Neanderthals Made Mammoth Jerky

Necessity compelled Neanderthals to dry hunks of big game meat for easy transport, according to a new study on the survival needs of Neanderthals.

Neanderthals also likely wore tailored clothing, according to the new study, which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Archaeology.

The findings help to explain how Neanderthals could transport meat over long distances without it rotting, as well as how they survived the often chilly conditions of Northern Europe.

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Sewage work uncovers ancient site

The discovery of stones that are thought to date back to the Bronze Age have halted a multi-million pound sewage treatment project in Cornwall.

South West Water has stopped work while Cornwall Council's archaeologists investigate the site at Trevalga, which lies between Boscastle and Tintagel.

The stones encircle a dark circular stain in the ground and are thought to denote the location of a round house.

Archaeologists believe the site could date back to about 1500BC.

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Church leaders sign heritage bid and declare Bede the Einstein of his time

Two senior church leaders have hailed the Venerable Bede as the "Einstein of his time" after backing a major heritage bid in Sunderland.

The Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Reverend Mark Bryant, and the Bishop of Durham, the Right Reverend Tom Wright, joined forces at an inter-denominational event at St Paul's Church in Church Bank, Jarrow.

Both bishops, plus priests, clergy and lay members from several Christian churches signed a Book of Life, a modern day equivalent of a monastic document, aimed at boosting the Wearmouth-Jarrow bid for World Heritage Site status.

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Birmingham's second oldest church needs £1m to survive

HERITAGE chiefs have been asked to come to the rescue of a 700-year-old Birmingham church which is threatened by closure.

More than £1 million is needed to secure the future of St Edburgha’s in Yardley which needs emergency work on its crumbling 150ft tower.

Church leaders say they may have to shut the Grade I-listed chapel within two years unless about £300,000 is found to protect the spire from collapsing. Now they have applied to English Heritage for a grant to help speed up the work while their own tireless fund-raising continues.

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Ancient Holy Land quarry uncovered, team says

Israeli archaeologists said on Sunday they had discovered the largest underground quarry in the Holy Land, dating back to the time of Jesus and containing Christian symbols etched into the walls.

The 4,000-square-meter (yard) cavern, buried 10 meters beneath the desert near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho, was dug about 2,000 years ago and was in use for about half a millennium, archaeologist Adam Zertal said.

The cave's main hall, about three meters tall, is supported by some 20 stone pillars and has a variety of symbols etched into the walls, including crosses dating back to about AD 350 and Roman legionary emblems.

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Ancient granaries preceded the Agricultural Revolution

A Jordanian site yields food-storage facilities from more than 11,000 years ago, indicating that a major social shift led to the rise of domesticated crops

It apparently took a long time to get the Agricultural Revolution off the ground. Prehistoric hunter-gatherers in the Middle East cultivated the farming life over more than a millennium, largely thanks to their proficiency at building structures to store wild cereals, a new report suggests.

Excavations at Dhra' near the Dead Sea in Jordan have uncovered remnants of four sophisticated granaries built between 11,300 and 11,175 years ago, about a millennium before domesticated plants were known to have been cultivated there, say archaeologists Ian Kuijt of the University of Notre Dame and Bill Finlayson of the Council for British Research in the Levant in Amman, Jordan.

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Study: Food storage began well before farming

People were storing grain long before they learned to domesticate crops, a new study indicates. A structure used as a food granary discovered in recent excavations in Jordan dates to about 11,300 years ago, according to a report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

That's as much as a thousand years before people in the Middle East domesticated grain, the research team led by anthropologist Ian Kuijt of the University of Notre Dame said.

Remains of wild barley were found in the structure, indicating that the grain was collected and saved even though formal cultivation had not yet developed.

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Underground cave dating from the year 1 A.D. exposed in Jordan Valley

The cave was originally a large quarry during the Roman and Byzantine era and was one of its kind; various engravings were uncovered in the cave, including cross markings, and it is assumed that this could have been an early monastery

An artificial underground cave, the largest in Israel, has been exposed in the Jordan Valley in the course of a survey carried out by the University of Haifa's Department of Archaeology. Prof. Adam Zertal, who headed the excavating team, reckons that this cave was originally a large quarry during the Roman and Byzantine era and was one of its kind. Various engravings were uncovered in the cave, including cross markings, and it is assumed that this could have been an early monastery. "It is probably the site of "Galgala" from the historical Madaba Map," Prof. Zertal says.

The enormous and striking cave covers an area of approximately 1 acre: it is some 100 meters long and about 40 meters wide. The cave is located 4 km north of Jericho. The cave, which is the largest excavated by man to be discovered in Israel, was exposed in the course of an archaeological survey that the University of Haifa has been carrying out since 1978.

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Archaeologists tackle impacts of climate change

The effects of climate change, including rising sea level and coastal erosion, as well as other factors such as coastal development and shoreline management initiatives, constantly threaten archaeological sites along our coast. The destructive power of the sea is at its most visible during heavy storms when archaeological sites can be rapidly revealed or buried in thick sediment. However, steady change, such as the gradual erosion of the cliffs of Dover, can also bury, reveal or destroy archaeology. From 500,000 year old hand-axes to military aircraft lost during the Second World War, the archaeology of the coast of England is likely to represent every period and theme in archaeology.

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Roman shipwreck find

A shipwreck believed to date back to Roman times was found at the bottom of Montenegro's Boka Kotorska bay, officials said on Tuesday.

"We believe we have found the wreckage of a ship that could have been used to transport goods," Montenegro's regional Cultural Heritage Preservation Institute said in a statement.

Officials refused to reveal the location of the shipwreck until the area was fully secured.

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Huge Roman-era cave found by Jericho

The largest cave ever found in Israel has been uncovered near the West Bank city of Jericho etched with Christian symbols, an Israeli archeologist said Sunday.

The immense cave, which spans more than four dunams and is buried 10 meters beneath the desert, was dug about 2,000 years ago, Haifa University archaeologist Prof. Adam Zertal said.

The site, which is located 4 km north of the ancient city of Jericho, was used as a large quarry in the Roman era and was probably used as a monastery and a hiding place for hundreds of years, he said.

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Looking into wetlands' ancient past

The hidden history of marshlands near a Lincolnshire town could be revealed when archaeologists start digging them up.

The work is taking place in advance of a project to create a haven for otters, water voles, birds and dragonflies at Beckingham Marshes, near Gainsborough.

A team from the University of Birmingham will be using carbon dating and analysis of buried pollen to work out what the Trent Valley looked like between 5,000 and 10,000 years ago.

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Record crowd for Solstice sunrise

A record crowd of about 36,500 revellers has welcomed the dawn of the Summer Solstice at Stonehenge.

