Archaeology in Europe

Archaeological news from the Archaeology in Europe web site

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Shoelace costs museum dear as vases are shattered

It must be a curator's sweatiest nightmare. Beyond the collection being swiped by thieves, the museum burning to the ground or, of course, your funding being withdrawn, there is always the dread possibility that some malign, clumsy or plain unlucky member of the public might destroy a prize holding.

That has happened at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. According to witnesses, an unfortunate visitor tripped over his shoelace and fell on to three Qing dynasty vases, shattering them. The vases had been placed - rather optimistically, perhaps - on a windowsill on a staircase.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:58 PM

Archaeology findings

THE findings of a two-year archaeology project in Prestonpans are to be presented at a public seminar tomorrow.

The free event at Prestonpans Community Centre at 7pm, will cover a project involving professional archaeologists.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:54 PM

Treasure revealed in abbey's old well

A vast monastic drain, dating from about 1230, has been unblocked at a historic abbey, the National Trust has revealed.

The drain was infilled in the 16th century and the work has uncovered a builder's dump full of fascinating archaeology.

The Trust carried out excavations of the monastic drain at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire to help understand the present-day problems with damp in the building, which includes famous medieval cloisters.

The dig, carried out by hand, removed 64 tonnes of debris used as infill by William Sharrington, who bought the abbey in the 16th century after the Dissolution.

The drain originally served the reredorter, which were the lavatories in the 13th century nunnery and which functioned as the main sewer for the abbey and would have originally run off into the river.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:52 PM

Ancient wreck, new fight

What is probably the richest sunken treasure in the world, the Sussex, a British warship that went to the bottom of the Mediterranean in 1694 with a cargo of coins now worth up to $4 billion, has become embroiled in a bitter diplomatic dispute that pits Spain against Britain, the United States and an American company that wants to salvage the wreck.

The conflict turns on arcane and often disputed aspects of international law that govern sovereign waters and the rights of shipwreck owners and finders.

Spain claims the waters off the coast of Gibraltar. Britain claims the ship, says its decomposing hull rests in the high seas and has struck a deal with the American company, Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, Florida, to split the recovery's proceeds.

Last month, the company had its 250-foot, or 76-meter, ship lower a seven-ton robot with lights, cameras and flexible arms to begin an archaeological survey, the first step in recovery of the wreckage of the ship, which lies in waters a half-mile, or one kilometer, deep. The goal is positive identification of the wreck and looking for the lost coins, which the company says are most likely gold, nine tons of it.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:50 PM

Cathedral admission charges condemned by MP as 'tacky'

MPs have spoken out against cathedrals which charge visitors for entry, with one labelling the practice "slightly tacky".

Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell, responding for the Church Commissioners at Commons question time yesterday, said the Government ought to provide more financial support to cathedrals.

However, Hugh Bayley, MP for the City of York, said charging could help to meet the cost of major projects such as the £23m restoration of the East Front at York Minster, an appeal backed by the Yorkshire Post.

Crewe and Nantwich MP Gwyneth Dunwoody said she had "great sympathy" for the situation in which cathedrals found themselves but asked Sir Stuart if he could persuade cathedrals to stop charging.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:47 PM

Monday, January 30, 2006

Treasures of 'Harry Potter' sewer

The archaeological excavation of an ancient sewer at a medieval nunnery used as a setting in the Harry Potter films has revealed a host of treasures.

The aim of the work on the drain at Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire was to understand modern-day problems with damp at the historic building.

Instead experts discovered bronze "wimple" pins, shears, a lead flask and a 14th Century book clasp.

The items are all being conserved and may go on display at the house.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:28 PM

Archaeologists find ancient typhoid by the teeth

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, goes the ancient saying. Especially if the gifts include typhoid fever, suggests an archaeological team, after looking into a burial pit dating to the ancient siege that ended the Golden Age of Athens.

Among the epic conflicts of the ancient world, the Peloponnesian War pitted the Greek empires of Athens and Sparta against each other. The seagoing Athenians met their match in the Spartans and their allies during a conflict that stretched from 431 B.C to 404 B.C.

Plague claimed as many as a quarter of the Athenians in the early years of the war, a siege of Athens, according to the ancient writer Thucydides, who himself lived through and described the disease. Since then scholars have debated over exactly what illness sparked the devastating epidemic — suggestions include plague, smallpox, Ebola and many others — parsing over the exact meaning of the ancient scribe's description.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:26 PM

Major archaeological excavation to start at city centre kirk

Archaeological experts from all over the world are hoping to find the remains of a 12th-century church at Aberdeen's historic Kirk of St Nicholas when a major excavation project gets underway today (Monday).

Archaeologists from Aberdeen City Council will lead the team of 12, who have come to Aberdeen from countries including Egypt and Spain as well as the UK.

The highly skilled team is made up of a combination of archaeologists with large amounts of excavation experience alongside human bone and burial archaeology specialists, which will enable the maximum amount of information to be gleaned from the site.

The archaeological dig - which is scheduled to take six months - has been brought about by the need to reinforce the foundations of the Mither Kirk for a new development, which will be launched in the next few weeks.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:24 PM

START DATE FOR £100,000 CATHEDRAL REPAIR PROJECT

A DONATION from English Heritage means a £100,000 repair programme at Carlisle Cathedral can start at Easter after masonry fell from the 14th century building.

Red sandstone for the repairs will be quarried from St Bees, near Whitehaven.

English Heritage yesterday announced it will give £58,000 towards restoration with the remaining cash coming from cathedral funds.

The six-month project will begin in April to repair the tracery stonework and replace damaged sandstone blocks surrounding the window on the east end.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:02 PM

Man trips and destroys priceless vases

A museum visitor tripped on his shoelace, stumbled down a stairway and destroyed a set of priceless 300-year-old Chinese vases.

The three vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century, had stood on a windowsill at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for at least 40 years.

The museum refused to name the visitor, who was unhurt, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Steve Baxter, another visitor, who saw the accident, said: "We watched the man fall as if in slow motion. He landed in the middle of the vases and they splintered into a million pieces.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:00 PM

Team maps minster stone by stone

A cathedral in Nottinghamshire will be brought into the 21st Century with a grant to fund hi-tech photography of some of its buildings.

Southwell Minster will receive £20,000 from English Heritage to use photographs to create stone by stone drawings of the central tower.

The drawings will show exactly how the tower is made up, in preparation for major repair and restoration work.

The planned repairs to the cathedral will include masonry and glazing work.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:54 PM

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Ashkenazi Jewish Founders Traced

Four women who lived 1,000 years ago somewhere in Europe are the ancestral mothers of some 3.5 million Ashkenazi Jews alive today, a genetic study has concluded.

Part of a small group who founded the Ashkenazi Jewish community, each woman left a genetic signature that shows up in their descendants today, Karl Skorecki of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Israel, and colleagues reported in the online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Estimated at around eight million people, the Ashkenazi Jews account for the majority of the current Jewish population.

The term "Ashkenazi" refers to Jews of mainly central and eastern European ancestry, as opposed to those of Iberian (Sephardic), Near Eastern or North African origin.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:39 PM

Metalen voorwerpen op de Potterierei

Ringvingerhoed
Een vingerhoed is bedoeld om de vinger te beschermen tegen indrukken van de naald. Vingerhoeden kunnen gemaakt zijn van verschillende materialen zoals steen, hout, glas, porselein, leer, been, metaal (goud, zilver, messing, brons). Typologisch zijn er twee soorten vingerhoeden te onderscheiden: de gesloten en de open vingerhoed. Het open type is ringvormig en is vervaardigd uit een metalen band. Bij het gesloten type is de bovenkant van de vingerhoed met een kapje afgedekt. De gesloten vingerhoed werd vooral gebruikt bij het naaien van kleding, terwijl de ringvingerhoed meer een instrument van de leerbewerker was. In West-Europa is de vingerhoed in de 14de eeuw algemeen bekend. Voordien werden houten schildjes of leren lapjes gebruikt ter bescherming van de vinger.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:37 PM

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Archaeological Study Tour to Germany

27 May to 2 June 2006

There are still a number of places left on the Archaeological Study Tour to Germany.

You can find more details here...

# posted by David Beard @ 3:48 PM

Archeologia: ritrovati a Pozzuoli resti villa romana

NAPOLI, 28 GEN- Trovati a Pozzuoli i resti di una villa imperiale romana, piccoli riquadri di mosaici e una scala, durante lavori di scavo dell'Enel. Il ritrovamento potrebbe portare all'individuazione di una palestra tipica dei tempi imperiali che consentiva agli atleti di prepararsi alle gare. La struttura potrebbe essere di notevole rilevanza perche' avrebbe potuto ospitare i giochi di 'Eusebia' istituiti da Antonino Pio in memoria dell'imperatore Adriano. CIC (Riproduzione Riservata)

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:46 PM

Archeologists Find Ancient Ship Remains

An American-Italian team of archaeologists has found the remains of 4,000-year-old ships that used to carry cargo between Pharaonic Egypt and the mysterious, exotic land of Punt, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced.

The ships' remains were found during a five-year excavation of five caves south of the Red Sea port of Safaga, about 300 miles southeast of Cairo, the chairman of the supreme council, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement late Thursday.

The archaeologists, who came from Boston and East Naples universities, found Pharaonic seals from the era of Sankhkare Mentuhotep III, one of seven rulers of the 11th dynasty, which lasted from about 2133 B.C. to 1991 B.C.. They also found wooden boxes, covered with gypsum, bearing the inscription "Wonders of the land of Punt."

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:45 PM

ARCHEOLOGIA: AGRIGENTO, SCOPERTO APPRODO CITTA' ROMANA

PALERMO - Frammenti di ceramica di epoca imperiale romana, muretti a secco venuti fuori da un crollo per l'erosione della costa lasciano pensare ad un possibile approdo per imbarcazioni della città romana di Allavam, a Ribera, in provincia di Agrigento. La scoperta è avvenuta nei giorni scorsi durante i lavori di scavo per la realizzazione degli alberghi del Golf resort di Rocco Forte, in contrada Verdura. La presenza del porticciolo si aggiunge ad un'altra scoperta fatta nell'estate scorsa, nella stessa area, dal medico chirurgo riberese, Domenico Macaluso: una diga foranea davanti la torre di Verdura lunga 365 metri e larga 36 che serviva per l'attracco delle navi che commercializzavano lo zucchero del 'trappeto' di Verdura.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:44 PM

Ancient papyrus goes on display in Turin

It served first as a notebook for ancient painters and then as part of a mummy's wrapping. Now, a first century B.C. parchment believed to contain the earliest cartography of the Greek-Roman era will be on display next month in the northern city of Turin.

The Papyrus of Artemidorus tells a tale of more than 2,000 years of art and culture.
Egyptologist Alessandro Roccati, of the University of Turin, said the parchment was "extraordinary" in that it "conserves direct and ancient testimony that helps reconstruct history." Roccati was not involved in the project.

The parchment's story begins around the mid-first century B.C., when a copyist in Alexandria, Egypt, began working on a blank parchment to copy the second of 11 books by Greek geographer Artemidorus of Ephesus.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:43 PM

Experts to study Orkney's underwater past

Archaeologists in Orkney are seeking funding for a project to study the islands' hidden treasures. Orkney-based independent archaeological consultant Caroline Wickham-Jones said they were keen to investigate the submerged prehistory around the islands.

Orkney is renowned for its archaeology and the main Neolithic sites of the islands were given World Heritage Status in 1999. But Ms Wickham-Jones said there was a hidden side to the archaeology of Orkney that most people knew little about. "At the end of the last Ice Age, the sea level around the islands was as much as 30 metres lower than today. It was at this time, some 10,000 years ago, the first settlers came to the islands," she added.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:41 PM

Roman relics

Sir, Is Giles Coren’s reference to the Romans being slow off the mark a case of the urn calling the amphora black? (There’s a hole in your toga, dear Titus, Jan 21). For although tempus does indeed fugit, there has not been a hosepipe ban across the Thames Water region for the past 16 years. If he has laboured all this time to keep the garden of his London villa green by reverting to use of a watering can, we’d like to thank Giles for his efforts.

Allow me to satisfy Mr Coren’s curiosity as to why we employ what he refers to as “archae-bleeding-ologists”.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:39 PM

Elgin Marbles

Sir, The British Museum needs to adopt a more constructive approach to the future of the Elgin Marbles (letters, Jan 21 and 25).

Let the New Acropolis Museum commission replicas of the Marbles, and there then be a formal arrangement with the British Museum for perhaps a third of the original main fragments to be exchanged on a revolving basis for their replicas.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:38 PM

The real Caesars

The BBC's sex-and-sandals drama may have played fast and loose with the facts, but it has kindled interest in the ruins of the Roman Empire. The historian Robin Lane Fox is your guide.

In each episode, the fictions multiplied. Distinguished Roman matrons engaged in lesbian kissing; a defeated Pompey met totally unexpected veterans from Caesar's army; a druggie Cleopatra had hyperactive sex with a centurion before crossing Julius Caesar's path. Now we all need some facts to tone down the lurid camerawork.

The series covered the most momentous years in Roman history, those which are still most alive to us through their written evidence.

But real sites, sculptures and stonework are out there, too, to be discovered by anyone with imagination and a yen for adventure. There is a thrill in standing on the very spot where events happened, even if the buildings have gone. Roman ghosts are very strong.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:37 PM

Stonehenge - a tourism wonder

Simon Jenkins has the support of two university archaeologists who spotted the problem with the perceived wisdom on conservation in Stonehenge some time ago (Comment, January 27). My colleague at Cambridge University, Dr Christopher Chippindale, and I have long chuckled at the professionals scratching their collective heads staring in dismay at the visitor centre. We humbly suggest again that they are perhaps looking in the wrong direction.

Visitors to Stonehenge have come to see the stones, they haven't come to look at the visitor centre. In tourism terms, Stonehenge is the perfect attraction - it can be"done" in around 15 minutes - perfect for the whistle-stop coach tours of British heritage. If we are to improve on this, then a low-tech sustainable temporary improvement on the current footprint of the visitor centre could meet visitors' needs quickly. We have suggested low wooden structures which would at least look more natural than concrete. Any solution should be seen as temporary in relation to the "timelessness" of the actual site.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:36 PM

Scandal clouds Getty re-opening

The Getty Villa, the Malibu museum housing one of the world's finest ancient art collections, re-opens on Saturday after an eight year refit.

The renovation of the building, a copy of a Pompeii villa destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption in 79AD, cost $275m.

On display are 44,000 treasures from former oil tycoon John Paul Getty's massive art collection.

However, the museum is re-opening amid a scandal over allegations that some of its antiquities were looted.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:35 PM

The treasures of the Aegean

For many years, the general public showed little enthusiasm for archaeological discoveries. Either the finds were little known outside a narrow circle of specialists or there were few who comprehended their significance.

Even when the public became more aware and the press began to show an interest in the mid-1990s, the spotlight usually fell on the most striking discoveries and the most popular sites.

