Nine Ladies Bronze Age stone circle at risk
English Heritage announced that it has commissioned a vital archaeological study of Nine Ladies Stone Circle in the Peak District National Park so that the rapidly deteriorating condition of this nationally important Bronze Age Stone Circle can be assessed.
Each year around 40,000 people visit the circa 4000 year old Stone Circle which is causing a rapid increase in erosion of this fragile site. Recent soil erosion has revealed evidence of a tenth stone and today approximately 20cm is exposed. Damage has also been caused by visitors digging holes for campfires and even chipping off pieces of stone as souvenirs.
Jon Humble, English Heritage's Inspector of Ancient Monuments for the East Midlands said: "Nine Ladies Stone Circle, the most evocative and well known of the many monuments on Stanton Moor, is a site of beauty and tranquillity for visitors, from near and far, and to many who believe the Stone Circle is of special spiritual significance. It is this popularity that has significantly accelerated the processes of decay. We must act quickly if we are to protect this mysterious and ancient site for future generations. Rather like investigative surgery, we will examine a small sample of the site to establish the extent and condition of the archaeological remains. Less than 10% of the site will be opened up and the soil removed will be less than the amount lost in the last 20 years alone as a result of erosion.
A specially commissioned leaflet "Nine Ladies Stone Circle and Stanton Moor" explaining plans for the site has been sent to all local residents of the nearby villages Stanton-in-Peak, Stanton Lees and Birchover. For a free copy of the leaflet or further information on the public meeting, please call: (+44) 01604-730320.
The archaeological evaluation will take place in May and last for four-five weeks. The work is being carried out by Trent & Peak Archaeological Unit on behalf of English Heritage and the Peak District National Park Authority. Entry to the monument is free and at any reasonable time.
Source: English Heritage (17 March, 2000)
A 3,000-year old Welsh gold mine
Archaeologists from British National Trust have hailed the discovery that Dolaucothi gold mine in Carmarthenshire (west Wales) could be as much as 3,000 years old. The evidence has been uncovered by French archaeologists, who have been working at the site to learn more about the history of gold mining. In fact, the French team involved on the dig are world experts on ancient and Roman gold mines. They have concluded from primary observations that a major part of this site is pre-Roman in its origins, as there was evidence in the area that were consistent with Iron Age workings. The mine has not been extensively worked and reworked over, so this now has to be confirmed by real digging and that excavation could take several years.
However, after a review of the site, The National Trust's archaeology panel declared that the discovery is as significant as Stonehenge. In a Welsh context, it is the first clear indication of what the area's inhabitants were capable of achieving before they were first invaded by the Romans.
Source: BBC News (12 April, 2000)
Back to the Neolithic
Archaeologists recently uncovered the site of a Neolithic henge on the edge of the village of Milfield in northern Northumberland (England) and excavated the foundations of this ceremonial monument. On the site of the henge, a group of eight grown men and four women dressed in animal skins, loin cloths and hessian robes have set up a camp living as their ancestors did 4,500 years ago.
This is a project funded by the EU and English Heritage to recreate the henge and open it as a tourist attraction this summer. "Then we came up with the idea of trying to build the henge under exactly the same conditions as Neolithic tribes would have faced," explains Clive Waddington, archaeologist and co-director of the project. "That meant eating only the food that they would eat, wearing the clothes and living as a group in a temporary shelter. People thought we were mad, that it couldn't be done, especially as I was determined to get people from all walks of life involved, not just archaeology students. Once I'd found the volunteers and we'd planned everything in detail, recreating what life must have been like for the henge builders became a reality."
In the first week of the camp it rained for 80 hours solid. "The physical scale of building a henge 30 metres across is enormous, never mind if you only give people Stone Age tools," says Waddington. "We wanted them to try to do all the digging with shovels fashioned from ox shoulder bone and rakes made from branches of trees. In the end we had to rely on mechanical help for about 90 per cent of it, but that still left 10 per cent to us, which is no mean feat. Before we started this project, local people were unaware of the rich archaeological heritage of their own area. Then the discovery of the henge was made and lots of people volunteered to help with the excavation. The aim is to open the henge this summer with a time trail leading up to the site to help people understand the different stages in the region's history."
Many of the volunteers say that they have begun to get a sense of what life 4,500 years ago must have been like; the dependence on the weather and the landscape gives them a new understanding of the significance of a henge - they were used for pagan rituals that were rooted in nature - to the community..
Source: The Sunday Times (21 April, 2000)
The Stonehenge experiment
Using brawn and primitive technology, volunteers began on April 8th to move a 3-ton stone from Wales to Stonehenge, re-creating the labor of ancient people who are believed to have built the mysterious monument. About 40 volunteers started the 240-mile journey in Mynachlog-ddu, near Haverfordwest in southwestern Wales, and covered about three-fourths of a mile in the first 2 1/2 hours. They hope to end the trip in Stonehenge, in south-central England, in September. They will go by land and boat.
Stonehenge, on Salisbury plain, is the most visited ancient site in England and was built between 3000 B.C. and 1600 B.C. The "bluestones" arranged within the circle of tall standing stones at Stonehenge are believed to have been quarried in the Preseli mountains of Wales.
