Bronze Age 'burnt mound' to be rescued

From the Shetland News

ARCHAEOLOGISTS plan to save a fine example of a Bronze Age burnt mound from disappearing into the sea in a unique £70,000 removal operation on Shetland this coming summer.

Historic Scotland has given permission for the site at Cruister, on Bressay, to be shifted to the islands’ heritage centre.
The unprecedented project will see the prehistoric version of a water heater, a third of which has already been eroded by the sea, dismantled and rebuilt in fully functional order.

Barbara Anderson, of Bressay Heritage Centre, said it was highly unusual to be allowed to tamper with an ancient monument in this way. “In this case we are being allowed to remove it. Normally you would not be able to touch things like this,” she said.

Shetland has hundreds of burnt mounds like the one at Cruister, which attract great interest because their associated structures are the most complex so far discovered in the UK and Ireland.

The Bressay site has a fireplace and a main stone water tank connected by a sloping chute and surrounded by a series of stone-built cells. Around these lie a large mound of fire-cracked stones, believed to have been built up when the site was still in use.

The stones were heated in the fire and then plunged into the tank to heat the water.

Full story here

Chessmen claim made by Fabiani

The following article is from The Scotsman

CULTURE minister Linda Fabiani will step up the campaign today to have the historic Lewis chessmen returned to Scotland.

She is visiting the British museum in London, where most of the 13th century figurines are housed, and will ask officials to consider the matter.

They were found on a beach near Uig on the isle of Lewis around 1830 and First Minister Alex Salmond recently backed calls for their return.

Ms Fabiani told Parliament earlier this week it was "unacceptable" that 82 of the 93 chessmen are based in London. Only 11 of the artefacts are housed at the national museum in Edinburgh.

But the Government's position came under fire from Labour this week, when shadow culture minister Malcolm Chisholm asked if Napoleonic artefacts based in Scotland would now be repatriated.

They were discovered by a shepherd in the years before 1831 in a small stone chamber 15ft beneath a sand bank.

Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil is preparing a bill which would allow the pieces to go north by giving the British museum the freedom to give away or sell parts of its collection.

Corbridge bridge renovation completed

From the Hexham Courant

By Gemma Somerville

gemma.somerville@hexham-courant.co.uk

WORK to save part of a huge Roman bridge, which would have once spanned the River Tyne at Corbridge, has been completed.

The original bridge would have carried the main Roman road, Dere Street, from London to Scotland and a team of archaeologists have saved a portion of it from destruction.

The ruins of an enormous causeway or ramp, which would have been used to take the road from the flood plain on to the bridge, some eight metres above water, were uncovered when an excavation began three years ago.

After a wide-ranging consultation, it was decided the best way to protect the remains would be to dismantle and re-assembl e them on a site safe from erosion.

An ambitious £400,000 project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund got under way. This included a planning application submitted in 2006 for permission to rebuild the ramp just yards from where it would have once stood, at Dilston Haugh.

Around 300 blocks, each measuring about two metres in length, were recovered and have since been used to return the ramp to its former glory.

Evidence of the spectacular scale and decoration of the bridge slowly began emerge during the project, as the archaeologists discovered architectural fragments with decorative mouldings.

Its importance was reflected in the scale of its construction and decoration.

Dere Street was known as the Great North Road, and the bridge at Corbridge had more than a merely functional use.

Read on...

Lidar to reveal site in woodland

From the BBC News

Laser technology is being used to locate potential archaeological sites hidden by woodland in Worcestershire.

The hope is that ancient settlements and farms across the Wyre Forest will be detected by lasers fired from aircraft 3,300ft (1,000m) up.

The results are processed by computers and turned into images of the ground, currently hidden by trees.

One expert said the process offered a "tantalising glimpse" of a very dynamic landscape.

The Forestry Commission has teamed up with the Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service.

The technique is known as Light, Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).

Adam Mindykowski, of the Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service, said: "The final results will provide a vital feed into the management of Wyre."

Teesside Anglo-Saxon treasure to remain in the area

From BBC News

Rare Anglo-Saxon treasures discovered in a Teesside field will almost certainly be allowed to remain in the area, the government has said.