Who, for instance, knows what exactly lies beneath the topsoil of the smaller islands of Makronissos, Yarous, Gavdos and Psyttaleia, or of the islands that once belonged to Miletus and helped ensure free passage across the Aegean? The latter are now considered to be part of the Dodecanese — islands such as Agathonissi, Arkioi Patmos, Leipsoi, Farmakonissi and Leros.

Who knows anything about Psara, a tiny island that was an unknown archaeological quantity until the 1960s, when S. Harotinidis, then ephor of antiquities, discovered a Mycenean acropolis at Palaiocastro, more commonly known as Mavri Rachi and made famous by the poet Dionysis Solomos.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:32 PM

Remains of a 13th century church discovered in Mechelen

Excavations in the city of Mechelen (prov. Antwerp) have revealed traces of a church building from the 13th century. At an earlier stage of the excavations the archaeologists had already unearthed more than 200 skeletons (1300-1450 AD), which will hopefully provide interesting information about the inhabitants of the abbey, which was built at this place around 1300. As the new discoveries are extremely important for the study of the earliest history of Mechelen, the archaeologists received the permission to continue their work for one more month.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:30 PM

Friday, January 27, 2006

Stone me!

An aspiring young archaeologist recently made a discovery of significant historical importance in her schoolyard.Laoise Mangan was out playing with her friends in the yard at St Brigid’s School in Greystones when she happened upon a curious looking stone.

Instinctively realising that there was something special about the object, Laoise promptly showed it to her teacher, Martin Dodd. Luckily for Laoise, Mr Dodd has a degree in archaeology and he also recognised that this was no ordinary stone.

Mr Dodd sent the mysterious object to a former lecturer of his, Dr Muiris O’Sullivan at UCD, who subsequently confirmed that the stone was used as a tool for scraping meat from animal hides in the Neolithic period – better known as the Bronze Age.
This means that the tool dates from around 2,000 BC - or from an astounding 4,000 years ago.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:29 AM

Two cremation burials found in Wevelgem

Since the beginning of this month archaeologists are investigating a terrain in Wevelgem (prov. Western Flanders). Not much archaeological research has been done in this area yet; aerial images, maps and historical sources didn't reveal much relevant information neither. In a first phase only a small amount of Iron Age material was unearthed. In the second phase, two cremation burials were found in the trenches. The archaeologists hope they get the permission to continue their work.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:27 AM

Time changes modern human's face

Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years.

Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors.

Writing in the British Dental Journal, the team took careful measurements of groups of skulls spanning across 30 generations.

The scientists said the differences between past and present skull shapes were "striking".

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:17 AM

Unearthing history in the heart of ancient Rome

A cremation tomb that has been identified as going back to the 11th or 10th century BC, long before Romulus and Remus appeared on the scene has been uncovered in the Roman forum.

"Looking down into the forums from Via dei Fori Imperiali on the way to Piazza Venezia, the well-tomb, a perfectly circular hole in the ground, lies just to the right of the senate house in the Forum of Caesar. This forum was the first to be built, carved out of a former saddle between the Quirinale and Capitoline hills in 46 BC, and is thus on top of the tomb, which is suspected to be the first trace of a whole yet undiscovered ancient necropolis in the area.

Speaking to reporters, a jubilant Eugenio La Rocca, head of the Rome council?s cultural heritage department, dated the tomb to somewhere between the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age. ?It was a real surprise to find rich furnishings inside it,? he exclaimed. The findings included a funeral urn and eight hand-worked, patterned vases in terracotta. They contained tiny bronze miniatures of weapons, and elsewhere what seemed t o be the bones of a bird, placed there, La Rocca presumed, to accompany the deceased on his journey to the beyond, as was the custom. The riches were found after first rolling back the tomb?s cover, a weighty round slab of tufa, and then removing its seal, a container in the stylised shape of a hut, a model akin to real huts found much later on the Palatine Hill.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:13 AM

The curse of Stonehenge will remain until it is handed back to the druids

This world heritage site is a national disgrace. Consultants have made millions but achieved nothing in 20 years

Simon Jenkins

West of Amesbury on the A303, the road dips and rises towards a meadow in the distance. In the meadow stands a clump of grey stones, looking like dominoes rearranged by a shell from the neighbouring artillery range. The clump is Britain's greatest stone-age monument.

Nobody can touch it. Stonehenge is cursed. I have bet every chairman of English Heritage - Lord Montagu, Sir Jocelyn Stevens and Sir Neil Cossons - that no plan of theirs to meddle with the stones will ever work. This week the latest tunnel proposal collapsed, following last year's rejection of a new visitor centre. The fate of the site is consigned to that Blairite neverland called "consultation", joining St Bart's and Crossrail among the living dead, projects which move only because they are maggot-ridden with costs.

I have attended many Stonehenge consultations. They are raving madhouses. The sanest people present are the pendragons, druids, warlocks, Harry Potters, sons of the sun and daughters of the moon.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:08 AM

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Greeks 'don't look after treasures'

The government should not return the Elgin Marbles to Athens because Greece has a lamentable record of caring for its Parthenon treasures, a leading archaeologist says in a new book.

"I think they have to start looking after what they have," said Dorothy King. "Most of the Parthenon sculpture in Athens isn't on display and hasn't been cared for."

The government's refusal to give back the treasures, known in Greece as the Parthenon marbles, has been a contentious issue in Anglo-Greek relations for nearly 200 years.

The series of statues and fragments were taken from the Parthenon temple in the early 19th century by British ambassador Lord Elgin who sold them to the British Museum.

Greeks see Elgin as a sinister figure, who bribed the then Ottoman authorities to raid the Acropolis and whisk away part of Greece's identity. Archaeologists restoring the Parthenon say his rushed operation caused great damage to the marble temple.

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:05 PM

HENGE PLAN CRITICS ATTACKED

Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman yesterday hit back at a groundswell of anger over the latest moves to return Stonehenge to its natural setting. Archaeologists, transport and countryside campaigners, and bodies such as the National Trust have all criticised a series of options announced by the Government to solve the ongoing Stonehenge saga.

Critics say that instead of coming up with "bold new schemes" to rescue the 4,500-year-old monument from its "shameful state" the Government had instead rehashed a bunch of tired old ideas.

But Mr Ladyman said they should be realistic if they really wanted to see the mystique and grandeur restored to Britain's best-loved prehistoric monument.

On Monday, he and Culture Minister David Lammy unveiled a series of options now being considered for Stonehenge Project.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:46 PM

HOPES OF REVIVAL FOR IRON AGE ATTRACTION

The Cinderbury dream could rise from the ashes thanks to a new business proposal to run the Iron Age Centre.

A new bidder has come forward to reopen the village, near Clearwell, as a tourist attraction, but to learn from the mistakes made last year. The village, which gave visitors a chance to get away from it all, throw away modern trappings and live off the land for a holiday or educational visit, shut down last month because there was no money left.

At the moment the new bidder wishes to remain anonymous, but the company in charge of marketing Cinderbury says it is "hopeful" for its future and believes it is close to concluding a deal.

Angie Petkovic, from APT Marketing, said: "There's a proposal which has been put forward and we're looking at it.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:44 PM

‘Bog bodies’ inspire a sense of wonderment

Our world has been celebrating the quality of human ingenuity in plotting the course of the Stardust space probe on the long years spent on its round trip to the farther ranges of the solar system. It is an amazing achievement for the science of astrophysics and for the exquisite technology that builds on the principles of that science.

With all these discoveries constantly coming on stream and mediated to us nightly on television we have lost the capacity for wonder. It all has had a dumbing down effect on the imagination. The findings of the space programmes pass over us like a series of episodes in science fiction. They are simply outside our range of perception.

It takes something closer to home with a more human dimension to set us thinking and imagining. We can then focus on what is presented and relate to it personally. This was the effect of the publicity following on the discovery of two bog bodies in Meath and Offaly.

They are known as Clonycavan Man and Old Croghan Man from the places where they were found. Carbon dating fixes their time of living at around 2,300 years ago. They are relics of the Iron Age in Ireland.

(Requires free registration)

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:43 PM

Scholarly study on finds from island of Keros

They are the pieces to a puzzle that archaeologists have not completely deciphered. Around 350 fragments of ancient Cycladic figurines as well as shards of ceramic or marble vases unearthed since the 1960s in the area of Kavos on the island of Keros have been dispersed all over the world.

Of the 1,400 Cycladic figurines that have survived to today, the finds from Keros form a substantial part of the documented material. More than 50 percent of the total number is of unknown provenance, the outcome of looting and illicit export. Around 150 objects found on Keros used to be part of the Erlenmeyer collection which its owners decided to auction off in 1990. The Museum of Cycladic Art, in collaboration with the Commercial Bank of Greece, acquired 76 pieces from this collection, thus helping to repatriate important antiquities of early Cycladic culture.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:42 PM

Vikings filed their teeth, not their nails

Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they probably had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden.

Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board and colleagues analysed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from 800 to 1050 AD.

She discovered that 22 of the men bore deep, horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.

"The marks are traces of deliberate dental modifications ... they are so well-made that most likely they were filed by a person of great skill," Arcini writes in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, a journal of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:41 PM

DNA helps solve mysterious murder case

French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing was that the woman died half a millennium ago.

The skeleton of a woman in her thirties was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h. A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.

Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail. A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.

Eventually radiocarbon dating established that the death had occurred between 1401 and 1453.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:39 PM

Getty Trust board member resigns from post amid controversy

A trustee of the J. Paul Getty Trust whose donated collection to the museum included a stolen ancient Roman sculpture has resigned, officials said.

The board of trustees accepted the resignation Wednesday of wealthy art collector Barbara G. Fleischman, who had been a board member since 2000.

"It has been my pleasure to work with the gifted and dedicated people in the Research and Conservation Institutes, the Getty Foundation and the museum elements of the Getty Trust. Their work is splendid and significant, and I salute them," Fleischman said in a statement.

The board thanked Fleischman for her support and for substantial contributions she and her late husband, Lawrence, had made to the museum.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:38 PM

Neandertals Hunted as Well as Humans, Study Says

Through the years dozens of theories have sprung up about why Neandertals (often spelled "Neanderthals") went extinct approximately 30,000 years ago.

Those heavy-browed, big-boned hominids who inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years may have met their demise for any number of reasons.

Perhaps they were cognitively limited or couldn't adapt to a changing climate or weren't good enough hunters to compete with modern humans. (See an interactive atlas of the human journey.)

Now a team of U.S. and Israeli anthropologists working at the Ortvale Klde Rockshelter, a significant Neanderthal-modern human site in the republic of Georgia, has helped to dispel one such hunch.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:50 AM

Fulston Manor - Latest discoveries

Recent excavations at Fulston Manor in Kent, in advance of a new road, have revealed yet more about this fascinating area. Previous excavations by Wessex Archaeology led to the discovery of a medieval bakery. Now the history of the site has been traced back even further. The earliest find is a pot dated to the Middle Bronze Age, some 3,300 years ago. Iron Age finds show that people were still using this landscape 2,500 years ago. We know this from the presence of pottery and field boundaries. Most interesting of all, slag produced during iron smelting suggests that iron was being worked somewhere very close by at this time. We also know that people continued to live here into the Romano-British period as we have found traces of the boundaries around their fields.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:37 AM

How Immigration Destroyed Rome (Excerpt)

Oxford historian Peter Heather has reexamined the fall of Rome. His new book, The Fall of the Roman Empire, holds many lessons for today.
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, by Peter Heather (New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 572 pages, hardcover.

By the time the Roman Empire in the West died in 476 A.D., the empire had lasted something on the order of 500 years. But the government of Rome was far older. Rome itself had been founded, mythically by Romulus and Remus, in 753 B.C., and archaeological information confirms that some occupancy of the area did in fact begin at about that time. The justly famous Roman Republic, the forerunner of the empire, was itself founded in 510 B.C. when the last king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, was overthrown by Junius Brutus. From that point until the empire replaced the republic, two Consuls, each elected to office for a one-year term, would rule Rome. Altogether, then, Rome was a dominant power on the world stage for more than 1,000 years. Its collapse in 476 was a historical change of colossal proportions.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:35 AM

Norwich cathedrals get £50,000 funding

Norwich's two cathedrals are celebrating grants from English Heritage.

The Anglican Cathedral and St John the Baptist Roman Catholic Cathedral are among 25 cathedrals in the country to benefit from the total £1m package.

Henry Freeland, Norwich Cathedral architect, said the £26,000 would be spent on repairs.

He said: "We are grateful to receive a grant for vital work in the cloisters to upgrade the ground drainage system and to remove harmful concrete paving that has been contributing to decay in the decorative stonework of the cloisters.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:34 AM

Town dig unearths medieval past

One of the largest archaeological digs undertaken on Teesside has provided experts with new insight into medieval life in the area.

The dig is part of a multi-million pound project to create a new town square at Hartlepool's Headland.

The excavation is the largest seen in the Headland area in 20 years.

Experts say they are delighted with the finds so far, which include a row of medieval properties, pots and relics of iron smelting.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:33 AM

Medieval Cemetery Yields 1,300 Skeletons

A large medieval cemetery containing around 1,300 skeletons has been discovered in the central English city of Leicester, archaeologists said Tuesday.
The bones were found during a dig before the site is developed as part of a 350 million-pound ($630 million) shopping mall.

University of Leicester archaeologists say the find promises to shed new light on the way people lived and died in the Middle Ages.

"We think, probably outside London, this must be one of the largest parish graveyards ever excavated,'' said Richard Buckley, director of University of Leicester Archaeology Services.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:29 AM

Cathedrals receive vital funding

Three London cathedrals are to share a £60,000 grant from English Heritage towards repair and maintenance work.
They are Southwark Cathedral, St George's Cathedral in Southwark, south London, and Westminster Cathedral.

The funding is part of £1m in hand-outs from English Heritage to 25 cathedrals around the country.

Since the funding scheme for cathedrals was launched in 1991, some £41m has been spent on some of England's most historic buildings.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:28 AM

British skeleton could unearth Medieval mysteries

A medieval cemetery containing about 1,300 skeletons has been discovered in the central English city of Leicester, archeologists said Tuesday.

The bones were found during a dig at a site being developed as part of a shopping mall, to cost about $725-million.

University of Leicester archeologists say the find promises to shed new light on the way people lived and died in the Middle Ages.

“We think, probably outside London, this must be one of the largest parish graveyards ever excavated,” said Richard Buckley, director of University of Leicester Archaeology Services.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:26 AM

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Securing an important part of our heritage

The gardens of John Rothe, a wealthy Kilkenny merchant, remain in outline at the rear of Rothe House, Parliament Street and stretch back to the City Wall at Tilbury Place.

The Rothe gardens are known to have contained an orchard, a well, a raised terrace adjoining the City Wall, and an ornamental building, possibly a dovecote.

There are also likely to have been formal planting beds of herbs, flowers and vegetables, and espaliered fruit trees and arbors.

