISTORIC BURIAL MONUMENT HAS BEEN UNCOVERED NORTHEAST OF CIRENCESTER IN THE COTSWOLDS BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS FROM BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY... continues...
A new attraction which offers visitors the chance to experience life as an Iron Age villager opens this weekend. The Cinderbury settlement near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, includes several roundhouses, an iron smelting furnace, pottery kiln and clay-domed bread oven... continues...
A team of university archaeologists has uncovered the remains of an Iron Age settlement in the grounds of a Gloucestershire castle.
The group, from the University of Bristol, found fragments of human bones and prehistoric flint tools in the gardens of Berkeley castle... continues...
Gloucester Archaeology Unit is threatened with closure. Gloucester City council are currently considering a number of ways to save money for next year, and the Archaeology Unit is a prime target... continues...
There are two round barrows here (you'll have to look carefully though, as they are less than half a metre high), set close to the crest of a hill, and they were found to conceal some interesting burials. The smr record on 'Magic' says:
One of these barrows was partially excavated in 1847, when eight skeletons were found, lying in seven stone-lined graves arranged in a circle around the circumference of the mound. One of the skeletons was accompanied by a spearhead. Three feet below the top of the mound was another skeleton. Finds from the barrow included about 30 yellow glass and amber beads, several iron spearheads, a shield boss, a saucer-brooch, the decorative plates from three brooches, silver earrings and a bronze ring. The site was re examined in 1869 by Playne, who claimed that the centre portion of the barrow was undisturbed,
and reported finding charcoal, bones, potsherds and worked flints at ground level.
This doesn't really enlighten us as to when the burials were made? It sounds rather like reuse of a bronze-age barrow?
What's it like living in an Iron Age village? How did they keep warm and make tools? Did they live more rewarding lives? A re-created Iron Age village [at Cinderbury] allows visitors to stay and find out.
Bill Thayer has put the text of this Victorian antiquarian's book onto the internet. In places he has kindly linked back to this site. Though I don't think George Witts himself thought of this.
[With thanks to Bill Thayer himself for updating this link].