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July 2003 | |
 Museum planned for cave paintings
A £4.5m museum to house the 12,000 year old cave paintings at Creswell Crags, Derbyshire (England) is being planned by historians. The Ice Age engravings of birds and animals, discovered by archaeologists earlier this year, are the only examples ever found in Britain (Archaeo News, 17 June 2003). Nigel Mills, manager of the Creswell Heritage Trust, said: “These discoveries confirm the importance of Creswell Crags in global terms as one of the most northerly places to have been visited by our ancestors during the Ice Age. Cave art has been found in at least three caves, and this provides a very visual and vivid addition to the story of Ice Age Britain.”
The paintings, some of which were obscured by modern graffiti, are not yet on public view. The Trust is now preparing a Heritage Lottery Fund bid to fund the museum, for submission in August 2003 as part of a £14m regeneration initiative for the Creswell area.
John Humble, inspector of ancient monuments for English Heritage, said: “The archaeologists are to be congratulated on making a very important scientific discovery. The text books say that there is no cave art is Britain. They will now have to be re-written.”
Source: Chesterfield Today (10 July 2003)
1,200 sites flooded by Yangtze dam
On 1st June the waters began rising on schedule in the 375 miles long Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River (China). A massive archaeological salvage effort during the later stages of its construction (Archaeo News, 8 June 2003) identified the area as one of the most culturally important in China, enriched local museums and provided impetus for the technical and financial advancement of Chinese archaeology. Nonetheless, nearly 1,200 sites of historical and archaeological importance have now been submerged with only a fraction of research completed.
When construction of the dam was approved in 1992 no consideration was given to the potential loss to archaeology. A year later, following hurried consultations with Unesco, an initial budget of almost two million yuan ($250m) was earmarked for archaeological rescue. This sum was soon cut back to 300 million yuan ($37.5m) and inefficiencies in the distribution of the funds further reduced the impact on the ground. Academic institutions and the Planning Group for the Cultural Relic Protection of the Three Gorges Reservoir and Dam Construction pressed on in the face of these difficulties, which were to include looting of newly uncovered sites as work progressed. The plight of the archaeologists and the significance of their discoveries eventually attracted international publicity.
By 2000, increasing pressure from within and outside China finally led to the allocation of substantial funds for a rescue operation. 100 teams of archaeologists from more than 20 provinces and cities began work on 120 of the most important sites. The 6,000 important artefacts recovered provide little more than a hint of the total potential of the region, which has emerged as one of the main meeting places between East and West in ancient China.
The archaeological record shows continuous occupation from the late-Neolithic, with extensive remains of the Daxi culture (5000-3200 BCe) and the Chujialing culture (3200-2300 BCe). Archaeologists have been most excited by the Ba culture sites, the dating of which extends from late-Neolithic origins to the Warring States period (481-221 BCe). The archaeological work has revealed what little is known of the relationship of the Ba peoples to the Shu and Chu cultures. But virtually every dynastic period in China’s history is represented at the Three Gorges, down to the Quing period of 1644-1911 Ce.
Losses include many standing monuments, although some have been removed wholesale and rampart walls have been erected to protect others. All told, however, the flooding has destroyed an irreplaceable historical record: seven millennia of settlement and cultural development.
Source: The Art Newspaper (14.7.2003)
Prehistoric findings along the Roman Fosse Way
The construction of a newly opened stretch of the A46 between Lincoln and Newark (England), which follows the same route as the historic Roman thoroughfare, the Fosse Way, has allowed archaeologists to unearth artefacts from as far back as 2400 BCe. Many of these discoveries, which will be held in Lincoln’s new City and County Museum, shed light on some of the earliest recorded settlements in Lincolnshire.
At the Winthorpe roundabout near Newark, pits and gullies containing pottery from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age were unearthed. The pits are evidence of historic timber fences, working shelters, and other structures.
Farther up the road at Glebe Farm, on the route of the Brough bypass, archaeologists found more Bronze Age evidence: urns containing cremation burial remains, as well as beaker pottery dating back to 2000 BCe. Cremation burial remains, these dating from between 1700 and 1500 BCe, were also discovered at the northern end of the Brough bypass.
Project leader of the City of Lincoln Archaeological Unit, Russell Trimble described them as ‘the most interesting discovery’.