The number of people attending the event caused roads in the area to become gridlocked in the hours leading up to sunrise at 0458 BST.

Druid ceremonies took place alongside music and Morris dancing, however overcast skies obscured the sun.

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Record crowd greet solstice at Stonehenge

Record numbers of people descended on Stonehenge this morning to mark the summer solstice.

Despite the sun not making an appearance in an overcast sky, around 36,500 people enjoyed a carnival atmosphere at the ancient stone circle on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire.

An eccentric mix of Morris dancers, pagans dressed in their traditional robes and musicians playing guitars and drums gathered alongside visitors from across the world.

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The Acropolis Museum opens in Athens

Now all it needs is the Elgin Marbles says Sean Newsom on a flying visit to the Greek capital

Chaps, it looks as if we’re running out of arguments. In the long-running dispute over who should have the Elgin Marbles — the exquisite frieze sawn off the Parthenon between 1801 and 1805, and currently housed in the British Museum — the Greeks may have just played the winning card.

Yesterday, Athens saw the official opening of the state-of-the-art Acropolis Museum, almost within touching distance of the monument itself.

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Record crowds at Stonehenge for summer solstice celebrations

Druids began their incantations, Wiccan priestesses drew their cowls tight against the damp morning air and four half-naked Papuan dancers waved their hands in the air and went: “Woo, woo, woo”.

Only the guest of honour failed to put in an appearance at Stonehenge.

A record 36,500 people had gathered at the prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain to watch the sun rise. So many turned out to celebrate the solstice that roads had to be shut and the vast field converted into a car park for 6,500 vehicles was full by 3am.

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Do bow and arrow predate modern humans?

BOWS and arrows may not be the preserve of modern humans. It seems that simple stone blades make adequate arrowheads, so they might have been used in lightweight projectile weapons as far back as 100,000 years ago, when the blades first appeared.

Spears and arrows would have let early hunters catch small fast-moving creatures rather than tackling large dangerous animals with hand-held blades. Matthew Sisk and John Shea from Stony Brook University in New York have shown that so-called Levallois points make effective arrowheads. They turned 51 reproduction blades into arrows and successfully shot them into an animal carcass (Journal of Archaeological Science, DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2009.05.023).

The earliest definite arrowheads date to around 20,000 years ago and are the handiwork of modern humans.

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Honey-Loving Chimps Handy, Too

Life for human evolution researchers was so much simpler 50 years ago. There seemed to be a clear distinction between the cognitive capacities of humans and that of all other animals. The proof: Humans made tools, other species did not. The concept was perhaps best expressed in the title of a 1949 book by British anthropologist Kenneth Oakley, Man the Tool-Maker. As late as the early 1960s, most researchers agreed with famed fossil hunter Louis Leakey that toolmaking was a uniquely human activity.

But with more and more scientific observations of primates, identifying “uniquely human” behavior has been getting harder and harder. A paper in the June Journal of Human Evolution now extends animals’ reach even further toward human abilities, reporting that wild chimpanzees can sequentially craft a set of tools for a single task. Primatologist Christophe Boesch and his colleagues at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, conclude that researchers might have to rethink their whole approach to the cognitive divide between humans and their primate cousins.

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Der erste Neanderthaler Hollands lag auf dem Grund der Nordsee

Hobby-Paläontologe entdeckte Schädelfragment im Abfall eines Muschelfischers

Das Alter des Knochens schätzen Experten auf über 40.000 Jahre. Zu dieser Zeit war dort, wo heute Fischerboote fahren, noch ein fruchtbares, von Flüssen durchzogenes Land.

Der bedeutende Fund stammt aus einem als Middeldiep bezeichneten Gebiet rund 15 km vor der Küste Zeelands. Wie das Nationale Altertümermuseum (Rijksmusem van Oudheden) jetzt mitteilte, war das Fragment eines Stirnbeins bereits vor einigen Jahren entdeckt worden und wurde zwischenzeitlich von der Forschergruppe um Jean-Jacques Hublin vom Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie in Leipzig und holländischen Wissenschaftlern untersucht.

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Artefacts found at nature reserve

Human remains and Roman artefacts have been unearthed in an Iron Age ditch at a new nature reserve in Cambridgeshire.

Archaeologists made the discoveries at a former quarry at Cherry Hinton, near Cambridge, which is to open to visitors for the first time in 100 years.

East Pit has been transformed by the Cambridgeshire Wildlife Trust into a haven for wild flowers and birds.

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New evidence of prehistoric man in north east Wales

EVIDENCE of human activity dating back nearly 10,000 years has been discovered in north east Wales.

Analysis of a sample of earth extracted from the Moel Llys y Coed, near Cilcain, in the Clwydian Range, has helped archaeologists paint a picture of the area during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.

The project, which involved analysis techiniques including pollen levels and radio carbon dating, was funded by the Royal Commission on the Archaeological Historical Monuments of Wales.

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Archaeological disoveries at Berkeley Castle

Students from Bristol University excavated archaeological remains from the grounds of Berkeley Castle and uncovered an early form of recycling. The team were involved in a research project which has been running since 2005.

Among their discoveries were Roman bricks, medieval tombstones and glass which had been re-used to create foundations and drain linings for other building work. A treasure trove of artefacts were also uncovered, including Anglo Saxon coins, dress hooks and buckles, as well as Roman coins.

The students were working under the supervision of Professor Mark Horton and Dr Stuart Prior, both TV presenters as well as academics at the university. Professor Horton is head of archaeology and a member of the team on the BBC programme Coast. Dr Prior is a regular on Channel 4's Time Team.

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Byzantine church destroyed in Abkhazia

Architectural remnants of a Byzantium church were demolished by a bulldozer in the village of Reka, Abkhazia, according to Vadim Bzhania, a local official.

“Group of businessmen with the help of a local resident committed this act of vandalism,” he further explained, adding, "in the village everyone knows who actually conducted the process of clearing the land of archaeological sites. The damage cannot be repaid with money, these are priceless objects of historical and cultural heritage."

The local administration’s archeologists carried out an expedition to the village of Reka in January 2009. Experts made photo survey of the territory where unexplored remnants of the medieval fortresses and churches were located.

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New Acropolis Museum the perfect home for Elgin Marbles, say Greeks

Workmen were putting the finishing touches yesterday to Ancient Greece’s newest and most extravagant showcase, the New Acropolis Museum, due for a fanfare-filled inauguration today. But conspicuously absent are the very relics which the €130m futurist building was expressly designed for: the Elgin Marbles.

