East Sussex barrow dig yields mesolithic and neolithic material

From BBC news.

Archaeologists have found tools from prehistoric times at an ancient burial ground on cliffs in East Sussex.

Over the past two weeks a team of volunteers have found items from about 8,000 BC and a Neolithic period arrowhead at the site in Peacehaven.

Coastal erosion means the burial mound from the Bronze Age will be unsafe to access in the next few years.

The team hopes to record information about the round barrow before it collapses into the sea.

Animal hunters

The Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society and Mid Sussex Field Archaeological Team believe they have excavated only a quarter of the mound.

Between 19 April and 4 May a team of 30 diggers uncovered tools from the Mesolithic period when hunter-gather groups may have hunted animals and foraged for nuts and berries in the area.

They also unearthed a flint arrowhead from the late Neolithic period, about 4,000 years BC, when the first farmers settled the land.

Bronze Age pottery, and pottery and clay pipes from the 1700 and 1800s have also been found at the site, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

Round barrows were often built about 4,000 years ago to mark the burial of a local chief. Project leader Susan Birks said: "This mound has a complicated history spanning several thousand years BC right up to World War II.

"It's a complex story that will need careful unravelling, but we have gathered enough information to tell us its age and something about the people who built it."

Full story here.

'Roman' threat to stud farm plans in Granborough, Bucks

From the Bucks Herald.

PLANS to open a stud farm in Granborough may have to be reassessed after claims that there is a Roman Villa and the remains of a medieval settlement on the site.

The information came to light when a previous owner revealed to Davina Thorogood, chairman of Granborough Parish Council, that there were considerable archaeological remains on the land at Green Lane.

In a letter to district council planning officers, Mrs Thorogood said the Roman villa was in the top left corner of the site and revealed that the remains of the settlement were in the bottom left hand of the field. Last year Roman coins dating back to 79AD were found on the surface using a metal detector.

Before this information was released, residents turned up at a meeting called by Granborough Parish Council to protest against the planning application. Many protestors said that the road to the proposed farm is only a single carriage road not big enough for horse boxes or able to withstand the volume of traffic.

One anonymous complaint received by The Bucks Herald from a resident said: "It is a single lane, crumbling road with verges that are unforgiving to those that pull over to let oncoming vehicles pass. The anger is aimed at the vehicles with horse boxes going down this narrow lane which is 'used' for recreational activity by the villagers such as walking, cycling, children playing and dog walking. The human risk is high."

The application was to change the use of the land to a stud farm with the erection of a Dutch barn, horse walker, re-modelling of existing building and formation of car park.

Granborough district councillor, Janet Blake backs the residents' opposition to the plan because of road side and countryside issues and welcomes an obstacle to the plans.

She said: "It is exciting if there is a Roman village there, it is not something that happens everyday but at the moment it is a good reason for why development should not continue. My intervention is however on planning."

Planning and conservation archaeologist from Bucks County Council, David Radford said that they were unaware of the findings on the site and had to dig through records.

He added: "We will review this planning application and double check our records to see if there is any information of this in the back logs. This could be misplaced information. I will check to see if there is any new information that has not yet made it to us and also look into the historical environmental records.

"We need to have concrete information to go forward with an archaeological investigation. If it is hearsay that is quite difficult to act upon. If there is however a significant site then we will have to take a view on what we can ask. We may ask for trial trenching. It would be a very interesting part of the jigsaw puzzle. Questions to establish its value would also be raised."

Full story here.

Wessex Archaeology produces Avebury PDF download for teachers and students

From Wessex Archaeology.

"The Kit will help schoolchildren heading for Avebury and the surrounding monuments make the most of their trip to the World Heritage Site. It is a downloadable resource for teachers of Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils. As well as information sheets for teachers there are on-site investigation sheets, puzzles, maps, treasure hunts and other games and activities to help pupils to learn about the history of these historical sites in an entertaining and engaging way."

Full page here.

Explorator 11.2

Explorator 11.2

Irish road building program produces more archaeology than the museum service can cope with

The the Irish Independent.

'Archaeological treasures being 'left exposed in open-air sites'

By John Drennan

Sunday May 04 2008

Priceless archaeological treasures are being "left exposed in open-air sites" because the National Museum of Ireland has accumulated so many artifacts that it has no place to store them.

An unanticipated consequence of the massive road-building programme is that archaeology is one of the State's largest growth industries.

This year more than €25m of the National Road Authority's €1.68bn road programme will be spent digging up historical sites in the path of roadways and saving the material unearthed for the future.

But while the NRA's archaeological programme meets the highest European standards, the huge turnover of material has created a crisis for the cash-strapped National Museum.

Collins Barracks in Dublin was the main storage area for finds. But, according to Fine GaelOlivia Mitchell, it is now so full that "curators cannot even gain access to the material let alone catalogue it''. spokesperson on the arts

A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed that 1.5 million objects were awaiting classification and that there had been a four-fold increase in excavation licenses in a decade.

The Roads Authority says it expects to spend €300m on archaeological digs over the life span of Transport 21.

"It's like a conveyor belt at the moment, it won't stop. The museum is even telling archaeologists not to give them any more material," said the Fine Gael Deputy.

"We have a wealth of knowledge lying in an undocumented heap exposed to the elements or buried in an Indiana Jones-like crypt in. It really is appalling. People are on their hands and knees picking material out of sites and then it's being dumped in a heap."

The controversy is set to be even more embarrassing because Ireland will be hosting the World Archaeological Conference shortly -- and distinguished guests may be told that while unused e-voting machines are stored with care and attention archaeological treasures are dumped in the open air.

Full story here.