Photos, Archaeology and Flickr

At Wessex Archaeology, we’ve been working hard to build up a photo gallery which shows some of our most interesting projects and finds. We are pleased to announce that we now have over 200 photos online, with many more on the way. You can see them on the gallery section of our website.

The gallery has always been one of the most visited parts of our website. Thousands of people look at it each week, and we know from their comments that people love to see what life is like on an excavation, and to look at pictures of what has been dug up. In the light of its popularity, we have taken a different approach to a ‘traditional’ gallery.

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Watching the detectorists

Many archaeologists believe they are a vital part of their work, while some dismiss them as mere treasure hunters. Now a new code of conduct is recognising the role of metal detector enthusiasts in mapping the UK's history.

For anybody who encountered one in childhood, the strange whistles and beeps of a metal detector conjured up a special kind of magic.

Each noise from the contraption would generate a wave of excitement that would subside only when one realised that the unearthing of a rusty horseshoe or drinks can would not lead to a call to be the next Indiana Jones.

Most children became disenchanted when repeated sweeps of the back garden failed to unearth the next Sutton Hoo.

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A large Roman-era villa is discovered

Italian archeologists have reportedly discovered the remains of a huge Roman villa near Florence -- the first ever in the popular tourist area.

"Villas like these were fully fledged factories for the production of wine, olive oil, meat, corn and other products," said archaeologist Fausto Berti, who led the dig at Montelupo Fiorentino.

"We've found big animal pens, warehouses and even a workshop for making ceramic vases. The owners were self-sufficient," he told the Italian news service ANSA.

The 500-meter-square villa has fully equipped baths with all the areas Romans used to produce various levels of heat, warm water and steam -- and a cooling area.

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The Good Life meets the Flintstones

Sleeping arrangements are, er, cosy, and the loos are - of course - composting. Nicholas Roe is captivated by the earthly pleasures of an 'Iron Age' village in Gloucestershire.

My journey into the past began in a hut in Gloucestershire, where they took away my watch and mobile phone and gave me some yellow trousers and a fierce orange shirt. I felt like Rupert the Bear.

No, no, I was told, these were just the kind of clothes people wore 2,000 years ago. So I wandered up the hill, past the car park, fancy pants illuminating the gloomy surrounds of the Forest of Dean, and through a small opening in a huge circular earthen dyke... and there I found myself, as promised, in the Iron Age.

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Archaeologists crack down on rogue treasure hunters

A crackdown was launched on rogue treasure-hunters yesterday in an effort to protect the country's ancient heritage.

Faced with a growing number of priceless artefacts appearing for sale on the internet, museums, metal detectorists and archaeologists in England and Wales have agreed a new code of conduct.

The voluntary code comes after massive looting of a Roman-Celtic temple at Wanborough in Surrey in the mid-1980s and as customs officers seize ever more antiquities being smuggled out of the country.

"This code represents a major step forward," said Mike Heyworth of the Council for British Archaeology.

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Must Looted Relics Be Ignored?

Inscribed on Sumerian clay tablets more than 4,000 years ago, the Code of Ur-Nammu may be the earliest known recorded set of laws in the world: dozens of rules written in cuneiform about commerce and taxes, family law and inheritance.

But many scholars won't go near the one largely intact version of the code, and the top American journal of cuneiform research won't publish articles about it. The reason? The tablet was bought by a private Norwegian collector on the open market and does not come from a documented, scientific excavation. According to the ethics policies of the leading associations for antiquities scholars, that means it is off limits.

As scholars grapple with the reality that a growing number of important works — like the Ur-Nammu tablet and the recently unveiled Gospel of Judas — lack a clear provenance, those ethics policies are the focus of heated debate.

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Archaeologists discover unusual network of burial chambers in Rome

Archaeologists repairing a Roman catacomb have discovered an unusual network of underground burial chambers containing the elegantly dressed corpses of more than 1,000 people, a Rome official said.

The rooms appear to date back to the second century and are thought to be a place of early Christian burial. Because of the large number of bodies deposited over a relatively short period, experts believe a natural disaster or epidemic may have occurred at the time.

The corpses, dressed in fine clothes embroidered with gold thread, were carefully wrapped in sheets and covered in lime. Balsamic fragrances were also applied, according to Raffaella Giuliani, chief inspector of the Roman catacombs, who spoke with Vatican Radio May 1.

