Hob

“A government planning inspector is beginning the process of deciding whether a 74m (242ft) turbine can be erected at Shoreswood Farm, close to the ancient Duddo Stone Circle near Berwick, following the quashing of the existing planning permission.”

chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/call-arms-protect-ancient-stones-7821413

Info on how to register an objection is here:

duddo.org.uk/index.php/about-duddo/duddo-five-stones/guardians-stones/shoreswood/

Seems a second gold ‘earing’, this one interpreted as a hair ornament, that looks akin to the one found at Kirkhaugh in 1935.

Makes it one of the oldest bits of metal in Britain, dating back to the chalcolithic, around 2,300BCE.

northumberlandgazette.co.uk/news/national-news/boys-strike-gold-with-ornament-dig-1-6766776

From The Journal online:

The damage was reported at 11am on Saturday, after names were carved into the historic rock art at Lordenshaw in Rothbury, Northumberland

Full article here

From The Journal online:

Seventeen of the mysterious cup and ring carvings in Northumberland have been scheduled as Ancient Monuments by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following advice from English Heritage.

Examples in the North East of some of the earliest art in Britain have won national recognition.
Seventeen of the mysterious cup and ring carvings in Northumberland have been scheduled as Ancient Monuments by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport following advice from English Heritage, drawing on the work of volunteers in the region.
At Ketley Crag, near Chatton, the stone base of a rock shelter has been extensively carved with a complex and fluid range of motifs, complete with well preserved pick marks made by the instrument used to make the carvings.
Some of the other rock art sites added to the National Heritage List for England are a panel at Whitsunbank and a group of panels in Buttony, near Doddington Moor, displaying a variety of carvings ranging from cups and rings to the more unusual circular grooves and rosette forms.

The artivle also displays also a top notch photo of Ketley Crag by TMA’s Rockartwolf and a shot of Stan The Man to whom the vast majority of the credit for this good news must go.

Full article here

“Six Saxon skeletons dating back more than 1,000 years and round barrows dating back to the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago have been discovered on a brownfield development site in Amesbury”

theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/skeletons-found-on-mansell-site

Romanian experts have discovered the most ancient cave paintings found to date in Central Europe, aged up to 35,000 years old, Romanian and French scientists said Sunday.

physorg.com/news195668903.html

Plans are afoot to fell the plantation around the circle over a period of 3 years. A decision is expected early in 2009. More details can be found on the Journal’s website, here.

“Stone Age Britons from across the North-East flocked to a prehistoric “Glastonbury festival” marked by mysterious rituals, a major archaeological discovery suggests.

Experts believe tools, pottery and timber stakes unearthed near Durham City show a site within view of Durham Cathedral was a place of mass worship as far back as 3,000 BC.”

A little more detail at:
thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.1532353.0.unearthing_history_at_prehistoric_glastonbury.php

Article by Mark Tallentire

“Water works have uncovered the most significant archaeological site of ancient Britons in County Durham dating back 5,000 years. Northumbrian Water are building a new £3.5 million drinking water reservoir on the outskirts with views overlooking Durham City Cathedral and Castle. Before work began extensive archaeology investigations were undertaken.

Experts from Tyne and Wear Museums found evidence of continuous settlement on the site from 3,000BC to 300BC by stone age, bronze age and iron age man. Pottery remains and flint knives and skin scrapers were unearthed. Digging also uncovered very well preserved timbers used to shore up ditches and shaped by bronze age tools and elsewhere traces of iron age fields were found.”

A little more detail at: bdaily.info/story/view/4768

From The Telegraph’s website

Gristhorpe Man, who was found buried in a tree trunk in the 19th century, has been identified as a Bronze Age warrior chieftain by archaeologists.

The skeleton of Gristhorpe Man, excavated near Scarborough in 1834. Although a few examples of burial in a scooped-out oak tree have been found in Scotland and East Anglia, it was an unusual method and the example found near Scarborough, North Yorks, was the best preserved.

The full article is to be found here.

An underground chamber undisturbed since the Iron Age was revealed on North Uist when a 10ft hole opened beneath the wheel of a tractor.

Full article can be seen at The Herald‘s website.

Extract from The Northern Echo’s website:

Three amber beads, two bronze rings, a bugle-shaped fitting and a fragment of a spearhead, found six inches below ground in a field near Sedgefield, County Durham, are thought to have been part of an ancient burial ceremony.

Read the full article...

Extract taken from The Scotsman’s Website

Four thousand years ago work began to erect the great earthen burial mounds that comprise the Bronze Age barrow cemetery at the Knowes of Trotty, in Harray, Orkney. There are at least 16 barrows – or graves – in two rows, nestling between the edge of the farmlands and the foot of the moorland. Many were raised upon natural mounds to enhance their prominence

Read the full article...

In adjunct to Rhiannon’s post below, some details of Dr Pettitt and his team’s discoveries in the paleolithic strata of Creswell Crags, are availble from the 24hr museum here

“An excavation on the town’s earliest known settlement began this week as the Marlow Archaeological Society (MAS) attempted to find out more about our ancestors in the Thames Valley.”

Continues here...

Human remains dating back almost 4,000 years have been uncovered on Rathlin Island off the County Antrim coast

More details from the BBC here.

From the Yorkshire post:

“They roamed the earth almost 6,000 years ago, performing rituals on animal remains and devouring human body parts.
But these are not the strange creatures of film or fiction – they were farmers in the Yorkshire Dales.
New research on bones discovered in six Dales caves has revealed that farming in the area dates back thousands of years –and with it a history of cannibalism.”

Read the full article

Archaeologists at the mesolithic site have found “more than 1,000 finds ranging from shards to complete axes and entire pots.”

More from the BBC here

“Underwater archaeologists in Perthshire have made the incredible discovery of a drowned forest, thought to date from the neolithic period some 5000 years ago.”

More details here

From the Evening Chronicle.

Iron Age skull unearthed in a back garden in North Tyneside.

Full story here