Anthropometry in Inishbofin Pic: The Board of Trinity College Dublin

An exhibition called ‘Irish Headhunters’, opened on May 3 2012 in the Blasket Island Centre in Dunquin, County Kerry, will shed light on turn of the century anthropology World Irish tells us. The exhibit is drawn from a collection of images collected by anthropologist Charles R. Browne from Dublin who surveyed communities in the remotest parts of Ireland from 1891 to 1900.

The image above, shows Browne and a fellow researcher measuring the head of a local man on Inishbofin. Beginning in the 1890s, Browne began to systematically record the people on Ireland’s remote islands. He used anthropological methods of the time, specifically ‘craniometry’ (measuring of the skull), to “racially classify” his subjects.

The photographs of this research were filed in a series of albums, six of which survive and are held in the Library of Trinity College Dublin. A selection of these photographs are being exhibited for the first time ever with the permission of the Board of Trinity College Dublin.

Those in charge of the exhibition gave some insight into the way the anthropologists used craniometry in a recent interview with the Irish Times:

Sliding rules, steel tapes and “craniometers” were used to gauge the circumference of the heads of his often unwilling subjects: methods that seem repellent to modern sensibilities, as Jane Maxwell says in the catalogue.

“Alive or dead, the head of the Irish peasant was a source of intense interest to Browne and his associates,” writes curator Ciarán Walsh in his introduction.

“The taking of skulls recorded in the photographs and ethnographies makes the evidence of headhunting in the west of Ireland the most striking aspect of the albums.”

From Irish Times

Read the full story on World Irish

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St David’s Day Poster Pic: Festival Site

The Los Angeles St. David’s Day Festival will be taking place on March 3rd in 2014 at the Barnsdall Art Park in Los Angeles. They tell us that the National Day of Wales celebrates Welsh and Welsh American culture through live performance, workshops, children’s education, language classes and vendor marketplace. Our goal is to raise awareness about Welsh and Welsh American identity and encourage continued growth between the United States and Wales. The festival is to celebrate Welsh and Welsh American identity and expression. In doing so, it fosters positive self-esteem and creativity for the benefit of the greater community. The public will be encouraged to participate in classes and attend performances in the Welsh tradition. Welsh Americans will benefit from learning about their culture through ongoing workshops and activities.

 Location, location, location!

2013 Los Angeles St. David’s Day Festival – National Day of Wales
Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant, Los Angeles – Diwrnod Cenedlaethol Cymru
March 3, 2013
Barnsdall Art Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, 90027

Inside the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre there will be a special ticketed St. David’s Day Grand Concert beginning at 1:30pm with a Druid blessing, followed by a screening of the rare 1962 short film ‘Dylan Thomas’ starring Richard Burton. After this the Welsh Choir of Southern California (Côr Cymraeg De Califfornia) will take the stage, and then a special performance by Paul Child, and in her debut North American appearance – Welsh soprano and harpist Siobhan Owen!

We are all excited by the return of Paul Child to Hollywood. Among his many achievements, Child is Wales biggest independent selling artist, the ‘Official Voice of Welsh Rugby’, and recently sang at the half time show of the final match of the Wales Rugby Grand Slam. Interesting to note, each time he’s sung before a match, Wales has registered a victory.

Siobhan Owen was born in North Wales to a Welsh father and Irish mother, and moved to Australia when she was 2 years old. A classically trained singer from the age of 9, Siobhan also turns her haunting soprano voice and gentle harp playing to a repertoire of traditional Celtic songs. She has received prestigious awards for both her classical and Celtic singing and is a popular performer at festivals, concerts, recitals etc around Australia.

Outside the Grand Concert beginning at 10am visitors will be delighted in a free Celtic Marketplace, authentic Welsh food, languages classes by Swansea based instructor Jason Shepherd of the Learn Welsh Podcast, workshops, Welsh Corgi lecture, Kids Crafts at the Odgen Nash Children’s Area, and the LA Eisteddfod featuring poetry, storytelling, readings and performance at the Harold Lloyd Outdoor Stage. Also we will be promoting artists from both Wales and the US in a special book release party on Welsh Nursery Rhymes collected and translated by Llanelli born author Peter Anthony Freeman and published by A Raven Above Press.

