Fire destroys unique archaeological records
Flag Fen, one of the world's most important archaeological sites, near Peterborough (Great Britain) was devastated by fire. The blaze destroyed the post-excavation building and damaged the education centre. It has also destroyed most of the site's vital research documents which chronicle one of Europe's most important Bronze Age excavations; fortunately, none of the finds have been touched by the fire.
Almost two decades of research work into the site has been destroyed after routine maintenance work accidentally set light to an empty mouse nest.
Staff members at the Flag Fen research centre are still too shocked to be able to evaluate the damage, but they say very little can be recovered. "The problem is that while some records have survived they're badly singed around the edges, and that's where the identifying marks and numbers were. So although some documents have survived the fire, most of them are now scientifically useless," said Toby Fox, Flag Fen's general manager.
The records were contained in fireproof cabinets, but the heat was so intense the cabinets burst open. Ironically all the records had been copied and the duplicates were kept in another building, but because of damp they had been temporarily moved back. As a result the only copies that remain are in published work by the centre's founder Dr Francis Pryor.
Photographs too were destroyed and the centre has issued an appeal for anyone who has copies of either written work or photographs to get in touch.
Flag Fen is also the home of the so-called Seahenge timber circle (see Archaeo News 3, 6, 7 and 11) recently recovered from a Norfolk beach, despite bitter opposition from some local people and some druids. Fortunately the Seahenge remains were kept in water tanks in another building some distance away and were not harmed.
It would have been an even bigger blow to the archaeologists if the fire had affected the Seahenge artefacts. One of the reasons they gave for moving the circle from its exposed site on a beach was that the circle was in danger of being destroyed.
Sources: Evening Telegraph (13 January, 2000), BBC News, Britarch Mailing List (14 January, 2000)
The Kennewick Man is 9,000 years old
A bone sample taken from Kennewick Man, one of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever found in North America, indicates the skeleton is about 9,000 years old, likely meaning it will be legally classified as Native American, according to reports.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of the Interior have announced the results of additional radiocarbon dating of Kennewick Man: the original 1996 radiocarbon date of 8410 ± 60 years has been corroborated by two samples which registered radiocarbon dates of 8130 40 and 8410 ± 40 years. Two additional samples, however, have registered radiocarbon dates of 6940 ± 30 and 5750 ± 100 years. Scientists noted that all of the samples dated contained very small amounts of carbon and collagen, making radiocarbon dating difficult.
The ancestry of Kennewick Man has been in dispute ever since the collection of 350 bones was discovered in the shallows of the Columbia River in 1996. The government classification is a key part of an ongoing dispute over the custody of the skeleton.
The next step in the complex struggle between Native American tribes who want to bury the bones and the scientists who want to study them is finding out whether the ancient skeleton is culturally affiliated with modern tribes. A coalition of five Northwest Indian tribes, which claims Kennewick Man as an ancestor and seeks the return of the bones for reburial, objected to the tests as a desecration, the process having required the destruction of a small amount of bone.
Eight prominent anthropologists have sued for the right to study the bones, and a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, has given the government until March 24 to decide if it will give permission for such access. The anthropologists have been pressing in court for DNA testing as the most effective means of determining Kennewick Man's origins.
Sources: Archaeology Institute of America, Associated Press (January 13, 2000)
Winter solstice televised from Newgrange
It was defined as nature's "true millennium" and it was beamed from Ireland all over the world on 21st December 1999. The passing of the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year - was televised from Newgrange Neolithic burial mound in County Meath in Ireland.
Only a handful of VIPs, including the Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, were allowed into the small central chamber for the occasion.
The waiting list to watch the solstice at the 5,000-year-old site had become over seven years long, so the trustees of the site have decided to allocate places by lottery in future.
The broadcast was shown in nine countries including Great Britain and the United States. But some people were claiming that the new millennium does not begin until 1 January 2001, and what took place on last 21st December was 12 months too early for a genuine celebration. It was also claimed the actual solstice last year was on 22nd December. Manager of Newgrange's visitor services, Clare Tuffy said: "Some years the solstice falls on the 21st and others on the 22nd. By tradition we celebrate it here on the 21st There is very little difference on the amount of sunshine seen in the chamber anyway."
