"Sensational" Archaeological Find

The Polar ice cap during the last Ice Age might not have been as extensive as previously thought, according to archaeologists looking at the remains of human settlements in the north of Sweden.

People may have lived in the northern region of Tornedalen as far back as 11,000 years ago, according to Olof Östlund, speaking to the Norrländska Socialdemokraten newspaper.

The 2 settlements were found in the area around Kaunisvaara, where a new mine is about to be built. Carbon dating of the finds show that they are much older than previously thought, and mean that previous theories that the area would be covered by the huge polar ice cap are wrong.

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Event: Vikings are coming to Peterborough Museum

VISITORS to Peterborough Museum this weekend will have a chance to see Vikings, warriors and soldiers come to life.

The museum is staging a free exhibition of militaria as part of an annual fair organised by the Soke Military Society.

The museum's own collections of arms and armour will also be on show.

Visitors will be able to enjoy displays and demonstrations by costumed re-enactors from local re-enactment groups.

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Dig to start at Shakespeare site

Archaeologists are preparing to excavate the site of Shakespeare's final home to find out more about the history of the building.

The New Place, in Stratford-upon-Avon, was built in 1483 and is thought to be where the playwright died in 1616.

The building itself was demolished in 1759, but it is thought remains of the old house are still underground.

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Swedish archaeologists celebrate ancient find

People lived in the Torne River Valley on the border with Sweden and Finland some 11,000 years ago, an important new archaeological find has shown.

The settlement, found near Pajala in the far north of Sweden, are the oldest known find in the county of Norrbotten, according to the archaeologist Olof Östlund.

The find was uncovered when archaeologists were searching for ancient remains in the area around Kaunisvaar near Pajala where a new mine is set to open, according to a report in local newspaper Norrländska Socialdemokraten.

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Birmingham archaeologists in search of Shakespeare's house

BIRMINGHAM archaeologists are to take part in their own Time Team dig when they go in search of Shakespeare’s house.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon has begun preparations for an archaeological excavation at the site of the Bard’s home, New Place, where he lived out his final years until his death in 1616.

The trust has teamed up with Birmingham Archaeology on a programme of trial trenching which will help to establish levels of deposit survival at New Place and quantify the potential for waterlogged conditions, which are favourable for preserving organic materials.

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The V&A's Medieval & Renaissance Galleries, review

The V&A has filled its new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries with the very best of its collection to show the birth of art as we know it. Rating: * * * * *

The single worst review I’ve given in 23 years as a critic was devoted to a show of modern furniture held in the V&A’s medieval treasury in 2000. Just to give you hint of its content, the headline ran “How was this disgrace allowed to happen?” If I was intemperate then, it was because the V&A had allowed some of its greatest treasures to be used as backdrop for a show of plastic stacking chairs and chrome-plated sofas.

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How seat fit for a king has cast new light on Scotland's dark ages

THE first Pictish throne to be built for a millennium has been unveiled by researchers investigating the lives of Scotland's most mysterious tribal people.

The team spent a year crafting the oak of five Scottish trees into a design modelled on ancient carvings in a project that cost around £10,000. Raised thrones were important symbols of Pictish power for church leaders and kings, but none survive. The project at the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) is part of a three-year research programme, sponsored by the Glenmorangie whisky company, and aims to improve understanding of Scottish history from 300AD to 900AD.

David Clarke, the NMS keeper of archaeology, said: "During the process of recreating this piece, we've learned so much about the design, manufacture and use of these thrones. It's very exciting to see this brought to life."

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'No tax cash' for treasure hoard

Birmingham council taxpayers will not have to pay to acquire a haul of 7th Century Anglo-Saxon treasure, according to plans by the city's authority.

The hoard, valued at £3.285m, was unearthed in Staffordshire.

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent are both hoping to buy the treasure from the Crown.

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The tulip entered Europe through al-Andalus in the 11th century

A new study carried out at the University of Cordoba and the School of Arabic Studies provides information on the arrival of the flower to Europe. Contrary to what was thought up until now, the first bulbs could have arrived to Holland, where today the tulip is the country symbol, through 11th century al-Andalus, five centuries before what was believed.

Researchers attempted to reconstruct the diversity of the flora present in the medieval period in al-Andalus (territory which today would be divided between Andalusia, Castilla la Mancha and areas of eastern Spain and southern Portugal) through the study of all known texts by Andalusian agronomists. This was when they discovered what appeared to be, for Esteban Hernández Bermejo and Expiración García, directors of research and researchers at the University of Cordoba and the School of Arabic Studies (Superior Council of Scientific Research), "the first historic reference to tulips."

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Pictish throne built as part of new research project

A throne built to a design used by the ancient Picts has gone on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

The seat was created by master furniture maker Adrian McCurdy who drew inspiration from stone carvings.

It was commissioned by distillers Glenmorangie and National Museums Scotland (NMS).

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Cavemen Roasted Birds, Too

Early modern humans and their predecessors in Europe were mostly big game hunters, but a pile of well-nibbled bird bones suggests that at least some prehistoric European cavemen enjoyed small prey too, according to a new study.

The 202 bones, belonging to the Aythya genus of diving ducks, were found at Bolomor Cave near the town of Tavernes in Valencia, Spain. The ducks date to around 150,000 years ago, and were not eaten daintily.

