Alpine melt reveals ancient life

Melting alpine glaciers are revealing fascinating clues to Neolithic life in the high mountains. And the finds are also providing key indicators to climate change. Everyone knows the story of Oetzi the Ice Man, found in an Austrian glacier in 1991. Oetzi was discovered at an altitude of over 3,000m. He lived in about 3,300 BCE, leading to speculation that the Alps may have had more human habitation than previously suspected. Now, more dramatic findings from the 2,756m Schnidejoch glacier in Switzerland have confirmed the theory.
     It all started at the end of the long hot summer of 2003, when a Swiss couple, hiking across a melting Schnidejoch, came across a piece of wood that aroused their curiosity. They took it down with them, and gave it to canton Berne's archaeological department, where careful examination and carbon dating revealed the piece of wood to be an arrow quiver made of birch bark, dating from about 3000 BCE.
     At first, the news of the find was kept quiet; historians feared treasure hunters on the Schnidejoch as the ice melted. But teams of archaeologists went up, and more and more artefacts were discovered. "We now have the complete bow equipment, quiver and arrows," says Albert Hafner, chief archaeologist with the canton of Berne. "And we have, surprisingly, a lot of organic material like leather, parts of shoes and a trouser leg, that we wouldn't normally find."
And the finds are not confined to 3000 BCE. Some of the leather found, and a fragment of a wooden bowl, date from 4500 BCE, older even than Oetzi, making them the oldest objects ever found in the Alps. And from later periods, a Bronze Age pin has been discovered, as well as Roman coins and a fibula, and items dating from the early Middle Ages.
     What fascinates scientists about the age of the finds is that they correspond to times when climate specialists have already calculated the Earth was going through an especially warm period, caused by fluctuations in the orbital pattern of the Earth in relation to the Sun. At these times, historians now speculate, the high mountain regions became accessible to humans. "If we get more carbon datings from this site, we can get the most precise picture of short-term glacier fluctuations for the past six or 7,000 years," Martin Grosjean, a climatologist at Berne University, said.
     For Martin Grosjean, the leather items found on the Schnidejoch, dated at over 5,000 years old, are proof, if any more were needed, that the Earth is now warming up: "The fact that we still find these 5,000-year-old pieces of leather tells us they were protected by the ice all this time, and that the glaciers have never been smaller than in the year 2003 and the years following."
     Scientists and archaeologists from all over the world attended the conference in Berne to hear about the Schnidejoch findings, and present research of their own. Patterns have begun to emerge: researchers in Canada's Yukon region have found evidence of Neolithic farming and domesticated animals at high altitudes. Again, they correspond with the calculations climatologists have made about the Earth's warmer periods. For historians however, the Schnidejoch is unexpected evidence that early man was far more at home in the high Alps than had been previously thought.

Source: BBC News (24 August 2008)

