Rhiannon

From Western Morning News
thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=103354&command=displayContent&sourceNode=103331&contentPK=6169170

Rock musician Nic Potter is selling a Bronze Age burial mound – considered to be of significant national value and one of the largest in Cornwall – on the Internet to the highest bidder.

The four-acre site is the property of London-based Nic, 51, who played bass guitar with top 70s progressive rock band Van der Graaf Generator.

For a number of personal reasons and despite his love of the romance and mystery of the site, which has outstanding views of both the north and south coasts, Nic has put it on the market with a guide price of £150,000.

Nic, who plans to move to France and build his own recording studio to record solo material, said: “The site has always been very inspirational to me.

“I would come up here and suddenly start hearing bits of music which I would use in the band. You have the power of music up there – it’s very special.

“But now I live in London and I don’t come up here too often, so it’s time to sell it and move on.”

The barrow itself is made up of two rings of stone. The largest is 11.5 metres and some of the bigger stones are up to 2m wide and 1.22m high. Nic bought the land from his father, Norman Potter, in the mid-1980s for a few thousand pounds.

He said it had been very difficult to put a value on the site as it is unique and although he has set a provisional price, he will consider any offer.

Cornish-based estate agent for Miller Countrywide Nigel Bedford said he had never come across anything like Nic’s barrow during 25 years in the job.

“The closest I have come to this is a fogou (an underground chamber with spiritual and ceremonial significance found only in Cornwall) which was on the land of a house I was asked to value at Lamorna, but I’ve never sold an underground burial chamber,” he said.

Although Nic’s barrow, one of 2,500 in the county, is marked on many ancient maps, its existence had been more or less forgotten and Nic only uncovered the monument two years ago. He said: “I had always noticed the stones peeping out from the undergrowth but had always stayed away from them thinking they could be a mine shaft or something.

“When I finally cleared all the undergrowth away and called in Cornwall County Council’s archaeological unit I was told it was a Grade A monument. The man who came to see it got very excited.”

English Heritage – protector of this country’s national monuments – has expressed grave concern about the future safety of the 4,000-year-old barrow, which sits on a hilltop in West Cornwall. Inspector of Monuments for English Heritage Ian Morrison said he is powerless to make any moves to protect the monument at the moment but would certainly be considering it for protection in the future.

He said: “We understand the current owner is aware of its significant archaeological value. We can only hope that the next owner respects it as an important part of Cornwall’s heritage and that they will not damage it unnecessarily.”

Principal archaeologist for Cornwall County Council Steve Hartgroves said: “It’s a lovely early Bronze Age barrow. It is the resting place of the cremated remains of a local chief and so a site of ceremonial and ritual significance.

“It has been knocked around a bit and has a number of holes and piles of stones where it has been taken apart. There is also a rectangular structure in the middle of the mound, which could possibly have been a pigsty or shelter.

“I’m not aware of any other site in the country that has been sold because it contains an interesting antiquity and I can’t say who would want to buy it. Maybe it will appeal to the American market.”

What is almost certain, however, is that anything of financial value in the barrow will have been stolen long ago; its value is purely archaeological.

And because the site is part of an environmentally sensitive area and of national importance for its landscape, wildlife and historic interest there is no chance of anyone getting permission to build on it.

Nic has vowed he will only sell it to someone who will treat it with the same care and respect he has shown.

Full details of the barrow are available on Nic’s website www.cornish-barrow.co.uk.

[email protected]

From This Is Hull.co.uk

The rich abundance of Bronze Age archaeology near one of the city’s poorest housing estates is at risk from controversial plans to build 105 homes. Concern has been raised that developer Persimmon Homes has permission to build the houses on its Castle Grange site, off Noddle Hill Way, without having to carry out a full archaeological survey.

Neighbouring residents, city archaeologists and councillors have reacted with concern at a planning loophole, which could mean Bronze Age relics – including a suspected 4,000-year-old farmstead – being lost forever.

Persimmon Homes, based in Beverley, acquired the Castle Grange site in 1989 when planning conditions did not require an archaeological survey.

These days, builders are legally bound to undertake archaeological surveys before any foundations are dug.

Doreen Cox, 68, of Drummond Court, Bransholme, said any Bronze Age material should be excavated and recorded as part of the city’s cultural heritage.

Mrs Cox said: “It’s a shame the archaeology of this site is likely to be lost.

“At the end of the day it seems that money speaks and is more important than protecting historical artefacts.”

Dave Evans, archaeology manager at Hull-based Humber Archaeology, said the Castle Grange area was “potentially rich” in Bronze Age matter.

But he said his organisation had little power to demand a survey was carried out.

Mr Evans said: “Throughout the planning application we tried to get a condition applied, which would in normal circumstances allow for an archaeological survey to be carried out.

“But there’s nothing we can do as Persimmon acquired the site for building when such conditions did not exist.

“We have had a number of calls from concerned residents about this matter since approval was given for the housing plans.

“There is evidence of Bronze Age living in the area as it stretches out towards the fens as well as what may be an Iron Age farmstead.

“Although nothing can be done, we are pleased residents in the area are aware of archaeology in their area and are concerned for it.”

Bransholme North councillor Anita Harrison said: “Were this to be York, these plans would not have been considered without archaeological consultation.

“But sadly in Hull our imagination only seems to extend to sports stadiums and sleeping policemen.”

Andrew Bowes, deputy managing director of Persimmon Homes, said: “Archaeologists working on behalf of Hull City Council have carried out an investigation at the Castle Grange development and have advised that no such work is necessary.”

Now Cllr Harrison and Bransholme East councillor Nadene Burton are calling on English Heritage to see if it can investigate.

[email protected]

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/3011098.stm

A home for the ancient timber circle is planned in King’s Lynn. Proposals to put the ancient Seahenge timber circle on display in Norfolk have been put forward.

The circle, discovered five years ago and at present being conserved at Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire, could form the centrepiece of the redeveloped Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn.

The plan would give Seahenge, discovered off the coast of Norfolk at Holme-next-the-Sea near Hunstanton in 1998, a permanent home. Seahenge sat unnoticed and undisturbed off the coast for almost 4,000 years.

But since the timbers were first discovered they have rarely been far from controversy with some people feeling they should stay put.

They were moved to Flag Fen, near Peterborough, where the archaeologists could ensure they were preserved. That work will take at least two more years.

This will give the Lynn Museum time to apply for lottery funding to allow it to display Seahenge. Even then only about a third of the smaller posts would be displayed – along with the central trunk.

The ancient timbers have brought a new perspective to our knowledge of Bronze Age man. Use of 3D laser scanning has revealed the earliest metal tool marks on wood ever discovered in Britain.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3010974.stm

One of the biggest Bronze Age burial chambers in Cornwall has been put on the market for £150,000.
The barrow in West Penwith was built 4,000 years ago and was discovered two years ago by its owner, musician Nick Potter, who bought the land from relatives.
The barrow consists of two rings of stones. The largest is 11.5 metres in diameter and some of the bigger stones are up to 2m wide and 1.22m high.
Experts in archaeology say the site is steeped in ancient history and is considered of national importance for its landscape, wildlife and historic interest.
Steve Hartgroves, an archaeologist at Cornwall County Council, said the monument represented a site of “great archaeological significance”.
However, treasure hunters will be disappointed as the barrow was raided many years ago.
The barrow, one of 2,500 in Cornwall, is being scheduled by English Heritage in a process similar to listing of houses.
That means no one can build on the site, which comes with four acres of moorland, or use the land for farming.

Currently showing at the museum in Devizes is a small exhibition taken from their amazing library. You can gawp at:

– Stukeley’s actual notebook from 1717-1748 (featuring his small spidery writing)
– R Colt Hoare’s notebook
– Keiller’s foreman, WEV Young’s notebooks
– Crocker’s book containing watercolours (he was surveyor to Hoare and Cunnington)

...plus other photos, notebooks and drawings from the great and the good of the archaeological world.

And of course, their usual exhibitions of artefacts from all over Wessex including those from the Bowl barrow, a wealth of axeheads, pottery and marvellous things in general.

The National Trust has been criticised for allowing Channel 4 to use an Oxfordshire landmark to promote a TV programme.

A team from Channel 4 spent several hours on Thursday daubing a giant eye -- the logo of the channel’s Big Brother series -- on a field behind the White Horse at Uffington.

Footage to market the next series was then filmed before the logo was removed the following day.

The National Trust, which owns the site, received £2,000 from Channel 4.

But an Oxford archeologist condemned the publicity stunt as cheap and tasteless.

Alan Hardy, senior project manager for Oxford Archaeology, said: “If you’d asked them to spray-paint something on Westminster Abbey they would probably say that would be offensive.

“To a lot of people, the White Horse is a near-sacred site.”

The White Horse warden for the National Trust, Dawn Cunningham-Clayton, said tests had been carried out to make sure the logo could be easily removed.