"This is the most interesting find", he said. "But we have got to study the pots—we have got specialists looking at them and then we will know how rare they are."
Brough and Glebe Farm excavations also revealed evidence of Iron Age settlements from around 100 BCe.
Understanding the history of occupation at Gallows Nooking Common, located at the top of the Trent Valley and running parallel to an ancient earthwork ‘band and ditch’ that marks the local parish and county boundary, has been helped by these digs.
Mr Trimble said, "There had only been glimpses and we have now been able to complete the picture. The very interesting thing about this site is the main road crosses over the area, and it seems from the work that we carried out the settlement existed for a long time. We want to establish why the settlement came to an end—was it something to do with the Roman Road? They may have been cleared out."
At some points in the excavations, a limestone road surface layer atop a layer of broken Roman brick was found, allowing archaeologists to confirm that the A46 follows the route of the original Roman Fosse Way.
Source: Lincolnshire Echo (14 July 2003)
British comedian has his own standing stone
British comedian Billy Connolly has erected a 3-ton, 9-foot-high standing stone at his home in Straitdon, Aberdeenshire (Scotland).
The lump of Caithness granite at Candacraig House is inscribed with Connolly’s favourite saying, ‘There’s no such thing as normal.’
The Glasgow-born comic has had an enduring passion for standing stones, and was filmed dancing naked around an Orkney ring of stones during a televised tour of Scotland.
The stone’s inscription was carved by hand by Martin Cook, who travelled to Wick to select the stone, and then to Straithdon to help position it.
"The carving took the best part of a week", Martin said. "Then it was transported to Billy’s place and we fixed it on to a concrete foundation. With the help of the gardeners and anyone else around, we hoisted it into place with ropes."
The stone stands discreetly at the foot of a mound in the 12 acres of ground.
Source: dailyrecord.co.uk (7 July 2003)
Neolithic skeleton unearthed in South China
An intact, 5,000-year-old male skeleton, positioned face up with limbs extended, has been discovered at the Haogang Neolithic site in South China’s Guangdong Province. Experts say he was an inhabitant of the Pearl River delta in the south-central part of Guangdong.
Archaeologists discovered the site in the 1980s, and since excavations began this past April 15, archaeologists with the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage, the Archaeological Research Institute, and the Dongguan City Museum have uncovered large quantities of pottery and stone, bone and mussel tools.
According to Feng Mengqin, head of the excavation team, based on these unearthed materials, the Haogang site has been determined to be the earliest human-inhabited site on the Pearl River delta.
"The Haogang site has residential housing, designated sites for public activities, areas for garbage disposal, and a designated burial area, indicating that human beings lived in the Pear River delta more than 5,000 years ago", said Feng.
Numerous oyster shells, fish bones and fishing tools have also been excavated, indicating these inhabitants depended on fishing instead of farming. These discoveries, as well as the skeleton, are vital to the study of the origins of the culture of the Lingnan area, located south of the Five Ridges that compose Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China. They also provide evidence for the study of the relationship among the ancient civilizations in the Pacific Ocean area.
Source: People’s Daily Online (12 July 2003)
5,000-year-old settlement found in Ireland
The Republic of Ireland's largest Neolithic settlement dating back to 2500 to 3000 BCe has been uncovered.
A team lead by Dr Stefan Bergh of the Department of Archaeology of NUI Galway has been working on a plateau in the Brickleigh Mountains some 250 feet above Lough Arrow in Co. Sligo and discovered artefacts that link the site to the late Stone Age.
Archaeologists have known about the site since 1911 when they mapped the 140 hut sites and enclosures, surrounded by cliffs and passage tombs. However, the settlement's age has remained a mystery.
"This has remained one of the most enigmatic places in Irish history", explained Dr Bergh.
A fortnight ago Dr Bergh and a small number of NUI Galway students uncovered a collection of cremated bones, animal teeth, charcoal, hazelnut shells, small pieces of pottery, small tools, including some concave scrapers and an Antrim flint knife, and black flint debris.
"These finds are very significant for the time period and all date to the Neolithic period, although exact dates will not be known until the artefacts are carbon dated", Dr Bergh said.
Source: Belfast Telegraph (17 July 2003)
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