Bats in the belfry bigger threat to medieval churches than reformation, warns CofE

Medieval churches which survived the “ravages” of the reformation might now have to be abandoned because European law is allowing them to be overrun with bats, the Church of England has warned.

MPs have been told that “irreplaceable” treasures including frescoes which survived the waves of destruction in the 16th Century are now being destroyed by chemicals in bat droppings.

Sir Tony Baldry, the Tory MP who represents the Church of England in the Commons, said that some buildings used for centuries are now in danger of becoming unsustainable as places of worship unless action is taken.

He said that, while it was never the intention of those who drafted the European Habitats Directive, which bans interference with bat roosts, to render churches unusable, that is the result of the way it is currently being interpreted.

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Conwy workmen's 'incredible' medieval house find

The remains of a medieval house and cesspit that could date back to the time of the 13th Century Conwy Castle have been uncovered by workmen.

The remains of a road and other artefacts have also been found in Castle Street about 100 metres from the castle itself.

Contractors working for Dwr Cymru Welsh Water made the find in May.

Experts say the finds are "incredibly important" and could provide a new insight into medieval Conwy.

Ashley Batten, senior planning archaeologist with the Gwynedd Archaeological Planning Service, said the remains could date from before the revolt against English forces, when it is thought that the entire town was burnt to the ground about 1401.

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Mick Aston, archaeologist at the heart of Channel 4's Time Team

Mick Aston, right, with fellow Time Team presenter Tony Robinson before an archaeological dig at Buckingham Palace in 2006. Photograph: Fiona Hanson/PA

Mick Aston, who has died suddenly at the age of 66, was a leading academic archaeologist who attracted a large public following through the Channel 4 television programme Time Team. He was a popular success, in the sense that he made his subject understandable and enjoyable, but he was also well liked by viewers for his informal manner, forthright speech and genuine enthusiasm. His unkempt hair and beard, multicoloured sweaters and Black Country accent made him instantly recognisable.

Mick had collaborated with the television producer Tim Taylor on various programmes, and in 1994 they devised a winning formula for Time Team. Each week, a group of researchers spent three days answering an archaeological question. They employed a variety of techniques, including documentary research, aerial observation, geophysical survey, planning of earthworks, field walking (for surface potsherds), re-enactment and small-scale excavation.

The programmes worked because they challenged the audience by using a scientific method: a research question was posed, and evidence assembled to provide an answer. At the end of the programme, a solution to the problem was proposed. Viewers were drawn into the scholarly process as different interpretations were put forward and sometimes set aside in the light of discoveries. They enjoyed the debates and banter between the participants, and they relished disagreement.

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Poppleton Ousebank Primary school nominated for Community Pride award

POPPLETON Ousebank Primary school in York is among the nominees for the 2013 Community Pride awards for creating an archaeological dig to help teach history.

Staff hope it will help make lessons about the past more interactive, and help cultivate an interest in history. Teachers will bury historical objects and encourage children to find them and then make observations and ask questions.

Estelle O’Hara, head teacher atPoppleton Ousebank, said: “We want to develop children’s enthusiasm by creating what we call ‘curriculum wows’. We decided to build a dig. It’s been an idea in our minds for some time.

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Video: The curse of the spinning statue at Manchester Museum

The 10-inch tall relic, which dates back to 1800 BC, was found in a mummy’s tomb and has been at the Manchester Museum for 80 years.

An ancient Egyptian statue has spooked museum bosses – after it mysteriously started to spin round in a display case.

The 10-inch tall relic, which dates back to 1800 BC, was found in a mummy’s tomb and has been at the Manchester Museum for 80 years.

But in recent weeks, curators have been left scratching their heads after they kept finding it facing the wrong way.  Experts decided to monitor the room on time-lapse video and were astonished to see it clearly show the statuette spinning 180 degrees – with nobody going near it.

The statue of a man named Neb-Senu is seen to remain still at night but slowly rotate round during the day.