The airy top floor of the 25,000 square metre museum, offering an unparallelled view of the Parthenon atop the Acropolis a couple of hundred yards away, has been reserved for when the Marbles — as many Greeks devoutly hope — return.

Yet as dozens of dignitaries arrived for the opening that Antonis Samaras, the Greek Minister for Culture, promised would be “a magical atmosphere with musical surprises” (and drain some €3m out of the Greek taxpayer’s pocket), it seemed likely that the Parthenon Hall, as the glass-domed top floor is called, would remain empty for a considerable time to come.

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Acropolis now! A museum for the Elgin Marbles

The battle to recover the Elgin Marbles has been long and fruitless. Now Greece has built a museum in the hope it will one day house them.

From a distance, you could almost mistake it for a designer multi-storey car park. The grey concrete and angular lines are certainly a contrast to the classical marble edifice in whose shadow it stands. Yet the Parthenon seems to look down on the architectural upstart not with disapproval but pride, affection, and most of all hope. Hope that the new offspring can finally bring the ancestral treasures home.

These are heavy expectations for a museum to bear. But the Acropolis Museum was, quite literally, built to shoulder them. Unlike any other museum in the world, it was designed to house something it didn't own. We're talking of course about those infamous marbles that were hacked from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin at the start of the 119th century and that now reside in Bloomsbury in the British Museum. Greece wants them back and having failed to make headway with verbal arguments, it is trying visual ones.

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Acropolis museum raises Marbles' hopes

As the new Acropolis museum opens in Athens, Frank Partridge investigates whether the long-running dispute between Britain and Greece over the Parthenon Marbles will be resolved.

Museums are not renowned as places of high drama, but everything about the glassy, angular structure that has appeared at the foot of Acropolis Hill is dramatic.

The design is provocative, the contents breathtaking, and its showpiece gallery is intended to deliver a cultural and political thunderbolt as powerful as anything the goddess Athena once threw.

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New discovery suggests mammoths survived in Britain until 14,000 years ago

Research which finally proves that bones found in Shropshire, England provide the most geologically recent evidence of woolly mammoths in North Western Europe publishes today in the Geological Journal. Analysis of both the bones and the surrounding environment suggests that some mammoths remained part of British wildlife long after they are conventionally believed to have become extinct.

The mammoth bones, consisting of one largely complete adult male and at least four juveniles, were first excavated in 1986, but the carbon dating which took place at the time has since been considered inaccurate. Technological advances during the past two decades now allow a more exact reading, which complements the geological data needed to place the bones into their environmental context. This included a study of the bones' decay, analysis of fossilised insects which were also found on the site, and a geological analysis of the surrounding sediment.

The research was carried out by Professor Adrian Lister, based at the Natural History Museum in London, who has conducted numerous studies into 'extinction lag' where small pockets of a species have survived for thousands of years longer than conventionally thought.

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Yorkshire treasure stash unearthed after 1,000 years

MORE than a thousand years ago a Saxon thief, desperate to hide his plunder, stashed a hoard of stolen gold in what is today a nondescript West Yorkshire field.

What became of the thief is lost to the ages and his precious loot lay safely buried in that same field for the next millennium.

There it remained until a treasure hunter, out with his trusty metal detector last year, experienced the moment he will never forget when he unearthed the amazing find on the farmland near Leeds.

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Ancient burial site found at Boscastle

AN ANCIENT burial site dating from the Dark Ages has been discovered at Boscastle during work to create a new waste water scheme for the area.

A pagan and Christian cemetery, including at least 18 graves, was unearthed during the setting up of a compound.

The discovery prompted South West Water (SWW) to call in experts to help understand the significance of the find.

Experts said the particular type of graves found were extremely rare.

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Humans worked the Welsh hills 10,000 years ago

Hunters and farmers were using the Clwydian Hills in North Wales 10,000 years ago, new research has revealed,

Analysis of a sample of earth extracted from the Clwydian Range has pieced together the timeline of human activity on the hills dating back almost 10,000 years.

The sample was taken from Moel Llys y Coed near Cilcain, to provide a picture for the change in the landscape over the years to become the heather moorland seen today.

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Blog for 'burial pit' relief road

A multimillion pound road development in Dorset has become the county council's first project to have its own online blog.

The Weymouth Relief Road site attracted much interest when archaeologists found an ancient burial pit last week.

The £87m road is being built to ease traffic between Dorchester and Weymouth and Portland, where the Olympic sailing events will be held in 2012.

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Prehistoric gold source traced to Mourne mountains

THE MOUNTAINS of Mourne may be fabled in song but now they have a new focus as scientists believe they were the source for most of Ireland’s prehistoric gold.

Ireland has a very high level of prehistoric gold objects especially from the early Bronze Age (2400-1800BC) when large quantities of it was used by skilled craftsmen.

They turned out beautiful objects such as the gold collars or lunula similar to the one which turned up recently following a robbery in Co Roscommon.

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New Festival of British Archaeology Website Launched!

Find out what’s happening near you during the Festival using our brand new Google Maps interface.

The CBA has launched a new Festival of British Archaeology website to help you find out what’s happening near you during this annual extravaganza of heritage-related events. More than 600 excavations, guided walks, reenactments, demonstrations, lectures and more are taking place between July 18 and August 2 2009, with events covering the whole of the UK from Margate in the east to Armagh in the west, and from Unst in the north to Guernsey in the South.

The new website has been designed to make available information about this annual celebration of archaeology in a clear, attractive and easily accessible format for all users, whether they are members of the public, event organisers or media professionals.

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Roman village discovered near Varna

Village from the Roman era discovered archaeologists near Varna.

The short sample surveys in the region of Mentesheto near Varna have been concluded, informed from the Archaeological museum in Varna, informed radio Varna.
The resembling dolmen stone formation has been researched by Alexander Minchev and Teodor Rokov.

The research shows that it was created nearly 2000 ago with stone tables taken out from the existing nearby big water reservoir.

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Sea gives up Neanderthal fossil

Part of a Neanderthal man's skull has been dredged up from the North Sea, in the first confirmed find of its kind.

Scientists in Leiden, in the Netherlands, have unveiled the specimen - a fragment from the front of a skull belonging to a young adult male.

Analysis of chemical "isotopes" in the 60,000-year-old fossil suggest a carnivorous diet, matching results from other Neanderthal specimens.

The North Sea is one of the world's richest areas for mammal fossils.

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Archaeologists Discovered Roman Settlement in North-Eastern Bulgaria

A previously unknown settlement from the Roman Era was recently discovered by archaeologists in the Mentesheto area near the town of Varna on Bulgaria’s northern Black Sea coast.