Relatively little is known about urban medieval gardens in Ireland at this time, and this is what makes the gardens at Rothe House so unique.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:27 PM

Kristine Magerman - De Gallo-Romeinse munten van Asse

Als pas afgestudeerde archeologe gaf Kristine Magerman op de voorbije Romeinendag een overzicht van de Gallo-Romeinse munten uit Asse en Kester. Aan de hand van losse munt-vondsten besprak ze de opname van deze nederzettingen in de muntcirculatie en bijgevolg de markteconomie van de Romeinen. Voor ArcheoNet geeft Kristine aan de hand van recente vondsten een update van deze gegevens.

(Contains a picture of the coin)

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:24 PM

FIREFIGHTER STRIKES GOLD

A Yeovil firefighter has struck gold after being given the go ahead to sell six Elizabethan silver coins he found in a Cotswold field to a museum. At a treasure trove a coroner confirmed the coins, found by Ian James, matched the criteria to be treasure because of their age and silver content.

As a result of the ruling, the coins will now go to a valuation committee who will set a price that the museum must pay.

Mr James has a strong interest in metal detecting and was out with his metal detector on Ruth Jenner's Chesterton Farm - part of the Bathurst Estate at Cirencester - when he discovered the silver coins in November 2004.

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# posted by David Beard @ 5:11 PM

LIFE OF AVERAGE JOE IN MEDIEVAL TIMES

Bones of 1,300 medieval people were found buried in Leicester. David Owen looks at the life of ordinary people living in the town 1,000 years ago

Medieval life was a fight for survival, of hard graft and dangers that meant not many townspeople would see old age.

In the area of what is now St Peter's Lane, in Leicester, the streets were busy, with traders selling goods and women making clothes.

Nearby, next to St Peter's Church, was a cemetery where many of those hardworking men and women would be buried.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:57 PM

Der letzte Bruder

Vor 150 Jahren wurde der Neandertaler entdeckt. Nun wird er gefeiert. Wie waren unsere Verwandten?

Ralf Schmitz erinnert sich noch genau an den Tag, an dem er den Frevel beging. An diesem Morgen im Sommer 1996 entriegelte der Vorgeschichtsforscher einen massiven Stahlschrank, zog einen der kostbarsten Kulturschätze Deutschlands heraus und befahl der Präparatorin Heike Krainitzki, das Kleinod auseinander zu sägen.

Ein »ziemlich eigenartiges Gefühl« habe ihn beschlichen, gesteht Schmitz, als sich Krainitzkis sterilisierte Goldschmiedesäge in den fossilen Neandertaler-Knochen fraß. »Das Stück ist schließlich eine Ikone der deutschen Archäologie.« Er selbst, berichtet Schmitz, habe den herausgetrennten Block in ein keimfreies Plastikröhrchen gesteckt, eigenhändig im Auto nach München gefahren und dem Molekulargenetiker Svante Pääbo zur Prüfung übergeben. Zwölf Monate später, im Juli 1997, meldete das Fachblatt Cell eine Sensation auf der Titelseite: "Neandertals not our ancestors". Nach Pääbos Erbanalyse waren die Neandertaler, jenes rätselhafte Volk europäischer Ureinwohner, nicht etwa unsere Vorfahren, sondern bestenfalls entfernte Verwandte.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:37 PM

Archaeologists reveal chapel where Henry VIII married his wives

A pavement once paced by Henry VII, and his son Henry VIII, at least two of his unfortunate wives, and his daughters Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor, has emerged from under a car park at the Royal Hospital in Greenwich, south London.

The pavement is part of a royal chapel believed completely destroyed by centuries of later re-building at Greenwich. Although only grubby smears remain of their original smart black and white glazing, the tiles, with a border in an elaborate lozenge pattern, are in remarkably good condition. They mark the site of the altar in the chapel Henry VII built at his palace of Placentia, between 1500 and 1504.

Unlike the bloodsoaked history of other residences which doubled as prisons (like the Tower of London), Placentia, the pleasant place, in clean riverside air far from the stink of London, was a palace for pleasure and entertainment. It became the birthplace of Henry VIII and favourite of all his royal homes. He married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, and, three wives later, Anne of Cleves in a private apartment above the chapel.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:38 AM

Neolithic Europeans Made Cheese, Yogurt

Dirty cooking pots dating to nearly 8,000 years ago reveal that some of Europe's earliest farming communities produced dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt.

Two separate studies indicate that Neolithic dairying took place in what are now Romania, Hungary and Switzerland.

The discoveries suggest people in these regions might have originally learned how to process milk-based foods from Asian farmers.

"From a diffusionist perspective, these findings lend support to the idea that the antiquity of dairying lies with the origins of animal domestication in southwest Asia some two millennia earlier, prior to its transmission to Europe in the seventh millennia B.C., rather than it being a later and entirely European innovation," wrote Oliver Craig, a scientist at Tor Vergata University in Rome, and colleagues in the first study published in the journal Antiquity.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:35 AM

Medieval fireplace found behind seven others

Crumbling layers spanning hundreds of years were removed in an ancient Chichester building close to the cathedral to reveal a 14th century fireplace complete with bread oven.

The remains of seven other fireplaces had to be taken out, enabling a skilful restoration of the original one to be started, with the help of material discovered around it.

The discovery was made during a major refurbishment and expansion of the popular cathedral restaurant, in the cloisters.

A new shop, replacing the current one underneath the bell tower, is being created next to the restaurant in a former house once occupied by cathedral canons, which is where the fireplace was found.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:34 AM

Lost treasures of Constantinople test Turkey's 21st-century ambition

£2bn train tunnel linking Europe to Asia faces delays as dig unearths 5th-century port

Deep in the soft black earth beneath the cleared slum tenements of old Istanbul, Metin Gokcay points to neatly stacked and labelled crates heaped with shattered crockery. "That's mostly old mosaics and old ceramics," said the Istanbul city archaeologist. "And over there we found bones and coins."

Looking at huge slabs of limestone emerging from a depth of more than 7 metres (25ft) below ground, he adds: "That's late Roman, this is early Byzantine. This tunnel here is very interesting. Perhaps Constantine's mother had her palace over there."

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:30 AM

Excavations to resume in ancient city of Tralleis

ARTICLE SUMMARY
Professor Abdullah Yaylalı of Adnan Menderes University’s archaeology department has announced that excavations will resume in the ancient city of Tralleis.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:27 AM

Scientists solve puzzle of death of Pericles

The cause of the plague of Athens in 430BC, which devastated the city and killed up to one-third of the population, including its leader, Pericles, was typhoid fever, scientists believe. Doctors and historians have long speculated about the nature of the disease, which precipitated the end of the golden age of Athens, from the account given by Thucydides. Ebola fever, anthrax, tuberculosis and lassa fever have been suggested as candidates.

"The profound disagreement on the cause of the plague has been due to the lack of definite microbiological or palaeopathological evidence," write Manolis Papagrigorakis of the dental school at the University of Athens, and colleagues. But the discovery of a mass grave dating from the time of the epidemic appears to have solved the mystery.

The Greek scientists, writing in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, describe how they removed teeth from the human remains and analysed the DNA they contained to find traces of the infection which killed so many Athenians trapped in a city surrounded on land by Spartans and relying on its navy's control of the sea through the port of Piraeus.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:25 AM

Archaeologists Launch Live Online Workshops on the Greek and Roman World to Coincide with 2006 Winter Olympics

Live online courses taught by experienced archaeologists allow learners to explore the Greek and Roman world from a new perspective. Both home schooled and traditional students, as well as adults and hobbyists, will be able to investigate the origins of the Olympics and other topics in a series of 4-week workshops. Instructors use an interdisciplinary approach that integrates history, archaeology, art, ancient literature and other disciplines.

Holly Springs, NC (PRWEB) January 24, 2006 -- Secondary school students and adults looking for new perspectives on the Greek and Roman world can now learn from experienced archaeologists online. A live, online 4-week workshop that examines the origins of the Olympics is just one of several workshops that will be offered when The Lukeion Project begins its Spring session in February.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:23 AM

Henry VII's chapel found at Greenwich

As muddy holes go, they don't get much more romantic. Beneath four feet of heavy south London clay, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of Henry VII's lost chapel at Greenwich.

The site is where he and a host of his Tudor successors - Henry VIII, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I - worshipped.

The existence of the chapel, part of the Royal Palace of Placentia, a Tudor favourite but pulled down in the 17th century to be replaced by Greenwich Hospital - now the Old Naval College - has long been known from paintings and records.

But until a bulldozer's bucket scraped against brickwork a month ago, no physical evidence of the chapel had ever been discovered.

Careful scratching away by a team of four archaeologists from the Museum of London has revealed the eastern walls of the chapel, a 10ft by 5ft section of floor made from black and white glazed tiles laid geometrically, and, beneath, a so-far unexplored vault.

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:49 AM

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

NEW STONEHENGE TRAFFIC PROPOSALS MEET WITH FIERCE CRITICISM

New government proposals for reducing traffic congestion around Stonehenge have been criticised by archaeological groups and the National Trust.

The proposals were outlined on January 23 2006 after the cost of a previous scheme to create a 2.1 kilometre tunnel soared to £510 million.

The new plans include a scheme that would install new roads either to the north or south of the site, a ‘cut and cover’ tunnel past Stonehenge or an option featuring the closure of the nearby A344 and construction of the Winterbourne Stoke Bypass.

But the National Trust, which manages the land around the site, has responded with fierce criticism of the new plans.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:50 PM

Study: Viking Teeth Were Groovy

Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they likely had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden.

Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board analyzed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from between 800 and 1050 A.D. They discovered that 22 of the men bore deep, horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.

"The marks are traces of deliberate dental modifications ... they are so well-made that most likely they were filed by a person of great skill," Arcini wrote in the current issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Traces of teeth mutilation have been found in all parts of the world except Europe, with the practice reaching its peak from 700 to 1400 A.D., during the height of the Viking Age.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:47 PM

Medieval moat wins facelift cash

One of north Worcestershire's most important ecological and archaeological sites is to be restored thanks to the hard work of residents.

Moons Moat in Redditch was neglected and overgrown until a group of people started to clean it up.

A conservation group was formed and now the 14th Century landmark is to be spruced up and enjoyed once more.

The group has won its bid for £24,000 from a local heritage scheme to excavate it and restore it to glory.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:45 PM

PILGRIMAGE EXPLORES RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS AT THE ASHMOLEAN

In showing us objects and documents from the past, museums help us understand the present. So when a museum designs an event to ask pertinent questions of our time, and even attempts to help solve some of the problems we face, the result can be very special.

Pilgrimage – The Sacred Journey, running at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from January 11 – April 2 2006, was developed in response to the events of 9/11 and our current problems of extremism and isolation within religious traditions.

It is the first exhibition in a new series presented by the Ashmolean Inter-Faith Exhibition Service (AIFES) and explores the role of pilgrimage in Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the religions of South Asia.

The exhibition aims to show the differences between faiths, and similarities within their religious experiences, through displaying items of their artistic heritage and traditions.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:42 PM

NATURAL STONE WEATHERING DATABASE PROJECT

The Environment Minister Jeff Rooker has launched the Natural Stone Weathering database project.

The Minister said: "This is a first for Northern Ireland and it will make a great contribution to the sustainable management of our built heritage."

The Project is funded by the Environment and Heritage Service through the EU Building Sustainable Prosperity Programme and is being carried out by a partnership between Consarc Design Group and Queen's University Belfast.

Natural stone has a long history of use on buildings and monuments throughout Northern Ireland. There is a wide variety of stone types used and when first constructed, local availability of materials dictated what to use. This has given each area its distinctive character of built heritage, for example, granite is widely used in the Mourne region while basalt provides much of the stone used in Co Antrim.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:41 PM

HUGE GRAVE SITE IS FOUND

Archaeologists have discovered the skeletons of 1,300 people in a Medieval cemetery.

Experts believe the discovery, in the city centre, is the largest of its kind outside London.

The site was uncovered at the former St Margaret's Baths site, in St Peter's Lane, which is being redeveloped as part of the £350 million Shires extension.

Archaeologists said the finds would vastly improve their understanding of everyday life in Medieval Leicester.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:34 PM

Monday, January 23, 2006

£30m bid to save castle by giving mountains away

A deal that could lead to a clan chief giving an iconic mountain range to the nation in return for having his crumbling castle repaired is the subject of a £30 million bid for National Lottery funding.

The application is one of the biggest submitted and, if successful, it will bring the rugged Black Cuillin mountains on the Isle of Skye into community ownership.

A major tourist attraction and a popular challenge for climbers, they are owned by John MacLeod of MacLeod, the 29th chief of his clan.

He caused an outcry six years ago when he tried to sell the mountains for £10 million to raise the money needed to fix damage caused by the leaking roof on his ancestral home, Dunvegan Castle.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:32 PM

Italians Unveil Secret of Bulgaria's Precious Thracian Head

Italy's restorers have unveiled the secret hidden in the eyes of King Sevt III's unique bronze mask discovered in Bulgaria, archeologist Georgi Kitov has said.

The sculptors who have worked on the mask probably knew a lot about chemistry too, Kitov was quoted as saying by actualno.com.

Italian restorer Edilberto Formili has discovered that the eyes of the unique Thracian mask were made from a glass paste mixed with alabaster and iron, which produced the brownish tint in Sevt III's look. The bottoms of the eyeballs were painted in red, which was also restored so that they look more natural, Kitov added.

Before the restoration, archaeologists in Bulgaria thought that Sevt III's eyes were made of ivory, but that turned out wrong, Kitov said.

The unique bronze head will be displayed in Italy from February 14 until mid-May. Upon its return, Bulgarian restorers, who have taken up the bronze parts, will complete the renovation.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:29 PM

Five options for Stonehenge roads listed

The government published five options for road schemes around the ancient monument of Stonehenge on Monday, including a tunnel under the site rejected as too expensive last year.

The circular monument of massive stones in Wiltshire lies between two busy roads, one carrying up to 33,000 vehicles a day.

Conservationists and government agencies responsible for the site have for years been seeking a way of reducing or diverting the traffic to improve the monument's immediate surroundings.

Built between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC as a temple, burial ground, astronomical calendar or all three, the stone circle has been described as "Britain's pyramids".

Tourists are drawn to Stonehenge throughout the year and on the summer solstice -- the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere -- up to 30,000 revellers and druids converge there for a night of celebration.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:28 PM

Stonehenge road 'a risk to birds'

Alternatives to an underground road tunnel at Stonehenge could threaten the recovery of one of Britain's rarest birds, the RSPB has warned.

The society said proposals for two overground routes would destroy nesting and roosting sites of the stone curlew, which only has two UK strongholds.

It said the plans would also harm prospects for more than 25 other bird species and 14 butterfly species.

The Highways Agency has raised its estimate of tunnelling costs to £480m.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:27 PM

Stonehenge Tunnel U-Turn Would Wipe Out Birds

One of Britain's rarest birds faces being wiped out if plans to build a road tunnel near Stonehenge are scrapped by the Government, campaigners have warned.