Now scientists are trying to explain the phenomenon, with TV boffin Brian Cox among the experts being consulted.

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Saving Cleopatra's Needle

'Eye on the Needle' is a documentary about Cleopatra's Needle on London's Embankment. Currently in pre-production, the film is presented by Dr Paul Harrison and directed by Edward Scott-Clarke. This is a short film to compliment our sponsume page (www.sponsume.com/project/eye-needle), which we are using to raise funds for the film. 

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Dig starts at Iron Age hill fort in Caerau, Cardiff

Archaeologists have begun the first dig at an Iron Age hill fort above the Caerau housing estate in Cardiff.

Experts say it is one of the most significant of its kind in Europe, and re-writes history, proving the area was an important stronghold long before the Romans came.

Nick Palit went to view the dig and spoke to Dr Oliver Davies from Cardiff University.

City suburb dig for Iron Age fort

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Tributes to Time Team's Mick Aston

Mick Aston at the Museum of Somerset in 2011 Credit: ITV News West Country

The TV archaeologist Mick Aston, who lived in Winscombe in Somerset has died aged 66. Professor Aston found fame with the Time Team programme and was known for his colourful jumpers. Colleagues said he had an effortless way of making archaeology accessible to people.

Close friend and former colleague Dr Phil Harding said:

"Mick was a seriously good mate and a seriously good archaeologist, a unique man. Everybody loved him, he just had a way with people. I cannot believe there was anybody who disliked him, he just had such a relaxed way".

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The Sutton Hoo Online Exhibition

In 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War, an archaeologist named Basil Brown excavated the largest of 18 burial mounds in the grounds of a country house at Sutton Hoo in the east of England. What he discovered turned out to be a spectacular undisturbed burial. 

Placed inside a vast ship, were the extraordinarily rich belongings of a high-ranking Anglo-Saxon man, possibly even a king...

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From Sutton Hoo to the soccer pitch: culture with a click

Museums, libraries and galleries are a tourist staple of the summer holiday season. Often they’re the first place we head to when visiting a new city or town in order to learn about the heritage of that country. Though only a lucky few have the chance to travel to see these treasures first-hand, the Internet is helping to bring access to culture even when you can’t visit in person. 

At the Google Cultural Institute, we’ve been busy working with our partners to add a range of new online exhibitions to our existing collection. With more than 6 million photos, videos and documents, the diversity and range of subject matter is large—a reflection of the fact that culture means different things to different people. What the exhibitions have in common is that they tell stories; objects are one thing but it’s the people and places they link to that make them fascinating. 

The British Museum is the U.K.’s most popular visitor attraction and the 4th most visited museum in the world. It’s well known for housing one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries ever made—the 1,400 year old Anglo-Saxon burial from Sutton Hoo, untouched until its discovery in 1939. Their online exhibition “Sutton Hoo: Anglo-Saxon ship burial” explores the discovery of the ship, featuring videos of the excavation and photos of the iconic helmet and a solid gold belt buckle. All this tells the story of how the burial and its contents changed our understanding of what Anglo-Saxon society was like.

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ROYAL RHYNIE FOCUS OF PICTISH EXCAVATION

The Craw Stane stands in a field above Rhynie churchyard and is a Class I Pictish symbol stone. 

Image: David Connolly

Ateam from the University of Aberdeen commenced digging at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire in Scotland – a site famous for its impressive collection of carved Pictish standing stones.

Knowledge of the Pictish kingdoms, which developed between the 5th and 11th centuries, is relatively poor with the standing stones some of the only relics remaining of the once powerful people.

Rhynie boasts eight such stones, including the Craw Stone, which is thought to have been the centre point of an elaborate fortified settlement of the 5th-6th centuries AD.

A very royal place

“Since 2011 Aberdeen and Chester universities have been uncovering dramatic evidence concerning the stones at Rhynie”, explained project leader Dr Gordon Noble of the University of Aberdeen. “Rhynie derives from ‘rhynnoid’, which means ‘a very royal place’, which is fitting considering what’s been uncovered there over the last few years.