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Archaeologists and amateurs agree pact

The acquisition by the British Museum of a thumbnail-sized chunk of battered inscribed gold - a very rare runic inscription, probably hacked up by Vikings centuries after it was made - marks a historic truce between archaeologists and metal detectors after decades of skirmishing.

While amateur users of metal detectors have made some of the most spectacular archaeological finds of recent years, many archaeologists have regarded them as little better than hobby looters.

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Treasure dig threatens Bosphorus rail link

It's been called the project of the century: a mission to connect two continents with a $2.6 billion rail-tunnel running deep beneath the Bosphorus Straits.

The idea of linking the two sides of Istanbul underwater was first dreamt of by Sultan Abdul Mecit 150 years ago.

Now that Ottoman dream is finally being realised.

But the modern version of that vision has hit a historical stumbling block.

Istanbul archaeologists have uncovered a 4th century port at the site where engineers plan to build a 21st century railway hub. The Marmaray project cannot even begin work in the area until excavations are complete.

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UK museums, treasure hunters agree code of conduct

Museums, metal detectorists and archaeologists in England and Wales on Tuesday agreed a code of conduct to try to protect the country's buried treasures from being plundered by the unscrupulous or the unaware.

The voluntary code follows the massive looting of the Roman-Celtic temple at Wanborough in Surrey in the mid-1980s and with customs officers seizing increasing numbers of undeclared historical artefacts being smuggled out of the country.

"This code represents a major step forward," Mike Heyworth of the Council for British Archaeology told reporters at the British Museum.

"Most detectorists are only interested in finding and preserving local antiquity ... and make a positive contribution to our historical knowledge," he said. " There are just a few illicit detectorists motivated solely by profit."

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First of the archaeologists

LEEDS-based building and environmental consultants White Young Green have appointed Guy Kendall as the company's first archaeologist.

Mr Kendall, who will be based at the firm's Leeds office, has 10 years' experience working in Britain and Ireland as a field archaeologist and consultant with specialisms including wetlands and waterfront sites.

He is also an expert in pottery and lithic identification of the prehistoric period, cremation and ritual excavation and has worked extensively with the Sites and Monuments Record – a computerised database of information about the archaeology of an area or National Park.

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Metal-detectors' code published

The publication of a Code of Practice on Responsible Metal Detecting in England and Wales marks the first time that enthusiasts, archaeologists and landowners have come together to define “responsible metal-detecting”.

Archaeologists hope that the code will prevent damage to sites such as Wanborough, Surrey, where the remains of a Romano-Celtic temple have been damaged by treasure-hunters. Although the code cannot stop illegal activities, archaeologists believe that it can prevent destruction caused by ignorance.

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Greek island dig offers chance to solve riddle of ancient art

A dig into the rich past of a tiny isle in the Aegean archipelago could soon answer one of the riddles of prehistoric archaeology: why the remote outcrop produced so many of the flat-faced marble figurines that went on to inspire Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.

Greek and British archaeologists hope their planned excavation will shed light on whether windswept Keros was a major sanctuary for the mysterious Cycladic civilisation 4,500 years ago. The tantalising suggestion that the uninhabited isle may have housed the gateway to the underworld has also not been ruled out.

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SPRING CLEANING ROMAN MOSAICS IN ALDBOROUGH, YORKSHIRE

Spring cleaning the English Heritage way is going on at Aldborough Roman Town near Boroughbridge, North Yorkshire. It’s time for some of the area’s finest in situ Roman mosaics to be spruced up by conservators.

The magnificent relics have miraculously survived for 1800 years since they adorned the floor of an opulent Roman townhouse. Now work to remove lichen, plant growth and debris is underway at the hands of skilled conservators using brushes, water and detergent.

“We regularly remove loose dirt and leaves from the surface of the mosaics,” explained English Heritage Conservator for the North, Beth Stanley, “but this more intensive cleaning is only done when absolutely necessary. Our policy is to keep such procedures to a minimum to avoid possible damage.”

“The key thing is to keep the mosaics as dry as possible to prevent salts being deposited on the surface, and also free of organic growth which may stain them,” she continued. “Given their age, they are in good condition and still absolutely stunning to the eye. Careful maintenance helps ensure they remain that way.”