Alan McLaughlin, for Channel 4, said: “We have great respect for the site, and were sensitive to its cultural value.”

Last summer, the 3,000 year-old Bronze Age hill chalk carving was defaced, with a hunting image, by pro-hunting campaigners.

thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/oxfordshire/news/TOPNEWS2.html

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/2985083.stm

A Devon farmer has realised his dream by building a Bronze Age burial chamber on his land. He transported four huge pieces of granite from Dartmoor to his estate near Ivybridge to carry out the construction. It is thought to be the first time in 2,000 years that a cromlech – defined as a prehistoric monument made of stones and thought to be a burial tomb – has been built in the UK. Gavin Dollard has been planning the cromlech for four years.

Mr Dollard, 52, who wants to be laid to rest in the chamber, had hoped to have the edifice constructed in time for the Millennium celebrations. However, work was only completed on Tuesday when a huge crane lowered a 14-tonne piece of granite on to three 10-tonne standing stones which had already been erected to create the chamber.

Mr Dollard’s family have farmed on Dartmoor for centuries. But in recent years he has diversified and turned part of his estate at Delamore in Cornwood into an open-air art gallery. He sees the cromlech as another piece of sculpture for his collection. But he admits that, when he dies, it will serve its more traditional purpose as a burial site.

He said: “The idea for this came to us in 1999, but it was impossible to get four stones that size safely off the moor in such a short period of time. But what’s a year here or there when we are taking about 2,000 years?”

Computer age recreates prehistoric sites in search of answers to carvings mystery

From Scotsman.com’s Heritage News

THREE-dimensional computer images of life 5,000 years ago are being created to help archaeologists decipher mysterious rock markings at the site of Scotland?s ancient capital. The virtual-reality reconstruction of hundreds of locations around Kilmartin in Argyll is expected to shed new light on the so-far unexplained “cup and ring” carvings. The project, by Warwick University, is also likely to improve knowledge of key sites such as Dunadd, a hill fort which was the Scots? capital from the 6th to 9th centuries. Standing stones, cairns, stone circles, Celtic crosses and gravestones in the area, which is regarded as Scotland?s richest surviving ancient landscape, are also among nearly 300 ancient monuments to be included.

Warwick University?s e-lab 3D visualisation group is constructing the images using information from past excavations, which include pollen samples that show the extent of past tree cover.
The pollen, recovered by Stirling University researchers, has shown the area would have been covered by hundreds of oaks.
The e-lab hopes the reconstructions will create the most comprehensive picture yet of the area?s past, enabling scientists to make new discoveries by comparing different images.
The virtual reconstructions place the engravings in the wider context of the landscape to show how the art related to its immediate surroundings thousands of years ago. They also show how the vegetation and landscape has changed through time.
The images are also being used to create computer games to enable people to better visualise what the area would have looked like.

Martin Blazeby, a multimedia designer at the e-lab, said: “We are digitising the information that is already there. When we have done that, archaeologists will be able to check the images for similarities and differences. “We do not know what the cup and ring markings were for, but they could be a type of code or descriptions of the constellations. The virtual reality software has been used in computer games to entertain, but is now emerging as a serious tool for transforming how we learn about our history. This new kit in the tool bag of museum displays has massive potential to bring Scotland?s ancient heritage back to life.”

Dunadd was established by Scots who emigrated from Ireland, and was once the centre of the long-lost Kingdom of Dalriada.
The Scots went on to take over south-eastern Scotland from the Picts in the 9th century. The hilltop fort at Dunadd, north of Lochgilphead, is where the Stone of Destiny is believed to have lain before being removed to Scone in Perthshire.

The computer game has used the results of excavations of the site to help viewers experience its panoramic outlook and navigate the area, following the progress of its inhabitants. Previous research by Dr Ewan Campbell of Glasgow University has shown that Scottish kings of that era enjoyed a sophisticated lifestyle from the fruits of international trade, importing herbs and expensive clothing dyes.

Colin Schafer, the director of Kilmartin House Museum, where the reconstructions will be displayed, said: “This project interprets ancient sites by analysing their landscape situation and builds on work reconstructing the vegetation history at rock art sites, and shows how it influenced site location.
“The computer graphics are already turning the heads of academics, historians, architects, teachers and pupils.”

ALASTAIR DALTON
Wednesday, 30th April 2003
The Scotsman

John O’Groat Journal

A BUNGLING roads boss unwittingly ordered the destruction of part of a 4000-year-old ancient monument near Lybster.
Highland Council workers were preparing to tarmac over historic ruins to create a lay-by for visitors to the standing stones at Achavanich before a concerned local historian pointed out the gaffe to embarrassed council chiefs.
Work ground to a halt last week while Historic Scotland assessed the damage and the local authority employed an archaeologist to ensure work can continue without further damage to the site.
The £10,000 project was funded by the Highland Council’s recent Scottish Executive windfall under a quality of life and environment initiative. It was hoped the lay-by would provide “safe and convenient” access for the public to reach the ancient monument.
Ian Hargrave, acting Caithness area manager, claims the blunder was “largely a technicality”.
He revealed that the Highland Council believed the scheduled monumental site stopped at the fence, in off the roadside, when in fact it extends to the edge of the road.
“That’s why people got a wee bit excited about it,” he said. “Historic Scotland has examined the site and an archaeologist consultant has been engaged to ensure the project can be completed.”
The council did not need planning permission for the project because it falls under the auspices of the roads authority. However, Richard Guest, the area transport, environmental and community services manager, admitted it would have been wise to consult Historic Scotland over the plans.
Mr Guest added that an initial report by the archaeologist employed by the council suggested that the area dug up by the council to lay the foundations for the lay-by did not hold anything of archaeological importance.
However, an Historic Scotland spokeswoman yesterday said she believes the site destroyed by the council is part of the unusual horseshoe-shaped arrangement of small standing stones at Achavanich. She added: “Fortunately the damage was minimal.”
The standing stones are believed to date back to the Bronze Age and have held ritual importance in the county for centuries, although their precise purpose and date is unknown. The tallest is two metres high. Some stones may have been taller, but weathering has caused them to crack and split.
Only 36 stones remain in the setting, although there may have been about 54 originally.
Achavanich is in Councillor Billy Mowat’s Caithness South-East ward. He declined to comment on the council’s gaffe because he said he was sure the situation would be resolved.
Mr Mowat welcomes the lay-by which he hopes will encourage more visitors to the area.

Robin Turner * [email protected], The Western Mail – The National Newspaper Of Wales

A 3,000-YEAR-OLD gold ring found by a metal detector enthusiast is an important archaeological find for Wales, a coroner at a Treasure Trove Inquest ruled yesterday. Swansea and Gower Coroner Richard Morgan declared the Bronze Age “hair ring,” discovered by 38-year-old Nigel Powell in Swansea Bay, was officially Treasure Trove and belonged to the Government. The coroner suggested the compensation fee payable to Mr Powell and landowners Swansea City and County Council should be split evenly. It is thought the delicate, gold-foil covered copper ring will eventually be valued at around £3,000.

Finds of such rings are extremely rare and it is thought the piece of jewellery may have belonged to a person of wealth and influence, such as a Bronze Age chieftain or possibly a princess. Historians believe the rings, only occasionally found in Scotland, Ireland, England, and the Low Countries and rarely in Wales, were used as hair adornments and also as money. Mr Powell, of The Crescent, Crynant, Neath, who has been a metal detector enthusiast for two years, discovered the ring last year at a point on the Swansea foreshore opposite Brynmill Park. It was discovered in around 15cm of clay.

Adam Gwillt, Pre-historian at the National Museum and Gallery of Wales in Cardiff where the ring is now held, said there had only been two similar rings ever discovered in Wales, one in Gwynedd and the other at Port Eynon on Gower. Mr Gwilt said the ring contained intricate decoration and had probably originally been dropped in a peat bog.

The ring dates back to the 10th or 11th Century BC.

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday March 16, 2003
The Observer

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of two embalmed humans, providing the first proof that ancient Britons made mummies of their kings and queens. The bodies – a man and a woman – predate the pharaoh Tutankhamen, who was mummified and buried 3,200 years ago.

The discovery at Cladh Hallan, a remote Bronze Age site in South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, makes the couple – a man and a woman – the oldest mummies found anywhere in Europe. It is believed the male is around 3,500 years old, the female a couple of centuries younger.

‘These are the only prehistoric mummies found in this country,’ said project leader Dr Mike Parker Pearson, of Sheffield University. ‘We have some from historic times – the body of Edward I was wrapped in cloth. But we have never found an example of the kind of thing that went on in ancient Egypt till now.‘

Unlike their Egyptian counterparts, however, the Cladh Hallan mummies had to survive, after embalming, in extremely wet conditions. Hebridean weather in the Bronze Age was as grim as it is today. As a result, the couple’s wrappings long ago disintegrated. Yet Dr Pearson and his team are convinced the pair must have been swathed in bandages.

