goffik

You never know – there may even be summat prehistoric!
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Ever wonder what lies beneath your feet? On 16 July the Museum of London opened Archaeology in Action. The exhibition offers visitors a flavour of the varied day to day work of archaeologists in London, today and in the past. From the ground to the display case, Archaeology in Action gives visitors an insight into what happens to objects unearthed by Museum of London Archaeology.

Countless exciting archaeological discoveries have been made, and continue to be made each day in London. These have greatly contributed to our ever evolving understanding of the capital. Archaeology in Action presents some of these valuable finds. Sites that feature include the Roman High Street unearthed at number 1 Poultry and the Saxon town of Lundenwic uncovered at Covent Garden. There is also a changing display of new finds from London sites, starting with Shakespearean playhouses, including The Rose and The Theatre.

The exhibition space will host a varied programme of events, including a selection to celebrate the Festival of British Archaeology, 17 July – 1 August 2010. Visitors can expect to handle ancient artefacts, meet an osteologist or identify finds from the Thames foreshore.

Taryn Nixon, Managing Director of Museum of London Archaeology, says: “The exciting thing about the Museum of London is that it runs one of Europe’s largest archaeology teams, and has literally been unearthing the secrets of London’s past for decades. This exhibition gives us a chance not only to share our discoveries as soon as they are made but also to show what really goes on behind the scenes in archaeology.”

Jon Cotton, Senior Curator of Prehistory, says: “Archaeology is one of the Museum of London’s key calling cards and excavated finds inform every gallery display. Archaeology in Action celebrates this commitment to London’s buried past and provides a space in which some of the latest finds will be displayed.”

The Museum of London Archaeology is a long-standing and highly regarded in-house archaeological team and has unearthed a wealth of archaeological treasures. These finds are cared for in the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre – Europe’s largest archaeological archive.

artdaily.com/index.asp?int_new=39390&int_sec=2

A remarkable piece of Neolithic rock art, unlike anything previously found in Eastern England, has been unearthed in the Cambridgeshire village of Over.

The hand-sized artefact, which could date back to 2,500 BC, was found by a participant in a geological weekend course which was being run by the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Continuing Education.

It consists of a hand-sized slab of weathered sandstone with two pairs of concentric circles etched into the surface – a motif which, according to archaeologists, is typical of “Grooved Ware” art from the later Neolithic era.

More here:
physorg.com/news198495505.html

It’s definitely broch-like but is it a broch?

That’s the question still facing the archaeologists at the ongoing excavations at the Cairns in South Ronaldsay.

Overlooking Windwick Bay, the Cairns is a massive archaeological jigsaw puzzle, with a sequence of Iron Age buildings, representing centuries of use.

The first building on site was a massive broch-like roundhouse – with five metre thick walls forming a structure with an exterior diameter of 22 metres.

This structure, in particular its interior, has been the focus of much of this year’s excavation, with the archaeologists painstakingly removing huge quantities of rubble from the interior to reach the floor level.

During the excavations this year, a clear picture has emerged of the inside of the ‘broch’ building. A large area of the interior and its entrance has been excavated of tonnes of rubble to reveal the impressive internal fixtures and fitting across about a third of the building.

More here:
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/cairns2010.htm

(This seems a bit familiar, so apologies if I’ve posted this before!)

Another season of excavations at Cantick, South Walls, concluded last week, following the continued investigation of a prehistoric burial mound.

A team from ORCA (Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology) based at Orkney College were joined by students from Aberdeen and Durham Universities. Local volunteers also received field training in Hoy, funded by the Scapa Flow Landscape Partnership Scheme.

Full story:
orkneyjar.com/archaeology/cantick2010.htm

“If one finds something once, it’s accidental. If it is found twice, it’s puzzling. If found thrice, there is a pattern,” the archaeologists Olle Hemdorff and Eva Thäte say.

In 2005 the archaeologists investigated a grave at Avaldsnes in Karmøy in southwestern Norway, supposed to be from the late Iron Age, i.e. from 600 to 1000 AD. Avaldsnes is rich in archeological finds. They dot an area that has been a seat of power all the way back to around 300. Archaeologist Olle Hemdorff at the University of Stavanger’s Museum of Archaeology was responsible for a series of excavations at Avaldsnes in 1993-94 and 2005-06.

More – sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100614101724.htm

Neolithic age men fought over women too, according to a study that provides the most ancient evidence of the lengths men will go to in the hunt for partners.

Many archaeologists have argued that women have long motivated cycles of violence and blood feuds throughout history but there has really been no solid archaeological evidence to support this view.

Now a relatively new method has been used to work out the origins of the victims tossed into a mass grave of skeletons, and so distinguish one tribe from another, revealing that neighbouring tribes were prepared to kill their male rivals to secure their women some 7000 years ago.

More – telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2066554/Neolithic-men-were-prepared-to-fight-for-their-women.html

Reported today in the open access journal PLoS One is the news of a 5500-year-old shoe, discovered in the Chalcolithic age deposits at Areni-1, a dry cave in in Vayots Dzor province of Armenia. The dry conditions of the cave have led to fabulous preservation, and the cave includes well-preserved occupations between the Neolithic and late Middle Ages.

More here:
archaeology.about.com/b/2010/06/09/5500-year-old-shoe.htm

Archaeological Treasures Trail – Orkney

Orkney is one of the richest Neolithic landscapes in Europe – a place of stone circles, villages and burial monuments. Several monuments on Orkney are part of The Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (WHS) including the Ring of Brodgar Stone Circle and Henge, Maeshowe, Skara Brae and the Stones of Stenness. All these monuments are relics of the period when great civilisations started to arise across the world.

Read more:

seasons.visitscotland.com/things_to_see_and_do/cities_and_culture/archaeological_trail/orkney.aspx

[EDIT – I should say I found this news here: orkneyjar.com/]

These pictures and papers have been gathered in honour of Daphne Home Lorimer MBE on the occasion of her retirement as Chairman of Orkney Archaeological Trust, to mark our affection for her as a friend, our respect for her as a colleague and our admiration for all that she has achieved.

“We know Orkney has a rich archaeological heitage, but Daphne Lorimer’s commitment has ensured that interest in its discovery and conservation has the recognition it properly merits. To know Daphne is to be infected by her enthusiasm, and the study and pursuit of archaeology in Orkney has been so much enriched by her enthusiasm and interest.” – Jim Wallace MSP March 2004

orkneyjar.com/archaeology/dhl/index.html

The Stone Age version of successful businessmen like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates might have been involved in the color and glue trade.

A once-thriving 58,000-year-old ochre powder production site has just been discovered in South Africa. The discovery offers a glimpse of what early humans valued and used in their everyday lives.

The finding, which will be described in the Journal of Archaeological Science, also marks the first time that any Stone Age site has yielded evidence for ochre powder processing on cemented hearths -- an innovation for the period. A clever caveman must have figured out that white ash from hearths can cement and become rock hard, providing a sturdy work surface.

“Ochre occurs in a range of colors that includes orange, red, yellow, brown and shades of these colors,” project leader Lyn Wadley told Discovery News. “Yellow and brown ochre can be transformed to red by heating them at temperatures as low as 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit).”

Wadley, who authored the study, is a professor in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies and in the Institute for Human Evolution at the University of the Witwatersrand. She said ochre has been found on bone awl tools probably used for working leather, so it is possible that the ancients sported colorful leather clothing and other leather goods.

Red-hot leather clothing is still found in stores today, but the probable wearers then were a far cry from today’s fashion elite.

Ochre is derived from naturally tinted clay that contains mineral oxides. In addition to coloring objects, it makes a compound adhesive when mixed with other ingredients, such as plant gum and animal fat.

“This glue would have attached stone spear or arrowheads to hafts, or blades to handles for cutting tools,” Wadley explained.

Ochre can also be used as body paint and makeup, as a preservative and as a medicinal component, so it could have served many different functions during the Stone Age.

Wadley analyzed the ochre “factory” at the large Sibudu rock shelter north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The site consisted of four cemented hearths containing the ochre powder. The cement workstations could have held grindstones and/or served as storage receptacles for the powder, according to Wadley, who also excavated about 8,000 pieces of ochre in the area.

She believes the natural material was collected just over a half a mile away from the site, where it would have been heated and ground or just ground directly onto coarse rocks.

Francesco d’Errico, director of research at the National Center of Scientific Research at the University of Bordeaux, said pigment material is found in bits and pieces at various early sites. However, not much was known in detail before about how it was processed and used.

