Life in Roman Yorkshire and the north

5.4.08
A Yorkshire Philospohical Society, Roman Antiquities Section YAS and York Archaeological Society dayschool held 9.30am to 5pm at the Tempest Anderson Hall, Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York. Members rate valid for RAS, YAS and YPS. For more information contact The Clerk at Yorkshire Philosophical Society, The Lodge, Museum Gardens, York YO1 7DR, tel 01904 656713, email info@yorkphilsoc.org.uk. The cost is £9.50 / £8.50 members.

Stonehenge '08 dig day 4

From BBC History.

The Timewatch excavation entered an exciting new phase on Thursday. There's still work to be done in the bluestone sockets (chiselled into the chalk bedrock), but at last the team could move onto 'virgin soil' - a rare privilege at Stonehenge.

First, the archaeologists marked out the trench into 50cm-wide squares. Then, they chose four squares at random and carefully cleared them to a depth of 5cm, one at a time. Not unexpectedly, this top level had a scattering of "Victorian picnic debris" said Professor Tim Darvill - fragments of glass, clay tobacco pipes and pottery.

The discovery of some broken-up bluestones, at around 11.30am, was much more encouraging, "just the sort of material that we're looking for", explained the Professor. A hammer stone was also found, but made from a non-local material. This means that it was brought to the area, though for now its origins remain a mystery.

News of the dig has travelled far. Today, like many before them, TV crews from Russia and Germany made the pilgrimage to the world's most famous Neolithic monument. In today's video, David Miles, chief archaeologist at English Heritage, explains why this dig is so special, and Professor Darvill reports from the trench itself.

Full story here.

Stonehenge '08 dig day 3 - beaker pottery find

From BBC Timewatch.

It was a dream start for the team at 9.30am, when archaeology student Chris Watkins spotted a finely patterned piece of Beaker pottery. It's the same age as the monument - the "bees knees of finds", said Yvette Staelens, finds coordinator. Chris had clearly been paying attention - having seen something similar in Professor Darvill's lectures.

Another welcome find was TV's favourite archaeologist, Phil Harding - onsite to examine all the flint. His presence brought luck, as a fine flint hammer stone was discovered towards the end of the day.

By this time, removal of the backfill from the older digs revealed large holes in the chalk bedrock - foundation slots for bluestones. Our Neolithic ancestors made these using antler picks, then leveraged in the bluestones and packed the gaps with stones.

As the sun hung low in the west, Professor Wainwright noticed "perfect lighting conditions" to see the carved graffiti on some of the sarcens. He knows these stones like old friends, yet even now can appreciate them in a new light.

Video here.

Full story here.

Bournemouth University hosts 'Was there a British Chalcolithic?' conference

We'll have to assume there was at least enough evidence for a British Chalcolithic period to host an international conference on the subject.

DD

Click here for Bournemouth University page.

School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Bournemouth, Dorset

A major international conference organised by the Prehistoric Society and Bournemouth University Centre for Archaeology, Anthropology and Heritage

This conference will address the concept of the Chalcolithic in British archaeology. Our continental colleagues have long used the term to augment their three-age system. Why has the term not been adopted so universally in Britain and Ireland? Is it relevant to our islands? Or is it a misnomer?

The conference will discuss the British Chalcolithic in terms of society and culture and to compare this with our European parallels. Questions to address might be: why don’t we use the term ‘Chalcolithic’ in the UK? Is there a distinctive Chalcolithic ‘package’ incorporating more than just a bunch of objects, i.e. cultural traits, social organisation and monumentality? Or is it just a question of semantics? This conference is intended to be about people, and social context, seeing the bigger picture than individual sites or objects.

The speakers will define and characterise artefacts assemblages, cultural identities and monumental activity and examine the presence, character or absence of a distinct Chalcolithic in British and Irish prehistory. Is the Chaloclithic synonymous with the Beaker phase? What is the Chalcolithic period, and what characteristics define it?available).