‘We found them with their knees around the chests and their thighs and calves absolutely parallel. There is no way that could have been done unless they had been very tightly bandaged or tied up with cords or straps of leather,’ added Pearson. ‘Over the millennia, the cloth disintegrated.‘

The team found evidence that the people of South Uist went to extraordinary pains to preserve the bodies of the Cladh Hallan couple. Although the pair were found buried in the foundations of two Bronze Age dwellings called roundhouses, they had not been put in the earth immediately after death.

The state of their bodies indicates they had been kept above ground for several hundred years – at least 500 years, in the case of the male mummy. ‘Something must have been done to preserve their flesh before it was wrapped up,’ said Pearson.

‘We narrowed this down to four options: the pair were left out to dry in the wind; they were slowly dried over a peat fire; they were pickled in salt, or they were dipped in a peat bog for a while.

‘To find out which, we studied mineral deposits on their bones which showed that both bodies had been immersed in peaty water for a considerable time – possibly a year before they were bandaged up.‘

After that, it appears the couple were put on display or kept in a sacred, warm, dry place – otherwise they would have disintegrated. Just why this couple, who had lived a couple of centuries apart, were venerated in this rather grisly way is still a mystery, however.

‘It could be a form of ancestor worship, or the local people could have preserved them because they were great leaders or shamans whose powers they hoped to tap into after death,’ said Pearson.

Bronze Age funereal customs in South Uist changed for some reason around 3,000 years ago. The couple were taken from their place of display and buried in the foundations of one of the roundhouses.

‘There is something touching about still taking such care about people who had died centuries earlier, said Pearson. ‘It indicates a considerable continuity to the local culture.‘

· The Mummies of Cladh Hallan will be shown on BBC2 at 9pm on Tuesday.

Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Thursday March 13, 2003 The Guardian

Plans supported by the British government would undermine protection for world heritage sites such as Stonehenge and the Giant’s Causeway, according to the organisation that advises on their protection.
The IUCN, the international conservation union, which must be consulted before the designation of a world heritage site, says proposed rule changes undermine the convention that created such sites.

It is so alarmed about the consequences that it has written to all 175 member governments appealing for help before a special meeting to change the rules is held in Paris next week.
Among the changes the world heritage committee, which runs the world heritage scheme, will discuss are:

· Allowing states to veto any criticism of them for damaging or neglecting sites within their borders.
· Allowing states to prevent the creation of new sites in their borders if they stand in the way of development.
· Stopping the committee removing a world heritage site designation when it becomes so degraded as no longer to be worthy of inclusion.

In the appeal for help, the IUCN says allowing a country a veto would “erode the credibility and strength of the convention among ... concerned civil society interests. This change would reduce state parties’ accountability to the world heritage committee and the international community”.

Listing places as endangered “has been a very effective way to signal the serious threats to a property and mobilise national and international action to safeguard the property in question”.
While the UK is keen on gaining more world heritage sites because they attract foreign tourists, critics say it wants to avoid criticism if it subsequently fails to look after them.

The rule change was originally proposed by Australia, which was stung by criticism for proposing to allow uranium mining in the Kakadu park, which is a world heritage site. Australia has left the 21-country ruling committee that runs the convention but its plans have been taken up and backed by the UK.
The US, which is not on the committee, was irritated by a “danger list” designation for Yellowstone national park and the Everglades and is also lobbying for the rule changes.

The world heritage convention committee’s membership changes regularly and, in the 30 years since the convention was first agreed, has designated 730 natural and cultural sites for special protection. There are 24 in the UK.

Adrian Phillips, vice chair of the IUCN’s world commission on protected areas, said a strength of the convention was that the decision to designate sites or make comments about them was made independently of the government that controlled the territory of the world heritage site. This has been important in protecting sites when the committee has felt it necessary to list them as “in danger”.

For some countries, for example the Philippines, which has world famous rice paddies at Luzon, north of Manila, an endangered listing was welcomed to attract foreign aid. However, many countries, including Australia, the US and Russia, resent the idea of international criticism and support a rule change, Mr Phillips said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Culture said the current rules were legally “ambiguous” and practices might have to change. The UK was not advocating weakening the convention but had a different interpretation of the rules.

I’m sure Mr G will share with us The Truth..

From ThisIsWiltshire.co.uk

Civil engineers have returned to Silbury Hill to begin further exploration of the prehistoric mound. It’s almost three years since an ancient shaft at the core of the hill re-opened leaving a gaping hole. English Heritage was forced to act after the old shaft began to collapse leaving a massive crater in the centre of the 4,800-year-old monument.

Now international civil engineering consultants Cementation Skanska have been asked by English Heritage to carry out further tests on the hill. In 2001 the company used pioneering new methods to create a three dimensional picture of the inside of the hill. It bored four holes from the top of the hill to its base to allow sensitive recording equipment to be lowered inside the mound to provide a 3D image of the hill. The material removed during the drilling also allowed archaeologists to see how the hill had originally been constructed between 2800 and 200BC. As a temporary repair measure English Heritage had the crater in the centre of the hill packed out with polystyrene capped with a layer of chalk. But local archaeologists have called for permanent repairs to be carried out to the hill.

Plant and mobile offices from Cementation Skanska arrived at the foot of the hill this week. The engineers prepared a mesh surface on the southeast slope to enable equipment to be winched to the top of the hill. English Heritage explained that further tests were needed at the centre of the hill to ensure that the old shaft was adequately filled in.

In a statement English heritage said: ìIn 2001 we carried out works to arrest a collapse to the head of a shaft which in 1776 had been sunk by the Duke of Northumberland to the centre of the hill. Following this work a geophysical survey of the whole hill was carried out on our behalf by Cementation Skanska.
Reassuringly they reported that the hill was a robust structure which was basically stable but identified certain areas which required further investigations.”

The work that started this week is on the 18th century shaft.
“As part of this assessment we intend to test the consistency of the backfilling in the lower part of the shaft by drilling a borehole through it from the top. Another borehole will be drilled nearby as a control. The information gathered will help us design the long-term remedial work.”

entertainment.scotsman.com/visual/headlines_specific.cfm?id=6882

from ‘the scotsman‘

An archive featuring the UK’s finest collection of prehistoric rock art – stone carvings thousands of years old – is to get a global showcase via what is believed to be the most detailed internet site of its kind in the world.

The website will include global positioning system readings – highly accurate positions of the artwork compiled using satellites – and digital drawings and photographs.

Northumberland is widely regarded as having the country’s richest collection of rock art, with up to 500 examples still existing in the field and written records of up to 750 panels.

Examples include England’s largest such site at Roughting Linn, just south of the Border.

Stan Beckensall, who has spent more than 30 years documenting this mysterious phenomenon, has just donated his extensive archive to the Museum of Antiquities at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The records include photographs, books, drawings and rubbings.

In a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB), the university intends to make the entire archive widely accessible via a new website which will display information at differing levels of complexity, providing a valuable research and teaching resource for academics as well as schools, heritage specialists, landowners, and tourists.

Dr Aron Mazel, an archaeologist and research associate with the School of Historical Studies at Newcastle University, who is leading the project, says the website will be the most detailed of a rock art area in the world. It is due to go live next year.

By James Young – Bucks Free Press

A bumpy ride for cyclists, horse riders and walkers could soon be over as plans to improve one of Britain’s oldest road gather pace. The Ridgeway National Trail, which runs through Princes Risborough, has been damaged in recent months by rain and illegal vehicles driving along it. Details of a consultation held in November, where local people expressed their views over the best way to improve the 23-mile eastern stretch of The Ridgeway, were released this week. A number of people from Risborough and Chinnor told of their anger over the poor condition of the trail at the meeting. Suggestions being considered by the Countryside Agency include the banning of vehicles along The Ridgeway and using volunteer groups to help maintain the quality of the surface.

Countryside officer Hazel Fleming said: We are hoping we will be able to repair the surface of The Ridgeway in the near future to make the experience of using it much more pleasant for people. Vehicles are allowed to use The Ridgeway at certain points but the main problems involve illegal vehicles driving on it. The Countryside Agency is looking to work with local police to stop unlicensed vehicles such as quad bikes with no number plates from disturbing the surface of the trail. Landowners could also be asked to help maintain the trail by finding alternative routes for their vehicles off the trail route.

Section Four of The Ridgeway winds its way through the Chiltern Hills from Chinnor, through Princes Risborough and Tring, ending at Ivinghoe Beacon.
It is a popular trail for walkers and forms a major part of the area’s natural beauty and heritage, including the Whiteleaf Cross archaeological site.