Two over-ground alternatives to the tunnel, set to be detailed in consultation documents due today (Monday), would destroy nesting and roosting sites of the secretive stone curlew at the ancient site on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.

Stone curlew numbers plummeted after World War Two because of modern farming methods, but last year the species reached a national recovery target five years early.

The bird has two UK strongholds, one of which is the area surrounding the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The new road plans would also harm prospects for more than 25 other bird species and at least 14 types of butterfly.

One hundred and three pairs of the shy, nocturnal stone curlew nested in Wessex last summer, on Salisbury Plain, Porton Down and Normanton Down - a third of the UK population.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:26 PM

Ancient furnace sparks archaeological interest

A UNIQUE site in the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean and expected to shed more light on ancient copper mining has been uncovered in the Mathiatis area, about 20km south of Nicosia.

It consists of the base of a copper smelting furnace with its last charge of slag still in place.

The discovery was made by students participating in an educational research programme in cooperation with Inter Community School Cyprus Project 2005, under the direction of Dr Walter Fasnacht. The participants from the staff of the Department of Antiquities were G. Georgiou, archaeologist, and E Christophi, technician.

The furnace part was treated and restored in the conservation workshop of the Cyprus Museum, where it is now exhibited.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:23 PM

Sunday, January 22, 2006

A Minoan settlement after destruction by earthquakes

Earthquakes were responsible for the destruction of a Minoan settlement on the island of Karpathos. That was the conclusion drawn following excavations conducted last year at Fournoi Afiatis on Karpathos under the direction of Manolis Melas, a professor of archaeology. The dig was part of a research program by the Dimokritio University of Thrace.

The ceramic fragments scattered about the fields facing the buildings and stratigraphic data showed that the area to the northeast of the settlement was first used in the Minoan palatial era.

But the excavation revealed that some 2,000 years later, at the end of the Late Roman period, the area was again in use.

The dig began in 2001 and uncovered the remains of stone foundations and the floors of two houses and also of farm walls from the same period.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:46 PM

Campaign group makes henges call

HERITAGE campaign group, TimeWatch has called for international support in the battle to save the Thornborough Henges from the threat of quarrying nearby.
Quarry company Tarmac Northern Ltd was granted a delay to the planning process while it carried out further archaeological investigations at its proposed quarry site at Ladybridge Farm, half a mile from the triple henge complex.

These have now been completed and there is a new consultation process ahead of the the North Yorkshire County Council planning meeting on February 21 which will determine the firm’s application.

"As a result of Tarmac's latest work, English Heritage have confirmed that the proposals will destroy archaeology of national importance," said TimeWatch chairman George Chaplin this week. "This has vindicated our position and proves the area needs to be regarded as part of the setting of the Thornborough Henges complex".

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See also ...

There is currently a planning application and the consultation period ends
on 3rd February.

If you would like to help by writing a letter please contact:
info@timewatch.org

# posted by David Beard @ 1:17 PM

Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology

Meeting of the UK Chapter
Archaeology, University of Southampton
March 30th and 31st 2006

The CAA UK chapter is intended as a forum for research in the area of
archaeological computing and quantitative methods. The chapter meeting
aims to facilitate exchange of ideas between researchers and cultural
resource managers, and is particularly focussed on the presentation of
new and innovative research areas. The meeting organisers are also
particularly keen to encourage new researchers to present their work for
the first time. We hope to be able to offer bursaries for student
participants.

Further Details ...

# posted by David Beard @ 1:13 PM

Time Team

5:55pm - 6:50pm
Channel 4

"I've got some skull here, but it's pretty smashed," says the burial expert as our gang of archaeologists starts delving at Glendon Hall in Northamptonshire. It proves to be a grisly dig: human remains turn up dotted around the house and grounds, sometimes layered three-deep, presenting the team with a tough challenge to determine who lived (and died) there - and when. Luckily, these guys really know their stuff. You have to love the way they can pull a grubby little chunk of pottery out of the earth and know instantly it's from a 12th-century jug handle or a Roman burial urn - and not, say, an Ikea plant pot. That's one of the joys of this series - returning tonight - as are the revealing graphics and the sense of past lives momentarily emerging from the shadows.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:10 PM

Europe bids to halt tide of art smuggled to America

Court cases aim to break the billion-pound global trade in stolen antiquities that end up with wealthy US collectors and museums

A series of legal actions has been launched by European governments to regain priceless works of art which they claim have been illegally smuggled to America to be sold off to wealthy collectors and museums.

One of the highest profile cases is in France, where what has been dubbed 'The Affair of the Hebrew Manuscripts' is reaching its climax. The case centres on Michel Garel, a specialist in ancient documents at the National Library in Paris, who is alleged to have systematically pillaged medieval religious texts to satisfy a demand from America. One manuscript, a 600-year-old French Hebrew version of the biblical books of the Pentateuch, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and the Lessons of the Prophets, has been traced to a New York collector who bought it for £200,000 at Christie's. Garel, who maintains his innocence, is to appear before a French court on theft charges.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:04 PM

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Archaeological Study Tour to Germany

27 May to 2 June 2006

An archaeological study tour to Germany based in Trier and including visits to Aachen, Köln, Lorscj, Speyer, Worms and Mainz.

Further details are available here …

# posted by David Beard @ 5:26 PM

Archaeological Study Tour to the Lake District

13 to 19 April 2006

An EMAS archaeological study tour to the Lake District.

Further details are available here …

# posted by David Beard @ 5:24 PM

Get a Trowel!

In recent years it has become increasingly difficult to finds shops selling good quality trowels that are fit for archaeological work.

Many shops sell cheap, shoddily-made trowels that may be good enough for a weekend’s light DIY, but that certainly won’t stand up to the rigours of archaeological excavation.

Now, a group of archaeologists have created a website to help you get a trowel.
You can reach the Getatrowel site from the logo in the side bar, or from the link below.

http://www.getatrowel.co.uk/

# posted by David Beard @ 4:49 PM

German paper reports world’s oldest temple is in Şanlıurfa

One of Germany's leading newspapers, Die Welt, reported this week that the world's oldest temple, dating back around 12,000 years, is located on Göbekli Hill in Turkey's province of Şanlıurfa, said the Anatolia news agency.

According to an article titled “Holy Hill of the Hunters,” the temple was discovered by German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, standing around 15 meters in height and located on a hill upon which a single tree stands.

Defining the area as the “cradle of civilization,” the paper said local people considered the lone tree a “will tree” and that this tradition was not so surprising since the temple was one of the most important sacred places of ancient times.

Indicating that previously a 9,000-year-old temple in Jordan was considered to be the world's oldest, the article said, “Some parts of ancient history should be rewritten after this discovery.”

(Free registration may be required to read this article)

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:47 PM

Neolithic axe head uncovered in Lancashire

History has been rewritten in Barnoldswick (East Lancashire, England) after a Neolithic axe head – dating back 6,000 years – was uncovered. Father and son Chris and Jordan Green were walking along Brogden Lane looking for Roman coins when they made their find, which has since been verified by the British Museum. The fact that people were living in the area back in 4000 BCE stunned the pair, as like most people they had always been led to believe that the first settlers in the area arrived in Anglo Saxon times in the days of Bernulfsuuick.

Mr Green is very keen on historical artefacts, but admits he had no idea when he picked up the 'stone' that it would turn out to have such a historical significance for the area. "It was just another stone to me, but Jordan recognised the axe from the cutting edge," he said. The 11-year-old has never studied the Neolithic age at school, but he was so determined he was right in his identification that his dad took the axe head home and sent photographs of it to the British Museum. A curator there not only confirmed its authenticity, but was also able to tell the pair that the axe was around 6,000 years old and that the grey-green rock it was made from probably came from Great Langdale in the Lake District where rock was quarried extensively by Neolithic people.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:45 PM

Schoolgirl finds Bronze Age tool in playground

Second class pupil at St Brigid's National School in Greystones (co. Wicklow, Ireland), Laoise Mangan (9), in the summer months of last year, she discovered an odd looking stone on the ground while walking in the school yard. She brought the stone into her then teacher, Mr Martin Dodd, who, luckily, just happened to have a degree in Archaeology. Mr Dodd forwarded it to an acquaintance of his, Dr Muiris O'Sullivan, at the Department of Archaeology in U.C.D. To Laoise's surprise, the school received word shortly before Christmas that the stone dated from the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age (2000 BCE), and was most probably used as a tool for scraping meat from animal hides.

Laoise is reportedly thrilled with her find, which has now been dubbed, 'Laoise's special stone' by teachers at St Brigid's. "Can you imagine it? It was so lucky. If she had brought it in to any other teacher they probably would have just thrown it away," said Mary Beausang, a teacher at St. Brigid's. "Now we have dozens of pupils bringing stones in from the yard to Mr Dodd for examination...and we will always check with him before we ask them to put them back in the yard!" she said.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:43 PM

Necropolis tomb hailed as milestone find

Rome - Archaeologists said Friday they have spied what appears to be the roof of another tomb in a 3000-year-old necropolis, the latest discovery about a little-known, hut-dwelling people who preceded the legendary founders of Rome by some three centuries.

Archaeologist Alessandro Delfino said the roof is just meters away from a tomb he discovered and dug up on Thursday that appears to date to about 1 000 BC. The location was under Caesar's Forum, which is part of the sprawling complex of Imperial Forums in the heart of modern Rome.

Thursday's find set off a storm of excitement among archaeologists in Rome, as they anticipate a possible treasure trove of artifacts and architecture that could greatly enlarge knowledge about that period, which roughly straddles the transition from Bronze to Iron ages.

Finding another tomb could "indicate the existence of a series of tombs that were built well before the city's foundation," Delfino said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:41 PM

Secret of ancient Athens plague is being unraveled

Kerameikos, Athens’s ancient cemetery, has yielded conclusive evidence as to the nature of the plague that decimated a third of the population of the ancient city and influenced the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars. Scientists at Athens University’s School of Dentistry have used molecular biology to help solve the riddle of one of history’s biggest mysteries.

Recent findings from a mass grave in the Ancient Cemetery of Kerameikos in central Athens show typhoid fever may have caused the plague of Athens, ending centuries of speculation about what kind of disease killed a third of the city’s population and contributed to the end of its Golden Age.

Examined by a group of Greek scientists coordinated by Dr Manolis Papagrigorakis of Athens University’s School of Dentistry, the findings provide clear evidence that Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi was present in the dental pulp of teeth recovered in remains from the mass grave.

The plague that decimated the population of Athens in 430-426 BC was a deciding factor in the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars, ending the Golden Age of Pericles and Athens’s predominance in the Mediterranean.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:40 PM

School dig uncovers Roman grave

A Roman grave has been uncovered during building works at a school in Cheddar in Somerset.

Construction of the new IT block at the Kings of Wessex School was paused when the skeleton was found during digging of a gas main.

Experts believe it be of a man aged about 50, who was buried in a coffin and was probably a pagan.

County council archaeologist, Steven Membery, described the discovery as a "really significant find."

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:39 PM

Iron Age 'David Beckham' unmasked

Scientists at Dundee University have helped to recreate the face of a man dubbed the Iron Age David Beckham because of evidence he gelled his hair.

Clonycavan Man, named after the area he was found, was one of two bodies discovered in a peat bog in the Republic of Ireland in 2003.

The chemical composition of the peat mummified the body, enabling scientists to recreate his face.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:37 PM

Tomb discovered under Roman Forum

Site dates back hundreds of years before Rome’s founding

Archaeologists digging beneath the Roman Forum have discovered a 3,000-year-old tomb that predates the birth of ancient Rome by several hundred years.

State TV Thursday night showed an excavation team removing vases from the tomb, which resembled a deep well.

Archaeologists were excavating under the level of the ancient forum, a popular tourist site, when they dug up the tomb, which they suspect is part of an entire necropolis, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.

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# posted by David Beard @ 4:36 PM

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Ladybridge Farm, Nosterfield. Report on an Archaeological Investigation

Last Friday NYCC published Tarmac's report regarding the latest
investigations at Ladybridge and a new consultation period started that will
end on 3rd February 2006

Read the report...

See also ...

# posted by David Beard @ 8:11 AM

Ahead of the game

New study reveals Neanderthals were as good at hunting as early modern humans

The disappearance of Neanderthals is frequently attributed to competition from modern humans, whose greater intelligence has been widely supposed to make them more efficient as hunters. However, a new study forthcoming in the February issue of Current Anthropology argues that the hunting practices of Neanderthals and early modern humans were largely indistinguishable, a conclusion leading to a different explanation, also based on archaeological data, to explain the disappearance of the Neanderthals. This study has important implications for debates surrounding behavioral evolution and the practices that eventually allowed modern humans like ourselves to displace other closely-related species.

"Each population was equally and independently capable of acquiring and exploiting critical information pertaining to animal availability and behavior," write the anthropologists, from the University of Connecticut, University of Haifa, Hebrew University, and Harvard University.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:04 AM

Hair-gelled Celt may have been sacrificed

THE hair-gelled head of an ancient Celt, dubbed the Iron Age Beckham because of his slicked-back look, has been reconstructed by Scots scientists.

Examinations of the Clonycavan man, found fully preserved in a peat bog in Ireland, revealed he used a gel made from a mixture of plant oil and pine resin, believed to be from south-west France or Spain, on his hair.

The discovery has been held up as the first evidence of the trade of luxury goods between Ireland and Southern Europe 2,500 years ago.

Archaeologists suggest the gel may have been applied in an attempt to increase the man's diminutive stature - he was only 5ft 2in tall.

Now a team of scientists at the University of Dundee has reconstructed the Iron Age face from the man's preserved remains, and Dr Caroline Wilkinson, a forensic anthropologist, said that the discovery of the primitive hair product was one of the more "surprising" finds of the project.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:03 AM

Ancient 'Cyclops' wall collapses

Part of a massive wall started in around 600 BC around the central Italian town of Amelia collapsed on Wednesday morning for reasons still unclear .

The so-called Polygonal walls around Amelia are famous not only for their age but also their size. Built out of huge polygonal stones, they are 8-10 metres high and about 3.5 metres thick .

The 20-metre section of wall which collapsed was undergoing restoration work in recent weeks although activity had been suspended for a few days because of bad weather .

Central Italy recorded record rainfall in December, a fact which experts are taking into account as they study the broken section .

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:40 AM

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

No reason to alter M3 route, council argues

Irish Times
Wed, Jan 18, 06


The proposed route of the M3 motorway near the Hill of Tara was chosen
after extensive public consultation involving some 4,000 people and
culminating in a 28-day oral hearing by An Bord Pleanála, after which
the route was approved, the High Court was told yesterday.

There was no basis to alter that route unless a national monument was
discovered, and no such discovery had been made, Paul Gallagher SC, for
Meath County Council, said.

The route would be no more visible from the Hill of Tara than the
existing N3, and the visual impact of the motorway would be reduced by
landscaping works.