The discovery was made by archaeologists Aleksadar Michev and Teodor Rokov, who were exploring a stone structure reminiscent of a ‘dolmen’ – a typical Thracian tomb from the Early Iron Age. The excavations show that the stone slabs on the earth’s surface were new, although four main periods of inhabitation of the place through the centuries were discovered under the ground, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency wrote today.

The earliest testament of a human presence at the site dates to the second and third centuries. The archaeologists’ discovery linked to this period is the stone flooring, which probably constituted part of the courtyard of a large building or Roman villa, which was destroyed around the middle of the third century by a Gothic invasion.

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Italy: Archeological treasures found near Naples

Archaeologists have unearthed a number of ancient Roman treasures during excavation outside the southern Italian city of Naples. Twelve ancient statues, columns and fragments bearing inscriptions from what appear to be monuments from the Republican and Imperial periods of ancient Roman history have been uncovered.

A head of the Roman emperor Tiberius bearing a crown of laurel leaves, two other male heads and a fragment of a painting are among the objects from the late Republican period in the 3rd century BC discovered by a team of archeologists at the site in Rione Terra di Pozzuoli.

Two female heads were also uncovered. One may be the head of an Amazon warrior from the 2nd century AD, while the second is believed to be a Roman empress from the late Julio-Claudian dynasty.

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The Viking Ship Museum will be 40 years old on 20 June

There will be free admission when the Viking Ship Museum opens its doors for a birthday celebration with many opportunities to look back over the first 40 years of the museum.

On Saturday 20 June it will be 40 years since King Frederik IX inaugurated the Viking Ship Hall in Roskilde. The day will be celebrated with special guided tours, open access to the Sea Stallion, publication of a book, the boatyard will be open to the public etc. There will also be free admission all day for both adults and children.

There will be plenty of opportunities to get close to the work with the Viking ships, past, present and future. The high-points of the day are listed in the programme below.

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Global warming a threat to our treasured historic sites

SOME of Wales’ most treasured historic sites will turn to ruin unless urgent action is taken to halt climate change, experts have warned in one of their starkest warnings yet on global warming.

Ancient buildings, including Restoration-era mansion Tredegar House and Cardiff City Hall, will be lost if the effects of rising temperatures and flash floods are allowed to go unchecked in Wales.

In an interview with the Western Mail, leading experts in the fields of construction and conservation warned that the impact of global warming could be “enormous”, leading to unprecedented damage of renowned monuments, landscapes and archaeological sites.

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Etching could be first example of art in Americas

An etching on a bone found near Vero Beach could be the earliest example of art in the Americas if determined to be authentic, which University of Florida professors believe to be the case.

An amateur fossil collector said the bone fragment had been sitting under his sink before he noticed what appeared to be an etching of a mammoth on it.

Barbara Purdy, professor emerita of anthropology at UF, ran the bone through a battery of tests to determine the etching's authenticity.

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Hungarian Researcher on the Trial of the Hun Tribes

Huns are widely thought of as savage barbarians who appeared briefly in history, wreaked death and destruction, then disappeared again. Recent archaeological and historical discoveries are raising questions about this view.

Of the European countries, Hungary has the most legends about the Huns and in these legends they are the heroes, not the villains. Hungarian academic and researcher, Dr. Borbála Obrusánszky, has followed their trail all the way to China and Mongolia, where she did postgraduate work. She was also part of a Hungarian team that visited China and was interviewed by the National Geographic’s Hungarian edition. In an interview with Digital Journal, she explained that while the Huns, as a people, no longer exist, much of their culture remains:

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Taking a shot at archaeology

A photography exhibition highlighting more than a century of archaeological cooperation between Europe and Egypt was inaugurated last Thursday at the Egyptian Museum. Nevine El-Aref went along

From the beginning of the 19th century, archaeology in Egypt has enticed a multitude of European travellers and academics. These pioneers rediscovered the main characteristics of history from the ancient Egyptian to modern eras, and thus contributed to establishing strong scientific links not only between the nations of Europe and Egypt but also between those nations themselves.

To illustrate this early and long lasting common interest and cooperation, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and the European Commission in Egypt are holding a two-month- long photography exhibition at the Egyptian Museum entitled: "Europe-Egypt: A long lasting Archaeological Cooperation".

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Frühmittelalterliche Sonnenuhr aus dem Neusser Kloster St. Quirin

Eine Sonnenuhr des 9.-10. Jahrhunderts aus dem ehemaligen Kloster St. Quirin in Neuss konnte jetzt anhand von archäologischen Fragmenten rekonstruiert und nachgebaut werden. Bislang sind in Europa nur sehr wenige Uhren aus dieser Zeit bekannt geworden.

Die drei Kalksteinbruchstücke des Zeitmessers wurden in den 1960er Jahren bei Ausgrabungen auf dem ehemaligen Klosterareal entdeckt und ursprünglich für römische Spolien gehalten. Erst kürzlich konnten sie als Teile einer hochmittelalterlichen Sonnenuhr identifiziert werden. Die Ausgrabungen, die seinerzeit auf dem Gelände um das Kloster und spätere Stift St. Quirin durchgeführt wurden, werden derzeit in einem Forschungsprojekt des Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie und Provinzialrömische Archäologie der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München am LVR-LandesMuseum Bonn ausgewertet.

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Dorset grave site reveals dark side of Romans

WITH their central heating, fancy flooring, hot and cold running water and drinkable wine, it’s not hard to see what the Romans did for us.

And 2,000 years on, as we unearth pots, jewellery and the footings of luxury villas, as well as continuing to use the roads and aqueducts they built for us, it seems their PR machine is still cranking out the good publicity.

But it wasn’t all mosaics, music and orgies because the Romans had their dark side. Before they started building cities, creating parks and installing decent lavvies, they first took time to butcher many of our ancestors.

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Changing landscape of archaeology

Between 1993 and 2003, there was a 10-fold increase in the number of licences for archaeological excavations issued, the majority of them granted to private consultancy firms. It is estimated that by 2007, about 1,700 archaeologists were working in Ireland, whereas a decade earlier that number was 500.

The National Monuments Acts (1994 and 2004) include a requirement for archaeological investigations where major infrastructural projects were undertaken, thereby ensuring that archaeological activity accelerated in line with the infrastructural splurge.

But what have we learned from the spike in archaeological activity over the past 15 years that we didn’t already know? And what now for archaeologists and their employment prospects given the changed economic climate?

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Executed Iron Age bodies from Roman battle found in pit on Olympic transport route

A 2,000-year-old mass grave full of dismembered bodies and skulls has been discovered at an ancient burial site being dug up to create a road for the 2012 Olympics.

