pebblesfromheaven
29-5-05
Unsure as to what to call this site... answers on an electronic postcard please....
This was just inside the danger area but the flags weren’t up and we reckoned the lambs wouldn’t be there if there was any danger ;)
The panel was very weathered and the surface of the rock was shaped as much by the natural clefts and cuts as by the carvings. A real shame as there were some very nice shapes.
Another one biting the dust...?
There was a ring around five cups which looked like a clover. A bit like the one on page 75 of Stan B’s “British Prehistoric Rock Art” but not quite the right layout...?
29-5-05
The road to the farm looks very rough – we weren’t sure whether it was wise to go up – but glad we did because it was quite a way and there was an actual car park at the top!!
Well sign-posted, over two stiles through open farmland which this day was home to some very excitable young bullocks.
I was initially disappointed with this site, because maybe my hopes had been built up, but like Fitz and Stubob before, this was a “must do” and justifiably so. The panel was very overgrown....
Maybe cups are for growing offerings to the great god of moss.
Placed near the panels... map of the area?
Image credit: pebblethief
Not far from High Banks... took a little while to find the right path into this field, had to dodge a couple of electric fences on the way. It’s in an area with roaming cows and the surrounding land had also been recently ploughed roughly, so the ground was hard-going...
The panels are on higher ground near to some gorse bushes (an obvious place for RA really!!)
Some of these were hidden so we replaced the turf. There are surely more under there, too. The bedrock is particularly fragile so I think it’s best these are protected from hoofs etc...
We spotted the best panel just as we were leaving to move on to the next place... there are very good pick marks on it and even some small holes as if the tool slipped and hammered a few pecks by accident ;)
One panel overlooked the little watering hole – a spring or a quarry? wasn’t clear.
Visited 29-5-05. Parked nearby at the junction into a farm. Walked about 50 yards west to a place near a tree where we could get over the wall. The ground over to the hill was a bit boggy in places but not too bad...
6-fig GPS coordinates would have taken us further up the hill but found it on the way. 10-fig coordinates NX 73322 48861
Spent a little while cleaning it up ready for its pictures and the true character was revealed – wow!!! Really impressed by this one. Two cups in particular were really deep, as if they were natural holes that had been enhanced...
The view from the site is towards inland hills, can’t really see the sea from here.
Back at the car trying to decided where to go next a helpful woman (did she really exist?!) came to offer directions...must have been the fact we were wrestling with maps in the car that made us look helpless!!
29-5-05 looking roughly north east
Image credit: pebblethief
3rd February 2005, just after dawn, 8.15 am
Image credit: Pebblethief
A Mesolithic Settlement at Howick, Northumberland.
More details of the excavation.
Amateur archaeologists John Davies and Jim Hutchinson discovered Mesolithic flint artefacts eroding from a cliff-edge at Howick, Northumberland. This prompted a detailed investigation of the site by archaeologists from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne during the summers of 2000 and 2002. The remains of a Mesolithic hut were discovered ....
5-2-2004. Weathered top surface of recumbant
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Image credit: Pebblethief
5-2-2004. The top, south side of the recumbant.
Lines like stretch-marks...
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Image credit: Pebblethief
5-02-2004. Facing into the mid-day winter sun.
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Image credit: Pebblethief
The 400BC Ferrari
The Iron Age chariot unearthed at an Edinburgh building site has been proved the oldest in Britain.
Radiocarbon tests on the wheels of the chariot have proved it dates back to 400BC – 200 years earlier than the previous oldest British find.
Scientists have just finished studying the remains and it is now being prepared to go on public display, probably at the Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street.
The only other places in Western Europe where similar discoveries have been made are in East Yorkshire and France.
The discovery of the Iron Age chariot – hailed as one of the most important ever made in Scotland – was made near another historic city site.
The chariot is remarkably complete, with surviving parts including its base, two wheels and even the remains of a bridle.
The National Museums of Scotland is carrying out conservation work on the remains so they can go on public display.
link:
news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=8102004
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Experts have uncovered evidence of Iron Age houses and pottery dating from around 100 BC at a major Tyneside development.
Residents at the Newcastle Great Park (NGP) development are learning about their Iron Age counterparts after the latest archaeological work on the site uncovered evidence of an ancient settlement.
Artefacts, described as being of significant archaeological interest, have been found since the works began over two years ago.
However this latest area to be examined has caused the most excitement.
Senior keeper of field archaeology at Tyne & Wear Museums, Steve Speak, said: “This site, which is south of the new SAGE development, has produced not only pottery, but also so-called Quern Stones, which were used to grind wheat.
“The settlement shows three phases of occupation over a period of about 75 years.
“We know this because our calculations show that a house would last around 25 years before it started to deteriorate and needed to be built again.”
Drawings of the site show a large round house about 10 metres in diameter, surrounded by an enclosure which was likely to be used to keep in livestock.
Also featured are the remains of houses from previous phases of occupation along with ditches used for drainage and the disposal of waste.
Tyne and Wear’s county archaeologist is currently deciding on the scope of a full excavation of the site.
Mr Speak added: “The good thing about this area is that there has been little or no ploughing over the site which so often wipes out any archaeology under the soil.
“Any artefacts we uncover here should be of good quality and I feel we will get an informed idea of what life was like for the earliest inhabitants of Newcastle Great Park”.
link:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/3374037.stm
For those who often travel up the A1 north of Gosforth, this is right next to the new mounds that look a bit like Silbury...
16-11-03
Can you see it?!
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Image credit: Pebblethief