The Wessex Archaeology Maidstone office has moved to Rochester. The doubling of staff numbers meant that larger, premises were needed and the new Bridgewood House office is on the outskirts of Rochester.
This new office is very much a statement of our commitment to the area. It will allow us to provide even better archaeology and heritage services to our clients and the community.
The expertise throughout Wessex Archaeology already allows us to offer a full range of services, and we will be increasing our capacity and capabilities at Rochester.
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Friday, December 03, 2010
Farmers slowed down by hunter-gatherers: Our ancestors' fight for space
Agricultural – or Neolithic – economics replaced the Mesolithic social model of hunter-gathering in the Near East about 10,000 years ago. One of the most important socioeconomic changes in human history, this socioeconomic shift, known as the Neolithic transition, spread gradually across Europe until it slowed down when more northern latitudes were reached.
Research published today, Friday, 3 December 2010, in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society), details a physical model, which can potentially explain how the spreading of Neolithic farmers was slowed down by the population density of hunter-gatherers.
The researchers from Girona, in Catalonia, Spain, use a reaction-diffusion model, which explains the relation between population growth and available space, taking into account the directional space dependency of the established Mesolithic population density.
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Research published today, Friday, 3 December 2010, in New Journal of Physics (co-owned by the Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society), details a physical model, which can potentially explain how the spreading of Neolithic farmers was slowed down by the population density of hunter-gatherers.
The researchers from Girona, in Catalonia, Spain, use a reaction-diffusion model, which explains the relation between population growth and available space, taking into account the directional space dependency of the established Mesolithic population density.
Read the rest of this article...
English Heritage accused of neglecting Halesowen Abbey
English Heritage has been accused of neglecting one of the West Midlands' oldest ruins.
The remnants of Halesowen Abbey, which was founded in the 13th century, stand within Manor Abbey Farm, off the A456 Manor Way.
The Halesowen Abbey Trust claims the historic site could be under threat if the Government watchdog fails to supervise the creation of six small barn conversions. It claimed English Heritage had failed to supervise previous unauthorised work on the site.
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The remnants of Halesowen Abbey, which was founded in the 13th century, stand within Manor Abbey Farm, off the A456 Manor Way.
The Halesowen Abbey Trust claims the historic site could be under threat if the Government watchdog fails to supervise the creation of six small barn conversions. It claimed English Heritage had failed to supervise previous unauthorised work on the site.
Read the rest of this article...
First bullets ever fired in battle found in Yorkshire
Evidence of the first use of firearms on a British battlefield nearly 550 years ago has been uncovered.
Bronze barrel fragments and very early lead shot were unearthed by a metal detectorist at the site of the 1461 battle of Towton in Yorkshire.
The clash between Lancastrian king Henry VI and England’s first Yorkist king, Edward IV, during the Wars of the Roses, has gone down in history as one of the bloodiest ever fought.
Read the rest of this article...
Bronze barrel fragments and very early lead shot were unearthed by a metal detectorist at the site of the 1461 battle of Towton in Yorkshire.
The clash between Lancastrian king Henry VI and England’s first Yorkist king, Edward IV, during the Wars of the Roses, has gone down in history as one of the bloodiest ever fought.
Read the rest of this article...
Roman Circus project in Colchester under threat
The people behind the Colchester’s Roman circus are having to work on an alternative plan to be able to move forward with the heritage centre envisioned for the site. The site was part of the British Army’s garrisons, which is based in Colchester.
Colchester Archaeological Trust the driving force behind the project has been seeking investors to help it buy the Sergeants mess which is the main building currently occupying the site. The plan is to convert into a tourist attraction and educational base for visitors to the ancient chariot-racing arena.
The plans for the site have are to create a three-dimensional display in the garden of the Sergeants' Mess using special viewing screens to help recreate what the gates would have looked like.
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Colchester Archaeological Trust the driving force behind the project has been seeking investors to help it buy the Sergeants mess which is the main building currently occupying the site. The plan is to convert into a tourist attraction and educational base for visitors to the ancient chariot-racing arena.
The plans for the site have are to create a three-dimensional display in the garden of the Sergeants' Mess using special viewing screens to help recreate what the gates would have looked like.
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ASU researcher uses NASA satellite to explore archaeological site
Remote sensing has been integral to the field of archaeology for many years, but Arizona State University archaeologist Stephen H. Savage is literally taking the use of that technology to new heights. His brand of remote sensing involves a hyperspectral instrument called Hyperion aboard NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite.