Based on the nature of the cemented ash and the geology of the Sibudu site, d’Errico believes that people 58,000 years ago intended to produce large quantities of red pigment in a short time frame.

He now thinks ochre pigment was a “fundamental constitute of Middle Stone Age culture, and that its production likely involved the work of several members of the group.”

news.discovery.com/archaeology/prehistoric-color-glue-factory.html

A nature reserve in Bournemouth is set to get a new visitor centre.

The borough council has been planning to create a visitor centre at Hengistbury Head for the past 10 years.

Proposals to convert the thatched barn at the site in Dorset to house displays about the archaeology and wildlife of the area will now go on display.

Residents can see and comment on the plans next to the Hiker cafe from 2 to 6 June. If approved for funding, the new centre would be completed in 2012.

It will feature displays showing the nature reserve’s plants and animals and their habitats.

The centre will also have archaeology exhibitions about Hengistbury Head, chronicling its history from 60 million years ago when it was beneath a tropical sea, through to the Stone Age when humans hunted and camped there, to the Iron Age when it was an important trading port.

Mark Holloway, senior community parks and countryside officer, said: “We plan to use display panels, videos and audio to show off the nature reserve at its best.

“There will be cameras to bring live pictures from nesting birds and activities for children and adults alike to get involved in the conservation of the reserve.”

Bournemouth Borough Council said it hoped to secure most of the funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and through other grants and donations and the centre would be run by volunteers.

A planning application will be submitted during the summer and a funding request will be put to the Heritage Lottery Fund in November.

If agreed by the fund, building work is expected to start in 2011 and be completed by the summer of 2012.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/8705483.stm

Westray schoolchildren met Scotland’s oldest face — the Orkney Venus — at the Westray Heritage Centre today, Friday, May 14. The children were the first visitors to the Westray exhibition, which opens to the public on Saturday, May 15.

The visit is part of the official opening of the exhibition, which sees the figurine return to Westray for the summer, after a tour of sites across Scotland.

During the day, the children from Pierowall school were joined by residents of the local care home, then, in the evening, there will be an open evening for the community at night.

The 5,000 year old figurine — known locally as the Westray Wife — attracted international interest when it was discovered last summer by archaeologists working on Historic Scotland’s excavation at the Links of Noltland, in Westray.

The figurine is the only known Neolithic carving of a human form to have been found in Scotland.

The exhibition will run in Westray until October, before the carving completes its tour at the Orkney Museum, in Kirkwall.

orkneyjar.com/archaeology/westraywife2.htm

I just stumbled across an interesting article on Michael Bott’s blog regarding similarities between 2 vastly geographically separated carved stones... (apologies for cutting huge swathes of it out – read the article from the link at the bottom – it’s much better!)

“Recently, there have been quite a few archaeological revelations coming to light from the result of a wildfire that swept the moors of Fylingdales, N. Yorkshire. One of the items discovered is a “unique” carved stone, thought to be 4,000 years old.

[...]

Just so you can make your own mind up, here is the photograph that Rupert took of the Kogi ‘Map Stone’ in the jungles of Columbia alongside the photo of the stone recently uncovered on the North Yorkshire Moors.”

standingstones.tv/wp-content/StonesCompare.jpg

Full article here: standingstones.tv/2010/01/13/unique-rock-carving-found-amongst-archaeology-after-moors-fire/

Founded on this very day in 1895. Many happy returns – keep up the good work!

nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-trust/w-thecharity/w-history_trust.htm

50,000BC may be a little early for TMA, which is possibly why this hasn’t been posted previously, but this may be of interest nevertheless! (Unless it HAS been posted, and I just can’t see it. in which case I apologise.)

Anyway:

“Scientists claim to have the first persuasive evidence that Neanderthals wore “body paint” 50,000 years ago.

The team report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that shells containing pigment residues were Neanderthal make-up containers.

Scientists unearthed the shells at two archaeological sites in the Murcia province of southern Spain.

The team says its find buries “the view of Neanderthals as half-wits” and shows they were capable of symbolic thinking.

Professor Joao Zilhao, the archaeologist from Bristol University in the UK, who led the study, said that he and his team had examined shells that were used as containers to mix and store pigments.