Mr Gallagher said the proposed route would not adversely affect the
national monument which is the Hill of Tara, and none of 38 sites
discovered during archaeological works along the route had been found
by any archaeologist to be national monuments.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:02 PM

Remote sensing archaeology research at NASA

The Remote Sensing Archaeology Research at NASA Web site presents illustrative examples of remote sensing technologies to archaeological research. Remote sensing archaeology uses technological tools to explore ground features from a distance. This branch of archaeology includes aerial and satellite photography. NASA has pioneered the use of satellite photography in archaeology and has carried out detailed research on a few Mesoamerican sites. The Web site introduces remote sensing technologies, including: Colour Infrared Film (CIR); Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS); Airborne Oceanographic Lidar (ADI); Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR); Microwave Radar; and others.

(Humbul Humanities Hub)

Visit the site ...

# posted by David Beard @ 11:46 AM

Bulgarian Church Gets Hefty UNESCO Sum

Bulgaria's unique Boyana Church will receive USD 25 000 from UNESCO for repair after last summer's floods.

That has been announced by the organization's director-general, Koichiro Matsuura, when he met Bulgaria's ambassador to France Irina Bokova, the Bulgarian National Radio said Tuesday.

The money will be used to repair the church's air-conditioning system.

Located on the outskirts of Sofia, Boyana Church consists of three buildings.

The eastern church was built in the 10th century, then enlarged at the beginning of the 13th century by Sebastocrator Kaloyan, who ordered a second two-storey building to be erected next to it.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:44 AM

Bring your own finds to archaeology evening

ARCHAEOLOGICAL finds from excavations in Huntingdon are set to be examined.

Cambridgeshire County Council's archaeology section and the Papworth Trust will be joined by historians to talk about the excavations at Walden House, Mill Common and Hartford Road.

And people are invited to bring their own ancient finds to Huntingdon's Commemoration Hall for identification on Wednesday, February 8.

Money raised will go towards the Saxongate Appeal to build a fully accessible community learning centre in Huntingdon.

Stephen Macaulay, project manager with Cambridgeshire County Council, said: "There have been a number of very important archaeological excavations in Huntingdon in recent years, especially in 2005, and this is a great opportunity to find out about these exciting finds as well as help the fundraising for the Saxongate Appeal."

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:43 AM

Mathiatis mine excavation project a success

The Department of Antiquities has announced that the South Mathiatis Mine Excavation Project has been "a full success on the archaeological side."

The excavation projet was carried out within the framework of an educational research programme in cooperation with Inter Community School Cyprus Project 2005, under the direction of Dr. Walter Fasnacht,

The goal of the project was to excavate all evidence of copper working threatened by erosion at the edge of South Mathiati Mine.

Students participating in the programme had the opportunity to excavate, learn about archaeological techniques in excavation and survey and visit other archaeological sites and monuments.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:42 AM

Birger Stichelbaut wint provinciale prijs archeologie & kunstwetenschappen

De provincie Oost-Vlaanderen heeft haar vierjaarlijkse Provinciale Prijs voor Kunstgeschiedenis en Archeologie 2005 toegekend aan Birger Stichelbaut voor zijn inzending "Belgische militaire luchtfotografie tijdens WO I. Historische studie, luchtfoto-interpretatie en inventarisatie van zichtbare sporen. Een bijdrage tot de Vlaamse battlefield archaeology". Aan de prijs is een geldsom van 5000 euro verbonden.

De prijs voor kunstgeschiedenis en archeologie wordt om de vier jaar toegekend op basis van een recente publicatie. In de tussenliggende jaren worden prijzen uitgereikt aan verdienstelijke werken op het gebied van volkskunde, heemkunde en genealogie. Ze worden telkens toegekend aan een Oost-Vlaamse onderzoeker, of omwille van een Oost-Vlaams onderwerp.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:40 AM

Dying trade of masonry to be given £2 million lifeline

A £2 million lifeline for Scotland's dying stonemasonry trade has been secured by Historic Scotland, it was announced yesterday.

The conservation body has been granted £2.28 million over the next four years to invest in traditional skills training, with £1 million coming from the Heritage Lottery Fund and more than £1 million from a variety of private and public organisations. It said the money will be crucial in maintaining Scotland's historic buildings.

Despite half of the UK's £56 billion construction industry being involved in the repair and refurbishment of buildings, conservationists have long warned of a traditional skills-shortage timebomb. The money will be used to train 154 people in masonry conservation skills.

Scotland's Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Patricia Ferguson, said the funding will have a positive knock-on affect for tourism and the economy.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:39 AM

New discovery in Valley of Temples

Agrigento, January 17 - Archaeologists working in Sicily's Valley of the Temples have found traces of a settlement thought to pre-date the famous Greek temples built there in around 600 BC .

The valley near Agrigento on Sicily's southern coast is one of Europe's most important archeological sites. It marks a sacred area built when Greeks landed there to start the civilisation of Magna Grecia in southern Italy .

The discovery of a structure possibly built before the Greeks arrived came during preparatory work ahead of a project to shore up the ground near the Temple of Hera. Archaeologists uncovered a mysterious walled structure on top of which ancient Greeks had apparently built a shrine and a burial ground .

Until now it has been thought that Agrigento was settled by the Greeks soon after they began starting colonies in much of the Mediterranean in the 7th century BC .

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:38 AM

Scientists discover most fertile Irish male

Scientists in Ireland may have found the country's most fertile male, with more than 3 million men worldwide among his offspring.

The scientists, from Trinity College Dublin, have discovered that as many as one in twelve Irish men could be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, a 5th-century warlord who was head of the most powerful dynasty in ancient Ireland.

His genetic legacy is almost as impressive as Genghis Khan, the Mongol emperor who conquered most of Asia in the 13th century and has nearly 16 million descendants, said Dan Bradley, who supervised the research.

"It's another link between profligacy and power," Bradley told Reuters. "We're the first generation on the planet where if you're successful you don't (always) have more children."

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:36 AM

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Grant to examine road's history

A team of Lincolnshire archaeologists has received a grant of £24,000 to survey a Lincolnshire Roman road.
The group, based in Navenby, has been awarded the cash from the Countryside Agency over a period of three years.

The project will involve the collection of pottery and other artefacts from the surface with experts also conducting tests of the soil.

The discovery of the remains of a Roman settlement and an Anglo-Saxon burial site nearby has prompted interest.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:52 PM

Lost village to be 'unearthed'

ARCHAEOLOGISTS are being called in to assist with the examination of a lost village in the hills above Fort William.

Despite being completely overgrown by a forestry plantation, the outline of the former settlement of Tollie, situated between the vitrified fort area of Glen Nevis, and Blar a Chaoruinnn near Blarmacfoldach, still remains visible.

At a meeting of Fort William Community Council, Allan MacKenzie, of the Forestry Commission's Forest Enterprise in Lochaber, advised members that it is "still all there to see".

The settlement, possibly dating from the 1840s, its variety of ruined houses, and the deepest corn kiln in the West Highlands are in evidence.

The village was wiped out 150 years ago - possibly due to an outbreak of cholera.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:50 PM

Medieval monk's bones 'reburied'

The remains of a medieval monk discovered at a South Derbyshire stately home have been returned to their resting place.

A builder discovered the skeleton - nick-named Noel - in December at the National Trust property Calke Abbey.

The remains have been returned to the courtyard where they were found, following tests by an archaeologist.

Builder Mark Webster, who discovered the bones, said finding the skeleton was "quite fascinating".

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:49 PM

History buff hopes to prove existence of fabulous castle

A LOCAL history buff is hunting for information to prove that New Addington was once the site of a fabulous medieval fort.

Michael Lyons is convinced that stories he has been told about an 11th century castle existing in woods near Castle Hill Avenue are true.

He is now trying to track down the fort's foundations and is appealing for help to prove the rumours true as he thinks it could be turned into a tourist attraction for the area.

The 72-year-old chairman of the Royal British Legion branch, in Alwyn Close, has only recently heard stories of the fort's existence but has since been told by several other people they have heard similar stories.

But the tale has baffled local archaeologists - who have no records of any remains of buildings being in the woods.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:48 PM

Old Roman coins dug up in field

A handful of ancient Roman coins have been dug up in a playing field in West Wickham, near Bromley, south London.

The artefacts may have been thrown into water for good luck by superstitious Romans, an archaeologist suggested.

They were discovered at the Sparrow's Den field during work by Thames Water to reduce flooding risk from sewers.

The low denomination coins, two of which depict Roman emperors Constantine and Diocletian, are said to date back to the Third and Fourth Centuries.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:46 PM

Neanderthal man floated into Europe, say Spanish researchers

Spanish investigators believe they may have found proof that neanderthal man reached Europe from Africa not just via the Middle East but by sailing, swimming or floating across the Strait of Gibraltar.

Prehistoric remains of hunter-gatherer communities found at a site known as La Cabililla de Benzú, in the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta, are remarkably similar to those found in southern Spain, investigators said. Stone tools at the site correspond to the middle palaeolithic period, when neanderthal man emerged, and resemble those found across Spain.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:45 PM

Flip side of World Heritage status

IZAMAL, Mexico Off a lazy plaza in the historic center of Izamal, Mexico, across the street from a Franciscan monastery built in 1561 on top of a Maya pyramid, a small market putters along. Behind open arches painted golden yellow like every other colonial building in town, poor quality T-shirts cover the walls, their silly English slogans clearly targeted at local residents, as are the avocados and chirimoyas sold by an older woman nearby.

But squint a little, and it's easy to imagine a different future for this small Yucatan town. The bargain "No Problem" and "Sport Attitude" jerseys morph into crisp, overpriced Izamal T-shirts; the woman is still there, but selling knickknacks to tourists who've just toured the pyramids or the monastery, El Convento de San Antonio de Padua, with its nearly 1-hectare, or 2-acre, atrium. Then they will head off to picturesque hotels that do not yet exist.

If municipal officials have their way, Izamal, or at least the convent, will be designated the eight-hundred-and-somethingth Unesco World Heritage site, and that new tableau will be all but ensured.

The phrase Unesco World Heritage site has been crossing from the lips of travel agents and popping up more and more on travel Web sites. That's no coincidence: The list has grown steadily from the first 12 in 1978 to 812 today, and includes everything from the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat to the Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland and the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape in Mongolia.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:42 PM

Die antiken Mosaiken aus Ravenna in Dresden

Die Originale gibt es natürlich nicht zu sehen, die sind wie seit Jahrhunderten an den Decken und Wänden in den sakralen Bauten Ravennas. Aber insgesamt werden an der TU Dresden 23 orgininalgetreue Repliken gezeigt, die in ihrer Gesamtheit Einblicke in die Schönheit verschiedener antiker Mausoleen, Basiliken, Kapellen und weiterer Kirchenbauten Ravennas und damit auch in die Geschichte des oströmisch-byzantinischen Reiches geben.

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# posted by David Beard @ 1:40 PM

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Concerns over airport growth

SOUTH Bedfordshire District Council wants 'further work' to be carried out on Luton Airport's expansion plans because it believes they could seriously damage the environment.

Last week we revealed details of a district council report in which 'concerns' were raised surrounding the plans.

Councillors met to discuss the concerns on Tuesday, in response to a master plan consultation process, and have formally accepted a string of recommendations.

The concerns surrounding the master plan, which was published last October, included that it was 'unacceptable due to its very large land take and consequent environmental impact'.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:57 PM

De Viking Uw Vriend?

De Leuvense studentenkring voor archeologen Alfa stelt tentoon: 'De Viking - Vriend en Vijand' is vanaf 17 februari te bezichtigen in de Universiteitsbibliotheek op het Ladeuzeplein. Met deze gratis expositie willen de jonge archeologen-in-spe de beruchte Vikingen van een andere kant belichten. De culturele meerwaarde die dit Scandinavische volk aan Europa gaf is immers legio: voor veel van onze huidige gebruiken, kennis, tradities, enz... zijn we aan hen schatplichtig.

De Vikingen. Zijn dat niet die goddeloze plunderaars, moordenaars, verkrachters uit de onrustige nadagen van het Karolingische Rijk? Zij verschenen plotseling met hun snelle drakkars overal waar in handels- en kloosternederzettingen rijkdom te rapen viel, en ze waren, nog vóór de lokale machthebbers konden ingrijpen, al even snel weer weg. Hun terreurdreiging verlamde het dagelijks bestaan. De bezadigde Alcuinus noteerde letterlijk: "Nooit voordien heerste er in Brittannië zulke terreur als we nu hebben ondergaan vanwege een heidens ras, noch hielden we het voor mogelijk dat men zo snel van overzee kon binnenvallen."

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:43 PM

Edinburgh's World Heritage status 'at risk'

EDINBURGH is in danger of losing its status as a World Heritage Site, one of Unesco's senior advisory bodies has warned.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which advises Unesco, is outraged by the twin towers of Sir Norman Foster's Quartermile development near the city's Meadows park.

The body has told Scotland on Sunday that Edinburgh's unique skyline will be pierced by Foster's tower blocks, which could result in the city being stripped of its World Heritage Site status.

The centrepiece of plans for the Quartermile project, which will re-develop much of the former site of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, will be two 11-storey blocks of flats. There are also proposals for a major public square in the heart of a new commercial district and a luxury hotel.

A spokesman for ICOMOS said: "The city's skyline and its overall visual coherence are brought out strongly in the nomination document for World Heritage status. The coherence and integrity of the World Heritage Site are closely linked to its skyline as well as to the inter-relationship of individual buildings.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:42 PM

Heritage service to grow

PLANS for an enlarged Newham heritage service were revealed this week.

However the proposals did not include the North Woolwich Old Station Museum, currently the only museum in the borough.

Proposals for a new permanent heritage centre, an expanded outreach programme and new online services were discussed at a public consultation meeting at Stratford Circus on Tuesday.

The council's entire heritage department was placed under a root and branch review last summer after work to convert the Old Dispensary in Romford Road, Stratford, into a heritage centre was scrapped.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:41 PM

Tests due on historic church wall

Work is set to get under way to test the safety of a wall at a historic landmark church.

Tests on the foundations of a wall at St Laurence's churchyard in Reading, Berkshire, are to start on Monday.

Radar surveys of the trees and ground around the wall have already been carried out to test for roots and unmarked graves in the area.

Six trial holes will be dug next to the wall so engineers can see what repairs are needed.

Archaeologists will be present to monitor the work because the area is a scheduled ancient monument.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:40 PM

Tooth marks link Vikings, Indians

A scientist who found deep grooves chiselled into the teeth of dozens of 1,000-year-old Viking skeletons unearthed in Sweden believes the strange custom might have been learned from aboriginal tribes during ancient Norse voyages to North America -- a finding that would represent an unprecedented case of transatlantic, cross-cultural exchange during the age of Leif Ericsson.

The marks are believed to be decorations meant to enhance a man's appearance, or badges of honour for a group of great warriors or successful tradesmen. They are the first historical examples of ceremonial dental modification ever found in Europe, and although similar customs were practised in Asia and Africa over the centuries, the Swedish anthropologist who studied the Viking teeth is exploring the possibility that trips to Newfoundland and other parts of the New World a millennium ago introduced the Norsemen to tooth-carving styles being carried out at that time in the Americas.