  Bronze Age building saved from erosion by sea

A Bronze Age structure thought to have been used as a sauna has been saved from destruction by the sea after a team of archaeologists moved the entire find to a safer location. The building, which dates from between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE, was unearthed on the Shetland island of Bressay (Scotland) eight years ago. It was found in the heart of the Burnt Mound at Cruester, a Bronze Age site on the coast of Bressay facing Lerwick. But earlier this summer, because of the increased threat of coastal erosion, local historians joined archaeologists to launch a campaign to save the building and to move it somewhere safer.
     A third of the mound had already been lost to sea erosion. The central structure was carefully dismantled and each stone numbered before being moved to a site a mile way next to Bressay Heritage Centre. Archaeologists from St Andrews University worked alongside local volunteers for three months to move the building and then rebuild at a site next to the Bressay Heritage Centre. And following the completion of the unusual removal scheme, the Bronze Age building has been officially opened at its new location by Tavish Scott, the MSP for Shetland.
     Douglas Coutts, the project officer with Bressay History Group, said the structure - discovered during excavations in 2000 - was one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever made in the Northern Isles. The building was hidden in a mound of burnt stones and is thought to have been used for feasts, baths or even saunas. The structure comprises a series of dry-stone, walled cells, connected by two corridors. At the end of one corridor is a hearth cell, thought to have been used for heating stones, and at the other end is a tank sunk into the ground which is almost two metres long, more than a metre wide, and half a metre deep, thought to have been used for boiling meat.
     Mr Coutts said: "Burnt mounds don't usually consist of very much more than a hearth and a tank and a heap of burnt stones. But in Shetland, we seem to have much more complex structures with little rooms or cells leading off from a main passageway which connects the hearth and tank. We have approximately 300 burnt mounds on Shetland but only four or five have been excavated and, of those, the Cruester mound is the most fascinating and complex. It looks as if it has been in use for anything between 500 to 1,000 years." He added: "One theory is that these structures may have been used for cooking meat or tanning hides. But it is possible they could have raised steam by heating the water and that these little cells could have been used as saunas."
     John Scott, vice chairman of the Bressay History Group, said: "We probably moved about 60 tonnes of stone altogether so it has had the nice attraction of being a bit of a daft project but it worked and I think it has turned out to be a really good community project." Tom Dawson, a researcher at St Andrews University who also worked on the removal project, said coastal erosion was threatening thousands of archaeological sites around Scotland. "The local group here came up with a novel idea for dealing with the problem," he said. "It is great to have had the chance to give new life to this particular site and make it accessible to future generations, while also learning something new, not just about Cruester, but about burnt mounds in general."

Source: BBC News (22 August 2008), The Scotsman, The Herald, The Press and Journal (23 August 2008)

  More quarrying near Thornbrorough henges set for go ahead

The final go-ahead is expected to be given next week for further quarrying close to the Neolithic Thornborough henges (North Yorkshire, England). On Tuesday members of the county council's planning committee will be recommended to approve a controversial application by Tarmac to quarry of 1.1 million tonnes of sand and gravel from farmland less than a mile from the ancient site.
     The latest move comes after years of argument over whether more quarrying should be allowed close to a site that has been described as 'The Stonehenge of the North'. Tarmac's existing Nosterfield Quarry, near Bedale, produces 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year and the new permission would extend its life by two years.
     An application for a larger site was refused permission in February, 2006, because North Yorkshire County Councillors decided the extraction of 2.2 million tonnes of aggregate would have an unacceptable impact on the archaeological remains. But in January last year approval was given to a revised scheme extending quarrying across 76 acres of Ladybridge Farm at Nosterfield. That decision was quashed after The Friends of Thornborough Henges began a legal challenge in the High Court. Now the application has been reviewed and when planning committee members meet at Masham Town Hall on Tuesday the Director of Business and Environmental Services, Richard Flinton, will recommend that permission be granted.
     The Yorkshire branch of the Council for British Archaeology (CBS) remains opposed to the scheme because of its fears about affects on the Thornborough Henges. The CBA says it considers the application by Tarmac would have an unacceptable impact on the setting and says the archaeological remains from the Neolithic and Bronze Age should be preserved in situ. The Friends of Thornborough Henges have renewed their objection and Yorkshire Archaeological Society says the quarrying will have "an unacceptably erosive impact upon an overall archaeological landscape." But English Heritage has welcomed the revised scheme. It said: "We feel it has addressed our initial concerns with regard to the preservation of archaeological deposits of national importance by omitting the southwest corner of the previous application site."
     On Tuesday of this week, more than 500 new letters of objection were handed to North Yorkshire County Council by members of TimeWatch - adding to the 1,500 letters previously collected as part of the campaign group's opposition to quarrying at the Ladybridge site. Tarmac has stressed that its quarrying activities are not a threat to the henges.