Further details and on-line registration can be found below. You can also contact us by email at csconferences@bournemouth.ac.uk

Schedule of Events

Friday 18th April
1730 Registration and wine reception
1830 Keynote Introduction: Dr Ben Roberts, British Museum: To what extent can we refer to a British Chalcolithic? (Click here for Abstract)
1930 Retire to conference bar

Saturday 19th April
0900 Registration
1000 Welcome by Professor Timothy Darvill, Bournemouth University
1010 Introduction, Dr Mike Allen, Prehistoric Society

Session 1: What is the British Chalcolithic?
1025 Alison Sheridan: A Rumsfeld Reality Check: what we know, what we don’t know and what we don’t know we don’t know (Click here for Abstract)
1105 Tea/coffee
1130 Ian Shepherd: Searching in the North (Click here for Abstract)
1200 Jo Bruck and Neil Carlin: Searching for the Chalcolithic: continuity and change in the Irish Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (Click here for Abstract)
1230 Discussion
1300 Lunch

Session 2: European context for a ‘Chalcolithic’ in Britain and Ireland
1400 Martin Bartelheim: Sense and non-sense of the term ‘Chalcolithic’ (Click here for Abstract)
1430 Marc van der Linden: The importance of being insular: British Isles in the context of continental north-western Europe during the 3rd millennium BC (Click here for Abstract)
1500 Volker Heyd: Chalcolithisation of North-Western Europe? A perspective from the continent…(Click here for Abstract)
1530 Tea/coffee
1600 William O’Brien: Metal supply and social relations in the Irish Chalcolithic
1630 Discussion
1715 Retire to conference bar

Sunday 20th April
0900 Registration

Session 3: Social contexts
0930 Harry Fokkens: Ideal ancestors? Beaker problems as seen from the Lower Rhine
1000 Ros Cleal and Josh Pollard: Monuments and material culture: burial and other practices in the third quarter of the third millennium BC in Wessex
1030 Ann Woodward: Grave goods; materials craftsmanship and social function (Click here for Abstract)
1100 Tea/coffee

Session 4: People and place
1130 Paul Garwood: The present dead: the making of past and future landscapes in the British ‘Chalcolithic (Click here for Abstract)
1200 Mandy Jay: The Beaker Isotope Project: the evidence for diet, environment and economy from organic skeletal analyses (Click here for Abstract)
1230 Discussion
1300 Lunch

Session 5: Society, Settlement and Monuments
1400 Mike Parker Pearson: The Chalcolithic at Durrington Walls (Click here for Abstract)
1430 Frances Healy: Chronology, corpses, copper and lithics (Click here for Abstract)
1500 Stuart Needham Keynote lecture: Magnetic monuments meet mysterious metal – the British Chalcolithic: clash of cultures or meeting of minds? (Click here for Abstract)
1530 Discussion
1600 Anticipated close of conference

Other information

• Tea and coffee will be provided on Saturday and Sunday.
• Lunch is not provided: food and drink are available at various outlets close to the conference venue.
• All cancellations are non-refundable.
• Car-parking is available at the NCP car park (£3.00 per day) opposite the conference venue.
• Accommodation is not included and should be booked independently. Information regarding local accommodation is available from the conference web site (see below) or from the Bournemouth Tourist Centre (Tel: 08450-511701; email: info@bournemouth.gov.uk
• There is a page of information relating to accommodation needs which can be found here.
• A printer-friendly version of this information and the booking form is available here.

Click here for Bournemouth University page.

Stonehenge dig day 2

Lots of willow pattern crockery, a shard of bluestone, a couple of flint scrapers. The question has to be asked; What exactly are the Timewatch chaps expecting to be discovered that will prove the 'Stonehenge as Lourdes' hypothesis?

DD

From BBC Timewatch.

After yesterday's media storm, today the Timewatch team were buffeted by strong winds instead. Fortunately there were some useful windbreaks around: 40-tonne upright standing stones that have endured for over 4,000 years.

At 9am sharp the archaeologists got back to the business of digging, scraping, brushing and sieving. No time is wasted, and of course no stone is left unturned. As they rolled their sleeves and got stuck in, the camera team arranged their live video-feed and timelapse cameras nearby.

This makes for a scene of striking technological contrast, but some things never change: carrying stuff to get the job done. Archaeologists carry shovels, trowels and eventually bags of stones. TV crews carry cameras, tripods and bags of sand (to hold the equipment down in the wind).

But back to the action. The new excavation also takes in previous digs - one from the 1920s and the last one, from 1964. Though they contain jumbled-up 'backfill', you never know what might have been missed. Different digs have different objectives and 'treasure' takes many forms.

Fragments of Victorian pottery and clay tobacco pipes were again in evidence, but the best finds were two razor-sharp Neolithic flint scrapers and the kind of stone hammer that might have shaped them. We'll know more about these tomorrow when a flint tools specialist is due to visit.

Full story here.

Day one of new Stonehenge Darvil/Wainwright dig

You can almost hear the theatrical chords that will accompany every potsherd and stone-chip discovered in the final programme. Which will, no doubt, be narrated by a gravelly voiced actor drawling across flash-zoom close ups and time-lapse wonderments. I don't mean to sound cynical, but Timewatch was much better before it started getting large audiences. It still produces a couple of good shows here and there, but it's beginning to remind me of the last days of Horizon. . .