Savage’s focus is Khirbat en-Nahas, a major copper mining and smelting site of the ancient world. Located in an inhospitable valley in Jordan, the area has yielded to Savage and his team evidence of sophisticated economic and political activity dating back about 3,000 years.
In a multi-page feature, NASA News notes that – despite never having set foot on the ground at Khirbat en-Nahas – Savage has gathered information from the site beyond other archaeologists’ ken, thanks to his innovative use of Hyperion’s immense spectroscopic abilities.
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Savage’s focus is Khirbat en-Nahas, a major copper mining and smelting site of the ancient world. Located in an inhospitable valley in Jordan, the area has yielded to Savage and his team evidence of sophisticated economic and political activity dating back about 3,000 years.
In a multi-page feature, NASA News notes that – despite never having set foot on the ground at Khirbat en-Nahas – Savage has gathered information from the site beyond other archaeologists’ ken, thanks to his innovative use of Hyperion’s immense spectroscopic abilities.
Read the rest of this article...
Archaeological amazements from Bulgaria: 5 thousands year old burials (Chirpan Project)
Bulgaria is one of the archaeologically richest countries in the world. Archaeology is a highly prestige profession there with huge media interest in everything what has been discovered. Recently, thanks especially to young generations archaeologists, more information has begun to be published online. An excellent example is 2009-2010 Project "Archaeologiacal examination of a Thracian-Roman Dynasty Centre in the region of the Chirpan Eminences" directed by Dr Milena Tonkova with team. It has a special website (see photogallery).
Among the new discoveries within this project is the Early Bronze Tumulus Malkata Momina Mogila near Chirpan in South Bulgaria, Bratya Daskalovi municipality. Sadly, but significantly for science, several children’s burials were unearthed in this Tumulus (single and a group burial) together with two adolescents, two adults and a baby.
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Among the new discoveries within this project is the Early Bronze Tumulus Malkata Momina Mogila near Chirpan in South Bulgaria, Bratya Daskalovi municipality. Sadly, but significantly for science, several children’s burials were unearthed in this Tumulus (single and a group burial) together with two adolescents, two adults and a baby.
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Pompeii wall collapse damage inspected by Unesco team
After a series of wall collapses at Italy's ancient city of Pompeii, a team from UN cultural organisation Unesco has arrived to examine the site.
One wall gave way on Tuesday and two more the next day, three weeks after the House of Gladiators crumbled.
Officials blamed Wednesday's wall collapses on heavy rain but Unesco says concerns have been raised about Pompeii's state of preservation.
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One wall gave way on Tuesday and two more the next day, three weeks after the House of Gladiators crumbled.
Officials blamed Wednesday's wall collapses on heavy rain but Unesco says concerns have been raised about Pompeii's state of preservation.
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Stonehenge Builders Said to Use Giant Wicker Baskets to Roll Massive Stones
Rolling a 4-ton stone some 200 miles from a Welsh quarry to the site that the world now knows as Stonehenge would have been a daunting enough challenge for even the hardiest of Neolithic-era laborers. There have been any number of explanations offered - the most recent coming last week when a University of Exeter archeology student suggested that wooden ball bearings balls placed in grooved wooden tracks would have facilitated the movement of the massive stone slabs.
Now add another theory to the list. Engineer Garry Lavin, who also happens to be a former BBC presenter, is making the case that giant wicker baskets were deployed by the locals to roll the boulders all that way
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Now add another theory to the list. Engineer Garry Lavin, who also happens to be a former BBC presenter, is making the case that giant wicker baskets were deployed by the locals to roll the boulders all that way
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Coca leaves first chewed 8,000 years ago, says research
Peruvian foraging societies were already chewing coca leaves 8,000 years ago, archaeological evidence has shown.
Ruins beneath house floors in the northwestern Peru showed evidence of chewed coca and calcium-rich rocks.
Such rocks would have been burned to create lime, chewed with coca to release more of its active chemicals.
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Ruins beneath house floors in the northwestern Peru showed evidence of chewed coca and calcium-rich rocks.
Such rocks would have been burned to create lime, chewed with coca to release more of its active chemicals.
Read the rest of this article...
Thursday, December 02, 2010
More walls collapse at Italy's ancient city of Pompeii
Three walls have collapsed at the tourist spot in a month
Officials have blamed the collapse on heavy rain.