Source: Northalleron Thirsk & Bedale Times (22 August 2008)

  Bronze ring unearthed in West Sussex

Artefacts not seen for about 3,000 years have been discovered at the site of a new hospice in West Durrington (West Sussex, England). Among the finds is an ancient bronze 'doughnut'. Volunteer metal detector enthusiast John Cole found the ring, possibly a Bronze Age ingot used as currency. Archaeologists have also unearthed large quantities of Roman and prehistoric pottery after stripping away hundreds of tons of topsoil using mechanical diggers and dumper trucks. They are currently concentrating on a 50m square area to the north east of the site – about a tenth of the entire area they will be examining over the next six or seven weeks.
     Phil Emery, of London-based archaeological consultants Gifford, said the ring was the first significant find and potentially very important, although its age still had to be verified by experts. He added: "We have been finding quite large shards of Roman pottery and some Iron Age pottery, which is very soft and crumbly and therefore tends to be found in smaller fragments." The pottery, and some worked flints, had been found roughly half a metre below the surface.
     As the search progresses, the archaeologists intend to involve the public, and especially schools, in a community dig overseen by Worthing Archaeological Society. Archaeologists hope to find relics dating back almost 10,000 years to the Mesolithc period.

Source: The Argus (22 August 2008)

  Stonehenge investigations continue

Archaeologists from around United Kingdom are investigating Stonehenge and the surrounding areas in, and visitors are being invited to come along to see history brought to life. As part of the ongoing Riverside Project experts are going to be digging at sites near the ancient stones to find out more about their links with Stonehenge itself.
     Many who visit the stones may not know they are part of a complex series of monuments on Salisbury Plain, including the 3k-long Stonehenge Cursus and Durrington Walls, Britain's largest henge, which were inhabited at the same time the sarsen stones were put up at about 2600-2500 BCE. This year, archaeologists are hoping to discover where Stonehenge's builders lived in the centuries before (3000-2600 BCE), when the earliest stages of Stonehenge were built.
     As well as the digging going on, between August 18 and September 12, around Stonehenge and on the Cursus, part of the solstitial processional route will also be excavated to find out how long the course was, and whether stones were shaped before being put up. Aubrey Hole is also being re-dug at the moment, in order to recover and analyse prehistoric cremations put there by archaeologists in 1935, and areas believed to be inhabited by the builders of Stonehenge are also due to be excavated.
     Visitors are welcome between 10am and 4pm every day until September 12 and there are special open days being held on September 6 and 7 between 10am and 4pm, starting at Woodhenge car park. A shuttle bus will transport people to the excavations where there will be re-enactors and archaeologists, including Time Team's Phil Harding. For further information or to receive a map of recommended walking routes around the local area call 07775 674816.

Source: Salisbury Journal (22 August 2008)

  Carved stones found after a fire in North Yorkshire

A catastrophic fire which 'skinned' a precious moorland to its rocky bones has unexpectedly revealed some of the most important prehistoric archaeology found in Britain. The uncontrolled six-day blaze on Fylingdales Moor in North Yorkshire (England) has exposed a lost landscape dating back 3,000 years which is now to be made accessible to the public by English Heritage. Unique rock art and unprecedentedly clear bronze age field boundaries have emerged from the soot and cinders which were all that was left of two-and-a-half square miles of the North York Moors national park when fire crews and heavy rain finally swamped the area in September 2003.
     The intense heat destroyed the entire blanket of peat which had accumulated over the area, close to the North Sea coast, since farmers abandoned it for unknown reasons in around 1000 BCE. "The sheer number of new finds exposed by the fire is the most exciting development in archaeology in my experience," said Graham Lee, senior archaeological conservation officer for the national park. The rock art list for the site has grown to almost three times its previous size, with more than 100 sets of mysterious lines, cups and circles discovered since the fire. "One of the very rare features exposed by the removal of the entire plant and soil covering is a set of defined borders to the areas cultivated in the bronze age," said Lee.
     "The fire was environmentally disastrous," said Lee, whose colleagues joined landowners after the fire in reseeding the heather. "But it gave us access to a landscape which we could never have reached otherwise, on such a scale. No archaeologist has the means to dig out an area like this. What we have found as a result has altered perceptions of the period. It also raises questions about the scale of what else lies hidden over the rest of the North York Moors." Finds include stone age flint tools and drainage runnels and trackways from the 18th century alum industry.
     The wealth of the Fylingdales finds will now be collated with a £26,000 publication grant from English Heritage, following a local exhibition of the principal discoveries.