DD

From BBC History.

History was made by the bucket-load today as the Timewatch dig got under way. The eyes of the world's press were on Professors Tim Darvill and Geoff Wainwright, as together they broke the ground inside the famous monument. That moment, for the record, was 9.20am on Monday 31 March 2008.

Once media duties were concluded, including live TV news reports, the team got down to the serious business of archaeological discovery. The fine weather made for good progress; by early afternoon all the turf was removed from the excavation area - a two by three metre rectangle.

Next, the team began to meticulously remove then sieve the topsoil, and found it "littered with nineteenth century picnic debris", according to Professor Darvill. This included fragments of clay tobacco pipes, glass and that seemingly ubiquitous blue and white porcelain. A medieval hairpin was also unearthed.

The dig is largely out of sight to the public, but a live video-feed beams the action to a plasma screen inside the visitors' marquee, affording a ringside view of a unique archaeological event. A Timewatch preview is also shown on another screen.

A good first day got even better at around 5pm, when professor Darville declared an "ace find". It was a large flake of bluestone which, he explained, shows clear evidence of having been deliberately struck from a larger stone, thousands of years ago.

Full story here.

There is a video of the dig here, and the OU are running a forum here.

First dig inside Stonehenge for nearly 40 years gets underway

Timewatch are following this one and releasing footage to their website on a daily basis. The BBC link carries an animated reconstruction from the program. The title 'Stonehenge - the healing stones' is an indication that the programme is going down the 'Stonehenge as hospital' route espoused by Professors Timothy Darvil and Geoff Wainright so should be worth a watch. The programme makers promise that the mystery of Stonehenge will finally be revealed. Again.
The Timewatch site is here, and packed with goodies about the dig, which I will be reminding you of every time new material appears. The BBC news story is below.
DD

From BBC Sci/Tech.

The first excavation inside the ring at Stonehenge in more than four decades gets under way on Monday.

The two-week dig will try to establish, once and for all, some precise dating for the creation of the monument.

It is also targeting the significance of the smaller bluestones that stand inside the giant sarsen pillars.

Researchers believe these rocks, brought all the way from Wales, hold the secret to the real purpose of Stonehenge as a place of healing.

The excavation at the 4,500-year-old UK landmark is being funded by the BBC. The work will be filmed for a special Timewatch programme to be broadcast in the autumn.

'Magical stones'

The researchers leading the project are two of the UK's leading Stonehenge experts - Professor Tim Darvill, of the University of Bournemouth, and Professor Geoff Wainwright, of the Society of Antiquaries.

They are convinced that the dominating feature on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire was akin to a "Neolithic Lourdes" - a place where people went on a pilgrimage to get cured.

Some of the evidence supporting this theory comes from the dead, they say.

A significant proportion of the newly discovered Neolithic remains show clear signs of skeletal trauma. Some had undergone operations to the skull, or had walked with a limp, or had broken bones.

Modern techniques have established that many of these people had clearly travelled huge distances to get to south-west England, suggesting they were seeking supernatural help for their ills.

But Darvill and Wainwright have also traced the bluestones - the stones in the centre of Stonehenge - to the exact spot they came from in the Preseli hills, 250km away in the far west of Wales.

Full story here.

Pre-Roman gold staters found outside Saxilby, Peterborough

From This is Lincolnshire.

Two metal detector enthusiasts are helping to rewrite history after their latest find in a field near Lincoln.

Geoffrey Rippon and Paul Virr literally struck gold while carrying out routine searches in a field near their village of Saxilby.

They discovered four pre-Christian gold coins and a gold pellet which are now being counted as evidence of Roman influence on British culture much earlier than previously thought.

The hoard, found in October last year, has been dated to 50BC - almost 100 years prior to the date of the official Roman invasion of 43AD.

They are 'staters' - the first ever type of coins used in Britain - and betray Mediterranean influences including an abstract horse image on the reverse.

Now, staff from both Lincoln's The Collection museum and the British Museum in London are hoping to purchase the hoard, which was declared 'treasure trove' at an inquest held on March 27.

Mr Virr (59), a gas fitter from Saxilby, said: "Geoff made the first discovery and a week later Geoff found a gold pellet and I found a gold coin.

"The third time we found the rest between us."

Mr Rippon (62), who is semi-retired and also lives in Saxilby, said: "I hope this demonstrates that people with metal detectors are honest people."

The hoard will go before a Valuation Committee.


Full story here.

Explorator 10.49 arrives. . .

Explorator 10.49

David Meadows' excellent newsletter.