Mudlarker unearths a Neolithic skull on the banks of the River Thames
Martin Bushell spotted the 5,600-year-old skull fragment digging in the muddy banks of the Thames
A human skull from the Neolithic era has been put on display at the Museum of London.
But the incredibly rare specimen wasn't found in some elaborate archaeological dig. The skull was unearthed by a sharp-eyed mudlarker strolling the banks of the River Thames.
"When I first saw it, I thought it was a pot that might have been upside down — like a ceramic pot," Martin Bushell told As It Happens host Carol Off. "It looked more like a crab shell."
Mudlarkers are amateur archeologists who scour the banks of the Thames at low tide for treasure and historic artifacts. The tradition dates back to the Victorian era.
More: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5028070/british-mudlarker-unearths-a-neolithic-skull-on-the-banks-of-the-river-thames-1.5028073
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Jersey ‘drowned landscape’ could yield Ice Age insights
Archaeologists are planning an ambitious survey of part of the seabed off Jersey where Neanderthals once lived.
The site is part-exposed during spring low tide, giving the team a four-hour window to dig while the sea is out.
Stone tools and mammoth remains have been recovered from the Violet Bank over the years.
More: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-51299755
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Neolithic chewing gum helps recreate image of ancient Dane
Analysis of birch tar describes a female hunter-gatherer with dark skin and blue eyes
At the dawn of the Neolithic era, a young woman discarded a lump of ancient chewing gum made from birch tar into a shallow, brackish lagoon that drew fishers to the coast of southern Denmark.
Nearly 6,000 years later, researchers excavating the site spotted the gum amid pieces of wood and wild animal bone and from it have reassembled her complete DNA and so painted the broadest strokes of her portrait.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/17/neolithic-dna-ancient-chewing-gum-denmark?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Why have thousands of archaeological sites ‘disappeared’?
While the archaeologists have been busy finding new monuments of interest, the State has been busy facilitating their systematic removal
Mon, Dec 9, 2019, 05:00
Mark Clinton
According to the legal definition, there are five alternative criteria under which a monument qualifies as a national monument. Defying alphabetical order, “historical interest” is the first listed criterion. In 2003 the Carrickmines Castle site was recognised as a national monument before the Supreme Court. And now we are launching the history of the settlement and fortification, its long-term occupants the Walshes, their cousins in Shanganagh, Kilgobbin, Balally, etc, and, among many other players, that of the besieger of Carrickmines in March 1642, Sir Simon Harcourt. It is a colourful story, with a big finale. Truly, a site worthy of its national monument status.
And yet, the site, the national monument, is no more, save for some sad remnants, scattered about a busy roundabout. Ah yes, the Carrickmines junction. A junction not connecting with any national routes or, indeed, with a road of any significance. A junction whose planning origins remain unknown despite the best efforts of the Flood-Mahon tribunal. One of a daisy-chain of junctions along a motorway originally designed to carry national traffic unimpeded around Dublin city. A junction that effectively destroyed the integrity of the national monument. How did this happen?
The National Monuments Act, passed in 1930, brought legal protection to our ancient built heritage. On a number of subsequent occasions the Act was amended and strengthened to remove weaknesses and loopholes. Particular credit should go to former ministers Michael D Higgins and Síle de Valera for their significant contributions to the protective legislation.
More: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/why-have-thousands-of-archaeological-sites-disappeared-1.4103381?fbclid=IwAR3zs9yezDZ02D85XGVIGsLazia-AuDR9RKcSbQfQoqKtXJInbP2dMVHCTo
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Detectorists hid find that rewrites Anglo-Saxon history
An expert gasped when he saw coins unearthed by two men now convicted of theft
On a sunny day in June 2015 amateur metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies were hunting for treasure in fields at a remote spot in Herefordshire.
The pair had done their research carefully and were focusing on a promising area just north of Leominster, close to high land and a wood with intriguing regal names – Kings Hall Hill and Kings Hall Covert.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/21/detectorists-hid-find-that-rewrites-anglo-saxon-history
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Conservation plan required for cairn of Queen Maeve atop Knocknarea
A meeting of Sligo County Council has heard there is an incredible amount of damage being done to one of the most significant historic monuments in the country, the stone cairn over Queen Maeve’s grave on the summit of Knocknarea.
Sinn Fein Councillor Chris MacManus says a small number of people climb on top of the cairn while Fine Gael Councillor Sinead Maguire says people can be seen coming down the mountain carrying rocks from the cairn.
A local resident in the area also told Ocean FM News recently that some people have been digging up quartz stones from around the base of the cairn.