Source: The Guardian (21 August 2008)

  Venus of Willendorf: 100th anniversary of her excavation

Plump and 25,000 years old, this lady remains a mystery even after 100 years in the limelight. The Venus of Willendorf, a small ochre-coloured figurine from the Paleolithic period, takes her name from the village in northern Austria where she was excavated on August 7, 1908 by three Austrian paleontologists. "This was the first statuette (from this period) that had such detailed features and it was also the first statuette to be discovered at the time on an archeological site," says Walpurga Antl-Weiser, head of the prehistory section at Vienna's Natural History Museum.
     On the 100th anniversary of her excavation, this Venus is being honoured with a special exhibition at the museum, alongside other artefacts from the same period. Carved from oolitic limestone, she is a round woman, standing with her arms resting on her breasts and belly, her bowed head hiding her face but showing off elaborate hair. This Venus "resulted from perfect observation of the human body, but she was also arranged to make her curves more harmonious," Antl-Weiser adds.
     The first and only statuette of her kind before the French Venus of Lespugue and the Russian Venus of Kostienki joined her two decades later, the lady from Willendorf can still attract crowds. But where she came from and whether she represented a goddess or women's elevated place in society remains a mystery. "We don't think she represented prehistoric women," says Antl-Weiser. "She's a rather older woman, one who has certainly already had children," she explains. "Moreover, we can't prove that women played a predominant role during this period and that these female statuettes honoured them: there are many other statuettes (from that period) representing animals, part-humans and part-animals or asexual human beings."
     Rather than being a goddess, the Venus of Willendorf could have been part of a ritual or a belief shared by several tribes over 20,000 years ago. Although excavated at opposite ends of the continent, the French and Russian Venuses are similar in form to their Austrian sister. "They could have been expressions of a single belief that spread through Europe," says Antl-Weiser. But this does not explain where the lady from Willendorf came from. While other artefacts and statuettes were excavated near the same village in Lower Austria, no traces remain of the rock out of which she was carved. Antl-Weiser concludes: "From that point of view, either the Venus was brought here, or the rock fragments disappeared when a railroad was built there in the 19th century."

Source: AFP (20 August 2008)

  Bronze Age skeleton found In Cambridgeshire

A rare Bronze Age skeleton has been recovered at Wicken (Cambridgeshire, England). Archaeologists working next to the Francis Flower quarry discovered the skeleton almost intact, lying buried in a foetal position with an intact pot by its mouth. Only the tiny toe and finger bones had disintegrated in skeleton's the chalk pit grave - the calcium carbonate present in chalky soil is of such a similar chemical composition to bones that it helps to preserve them.  The skeleton was found a few hundred metres from a Bronze Age barrow, an early form of cemetery, and carefully lifted out of its shallow grave by archaeologists from Oxford Archaeology East.
     Supervising archaeologist Nick Gilmour said the discovery could be up to 3,200 years old, and only 40 skeletons of this type to have been found in the UK. It is unusual to find a Bronze Age skeleton with so few possessions - they were often left with flint arrowheads and daggers, and in some cases buttons made from jet. All, however, have been discovered in the foetal position. "It's the idea of going out of the world the way that you came into it," said archaeologist Tom Phillips, a Witchford-based member of the three-strong team.
     Until scientists have analysed the Bronze Age bones it is impossible to say whether the skeleton is male or female, but the skull had a pronounced brow bone and a prominent jaw, which are likely male attributes. It is not known what the Bronze Age person died from but archaeologists can usually tell if from marks on the bones whether it suffered from syphilis or tuberculosis.
     Quarry owners Francis Flower Ltd, discovered the Bronze Age site when they paid for an archaeological survey six years ago, but waited six years to remove the skeleton for analysis. The farmland surrounding the skeleton is used to grow crops, and archaeologists said regular ploughing would have missed the skull of the skeleton by millimetres.

