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Stonehenge visitor centre and road closure project starts
A £27m project at Stonehenge to build a new visitor centre and close the road alongside the monument has begun.
The centre will replace existing buildings. After the closure of the A344, a shuttle service taking visitors to and from the stones will start.
The existing car and coach park next to Stonehenge will also be removed.
English Heritage said the work would "restore the dignity" of the stones' setting and "minimise the intrusion of the modern world".
The 3,500-year-old World Heritage site receives more than one million visitors a year.
English Heritage said the closure of the A344 would reunite the monument with The Avenue - its ancient processional approach. The stretch of road to be closed will be grassed over.
Stonehenge is believed to have been used as an important religious site by early Britons up to 4,000 years ago
Its stones are believed to be from Pont Saeson in Pembrokeshire - more than 240 miles (386 km) away
Recent pagan celebrations at the Henge began in the 20th Century
On Summer Solstice (Litha), the central Altar stone aligns with the Heel stone, the Slaughter stone and the rising sun to the north east
Read more about the history of Stonehenge
Find out more: BBC Religion Paganism
Head of Stonehenge Peter Carson said: "It's a really fantastic day for Stonehenge.
"What this does is address a lot of concerns that people have had at Stonehenge for decades. It will remove the inadequate facilities and it will mean that we have an open landscape that people can explore.
"I'm absolutely delighted and it will transform the experience for those who visit in the future."
When finished, the visitor centre will be situated at Airman's Corner, about a mile-and-a-half (2.4km) west of the stones, and is expected to open in autumn 2013.
The centre will include exhibition and education facilities, a cafe, shop and toilets.
The area near the stone circle will be restored to grass in summer 2014.
A grade II listed Airman's Cross memorial at Airman's Corner was recently removed to make way for work to upgrade the road junction.
It has been put into temporary storage and will be re-sited in the grounds of the new visitor centre once work is completed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-18782893
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Stonehenge was built to unify Britain, researchers conclude.
Building Stonehenge was a way to unify the people of Stone Age Britain, researchers have concluded.
Teams working on the Stonehenge Riverside Project believe the circle was built after a long period of conflict between east and west Britain.
Researchers also believe the stones, from southern England and west Wales, symbolize different communities.
Prof Mike Parker Pearson said building Stonehenge required everyone "to pull together" in "an act of unification".
The Stonehenge Riverside Project (SRP) has been investigating the archaeology of Stonehenge and its landscape for the past 10 years.
In 2008, SRP researchers found that Stonehenge had been erected almost 500 years earlier than had originally been thought.
Now teams from the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Southampton, Bournemouth and University College London, have concluded that when the stone circle was built "there was a growing island-wide culture".
"The same styles of houses, pottery and other material forms were used from Orkney to the south coast - this was very different to the regionalism of previous centuries," said Prof Parker Pearson, from University of Sheffield.
"Stonehenge itself was a massive undertaking, requiring the labour of thousands to move stones from as far away as west Wales, shaping them and erecting them.
"Just the work itself, requiring everyone literally to pull together, would have been an act of unification."
Stonehenge may also have been built in a place that already had special significance for prehistoric Britons.
The SRP team found that its solstice-aligned avenue sits upon a series of natural landforms that, by chance, form an axis between the directions of midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset.
"When we stumbled across this extraordinary natural arrangement of the sun's path being marked in the land, we realised that prehistoric people selected this place to build Stonehenge because of its pre-ordained significance," said Mr Parker Pearson.
The winter solstice is also believed to have been of more significance to Britain's Neolithic people
"This might explain why there are eight monuments in the Stonehenge area with solstitial alignments, a number unmatched anywhere else.
"Perhaps they saw this place as the centre of the world".
Previous theories suggesting the great stone circle was inspired by ancient Egyptians or extra-terrestrials have been firmly rejected by researchers.
"All the architectural influences for Stonehenge can be found in previous monuments and buildings within Britain, with origins in Wales and Scotland," said Mr Parker Pearson.
"In fact, Britain's Neolithic people were isolated from the rest of Europe for centuries.
"Britain may have become unified but there was no interest in interacting with people across the Channel.
"Stonehenge appears to have been the last gasp of this Stone Age culture, which was isolated from Europe and from the new technologies of metal tools and the wheel."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-18550513
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Stonehenge: Closure of A344 near monument to go ahead.
Plans to close a main road running past Stonehenge are to go ahead.
English Heritage wants to stop traffic from travelling close to the stones and "restore the dignity" of the World Heritage Site by closing the A344.
The road from the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom to west of the visitor centre has already been approved for closure.
Now, following a public inquiry, Wiltshire Council has approved an independent inspector's report to close the remaining section of road.
In June 2010 the council granted planning permission for a new visitors centre at Airman's Corner, 1.5 miles (2km) west of Stonehenge.
And in November, roads minister Mike Penning approved plans to close an 879m (2,884ft) section of the A344 from its junction with the A303 at Stonehenge Bottom with a stopping up order.
Now the council has approved a traffic regulation order (TRO) for the remainder of the A344 to Airman's Corner.
But proposals to close a number of byways around the ancient monument were refused.
Druid leader King Arthur Pendragon said the inspector's recommendations and resulting council decision had "erred on the side of common sense".
"I invited the inspector to recommend a modification to the order be made in that should the stopping up order be placed on the lower section of the A344 the remaining section of the metalled road be restricted by a traffic regulation order as requested.
"And he recommended that the proposed TRO be made with modification to the A344 only, leaving the byways in the World Heritage Site still open to all traffic, as they have been."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-16352307
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Bronze Age hoard found in Manorbier, Pembrokeshire.
A collection of Bronze Age artefacts found by a man with a metal detector in a Pembrokeshire field may end up at the National Museum Wales.
