Wednesday, March 31, 2004



Euro currency change for Cadw sites

Tills will be ringing to the sound of the euro at historic sites around Wales from this week.

From Thursday, 1 April all 22 Cadw-run attractions will be accepting euro notes, as well as sterling.

This means that visitors to attractions from Conwy Castle in North Wales to Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire will be able to pay for admission tickets, guidebooks and souveniers using the European Union’s mainstream currency.

National Assembley for Wales


Bronze Age Doctors sought help from the stars.

Two studies of ancient monuments in southwest Europe reveal the influence the Sun and stars had on their builders according to Dr Michael Hoskin, a historian of astronomy at Cambridge University.

Megalithic Portal


4 May 2004 - The Sarsen Trail Sponsored Walk or Half Marathon

The Sarsen Trail Walk and Neolithic Marathon, link the two World Heritage Sites of Avebury and Stonehenge, and take in a part of Salisbury Plain which is usually closed to the public.

For further information, please fill in the on-line form or contact Patrick Turner at:-

http://www.wiltshire-web.co.uk/wildlife/sarsen

Find further information on other events on the Archaeological Events Diary



Hidden depths to forest

A 12m high sculpture showing an artist's impression of what lies beneath the floor of Thetford Forest will be officially unveiled tomorrow. The idea sprang from visits to the Neolithic flint mines at Grimes Graves and talking to cyclists, walkers and other forest users.

Megalithic Portal


St Paul's restored face revealed

The first renovated face of St Paul's Cathedral is being revealed to the public on Wednesday.

BBC News

Tuesday, March 30, 2004



Romans faced head-to-head battle

A new exhibition in Cumbria has revealed that Roman foot soldiers faced a battle of a different kind against a microscopic foe.

The Romans, sent to the northern front of the empire and Hadrian's Wall, came head to head with lice.

BBC News


Ancient flints found on Cairngorms

Archaeologists are excited by a discovery which they say proves that early Scottish settlers travelled through the Cairngorms 7,000 years ago.

BBC News


Ancient woods to shape future

A pioneering project has been launched to explore the historic landscape within Norfolk's ancient woodlands.

Norfolk Archaeological Services has already pushed ahead with a pilot project to survey a few sites, hoping the results could significantly add to county and national records. It aims to find, record and characterise the oldest woods and use that information to help manage the sites.

EDP 24 Hour News


ROMAN ROAD EXCAVATIONS

North East Hants Historical & Archaeological Society

Bank Holiday Weekends

30 April- 3 May 2004
28 - 31 May 2004
27 - 30 August 2004

The North East Hants Historical & Archaeological Society are holding several long weekend excavations on the Roman Road from Winchester towards London.

For details contact Dr Richard Whaley, Project Director on btl.pcil@ukonline.co.uk or 2 Rotherwick Court, Alexandra Road, Farnborough GU14 6DD (sae appreciated).

Find information about other projects on the Archaeological Events Diary

Monday, March 29, 2004



Alarm sounded for British shipwrecks

Hundreds of wrecks littering Britain's coastal waters are being needlessly lost to future generations, marine archaeologists have warned.

They say valuable historic ships are being lost to the shifting sands, fishing, pipelines and dredging, and that the piecemeal legislation designed to save the undersea heritage is failing.

Cronaca


Ancient statue found on Chios

Archaeologists on the island of Chios have discovered a rare life-sized marble statue of a youth dating to the mid-sixth century BC, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday.

The statue, of a type known as the kouros, was found during a rescue excavation at Emborio — on the island’s southern tip — without its head, while the legs from the knee down were missing. Archaeologists said the naked statue had only been half-finished, but it was unclear whether that would indicate the presence of a sculptor’s workshop at Emborio. It was tentatively dated to 550 BC.

Kathimerini

Sunday, March 28, 2004



Honour at stake in Bannockburn rematch

A SECOND Battle of Bannockburn is raging but this time, rather than the massed ranks of English and Scots, the combatants are two television archaeologists and a museum curator.

The ‘rematch’ of this most celebrated victory of Scottish brains over English brawn is over three sharp wooden stakes that have long been regarded as the only known artefacts recovered from the battlefield.

The Scotsman


Re-writing ancient history of the Upper Tweed Valley

THE archaeological survey of the Upper Tweed Valley has finally been completed by the Biggar Museum Trust. The archaeologists have been checking out every nook and cranny of the landscape in the search for previously unrecorded sites and monuments. The work has taken over three years, interupted in 2001 by the foot and mouth epidemic.

Megalithic Portal


Cambridgeshire site reveals 6,000-year-old relics

Relics dating back 6,000 years to the Neolithic age are being uncovered by archaeologists working on the site of the Fordham bypass.

Megalithic Portal


Monumental study aims at future

The state of Northern Ireland's historical monuments are to come under the spotlight in a new survey. The two-year study by archaeologists from Queen's University's Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork is the first of it's kind to be carried out in Northern Ireland and will begin next month.

Megalithic Portal


Cave art to go on show

The only known Ice Age cave art in Britain is to be revealed to the public for the first time. But the tours, to be held for just two weeks next month, will be the only chance to see the 12,000-year-old carvings at Creswell Crags (Nottinghamshire, England) for some years.

Archaeologists announced their unique discovery at the Crags last summer. The images carved by nomadic Ice Age hunters who sheltered in the caves were the first to be found in Britain. Before then only small carved objects from the period had been found in the UK. Ice Age cave art has previously been found in France and Spain. The Creswell pictures, of animals such as the ibex (a type of goat), wild ox and birds, were found carved into the walls of Church Hole Cave at the heritage site at Welbeck, near Worksop. But they have been kept from public view while they have been studied, and to protect them.

Stone Pages


Re-writing ancient history of the Upper Tweed Valley

The archaeological survey of the Upper Tweed Valley (Scotland) has finally been completed by the Biggar Museum Trust. Over three years, the archaeologists have been checking out every nook and cranny of the landscape in the search for previously unrecorded sites and monuments.

Tam Ward of the museum said: "This has been the largest survey we have undertaken and we have found hundreds of sites of which nothing was known. The final outcome of this project will be to re-write the ancient history of the Upper Tweed, and what a story that will be. A great deal of the past has been lost to us, but using our detective skills, it is possible to salvage much of the story by putting these sites back on the map."

Stone Pages


Ancient statue found on Chios

Archaeologists on the island of Chios (Greece) have discovered a rare life-sized marble statue of a youth dating to the mid-sixth century BCE. The statue, of a type known as the kouros, was found during a rescue excavation at Emborio — on the island’s southern tip — without its head, while the legs from the knee down were missing.

Stone Pages


8,500-year-old axe found in Portsmouth

Jamie Stevenson was walking with his dog along Portsmouth beach (Hampshire, England) when he stumbled across an axe head dating back to the stone age. The discoverer said: "My dog Woody likes chasing stones when I skim them on the water, and so I just happened to pick it up. It felt different and looked different. It moulded nicely into my hands. When I looked at it more closely I saw that the edges were cut to be sharp."

Stone Pages


Scientists to look for lost mass grave at development site

Scientists are set to use ground-penetrating radar to search for the lost mass grave of more than 60 passengers of a doomed steamship that sank in 1880 in the waves of a powerful hurricane.

Herald Tribune