Giant waves hit ancient Scotland
Scientists believe a landslide on the ocean floor off Storegga, south-west Norway, triggered a giant wave that flooded Scotland about 7,000 years ago. The tsunami left a trail of destruction along what is now the eastern coast of the country and inundated much of the land bridge that connected Britain to Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands at the end of the Ice Age.
Radiocarbon dating of sediments taken from the coastline of eastern Scotland put the date of the event at about 5,800 BC. The natural disaster forced the Stone Age inhabitants of coastal villages to move inland after their villages were wiped out with many deaths. Archaeologists know this from the remains of a hunting camp in Inverness, found in excavations beneath the BBC building on Castle Street. Flint tools and weapons were scattered across a wide area, showing the extent of the devastation.
"It looks as if those people were happily sitting in their camp when this wave from the sea hit the camp," said Professor Smith of the department of Geography at Coventry University. "We're talking about two, three or four large waves followed by little ones, that would have been 5-10 metres high.
David Smith said the event probably marked a watershed in Britain's emergence as an island. "It just so happened that the time when these waves were formed was about the time Britain was beginning to be isolated from the European mainland,"
Scientists hope to find more evidence of similar past tsunamis in eastern Scotland to predict the frequency of the destructive waves. Studies of coastal sediments show that it may be possible to develop a record of past tsunamis extending back several millennia.
Sources: BBC News (7 September 2001), The Times (8 September 2001)
Neolithic farmhouse discovered in Scotland
The remains of a Stone Age farmhouse, built more than 1,000 years before the pyramids, have been uncovered by archaeologists in a cornfield in Perthshire (Scotland).
The 6,000-year-old home, complete with a living area, bedroom and cooking area, lies close to Britain's longest Stone Age burial cairn near Callander. Historians believe that it and the Auchenlaich cairn were part of the same Neolithic settlement.
The discovery, by archaeologists from the universities of Glasgow and Stirling, is one of two such structures uncovered in Scotland. The other is at Balbridie, Deeside. Gordon Barclay, an archaeologist from Stirling University, said: "This type of enormous timber building is only the second of its kind ever found. This is a very important site, even longer and possibly even older than what we have found before. There is nothing like it anywhere else in Europe." The building is 25 metres long and nine metres wide with walls formed by massive timber posts each about one metre apart. A second line of posts one metre in, along with posts inside the massive room, once supported a thatched roof.
Dr Barclay said the size and built strength of the farmhouse indicated that the Neolithic people were skilled engineers. "This is no shack that somebody has thrown up. It is an enormous, very sophisticated piece of engineering, built to last. The only other evidence we had was of much smaller, lighter structures. This proves that the Neolithic people were engineers as skilled and intelligent as modern man." Because there were no metal nails, the house was made almost entirely from timber shaped to fit together with timber pegs. The farmhouse was split into compartments by light wooden partitions set into the ground. On a large sunken area to the north, the team discovered burnt red gravel, showing that fires had been regularly lit there.
The archaeologists discovered more than 200 pieces of Stone Age pottery and cereal remains which will be radiocarbon-dated. Dr Barclay said: "These were the first farmers ever to cultivate land in Scotland."
Sources: The Times (7 September 2001), News Telegraph (9 September 2001)
Ancient burial site uncovered in Virginia (USA)
A survey team has uncovered an ancient "mortuary complex" where as many as 18 individuals were buried in a circle around a large pit. Archaeologists said the unusual burial arrangement, laid out possibly 2,000 years ago, has been seen before in eastern Virginia (USA). The mortuary complex might also be the bottom of a burial mound more typical of an ancient culture in the Ohio Valley. The mortuary complex was discovered near the community of Gala in May by surveyors with a survey team that was scrutinizing the area for cultural resources on behalf of the Virginia Department of Transportation. The Gala community was once the site of a prehistoric Indian village. But no one had any idea a burial site was so close to the road.
Brad Bowden, head of the survey team, said they've found what appear to be 18 separate bundles of bones, each buried around the edge of a large pit. They've also found shards of pottery and spear tips.
The discovery of the burial site deepens the mystery surrounding the early residents and their contact with other tribes, Boyd said. Craig Lukevic, a preservation program administrator for VDOT, said the site is doubly intriguing because it might be part of a larger burial mound. Mounds are the hallmark of the ancient Adena culture and are typically found in the Ohio Valley, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
Source: Times Dispatch (6 September 2001)
Bronze Age tombs unearthed in Lebanon
Nineteen ancient tombs dating back to the Bronze Age have been uncovered in old Sidon (Lebanon) by a team of British archaeologists.