Scottish Herald – Shan Ross
Builders who were on the brink of using a JCB digger to lay the foundations of a new housing estate have unearthed what may be the richest archaeological find in Scotland. It includes the well-preserved skeleton, sword and valuable adornments of an Iron Age warrior buried with full honours. Experts who announced the discovery of the site at Alloa, Clackmannanshire last night described the grave as one of the most “valuable and exciting” to have been found on these shores.

It is believed that only around 100 such ceremonial Iron Age burials took place in Scotland over 1000 years and, of those, only four had weapons lying alongside the skeleton. Ancient communities disposed of their dead in different ways and the majority of corpses in Iron Age Scotland were put in rivers, left on exposed platforms, or put up trees.

Building work was first halted last Tuesday when workmen uncovered a Bronze Age grave containing the skeleton of a woman along with an ornate food vessel and copper alloy items dating back to between 2500 and 1500BC. However, two days later, the digger uncovered the more important grave.

The Iron Age warrior whose head had been placed on a stone pillow is likely to have been a chief ruling the surrounding kingdom, and appeared to have been aged between 25 and 35 when he died around 200BC to 200AD. His sword had been placed in his hand and surrounding him were valuable toe rings, an ornate copper pin and glass beads. The artefacts indicate that he was a high-ranking powerful individual who would have been able to display great wealth. Archaeological staff, who believe there may be more graves in the vicinity, immediately secured the site to deter vandals.

Ian Ralston, professor of archaeology at Edinburgh University, said that a great deal was already known about the Iron Age in Scotland in terms of hill forts and brochs, but that rituals pertaining to death were still largely undiscovered.

“We can trace Iron Age life in the north-west, the Western Isles and Lowlands, but we still know very little about how they treated their dead.” he said. “It is quite amazing to think that this skeleton has turned up by chance, but it replicates a pattern whereby builders can be the ones who make these fantastic finds.” Professor Ralston added that such graves were often discovered by farmers ploughing their fields.

Susan Mills, museum and heritage officer for Clackmannanshire Council, said the find was less than 50yds away from a Bronze Age cemetery discovered in 1828. “The later burials of the Iron Age may have been based on some sort of folk memory of the site being used as a burial place. It could have still been regarded as a special place for those who lived in the area,” she said. “I also think the graves have been so well preserved because they were protected for years by nursery greenhouses which were demolished in the 1970s.”

Paul Duffy, human remains and forensics expert from the archaeology department at Glasgow University, said the site was the greatest find he was likely to come across in his lifetime. He said: “I’ve worked on many sites throughout my 12 years in the field but these, particularly the Iron Age grave, far outweigh anything I’ve ever seen.”

The skeletons have been taken to Glasgow University for forensic examination, while the precious artefacts found with them have been sent to a specialist firm in Edinburgh.

George Tainsh, director of the £1.5m Ochilview housing development, which plans to build 30 houses on the site, said his company would cooperate fully with archaeological experts to safeguard the graves.

A spokesman for Historic Scotland said: “It is a very significant discovery for our understanding, particularly of Iron Age warriors and warfare and the period immediately preceding the Romans.”

gleaned from ‘WeirdWiltshire.co.uk‘

15 FEB – 22 APRIL, DEVIZES: The current exhibition at Wiltshire Heritage Museum reviews the progress of the five year project, Repairing the Past, the Wiltshire Bronze Age Pot Project, funded chiefly by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to conserve 105 prehistoric pots from Wiltshire.

The delicate work is being undertaken by the county’s unsung heroes and heroines, the staff of Wiltshire County Council’s Conservation Laboratory at Salisbury.

For two-and-a-half years now they have been painstakingly removing rock-hard cement and other materials naively applied by pioneer 19th century archaeologists to the pots they had excavated in barrows around Wiltshire, in order, they believed – to preserve them the pots, which are up to 4,500 years old, are often highly decorated and are among the outstanding artistic and archaeological treasures of Wiltshire.

The early methods, used to ‘protect’ them were in fact only serving to further damage the pots. The project is now half-way through. Nearly 60 of the pots have been painstakingly restored and returned to the museum for display.

This exhibition illustrates the problems which have been suffered by the pots, the methods used by the Conservators to repair them and shows some of the complete pots and the horrendous discoveries made, such as the use of flowerpots, bicycle spokes and metal body filler!

It gives a rare insight into the fascinating world of museum conservators, the challenges they face and the successes they achieve, all for the benefit of the community.

Two ancillary events have been organised to link with the exhibition: On Sunday 2 March the museum is holding a ‘family day’ featuring Bronze Age re-enactors who will recreate different aspects of life in the Bronze Age, including pottery making.

On 2 April, Lynn Wootton, one of the Wiltshire County Council conservators will give a talk at the museum describing the work of the Conservation Laboratory in rescuing the South Cadbury Shield (a Bronze Age shield found at South Cadbury Hillfort, Somerset) and the Purton Ossuary (a Roman burial found at Purton, nr Swindon), two recent archaeological discoveries.

From the Wokingham Times 20.2.03
By Ricky Hindmarsh

A fragment of an infant’s skull has been found near pig bones on a primary school playing field in Winnersh earmarked for a housing development. Experts believe the skull could be part of a much wider Bronze Age burial ground.The unusual historical relic surprised archaeologists who say it is unusual to find human and animal bones together.Police and the coroner’s office have not been officially informed of the find which was made in February last year.
Details have only now been made public.

Initial evidence points to the remains being more than 100 years old.
A process called Carbon 14 dating is being used to determine the exact date, but a Bronze Age burial site found in the 1960s, just 100 yards away, suggests it could be a small satellite addition to the central site. Now Kev Beachus, senior archaeologist at BABTIE, Wokingham District Council’s highways consultants which surveys all large building applications, says the top-soil will have to be stripped off to search for the rest of the skeleton to comply with the letter of the law. There is no evidence of foul play and a thickening of the two-inch piece of skull suggests that death could have been caused by meningitis, it is thought.
Mr Beachus, who is unable to speculate on how the bone came to rest with the pig remains, said too little was known about Bronze Age settlements to be entirely sure of what else could be found.
He said: “Finding the infant’s skull with the pig bones did lead us to think of some terrible things, but it was found separately in the same ditch we were digging. It is unusual and in my 15 years I have never come across anything like this. In law, human remains have to be found ‘in totum’, which is why I will insist that further work be done.”
...
When the topsoil is peeled off, which could take about six weeks, the site will be opened to the public for one day only...

theherald.co.uk/news/archive/13-2-19103-0-27-44.html

John McEarchran – The Herald
PREHISTORIC Scots snubbed the seafood which has since become world famous, it was revealed yesterday in the results of tests on 5500-year-old human bones. Neolithic settlers on the banks of Loch Fyne, Argyll, turned up their noses at the area’s legendary oysters, mussels, herring, and mackerel to dine on sheep, cows, and pigs.

The results have surprised scientists who examined the remains from a National Trust for Scotland archaeological site at Crarae on Loch Fyne which have been in storage for 50 years. Derek Alexander, an NTS archaeologist, said: “It is very exciting. It’s incredible what the re-examination of old excavations can still tell us using modern techniques.”

The bones from the chambered tomb at Crarae Garden were dug up in the early 1950s. New tests can determine different types and levels of carbon and nitrogen in bone, showing whether the long dead human ate meat or fish. Analysis of bone collagen from Crarae has now revealed that prehistoric dinner consisted mainly of beef, mutton, and pork.

Dr Rick Schulting of Queen’s University, Belfast, and Dr Michael Richards, of Bradford University also found that the early inhabitants of Scotland changed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers more rapidly than was previously believed. Dr Schulting said: “The shift from hunting and gathering to farming is one of the most important and interesting periods of prehistory. “New results from sites like Crarae are changing the way we think about this shift.”

Stonehenge ‘King’ Came from Central Europe

LONDON (Reuters) – The construction of one of Britain’s most famous ancient landmarks, the towering megaliths at Stonehenge in southern England, might have been supervised by the Swiss, or maybe even the Germans. Archaeologists studying the remains of a wealthy archer found in a 4,000-year-old grave exhumed near Stonehenge last year said Monday he was originally from the Alps region, probably modern-day Switzerland, Austria or Germany.
“He would have been a very important person in the Stonehenge area and it is fascinating to think that someone from abroad -- probably modern-day Switzerland -- could have played an important part in the construction of the site,” said archaeologist Andrew Fitzpatrick in a statement.

The so-called “Amesbury Archer” was found in a grave about three miles from the landmark, buried with 100 items, including gold earrings, copper knives and pottery. Researchers hailed the find -- dating from about 2,300 B.C. and the oldest known grave in Britain -- as one of the richest early Bronze Age sites in Europe. He was dubbed “The King of Stonehenge” because of the lavish items found in his grave, including some of the earliest gold objects ever found in Britain.

