Romps leave castle in ruins

SEX romps and drinking binges in the ruins of a medieval castle in Bridgend have led to it being closed to the public.

The historic remains on Newcastle Hill are a popular spot for local teenagers to congregate but the recent spate of used condoms and beer cans strewn across the site proved too much for councillors.

"I had a report of youngsters using the area for illicit acts," said former Town Mayor Margaret Bertorelli.

"But last weekend the place was disgusting, there were condom packets all over the ruins."

As a result, heritage watchdog Cadw has sealed off the area, which dates back to Norman times. The gates were previously open to the public 24 hours a day, until further notice.

I C Wales

Experts examine hidden treasures

People are being invited to dig out their hidden treasures and take them along to museums and galleries across England for an expert opinion.
Former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman launched Fabulous Finds Day at the Museum of London on Saturday.

Curators and experts from the Portable Antiquities Scheme will examine anything from coins and fossils to retro toys picked up at car boot sales.

The event signals the start of Museums and Galleries Month.

BBC News

Ancient communal cooking places found in Limerick

Ancient communal cooking places discovered during excavation work in Limerick (Ireland) may belong to the Bronze Age. Frank Coyne, managing director of the Corbally based company, Aegis Archaeology said the ancient site was discovered on an area being prepared for private development. "During excavations carried out by us on the Southern Ring Road we excavated some forts and fulachtafaigh, which were communal cooking places between 3,000 and 4,000 years old.”

Stone Pages

Tests to recreate Bronze Age smelting techniques

Evidence for ancient metalworking is sparse, and now historians who recreated Bronze Age smelting techniques know why — the clues naturally disappear. The finding explains why, despite the discovery of 10 British mines dating from 2050 to 1500 BCE, very few remains of actual metalworking sites have been excavated around the world. For the study, students at the University of London's Birkbeck college conducted a number of smelting experiments, including the construction of crude furnaces, at Butser Ancient Farm Project in Hampshire.

"One of the reasons for making these furnaces and for monitoring how they weather on abandonment is to show how little archaeological record they might leave," said Simon Timberlake, excavations director of the Early Mines Research Group and one of the metalworking project's leaders. "Such ephemeral, once-only furnaces, particularly if they were dug out after use, might be difficult to detect archaeologically, and even harder to interpret as such if found."

Stone Pages

The Archaeological Drawings of Charles Frederick De Brocktorff

In the early 1820s, Charles Fredrick de Brocktorff, a German artist, was commissioned to make a series of watercolours on the Maltese islands. Nineteen of these watercolours depict the archaeological remains of the Ggantija temple and the nearby stone circle which had just been excavated by Col. Otto Bayer.

The album containing these watercolours is zealously kept at the National Library of Malta and permission to view them is only given on special rare occassions.

Midsea Books Ltd in association with Heritage Malta, and with the collaboration of the Ministry of Education and the National Library, are proud to announce the publication of the 19 plates with archaeological watercolours. Each plate is reproduced close to the orginal size (437 by 342 mm) and are printed on 300 gsm special watercolour paper. A book (300 by 220 mm, 96 pages in full colour) marking the reproduction of these plates explains in detail the drawings, reproducing for the first time the notes and sketches done by Brocktorff himself when he was on site. The plates and the book are presented in a lavish case box.

di-ve.com

Archaeology, metal-detecting and greenfield sites: Report on an innovative project

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has today published a report about a community archaeology and metal-detecting project, carried out on a greenfield site destined for development as housing.

Archaeology and metal-detecting: A model for engaging the local community in a greenfield development by Neil Macnab, an archaeologist, formerly of the York Archaeological Trust, draws on the experience of the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, which joined together in a co-operative enterprise involving the York Archaeological Trust and the City of York Council, to hold a number of open days on the site of the proposed new village on the edge of the city of York. The book outlines good working practice and presents guidelines and protocols on how to integrate metal detector users and other members of the community into the planning and development process.

Archaeology and metal detecting is available now as a free PDF download or as a paperback report, priced £11.95, from http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=688. If you would like further details, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Jenni Laycock
Publications Officer
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation jenni.laycock@jrf.org.uk

Are we loving our heritage to death?

Fake statues in Florence. A rope around Stonehenge. Is this the only way we'll get to see the world's great sights in the future? Oliver Bennett investigates

There seems to be an awful lot of interest in the world's cultural monuments. If it's not Dan Cruickshank's Round The World In 80 Treasures, then it's the BBC's 50 Things To Do Before You Die, or the current search for the seven modern wonders of the world. At some point in our lives, we've all got to see Machu Picchu and the Pyramids, haven't we?