Archaeologists excavating the Weymouth Relief Road, on Ridgeway Hill near Weymouth, believe the pit of corpses comprises Iron Age war casualties massacred by the Roman Army.

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This pile of rocks was once the seat of kings

It could be the world's first observatory, its network of little pools acting as mirrors to the stars. It could be a calendar, a kind of Bulgarian Stonehenge. Or it might even be where soothsayers once predicted the future by watching the pattern of flames and the flow of wine down channels carved in the rock.

It might even have been where Alexander first heard the prophecy that he would, one day, conquer the world. It has a sphinx; compasses go haywire when laid on its granite rocks; and it is dangerous to be there in a thunderstorm. Sci-fi geeks claim its flat plateau of rocks was a landing strip for aliens. But no one really knows what Belintash – 4,000 years old and 4,000 feet up in Bulgaria's Rhodope Mountains – was actually for.

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Greek fury at Elgin marbles 'loan deal'

Queen turns down invitation to opening of major new museum in Athens built to house Acropolis treasures

A bitter new row over ownership of the Elgin marbles has erupted, threatening to eclipse the inauguration this week of a major new museum in Athens designed to house the contested masterpieces.

Just days before the opening of the €130m (£110m) New Acropolis Museum, officials in Athens and London were this weekend engaging in barbed exchanges over the classical treasures.

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Students unearth Saxon nunnery

Archaeologists believe they could have found the first-ever excavated Saxon nunnery, on a dig in Gloucestershire.

The annual dig, by the University of Bristol, has unearthed remains of a Saxon building in the grounds of the Edward Jenner Museum, Berkeley.

The Berkeley Project to find Saxon Berkeley and the missing nunnery has been going for five years.

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Dyfed Archaeological Trust, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and Cadw in Arfordir

Volunteers are needed to help identify coastal archaeology sites affected by erosion in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and in Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion.

The national park authority is taking part in a project called Arfordir, which means ‘coastline’, with Dyfed Archaeological Trust and Cadw. James Meek, from Dyfed Archaeological Trust, said: “The day-to-day action of the sea, like the changing tides, affects our coastal archaeology. But climate change and rises in sea level will increase the risks of flooding and coastal erosion. “What we’d like to do is find out a bit more about what these alterations are to our coastal heritage and to record and understand them better.”

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New Viking movie in production in Iceland

Baltasar Kormakur, Iceland’s best known film director, has started work on a new high-budget Viking movie. This will be the most expensive film ever made in Iceland with an estimated budget of 60 million dollars.

Baltasar, who is probably the most popular movie director in Iceland, became famous for directing “101 Reykjavik” some years ago. His new movie is partly based on the stories of Njal (”Njals saga”), a Viking herse and his family living in Norway and Iceland. The sagas are full of dramatic stories, and they are a very important part of the history of the Icelanders.

“I’m really looking forward to this movie, and I’m sure it will be a hit internationally, it’s so full of excitement and adventure,” the director said.

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Archaeologists find skulls on route of new road

• Remains in Dorset burial pit may be 2,000 years old
• Theories include battle with Romans or epidemic

The skulls of scores of young men have been found in a burial pit on the route of a new road in Dorset.

So far 45 skulls, believed to be almost 2,000 years old, have been found, and more may be found as the pit is emptied. Archaeologists have called the discovery extraordinary, saying it could be evidence of a disaster, a mass execution, a battle or possibly an epidemic.

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History uncovered as diggers unearth what lies beneath

Archeologists have been discovering what lies beneath the floor in part of a north Suffolk church.

An ambitious project at St Peter and St Paul in Eye is under way to make it fit for the 21st century.

But archaeologist Stuart Boulter, of Suffolk Archaeological Service, was called in to take a look before ground work started on a new meeting room and toilets.

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Uncovering history in search of lost church

BUDDING archaeologists made some astonishing finds in the Mulgrave area recently – including ancient pieces of pottery.

The In Search of Seton Church Project is being led by archaeologist Kevin Cale.

He said: “With the kind permission of a local landowner, a team of volunteers has been field walking to look for clues as to the location of Seton’s lost church.

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Stone circle in East Anglian village?

A QUALIFIED surveyor claims a picturesque village on the Essex/Suffolk border might boast the only proper stone circle outside the west of England.

For generations the sarcen stones at Alphamstone near Sudbury have been at the centre of hot debate as to whether they were ever part of a stone circle.

There are two stones marking the entrance to St Barnabas Church and a number of others further back near - and in - the church, but they form neither a circle nor part of a circle.

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Mass Roman war grave found by 2012 Olympic road builders

A mass "war grave" containing the skulls of 45 people dating back to Roman times has been uncovered as work begins on a new road being built to a 2012 Olympic venue.

Archaeologists made the discovery while carrying out a dig on the site of the new £87 million relief road to Weymouth, Dorset – the sailing venue for the forthcoming games which was visited by the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on Thursday.

The burial pit on nearby Ridgeway Hill has been found to contain various skeleton pieces including 45 skulls.

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Roman ruins found on 2012 Olympics relief road

A mass "war grave" containing the skulls of 45 people dating back to Roman times has been uncovered as work begins on a new road being built to a 2012 Olympic venue.

Archaeologists made the discovery while carrying out a dig on the site of the new £87 million relief road to Weymouth, the Dorset sailing venue for the forthcoming Games.

The burial pit on nearby Ridgeway Hill has been found to contain various skeleton pieces including 45 skulls.

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Mass Roman grave reveals headless bodies

A 2,000-year-old mass grave containing at least 45 headless bodies has been uncovered by workers digging a new road for the Olympics.

The victims are thought to have been slaughtered by the invading Romans in about 43AD.

The 6m-wide (20ft) plot within the site of an £87million relief road near Weymouth in Dorset has now been sealed off while archaeologists examine the 'remarkable' discovery.

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Italy: Ancient Roman wall in 'danger' of collapse

There are fears for the future of Rome's ancient Aurelian walls after chunks collapsed on Tuesday. A major street was closed in the Italian capital after bricks from the nearly 2000-year old wall fell down.

The city's archaeological authorities want to save the historic treasure, but they claim protection and restoration is limited due to poor financial resources, according to the Italian daily, Il Messaggero.

Authorities told the daily that whenever chunks of the walls collapse, the area is usually fenced off, but restoration work is almost never completed due to a lack of funds.

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Archaeologists unearth 800-year-old shoe

Archaeologists have unearthed a well-preserved leather shoe from 13th century at a dig in Magdeburg that could provide insights into mediaeval life.

“Shoe finds of this type from the Gothic period occur very seldom in Central Europe,” said Heiko Breuer, an antiquities restoration expert from the State Museum for Prehistory Saxony-Anhalt in Halle.