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Greece: Archaeologists to Restore Ancient Theatre of Dionysos

The ruined theatre under the Acropolis in Athens, considered as the birthplace of classical theatre, will be partially restored over the next six years, Greek authorities announced recently.

The project, worth 6 million euro, includes extensive modern additions to the surviving stone seats of the theater, where works of Euripides and other classical ancient playwrights were performed some 2,500 years ago, the Associated Press recently reported.

The theatre, located on the slopes of the Acropolis Hill, was first used in the late sixth century BC, with the performances of plays by the precursors of western theatre - tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and Aristophanes’ comedies, according to the publication.

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History in the making: British Museum objects to tell tale of humankind

The British Museum and the BBC today announced what they called an unprecedented partnership for a project that cannot be said to lack ambition: they want to help to construct a history of the world using objects collected from 2 million years of human history.

Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, called it "the biggest thing we've ever done" while Mark Damazer, the controller of Radio 4, said it was the "most ambitious and most thrilling project" he had worked on in more than 25 years at the BBC.

Details of the collaboration, nearly four years in the planning, were released at a launch in the grand surroundings of the Enlightenment gallery of the British Museum. The aim is to get more people interested in history, get people thinking about their place in the world, and get more of them into museums across the UK.

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1,500-year-old girl is reconstructed

She was probably 16 years old and had a wide, flat Asian face, a long neck and a slim figure. The girl died 1,500 years ago. But now she’s reborn - well, partially, at least.

At the National Palace Museum of Korea yesterday officials from the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in Korea unveiled the restored model of the girl from the Gaya confederacy era (42-562).

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Anglo-Saxon gold is worth £3.285m

A haul of Anglo-Saxon treasure recently unearthed in Staffordshire has been valued at £3.285m.

The money will be split between metal detector enthusiast Terry Herbert, who found the hoard, and Fred Johnson, who owns the farm where it was discovered.

Mr Johnson said he had not made any plans for the money but did not think he would be leaving his farm.

The value of the 7th century hoard, the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard found, was set by a committee of experts.

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Staffordshire Hoard valued at £3.3 million as it goes on show at The British Museum

The Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon treasure ever found, has been valued at £3.3 million by the Treasure Valuation Committee in a summit at the British Museum in London, where a selection of items from the find have gone on display.

Terry Herbert’s raft of sword fittings, helmets, religious jewellery and gold, dated to the late 600s or early 700s. The metal detectorist found them in fields in South Staffordshire and will net an equal split of the total with landowner Fred Johnson in a deal struck between the pair.

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Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon treasure hoard valued at £3.3m

The largest and arguably most beautiful hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found in Britain has been valued at nearly £3.3m by a panel of experts, a reward that will be shared between the amateur metal detectorist who found it and the Staffordshire farmer in whose pasture it lay hidden for 1,300 years.

Professor Norman Palmer, chair of the treasure valuation committee, whose members pored over 1,800 gold, silver and jewelled objects in a day-long session at the British Museum, said: "It was breathtaking – we all agreed that it was not only a challenge but a privilege to be dealing with material of such quantity, quality and beauty. It was hard to stop our imaginations running away with us."

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Underground Rome: Jewish Catacombs Under Villa Torlonia

Some say the Jewish catacombs under the Villa Torlonia just outside the historic center of Rome are the oldest in the Eternal City. We recently had a chance to visit them and were surprised at the state of preservation of the frescos. (The burial chambers themselves were not so fortunate, having been looted long ago.) Our guide, Rome archaeologist Simona Morretta, hoped the catacombs will be open to the public by 2010--or as soon as safety issues are worked out. For now, you'll have to be content with some pictures your intrepid scribe has taken of our excursion:

Pictures of the Jewish Catacombs under Villa Torlonia in Rome, Italy.

Paris rediscovers its first medieval fortifications

An excavation on the rue de Rivoli is currently uncovering the first Medieval city fortifications of Paris. This excavation by an Institut national des recherches archaeologiques preventives team has found a deep ditch on land isolated among a group of buildings. This earth and wood fortification comprised a ditch and a bank, which probably held in place a wooden palisade. The bank and the palissade were destroyed when the fortification was abandoned, and have left no traces. The ditch, however, was preserved under existing Paris buildings and has now been rediscovered.

Visible for about 20 metres, this V-shaped dry ditch is approximately 12 metres wide and 3 metres deep. Being the only fortification in the capital with no preserved built remains, it is the most poorly documented. Consequently it has sometimes been called the "Carolingian wall" and at other times the "11th century wall". It is the second city wall of Paris, situated between that built in Late Antiquity (early 4th century, on the Ile de la Cité) and that of Philip Augustus (around 1200, built on both banks). From the 10th century onwards, after the Viking invasions and particularly during the siege of Paris from 885-886, the right bank experienced significant economic and urban development and its protection thus became a necessity.

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Archaeologist Set to Recreate Palace of Greatest Bulgarian Tsar

Leading Bulgarian archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov has presented a project for recreating the palace of the greatest Bulgarian medieval Tsar.

The project is aimed at creating an exact 1:10 replica (i.e. ten times smaller) of the palace of Tsar Simeon I The Great (893-927 AD) in his capital Veliki Preslav.

“My father and I have dreamed of making Veliki Preslav as popular for tourists as are the Valley of Thracian Kings and Perperikon. The great destruction of the medieval Bulgarian capital has prevented us from realizing the actual magnificence of the medieval Bulgarian Empire,” Ovcharov said.

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