Gold jewellery, weapons and clothing were found at a 109-grave cemetery, near Redcar, believed to date from the middle of the 7th Century.

Excavations were carried out after freelance archaeologist Steve Sherlock studied an aerial photo of the land.

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge said the find would not end up in London.

The site is thought to be the only one in the north of England which may have connections with the ancient Royal Family of Northumbria.

Amid concerns that the treasures could end up displayed at the British Museum, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Ashok Kumar, raised the case in the House of Commons.

Full story here

Update on Purbeck Bronze Age axe hoard

From Wessex Archaeology

The site of one of the largest hoards of Bronze Age axes ever found in Britain has been investigated by Wessex Archaeology.

At a site on the Isle of Purbeck in south Dorset, metal detector users found hundreds of Bronze Age axes in late October and early November 2007.

The axes, though not made of gold or silver, seem certain to qualify as Treasure when the Dorset Coroner holds an inquest into their discovery. Revisions to the original Treasure law mean that prehistoric objects of bronze can be classed as treasure, opening the way to a reward for the metal detector users and the landowner.

The metal detector users could hardly believe their luck when the discovery of one complete bronze axe and a fragment of another led them to identify three hot spots close by. The hotspots proved to be hoards of axes. Having reported the finds to the government funded Portable Antiquities Scheme, the detectors returned the following weekend. And promptly found another hoard containing hundreds of axes. In total at least 300 axes were found.

Following a request from the British Museum, who will give expert opinion to the county Coroner as to whether finds should be defined as Treasure, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a team from Wessex Archaeology undertook a follow up excavation.

Detectorists locate huge Bronze Age hoard

All the papers seem to be making a big deal over the finders occupation, as if somehow being a bus driver makes the find more incredible.

From the Dorset Echo

A BUS driver is in for a bumper pay day after unearthing one of the largest ever hoards of Bronze Age axe heads with his metal detector.

Tom Peirce, an amateur treasure hunter from Ringwood, started combing a field after dropping off a school coach party at Putlake Adventure Farm, near Swanage.

Within a few minutes the device began beeping and the 60-year-old dug 10 inches into the ground to find a partial axe head.

He realised he had struck it lucky when he dug deeper and found dozens more.

Over the next two days he and colleague Les Keith uncovered nearly 500 bronze artefacts dating back 3,000 years.

The hoard, which included 268 complete axe heads, is one of the biggest of its kind found in Britain and is thought to be worth about £80,000.

Full story here.

Tullie House museum prepares for imperial visitor

From the 24 Hour Museum

Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery is gearing up for an important Imperial visit in February. The Cumbrian museum will be the first venue to receive the British Museum’s bronze bust of Roman Emperor Hadrian.

The star item is being loaned out for the first time in the run-up to the British Museum’s major exhibition, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict (opening July 24 2008).

It will join the largest collection of Roman history on the western end of Hadrian’s Wall when it comes to Tullie House in Carlisle, where it will be on show from February 8 to April 13 2008.

“This is a fantastic opportunity for our local visitors to get a chance to see a rare piece of Roman sculpture of the Emperor Hadrian in Hadrian’s Wall Country,” said Hilary Wade, Director of Tullie House.

“The head is one of the rare surviving bronzes from the Roman times and has never left the British Museum since its discovery. It is an almost unique survival – large bronze statues were often melted down. This one is remarkable wll preserved and is one-and-a-quarter life-size.”

The bronze head, measuring nearly half a metre high, was discovered in the River Thames in 1834. It was probably cast in 122AD, when Hadrian visited Britain and ordered the wall cutting off the northern tribes from the Empire.

“We are delighted that the British Museum has chosen Tullie House to showcase its major exhibition for 2008,” said Ms Wade.

After Carlisle, the bust will travel to the eastern end of the wall and go on display at Segedunum Roman Fort, Wallsend, in Tyne & Wear (April 16 – June 8).

Wessex Archaeology release Boscombe Down images on Flickr

Wessex Archaeology on Flickr

Following the release of the video of the opening of the now famous Roman stone coffin, Wessex Archaeology have now added to the record by publishing high resolution stills of the event.

This weeks version of Explorator...

The latest edition of David Meadow's excellent Explorator (10.39) is here.