It was tests on the enamel of his teeth that revealed he was born and grew up in the Alps region. “Different ratios of oxygen isotopes form on teeth in different parts of the world and the ratio found on these teeth prove they were from somebody from the Alps region,” said Tony Trueman from Wessex Archaeology. “It is important proof that culture imported from the continent helped bring Britain out of the Stone Age,” he told Reuters.

(see Phil’s post below for the original discovery of the Archer)

icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?

Yeavering Bell Conference
A national conference will be held next month to examine Yeavering Bell, the biggest and most spectacular hill fort in Northumberland.
The fort, on the edge of the Cheviots, protected at least 130 roundhouses and was occupied for around at least 500 years.
There are still places available for the conference on March 29-30 at Bede’s World in Jarrow and bookings should be made by February 20 by contacting Paul Frodsham on (01434) 611509.
The event will also look at the Seventh Century palace site of King Edwin, which is overlooked by Yeavering Bell, and the prehistoric henge landscape of the nearby Milfield plain.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for local people to listen to experts discussing all aspects of Yeavering from early prehistory until medieval times. It is an event not to be missed by anyone with an interest in Northumberland heritage,” said Paul.

Hillforts Project
An unspoilt Northumbrian valley has been hailed as one of the finest ancient landscapes in Europe. In July the final excavation in a 10-year series will start in the Breamish Valley as part of a programme of discovery spanning 10,000 years. The wealth of finds and knowledge gained has stunned experts from Durham University, Northumberland Archaeology Group and Northumberland National Park who have been partners in the project.

“We knew when we started that it was a special landscape. Although we have only scratched the surface in a few tiny places we can now say that it is unsurpassed in interest throughout Europe,” said national park archaeologist Paul Frodsham. “There is nothing better in Europe. We will never know the full story because of a jigsaw of 1,000 pieces we now have only about two.”

The venture has unearthed Bronze Age burial cairns of around 4,000 years ago on Turf Knowe, overlooking the valley, which contained five intact cremation urns now being examined at Durham. The burial site itself used what had been a summer hunting camp for Stone Age people from 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists have also looked at three of the valley’s 12 hill forts. Brough Law fort has been dated to 300BC while at Wether Hill it has been found that a stone and earth fort replaced an earlier timber palisade stronghold.

Experts believe that as the climate became colder and wetter from 1,200BC, the hundreds of people who were then living in the valley stopped putting effort into ceremonial burial places and began building forts instead.
“Some agricultural land would have gone out of use because of the deterioration in the climate and cattle became the new wealth. The situation would not be dissimilar to the times of the Border Reivers with cattle being driven into the hill forts in times of danger,” said Paul.

The national park’s £1m Discovering Our Hillfort Heritage project has also been granted a two-year extension until 2004. It is evaluating the 50 or so forts in the park and this spring leaflets outlining trails to ancient settlements in the College Valley, Breamish Valley, Humbleton Hill, Lordenshaws, Kirknewton and Yeavering will be available so that the public can enjoy the area’s prehistoric heritage at first hand.

Stone age man drank milk, scientists find
By Steve Connor Science Editor
28 January 2003
The Independent

Early britons drank milk as far back as 4,500BC, according to a chemical analysis of pottery fragments unearthed at several stone age sites in southern England.

Scientists have identified the chemical signature of dairy products such as milk, cheese or yoghurt inside a variety of cooking pots used for preparing food in neolithic Britain.

Mark Copley, an organic chemistry researcher at Bristol University, said the discovery suggested dairy products formed an important part of the stone age diet almost immediately after the introduction of livestock farming to Britain some 6,000 years ago.

Although it was known that ancient Britons kept livestock for meat, it was not clear whether the milk from the ruminant animals – sheep, goats and cows – was also collected for human consumption.

The question of dairying is important in understanding the nutrition and culture of ancient Britain but until now archaeologists have had little to go on other than the odd discovery of specialist vessels or putative cheese strainers.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, confirmed the presence of dairy products dating back more than 6,000 years. “The results provide direct evidence for the exploitation of domesticated ruminant animals for dairy products at Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements in Britain,” the researchers report.

“Most significantly, studies of pottery from a range of early Neolithic sites confirmed dairying was a widespread activity in this period,” they add.

Dr Copley said he and his colleagues analysed more than 950 pottery fragments from 14 archaeological sites, including the stone age forts at Windmill Hill in Wiltshire, and Hambledon Hill in Dorset.

Rosie Cowan, Ireland correspondent
Monday January 13, 2003
The Guardian

Road excavations in Northern Ireland have unearthed what appears to be evidence of the island’s earliest settlers and first farmers.

As the diggers moved in to work on the Toome bypass, outside Toomebridge in Co Antrim, archaeologists found more than 10,000 artefacts, including stone age axe heads and flints from 9,400 years ago, through to bronze age times about 4,500 years ago.

Paul McCooey, of Northern Archaeological Consultancy, said the area was particularly significant because it was a rare transitional site, charting the change from the hunter gatherer life to farming, and providing a fascinating insight into how our ancestors lived.

“From the material we’ve uncovered so far, it seems farming in Ireland started about 200 years earlier than had previously been supposed,” said Mr McCooey, who heads a team of 17 archaeologists working on the site.

“These people came to Ireland several thousand years after the last ice age, paddling across the Irish sea from Scotland in dugout canoes covered in skins. They were hunter gatherers at first. Then they appear to have settled on a drumlin [a hill formed by glacial activity] surrounded by fields which would have flooded when it rained.”

The size of the houses – one was 12 metres in diameter – suggested that the settlement became permanent, rather than being a nomadic hunting camp. The inhabitants are thought to have fished and grown cereal crops.

Mr McCooey’s team also found the remains of bronze age cooking pits, also used for bathing and religious rituals. They were lined with clay or wood to make them waterproof.

“One of the most thrilling finds has been a two-bladed bronze age knife, the size of a man’s hand, carved from flint,” he said. “It’s extremely rare and beautiful. I’ve never seen one outside a textbook before.”

Archaeologists are flocking to the site. The Ulster Museum in Belfast is keen to give the artefacts a home when excavation have finished next month. Mr McCooey wants to stage an exhibition in Toome first. He would like some pieces to remain permanently on display locally.

He insisted that his dig was not holding up progress on the bypass.
“Cooperation with the construction workers has been excellent,” he said. “We simply work on different parts of the site, but they are very interested in what we are doing and when there is a big find, everyone cranes round for a look.”

Blades and pottery unearthed during work on the new Toome Bypass reveal invaluable information about the lives of ancient peoples, according to archaeologists who have examined the artefacts.

The find is the most significant discovery in the province since a 4,000-year-old grave was discovered during an excavation in the ruins of Newtownstewart Castle in County Tyrone in 1999.

Paul McCooey, who has examined the latest find, said their discovery was of immense importance. “The wealth of archaeology uncovered provides a fascinating insight into the lives of our ancestors,” he said.

A special team of experts has been appointed by the Roads Service to carry out a full examination of the site where a 3.5km dual carriageway is being built to ease chronic traffic congestion.

More than 8,000 pieces of flint, including small microlith blades and bigger tools used for hunting and fishing, have been discovered.
The finds range from Mesolithic (7,000-3,500BC) and Neolithic (4,000-2,500BC) to the Bronze Age (2,500-1,200BC) and right up to some tools from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Mr McCooey added: “This area would have been an ideal home for our early ancestors. “These hunter gatherers concentrated their activities on waterways, foraging on the shores of seas, lakes and rivers.”

Other archaeological sites at Castleroe and Newferry have confirmed Mesolithic man migrated up the River Bann to Lough Neagh.

“The family groups lived a nomadic lifestyle in houses made from animal skins spread over a bowl-shaped timer frame, indicated by traces of a circular pattern of postholes found at Toome,” added Mr McCooey.
“The finds at Toome also include flint tools and shards of decorated pottery from the New Stone Age, or the Neolithic period.
“Neolithic man built more permanent rectangular dwellings whose foundations show up as linear gullies with stone foundations packed with organic material.”

from BBC News website, 8th Jan 2003

Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Wednesday December 18, 2002
The Guardian

West Country police recently turned out on a cold wet night, to follow up reports that two men were illegally digging on an important Roman site. A man with a metal detector was detained nearby, and hundreds of objects were recovered from his car and home.

But of the extraordinary haul of Roman coins, scraps of armour and harness, a medieval purse carrier and a crushed Victorian silver thimble, only a tiny scrap of blackened Anglo-Saxon silver can be proved to be held illegally. The finds, more than 400 in all, are being studied by experts at the British Museum, but the incident increases the frustration at the present law shared by archaeologists, police and museum experts.

Although amateurs using metal detectors are encouraged to report all finds, under the voluntary portable antiquities scheme, they are only legally obliged to report treasure finds of gold or silver or hoards of coins.

Of the cupboard full of finds from the West Country case, only the sliver of silver – a decorated Anglo Saxon strap end, perhaps 1,300 years old – counts as treasure, which the finder could be prosecuted for failing to report.