Black sticks of the pigment manganese, which may have been used as body paint by Neanderthals, have previously been discovered in Africa.

“[But] this is the first secure evidence for their use of cosmetics,” he told BBC News. “The use of these complex recipes is new. It’s more than body painting.”

The scientists found lumps of a yellow pigment, that they say was possibly used as a foundation.

They also found red powder mixed up with flecks of a reflective brilliant black mineral.

Some of the sculpted, brightly coloured shells may also have been worn by Neanderthals as jewellery.

Until now it had been thought by many researchers that only modern humans wore make-up for decoration and ritual purposes.

There was a time in the Upper Palaeolithic period when Neanderthals and humans may have co-existed. But Professor Zilhao explained that the findings were dated at 10,000 years before this “contact”.

“To me, it’s the smoking gun that kills the argument once and for all,” he told BBC News.

“The association of these findings with Neanderthals is rock-solid and people have to draw the associations and bury this view of Neanderthals as half-wits.”

Professor Chris Stringer, a palaeontologist from the Natural History Museum in London, UK, said: “I agree that these findings help to disprove the view that Neanderthals were dim-witted.

But, he added that evidence to that effect had been growing for at least the last decade.

“It’s very difficult to dislodge the brutish image from popular thinking,” Professor Stringer told BBC News. “When football fans behave badly, or politicians advocate reactionary views, they are invariably called ‘Neanderthal’, and I can’t see the tabloids changing their headlines any time soon.” ”

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8448660.stm

Google Street View, the internet road mapping service, is extending its scope to cover areas further away from driving routes including Stonehenge.

It is putting its 3-D cameras on rickshaw-style tricycles to film popular off-road spots which also include Loch Ness and the Angel of the North.

In April a privacy watchdog said Google’s photographing of homes in every town in Britain did not breach data protection laws.

The internet search company’s street-level mapping service caused controversy when it started in Britain as householders said that it could be used by burglars or terrorists to research targets.

Residents of the village of Broughton, Bucks, formed a human chain to prevent one of Google’s camera vehicles filming their properties without permission, claiming that the website encouraged voyeurism.

But the Information Commissioner’s Office rejected a complaint by the Privacy International pressure group, which had called for the service to be suspended.

Street View allows web users to “walk” along streets, exploring 360-degree images recorded from eye level.

But its cameras have also captured some embarrassing moments, including a man entering a sex shop and another being sick in the street.

The application allows users to access 360-degree views of roads and homes in 25 British towns and cities and includes photographs of millions of residential addresses, people and cars.

It has been hailed as a helpful tool for home hunters and would-be tourists.

telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/5823892/Google-Street-View-goes-off-road-to-add-areas-like-Stonehenge.html

A team of history and woodwork experts have teamed up to build a replica Bronze Age logboat at Loch Tay.

The group will work with the tools and techniques that were used about 3,000 years ago.

They will make the boat from a single Douglas Fir trunk, measuring about 12m in length.

The project was inspired by the discovery of a logboat in the loch dating back to 1500 BC and another one in the River Tay dating to 1000 BC.

The Loch Tay logboat was discovered in 1994, but it was only when it was dated three years ago that it was revealed how old it really was.

The modern day team will spend the next three weeks recreating such a craft at Dalerb.

They hope to learn more about how prehistoric communities made such vessels.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8193994.stm

(This was also mentioned on Radio 4’s Today show this morning: news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8194000/8194658.stm )

Just a reminder that we’re now one day away from Heritage Action’s fourth annual Avebury Megameet on the 1st of August. If you haven’t ventured forth for one of these before please give it a try. Put faces to names and meet up with some of the folks you may have only ever cyber-chatted to before. The Avebury Megameets are an informal gathering of people from all walks of life (artists, archaeologists, conservators, historians, pagans and others) but all with an interest in the Avebury Henge and our megalithic heritage in general.

The Megameet will be in the south-east quadrant, either by the Obelisk marker stone or close to the stone here and will kick off from around noon. It’s a good idea to bring something to sit on and something to eat and drink too if you fancy it. If the weather’s bad we’ll be in one of the rooms at the Red Lion (the front largest room if it’s available). Look out for this T-shirt – designed by BuckyE for the 2007 Avebury Megameet!

heritageaction.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/heritage-actions-4th-avebury-megameet/

“A 2,100-year-old bronze and iron computer that predicted eclipses and other astronomical events also showed the cycle of the Greek Olympics and the related games that led up to it, researchers reported today. [Well, a few days ago, actually!]

