Stonehenge builders' yard discovered Thursday 29th July 2010 Stone tools, flakes and the remains of a final feast at the site in Wiltshire hint that the huge sarsens that now stand at Stonehenge were brought to Marden Henge first.
The last revellers seem to have cleared up scrupulously after the final party at Marden Henge some 4,500 years ago.
They scoured the rectangular building and the smart white chalk platform on top of the earth bank, with its spectacular view towards the river Avon in one direction, and the hills from which the giant sarsen stones were brought to Stonehenge in the other.
All traces of the feast – the pig bones, the ashes and the burnt stones from the barbecue that cooked them, the broken pots and bowls – were swept neatly into a dump to one side. A few precious offerings, including an exquisitely worked flint arrowhead, were carefully laid on the clean chalk. Then they covered the whole surface with a thin layer of clay, stamped it flat, and left. Forever.
In the past fortnight, English Heritage archaeologists have peeled back the thin layer of turf covering the site, which has somehow escaped being ploughed for more than 4,000 years. They were astounded to find the undisturbed original surface just as the prehistoric Britons left it.
"We're gobsmacked really," said site director Jim Leary.
___________________________________________ New henge discovered at Stonehenge Thursday 22nd July 2010 An ancient wooden version of Stonehenge has been unearthed at the site of the world famous Bronze Age monument in Wiltshire.
The discovery of the timber henge just metres from its giant stone double has been hailed as the most exciting find the site in 50 years.
Archaeologists conducting a multi-million pound study unearthed a circular ditch surrounding a smaller circle of deep pits about a metre wide, which are thought to have once been filled by timber posts.
The new henge, which means a circular monument dating back to the Neolithic and Bronze ages, was found just 900 metres (2,950ft) from the stone circle on Salisbury Plain.
Archaeologists believe it was constructed at the same time as Stonehenge was being completed – around 4,500 years ago.
___________________________________________ Neolithic figurine discovered on Orkney Wednesday 21st July 2010 A Neolithic figurine has been discovered on Westray, in the Orkney Islands, almost a year since the celebrated Orkney Venus was discovered on the same islands.
The Orkney Venus figurine is the earliest carving of a human figure found in Scotland.
The Wife of Westray, as it became known, measures just 3.5cm by 3cm and is the only known Neolithic carving of a human form to have been discovered in Scotland Historic Scotland said a second, headless figurine has been discovered by archaeologists at the Links of Noltland dig on Westray.
The new figure is the same size and shape as the original sandstone Venus figurine but is made of clay and is missing its head.
___________________________________________ Stonehenge visitor centre axed by Tories Thursday 17th June 2010 The Conservative/Lib Dem coalition has decided to cancel the planned Stonehenge visitor centre, which as part of the development, had included the closure of the adjacent road, removal of the fence, and returning the surrounding area to grassland.
___________________________________________ Colchester world heritage bid Sunday 6th June 2010 The Pyramids, Great Wall of China, Stonehenge and...Colchester? The Essex town is preparing an audacious bid to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site – and it's not as unlikely as it sounds. Destination Colchester, a group of local business owners and heritage enthusiasts, is preparing a bid to be entered onto a tentative list of the UK's heritage sites. If the bid, due next Friday, is successful, Colchester could find itself inscribed alongside famous British landmarks like Bath Spa, Hadrian's Wall and the Tower of London.
Colchester has already been making headlines this year with a bid to preserve Britain's only known chariot racetrack, or circus. But while the campaign, which enlisted the help of famous faces such as historian Dan Cruickshank, reached its £200,000 target earlier this year, Destination Colchester member Bill Hayton thinks the city has undersold itself for too long. "We want to put Colchester on the map – it's been our intention for some time,” he says. “We are fed up with the way the town has failed to make the most of what it's got here. And when you stand back and look at what Colchester has, it is pretty extraordinary – yet very little-known outside the town."
Colchester is thought to be the first Roman town in the UK, called Camulodunum. Replacing an already thriving Iron Age community, the city boasts Britain's oldest and longest Roman wall, its first Roman church, two theatres, a temple of Claudius – on which Colchester Castle sits today – and the circus. It was also where Celtic queen Boudicca began her bloody revolt, burning the city to the ground. Despite an illustrious Medieval history, the bid's organisers are focusing solely on Colchester's Iron Age and Roman era. "We think we have an amazing assemblage of Roman and pre-Roman sites in the town," adds Hayton. "It's the fusing of Roman and pre-Roman cultures...when you look at the whole landscape, you can see it's a very large-scale settlement."
___________________________________________ St. Michael's Mount harbour repaired Friday 21st May 2010 St Michaels Mount harbourside is undergoing major repair work after it was found to be in danger of collapse.
A survey of the harbourside showed that a combination of Victorian drains and sea erosion had caused holes to form inside the wall.
More than 800 tonnes of cobblestones have been individually removed to enable diggers to repair the holes. Archaeologists are also on site.
Until the work is complete part of the harbourside will be cordoned off.
___________________________________________ Ancient monument discovered on Dartmoor Tuesday 20th April 2010 Archaeologists revealed today what they believe is a "spectacular" monument hundreds of years older than Stonehenge on one of the most remote peaks on Dartmoor in Devon.
The nine stones that make up the monument, which are up to 2.6 metres high but just 20cm wide, are lying flat but it is thought they originally stood in a long, thin line.
They were discovered at Cut Hill six years ago but experts have only just carbon-dated the stones to about 3,500BC. They appear to be aligned to mark the rising of the midsummer sun, which suggests they could have symbolic and astronomical purposes.
___________________________________________ Pictish was written Scottish language Wednesday 14th April 2010 New research has shown that the symbols used by the ancient Picts, who lived in Scotland from AD 300-843, were an actual written language, rather than just symbology.
What historians know of the Picts has so far been gleaned from the artefacts they left behind and via the writings of the people whom they had contact with, such as the Romans. But if the meaning of inscribed patterns and symbols on Pictish stones and slabs can be deciphered, the potential to learn more about ancient Scotland could be immense.
___________________________________________ Staffordshire hoard saved for Midlands Wednesday 24th March 2010 A grant of £1,285,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) will keep the glittering treasures of the Staffordshire hoard, the most spectacular heap of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, in the region where an amateur metal detector found it last summer after it spent 1,300 years buried in a nondescript field.
The grant goes to Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent museums, which will share the treasure, having raised the £3.3m necessary to pay Terry Herbert, who found the gold, and farmer Fred Johnson, the owner of the field where it was discovered.
___________________________________________ Hadrian's Wall illuminated Wednesday 17th March 2010 On Saturday over 25,000 people visited Hadrian's Wall, packing every rolling hillside, car park and vantage spot to see in a huge illumination ceremony organised by Hadrian's Wall Heritage.
Dozens of beacons studded the wall, one for every 250m of its 84 miles, lit by over 1,100 volunteers in an event the scale of which adequately honoured Emperor Hadrian's 1,900-year-old masterpiece.
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