The man claimed to have been digging more than two miles from the Roman site, with the land owner’s permission – though why he was doing so in darkness and rain was harder to explain.

Although many of the objects recovered are believed to have been illegally excavated, probably from scheduled ancient monuments like the Roman site, where permission would never be given for an amateur to trawl with a metal detector, it is impossible to prove where they came from. The coins would only be treasure if found as a hoard.

Although none of the objects are hugely valuable, there is a ready market for such scraps of history. Many antiquity dealers will not touch such unprovenanced items, but a dodgy dealer can accept, without written proof, assurances from an excavator that he had the land owner’s consent, then swear he obtained the items in good faith and is protected in law. The damage is done, and the knowledge which could have been excavated with the objects lost forever.

Internationally the problem is vast, with a sophisticated trade in looted archaeology, sometimes stolen to order from sites or museum stores. In Britain the problem is also widespread, with reports from many parts of the country of “nighthawks”, gangs of thieves removing van loads of material. Recently the Yeavering Bell Iron Age hillfort in Northumberland, which has never been excavated, was left pitted with dozens of holes

The government promised before the election to reform the law by creating a specific offence of acquiring, handling or selling looted antiquities, but has failed to find parliamentary time. An attempt to reform the law will be made through a private member’s bill which will be introduced in February by Richard Allan, the Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam and a member of the parliamentary all-party archaeology group.

“This bill would mean that dealers who knowingly trade in artefacts plundered from archaeological sites could be prosecuted,” he said. “Archaeological sites must be protected. Closing down the market in looted cultural objects would remove the incentive for taking material from archaeological sites.”

At the British Museum Roger Bland, director of the portable antiquities scheme, which last year resulted in 40,000 reported finds, deals daily with the frustrations of the law as it stands: “In the West Country case the police behaved absolutely commendably, but it’s hard to blame other overstretched forces with limited resources, when they know it will be hard or impossible to get a prosecution to stick. Reform of the law is long overdue.”

from icNewcastle

The huge archive built up by Stan Beckensall in decades of investigating rock art is being donated to the Museum of Antiquities at Newcastle University. Stan will be working with Aron Mazel, a researcher at the university’s school of historic studies, in creating a website so that the archive will be widely available. It includes photographs taken over 35 years, notebooks, rubbings, drawings and the books written by Stan on the subject.

“It contains every bit of information I have gathered over the years and it can now all go on the Internet,” said Stan. Stan and Aron will be revisiting and re-photographing hundreds of rock art sites in Northumberland. There are more than 600 records of rock art panels in the county. Aron said: “We want to make the material available to a wide range of people, including youngsters.
“Rock art has not been at the centre stage of archaeology and it deserves a lot more exposure. “It represents a real manifestation of human endeavour and a huge amount of time and labour was invested in its creation. We need more work on the motivation and meaning behind it and hopefully the website will encourage that.”

Recent discoveries in Cumbria are the subject of the latest book by Stan. Prehistoric Rock Art in Cumbria is published by Tempus at £16.99.
icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?objectid=12444387&method=full&siteid=50081&page=2

icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100local/page.cfm?objectid=12444387&method=full&siteid=50081&page=1

From icNewcastle
By The Journal

Examples of some of the best prehistoric rock art in the world are to be protected by a Northumbrian farmer. Much of Duncan Ord’s Chatton Park Farm near Alnwick is a prehistoric landscape, which includes a hillfort and a rock overhang shelter. The farm also has several outstanding examples of mysterious rock art, consisting of cup, ring and other patterns which were carved into sandstone outcrops from 5,000 years ago. Northumberland is especially rich in rock art, which has been explored and recorded for more than 30 years by retired Hexham headteacher Stan Beckensall. He has been campaigning for the rock panels to be safeguarded from threats which include air pollution, acid rain, trampling by cattle, ploughing and quarrying. Yesterday Stan hailed a Countryside Stewardship agreement signed between Mr Ord and Defra which will see the farmer qualify for payments by looking after the ancient legacy.
The stewardship scheme provides funding to encourage traditional farming methods which can help conserve historical features, and makes provision for public access. Under his agreement Mr Ord will now keep grazing animals away from the site, and develop a trail to allow the public to appreciate the historic sites at first hand.

Mr Ord said: “Chatton Park is a marginal farm where we keep cows and sheep, as well as a small arable acreage. Our cows were traditionally wintered on the hill where the rock art is, because it offered the animals a sheltered spot whichever way the wind blew.
“But when Stan Beckensall told me how important these markings on the rocks were I was happy to change our husbandry practices. The stewardship agreement is giving me the support I need to do that.”
Stan said: “The rock art at Chatton is first class – some of the finest in the world. Duncan Ord’s stewardship scheme is an important step forward in preserving the rock art and bringing it to a wider audience. “Developments like stewardship are good because it is a recognition that the rock art is important. This is part of what I have been wanting to happen for a long, long time.
“The farm is part of prime rock art country and the landscape definitely has a presence. It is a special place.” Views from some of the main rock panels offer a sweeping vista across the Till Valley towards the Cheviot Hills. Rock art is often found in such locations and offers clues to its original purpose, which has generated scores of theories. One of the Chatton panels has multiple concentric circles, pairs of cups, squares and domino-style markings.

Neil Clark, senior advisor at Defra’s Rural Development Service North-East, said: “This agreement shows the many applications of Countryside Stewardship, not only helping to enhance and preserve wildlife habitats but also protecting important aspects of our national heritage.”

Human remains which could be about 4,000 years old have been unearthed by archaeologists working in a Cumbrian village. A team of archaeologists found the body curled up in the foetal position in a cavity in the limestone bedrock on a building site opposite the church in Levens, near Kendal. The remains have been removed after the Home Office issued a burial licence. Jamie Quartermaine, from Oxford Archaeology North, said the manner of the burial suggested the remains probably dated back to pre-Roman times.
Mr Quartermaine, who is project manager in charge of the survey at the site where two four-bedroom houses will be built, said: “All we can say for certain at this stage is that it is at least 100 years old. “We know this because there was a 100-year-old tree on top of it.” Then he stomped grumpily for a cup of tea, kicking a passing cat. [ok so I made that last sentence up, but he obviously doesn’t give two hoots and just resents the fact his houses are going to take longer to build]

Local historian Roger Bingham said: “It is one of the most exciting discoveries we have had for a long time, possibly since Bronze Age urns were found in Allithwaite. “This is an archaeological discovery of the first importance. “It also underlines the importance of asking for archaeological research before there is development.”

from the Herald:
Shan Ross

The earliest known house in Scotland is understood to have been unearthed in Dunbar, East Lothian.

Archaeologists believe the remains of the house on the site of a limestone quarry dates from the Mesolithic era of the hunter-gatherers between 8000BC and 4000BC.

The site could pre-date the Skara Brae settlement in Orkney which is from around 2000BC in the Neolithic Age.

But the substantial structure might never have been found had planners not insisted the site be surveyed by archaeologists before Lefarge Cement could begin quarrying.

The discovery of holes to take wooden posts for a teepee-like structure, suggest for the first time that the hunter-gatherers built semi-permanent structures from which to roam the shore and countryside in search of food.

Previous sites dating from the Mesolithic era have been found, including shell middens on the west coast of Scotland. A number of small hunting camps scattered with stone tools have also been found.

However no other sites apart from Mount Sandal in Northern Ireland show evidence of serious construction methods.

First indications of the site’s age emerged with the discovery of thousands of flint shards, the remnants of stone tool manufacture, the tools themselves and burned hazelnut shells.

But significantly the discovery of the inward-sloping 8in diameter post holes indicated that the partially natural hollow around which they had been sunk was more than an overnight shelter, according to John Gooder, the project manager for the Edinburgh-based AOC Archaeology.

He said: “Considerable effort was involved in building this round house so perhaps our Mesolithic family spent a relatively lengthy stay in the area, or perhaps returned to the house at particular times of the year over a lengthy period.

“This contrasts strongly with the prevailing view of Mesolithic settlements as little more than temporary camps scattered over a hunting territory.”

Dr Alan Savile, curator of archaeology at the National Museums of Scotland, described the find as “extremely significant” and added: “We may well be looking at Scotland’s earliest house.”

Hunter-gatherers were the original environmentalists. They knew how to burn a stretch of moorland to improve hunting or stimulate the re-growth of edible plants in much the same way grouse moors are burned today to encourage the growth of fresh heather. It is still unknown why or how they managed to turn to farming as a way of life.

-21 Nov

an update of the M50 saga

The Irish Examiner 08 Nov 2002

By Caroline O’Doherty

THE National Roads Authority has denied protestors’ claims of victory after archaeologists resumed work on the controversial Carrickmines Castle site. Dozens of personnel have begun excavations at the site in south Co Dublin, which lies in the path of the South Eastern Motorway, the long-awaited last section of the M50 motorway.