Well, an increasingly vocal group of conservationists, consultants and non-governmental agencies want tourists and tour operators alike to think more carefully; even to consider alternatives. Because tourist congestion can prove dangerous to the health of the world's must-see monuments, and working out how to manage the "carrying capacity" of sites (to use the jargon) is becoming an urgent priority.

The Guardian

Christie's withdraws ancient Iranian artifact from sale

LONDON -- Christie's auction house said on Wednesday that it had withdrawn from sale a 2,500-year-old relief fragment from ancient Persepolis to allow a British court to evaluate an Iranian demand to recover the artifact.

Christie's said that it had taken the action after the court ordered "that the fragment be withdrawn from sale to enable Iran to put forward evidence in support of its claim".

The limestone relief, featuring a head of an Achaemenid soldier, is said to have come from the eastern stairways of Apadana palace, built by Xerxes I (486-465 BC) in Persepolis, now in southern Fars province.

Iranian officials said that the piece was smuggled out of Iran some time between 1933 and 1974, when it is thought to have been auctioned at another British house, Sotheby's.

Middle East Times

Soil search reveals Rose Theatre secrets

New light is being shed on the Elizabethan Bankside theatregoing experience by a re-examination of evidence from an old excavation of the Rose Theatre site in Park Street.

According to a report in the latest issue of BBC History Magazine, a detailed new analysis of soil samples taken from the site 15 years ago suggests that a trip to the theatre in the 1590s was a huge party.

Beer, ale and wine were drunk in apparently large quantities, huge numbers of cockles, mussels and oysters were consumed, and tobacco was already being smoked extensively, even though it had only been introduced to Europe a few decades earlier.

London SE1

Sponsors may be invited to pay for Acropolis works

Government says project will take another 16 years, 70 million euros

Dismayed by spiraling costs and a seemingly open-ended completion schedule for conservation works on Greece's most iconic archaeological site, the government is thinking of seeking private sponsorship to expedite the Acropolis project.

If the intention voiced late on Wednesday by Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis should materialize, it would constitute a major departure from the policy of the past three decades - the massive program started in 1975.

Then, the prime minister of the day, Constantine Karamanlis, had refused to accept private or foreign funding for the works as a matter of national pride, although this principle was later diluted to let the European Union help foot the bill.

Kathimerini

Video of Loughcrew Spring Equinox

On the morning of March 23rd, Michael Fox was inside the chamber of Cairn T to witness the spring equinox sunrise illuminate the backstone. Click on the link below
to view a video of the event which has been compressed from 50 minutes to 40
seconds. The file is just under 2mb in size and is in WMV format (Windows
Media Video).

http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew-equinox-video.htm

To view photographs of the event:

http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew-equinox-mar05.htm


If you live in Ireland and are interested in Labyrinths, there is Labyrinth
Day on Saturday 16th July 2005 at An Tobar, Ardbraccan, Navan.
http://www.knowth.com/labyrinth-ard.htm
The purpose of the day is to share our experiences of working with the
Labyrinth. Email me if you are interested in attending. michael@knowth.com

Roman fort at Brougham

Everyone who lived at the Roman fort at Brougham, Cumbria, was buried in a cemetery close by. Excavation of the graves revealed an astonishing world of pagan beliefs. Hilary Cool explains

Some sites are dug before their time. Such was the case with the cemetery at Brougham in Cumbria. Brougham was long ago identified with Brocavum, a place noted in the 3rd century AD road book known as the Antonine Itinerary. Antiquarian reports had recorded Roman tombstones from the area east of the fort and vicus, an attached civilian settlement, alongside the trans-Pennine road. So excavations were planned when it was known this cemetery would be destroyed by the straightening of the A66.

Unfortunately this was at a time when archaeological concerns were of little importance to road builders, and archaeologists were poorly funded (and, apparently, unable to afford colour film). A preliminary excavation was carried out in 1966. More extensive work was planned for the following year, but the engineering works started early. A small team was faced with excavating a huge area of 70m by 200m at the same time as the road was being built. Under very difficult circumstances they excavated much of a cremation cemetery including urned burials, the foundations of at least two monumental towers, and a large number of features which they thought were robbed graves.

British Archaeology

Wieder-Aufbau und Marshall-Plan – Ausstellung im Technischen Museum Wien

Wieder-Aufbau und Marshall-Plan – Ausstellung im Technischen Museum Wien noch bis zum 2. Oktober 2005

Das Jahr 2005 ist für Österreich in vieler Hinsicht ein Jubiläumsjahr: 60 Jahre Kriegsende, 50 Jahre Staatsvertrag und zehn Jahre EU-Beitritt. Zu diesem Anlaß hat das Technische Museum Wien eine Sonderausstellung konzipiert, die sich dem wirtschaftlichen Wiederaufbau nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des Marshall-Plans widmet. Die Ausstellung ist in sieben Kapitel unterteilt und wird an die 500, zum Großteil noch nicht gezeigte Objekte, präsentieren, die aus österreichischen und amerikanischen öffentlichen Sammlungen oder aus Privatbesitz stammen.[...]