The research team also has been able to decipher all the month names from the heavily corroded fragments of the so-called Antikythera mechanism, providing the first concrete evidence that an astronomical scheme devised by the Greek astronomer Geminos was put to practical use.

Teasing out the month names was “a really spectacular achievement,” said science historian Francois Charette of Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, who was not involved in the research.

Historians “had until now doubted that this scheme had actually been used in civil life, but the evidence from the Antikythera mechanism now proves them wrong,” he said.

The inclusion of the data about the Olympic Games on what is now called the Olympiad Dial of the clock-like mechanism was a surprise to the researchers because the dates of the ancient Olympics, held every fourth summer from 776 BC to AD 393, would have been well known to the populace, just as the time of the modern Olympics is now.

“The inclusion of the Olympiad Dial says more about the cultural importance of the Games than about their advanced technology,” said Tony Freeth of Images First Ltd. in London, who was a member of the research team that reported the results in the journal Nature.

The Antikythera mechanism, so named because it was found in 1901 in a Roman shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera, is thought to have been made about 100 BC.

Its purpose was a mystery for more than 100 years, but in 2006, researchers used a massive X-ray tomography machine, similar to that used to perform CT scans on humans, to examine the heavily encrusted fragments.

They concluded that the device originally contained 37 gears that formed an astronomical computer.

Two dials on the front show the zodiac and a calendar of the days of the year that can be adjusted for leap years. Metal pointers show the positions in the zodiac of the sun, moon and five planets known in antiquity. Two spiral dials on the back show the cycles of the moon and predict eclipses.

Using more powerful computers to analyze the CT data, Freeth and his colleagues, all affiliated with the in Cardiff, Wales, were able to decipher the names of all 12 months, as well as names identifying several Greek games.”

Full story with pics:
articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/31/science/sci-antikythera31

(With thanks to Ocifant for sending me this)

TWO 6,000-year-old tombs have been unearthed in Hampshire in one of the biggest archaeological finds for years.

The discovery, thought to be among the oldest ever made in the UK, is set to shed new light on the life led by the county’s earliest settlers.

Flint tools and fragments of pottery have already been retrieved from the Neolithic site at Damerham in the New Forest.

The nationally important find has been made by a team of experts from Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Dr Helen Wickstead said she and her colleagues were “stunned and delighted” when evidence of the prehistoric complex came to light.

She added: “Some artefacts have already been recovered and in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey on the site.

“If we can excavate, we’ll learn a lot more about Neolithic people in the area and discover things such as who was buried there, what kind of life they led and what the environment was like 6,000 years ago.”

The site, 15 miles from Stonehenge, is close to Cranborne Chase, one of the most thoroughly researched prehistoric areas in Europe.

Last night New Forest author and historian Peter Roberts described the find as extremely rare.

The former New Forest Verderer added: “It’s clearly very exciting and will throw new light on the settlements between Cranborne Chase and the Forest.”

The tombs were discovered after staff from English Heritage studied aerial photographs of farmland in the Damerham area and saw signs of buried archaeological sites.

Dr Wickstead said she was astonished that the monuments had remained undiscovered for so long.

She added: “Cranborne Chase is one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a mecca for prehistorians. You’d have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb.”

The team has vowed that any human bones found in the tombs will be treated with dignity.

“The recovery of ancient human remains is always handled sensitively,” added Dr Wickstead. “We feel respect for the dead people we study and we treat their remains with care.”

dailyecho.co.uk/news/4418901.Two_6_000_year_old_tombs_uncovered/

The clock at the Alexander Keiller Museum at Avebury, Wiltshire, will be removed for repair on 8 April, the National Trust has confirmed.

The 18th Century turret clock on the Stables Gallery has been stuck at four o’clock for more than a year.

The National Trust’s Meg Sims said: “It’s always time for tea at Avebury.”

The clock will be restored in Somerset at a cost of £5,700. It is hoped the feature will be ready and reinstalled by Easter 2010.