More (including a short poscast): https://www.oceanfm.ie/2019/11/12/conservation-plan-required-for-cairn-of-queen-maeve/?fbclid=IwAR1a2nXG8r302c0nimDg6CjVi-rTSgn2ZOhumlnKeEYZfIlfPttgmVOE-xA
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Archaeologists say they've discovered what could be Neolithic log boats near Newgrange
The river bed of the Boyne is being searched by archaeologists.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE IDENTIFIED what could be Neolithic log boats as well as boulders, perhaps intended to be used in the building of Newgrange or Knowth, in the river bed of the Boyne, near to the famous monuments.
More: https://jrnl.ie/4878107
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Neanderthal footprints found in France offer snapshot of their lives
Scientists find 257 prints that were preserved in wind-driven sand 80,000 years ago
Scientists have found hundreds of perfectly preserved footprints, providing evidence that Neanderthals walked the Normandy coast in France.
The prints suggest a group of 10-13 individuals, mostly children and adolescents, were on the shoreline 80,000 years ago.
Neanderthals, the closest evolutionary cousins to present-day humans and primates, have long been thought to have lived in social groups, but details have been hard to establish.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/10/neanderthal-footprints-found-in-france-offer-snapshot-of-their-lives?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Replica Iron Age log boat launched on Lough Corrib
A replica of a 2,400-year-old log boat, that lies on the bottom of Lough Corrib, was launched in Co Galway this afternoon.
The prehistoric log boat, built from a single oak timber and some 7.5m long, 0.61m wide and 0.4m deep, has been radiocarbon dated to 754-409 BCE (over 2,400 years ago; the Iron Age).
More: https://www.rte.ie/news/connacht/2019/0706/1060564-galway-log-boat/
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Archaeologists uncover megalithic monument thought to be unlike any found in Ireland to date
More:
https://jrnl.ie/4682855
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Stonehenge: DNA reveals origin of builders
The ancestors of the people who built Stonehenge travelled west across the Mediterranean before reaching Britain, a study has shown.
Researchers in London compared DNA extracted from Neolithic human remains found in Britain with that of people alive at the same time in Europe.
The Neolithic inhabitants appear to have travelled from Anatolia (modern Turkey) to Iberia before winding their way north.
They reached Britain in about 4,000BC.
Details have been published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The migration to Britain was just one part of a general, massive expansion of people out of Anatolia in 6,000BC that introduced farming to Europe.
Before that, Europe was populated by small, travelling groups which hunted animals and gathered wild plants and shellfish.
One group of early farmers followed the river Danube up into Central Europe, but another group travelled west across the Mediterranean.
DNA reveals that Neolithic Britons were largely descended from groups who took the Mediterranean route, either hugging the coast or hopping from island-to-island on boats.
More: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-47938188?fbclid=IwAR1Q99kEGMVgXbR2B3qDJcl02Hoocwi5z7uSXw1_OSpeb1ZYpqGrUB98aKc
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NMI recovers Bronze Age axe illegally detected in Adare
A miniature Bronze Age axe head was handed over to the National Museum of Ireland after pictures emerged of it on social media.
The axe was discovered through illegal metal detecting in Adare, Co Limerick.
NMI Keeper of Irish Antiquities Maeve Sikora said a member of the public alerted the museum to the images and the axe was recovered following an investigation by gardaí.
More: https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0408/1041305-bronze-age-axe-find/
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Mystery digger ruins 5,000-year-old dolmen
La Hougue de Vinde dolmen near Noirmont has been seriously damaged after someone dug holes all over the 5,000 year old historical site.
A man was seen illegally using a metal detector and a trowel on the ancient site, prompting the island’s heritage organisations to appeal to the public to help protect them.
After an islander reported the incident, Olga Finch, Jersey Heritage’s Curator ofArchaeology, inspected the site. She confirmed that it had been seriously damaged, finding 'backfilled' metal detecting holes in the centre of the chamber, and targeted digging all over the dolmen, particularly in the earthen banks and at the base of the orthostats (upright stones).
More: https://www.bailiwickexpress.com/jsy/news/5000-year-old-dolmen-seriously-damage/?fbclid=IwAR0s4vziAhnZCYVZKJRwR6JIayfx90b4CuOg2mLUEYsegamACx1iajNLAFQ#.XIxalIXeyFr
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The battle for the future of Stonehenge
Britain’s favourite monument is stuck in the middle of a bad-tempered row over road traffic. By Charlotte Higgins
Published: 06:00 Friday, 08 February 2019
Stonehenge, with the possible exception of Big Ben, is Britain’s most recognisable monument. As a symbol of the nation’s antiquity, it is our Parthenon, our pyramids – although, admittedly, less impressive. Neil MacGregor, the former director of the British Museum, recalls that when he took a group of Egyptian archaeologists to see it, they were baffled by our national devotion to the stones, which, compared to the refined surfaces of the pyramids, seemed to them like something hastily thrown up over a weekend.
More: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/08/the-battle-for-the-future-of-stonehenge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
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Taxi-driving, graphic artist with a penchant for high hills and low boulders. Currently residing in Tallaght where I can escape to the wildernesses of Wicklow within 10 minutes.
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