The tools, a weapon, and other items which were found by Gavin Palmer near Manorbier have been declared treasure by the county's coroner.
The museum says the find helps shed light on how people lived in west Wales 3,000 years ago.
It is having the find independently valued with a view to buying the items.
The money would be split between Mr Palmer and the landowner.
The items were buried around 1000 to 800BC.
Mr Palmer came across the 19 objects while metal detecting in the corner of a field in August last year.
They can be dated to the Late Bronze Age and were buried around 1000 to 800BC.
An archaeological survey of the area was subsequently carried out by the Dyfed Archaeological Trust.
It suggested the artefacts had once been buried together as a hoard in an isolated pit.
No further Bronze Age objects were found and a geophysical survey did not reveal evidence of a settlement or monument in the immediate vicinity.
Adam Gwilt, curator of the museum's Bronze Age collections, said: "This varied group of bronze objects helps us to understand the kinds of tools, weapons and personal dress items that were in use and circulation in west Wales towards the end of the Bronze Age.
"The hoard may have been buried during a ritual ceremony held by a nearby community of farmers and metalworkers."
He said the museum planned to acquire the hoard following its valuation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-15493977
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Bronze Age finds at Llangollen's Pillar of Eliseg.
Remains dating back to the Bronze Age have been uncovered by archaeologists excavating the site of a 9th Century monument.
The finds were made during the latest dig at the Pillar of Eliseg near Llangollen, Denbighshire.
Possible cremated remains and bone fragments are now being examined.
The experts said the finds had complicated the picture regarding the site's historical significance and make it worthy of more investigation.
Bangor and Chester university experts and students have been involved in a dig with historical monuments agency Cadw to conserve and better understand the mound.
They gave updates, and shared photographs and films via Llangollen Museum's Facebook page during the dig.
Last year's excavations focused on the mound, which was identified as an early Bronze Age cairn.
It is said the local landowner Trevor Lloyd re-erected the monument on the mound in 1773 after it fell over and found a grave with a body inside along with pieces of silver.
The experts have been trying to find if there any truth to the story which some think is legend.
Prof Nancy Edwards from Bangor University said to establish any truth in the story they had to clear away debris left by Lloyd more than 200 years ago.
"We have been digging that out to reveal what we think are the Bronze Age remains underneath," she said.
"We have had what we think is an early medieval long cist grave so it is looking even more complicated now and also what may be evidence of Bronze Age cremations."
The Pillar of Eliseg was originally a tall stone cross but only part of a round shaft survives set within its original base.
It once bore a long Latin inscription saying that the cross was raised by Concenn, ruler of the kingdom of Powys, who died in AD 854, in memory of his great-grandfather, Eliseg, who had driven Anglo-Saxon invaders out of the area.
An update on the latest finds will be published in the near future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-15007707
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Mysteries of Cumbria's Ancient Stones Unlocked.
A BOOK which sets out to fill the 'black hole' in Cumbria's prehistoric past has been published by a Cambridge academic.
Dr David Barrowclough, a Fellow in Archaeology, has pulled together decades of research to come up with new interpretations about how ancient Cumbrians lived and why they built some of the most impressive stone monuments in England.
One theory Dr Barrow-clough propounds is that patterns and marks carved on some of the ancient stones, such as Long Meg, in Eden, could have originally been 'map'symbols' to guide people from valley to valley.
This early 'rock art' eventually was used to chart the movements of the sun and moon and rituals associated with passing from life to death, says Dr Barrowclough.
His book, Prehistoric Cumbria, also suggests that thousands of years ago the Langdale Valley was a centre of 'professional' axe-head production, with part-finished products being manufactured for both local and 'export' trade, overseen by organised groups.
He reveals that the axe-heads, which were finished by polishing in lowland Cumbria, have been found in excavations as far away as the Yorkshire Wolds and the Thames Valley.
But ancient Cumbrians were not just exporters of weaponry.
Dr Barrowclough writes that by the Bronze Age the area was a net importer of a range of manufactured artefacts, many of which were deliberately thrown into bogs and rivers — a practice known as 'deposition'.
"To an outsider, there would be nothing to indicate the long-term history of deposition in a moss or river.
"Yet particular locations were selected time after time for such actions; in the case of the Furness Peninsula, from Neolithic through to the end of the Bronze Age.
"The repeated use of the same places must have been deliberate: such places were meaningful and historical and imbued with memory," says Dr Barrowclough.
He suggests that depositing imported artefacts in bogs and rivers was a 'compelling way to realign a foreign idea' and 'to make alien, ambiguous items morally acceptable at home'.
Dr Barrowclough claims there was previously a 'proliferation of misconceptions about the region's archaeology; in particular, that it was in some way a 'black hole in prehistory'.
"This book takes the opportunity to publish details of excavations that have in some cases only been hinted at in previous works, and in other cases not known of at all," he said.
* Prehistoric Cumbria is published by The History Press at £19.99. ISBN 9780752450872.
http://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/8767816.Mysteries_of_Cumbria_s_ancient_stones_unlocked/
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Orkney Venus Misses Out on Archaeology Award.
A tiny neolithic figurine from Orkney has missed out on a prize at this year's British Archaeological Awards.
The 5,000-year-old Orkney Venus, which was discovered during excavations in the island of Westray in August last year, is the earliest representation of the human form found in Scotland.
It was up for Best Discovery at British Museum awards in London.
But the title went to the Staffordshire Hoard - the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold - discovered in 2009.
The Orkney Venus, a female carving, is just 4cm tall and composed of sandstone.
more at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-10690484
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Showing 1-20 of 57 news posts. Most recent first | Next 20 |
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
T.S.Eliot "The Hollow Men"
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