The shoe, which is made of sheepskin, was surprisingly well-preserved in a moist layer of soil.

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Bronze Age burial mound discovered

AN excavation within the ramparts of the Penycloddiau Iron Age hillfort has confirmed that a Bronze Age burial mound sits at the summit, dating back at least 3,500 years.

Between May 11 and 22 archaeologists from the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) excavated a mound found on the northern end of the hillfort. The mound had been heavily eroded by the Offa’s Dyke Path National Trail which runs through the centre of the hillfort and across the top of the mound.

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Dig unearths Roman road at Tesco

One of the longest sections of Roman road ever found in Wales is being unearthed at the site of a new Tesco.

The highway was carved out of the Powys countryside in Newtown 2,000 years ago, and is thought to have linked two forts.

Archaeologists are excavating three separate sections of the road, and they expect to uncover a total of 300 metres.

The work will not delay the development of the supermarket.

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Wearmouth-Jarrow Nomination For World Heritage Site

The twin Anglo-Saxon monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow in northeast England will be the UK’s nomination for World Heritage Site status in 2010. The monastery, which functioned as ‘one monastery in two places’, is centred on St Peter’s Church in Wearmouth, Sunderland and St Paul’s Church in Jarrow.

Wearmouth-Jarrow was a major international centre of learning and culture in the 7th and 8th centuries. Its most famous inhabitant, the Venerable Bede, was the greatest scholar of his day and the impact of his writings is still felt in the 21st century. Original and rare 7th-century architectural and archaeological remains of the monastery survive at both Wearmouth and Jarrow.

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Allotment reveals its Roman past

Roman skeletons and artefacts have been found by people digging a pond in a set of Leicester allotments.

The group said they were shocked when they came across a skull and other bones just hours after starting work on the land.

A team from the University of Leicester used pottery to confirm the skeletons dated from the second century AD.

The allotment holders have been told their vegetable plots were probably once a Roman cemetery.

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Archaeological dating by re-firing ancient pots

Researchers in the UK have created a new way of dating archaeological artefacts that involves heating ancient pots to unlock their internal clocks. The relatively simple technique could become as important for dating ceramics as carbon dating is for organic materials, say the researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Edinburgh. The team has already dated ceramics from the Roman, medieval and modern periods to a high degree of accuracy, and they are now looking to establish a global research facility for the technique.

The method relies on the fact that fired clay ceramics — like bricks, tile and pottery — start to chemically combine with water as soon as they are exposed to the atmosphere. A big breakthrough came in 2003 when the researchers realized that this process has occurred at a predictable rate throughout history, related to temperatures. Now the researchers have turned their theory into a practical dating method and present their findings in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

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Ancient tombs discovered by Kingston University-led team

A prehistoric complex including two 6,000-year-old tombs representing some of the earliest monuments built in Britain has been discovered by a team led by a Kingston University archaeologist. Dr Helen Wickstead and her colleagues were stunned and delighted to find the previously undiscovered Neolithic tombs, also known as long barrows at a site at Damerham, Hampshire.

Some artefacts, including fragments of pottery and flint and stone tools, have already been recovered and later in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey of the site, recovering and recording any artefacts that have been brought to the surface by ploughing.

Dr Wickstead said that further work would help to reveal more about the Neolithic era. “We hope that scientific methods will allow us to record these sites before they are completely eroded”, she said. “If we can excavate, we’ll be able to say a lot more about Neolithic people in that area and find out things like who was buried there, what kinds of lives they led, and what the environment was like six thousand years ago.”

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Excavation uncovers 3,500 year old Bronze Age North Wales burial mound

A BRONZE Age burial mound, thought to be at least 3,500 years old, has been discovered in Penycloddiau, Denbighshire.

The ancient resting place was discovered in an excavation of the Penycloddiau Iron Age hillfort, which lies between Llandyrnog and Nannerch, by the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust.

The mound had been heavily eroded by the Offa's Dyke trail, which runs across the top of it and through the centre of the hillfort.

Although no dating evidence was found, archaeologists could distinguish the mound as being Bronze Age.

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Neolithic Age: Prehistoric Complex Including Two 6,000-year-old Tombs Discovered In Britain

A prehistoric complex including two 6,000-year-old tombs representing some of the earliest monuments built in Britain has been discovered by a team led by a Kingston University archaeologist. Dr Helen Wickstead and her colleagues were stunned and delighted to find the previously undiscovered Neolithic tombs, also known as long barrows, at a site at Damerham, Hampshire.

Some artefacts, including fragments of pottery and flint and stone tools, have already been recovered and later in the summer a team of volunteers will make a systematic survey of the site, recovering and recording any artefacts that have been brought to the surface by ploughing.

Dr Wickstead said that further work would help to reveal more about the Neolithic era. “We hope that scientific methods will allow us to record these sites before they are completely eroded,” she said. “If we can excavate, we’ll be able to say a lot more about Neolithic people in that area and find out things like who was buried there, what kinds of lives they led, and what the environment was like six thousand years ago.”

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Researchers dive into ancient treasure

Archaeologists from Britain's University of Nottingham and Greece's Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Ministry of Culture are using digital equipment to unlock the mystery behind the ancient Greek town of Pavlopetri, thought to be the oldest submerged town in the world. Discovered and mapped by researchers of the Institute of Oceanography at Cambridge University in 1968, no other work has since been conducted at the site. This project could fuel underwater archaeology in the future.

The ruins of Pavlopetri, which lie in three to four metres of water just off the coast of Laconia in the Peloponnese, date from at least 2 800 BC. Buildings are still intact, and streets, courtyards, and chamber tombs exist as well. Experts believe the ruins belong to the Mycenaean period (circa 1680-1180 BC).

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Festival of British Archaeology 2009

The Festival of British Archaeology (formerly National Archaeology Week) is your unique chance to discover and explore the archaeological heritage of the United Kingdom. During this two-week archaeological extravaganza, which will run from Saturday 18th July to Sunday 2nd August, you can take part in excavation open days, hands-on activities, family fun days, guided tours, exhibitions, lectures, ancient art and craft workshops and much, much more.

The aim of this annual event is to encourage everyone, including young people and their families to visit sites of archaeological/historical interest or museums, heritage and resource centres, to see archaeology in action and to take part in activities on-site.

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Corrib may have had 'major' settlement

A CONNEMARA archaeologist says that the recent discovery of two stone axes in Galway city and county points to a “major” hunter-gatherer presence on the Corrib catchment up to 9,000 years ago.

The axes were found in Ballybane and in the garden of a private house in Clifden, Co Galway, and are the latest in a number of significant finds recorded by archaeologist Michael Gibbons in the last couple of months.