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SEARCH CONTINUES FOR ROMAN FORT OF THE NORTHERN FRONTIER

Archaeologists will next week begin the search for an elusive Roman fort believed to be located somewhere in the northeast of Scotland.

Dr Birgitta Hoffmann, Co-Director of The Roman Gask Project, based at the University of Liverpool, will lead a team of experienced volunteers in their search for a Roman fort which is believed to exist, but has been ‘missing’ for almost 2,000 years. It’s not certain that a fort actually exists, but if it does, it is likely to lie somewhere between the last known (and most northerly) fort at Stracathro (Brechin) and the northeast coast.

Rome’s first frontier

Locating the fort would be the first such discovery beyond the Antonine Wall in 30 years, and would form another piece of the Gask frontier. The Gask Ridge system was constructed sometime between 70 and 80 CE long before either Hadrian’s Wall (122-130 CE), and the Antonine Wall (142-144 CE). Although the Gask Ridge was not an unbroken defensive wall, it may be Rome’s earliest fortified land frontier based on forts and watchtowers along a military road. Blocking the glens with garrisoned forts disrupted the Caledonian tribes ability to raid the fertile lowlands and effectively created a border between Roman occupied lands and the north and west.

This Roman land frontier stretches from just north of Stirling up to Stracathro. The frontier comprises of a series of Roman forts and watchtowers, with a legionary fortress near Blairgowrie.

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Largest Known Ancient Roman Settlement in the Hadrian's Wall Frontier Under Exploration

Archaeologists under the direction of Stephen Rowland and John Zant of the archaeological research institution, Oxford Archaeology North, U.K, will be excavating and investigating the remains of a large Roman settlement associated with the nearby Roman fort of Alauna near the northwestern U.K. coastal town of Maryport.

While much has already been excavated of the nearby fort (where another key excavation, known as the Roman Temples Project, is currently taking place), much less is known of this settlement site, located just northeast of the fort remains. Geophysical surveys have revealed detailed physical clues, including the tell-tale lines of buildings which archaeologists suggest may possibly have been houses and shops adjacent to both sides of what appears to have been the main street extending from the northeast gate of the fort. Thought to be an ancient civilian settlement, it is considered the largest currently known along the Hadrian's Wall frontier. 

Report the archaeologists, "The excavation should provide an excellent opportunity to examine the date, complexity and uses of these structures, as well as revealing aspects of the daily lives of the people who lived there".

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Teston Roman villa discovery solves 140-year-old mystery

An archaeological mystery that has eluded experts in Kent for 140 years has finally been solved following the rediscovery of the site of a Roman villa.

The remains of a bath house were first unearthed in hop gardens on the banks of the River Medway at Teston in 1872, but after some excavations it was covered over until 1972, when archaeologists reinvestigated the site but failed to locate any trace of ancient remains.

Nearly 20 years later, in 1991 during the emergency renewal of a sewer, Southern Water uncovered Roman building materials and pottery, with archaeologists subsequently revealing the remains of a Roman masonry building.

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Roman townhouse 'underneath Lincoln Castle'

A Roman townhouse is probably located underneath Lincoln Castle, according to archaeologists digging at the site.

The dig has reached a depth of 3.5m below current ground level [Credit: BBC]

The team have already reached the foundations of the Norman phase of the castle during their work. Archaeologist Cecily Spall said the dig had reached a depth of 3.5m with another half-metre of digging left to complete.

The area is being excavated prior to a revamp of the castle. "We have been working since September - and have reached the level of the Norman castle - from the mid 11th Century," Ms Spall said.

She said they had found evidence of timber-framed buildings which may have been part of a medieval stable block. "We expect we will find a Roman townhouse at about 4m depth below ground level," she added.