The last Welsh festival in LA brought over 2,000 attendees with famous celebrities including Frank Lloyd Wright’s grandson and Henry Thomas (star of Legends of the Fall and ET). There is really no better place to celebrate the history and accomplishments of Welsh-Americans then at Barnsdall Art Park. Designed by Welsh-American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the park is nestled atop a shaded hill and away from the city bustle, with a clear view of the Hollywood sign in Griffith Park (named for Welsh philanthropist Griffith J. Griffith) and near the infamous Gower Street to the west (known for the golden age of cinema and Welsh-American stars like Glenn Ford and Myrna Loy).

Learn Welsh Podcast

Swansea based Jason Shepherd of the Learn Welsh Podcast returns to Los Angeles to teach free beginner Welsh classes at the 2013 St. David’s Day Festival – National Day of Wales on March 3, 2013!Jason Shepherd creates and hosts The Learn Welsh Podcast, a fortnightly audio podcast that teaches people the Welsh Language. The Podcast’s website is for the listeners (as well as any other Welsh learners), to come together and share their learning experiences.

Jason Shepherd for Learn Welsh Podcast Pic: Festival Site

The site also focuses on history and culture of Wales and to practice writing and speaking in Welsh with other learners. Jason is also an accomplished author and artist that enjoys painting the Gower Peninsula and other scenic Welsh areas. Jason Shepherd is the owner and operator of Choir of Giants Press, a small press focused on Welsh and other Celtic related books.

For more information about The Learn Welsh Podcast goto: http://www.learnwelshnow.com/

The Schedule

For tickets and more information goto: http://www.aravenabovepress.com/
or contact Lorin Morgan-Richards (Festival Executive Director)
at lorinmorg at aol.com

Tentative Schedule (may be subject to change)
Harold LLoyd Outdoor Stage
10:00am – Reading by R. Merlin of Ariel & Electra
11:00am – Aedan MacDonnell performs
12:00pm – Joe Praml reads Dylan Thomas and other Welsh favorites
1:00pm – Segni Pembroke Welsh Corgi lecture
-visitors invited to Grand Concert

Harriet Beecher Stowe Classroom
10:00am – Learn Welsh Podcast Welsh language pt.1
11:00am – Peter Anthony Freeman reads from the book on Welsh Nursery Rhymes (Hwiangerddi Cymraeg)
12:00am – Learn Welsh Podcast Welsh language pt.2
1:00pm – Peter Paddon workshop
-visitors invited to Grand Concert

Grand Concert in the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre
1:30pm Druid Blessing
1:45pm Screening of Dylan Thomas (1962) directed by Jack Howells and starring Richard Burton
2:15pm The Welsh Choir of Southern California (Côr Cymraeg De Califfornia)
3:00pm Performance by Paul Child
4:00pm Performance by Siobhan Owen

Ogden Nash Children’s Learning Area
Create your own Daffodil or Leek with artist Rochelle Shelly Rosenkild
& Welsh Choir chorister Caroline will facilitate Ysgol Eisteddfod (School Eisteddfod) to help the youth activate and develop their vocal talents in the arts of poetry, song, comedy and storytelling and their artistic and craft skills! If you weren’t born of Welsh heritage you’ll leave being The Cymry-Mabwysiad (Welsh by adoption).

There will also be a presentation of artwork from Wales and US in the limited edition artist book on Welsh Nursery Rhymes published by A Raven Above Press – collected and commentary by Peter Anthony Freeman and artwork by: Judy Adamson, Gaabriel Becket, Adrien Burke, John Charles, Kerry Evans, Nichola Hope, Sarah Hope, Rhys Jones, Robert Karr, Brian Kenny, Xavier Lopez Jr., Jo Mazelis, Anthony Richards, Lorin Morgan-Richards, Siobhan Owen, David Richardson, Grasiela Rodriguez, Rochelle Shelly Rosenkild, Jason Shepherd, Danny Walden, Michele Witchipoo, Kimberly Wlassak, and more!