The Clifden axe was unearthed by Velta Conneely in her garden – the second such axe she has discovered there in eight years, Mr Gibbons noted.

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Plough uncovers suspected chambered tomb

What appears to be a Neolithic chambered tomb has been unearthed on the outskirts of Kirkwall.

The underground structure was discovered by John Hourie, Heathfield, St Ola, while ploughing. He reported it to his neighbour, archaeologist Caroline Wickham Jones, who contacted the county archaeologist Julie Gibson.

Julie explained: “The structure is located in a field on the crest of the hill overlooking Kirkwall and Scapa. Soils are thin, are rarely ploughed - this year’s ploughing work was the first time in decades. Bedrock is apparent in places.

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Cemetery site searched for hidden treasure

Archaeologists are investigating whether land earmarked for a new cemetery at Red Scar is concealing any hidden historic gems.

The work must be carried out ahead of a planning application for the new Preston graveyard later this year.

Red Scar, off Longridge Road, was once the home of the Cross family, who have Cross Street in the city centre named after them.

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New 'molecular clock' aids dating of human migration history

Researchers at the University of Leeds have devised a more accurate method of dating ancient human migration - even when no corroborating archaeological evidence exists.

Estimating the chronology of population migrations throughout mankind's early history has always been problematic. The most widely used genetic method works back to find the last common ancestor of any particular set of lineages using samples of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), but this method has recently been shown to be unreliable, throwing 20 years of research into doubt.

The new method refines the mtDNA calculation by taking into account the process of natural selection - which researchers realised was skewing their results - and has been tested successfully against known colonisation dates confirmed by archaeological evidence, such as in Polynesia in the Pacific (approximately 3,000 years ago), and the Canary Islands (approximately 2,500 years ago).

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Numismática Hebrea Hispana

La presente tan sólo para informarle de la redacción por mi parte de un nuevo blog para dar a conocer las leyendas hebreas de las monedas ibéricas de Hispania (también alguna en Portugal y Francia).

http://numismticahebreahispana.blogspot.com/

Ancient Art, Music Flowered as Communities, Not Brains, Grew

An explosion of art, music, jewelry and hunting technology appeared 45,000 years ago because of increased population density, rather than the evolution of the human brain, a study said.

Researchers used genetic estimates of ancient population sizes, archaeological artifacts and computer simulations of social learning. They found complex skills involving abstract thinking would be passed down through generations and across groups only when populations reach a critical level, according to the study in tomorrow’s edition of the journal Science.

Increased interaction between groups, the sharing of ideas and the exchange of raw materials that led to the flowering of human culture may explain why concentrated centers of industry, such as California’s Silicon Valley, produce technological innovations, said Mark Thomas, 44, a senior author of the study and a senior lecturer at University College London in England.

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Ha-Ha! Ape study traces evolution of laughter

When scientists set out to trace the roots of human laughter, some chimps and gorillas were just tickled to help. Literally.

That's how researchers made a variety of apes and some human babies laugh. After analyzing the sounds, they concluded that people and great apes inherited laughter from a shared ancestor that lived more than 10 million years ago.

Experts praised the work. It gives very strong evidence that ape and human laughter are related through evolution, said Frans de Waal of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University in Atlanta.

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The Saxons were coming! A tiny sword stud found under a shop rewrites Welsh history

AT BARELY a centimetre across and almost unrecognisable after centuries underground, it may not look much, but could shed light on an almost unknown era of Welsh history.

The discovery of a sword stud beneath shops in Monmouth, made public for the first time in today’s Western Mail, could be evidence of an Anglo-Saxon period settlement.

But now there are concerns the site where it was found may be destroyed by development.

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16th century crucifix found in Notts

A GOLD crucifix and silver whistle dating back to the 16th century that were found in North Notts have been declared treasure.

The crucifix was found in the Tuxford area on August 21 with the use of a metal detector.

It is made of solid gold with traces of enamel.

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Iron Age mystery may be solved

Archaeologists will return to a 2,000-year-old site on Beccles marshes this summer in a bid to finally unravel the mystery behind it.

A team of students from Birmingham University will spend three weeks excavating on the iron-age site just outside the town.

Three long rows of wooden posts inserted into the ground were unearthed while flood defence work was being carried out on the marshes in 2006.

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Domus Aurea work 'to take two years'

One of Rome's prime tourist attractions, the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, will reopen again in two years' time after work to make it completely safe for the public, officials said Wednesday.

The fabled 'Golden House' has been closed since 2005 after masonry fell from flaking walls and a high level of dangerous seepage was detected.

The work will begin in a month's time, officials said.

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New Forest discovery thought be one of oldest ever made in UK

TWO 6,000-year-old tombs have been unearthed in Hampshire in one of the biggest archaeological finds for years.

The discovery, thought to be among the oldest ever made in the UK, is set to shed new light on the life led by the county’s earliest settlers.

Flint tools and fragments of pottery have already been retrieved from the Neolithic site at Damerham in the New Forest.

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Archeologists dig up gardens

PRESTONPANS residents’ back gardens were the site of an archaeological dig last weekend, when a team began their attempts to uncover remnants of the Battle of Prestonpans.

After several residents from Schaw Road and Polwarth Terrace uncovered artefacts from the battle – including muskets, cannon balls and buttons – the two streets were an area of focus last Saturday.

A number of local residents had volunteered to have their gardens surveyed after the archaeology team from Glasgow University’s Centre for Battlefield Archaeology – led by Dr Tony Pollard of BBC2’s ‘Men in a Trench’ fame – launched their plans.

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Archeologists unearth 17th century stone flask, buried 380 years ago to ward off witches

It is guaranteed to strike fear into the evil heart of any passing witch.

But a far worse fate would follow if the bizarre contents of this ancient stone flask did the job for which they were intended.

The witch would immediately convulse in screaming agony - and the spell she cast would be turned back upon her for evermore.

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Mammoths Roasted in Prehistoric Kitchen Pit

Central Europe's prehistoric people would likely have been amused by today's hand-sized hamburgers and hot dogs, since archaeologists have just uncovered a 29,000 B.C. well-equipped kitchen where roasted gigantic mammoth was one of the last meals served.

The site, called Pavlov VI in the Czech Republic near the Austrian and Slovak Republic borders, provides a homespun look at the rich culture of some of Europe's first anatomically modern humans.

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New Hominid 12 Million Years Old Found In Spain, With 'Modern' Facial Features

Researchers have discovered a fossilized face and jaw from a previously unknown hominoid primate genus in Spain dating to the Middle Miocene era, roughly 12 million years ago. Nicknamed "Lluc," the male bears a strikingly "modern" facial appearance with a flat face, rather than a protruding one. The finding sheds important new light on the evolutionary development of hominids, including orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and humans.