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Dig team brought in to homes site

Archaeologists have been brought in to investigate a Teesside site earmarked for a multi-million pound development.

Redcar's Coatham Links development will include more than 300 houses, a leisure complex and performance centre.

An archaeological team is to work in an area of the development site mentioned in the 12th Century as a settlement.

The settlements, known as Outstcotum and Westcotum, became a centre of salt manufacturing in the medieval period and supplied Guisborough Priory.

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Coastal site study hailed

An archaeological team will delve into the past on land earmarked for a major development in Redcar.

The team, commissioned to investigate the proposed site of the multi-million pound Coatham Links, has already done preliminary work and will shortly be starting digs.

Findings from the excavation will be submitted alongside a planning application to Redcar and Cleveland Council in the summer.

Steve Speak, who is leading the archaeological team with Gary Brogan of Tyne and Wear Museums, said: "The documentary records are a bit sparse, but this could just reflect a lack of interest in the area by early antiquarians.

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This could be your oldest relative . . .

They lived more than two million years ago and almost 700 000 years apart. They belonged to the same species and they have finally been reunited at Maropeng at the Cradle of Humankind.

In what has been described as an historic and important event by academics, the skull of Mrs, Mr or Ms Ples (the gender has not been agreed on) and the bones of the Taung child - a fossilised child's skull found in a quarry at Taung, in the North Western province - will be on view for the first time to the public at the new exhibition centre.

Ples is believed to be about two million years old and the 4-year-old child about 2.7 million years old. Ples's skull has been around the world and examined by many paleontologists. Dr Francis Thackeray, curator of the Transvaal Museum, said it is "a rare occasion for the public to see the original fossil".

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Ruins reveal new clues to Roman legacy in Paris

PARIS — When the French look back, they generally trace the stirrings of national glory to Francois I in the mid-16th century or perhaps to Louis XIV 150 years later.

And when Parisians look around, they see mainly the city reshaped into broad avenues by Baron Georges-Eugene Haussmann in the 19th century.

Last week, they were reminded of a far earlier Paris, one that was still called Lutetia. On a Left Bank hillside, which carries the name of Sainte-Geneviève, the patron saint of Paris, French archaeologists have found remnants of a road and several houses dating back some 2,000 years to when Rome ruled Gaul.

In one sense, it was not a surprise. Other Roman vestiges have been uncovered, notably those of a theater that could seat 15,000 and Roman thermal baths found beneath the 15th century Abbey of Cluny.

(Just to get the record straight, the Roman baths are beneath the Parisian house of the Abbot of Cluny - David Beard)

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Sonderausstellung: "Donau, Fürsten und Druiden. Kelten entlang der Donau"

Bis zum 26. November präsentiert das Museum für Urgeschichte in Asparn die Sonderausstellung "Donau, Fürsten und Druiden - Kelten entlang der Donau" präsentiert.Die Schau entstand in Kooperation zwischen dem Museum für Urgeschichte, dem Heuneburgmuseum in Hundersingen/Donau (Baden-Württemberg), dem Museum Quintana in Künzing (Bayern) sowie dem Naturhistorischen Museum in Wien und wird in den nächsten Jahren in den deutschen Partnermuseen zu sehen sein.

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New evidence suggests the need to rewrite Bronze Age history

Separated in history by 100 years, the seafaring Minoans of Crete and the mercantile Canaanites of northern Egypt and the Levant (a large area of the Middle East) at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were never considered trading partners at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Until now.

Cultural links between the Aegean and Near Eastern civilizations will have to be reconsidered: A new Cornell University radiocarbon study of tree rings and seeds shows that the Santorini (or Thera) volcanic eruption, a central event in Aegean prehistory, occurred about 100 years earlier than previously thought.

The study team was led by Sturt Manning, a professor of classics and the incoming director of the Malcolm and Carolyn Wiener Laboratory for Aegean and Near Eastern Dendrochronology at Cornell. The team's findings are the cover story in the latest issue of Science (April 28).

The findings, which place the Santorini eruption in the late 17th century B.C., not 100 years later as long believed, may lead to a critical rewriting of Late Bronze Age history of Mediterranean civilizations that flourished about 3,600 years ago, Manning said.

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