The museum is named after the archaeologist and businessman, Alexander Keiller.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/7976929.stm

A CONTROVERSIAL area of land in Swindon that is earmarked for a housing development could instead become Swindon’s own “mini-Avebury”, according to campaigners.

The claim comes after ancient stones, which could be part of Swindon’s Neolithic history, were unearthed at Coate.

The two sarsen stones were uncovered by the Highways Agency last week opposite Day House Farm, near the protected Coate Stone Circle.

The find has excited speculation that more historic stones may still lie undiscovered in the area.

Campaigners against a planning application by the Swindon Gateway Partnership to build 1,800 homes and a university campus on land near Coate Water say the development could rob the town of huge potential historic and tourist value.

Jean Saunders, from the Jefferies Land Conservation Trust, said: “There is a real chance here to create almost a mini-Avebury.

“This particular area is steeped in pre-history. We know of a Bronze Age settlement just south of Coate Water, two round barrows opposite Richard Jefferies’ old house at Coate, two stone circles on Day House Farm and lines of stones linking these together with others.

“It would be criminal to surround these ancient relics of the past with modern buildings. Who knows how many more of these old stones lie undiscovered? Can Swindon afford to lose more of its history?

“This raises a lot of unanswered questions. We are very aware of the importance of this whole area and it is not just Bronze Age, but medieval and Roman.

“This is something I wanted to bring up at the inquiry but because the developers didn’t actually put forward an archaeologist there wasn’t the chance. The problem was that English Heritage and the county archaeologist dropped their objections at the eleventh hour, so it no longer became an issue for the planning inspector.”

Felicity Cobb, from the Save Coate campaign, said: “It would be nice if the planning inspector took this into account but I’m not holding my breath.”

Wiltshire county archaeologist Melanie Pomeroy-Kellinger said: “I haven’t been able to go and see the stones yet but they do occur naturally in the area. There is a stone circle nearby which is a scheduled monument.”

The inquiry into SGP’s planning appeal officially closes on March 27, after which the planning inspector will make his recommendations to secretary of state Hazel Blears.

swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/4218302.Coate_could_be_the_new_Avebury/

A catastrophic fire which “skinned” a precious moorland to its rocky bones has unexpectedly revealed some of the most important prehistoric archaeology found in Britain.

The uncontrolled six-day blaze on Fylingdales Moor in North Yorkshire has exposed a lost landscape dating back 3,000 years which is now to be made accessible to the public by English Heritage.

Unique rock art and unprecedentedly clear bronze age field boundaries have emerged from the soot and cinders which were all that was left of two-and-a-half square miles of the North York Moors national park when fire crews and heavy rain finally swamped the area in September 2003.

The intense heat destroyed the entire blanket of peat which had accumulated over the area, close to the North Sea coast, since farmers abandoned it for unknown reasons in around 1000BC.

“We have always known that this part of the world is very rich in prehistoric remains,” said Graham Lee, senior archaeological conservation officer for the national park. “But the sheer number of new finds exposed by the fire is the most exciting development in archaeology in my experience.” The rock art list for the site, part of a vast moor also used by the RAF’s Fylingdales satellite tracking and early warning station, has grown to almost three times its previous size, with more than 100 sets of mysterious lines, cups and circles discovered since the fire.

“One of the very rare features exposed by the removal of the entire plant and soil covering is a set of defined borders to the areas cultivated in the bronze age,” said Lee.

The North York Moors form one of Britain’s most important prehistoric sites, with the wild, rolling uplands the equivalent of Leeds or Manchester in their day. In contrast to most of the rest of the country, their population had its heyday in the second century BC, and has since dwindled to today’s scattering of neat villages which largely depend on tourism.

“The fire was environmentally disastrous,” said Lee, whose colleagues joined landowners after the fire in reseeding the heather. “But it gave us access to a landscape which we could never have reached otherwise, on such a scale. No archaeologist has the means to dig out an area like this. What we have found as a result has altered perceptions of the period. It also raises questions about the scale of what else lies hidden over the rest of the North York Moors.”

Finds include stone age flint tools and drainage runnels and trackways from the 18th century alum industry, which used shiploads of urine from London to break down shale and produce the chemical for dyes and other ground-breaking uses in the Industrial Revolution.

“We’ve brought things almost up to date by making detailed surveys of slit trenches and foxholes used for training on Fylingdales in the second world war and since forgotten,” said Lee. “And the most recent finds are shell craters left over from artillery practice, which carried on into the 1950s.”