Protestors calling themselves Carrickminders who have been occupying the site since the deadline for excavations ran out at the end of August have declared the return of the workers a “grudging acknowledgement” that recovery of the site’s treasures is far from complete.

“It validates what we’ve said all along. There is a wealth of artefacts still in the ground, and now that the EU and Bord Pleanála are questioning what’s going on, they have slipped the archaeologists back in to try to look like they’re doing a respectable job,” said spokesman Ruadhan MacEoin.

But Michael Egan, spokesman for the National Roads Authority (NRA), said the latest work called finds’ retrieval had always been planned and that it was in fact held up by the Carrickminders after they blocked machinery from accessing the site.

“It was always the intention after the initial manual phase of work was finished to move in with equipment and remove material for sifting to recover whatever coins or pieces of pottery or tools might be in the soil,” he said.

He said the Carrickminders had blockaded the site and prevented the use of mechanical excavators and the work had been held up while mini-excavators were sourced and delivered.

“It’s ironic. Various interests had indicated concern that this area of land needed further checks, but we had already identified that need and they delayed us doing the job.”

The current team of archaeologists expect to have only a few weeks to finish the finds retrieval exercise, and road building contractors Ascon, now working either side of the site, are ready to move in when it is cleared.

But with An Bord Pleanála and the European Commission both now probing elements of the project, it is believed Ascon will be encouraged to continue working around the site as much as possible without delaying the overall construction timetable.

(from the Yorkshire Post)

ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they have solved a 50-year-old riddle about Iron Age remains in the Yorkshire Wolds.

For years they were puzzled by lines stretching more than 16 miles across chalky hillside near the village of Weaverthorpe.
Thought to be Iron Age crop markings, the lines are now believed to be the remains of a huge cattle ranching operation dating from the second century BC.
The lines were discovered by aerial photography in the 1950s and baffled experts until English Heritage aerial investigator Dave MacLeod – working with three other archaeologists, Mark Horton, of Bristol University, Jo Caruth, of Suffolk County Council, and Melanie Giles, of University College, Dublin – took another look.
“Essentially we are looking at the remains of a highly-sophisticated cattle business that is more reminiscent of the High Chaparral, rather than small-scale peasant farming,” said Mr MacLeod.
“Clearly thousands of cattle were being herded.
“Looking at our aerial photographs we can see that the Yorkshire Wolds are covered in a mass of ancient markings, hinting that the rural population 2,000 years ago wasn’t too much different from that today.
“It paints a vastly different picture of the Iron Age. These people were engaged in specialised farming and had the stability, resources and expertise to ranch on a much bigger scale than most people realise.”
The archaeologists will reveal their findings in the BBC2 series Time Flyers in a programme titled Reading Between the Lines, to be broadcast on Thursday.
The Time Flyers team used aerial archaeology techniques combined with ground excavations to examine the lines.
Some of the more fanciful theories for the interconnecting lines, which are broken by huge “funnels”, gaps 100m wide, suggested they were part of a Celtic purification ritual which involved cattle being driven between fires.
“The funnels channelled livestock into broad droveways leading down to the settlements along the Gypsey Race, which is still the only reliable water source on the Wolds,” said Mr MacLeod.
“The cattle would have been driven back up and out of the funnels to the higher pasture to graze and brought down for water twice a day. We think the funnels are part of a much bigger system stretching over 20km.”
He added: “None of these structures survive above ground, so the only way we can understand the scale of what we are dealing with is through interpretation and mapping of thousands of aerial photographs.”
The lines seen in growing crops are the remnants of 6ft-wide ditches.

25 October 2002

Dunbartonshire Home
Thursday, 24 October 2002

Quarry says safety plans will not detract from landscape
The Lennox Herald Thursday 24th October 2002

By WILLIAM COCHRANE

RUMOURS that a quarry firm is about to give Dumbarton’s sleeping giant a rude awakening have been blasted.

Dumbuck Hill, on the outskirts of the town near Milton, is reckoned to resemble a giant man lying on his back.

Also known to some as the elephant’s head, the hill is one of the area’s best-known and most distinctive landmarks.

But it has also been home to a quarry for well over 50 years.

And bosses there say they must cut a slice from the hillside to prevent huge chunks of rockface falling away, compromising safety.

Aggregate Industries, which has run Dumbuckhill Quarry since late 2000, has applied for planning permission to remove a sliver from the western margin of the quarry at the Milton side.

BACKLASH

The application has sparked a backlash from some villagers, who worry that commercial gain will be put before the district’s heritage.

They have expressed fears that the height of the hill could be reduced by up to 25 metres if the application is approved by West Dunbartonshire Council in November.

If that happens, they say, the famous giant and elephant resemblances would disappear forever.

Aggregate Industries, though, has dismissed such suggestions.

The firm insists that the 25 metres some objectors have referred to is in fact the horizontal distance between existing and proposed faces, which will enable stabilisation.

They say the ground level of the hill will be reduced by just four metres at most and that the work is essential to maintain safety standards at the quarry.

PROFILE

Glyn Jones, estate surveyor Scotland for Aggregate Industries, said: “The sliver we want to remove will alter the ground profile by four metres vertically along a 20-metre strip.

“The profile of the hill will not visibly change because the profile is depicted by vegetation cover and not ground level.

“We are sensitive to the fact that the appearance of the hill is important to people and hence, in agreement with Scottish Natural Heritage and West Dunbartonshire Council, will carry out tree planting on the Milton slope to infill gaps within the tree belt.

“The work we propose to carry out is essential to stabilise parts of the quarry and prevent loose pieces of rock falling from the cliff-faces.

“This problem has been caused historically through previous blasting methods.”

Mr Jones, however, did admit that machinery would be partly visible on the skyline for up to five months when the work begins.

However, he added that after that initial period of stabilisation work, most remaining activity would take place in the quarry’s existing void space and out of sight.

That could go on for between two and three years.

Mr Jones said: “Most people, once we have explained to them why this application has been submitted and what it consists of, have no problems.

“We have a good relationship with the local community and regularly hold liaison meetings with them as and when required.”

But some locals are still unconvinced by Aggregate Industries’ promises and are urging West Dunbartonshire Council to keep the district’s heritage uppermost in mind when considering the application next month.

Charles Villiers, who lives just yards from Dumbuck Hill at Milton, said: “The profile of Dumbuck Hill is that of an elephant’s head and local lore has it that this shape, which is so prominent from near and far, is a reason for the elephant being contained in the Dumbarton coat of arms.

“It would be a sad day if this profile, which for many centuries has been a part of the identity of the historic town of Dumbarton, should be destroyed.

“Such destruction would have an impact upon tourism as it would dismay and discourage potential visitors to the town, be they from overseas or elsewhere, and impair the reputation, image and value of Dumbarton as a town with an historic heritage worth travelling to see.”

From the Eastern Daily Press:

CAT BARTMAN

September 7, 2002 10:15

A 3-D image of the 4000-year-old flint mine at Grimes Graves.
A unique insight into the life of Stone Age miners in Norfolk has been unearthed for the first time with the help of high-tech laser equipment.

For the last week archaeologists have been working with surveyors to produce a 3D model of a 4000-year-old flint mine at Grimes Graves, near Thetford.

The mine on the English Heritage site has never been opened to the public and was described as a “time capsule” by those uncovering its Neolithic secrets.

Accessed by a 12m shaft it is the first time that a flint mine will have been surveyed in such detail, from the axe cuts made in the walls by miners to the antler picks left behind on the floor.

Grimes Graves are one of only 10 flint mines in England and the only one to have an excavated shaft open to the public.

While Greenwell’s Pit is never likely to be opened it is hoped to put together a virtual reality model of what it was like to work underground.

English Heritage archaeological investigator Cathy Tuck said the work was important for the future management and maintenance of the site.

“This shaft was first excavated in 1868, until then it would have been untouched. It was re-excavated in the 1970s by the British Museum and later sealed for preservation.” she said.

“We think it was used for about 500 years, with a team of 15 miners at a time. They only worked in the summer and would have been crawling on the stomachs in some parts.”

The pioneering work has only be made possible by the development of portable laser scanning equipment, costing about £150,000, small enough to fit down tunnels that can be less than two metres in size.

It was also used in the aftermath of the Potter’s Bar in May.

So far 433 mining shafts have been identified at Grimes Graves, most of which have filled in, creating a landscape of bumps and dips.

They were used to dig for flints, a valuable commodity in the construction of Neolithic tools and weapons.

Hertfordshire-based surveyors Plowman Craven Associates (PCA) were commissioned to carry out the scan of the shaft and adjoining tunnels.

“It’s an absolute time capsule,” said Ms Tuck, adding that the shaft was also used ritually.

