Virtual Stonehenge launched online Tuesday 2nd March 2010 Wiltshire is now on the virtual map, as Heritage Key have just unveiled a 3D virtual Stonehenge web experience.
Heritage Key is an online community aimed at those with an interest in history and culture.
The site combines content such as podcasts, YouTube videos and news articles with an online 3D virtual experience.
This virtual environment is used to recreate worldwide archaeological sites.
Visitors to the site can now explore a highly detailed virtual recreation of the ancient site from the comfort of their own living room.
Key features of the virtual experience include the chance to explore Stonehenge as it once stood over four thousand years ago in a dynamic living environment filled with wildlife and where the sun rises and sets.
___________________________________________ Long barrow discovered at Stanton Drew Monday 1st March 2010 But all that might be about to change, thanks to a team of enthusiastic amateur archaeologists who have discovered some intriguing new evidence that suggests the Stanton Drew site, near Chew Magna, may actually be 1,000 years older than historians had previously thought.
The discovery has been made by geophysics enthusiast John Oswin and amateur archaeologist John Richards, both from the Bath and Camerton archaeological society, who have been working with a team of volunteers under the guidance of Richard Sermon, Bath and North-East Somerset Archaeological Officer.
The two Johns have spent the last six months studying the results of their survey of the site in the summer, and they believe that long before the mystical stone circles were erected on the site around 2,500BC, there was an impressive "long barrow" burial chamber on the land.
___________________________________________ Objections mount to Slane bypass Monday 22nd February 2010 FORMER ATTORNEY general John Rogers SC, who lives in the Boyne valley, will be among the objectors to plans by Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority (NRA) to build a bypass of Slane 500 metres from the Brú na Bóinne archaeological complex.
Today (17th Feb) is the last day for making submissions to An Bord Pleanála, which will adjudicate on the scheme under the 2006 Strategic Infrastructure Act.
Depending on the number of objections, the board may decide to hold an oral hearing.
The proposed route, running east of Slane, is being opposed by the newly formed Save Newgrange campaign, led by Vincent Salafia, who was prominent in the protracted struggle against the M3 motorway because of its proximity to the Hill of Tara.
___________________________________________ New Battle of Bosworth location revealed Friday 19th February 2010 The true site of one of the most decisive battles in English history has been revealed.
Bosworth, fought in 1485, which saw the death of Richard III, was believed to have taken place on Ambion Hill, near Sutton Cheney in Leicestershire.
But a study of original documents and archaeological survey of the area has now pinpointed a site in fields about a mile to the south west.
A new trail will lead from the current visitor centre to the new location.
___________________________________________ Bronze age shipwreck discovered Monday 15th February 2010 The trading vessel was carrying an extremely valuable cargo of tin and hundreds of copper ingots from the Continent when it sank.
Experts say the "incredibly exciting" discovery provides new evidence about the extent and sophistication of Britain's links with Europe in the Bronze Age as well as the remarkable seafaring abilities of the people during the period.
Archaeologists have described the vessel, which is thought to date back to around 900BC, as being a "bulk carrier" of its age.
___________________________________________ St Kilda seeks archaeologist Sunday 14th February 2010 An archaeologist is being sought for a post on the remote archipelago of St Kilda.
The National Trust for Scotland, which owns the islands, said it was a rare opportunity to work at a Unesco World Heritage site.
The post-holder will be based in Inverness and on St Kilda.
___________________________________________ Mystery donor for Salisbury Cathedral Tuesday 9th February 2010 Work to transform the cloister garden at Salisbury Cathedral in Wiltshire will go ahead thanks to an anonymous donation from Canada.
The cloisters were built in 1266 to show the cathedral's great wealth. Today the garden, also known as a garth, is a working churchyard.
Plans for the space include the raising and levelling of the surface and marker stones being reset in a new grass lawn.
The work begins in March and is expected to be completed by Easter.
___________________________________________ Stonehenge plans criticised by watchdog Monday 8th February 2010 Its footpaths are "tortuous", the roof likely to "channel wind and rain" and its myriad columns - meant to evoke a forest - are incongruous with the vast landscape surrounding it.
So says the government's design watchdog over plans for a controversial £20m visitor centre at Stonehenge, the megalithic jewel in England's cultural crown. CABE, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, has criticised the design of the proposed centre, claiming the futuristic building by Denton Corker Marshall does little to enhance the 5,000-year-old standing stones which attract more than 800,000 visitors each year.
___________________________________________ Ancient stonehenge hedge discovered Friday 5th February 2010 The Monty Python knights who craved a shrubbery were not so far off the historical mark: archaeologists have uncovered startling evidence of The Great Stonehenge Hedge.
Inevitably dubbed 'Stonehedge', the evidence from a new survey of the Stonehenge landscape suggests that 4,000 years ago the world's most famous prehistoric monument was surrounded by two circular hedges, planted on low concentric banks. The best guess of the archaeologists from English Heritage, who carried out the first detailed survey of the landscape of the monument since the Ordnance Survey maps of 1919, is that the hedges could have served as screens keeping even more secret from the crowd the ceremonies carried out by the elite allowed inside the stone circle.
___________________________________________ Trees felled at Avebury Wednesday 3rd February 2010 An avenue of horse chestnut trees planted in the 1930s at Avebury, Wiltshire, have been felled after becoming diseased.
The National Trust said the trees had phytopthora or "bleeding canker" and despite its efforts it was not possible to save them.
"We will be replacing them with lime trees which are well-suited to the area," a trust spokeswoman said.
The avenue which runs by the A4361, was planted by Alexander Keiller in 1937.
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