The Italian opposition accuses the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of letting the 2,000-year-old site fall into neglect.
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Officials have blamed the collapse on heavy rain.
The Italian opposition accuses the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of letting the 2,000-year-old site fall into neglect.
Read the rest of this article...
Pictures: Medieval Cave Tunnels Revealed as Never Before
Carved from sandstone, the dungeon (foreground) beneath England's Nottingham Castle (top)—scanned in 3-D via lasers—is superimposed on an image of the aboveground buildings.
The pictures were created as part of the ongoing Nottingham Caves Survey, which began in March and intends to use the scans to help safeguard the man-made caves from "development, erosion, and ignorance," survey leader David Walker said. "We can compare future scans with current scans to see whether change has taken place."
For centuries, Nottingham residents have taken advantage of the stable yet pliable sandstone beneath the city, carving everything from holding pens to World War II air raid shelters to beer cellars (some still in use).
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The pictures were created as part of the ongoing Nottingham Caves Survey, which began in March and intends to use the scans to help safeguard the man-made caves from "development, erosion, and ignorance," survey leader David Walker said. "We can compare future scans with current scans to see whether change has taken place."
For centuries, Nottingham residents have taken advantage of the stable yet pliable sandstone beneath the city, carving everything from holding pens to World War II air raid shelters to beer cellars (some still in use).
Read the rest of this article...
How You Can Download Norwich's Past To Your Mobile Phone
The latest technology and Norwich’s rich past are being combined in special interactive signs which will bring the city’s history vividly to life.
The totems show information and pictures, but the Bluetooth technology means passers-by can download more detailed information and images onto their mobile phones free of charge. By early next year all 12 will offer people the chance to download even more content – even virtual reality animations so you can ‘see’ around the whole building.
Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust (HEART) has installed the interactive totems as part of SHAPING 24 – a cultural tourism project raising the profile of heritage in Norwich and the Belgian city of Ghent with some of the money coming from the European Regional Development Fund.
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The totems show information and pictures, but the Bluetooth technology means passers-by can download more detailed information and images onto their mobile phones free of charge. By early next year all 12 will offer people the chance to download even more content – even virtual reality animations so you can ‘see’ around the whole building.
Norwich Heritage Economic and Regeneration Trust (HEART) has installed the interactive totems as part of SHAPING 24 – a cultural tourism project raising the profile of heritage in Norwich and the Belgian city of Ghent with some of the money coming from the European Regional Development Fund.
Read the rest of this article...
Site of Britain's first ever gunbattle revealed
Archaeologists believe they have found evidence of the first use of firearms on a British battlefield after fragments of shattered guns were unearthed on a site that saw one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on English soil.
The bronze barrel fragments and a very early lead shot were discovered by a metal detectorist working closely with a team that has been trying to unlock the secrets of the 1461 battle of Towton, in Yorkshire, northern England.
The battle, fought over the throne between Lancastrian King Henry VI and England's first Yorkist king, Edward IV during the War of the Roses, has gone down in history as the bloodiest ever fought on the island.
Read the rest of this article...
The bronze barrel fragments and a very early lead shot were discovered by a metal detectorist working closely with a team that has been trying to unlock the secrets of the 1461 battle of Towton, in Yorkshire, northern England.
The battle, fought over the throne between Lancastrian King Henry VI and England's first Yorkist king, Edward IV during the War of the Roses, has gone down in history as the bloodiest ever fought on the island.
Read the rest of this article...
IUP website takes archaeology class into a virtual dig
Indiana University of Pennsylvania has carved out a virtual dig for its archaeology students in Second Life.
Second Life is the popular online destination for people who want to socialize, play games or buy and sell stuff in an alternative world. But virtual worlds are also an educational tool whose potential is beginning to be tapped by projects such as IUP's Archaeology Island in Second Life.
Archaeology Island is the creation of Beverly Chiarulli, associate professor and director of IUP Archaelogical Services, and Scott Moore, associate professor of history.
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Second Life is the popular online destination for people who want to socialize, play games or buy and sell stuff in an alternative world. But virtual worlds are also an educational tool whose potential is beginning to be tapped by projects such as IUP's Archaeology Island in Second Life.
Archaeology Island is the creation of Beverly Chiarulli, associate professor and director of IUP Archaelogical Services, and Scott Moore, associate professor of history.
Read the rest of this article...