Archaeo-News Blog

Waffen und Rüstung im Wandel der Zeit

"Waffen und Rüstung im Wandel der Zeit" (von der Bronzezeit bis Spätantike) lautet das Thema der Tagung zu der der Lehrstuhl für klassische Archäologie der Trnava-Universität (Slowakei) im November einlädt.

Das Symposium wird sich neben den militärischen Aspekten auch mit der Kriegstechnik beschäftigen. Weitere Schwerpunkte liegen auf den Militaria in Heiligtümern, in literarischen Quellen, in der Religionsgeschichte, sowie in Politik und auf Darstellungen der bildenden Kunst

Die Veranstaltung findet von 19. - 21. 11. 2005 in Modra - Harmónia (ca. 25 km von Bratislava entfernt) statt.

Archäologie

Mycenaean port of Athens found?

Archaeologists in the capital’s southern coastal suburb of Palaio Faliro have uncovered what appear to be traces of ancient Athens’s first port before the city’s naval and shipping center was moved to Piraeus, a report said yesterday.

A rescue excavation on a plot earmarked for development has revealed artifacts and light structures dating, with intervals, from Mycenaean times to the fifth century BC, when the port of Phaleron — after which the modern suburb was named — was superseded by Piraeus, according to Ta Nea daily.

“This is a port associated with two myths — Theseus and the Argonauts — and an historic event, the Trojan War,” archaeologist Constantina Kaza was quoted as saying. Theseus is believed to have been a Late Bronze Age king of Athens whose successors sent a contingent to fight in Troy.

The site, some 350 meters from the modern coastline, contained pottery, tracks from the carts that would have served the port, and makeshift fireplaces where travelers waiting to take ship would have cooked and kept warm.

Kathimerini

Shippam site set to give up its secrets

Archaeologists are poised for the biggest and most exciting Roman excavation ever carried out in Chichester city centre – after demolition plans for the former Shippams factory site were approved by district councillors yesterday.

This will be the first time ever that a dig has been carried out on a major site fronting one of the main central streets.

The area is close to an important gateway where the Roman road from London entered the city, and significant material, including masonry buildings and even mosaics, could be found.

Chichester Today

Hall project will dig deep into past

ROYTON’S past is to be unearthed in a three-year community project based around excavations of Royton Hall.

Royton Local History Society is behind the project, called “Royton Lives Through the Ages”, which will start in July when local people and schoolchildren will be invited to open days at the site in Hall Street.

The hall dates back to 1212, but it was demolished in 1939 and subsequently filled in and landscaped.

A trial archaeological dig last year gave a hint at the enormous potential of the project because 17th century masonry was found in a high level of preservation.

Oldham Evening Chronicle

Study of ancient castle launched

A THREE-year project to survey and celebrate one of the country's earliest castles at Clavering has been officially launched.

A public meeting in the village hall on Thursday marked the start of the £25,000 investigation into the earthworks which mark the site of the fort.

Unusually, it is believed to pre-date the Norman Conquest and its distinctive, oblong-shaped moat borders the north side of the parish churchyard.

The funding is a major victory for residents who formed the Landscape History Group and convinced the Heritage Lottery Fund, Nationwide Building Society and the Countryside Agency to finance their detailed exploration.

Herts-Essex News

Former Stone uncovers new book

A 68-year-old man signed books about archaeology in a Norwich bookshop today. But there were no jokes about old fossils in rock – because the author in question was Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman.

For a man accustomed to dealing with screaming hordes of fans in vast stadia across the world, it was a rather different atmosphere that greeted him this afternoon when an altogether more sedate crowd gathered to meet him at Ottakar's bookshop.

There was no mention of Mick Jagger and co – not even piped music of Stones hits.

At one point, a couple of more mature ladies stopped by to exclaim: 'Hey! That's Bill Wyman!” but screaming groupies were no-where to be seen.

EDP24

New evidence challenges hypothesis of modern human origins

Chinese archaeologists said newly found evidence proves that a valley of Qingjiang River, a tributary on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, might be one of the regions where Homo sapiens, or modern man, originated.

The finding challenges the "Out-of-Africa" hypothesis of modern human origins, according to which about 100,000 years ago modern humans originated in Africa, migrated to other continents, and replaced populations of archaic humans across the globe.

The finding comes from a large-scale excavation launched in the Qingjiang River Valley in 1980s when construction began on a rangeof hydropower stations on the Qingjiang River, a fellow researcher with the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology.

People's Daily