The wealth of the Fylingdales finds will now be collated with a £26,000 publication grant from English Heritage, following a local exhibition of the principal discoveries. “Everyone had to work very rapidly, because the protective cover had vanished,” said Lee. English Heritage’s project officer for Fylingdales, David Went, said the fire had “opened up a whole new chapter in our understanding of the moor”.

guardian.co.uk/science/2008/aug/21/archaeology

Archaeologists have found traces of a Roman settlement at a 5,000-year-old landmark man-made hill in Wiltshire.

English Heritage believes there was a Roman community at Silbury Hill about 2,000 years ago.

The 130ft Neolithic mound near Avebury – one of Europe’s largest prehistoric monuments – is thought to have been created some 3,000 years earlier.

Experts carrying out a project to stabilise the hill say the site may have been a sacred place of pilgrimage.

Human activity
English Heritage geophysicist Dr Neil Linford said: “We are really excited by this discovery because we had no idea that a Roman village of such a size lay this close to Silbury Hill.”

The evidence suggests the Roman community was based on an area the size of 24 football pitches at the base of the hill.

The find was made using caesium magnetometers which can detect changes in the ground’s magnetic field caused by human activity.

The settlement was on the road from London to Bath, which is the modern-day A4, where it crossed the Winterbourne river.

Stopover?
English Heritage regional director Dr Bob Bewley says it will be “exciting” to try to find out more about the Roman presence.

“Without further investigation it is difficult to say, but it could be that what we have here is something like a roadside village, where Roman travellers would have changed horses and stayed overnight on the way to Bath, but also a place of pilgrimage focused on the hill,” he said.

Mystery surrounds why the hill, where stabilisation work will take place from May to September, was built in the first place.

Heavy rains in May 2000 caused substantial damage to the hill, with the collapse of an 18th century shaft.

From the BBC website >>

ROME – It could be humanity’s oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.

“As far as we know, it’s unique,” Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. “Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging.”

The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.

Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site’s age and how old the two were when they died, she said.

Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome’s National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum, said double prehistoric burials are rare — especially in such a pose — but some have been found holding hands or having other contact.

The find has “more of an emotional than a scientific value.” But it does highlight how the relationship people have with each other and with death has not changed much from the period in which humanity first settled in villages and learning to farm and tame animals, he said.

“The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society,” he said. “It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed.”

The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, possibly an indication of sudden and tragic death, Bondioli said.

“It’s rare for two young people to die at the same time, and that makes us want to know why and who they were, but it will be very difficult to find out.”

He said DNA testing could determine whether the two were related, “but that still leaves other hypotheses; the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ possibility is just one of many.”

Full story: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070207/ap_on_sc/italy_prehistoric_love_7;_ylt=AtzuwCQvG_OH.iwT.ih6MTIiANEA
and more at: news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_on_sc/italy_prehistoric_love;_ylt=Agb1NwCd0bnoMrKkLO67grRxieAA
(both include slideshow and video links!)

Archaeologists say they have found a huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge.
Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument, uncovered remains of ancient houses.

People seem to have occupied the sites seasonally, using them for ritual feasting and funeral ceremonies.

In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain.

The dwellings date back to 2,600-2,500 BC, the same period that Stonehenge was built.

“In what were houses, we have excavated the outlines on the floors of box beds and wooden dressers or cupboards,” said archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson of Sheffield University.

He said he based this on the fact that houses have exactly the same layout as Neolithic houses at Skara Brae in Orkney, which have survived intact because – unlike these dwellings – they were made of stone.

The researchers have excavated eight dwellings in total that belonged to the Durrington settlement. But they have identified many other probable dwellings using geophysical surveying equipment.

The archaeologists think there could have been at least one hundred houses.

Each one would have measured about 5m (16ft) square: “fairly pokey”, according to Professor Parker Pearson.

Full story >

A shoe believed to be 2,000 years old has been dug up at a Somerset quarry.

The Iron Age relic was found in a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground at Whiteball Quarry, near Wellington.

Archaeologists say the shoe is the equivalent of a size 10 and is so well-preserved that stitches and lace holes are still visible in the leather.