Experts from the British Museum and the Culture Ministry's Directorate-General of Antiquities (DGA) have been working at the site for three years before discovering the tombs, which date between 4000-2000 BC. The head of the DGA, Frederic Husseini, said the findings were important because they can "help restore knowledge of the past history of Sidon which has been lost for years." The director of the British Museum for the Near East, and head of the archeological expedition, Claude Doumit Serhal explained the current team is made up of seven archaeologists from the British Museum, assisted by 10 archaeology students from the Lebanese University. She said more students and volunteer workers would be needed to form a permanent team to investigate the site, due to the wealth of information.
Source: Daily Star (12 September 2001)
Alien seekers damage Silbury Hill
Trespassing UFO hunters have climbed into Silbury Hill in Wiltshire, UK, damaging the biggest man-made Neolithic mound in Europe. English Heritage closed the 4,000-year-old mound to the public after an 18th Century mining shaft opened up in the summit in May last year.
The alien hunters broke into the site under cover of darkness soon after the hole was discovered. Evidence of the trespass has only come to light now, after a video of the foray was included in a documentary film. After tunnelling under the temporary roof installed by English Heritage, two climbers abseiled into the shaft, while a third videoed the stunt. They repeated the climb on a rainy winter night six months later.
Archaeologist Mike Pitts says the climbers dislodged the soft clay sides of the unstable shaft, possibly damaging vital archaeological clues. "They were extremely lucky to come out again alive. Between their two visits there was a major collapse, which they joked about in the video of their December visit."
Footage of the illicit descent has since been incorporated into a video by Dutch documentary makers Janet Ossebaard and Bert Janssen, who have attempted to sell it on the tourist circuit in nearby Avebury. Mr Pitts says that not only have shopkeepers refused to stock the video, the crop circle enthusiasts who flock to Wiltshire every summer have almost universally condemned the stunt. The documentary makers complained on a Dutch national paper that because of all the negative publicity it has become near impossible for them to work in England and they lamented the fact that there are calls that they should pay for the damage.
As repairs to the hill get under way, English Heritage is carrying out a seismic study to create a 3D computer image of what lies inside. It is the latest attempt to unlock the secrets of the hill, which forms part of the ancient landscape surrounding Avebury stone circle and nearby Stonehenge.
Sources: BBC News (28 August 2001), Algemeen Dagblad (8 September 2001), Stones Mailing List (12 September 2001)
Low tide reveals ancient canoe
Three friends searching a riverbank for treasure have stumbled on a prehistoric dugout canoe that could become one of the most important maritime finds in Scotland. The 25ft boat, made from a carved tree trunk, was spotted at low tide partly submerged in a reed bed in the Tay, near Perth. The discoverers alerted local archaeologists who visited the site and confirmed that the large, finely-honed vessel was made from a single oak and has been preserved by the soft silt in which it lay buried. Archaeologists hope to remove it from the riverbed before winter after raising the funds needed to preserve the craft.
David Strachan, an archaeologist from Perth and Kinross Council, said the canoe could date from the Bronze Age. "While we still wait on the results of radiocarbon-dating tests, it is possible that the boat could date back a long time or could be as recent as AD500."
Douglas Speirs, an archaeologist with Fife Council, said: "This is a find of a lifetime." He added: "It is a remarkable find and is in astonishingly good condition. You could almost pull it out of the mud and set sail in it. It was made from one single tree and it must have taken a year or two to build, even with Bronze Age tools. It has very fine lines, and is not simply a hollowed out log. It was designed for inland waters and was probably used by some prehistoric chap sailing about in a quiet area with a bow and arrow sneaking up on large waterfowl. Very few of these have been found, and hardly any as well preserved as this one."
Mr Fotheringham, one of the discoverers, said: "The most important artefact we had found to date was a couple of Roman medallions, so this is much more exciting." A spokesman for Perth and Kinross council said it was extremely rare to find an ancient canoe in one piece. He said that similar craft had been found, and then abandoned or destroyed, by farmers and estate workers during agricultural improvements in the 18th and 19th century.
Sources: The Times (11 February 2001), The Daily Telegraph (13 September 2001)
5,000-year-old pub found on Orkney
Merryn Dineley, a historian from Manchester University, found there had been a 5000-year-old pub and brewery at Skara Brae in Orkney, Britain's best preserved neolithic village, after examining stone-lined drains running under some of the houses, along with evidence of a kiln for malting grain. Traces of cereal-based fermented alcohol have been found on a nearby site. "There's no doubt these neolithic people were fermenting alcohol from grain," she said. "In fact I think they were making barley malt for brewing before they thought about grinding up grain for bread."
The neolithic ale has been scientifically recreated, complete with original farmyard flavours. It has been manufactured in clay pots bearing the traces of baked animal droppings. Mrs Dineley insists that the dung is an essential component of the original flavour. "It's quite delicious, actually," she claims, but the deadly nightshade, henbane and hemlock found in the original recipe had to be removed.
Islander Andrew Appleby is one of the few to have sampled the stone-age beer. "So long as you don't expect it to resemble modern ales it is drinkable."
Source: The Independent (2 September 2001)