Source: Ely Standard 24 (20 August 2008)

  Oetzi the Iceman dressed like a herdsman

A famous Neolithic Iceman is dressed in clothes made from sheep and cattle hair, a new study shows. The researchers say their findings support the idea that the Iceman was a herdsman, and that their technique has use in the modern clothing industry.
     The social and cultural background of the Iceman, dubbed Oetzi, has been the subject of much debate since his mummified remains were discovered in an Alpine glacier in 1991. Although his clothes were known to be made of animal skins, their exact origin was uncertain. This new study focuses on hair samples taken from Oetzi's coat, leggings and moccasin shoes. "We found that the hairs came from sheep and cattle, just the types of animals that herdsmen care for during their seasonal migrations," says lead researcher Klaus Hollemeyer of Saarland University in Germany.
     The researchers analysed hair samples in excess of 5,000 years old using MALDITOF mass spectrometry. This allowed them to study patterns of peptides of fermented proteins present in the ancient hair and compare them with those of modern day animals. They found that Oetzi's coat and leggings were made from sheep's fur, whilst his moccasins were of cattle origin.
     The researchers believe that MALDITOF mass spectrometry may be faster and more reliable than methods based on DNA analysis and that it could be applied in archaeology and evolutionary biology. "This method could, for example, be used in checking the purity of products made from animal hair, such as pullovers and jackets made of Cashmere wool," says Hollemeyer.

Source: EurekAlert! (20 August 2008)

  Isle of Man unearths a prehistoric tragedy

Archaeologists may have unearthed evidence of a prehistoric tragedy at Isle of Man Airport. They are working on a theory that fire could have razed a Bronze Age village to the ground in a cataclysmic conflagration in the area known as Ronaldsway. Prehistoric remains including three human skeletons, discovered during earthworks for the airport runway extension project, made headlines around the world. The excavations have been completed some two weeks ahead of schedule and the site cleared ready for construction work to resume.
     It was initially thought that pottery fragments dated back some 4,000 years to the late neolithic era. But following a further study of the artefacts, experts from Lancaster-based Oxford Archaeology North have provisionally revised that chronology by some 500 years. It is now believed that what has been uncovered is a further part of a Bronze Age settlement first discovered when the runway was built in the 1930s.
     Several of the half-dozen circular structures unearthed at the site featured charred earth indicating evidence of burning. The experts now believe these are Bronze Age homes dating back 3,500 years that appear to have burnt down. Two cairns, in which were found the human skeletons, appear to be slightly more recent. One of the burials contained fragments of a ring or bangle which had been worn around the upper arm.
     Andrew Johnson, field archaeologist at Manx National Heritage, said: "We now think these circular structures are Bronze Age homes. It certainly seems possible that some of these buildings have in some way been burnt down. The site stretches from a south west to a north east direction and it does seem likely that if fire took hold in the south west then, given the direction of the prevailing wind, the possibilities of disaster are obvious. It's an interesting speculation. The cairns appear to have been built slightly later, potentially after the conflagration. Perhaps in what psychologists would now describe as a process of closure, the settlement's use was changed from a living community to a place of the dead."
     Hundreds of pottery shards and pieces of worked flint were recovered, together with domestic rubbish in the form of shellfish and bones. Mr Johnson said the age of the remains had been revised after a much more detailed look at the pottery fragments. Radiocarbon dating may be used to get a more accurate date for the human skeletons. He said: 'We are certainly not disappointed that we are now looking at Bronze Age rather than neolithic remains, absolutely not. Slight revision of working theories goes with the territory.
     All artefacts have been removed for study and conservation and a preliminary report will be prepared by Oxford Archaeology. It is likely that the team will return in the spring when construction work moves to the eastern end of the airport where the promontory is to be built out to sea.

Source: iomtoday.co.im (19 August 2008)