The shoe has been taken to a specialist conservation centre in Wiltshire, and is expected to go on display at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

A team from Exeter Archaeology, led by Stephen Reed, unearthed the shoe when they were excavating at Town Farm, Burlescombe.

“What we have now found is a Bronze Age ‘industrial’ site consisting of two mounds of burnt stone – dated to 1460 to 1290 BC – and two water-filled troughs,” he said.

“Close by were two timber-built wells, preserved by waterlogging and probably dating from the early part of the Iron Age.”

One of the wells was constructed over a spring using a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground. The tree trunk was removed from the site so that its contents could be examined under laboratory conditions.

‘Oldest shoe‘

The “truly remarkable” discovery of the shoe was made when this was being undertaken by the Wiltshire Conservation Centre.

“As far as we know, this is the oldest shoe ever found in the UK,” Mr Reed said.

“The shoe measures approximately 30cm, equivalent to a modern size nine or 10, perhaps suggesting its owner was male.

“The reason for its presence in the well or spring is a mystery.”

It is hoped examination of the shoe will shed light on the method of its construction and identify the animal from which the leather was derived.

Quarry owners Hanson are working with archaeologists from Exeter Archaeology, Devon County Council and English Heritage, as well as other specialists, to ensure that all the finds from the site are properly recorded and treated.

It is hoped, following conservation, that the timbers and shoe will form the central feature of the proposed expansion of the archaeology galleries at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/4530905.stm

An English cave has been described as the “Sistine Chapel of the Ice Age” after the discovery of 80 engraved figures in its limestone ceiling.

The discovery at Creswell Crags was announced on Tuesday.

It comes a year after the initial discovery of 12 engraved figures, which were trumpeted as the earliest examples of prehistoric cave art in Britain.

The new discoveries were made possible by the good natural light in April and June, rock art experts said.

Creswell Crags – a Site of Special Scientific Interest – lies on the border of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. It comprises a gorge and many caves.

The latest artwork, dated to be about 13,000 years old, was found in an opening in the rock known as Church Hole, in Nottinghamshire.

Scientist Dr Sergio Ripoll, from Spain’s Open University, said: “’The good natural light both in April and June of this year, and the realisation that the Ice Age artists who were visiting Church Hole were actually modifying the natural shapes in the limestone, has enabled us to see many new animal figures.”

The figures include representations of bison, deer, bears, plus two or three species of bird; including one unusual bird head with a long, curved bill.

British rock art expert Dr Paul Bahn said: “The sunny mornings especially provided an opportunity to see the cave illuminated by a brilliant reflected light, presumably how our Ice Age ancestors meant for the art to be experienced.”

Dr Nigel Mills, manager of the Creswell Heritage Trust, said the discoveries were “absolutely fantastic news”.

“Church Hole cave is really the Sistine Chapel of the Ice Age,” he said.

Although older cave art in France and Spain is regarded as more sophisticated, the Creswell images are deemed to be significant because of their northerly position.

They are the only examples of Palaeolithic cave art in the UK, and the artists who made them would have witnessed a British landscape still being shaped by glaciers.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/3890113.stm

***Thanks to Mrs Goffik for this link!***

At the risk of repeating...

“Plans to build a road tunnel under Stonehenge are to be examined at a public inquiry. The project’s aims have widespread support, but campaigning groups argue the proposed 2.1km (1.3 mile) tunnel is too short and will damage the site.

The government scheme will take the A303 under the World Heritage Site to reduce traffic congestion around the stones and improve visitor facilities.

The inquiry will begin in Salisbury, Wiltshire, on Tuesday.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said the government’s plan did not go far enough.

The group said the road would have a “major impact” on the site, with tunnel portals degrading the landscape near the ancient stones and the road and associated earthworks affecting a large area.”

Continues here: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/3493649.stm

From the BBC website:

An Iron Age chariot from about 500 BC has been discovered by engineers working on the new A1 motorway in West Yorkshire.
The site at Darrington, near Pontefract, is said to hold articles of great significance.

In what seems to be a burial chamber, there are the remains of a man aged about 40 and the bones of 250 cattle, as well as the chariot.

It is thought the cattle could have formed part of a huge funeral feast.

Archaeologists say the chariot appears to have been placed in the pit intact.

Full story on the BBC website at –
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/3258186.stm