In a study appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Salvador Moyà-Solà, director of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and colleagues present evidence for the new genus and species, dubbed Anoiapithecus brevirostris. The scientific name is derived from the region where the fossil was found (l’Anoia) and also from its "modern" facial morphology, characterized by a very short face.

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Mammoth skeleton unearthed in Serbia

Archaeologists say a skeleton of a mammoth believed to be about one million years old has been unearthed in eastern Serbia.

Miomir Korac from the Archaeology Institute says the skeleton was discovered at an open-pit coal mine near Kostolac power plant.

Korac says the skeleton is very well preserved. He says the mammoth was more than 4 meters (13 feet) high, 5 meters (16 feet) long and weighed more than 10 tons.

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Event at Museum of London Docklands

Excavating post-medieval cemeteries

Sat 20 Jun, 10.15am - 5pm

Discover what post-medieval cemetery studies tell us about the past through
discussion of excavation results from St Marylebone, Westminster and Old
Church, Chelsea. Speakers will discuss different strands of the evidence and
examine historical, documentary, artefactual and osteological clues to the lives
of past populations. The event also provides an opportunity to examine human
remains first hand, under the supervision of our osteologists.

Book your place by calling 020 7001 9844

Excavation at Roman Binchester

On Monday June 8th excavation will begin on the Roman fort at Binchester
(Co. Durham) as part of the Durham-Stanford Binchester Research Project;
this is a joint project being run by Durham County Council, Dept. of
Archaeology/Archaeological Services, Durham University and the Dept. of
Classics, Stanford University. This work is will be kicking off the
first of five seasons of fieldwork at the site exploring the fort and
its associated vicus and putting it into its wider landscape context.

You can follow events on our blog http://binchester.blogspot.com/, which
will be updated daily once excavation starts and already has some
interesting material on it.

Witch bottle is uncorked to discover spellbinding content

Take a small heart-shaped piece of leather, a handful of iron nails, eight brass pins, a lock of hair, some nail clippings, a pinch of navel fluff and place them in a bottle. Then add a pint of urine, seal the bottle and bury it by your front door — this is the recipe for warding off a witch’s curse.

An analysis of the contents of the first witch bottle to be found with its cork intact has cast light on the fear of witchcraft in the 17th century.

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The Viking and Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Economy (VASLE) Project

In the last fifteen years the role of metal-detected objects in the study of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian England has greatly increased through reporting to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and the Early Medieval Corpus (EMC). There are now thousands more artefacts and coins known than a decade ago which, in conjunction with fieldwork, have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of the early medieval period.

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TAC SPRING 2009 PLEDGE DRIVE

Location: Worldwide Length: 3 min.

Help us raise $5000 in two weeks! Supporting memberships are the best way for us to ensure continuation of TAC and its programs. Our goal is to replace the lost underwriting income with new supporting Memberships, to ensure a sound financial footing for ALI and thus also for TAC. Check for daily updates from special TAC guests and representatives to learn how you can help TAC continue to deliver and expand its programming. We are counting on your support! Thank you.

Watch the video...

RescuE of Completed Archaeological Projects

The ADS and English Heritage are pleased to announce the online release of the first RescuE of Completed Archaeological Projects (RECAP) archives. The RECAP project entailed a audit process be carried out to assess the state of existing archives from a list of projects provided by Archaeology Commissions at English Heritage. The first four projects audited and archives under this project have now been released: Chalgrove Manor, Harding's Field, Chalgrove, Oxfordshire - Oxford Archaeology, The Cluniac priory and abbey of St Saviour Bermondsey, Surrey: excavations 1984-95 - Museum of London Archaeology, The eastern cemetery of Roman London: excavations 1983-1990 - Museum of London Archaeology, Thornhill Farm, Fairford, Gloucestershire - Oxford Archaeology.

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Ancient Death-Smile Potion Decoded?

Thousands of years before the Joker gassed comic book victims into a grinning death, Phoenician colonists on the island of Sardinia (map) were forcing smiles on the faces of the dead.

Now scientists say they know just how the ancient seafaring traders created the gruesome smiles some 2,800 years ago—not with a toxic gas like Batman's nemesis but with a plant-based potion.

And someday that plant might be used to Botox-like effect, perhaps reducing rather than adding smile lines, the researchers speculate.

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Farmer's son unearths medieval ring

A medieval silver ring dating back more than 800 years has been unearthed on a farm in Northern Ireland.

The 12th century artefact was found by 17-year-old Conor Sandford as he was putting up a fence post at the edge of one of his father's fields near the village of Kilmore, Co Armagh.

The teenager told a treasure trove hearing in Belfast today he initially thought the engraved finger ring was a ring pull from an old fizzy drink can.

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6th Annual Teaching & Learning in Archaeology Conference

There are still places left for the 6th Annual Teaching & Learning in Archaeology Conference, taking place on the 1st and 2nd July at Birkbeck College. Please see the provisional programme below. More information on the event can also be found on our website.

Go to the website...

Wessex Archaeology opens new office in Maidstone, Kent

Wessex Archaeology is delighted to announce the opening of a new office in Maidstone, North Kent. We have a long track record of working in the South East of England and our aim is to build on that success.

Covering the counties of Essex, Kent and East Sussex, the initial focus of the Maidstone office will be on evaluation and excavation work. However, the complete range of services will be available covering historic buildings and landscapes, excavation and publication, coastal and marine: the full spectrum of archaeological and heritage consulting and contracting.

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Hundreds to take part in Roman dig

Hundreds of Lincolnshire residents are set to take part in an archaeology dig starting this month.

Scores of Lincolnshire folk, including schoolchildren and members of the public, will be armed with trowels for the dig at Navenby.

The group has come together following an appeal in the Echo in March.

Organiser Pre-Construct Archaeology says the 28-day excavation starting on June 15 will centre on investigating the prehistoric forerunner to Roman Ermine Street

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Archaeological dig uncovers Parham's past

THE site of a parsonage believed to have been demolished in the early
1700s has been excavated by members of Worthing Archaeological Society (WAS).

They carried out the successful work on the Parham estate over the bank holiday weekend, with more than 500 visitors popping along to see
what was going on.

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Major dig to resume soon

Team will return to Lost Bishop’s Palace

AN INTERNATIONAL archaeological team will be hoping for continuing dry weather when a major north-east excavation resumes this month in a mediaeval moat.

The 15th annual dig at the Lost Bishop’s Palace of Fetternear will be taking place from June 29 until July 24, just across the River Don from Kemnay.

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