“There has been the ritual deposit of two or three antler picks and carved chalk balls,” said Ms Tuck. “Maybe they left a shrine at the bottom encouraging the fertility of Mother Earth if the shaft had not been as successful as they had hoped.

“The Earth to Neolithic people was a goddess. They were asking permission to extract the flint.”

The completed 3D model should be available to view in about six months time and will include a similar virtual reality of the surface and what it was like in the Stone Age.

Derry Long, from PCA, said two thirds of the pit had been surveyed.

“We’ve scanned up to 15m to 20m out from the main shaft. It’s mind blowing when you’re down and seeing 6000-year-old antler, you do stop and wonder how they did it.”

The project has cost about £12,000 so far and the team will be back again in a few weeks to finish off the surveying.

Historic horse turns a whiter shade of pale.

Wiltshire landmark, discoloured by erosion and vegetation, restored using 160 tonnes of chalk and 2,000ft of timber.

Owen Bowcott
Monday September 9, 2002
The Guardian

Designed by a mad surgeon and derided for its elongated neck, the white horse of Cherhill was yesterday gleaming again on the Wiltshire Downs after undergoing anatomical alterations and a four-week facelift.

Motorists passing on the A4 between Marlborough and Calne can admire the completed restoration work carried out by villagers on the ancient landmark which is sculpted into the contours of the hillside beneath the iron age earthworks of Oldbury Castle.

Erosion, vegetation and damage by grazing sheep had discoloured the carving and the passage of time threatened final obliteration. A grant of £18,000 from the National Trust, which owns land near the site above Cherhill, helped purchase 160 tonnes of chalk and 2,000ft of timber to preserve the monument described by one archaeologist recently as a “giraffe-necked... charger”.

“There was a lot of distortion,” admitted Bob Husband, of the White Horse Restoration Group, when the revitalised horse was officially un veiled yesterday. “The head and neck were particularly difficult, especially when working on a 40 degree slope. But it has been a success and we are absolutely delighted with the result.

“It looks more horsey now, and you can see it from miles around again.”

Old paintings of the white horse were transferred to computer and compared with recent photographs. Once a new outline was agreed, local Scouts pegged out the shape. Money for the project was donated by a local firm, Hills Waste, through the govern ment’s landfill tax credit scheme.

The Cherhill white horse, originally 165ft by 220ft, owes its existence to the 18th century fashion for landscape follies. A surgeon, Christopher Alsop, of Calne, dragooned local people into taking part in the project in 1780.

He reputedly stood below Labour-in-Vain hill and broadcast his instructions through a loud-hailer to direct their turf-cutting.

Known locally as the “mad doctor”, he was a friend of the society painter George Stubbs whose canvases of race horses and other animals may have influenced his final design. The white horse’s oddest feature was a glass eye formed from upturned bottles pressed into the chalk. It’s dazzle was apparently visible from a great distance on a sunny day; the original bottles have been stolen by souvenir hunters.

It has been restored several times. To mark the coronation of George VI in 1937 it was floodlit and the letters GE (for George and his queen, Elizabeth) spelt out in red light bulbs above the horse.

The letters were illuminated for five seconds, then the horse floodlit for 10 seconds in a continuously repeating pattern. The display, powered by a generator at the bottom of the hill, took place every night during coronation week except for two nights when there was thick fog.

Last summer another Wiltshire monument, the Westbury white horse, was restored by English Heritage. Traditionally believed to have been cut in the ninth century to mark Alfred the Great’s victory over the Danes, it was recut in 1778, and probably provided inspiration for Dr Alsop’s Cherhill charger.

The Guardian

Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent
Saturday July 27, 2002

A grant for a new visitor centre at Stonehenge, agreed in principle yesterday by the heritage lottery fund, may mark the end of decades of wrangling between heritage and highway authorities over what to do about one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world.
The fund will not disclose exact details until next week, but English Heritage has not got the £26m it was seeking. It has got a “stage one approval”, which is enough to proceed with the planning, and implies willingness by the fund to give further grants.

The 5,000-year-old stone circle, with the hundreds of field monuments dotted around it on Salisbury Plain, is a world heritage site, an honour shared with the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids.

However, the monument remains imprisoned within wire fences, and clenched in the fork of two busy roads.

It is 13 years since the parliamentary public accounts committee condemned the present arrangements as “a national disgrace”. And it is five years since English Heritage launched yet another artist’s impression of happy visitors strolling through lambs and buttercups toward the stones – it was hoping to see the vision realised in time for the millennium. Since then millions in taxpayers’ money has been spent on road plans, visitor centre plans, consultation exercises, and more artists’ impressions.

Solving the traffic problem, by closing one road and burying the other in a tunnel, is seen as the key to the whole site. However, some archaeologists and many local campaigners are opposed to the “cut and cover” method insisted on for cost reasons by the highways agency. This is a construction system which involves gouging a trench for two miles across the fragile landscape.

Local sources insist this is also up for debate again, and the road may eventually be dug through a bored tunnel, which would be less destructive of surface archaeology.

Despite endless consultations, English Heritage has also failed to win over residents closest to the Countess roundabout, where present facilities are a filling station, motel and coffee shop.

After years of wrangling, this was chosen as the best site for a state of the art visitor centre. But residents remain convinced the visitor centre is the wrong scheme in the wrong place – and nothing English Heritage announces next week is likely to change their minds.

From the Western Morning News (thisisdevon.co.uk)

“More than 40 rare Bronze Age ingots from Devon have been given to the Royal Albert Museum in Exeter.

The ingots, part of a shipment salvaged in 1991, was handed over by the Receiver of Wreck, Sophia Exelby, at a ceremony yesterday.

More than 40 ingots recovered from an underwater hiding place were donated to the museum.

The ingots were discovered by the South West Maritime Archaeological Group in the Erme Estuary in 1991.

The ingots vary from 10 to 20cm in diameter.

Experts said they might have been in the Erme estuary as a result of a vessel capsizing while trading along the coast between Cornwall and Devon.

John Allan, museum curator, said: “We regard this group of ingots as a very significant discovery and are delighted that they are now at Exeter Museum, where a selection of them are displayed.”

Ms Exelby said: “We are very pleased that these ingots will be displayed in a museum so close to the find site.

“They were a very exciting find for the diving group and their placement in the museum is an excellent outcome for everyone.”

From the ‘thisiswiltshire’ site archive, 4/05

COUNCILLORS in Marlborough have called for a meeting with the College to discuss a plan for proposed landscaping work, which could affect the setting of the ancient mound in the school grounds.

The huge mound is believed to be as old as Silbury Hill five miles away and, similarly, its origin is unknown.

Marlborough College has submitted a planning application to enhance an area known as The Wilderness at the foot of the mound by creating new footpaths and removing unwanted trees, which the school claims, spoil the view of the mound.

Town councillors want a meeting to discuss the plan and see if the school will agree to let the public have access to the mound when pupils are away.

Coun Bryan Castle told Monday’s meeting of the town council planning committee: “The mound is a scheduled ancient monument and what happens in The Wilderness affects the layout and viewing of the mound.”

Coun Castle said it was the mound which gave rise to the motto on the Marlborough town coat of arms and the legend that Merlin is buried there.

Rare Bronze Age metal working site found on Eigg
A Bronze Age metal working site, one of only about 30 known in Britain, has been excavated at Galmisdale on the island of Eigg. The site – in the shelter of a large earthfast boulder – was found by chance when an islander, Brigg Lancaster, was trying to bury his cat.

Digging deep, Mr Lancaster struck archaeological layers. Having some experience of metal working, he recognised the fragmentary remains as crucibles and clay casting moulds. A team of archaeologists from the Scottish Royal Commission happened to be surveying the island at the time and visited the site, which was later excavated by Trevor Cowie of the National Museum of Scotland.

Moulds for at least two socketed axes and a knife were found – dated typologically to about 1000-800 BC – as well as a blue glass bead, a small bronze offcut and quantities of charcoal. According to Mr Cowie, the site could represent the visit of an itinerant smith to a Bronze Age village, marked by hut circle remains nearby.

Also found at the foot of the boulder was a cache of over 40 flint flakes and tools thought to be of Neolithic or Early Bronze Age date, testifying to the importance of the boulder as an enduring feature of the landscape over several millennia. Excavations will probably continue this summer.

Meanwhile, among the discoveries made by the Royal Commission survey of the island was an Iron Age roundhouse giving access, perhaps once by steps, into an underground cave, possibly an oracle site. The cave, extremely difficult to reach in a cliff of scree, contained two ‘double-decker bus-sized’ slabs of rock facing one another – like the ‘thighs of a mother goddess’, according to the Commission’s surveyor David Cowley – with some bits of walling between to create a squared-off area Iron Age underground ritual sites, such as Mine Howe in Orkney, recall the importance of the ‘gods of the underworld’ in Iron Age society.

from British Archaeology Feb 02
britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba63/news.shtml#item2