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Prof Aston (left) with Sir Tony Robinson, the presenter of the show in which a team of experts travels the country to investigate archaeological sites

Mick Aston, a former resident academic on Channel 4's Time Team, has died at the age of 66.

He appeared on the show, which sees experts carry out archaeological digs, from its inception in 1994 until 2011.

Professor Aston lived in Somerset and taught at a number of UK universities.

Time Team's official Twitter account tweeted: "It is with a very heavy heart that we've been informed that our dear colleague Mick Aston has passed away. Our thoughts are with his family."

The exact circumstances of the death of Prof Aston, who was born and raised in Oldbury, in the West Midlands, and was known on the show for his colourful jumpers and unruly white hair, are not yet known.

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Biggest Viking exhibition in 20 years opens – and this time they're angry

Recent peaceful Viking rebrands are smashed in a vast and bloodthirsty show that will soon set sail for London

A violent animated backdrop to a reconstructed Viking warship

All around the hull of the longest Viking warship ever found there are swords and battle axes, many bearing the scars of long and bloody use, in an exhibition opening in Copenhagen that will smash decades of good public relations for the Vikings as mild-mannered traders and farmers.

"Some of my colleagues thought surely one sword is enough," archaeologist and co-curator Anne Pedersen said, "but I said no, one can never have too many swords."

The exhibition, simply called Viking, which will be opened at the National Museum by Queen Margrethe of Denmark on Thursday, and to the public on Saturday, will sail on to to London next year to launch the British Museum's new exhibition space.

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Excavations reveal remains of a Turkish bath in Aegean province

The remains of a Turkish bath dating back 1,500 years ago have been uncovered during the construction of a thermal tourism center in Denizli. AA photo

The remains of a 1,500-year-old thermal Turkish bath (hamam) have been uncovered during an excavation of a thermal tourism center in the Aegean province of Denizli. According to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Turkey’s Housing Development Administration (TOKI) is continuing an urban transformation for the thermal tourism center in the Karahayıt province of Denizli. The excavations in the settlement area started two months ago. 

There were two different constructions found in the same area. One is a Turkish bath with circular architecture and the other is a thermal structure. 

Governor Abdülkadir Demir, who was investigating the area, said that the constructions for the thermal tourism center planned for the Karahayıt region were continuing. There is an urban transformation project run by TOKI in this context. There is also an excavation taking place in the area for the saving of the historical artifacts found in the area. 

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SHELLFISH AND THE RISE OF MODERN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

Artefacts from the African Middle Stone Age (MSA; ∼200 to ∼50 ka), provide us with the first glimpses of modern human art and culture. Approximately 50 ka, one or more subgroups of modern humans expanded from Africa to populate the rest of the world.

Significant behavioural change accompanied this expansion, and archaeologists commonly seek its roots during this period. Recognizable art objects and “jewellery” become common only in sites that postdate the MSA in Africa and Eurasia, but some MSA sites contain possible precursors, including abstractly incised fragments of ochre and perforated mollusc shells interpreted as beads.

Was population growth the driver of change?

Researchers had previously theorised that it was an increase in population that drove behavioural innovations which in turn led to the creation of these artefacts and eventually, the expansion out of Africa. However, by examining mollusc shells from Stone Age sites, Richard Klein of Stanford University and Teresa Steele of University of California, Davis, have determined that a significant population increase did not occur until the Later Stone Age (LSA), after the out of Africa migration had already begun. Their research appears in the June 2013 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Sutherland longhouse site excavated

A smashed pot uncovered at the site of an 1800s longhouse could be evidence of a potentially violent eviction, archaeologists have suggested.

The Corr near Wick is a surviving example of a thatched longhouse [Credit: BBC]

Hundreds of the homes were abandoned during the Highland Clearances, when families were moved off land to make way for large-scale sheep production.

Thatched roofs of longhouses were set on fire and walls toppled to prevent people from moving back into them.

The pot at Lower Caen in Sutherland was found under a collapsed wall.

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