In the days before Christianity, festivals were held around the winter solstice to welcome back the longer, lighter days and pay tribute to the Sun.
Source: BBC News (21 December, 1999)
Early iron smelting
Excavations at Tell Hammeh, on the north bank of Jordan's Zarqa River, have revealed evidence of what may be the oldest-known iron smelting.
In one area, a heavy layer of smelting debris - ash, charcoal, slag, and pieces of possible tuyegrave;res (nozzles through which air is forced into a furnace) - was found lying against a mud-brick wall associated with what may be the collapsed remains of two furnaces.
Elsewhere at the site three more furnace structures were identified, one of which has been excavated. It was round, built of large mud bricks, and contained ash, slag, and burnt brick. No stratigraphic connection has been established between this structure and the debris layers, but the pottery shows that both date generally to the eighth century B.C.
Analyses showed that the furnaces were used for iron smelting, and that the remains cover most of the technical steps one would expect to find in that process. The mineralogical structure of the slag points to high furnace temperatures, in excess of 1,200 degrees Celsius, which suggest bellows were used. Elements present in the samples indicate that the ore used was probably from nearby Mugharet al-Warda, Jordan's only source of iron ore. The excavations, part of the Deir 'Alla Regional Project, a joint effort of Yarmouk University and Leiden University, will resume this spring.
Source: Archaeology Magazine (17 December, 1999)
8300 B.C. child's remains in Cyprus
The child's remains which were found in a well in western Cyprus five years ago have been dated back to 8300 B.C., which would make them the island's oldest such traces of human habitation, officials said.
The antiquities department said in a statement the child's remains were unearthed in 1994 in the Kissonerga region, north of the coastal town of Paphos, and their age has been confirmed by independent research in Arizona, Oxford and Edinburgh.
"Based on this we may assume the earliest date of settlement in Cyprus was around 8300 B.C.," antiquities department director Sophocles Hadjisavvas said.
Earlier this year French researchers unearthed what were then considered to be the oldest remains found at a 8200-7000 B.C. site close to the southern town of Limassol.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh found the Kissonerga remains in an ancient well which also contained seeds of domesticated crops and sheep, goat, pig and deer bones.
The findings suggested the child belonged to one of the first human groups of farmers to colonise the island, the antiquities department said.
In a second well, not as old as the first one, researchers said they found detached skulls of more humans carefully deposited together with animal carcasses. The specific burial customs were typical of certain pre-pottery neolithic cultures of the Levantine mainland and South Anatolia, providing valuable evidence on the origin of the island's first settlers.
Sources: ABC News (29 December, 1999), The Globe and Mail (30 December, 1999)
Stoney Littleton Long Barrow being repaired
According to Chris Smith, English Heritage's Assistant Director, conservation work to the ceiling of Stoney Littleton long barrow is being carried out right now. This beautiful site has suffered a long history of small scale but repeated vandalism which led to the ceiling collapse which forced English Heritage to close the access to the barrow. Last year, a trench was made on the site to help scientists design the appropriate programme of repair.
The restoration work will hopefully be completed by the end of January 2000. The barrow will not be filled in but will be restored and full access will be made available.
Sources: Andy Burnham, The Stones Mailing List (29 November, 1999)
Conserving the underwater Scottish heritage
Historic Scotland has published its Operational Policy Paper on Conserving the Underwater Heritage. The paper sets out Historic Scotland's aims and the policies it will pursue to achieve them, using the powers contained in the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 and the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
Historic Scotland will aim to afford the underwater heritage no less careful consideration than its terrestrial equivalent. This means it must aim to develop a protection regime which is effective in securing the long-term future of the most important underwater sites, including securing them against inadvertent or deliberate damage or destruction; pursue the beneficial management of key underwater sites which are under threat of degradation or complete loss; pursue a regime where archaeological or architectural data is recovered when sites cannot be saved and encourage the publication of information about all of these activities, and where appropriate publish such material at its own hand.
Copies of the Operational Policy Paper can be obtained from Ancient Monuments Administration Branch, Historic Scotland, Room G.49, Longmore House, Edinburgh EH9 1SH. E-mail requests can be sent to Duncan.McKendrick@scotland.gov.uk
Source: Britarch Mailing List (19 January, 2000)