"The cases from the North American continent are from the time period," Caroline Arcini, a researcher with the National Heritage Board in Lund, Sweden, told CanWest News Service. "So it is within the same timespace as the Swedish ones that are dated from 800-1050 A.D."

In a paper published by the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Ms. Arcini details the horizontal etchings across the front teeth of about 25 young men whose remains were found at several Viking Age burial sites in Sweden and Denmark. The "furrows" -- some teeth have several parallel grooves -- "are so well made that it is most likely they were filed by a person of great skill," Ms. Arcini writes.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:37 PM

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Italy Offers the Met a Deal on Disputed Art

The Italian government has relayed a formal proposal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that would grant the museum special access to long-term loans in exchange for the return of 20 works of Greek and Roman art that the Italians say were illegally removed from their country. The proposed accord, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times, would specifically absolve the museum of any knowledge of wrongdoing and avert possible legal steps against the museum by the Italian government.

Over the past few months, Italy has pursued a campaign against American museums to recover stolen antiquities. It includes a criminal trial in Rome of Marion True, formerly a curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. A co-defendant in that case is Robert Hecht, an art dealer who has sold numerous works to the Met over the years, including a fifth-century B.C. vase painted by the Greek artist Euphronios, which Italian officials maintain was stolen from an Etruscan tomb in Cerveteri.

At the heart of the proposal is an arrangement that would allow Italy to retrieve the fifth-century B.C. vase and a set of 15 pieces of Hellenistic silver. Both the vase and the silver would remain on loan to the museum through the end of 2007 with a label identifying them as belonging to the Italian state, the proposed pact says.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:22 PM

Maddy takes position as county's heritage director

THE vast and varied heritage of the Yorkshire region has been given a new champion.

Maddy Jago has been appointed as the regional director for Yorkshire of English Heritage, the Government's lead body for the historic environment.

In her role, she will be in charge of protecting some of the region's finest historical assets.

Ms Jago was one of the leading figures in the campaign to get the New Forest designated as a National Park and became its director of policy. For six years of her early career, Maddy lived and worked in East Yorkshire, travelling the whole county to give farm conservation advice.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:20 PM

Challenge to M3 begins in High Court

The High Court has begun hearing an action by conservationists seeking to have the M3 motorway re-routed from the present route through the Tara/Skryne Valley.

The action is being defended by the State.

The Hill of Tara is a National Monument, but one of the key questions in this legal argument is whether that status is limited to the hill itself or extends through the valley below where the M3 motorway is routed.
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In the High Court today, conservationists began their legal challenge to the decision of the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, to allow archaeological sites along the route to be excavated, effectively allowing the motorway through the valley.

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See also:

Hill of Tara / M3 Motorway Litigation Website
Hill of Tara Information Email Archive
Save Tara/Skryne Valley Campaign

# posted by David Beard @ 12:16 PM

Friday, January 13, 2006

MEDIEVAL TREASURE ACQUIRED BY BASINGSTOKE'S WILLIS MUSEUM

A piece of medieval treasure, found by a metal detectorist in 2005, has been acquired by the Willis Museum in Basingstoke.

The gold finger ring, dating from the late 13th or early 14th century, features a blue stone which is thought to be a sapphire and has a highly decorated hoop joined at the bezel by two dragon’s heads, which hold the stone.

After being discovered near Tadley, Basingstoke, the object was taken to a local Finds Liaison Officer, working for the government’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), who helped to record and catalogue the find. Formal identification by experts at the British Museum followed where it was declared as Treasure Trove, which secured it for the nation.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:15 AM

Seat of Celtic kings is threatened by motorway

A plan to build a motorway beside the hill where ancient Celtic kings were crowned has been challenged in court as campaigners fight to save a monument described by W B Yeats as the "most consecrated spot in Ireland".

The Irish government's proposal to build a new commuter route for Dublin through the valley containing the Hill of Tara has infuriated archaeologists, historians and conservationists.

The battle, which has been depicted as a conflict between Ireland's mystical past and the materialistic modern nation of the Celtic Tiger, yesterday came to the High Court in Dublin.

The hearing, which is scheduled to last for five days, is the culmination of a two-year campaign to stop the 30-mile M3 motorway passing less than a mile from the coronation site of around 100 Irish High Kings in Co Meath.

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See also:

Hill of Tara / M3 Motorway Litigation Website
Hill of Tara Information Email Archive
Save Tara/Skryne Valley Campaign

# posted by David Beard @ 10:11 AM

Parthenon Statue Fragment to Be Returned

A German university plans to give back a fragment of the Parthenon sculptures, marking the first time any piece of the statues held outside Greece has been returned to Athens, the Culture Ministry said Monday.

The vice-rector of Heidelberg University, Angelos Chaniotis, informed Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis of the decision during a meeting Monday in Athens, the ministry said.

"This is a highly important symbolic gesture," a ministry announcement said.

The 5th century B.C. sculpture from ancient Acropolis, which depicts a man's foot, belongs to the north section of the Parthenon frieze, a nearly 500-foot-long strip of marble slabs decorated in relief with figures from a religious procession.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:08 AM

FEARS FOR ANCIENT REMAINS BELOW WAVES

DIVERS face a desperate race against time to recover 8,000-year-old artefacts from the bottom of The Solent before they are lost forever.

The underwater site, off Bouldnor, is the only one yet discovered in Britain and dates from when the sea level was 12 metres lower than today, when the IW would have been much larger and The Solent was a dry coastal valley.

It remains because it was covered in silt and protected from erosion as the sea rose above it. Most Stone Age sites on land have lost all associated organic remains, having been exposed to weathering. However, underwater, the oxygen-free mud can preserve delicate objects for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, this is being eroded by the currents and is likely to be gone within two to three years. Radiocarbon dating has underlined the international significance of the ancient drowned landscape and given archaeologists further tantalising evidence of human occupation.

Tests have revealed material, thought to be the remains of a wooden structure, are around 300 years younger than the surrounding ancient oak trees, which have been dated from around 8,400 years ago.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:06 AM

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Funding blow for castle revamp

A restoration project at Carmarthen Castle has stalled after the final phase failed to win lottery funding.
Since work began at the landmark, the remains of a drawbridge and a network of medieval walls have been uncovered.

Over £1m was spent on improved access and structural repairs and it was hoped a visitor centre would complete it.

The Heritage Lottery Fund, which had funded most of the work, has rejected a bid for £900,000 but Carmarthenshire Council said the project would proceed.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:53 AM

Village's past is unearthed

RARE 17th century glasswork was among the finds by a team of archaeologists in Prestongrange.

The first phase of the Prestongrange Community Archaeology Project, which started in spring 2004, has now been completed.

Leading specialists will now assess the findings before presenting them at a community meeting on February 1.

The glasswork will be of particular interest, as Prestongrange was home to a glass-making facility in the 17th century.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:51 AM

Ta’ Hagrat and Skorba Temples

Heritage Malta, the national agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage, is opening two sites at Mgarr – Ta’ Hagrat and Skorba – on a weekly basis. These sites, both of which have been included on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1992, were previously closed to the public and could only be visited by appointment.

Ta’ Hagrat consists of two adjacent temples, the older one of which dates to the Ggantija phase (3,600-3,200 BC). These were excavated under the direction of Sir Temi Zammit in the 1920s, after he was shown a field containing an interesting mound of stones.

The older temple has a semi-circular façade with a monumental doorway. This leads into a rectangular central court that in turn leads to three semi-circular rooms, one on each side. The second, smaller building is accessed through the eastern room of the larger building, which was modified in antiquity to make space for the second building. One of the most notable finds from this excavation is a small limestone model of a roofed building which is now exhibited at the National Museum of Archaeology.

Skorba Temples, located about a kilometre away from Ta’ Hagrat, were excavated by David Trump in the 1960s. This excavation resulted in the discovery of two temples, dating to the Ggantija (3,600-3,200 BC) and the Tarxien (3,150-2,500 BC) phases.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:46 AM

Archaeological dig unearths ‘exciting’ medieval treasure

A MEDIEVAL arrowhead, possibly forged as a weapon to slay poachers hunting on the king’s land, has been unearthed at Mellor hill top.

The 13th to 14th century arrowhead was recovered from a medieval post pit following this summer’s excavations by Manchester University’s Archaeological Unit, in co-ordination with Mellor Archaeological Trust.

Wrought from iron, the arrowhead is 8cm long and is deliberately designed to maim humans, rather than animals.

Categorised as a war arrow, the find is the latest treasure to be unearthed from a site that has yielded an Iron Age hill fort, neolithic and mesolithic flints and a bronze age flint dagger since it was discovered more than seven years ago.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:45 AM

A skeleton of a woman from 5,800 B.C.

A skeleton of a woman from 5,800 B.C. is displayed at a museum in the town of Vratsa, some 120 km (75 miles) north of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, January 11, 2006. A team of Bulgarian archaeologists led by Georgi Ganetsovski , discovered the skeleton last summer in the excavation works of a neolithic tomb near the Bulgarian village of Ohoden.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:42 AM

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Moles do digging for archaeologists

THEY may not be a gardener's favourite creature but a colony of moles have been credited with one of Gloucestershire's most important archaeological finds for years.

Withington resident Roger Box, 54, a former forensic archaeologist, noticed burrowing moles unearthing fragment of Roman tiles in the molehills near his home and thought they were probably disturbing a long-lost Roman villa.

He contacted friends at Channel 4's Time Team archaeology programme and researchers were dispatched to the site in August last year.

Extensive research and exploration, including a geo-physical survey, revealed an Anglo-Romano villa, which could date back to the third century AD.

Surveys of the site uncovered the remains farm buildings and a bath house on the site which is just 300 yards from the villas discovered by Samuel Lyons in 1811.

Archaeologists say it is incredibly rare to find two villas of this size so close to each other.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:44 AM

TREASURE HUNTERS STRIKE GOLD

THE IW Metal Detecting Club has had a gold start to the new year with the discovery of a hammered gold angel coin.

The coin, which has the inscription of either Henri VIII or possibly Henri VII, dating it to around 1500-1520, was found by Gavin Leng while out on a club dig in the Chale area. It features a golden angel and the inscription on one side and a ship and coat of arms on the reverse.

"We find a lot of hammered coins but they are almost always silver," said Mr Leng, of Corbett Road, Ryde.

"This is the first gold hammered coin for the club and could even be the first one discovered on the Island."

Mr Leng has been metal detecting for around eight years and said it was his most significant find yet.

"It was about two inches under the soil and when I found it it was curled up, not surprising when you consider it's probably been trampled on by cattle and ploughed up numerous times," he said.
The coin will be registered with Frank Basford, the IW Council's finds liaison officer.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:43 AM

Mystery of the "mammoth" tooth

A MYSTERIOUS find in Langlee has given museum chiefs in Edinburgh a jumbo surprise.

Mark Herd, a plant instructor and assessor with Scottish Borders Council, was digging a trench in Easter Langlee recently, when he came across a strange object.

Mr Herd said: “We have a site up there that we use for digging training and to assess the guys. We were putting in a trench for services, when we uncovered something.

“At first I thought it was a bit of rock that had flown up, but then I knew it was something unusual just by the shape.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:40 AM

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

THE OBSIDIAN TRAIL

In the shadow of Mt. Whitney lies California's Owens Valley, the deepest valley in North America. Its contrasting environments include snow-capped spires, desert valleys, volcanic moonscapes, and verdant marshlands. Archaeologists for thirty years have recorded petroglyphs, pottery, and bone, wood, and stone tools, piecing together the lifeways of the region's original inhabitants. With advances in analysis of obsidian (black volcanic glass), they are re-examining what ancient arrowheads, points and flakes can reveal and are learning some surprising things.

See the video ...

# posted by David Beard @ 1:28 PM

Forest castle bought for £1,000

A castle in County Armagh has been sold by the government for just £1,000.
Gosford Castle, near Markethill, is in a poor state of repair and has been bought by a development company which plans to turn it into private homes.

The estimated £4m repair bill will be footed by Gosford Castle Developments, chosen by a government-appointed panel.

Agriculture minister Lord Rooker said the deal they had made would secure the restoration of Northern Ireland's largest Grade A listed building.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:48 PM

MINISTER ANNOUNCES SALE OF GOSFORD CASTLE

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jeff Rooker, has announced the sale of Gosford Castle in Markethill, Co. Armagh.

The completion of contracts for the sale of the Castle has now taken place between the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and Gosford Castle Development Limited.

The Castle is Northern Ireland's largest Grade A listed building, and is in urgent need of conservation.

The securing of contracts opens the way for the developer to begin, subject to Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent, a multi-million pound project to restore the property as private residential accommodation comprising a number of self-contained dwellings.

The Minister said: "At long last I can announce that contracts for the sale and transfer of Gosford Castle and adjoining land to Gosford Castle Development Ltd have been completed. The disposal process has been complex and I am pleased that this important milestone in securing the restoration and future of Gosford Castle has been reached. The multi-million pound project that will follow is one that I believe befits the status and past of Northern Ireland's largest Grade A listed building. After a difficult era the future of Gosford Castle is looking bright again."

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:46 PM

Parthenon Statue Fragment to Be Returned

A German university plans to give back a fragment of the Parthenon sculptures, marking the first time any piece of the statues held outside Greece has been returned to Athens, the Culture Ministry said Monday.

The vice-rector of Heidelberg University, Angelos Chaniotis, informed Greek Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis of the decision during a meeting Monday in Athens, the ministry said.

"This is a highly important symbolic gesture," a ministry announcement said.

The 5th century B.C. sculpture from ancient Acropolis, which depicts a man's foot, belongs to the north section of the Parthenon frieze, a nearly 500-foot-long strip of marble slabs decorated in relief with figures from a religious procession.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:42 PM

WHAT ROMANS DID FOR US - GAVE US FUN DAY OUT

A family fun day with the theme of a Roman god was held at Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery.

The Romans dedicated the first day of January to Janus, their god of gates and doors. Staff at the museum encouraged families to explore the museum's own doorways, where new and unusual objects could be found. The museum has more than 20 galleries which contain thousands of objects, paintings and ancient artefacts.

Children could make their own "door" collage based on their discoveries or write a magical story around a special museum object they found. In Roman mythology, Janus is represented with two faces, each looking in opposite directions.

He was worshipped at the beginning of harvest time, planting, marriage, birth, and other types of new starts.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:40 PM

Experts Prepare Excavation on Greek Island

British and Greek archaeologists are preparing a major excavation on a tiny Greek island to try to explain why it produced history's largest collection of Cycladic flat-faced marble figurines.

Artwork from barren Keros inspired such artists as Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore but also attracted ruthless looters. Now experts are seeking insight into the island's possible role as a major religious center of the enigmatic Cycladic civilization some 4,500 years ago.

Excavations will run April through June.

