Jane

THE old northern motto “Where there’s muck there’s brass” has proved to be literally true down South as well: an Iron Age sword found in the Thames mud near Syon Park turns out to be decorated with the oldest brass in Britain.
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, and was widely used by the Romans: the sword was at first thought to be Saxon, until Ian Stead of the British Museum identified its stamped decoration as dating to the Iron Age in the 3rd or 2nd century BC. Then Paul Cradock at the museum analysed the gold-coloured foil that covered the decorated areas, using X-ray fluorescence, and showed that it was not gold, but an 80:20 alloy of copper and zinc, the precise formula for brass.

Six other swords from this period have a similar “gold”-covered stamped ornament, which has been interpreted as either a maker’s or an owner’s mark. The mystery is, where did the brass come from?

It is difficult to make because of the volatility of zinc, but was used in Anatolia by the 3rd century BC for coins. One possibility is that one or more coins made their way from Turkey to Western Europe and were melted down, beaten into thin foil, and used by a Gaulish or even British swordsmith to enliven his creations.

From ‘The Times’ online, 19/8/03

A 2,000-year-old spoon, used for scooping out shellfish, has been discovered at the site of a Celtic village.

The tiny, copper alloy metal Romano British spoon, the handle of which is missing, was found by workmen at the Chysauster site, which is just three miles from Mounts Bay, near Penzance, Cornwall.
A similar spoon was found during recent excavations in Newquay, north Cornwall.

Cornwall County Council archaeologist Charlie Johns said the spoons would have had long, prong like handles to open shellfish.

“They are the only two such spoons to have been found in Cornwall, and could have been of local manufacture,” he said.

The Chysauster settlement of eight stone walled homesteads is one of the oldest in Britain.

Story filed Monday 18 August 2003 by Ananova

The world’s oldest ice mummy has been hiding a violent and bloody secret that was only teased out of him by detective work on evidence 5,300 years old.
Read more here:
guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1017263,00.html
and here:
news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=433095
and here:
reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=3271231&section=news
and also here:
portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/14/wotz14.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/08/14/ixworld.html

It is now over a year since archaeologists, working on a routine excavation on the site of a proposed new school in Wiltshire, unearthed the richest Bronze Age burial yet found in Britain.

On August 16 at Salisbury & South Wiltshire Museum, the public will get its first glimpse of the more than 100 artefacts discovered alongside the skeleton of the ‘Amesbury Archer’....

read more at: 24hourmuseum.org.uk/nwh_gfx_en/ART17753.html

Weekly updates on the dig from Oxford Archeaology at
oxfordarch.co.uk/pages/wittenham_week2_trench1.htm

The earliest-known example of prehistoric cave art in Britain could get a new £4.5m museum. A lottery bid is being prepared to allow the cave art to go on public view, although the exact details have yet to be worked out.

Read more at: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3084155.stm

Yippee! At last! There may be peace and quiet for the walkers, bicyclists and horse riders who use the Ridgeway...

From the Oxford Times, Thursday 10 July 2003

Laws banning motor vehicles from the Ridgeway national trail may come into force if a conservation project to repair the damage they have caused fails.

The Government is considering barring four-wheel-drive vehicles, motor cycles and quad bikes from the historic 85-mile trail next year, if a national trails improvement scheme is unsuccessful.

Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs called for the Government to agree to introduce a ban if the project fails.

But Tony McNulty, parliamentary under secretary of state for transport, said the project needed to be given a chance.

The Countryside Agency has pledged to restore and improve the national trails, including the Ridgeway, which runs across south Oxfordshire.

About £1m is also being sought by the Oxford-based National Trails Office to repair stretches of the route, with support from Oxfordshire County Council.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr McNulty said: “If the Countryside Agency’s management plan and the work of local authorities do not produce results within 12 months, the Government is committed to consider promoting a ban.”

A section of the Railways and Transport Safety Bill is likely to be amended to include the possible ban. It was scheduled for discussion in the House of Lords on July 10.

Lord Bill Bradshaw, who lives in Wallingford, was expected to be among supporters.

Don Foster, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, who was among those calling for the amendment, said the Government must ensure the issue was taken seriously.

Peter Gauld, secretary of Friends of the Ridgeway, which has campaigned for vehicles to be banned, said: “I would be pleased to see this amendment go through.”

In April, county councillors from the three main parties supported a motion to ban vehicles.

The executive board was asked to use traffic regulation orders to protect sections of the route, which are advertised on websites for four-wheel-drive enthusiasts.

The White Horse has been defaced YET AGAIN....

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3000243.stm

Excavations at Avebury have revealed one megalithic stone which could be among Britain’s largest, weighing around 100 tons and rivalling Stonehenge.
Archaeologists made the surprise find during preparations to straighten the stones, which have been leaning for at least 300 years.

The project was undertaken at the 3,500-year-old stone circle in Wiltshire, because engineers feared the megaliths might collapse.

The team from the universities of Wales, Leicester and Southampton found the stone, which is about 14 ft (4.4m) high above ground, goes down at least seven ft (2.2m) below the ground surface and may go down to 10 ft (3m).

Amanda Chadburn, of English Heritage, said: “We were amazed when we discovered that the stone went so much deeper than we expected.

“Ground penetrating radar and probing had suggested it existed to only about one-and-a-half to three feet below the surface.

“It is absolutely enormous and could weigh as much as the trilithon at Stonehenge.”

Text from BBCi
Issued 17 April 2003

From ‘The Oxford Times’, Friday 11 April 2003

A 5,500-year-old piece of bread has been unearthed by archaeologists at an Oxfordshire village. The two- to three-centimetre morsel, believed to be the earliest bread found in Britain was left by Stone Age people to be unearthed during a 13-year-long study of a 16.5 hectare site at Yarnton. It was discovered at the building materials firms Hanson’s Cassington sand and gravel pit, situated on the Yarnton floodplain – found in a pit with a small flint knife, apple skins and cores and hazelnut shells.

The bread will be part of an exhibition the weekend to celebrate the excavation work sponsored by Hanson and English Heritage.

More details on the bread here

More details on the exhibition here

One of Oxfordshire’s most famous landmarks – the Uffington White Horse has been defaced by Hunt activists.

A 19th century white horse hill figure in Yorkshire was also defaced.

Today’s Oxford Mail reports that a spokesperson from the Real Countryside Alliance says: ‘Some people in the country are getting very frustrated at the inaction. All we want is for ministers to take notice.
“Marches don’t seem to be doing any good, although it’s keeping the media focused on it.

The 374ft-long Bronze age image has had three white hounds and a rider added in biodegradable paint.

For more, see: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2220725.stm

For my own part, I hope that the hounds of hell hunt down the miserable scumbags who think this is an acceptable way of getting their abhorant opinions in the press.