* Astronomy

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Home -> Astronomy News -> Off Topic -> Ancient Britains
Post Info
TOPIC: Ancient Britains
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Silbury Hill
Permalink  
 

Engineers have reopened a tunnel that goes deep inside the ancient monument of Silbury Hill in Wiltshire.
The tunnel, dug in 1968, was the last of many made over the centuries by archaeologists exploring the site.

Read more





__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Permalink  
 

Archaeologists on Friday plan to reopen a tunnel into Silbury Hill, Europes largest prehistoric artificial mound, in a bid to carry out urgent repair work amid fears that the 30-metre high structure is in danger of collapse.
Parts of the monument in Wiltshire, south west England, have caved in following previous digs over the past 250 years.
Tunnelling in 1776, 1849 and again in 1968 have damaged the 4,500-year-old mound, which dominates the surrounding countryside.
Mark Kirkbride, project manager from Skanska, the construction company overseeing the repairs, told the BBC that it was important to undo the effects of previous excavations.

Read more

1
Expand (141kb, 800 x 562)

Latitude: 51.41572N, Longitude: 1.85743W

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Fylingdales
Permalink  
 

New light has been shed on rock art created more than 5,000 years ago, after years of painstaking work by archaeologists.
The ancient stone, carved with a unique geometric pattern, was found in the aftermath of the devastating Fylingdales Moor fire of 2003.
It was one of 2,500 archaeological features laid bare by the blaze.

Read more

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Stone Age Britons
Permalink  
 

New evidence of the brutish and short lives of Stone Age Britons has been revealed by researchers from Cardiff University and the University of Central Lancashire.
Carbon dating of 14 human remains discovered at a prehistoric burial site suggests that most could have died together in a massacre, possibly in a scramble for land or a cattle raid.
The ground breaking techniques date the remains of the bodies, discovered at Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire in the 1960s, to within a decade or so, between 3590 BC and 3560 BC.  .

"Up to now prehistorians have tended to emphasise long-term change, in search of long-running or underlying processes at the expense of shorter- term events and succession. This dating programme will help direct the study of prehistory to get much closer to people" - Professor Alasdair Whittle, Cardiff School of History and Archaeology.

The tip of a flint arrowhead was found embedded in the pelvic bone of one body and two of the bodies had been scavenged and partially dismembered by dogs or wolves before their remains were buried.  The new evidence suggests that the period between 3625 BC and 3590 BC may have been one of increasing social tension and upheaval.

Source Cardiff University

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Exmoor
Permalink  
 

Archaeologists are hoping to unlock the secrets of Exmoor's ancestors by using a bird's eye view of ancient sites and monuments. British prehistory experts Cain Hegarty and Katherine Toms are about to undertake one of the biggest challenges of their careers by examining more than 15,000 aerial images of the breathtaking National Park.
The aim of the project is to build up a detailed picture of the area's archaeology by picking out changes in the landscape such as ditch marks, henges, barrows and field boundaries - features which can escape even an expert eye unless viewed from the air.

Read more

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Harlow North homes
Permalink  
 

Archaeologists have found small settlements dating from the late Bronze Age on the Harlow North site where there are plans to build 8000 new homes.
L - P: Archaeology, which works for Ropemaker Properties Ltd, discovered evidence of settlements dating back 3000 years.
The team believes Iron Age folk lived in at least three agricultural settlements. Artefacts found in the evaluation trenches include a bone comb, Roman ironwork, a knife, a brooch, large quantities of pottery and three cremation deposits.
The archaeologists believe ritual activity may have centred on the nearby shrine on the opposite side of the River Stort at Harlow and occupation of this area continued until into the early Roman period, when a new settlement was created north of Harlow Mill.

Read more

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
The Rhind Lectures
Permalink  
 

The Rhind Lectures for 2007, organized by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland, will be held in Edinburgh from 27th to 29th April. The event is free and open to all - no ticket required.
This series of Rhind lectures will examine how people lived with stone during the Neolithic in Ireland and Britain, how they engaged with this remarkable material in all its diversity, using it to make new worlds, to establish, maintain and change cultural relationships and connections across geographical space and through time.
Material and case studies from stone-using societies in different parts of the world will be drawn on to provide a wider context for the discussion. It will be suggested that looking at the processes of the working of stone, the creation of things, big and small, and their uses provides us with a way of linking objects and monuments which we often tend to see as unrelated phenomena with very different senses of scale and purpose. Focusing on the way in which people engaged and worked with stone provides a new perspective and insight into cultural knowledge during the Neolithic in Ireland and Britain.

Source: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Neolithic flint axe
Permalink  
 

A neolithic flint axe estimated at being between 4,000 and 5,000 years old that has been sitting in a garden shed drawer for 40 years will be available for all to see at the Worcestershire City Museum.
Arthur Mason, aged 80, from Elmley Castle, first found the axe 40 years ago while out in Cropthorne. At the time, Mr Mason did not think much of the small axe, and left it sitting in his garden shed drawer until he decided to show it to his friend Tony Tarran...

Read more

-- Edited by Blobrana at 19:37, 2007-03-22

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
Iron Age hillfort
Permalink  
 

A recent archaeological excavation in Aberdeenshire has revealed evidence for the destruction of an Iron Age hillfort in Aberdeenshire, perhaps at the hands of the Roman Army.
The excavation revealed that the main defence of the fort had been subject to intense destruction by fire sufficient to melt the stones. Vitrified stone was recovered in four locations around the fort's ramparts suggesting that the entire circuit of the fort had been fired over an extended period of time, certainly several days: a violently destructive action which would have demonstrated the overwhelming power of the victors over the vanquished.

Read more

2.52828W_57.29061N
Expand (81kb, 800 x 562)

Latitude:, 57.29061, Longitude:, -2.52828

__________________
Blobrana


L

Posts: 131433
Date:
RE: Ancient Britains
Permalink  
 

Bones found at an English burial site suggest it once bore witness to a massacre happened 5,500 years ago. The remains of 14 people were discovered in the 1960s, but it is only now with huge advances in the dating of human remains that scientists can say they may have met a grisly end. The bones were known to be Neolithic – late Stone Age – but the new techniques have definitively dated them to 3590-3560 BCE.
Discovered at Wayland's Smithy, a burial mound near the Uffington White Horse in Oxfordshire, three of the people had been shot by arrows – possibly in a dispute over land or cattle.

"We know one person was shot through the lower abdomen because we have found the tiny tip of a flint arrowhead embedded in their pelvic bone. We also know that the bodies of two people were scavenged and partially dismembered by dogs or wolves before their remains were buried in the monument. All this new evidence suggests that the period between 3625 BCE and 3590 BCE may have been one of increasing social tension and upheaval" -  Michael Wysocki, University of Central Lancashire.

 The preciseness of the dating is ensured by combining radiocarbon tests with 'Bayesian statistics' – a method in which samples are studied and interpreted in their archaeological context, for example their appearance in different layers in the soil.

"With this research, we can now think about the Neolithic period in terms of individuals and communities and make useful and revealing comparisons between their choices and behaviour in the remote past. This dating programme demands a revolution in our thinking about prehistory and not just that of early neolithic burial monuments in Southern Britain" - Alex Bayliss, radiocarbon dating expert at English Heritage.
   
Source: Metro.co.uk

__________________
«First  <  1 … 12 13 14 15 16 … 19  >  Last»  | Page of 19  sorted by
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.
Home -> Astronomy News -> Off Topic -> Ancient Britains


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse 		Powered by ActiveBoard