"Keros is one of the riddles of prehistoric archaeology," said Peggy Sotirakopoulou, curator of the Cycladic collection at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:38 PM

Monday, January 09, 2006

Excavations in Antwerp reveal information about 19th century trade

Until the end of January archaeologists are investigating the remains of the 'Hanzehuis' (16th century) at the Hanzestedenplaats in Antwerp. The cellars in the basement proved to be preserved very well and reveal a lot of information about the 19th century system of cereal transportation. A lot of carbonized grains were retrieved. Other finds included stone fragments from the building's facade.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:07 AM

St Paul's tries again with £1m request for lottery funding

St Paul's Cathedral, one of the most visited buildings in Britain, has so far missed out on lottery funding because it does not appeal to a "wide enough range of people".

An application for almost £9 million to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) was withdrawn after fundraisers were advised that the restoration of England's most popular building "did not fulfil the criteria".

Yet the lottery fund approved a £15 million application for a glass pavilion and underground facilities made by St-Martin-in-the-Fields Church, in nearby Trafalgar Square.

St Paul's has now changed its plan, in an attempt to satisfy the criteria of appealing to a "wider audience", and intends to submit a £1 million application for an "interpretation and education centre" in the crypt.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:05 AM

What a Viking's smile revealed

VIKING warriors may have filed deep grooves into their teeth to indicate class or military rank.

Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board analysed 557 skeletons from four major Viking-age Swedish cemeteries and discovered that around 10 per cent of men, but none of the women, bore horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.

The marks, which were cut deep into the enamel, are often found in pairs or triplets and appear precisely made. They might have marked certain men as members of a group of tradesmen or warriors, or signified their ability to withstand pain, says Arcini, who published her findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.20164). Most of the men bearing the grooves were young, but in the absence of any distinctive injuries or artefacts buried with the skeletons, the exact reason for the marks remains a mystery.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:03 AM

Braveheart killing 'topped bill at fair'

WILLIAM Wallace's execution was the opening attraction of a giant medieval carnival, according to research which sheds new light on the freedom fighter's death in August 1305.

The killing of 'Braveheart' Wallace, during which he was hanged, drawn and quartered, is now believed to have marked the opening of Bartholomew Fair - the largest medieval market in England, held annually for centuries to commemorate St Bartholomew's Day on August 24.

Tens of thousands flocked to Smithfield - the site of his execution - for the fortnight-long celebration, which featured vast cloth and meat markets as well as sideshows, musicians, wire-walkers, acrobats, puppets, freaks and wild animals.

The fair, which was first held in 1133, was unique in that everyone from peasants to the upper echelons of England's aristocracy attended. By the 18th century it was one of the most spectacular national and international events of the year. It ended in 1855.

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# posted by David Beard @ 8:01 AM

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Rescue excavations during gas pipeline construction

The construction of a gas pipeline between Zandhoven and Weelde (prov. Antwerp) in 2005, was an excellent opportunity to carry out archaeological research on a regional scale. Several interesting sites were discovered during the rescue excavations, which finished in November. Mesolithic remains were attested in Ravels and Turnhout; at the latter site archaeologists found a pit with carbonised hazelnut remains. Another trench in Ravels revealed a ditch, the content of which included a lot of Bronze/Iron Age ceramics.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:43 PM

Irish bog man liked to slick back with hair gel

The preserved remains of two prehistoric men discovered in an Irish bog have revealed a couple of surprises --- one used hair gel and the other stood 6 foot 6 inches high, the tallest Iron Age body discovered.

"He would have been a giant...the other man was quite short, about 5 foot 2 inches," said Ned Kelly, head of antiquities at the National Museum of Ireland.

"The shorter man appeared to attempt to give himself greater stature by a rather curious headdress which was a bit like a Mohican-style with the hair gel, which was a resin imported from France," Kelly told BBC radio.

Bacterial conditions found in the peat bogs preserved the remains so that even fingerprints were clearly visible.

The fashion-conscious gel wearer has been named Clonycavan Man and Kelly said the fact he was able to buy imported cosmetics suggests he was a wealthy member of Irish society about 2,300 years ago. The other was dubbed Oldcroghan Man.

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# posted by David Beard @ 3:38 PM

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Monastic sculpture discovery puts Nobber on the map of attractions

A routine clean-up of an Irish country graveyard in County Meath has turned up a dozen stone artefacts dating back more than a thousand years.

Experts say they are astonished that the discovery, centring on monastic sculptures, should have been made by accident rather than through planned excavation.

The find includes complete crosses, several feet in height, together with the remains of larger crosses. All are sculpted with Christian depictions, some with geometric motifs.

The discovery was made in the village of Nobber, in Meath, a county rich in historical associations dating back 4,000 years. Archaeologists are excited by the discovery while local politicians envisage it as the basis for a new tourist attraction.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:40 PM

MURDERED 2,500 YEARS AGO

Hair, flesh and eyes intact, the two bodies found in an Irish bog looked like recent IRA victims. But they were..

TORTURED, maimed and disembowelled, the two savagely slaughtered bodies were a grisly sight for the Irish peat bog workers who unearthed them.

One of the dead men was found in County Meath, Ireland. The other was discovered three months later, just 25 miles away in Co Offaly.

With soft flesh, fingernails, masses of red hair, teeth and eyeballs still intact, it seemed that the corpses had been freshly buried. And detectives thought they had stumbled across IRA victims. But when state pathologist Marie Cassidy saw the water-logged graves, she suspected the remains were much older than they seemed.

And today, after an 18-month investigation by an international team of experts, it has been revealed that the men were killed 2,500 years ago.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:38 PM

DETECTOR PAN TO BE TOP OF THE POTS

A Rare Roman bronze pan dug up in the Staffordshire Moorlands by a metal detector enthusiast is to go on display. The Staffordshire Moorlands Patera will be exhibited at The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley from January 14 for 12 months.

The pan was unearthed by Kevin Blackburn of Uttoxeter while metal-detecting on farmland near Wetton in June 2003.

The Potteries Musuem, in Bethesda Street, Hanley, bought the find in partnership with The British Museum and Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The pan is thought to be more than 2,000 years old with unique Celtic-styled engravings and would have been bought as a souvenir of Hadrian's Wall.

Following the exhibition in Stoke-on-Trent the artefact will go on display at various venues around the UK throughout 2007.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:36 PM

Archaeological excavations on the (Google) map

This week ArcheoNet launched a new website, which integrates information about archaeological excavations in Flanders with cartographic and satellite imagery. www.excavation.be is based on the Google Maps API. Markers were added as an overlay and indicate the precise location of the excavations. By clicking the markers, an information window is displayed, showing a relevant image, a short summary of the results of the excavations and a hyperlink to more extensive information elsewhere on the web. Visitors can zoom in real-time, click and drag maps and use the keyboard to move around...

www.excavation.be (currently only available in Dutch)

# posted by David Beard @ 12:33 PM

Researchers Discover Greek Temple In Albania Dating Back To 6th Century B.C.

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati’s Classics faculty are preparing to make their first public presentation of details surrounding their find of one of the earliest Greek temples in the Adriatic region north of Greece.

The UC researchers, along with colleagues from the International Centre for Albanian Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, will be presenting on their new work on Friday, Jan. 6, 2006, in Montreal at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America.

"This is a case where a hunch about the potential of a site is paying off in the discovery of a temple that has extraordinary and singular importance to Albanian archaeology and to the history of Greek colonization in the Adriatic Sea region," says Jack L. Davis, the Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati and co-director of the international research team working at the site. "We are gaining the tools for an understanding of religious life in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., a part of the early history of Apollonia of which little is known."

Presenting with Davis will be UC colleagues Sharon R. Stocker, Kathleen Lynch and Evi Gorogianni, along with Albanian researchers Iris Pojani and Vangjel Dimo.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:28 PM

Iron Age 'bog bodies' unveiled

Archaeologists have unveiled two Iron Age "bog bodies" which were found in the Republic of Ireland.

The bodies, which are both male and have been dated to more than 2,000 years ago, probably belong to the victims of a ritual sacrifice.

In common with other bog bodies, they show signs of having been tortured before their deaths.

Details of the finds are outlined in a BBC Timewatch documentary to be screened on 20 January.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:26 PM

Friday, January 06, 2006

Horseshoes found on Roman road

Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman road, a Bronze Age ditch and some medieval artefacts during major road improvement works in Wiltshire.

The historical remains - including three iron horseshoes - were found in the upper layers of the Roman road.

Archaeologist Neil Holbrook said the findings had been recorded and added: "The Romans didn't have horseshoes.

"We seem to have proved by the discovery that the road continued in use into the medieval period."

The works are being carried out on the A419 by the Highways Agency to create a flyover designed to cut congestion.

Roy Canham, an archaeologist for Wiltshire County Council said: "We can now prove that the route of the current A419 has been important for the last 2000 years."

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:05 PM

Kenilworth: cesspit

English Heritage has come under fire after submitting a planning application for a cess pit and soakaway for the controversial visitors centre at Kenilworth Castle.
Town councillors were also criticised this week for "sitting on their hands" as plans for the admissions centre came back to haunt them.

Historians and residents were angered when the council decided not to raise any objections to a planning application for the building in September. It was later passed by Warwick District Council's planning committee.

At the time Graham Gould of Kenilworth History and Archeology Society believed the proposals would mean digging up parts of the site to put in drainage, water and electricity mains and damage would be done to an important archeological area.
He said the application for a cess pit would be the first of many and town
councillors should have given the project far more thought.

He said: "When English Heritage gave a talk at the council house on plans for the admissions building, the town council held it in private. If they had had a joint meeting with the people of Kenilworth they would have known about this problem as it was discussed by me with English Heritage and at the time they had no answer."
Mr Gould, of Archer Road, added: "I asked at this meeting whether English Heritage had a problem with the Gatehouse where the salts and water were eroding the sandstone away. They agreed and I replied that if they had a soakaway at the admissions building it would have the same effect."

He added: "Now we will have to live with the error they made and as usual close the stable door after the horse has bolted."

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:03 PM

Alexander, Piece by Piece

In 2003, a team of artists from the International Center for the Study and Teaching of Mosaic (CISIM) in Ravenna, Italy, made an ambitious proposal to the archaeological superintendent of Pompeii: create an exact copy of the Alexander Mosaic and install it in its original home. More than two years, 16,000 hours of work, and $216,000 later, the most famous mosaic to survive from the ancient Roman world once again adorns Pompeii's House of the Faun.

One of the iconic images of the great Macedonian leader, the mosaic depicts a confrontation between Alexander and the Persian king Darius in the fourth century B.C. Since 1843, the mosaic has hung on the wall of the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, safe from the feet of Pompeii's two million plus yearly visitors, as well as from the rain and sun that have damaged the whole site. So why bring Alexander back to Pompeii? The House of the Faun was once Pompeii's biggest and most impressive urban villa, filled with simple but elegant decorations designed to demonstrate the vast wealth of the house's owners.

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# posted by David Beard @ 12:11 PM

Redating of the latest Neandertals in Europe

Two Neantertal fossils excavated from Vindija Cave in Croatia in 1998, believed to be the last surviving Neandertals, may be 3,000-4,000 years older than originally thought.

An international team of researchers involving Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences; Tom Higham and Christopher Bronk Ramsey of the Oxford University radiocarbon laboratory; Ivor Karavanic of the University of Zagreb; and Fred Smith of Loyola University, has redated the two Neandertals from Vindija Cave, the results of which have been published in the Jan. 2-6 early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The resultant ages are between 32,000 and 33,000 years ago, and perhaps slightly older. In 1998, the fossils had been radiocarbon dated to 28,000-29,000 years ago.

Since that time, the increasing application of direct radiocarbon dating to late Neandertal and early modern human fossils in Europe has greatly altered perceptions of the chronological relationships between Neandertals and modern humans during the time that the latter spread westward across Europe.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:12 AM

Hera repair to smooth over tension

Rome, January 2 - An Italian archaeological team is patch together an ancient statue from Crete, restoring it to its original condition and helping smooth over political tension sparked by the breakage .

The statue of the goddess Hera, unearthed on the Greek island of Crete by the Italian Archaeological School, was broken last September while under Italian care, attracting extensive media coverage and resulting in parliamentary questions in both countries .

"The problem of the statue from the Roman Theatre in the town of Gortyn has now been resolved," said Anna Maria Reggiani, the head of the Italian Culture Ministry's archaeology department .

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:12 AM

The majestic standing stones of Callanish

TONE circles are evocative places and the stones at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis must be one of the most haunting. Not only is there the imposing physical presence of the stones and their spectacular landscape setting, there is also the atmosphere of mystery.

Callanish (or Calanais) is one of the larger stone settings of Britain. The stones tower to a height of nearly four metres and the main monument covers an area of some 5,000 square metres. The circle itself is relatively modest and comprises 13 upright stones with a huge megalith at the centre marking a later burial cairn. Callanish is set apart, however, by two things: The stone settings that run away from the circle in the form of a cross and the presence of at least six other stone circles in the vicinity.

The main monument at Callanish dates back to around 3,000 BC. Lewis at the time was populated by Stone Age farmers who lived in small villages dotted around these Outer Hebridean islands. At Callanish they quarried monoliths from local gneiss stone and erected them carefully in a circle. The stability of the monument was clearly important and low mounds of earth and stones were added to the base of each upright because of the problems of digging sufficiently deep sockets. The central stone was set in place at this time and it is likely that the three rows running away to south, east and west were added soon after, together with the avenue which today comprises 20 stones and runs to the north.

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# posted by David Beard @ 11:09 AM

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Landscape road points towards legislation

Irish Times
Thu, Jan 05, 06

It is hard to understand why there is not a landscape law to preserve
our heritage, writes Michael Starrett

Ireland needs a Landscape (Ireland) Act. Not an Act to stifle
development, not an Act to fossilise our environment, but an Act which
focuses directly on what is Ireland's most important asset - where all
of us live, work and play and which contains all our natural and
cultural resources, ie our landscape.

Why we don't have such legislation already is hard to comprehend.
Providing it would be good for everyone who lives on or visits this
island.

The signposts have been pointing us in this legislative direction for a
long time. As far as the future well- being of our landscape is
concerned, we are most definitely at a major crossroads and have to
make a major choice.

Experience dictates that the choice should be the route marked
"legislation" and that if we take it everyone will benefit.

Why? Because it would give us a focus and structure in which we can
work to resolve all those current issues which today seem to make such
graphic headlines.

These include loss of farm incomes, decline in rural tourism, decline
in quality of life and many others too numerous to mention.

Why? Because it will bring us into line with every other European
country, and it will allow us to live up to the commitments we
undertook when Ireland ratified the European Landscape Convention.

Recent articles in the media have highlighted concerns about our
landscape. You really must have had your head in a fertiliser bag if
you are not aware of the coverage of our agricultural landscape.

The decline in farmers, the decline in farm incomes, the age profile,
the nitrate directive, the Common Agricultural Policy, the World Trade
Talks - they have all loomed and doomed large.

Similarly, the urbanisation of our tourism industry and the impact on
rural economies, the loss of traditional bed and breakfast
accommodation, difficulties of access to the hills and a lack of
provision for countryside recreation have all been cited as
contributory factors to the difficulties of keeping rural economies
diverse, healthy and dynamic.