Volunteers will use a wooden sledge to drag the stone - roughly the size of a large dining table - overland and a replica Neolithic boat, called currach, to transport it across the Bristol Channel. It will then be dragged the final 26 miles to the Stonehenge site. The volunteers will work in teams of up to 40, with most of the journey being made at weekends. They expect to travel around three miles a day during the land journey. The problem isn't moving the stone, which is carried on a wooden sledge lubricated with grease, but having enough people for the less glamorous task of laying out the protective coating needed for the road.
Though the National Lottery-funded Millennium Stone Project - funded by a £100,000 Heritage Lottery grant - assumes that the stones were moved by humans, some scientific experts question whether the stones were dragged to Stonehenge at all. Archeologist Dr. Aubrey Burl thinks they arrived there through glaciation. "It is a lovely romantic story all this great effort of dragging stones and rafting stones and then putting them along rivers and in the end reaching Salisbury Plain. It is a wonderful story but I think it is only just over 70 years old -it is not a pre-historic story, it is a recent one, he said."
Sources: Associated Press (9 April 2000), The Independent (10 April, 2000)
Iron Age warrior found with sword and a mirror
A 2,000-year-old bronze mirror and sword unearthed from a single ancient grave on the Isles of Scilly (Great Britain) are prompting scholars to reassess assumptions about men and women in the Iron Age. The mirror is believed to be the oldest found in Britain but English Heritage said that what made the find more extraordinary was that it had previously been assumed that swords were associated with male burials and mirrors with female burials. This is the only known example of an Iron Age grave in northwest Europe to contain both.
Jeanette Ratcliffe, project manager of the Cornwall Archaeology Unit, which has been conducting the research with English Heritage, among others, said: "This is a phenomenally exciting find of international importance. That a sword and a mirror should be found together raises imporant questions about sex and gender in the Iron Age."
The buried remains are to be DNA-tested to identify the individual's gender. Ms Ratcliffe said that mirrors in the Iron Age could have had a spiritual function, reflecting the soul of the person buried. The skeleton is likely to be that of an important figure. Other Iron Age graves have generally contained only the odd brooch, bead or piece of pottery. This one includes a brooch, believed to have been attached to a burial garment.
The mirror, one of only 40 in the world, was unearthed on Bryher Island by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit after the discovery of an iron sword in a bronze scabbard in March last year led to further investigations. Sword burials are equally rare, English Heritage says. The sword, believed to date from between 250BC and 125BC, is 88cm long.
Source: The Sunday Times (7 April, 2000)
Kennewick Man DNA Studies To Begin
A team of scientists will begin long-delayed studies of the Kennewick Man skeleton this week to help determine whether the controversial 9,000-year-old bones can be linked through DNA and other clues to contemporary Indian tribes. The government-appointed team also hopes to learn whether Kennewick Man was intentionally buried at the site where the bones were found in the shallows of the Columbia River (U.S.A.) in 1996.
"One of the things that makes this remarkable discovery intriguing is that a nearly complete and very ancient human skeleton was found whose exact burial treatment can never be precisely known," Francis McManamon, chief consulting archaeologist for the U.S. Department of Interior, said Friday. Another question scientists hope to answer is what parts from the 380 bones and skeletal fragments may contain enough collagen protein to help derive DNA information.
Kennewick Man is one of the oldest and most complete skeletons found in North America. Radiocarbon-dating of the bones place their age at between 9,320 and 9,510 years old.
Five Northwest Indian tribes have claimed Kennewick Man as an ancestor, and want the bones buried without further studies. But eight prominent scientists sued in October 1996 for the right to conduct additional studies. The disposition of the bones has been hotly contested ever since the first anthropologist to examine Kennewick Man claimed the skull bore little resemblance to today's Indian people.
The new tests are planned to help the Interior Department determine whether Kennewick Man can be linked to any existing tribes.
Source: Associated Press (22 April, 2000)
Protecting unexcavated Irish sites
Residents and archaeology society members have started a campaign to protect unexcavated archaeological sites from damage during the building of a road, west of Ashbourne, Co Meath (Ireland).
The Meath Archaeological and Historical Society and residents in Baltrasna and Fleenstown, Ashbourne, fear that seven out of 64 unexcavated sites in the area could be destroyed if the N2 realignment is built on a route identified by consultants for the project. The planned N2 realignment passes directly through four sites and within 100 metres of three others, said Mr Oliver Ward, Meath Archaeological and Historical Society Secretary.
The society has contacted Meath county manager Mr Joe Horan and the National Roads Authority to have the sites thoroughly excavated. It wants the N2 project reassessed in the light of the findings.
The threat to these sites, which include a ring ditch at Killegland and a large enclosure at Baltrasna, have also been brought to the attention of Duchas (the Heritage Service). Residents have obtained research material which shows that the sites date from 4000 BC to around 1000 AD, providing evidence of continuous settlement in the Ashbourne area for thousands of years.
Meath county secretary Mr Kevin Stewart said the route chosen for the realignment will be required to undergo a comprehensive environmental impact assessment. This would deal with these issues.
Source: The Irish Times (20 April, 2000)