Space Science and the 16th Century
A group of Suffolk tomb-monuments dating to the 16th century is being analysed with tools developed in space science, to unlock the past and offer new insights into the Tudor Reformation.
Led by the University of Leicester, this innovative heritage science project draws together space scientists, art-historians, archaeologists and museologists from Leicester, Oxford, Yale, and English Heritage.
Principal Investigator Dr Phillip Lindley, from the University of Leicester Department of History of Art and Film, was quoted as saying: “Key to this programme is the innovative employment of techniques borrowed from space science, principally three-dimensional scanning and non-destructive materials analysis, to solve a complex set of historical, archaeological and art-historical problems.”
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Led by the University of Leicester, this innovative heritage science project draws together space scientists, art-historians, archaeologists and museologists from Leicester, Oxford, Yale, and English Heritage.
Principal Investigator Dr Phillip Lindley, from the University of Leicester Department of History of Art and Film, was quoted as saying: “Key to this programme is the innovative employment of techniques borrowed from space science, principally three-dimensional scanning and non-destructive materials analysis, to solve a complex set of historical, archaeological and art-historical problems.”
Read the rest of this article...
Unveiling Rock Art Images: A Pilot Project Employing a Geophysical Technique to Detect Magnetic Signatures
The use of geophysical techniques in archaeology has become widespread, however these methods have rarely been applied to rock art research. There is a need to record and document rock art images as they face deterioration from environmental, industrial and human impacts. This project trials the use of magnetic susceptibility (MS) meter to non-invasively detect and spatiallly resolve ochre rock art images
Ochre is frequently used in rock art production and previous research in other contexts has shown that it emits a MS signature due to its inherant magnetic characteristics. These ochre images can be hidden behind silica or carbonate crusts or may deteriorate ove time limiting their visibility. The rock art images that lie behind such crusts are likely to be protected from weathering and are amenable to dating using such techniques as uranium mass spectometry (AMS).
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Ochre is frequently used in rock art production and previous research in other contexts has shown that it emits a MS signature due to its inherant magnetic characteristics. These ochre images can be hidden behind silica or carbonate crusts or may deteriorate ove time limiting their visibility. The rock art images that lie behind such crusts are likely to be protected from weathering and are amenable to dating using such techniques as uranium mass spectometry (AMS).
Read the rest of this article...
Humankind's earliest, ancient beginnings
Forum speaker outlines documenting earliest human life in presentation on man's humble ancestors
The human race has roots that run deep dating several million years in the past. However, The Forum speaker Ann Gibbons said a different kind of race is being played out.
"The Human Race: The Quest to Find Our Earliest Ancestors," is the presentation Gibbons gave to a near-capacity crowd in Schofield Auditorium Wednesday. The main idea prevalent in her speech was the "race" that paleontologists and paleoanthropologists are in to find the earliest evidence of ancient human life still on Earth.
Read the rest of this article...
The human race has roots that run deep dating several million years in the past. However, The Forum speaker Ann Gibbons said a different kind of race is being played out.
"The Human Race: The Quest to Find Our Earliest Ancestors," is the presentation Gibbons gave to a near-capacity crowd in Schofield Auditorium Wednesday. The main idea prevalent in her speech was the "race" that paleontologists and paleoanthropologists are in to find the earliest evidence of ancient human life still on Earth.
Read the rest of this article...
Multiple burials at Orkney Neolithic site
Archaeologists have recovered remains from at least eight people after initial excavation at a Neolithic tomb site in Orkney discovered in October.
A narrow, stone-lined passageway leads to five chambers, two of which have been part-excavated so far.
Fragments of skull and hipbone have been unearthed, some carefully placed in gaps in the stones, suggesting the 5,000-year-old site is undisturbed.
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A narrow, stone-lined passageway leads to five chambers, two of which have been part-excavated so far.
Fragments of skull and hipbone have been unearthed, some carefully placed in gaps in the stones, suggesting the 5,000-year-old site is undisturbed.
Read the rest of this article...
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
More walls collapse at Italy's ancient city of Pompeii
Two walls have collapsed in Italy's ancient city of Pompeii, the second such incident this week and the third in a month.
Officials have blamed the collapse on heavy rain.
The Italian opposition accuses the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of letting the 2,000-year-old site fall into neglect.
Read the rest of this article...
Officials have blamed the collapse on heavy rain.
The Italian opposition accuses the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of letting the 2,000-year-old site fall into neglect.
Read the rest of this article...
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