In short, a healthy and dynamic rural economy equates to a diverse,
healthy and dynamic landscape.

That bag over your head would need to be particularly thick to leave
you unaware of the impact of new infrastructure on our landscape
(Tara), to say nothing of the debate on rural housing (everywhere),
village design and heaven forbid, sustainable development.

Let's face it, landscape is very relevant to our everyday lives. We all
live, work and play in a landscape. Surely something so significant
deserves to be looked after in the best way possible and be the subject
of a particular focus. Our democracies work through legislation, which
is what our leaders use to focus, to provide finance and structures to
make the democracy work. It all sounds so simple.

If I look at the last 10 years, the case for new legislation for our
landscape has been carefully constructed to a point where the
blindingly obvious decision now needs to be taken. This is not to
criticise any existing systems or legislative provisions, such as our
Planning Acts. It is just to say that if we are to resolve current
issues, new approaches and new legislation are needed.

Imagine a world where an area where you lived could be designated under
legislation.With the designation would come a package of measures and a
commitment to develop and work to an agreed set of objectives. These
would focus on retaining and enhancing the quality of the landscape in
which you live.

The character of the area (what makes it different and diverse) would
be agreed and a structure would be put in place to work specifically
towards, and allow, development of that character.

This would be through a package of rural development (including
tourism) measures related to keeping that landscape vibrant, diverse,
dynamic and healthy by associating it with a vibrant, diverse, dynamic
and healthy rural economy. A group of staff dedicated to the task (and
not responsible for a plethora of other activities) would be working to
make it happen.

They would also be accountable if it didn't.

Imagining that world is not so far-fetched. The Heritage Council has
already offered assistance to one local authority to develop the model.
All it has to do is say yes.

I have just completed three years as president of a European federation
which has more than 300 members in 40 countries all committed to the
conservation, management and development of their landscapes. They make
it work. Why can't we?

Michael Starrett is chief executive of the Heritage Council.

WRITE TO: lettersed@irish-times.ie

See Also Hill of Tara Info

# posted by David Beard @ 3:24 PM

Treasure trove in city centre

Pam's honour Work on a controversial car park in Lichfield city centre ground to a halt over the festive period after archaeologists uncovered a treasure trove on the site.

Renovation works to transform the Cross Keys Car Park into a split level facility have been ongoing since November last year but have now been set back by at least four weeks after the archaeological find.

Items uncovered include ancient pottery relics, wall foundations and a the remains of boundary pits on the site.

Work on the site was set to be completed by spring this year but have been put on hold while the archaeological team carry out further investigations on the site.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:12 PM

Viewers get royal tour of our historic palaces

Viewers are getting a fascinating insight into life at Hampton Court Palace, above, in a 10-week BBC series which began on Tuesday.

Cameras for Tales From the Palaces followed teams at five historic royal palaces over a year, going behind the scenes and meeting the skilled people who keep them for the public's enjoyment and enlightenment.

All five, including Hampton Court, Kew Palace and the Tower of London, are no longer supported by the monarchy or taxpayers.

Episode one, entitled The Detectives, aired on BBC Two on Tuesday and looked at what palaces tell us about past monarchs and people who have shaped society.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:09 PM

The ancient city of Aptera

Above the entrance to the great harbour of Souda, where Paleokastro stands today, near the village of Megala Chorafia, the extensive ruins of the ancient city of Aptera (also referred to as Apteria, Apterea, or Aptaria) can be found. The name Aptera according to one tradition derives from Apteron, king of Crete, son of Kydon and father of Lappios, who is said to have lived in the time of Moses around 1800 BC.

The legend of Apteron lends itself to the suggestion that the city was once a colonial settlement governed by the Dorian Apteros or Aptaros who took part in the occupation of Crete towards the end of the Minoan era.

Alternative legends claim the city of Aptera took its name following a musical competition between the Muses and the Sirens held in the Temple of the Muses. At the time of the competition the city which was to become Aptera was renowned as a centre far musical expertise.

The Muses emerged as victors of the competition, a defeat which left the Sirens in such a distressed state that their feathers fell out into the sea, where they were transformed into the small ‘white islands’, in Souda Bay. It is from this legend that the city takes its name, Aptera meaning wingless.

The builder of Aptera is believed to have been Glaukos. Archaeological digs in the ancient city by Wescher in 1862-4 unearthed inscriptions confirming the position of Aptera on the site of Paleokastro - Megala Chorafia. Further archaeological digs were undertaken in 1942 involving amongst others the Italian archaeologists Mariani and Savignoni.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:07 PM

Castle's exhibition a massive success

A staggering 50,000-plus people have visited Norwich Castle's Buried Treasure event - the best attendance at an exhibition in the past decade.

With just two weekends to go until it closes, it could be the last chance to see so many incredible discoveries - many of which have never been shown outside London before - under one roof in Norfolk.

It includes the greatest treasure finds ever made in this country, such as the Hoxne Treasure, the Mildenhall Treasure and the Cuerdale Hoard, together with finds such as the recently discovered Amesbury Archer burial.

Charles Wilde, marketing and visitor services manager, said: "More people have seen this exhibition than any other exhibition in the last 10 years. Since it opened we've issued more than 50,000 tickets giving access to the exhibition, and visitor response has been tremendous. Norwich Castle is the final venue in a national tour that has taken treasure from London's British Museum to Cardiff, Manchester and Newcastle."

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:18 AM

Treasures of Cyprus found in friend's attic

AN AMATEUR archaeologist has discovered an important hoard of ancient Cypriot artefacts dating back more than 2,000 years in a Cheshire loft.

James Balme, from Warrington, found the treasure, including pottery vessels bearing the earliest Christian symbols, while clearing a friend's attic.

The artefacts were brought back from the Greek island in the 1960s and stored in the attic as "holiday trinkets".

Now Mr Balme believes the hoard dates back to the Byzantine period and could be worth thousands of pounds, after returning from a two-week fact-finding mission to Cyprus.

He said: "I was astounded by the evidence I uncovered in Cyprus. I have no doubt whatsoever that the hoard discovered in Lymm is totally genuine and its archaeological value is priceless.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:16 AM

AN AMBITIOUS project to uncover the Viking heritage of Britain's most northerly island

AN AMBITIOUS project to uncover the Viking heritage of Britain's most northerly island will go ahead later this year now the final piece of funding has been secured.

Shetland Amenity Trust is planning to excavate a number of Viking longhouses on Unst, as well as reconstructing one of the island's farm houses with an interpretation centre. A replica longship will also be displayed.

The Viking Unst project is expected to give the island a major boost in developing a stronger tourism sector in the hope of replacing some of the economic decline that is caused by the closure of the island's RAF camp, at Saxa Vord.

The project has just received confirmation of £109,424 from the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Funding (EAGGF) scheme.

Unst, which is said to be one of the first landfalls made by the Vikings when they arrived from Norway 1200 years ago, has the greatest density of surviving of Viking farms anywhere.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:16 AM

Professor Maurice Beresford

Historian whose painstaking work on deserted medieval communites led to his celebrated book the Lost Villages of England
MAURICE BERESFORD was the first Professor of Economic History at the University of Leeds, a post he held from 1959 to 1985, having been a member of staff from 1948. He was a historian of enormous energy and originality, whose work was characterised by a consuming interest in time and place.

While an undergraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took firsts in both parts of the tripos, he wrote a term paper for John Saltmarsh on the parkland of his home town, Sutton Coldfield. This led to his first publications and fused a lifetime’s interest in the interactions of landscape and historical documents, particularly maps.

This developed through work on the processes of parliamentary enclosure, helping to correct older conspiracy theories; linking fieldwork to documents to prove “corduroy” patterns in grassland as evidence of medieval ploughing and, most strikingly, in the study of the deserted medieval village (DMV), where again field remains, aerial photographs, sample digging and classic documentahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif
insert linkry techniques led to The Lost Villages of England (1954), his most famous book.

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# posted by David Beard @ 10:12 AM

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Graveyard yields secrets of ancient world

Residents of the village of Nobber, north Meath, in the Republic of Ireland, stumbled upon archaeological treasure when they decided to clean up an old graveyard.

Now they are hoping that tombs in the shape of Celtic crosses, dating back 1100 years, will put them on the map, alongside such famous archeological sites as Newgrange.

Until recently, the graveyard in the village of Nobber, about two hours' drive from Dublin, was overgrown with weeds and briars.

It is surrounded by evergreen trees and bushes, a church that has fallen into disrepair and the remains of a medieval monastery.

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# posted by David Beard @ 2:36 PM

Answers sought to ancient gold coin mystery

One of two surviving golden coins stamped during the period of the foundation of the Kingdom of Pergamon is being exhibited at the Ereğli Archaeology Museum in Konya.

Ereğli Archaeology Museum Director Mehmet Bilici said the golden coins' importa...


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# posted by David Beard @ 2:32 PM

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Engineers save 800 year old abbey wall

THE latest engineering technology was used to save part of an 800-year-old abbey from collapsing.

Instead of dismantling part of Cymer - the Cistercian abbey near Dolgellau - powerful hydraulic presses backed up by adjustable steel supports were brought in to push the wall back.

The painstaking operation was launched after the condition of the 20ft high and 80ft long north arcade wall deteriorated.

Last night the operation was hailed as a major engineering achievement.

A spokesman for Cadw, the organisation responsible for the upkeep of historic sites and monuments in Wales, said a structural survey identified "discernible movement".

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:07 PM

Byzantine underground city and cistern unearthed in Talas

An underground city and cistern dating to the Byzantine era have been discovered at the foot of Mt. Ali in the Talas district of Kayseri.

Talas Mayor Rıfat Yıldrım said archaeologists have so far unearthed 300 meters of the underground city and that the cistern is estimated to be 60 meters in length and 5 meters wide.

Noting that they had initiated excavations following reports of the existence of a city and cistern, Yıldırım said: �We have unearthed parts of the underground city but must be very careful not to cause any damage. We have informed the Culture and Tourism Ministry, and studies will be initiated here in line with a project to be drawn up by the ministry.�

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:05 PM

The majestic standing stones of Callanish

STONE circles are evocative places and the stones at Callanish on the Isle of Lewis must be one of the most haunting. Not only is there the imposing physical presence of the stones and their spectacular landscape setting, there is also the atmosphere of mystery.

Callanish (or Calanais) is one of the larger stone settings of Britain. The stones tower to a height of nearly four metres and the main monument covers an area of some 5,000 square metres. The circle itself is relatively modest and comprises 13 upright stones with a huge megalith at the centre marking a later burial cairn. Callanish is set apart, however, by two things: The stone settings that run away from the circle in the form of a cross and the presence of at least six other stone circles in the vicinity.

The main monument at Callanish dates back to around 3,000 BC. Lewis at the time was populated by Stone Age farmers who lived in small villages dotted around these Outer Hebridean islands. At Callanish they quarried monoliths from local gneiss stone and erected them carefully in a circle. The stability of the monument was clearly important and low mounds of earth and stones were added to the base of each upright because of the problems of digging sufficiently deep sockets. The central stone was set in place at this time and it is likely that the three rows running away to south, east and west were added soon after, together with the avenue which today comprises 20 stones and runs to the north.

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:04 PM

Major Bronze Age tool discovery

Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of Bronze Age tools on a Somerset building site.

About 800 items, including arrow heads, scraping knives and flint blades were found at the former hunting site.

Experts have hailed the discovery, from more than 4,000 years ago, as one of the most important finds in the Somerset area in recent times.

The tools were first found by workers at the Silk Mills Bridge construction site near Taunton.

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:03 PM

I am a mole and I live in... a Roman villa

A family of destructive moles has been hailed as "budding amateur archaeologists" after being credited with discovering a Roman villa.

The burrowing moles unearthed fragments of Roman tiles which were deposited in molehills in fields around the Cotswold village of Withington, Gloucestershire.

Home owner Roger Box, 54, a former forensic archaeologist, became interested by the fragments littering a field at the back of his garden and contacted friends at Channel 4's Time Team archaeology programme.

Researchers were dispatched to the site in August last year and, after extensive research and exploration, an Anglo-Romano villa, which could date back to the third century AD, was unearthed.

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# posted by David Beard @ 7:01 PM

The first baby boom

Skeletal evidence shows abrupt worldwide increase in birth rate during Neolithic period
In an important new study assessing the demographic impact of the shift from foraging to farming, anthropologists use evidence from 60 prehistoric American cemeteries to prove that the invention of agriculture led to a significant worldwide increase in birth rate.

Discussing the shifts in the demographic patterns before and after the introduction of agriculture in Europe at the end of the Stone Age, Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, France) writes, "The signal of a demographic change we detected … is characterized by an abrupt 20 to 30 percent increase, over 500 to 700 years, in the proportion of immature skeletons."

While prior research has been done on the Neolithic Demographic Transition, as the increase in birth rate is known, Bocquet-Appel and Stephan Naji are the first researchers to expand the theory to a worldwide scale. In a forthcoming study in Current Anthropology, they show that though agriculture did not appear in the Americas until 7,000 – 8,000 years later, the archaeological evidence parallels the changes in Europe and North Africa that occurred with the advent of agriculture.

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# posted by David Beard @ 6:59 PM

Sunday, January 01, 2006

FROM MARY ROSE TO FRIDA KAHLO - 2005 ACCORDING TO 24 HOUR MUSEUM

To keep up with the ever-moving, ever-evolving UK cultural sector, you’d think the 24 Hour Museum would need to do what it says on the web page and work 24 hours a day.

And you wouldn’t be wrong. Like a round the clock news channel for museums, galleries, culture and heritage we bring you the very latest news, exhibitions and major events: 2005 has been no exception.

From Dundee to Liskeard, Swansea to Great Yarmouth our team of journalists – staff, students and volunteers alike – has worked tirelessly to get the lowdown on archaeological discoveries, take a look at blockbuster exhibitions and tip you off about top museum events in your area.

Below are just a few of the stories we ran during the past year that we’re particularly proud of. So, if you will, cast your mind back to January and an archaeological discovery of vast significance.

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# posted by David Beard @ 6:09 PM

A CULTURALLY WIDENING WEB - WEBSITES OF THE YEAR 2005

2005 saw masses of culture and heritage going digital, from the People's Network to the sixth century village of West Mucking. © Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

The last year, 2005, has seen a remarkable number of cultural digitisation projects both launched and secure funding. A plethora of fantastic websites devoted to hidden histories, art and archaeology have been made available to the public, and the World Wide Web is a better place for it.

It’s been a particularly good year for multicultural Britain on the Internet, with several new websites devoted to telling the story of people whose roots lie outside this country.

Untold London, launched in October (Black History Month), celebrates the capital’s diverse communities by documenting all the exhibitions and archives that relate to other cultures. It was built and designed by System Simulation and the 24 Hour Museum in partnership with the London Museums Hub, and is edited by Kate Smith.

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# posted by David Beard @ 6:03 PM