Official Major Sponsors include A Raven Above Press, National Welsh-American Foundation, Tom LaBonge 4th District Councilmember

Community Sponsors include Cambrian Heritage Society Madison WI, AmeriCymru, The Welsh Baker, Learn Welsh Podcast, Ninnau & Y Drych, The Celtic Arts Center, Brian Kenny (Dark Corner of the Abyss), Music Wales, Highland Sun, Eugene Hayden, Queens Favor, Red Dragon Management, Choir of Giants Press.

Friend Sponsors include Jude Johnson, Peter Anthony Freeman, The Order of Bards Ovates & Druids, Pan Pipes Magickal Marketplace, Emily Fromm, The National Library of Wales, Celtic Myth Podshow, JOMO – Joanne Morrison. — with Brian Kenny, Welsh Choir, Siobhan Owen, Jason Shepherd, Paul Child and Joe Carbone.

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Handster at http://www.handster.com/celtic_myth.html or by using the QR code opposite. It’s als found on the Opera Marketplace as well as AppBrain in the US.
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Christine’s Proclamation as Archdruid Pic: BBC Wales

The National Eisteddfod in Wales has made history this year by announcing that the next Archdruid, who is to preside over the 2013 Eisteddfod, is to be the first woman AND the first Welsh Learner to hold the post. Speaking at the Proclamation Ceremony for the 2013 Denbighshire and District National Eisteddfod, Archdruid Jim Parc Nest, announced that only one nomination has been received for the ceremonial post of Archdruid from 2013-16. He said:

In line with the Gorsedd of the Bards’ procedures, nominations were invited for the post of Archdruid, and by the closing date, the Gorsedd Recorder had received one nomination. Although the Gorsedd’s annual meeting will need to ratify this nomination at its meeting during the Eisteddfod, today, I announce, happily, that Christine James from Cardiff’s nomination will be the only one discussed at the annual meeting in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Christine James is the first woman to be nominated as Archdruid, and I am delighted to announce this today. Christine is also the first Welsh learner to be nominated to the post, which is also a reason for us to rejoice as a nation. Many congratulations to Christine on her nomination, and I very much hope that she will be addressing you all at the Proclamation Ceremony in twelve months’ time.

Originally from Tonypandy in the Rhondda Valley, Christine James was brought up in an English speaking household. She learned Welsh as a second language at the Rhondda County School for Girls, Porth, before graduating with first-class honours in Welsh at Aberystwyth University. She is a senior lecturer at the Hywel Teifi Academy, Swansea University, and lives in Cardiff. She is married to Wyn James and is the mother of Eleri, Emyr and Owain, and the brand-new grandmother of Trystan Marc.

She won the Crown at the Eryri and District National Eisteddfod in 2005, for her collection of poems, ‘Lluniau Lliw’, inspired by some of the most famous works of art at National Museum Cardiff. Her work was described as “a polished and exciting collection of poems,” by adjudicator, Derec Llwyd Morgan.

Christine has also been among the prize-winners in the international poetry competition, Féile Filíochta, on more than one occasion, and was Poet in Residence in Y Lle Celf at the Cardiff and District National Eisteddfod in 2008. She was admitted to the Gorsedd of Bards in 2002, and has been a member of the Gorsedd Board since 2010. The current Archdruid’s period of office draws to a close at the end of the Vale of Glamorgan National Eisteddfod in August. The new Archdruid will lead proceedings and take charge from the Proclamation Ceremony for the 2014 National Eisteddfod, held in June 2013, onwards.

[Source]

[Eisteddfodau Newsletters] (No. 10 carries this story)

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Handster at http://www.handster.com/celtic_myth.html or by using the QR code opposite. It’s als found on the Opera Marketplace as well as AppBrain in the US.
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Educational Visit Pic: The Clanranald Trust

You may remember a news post in the past about Russell Crowe  giving a prop Battering Ram from the set of The Robin Hood movie to the Charity  The Clanranald Trust. Well this weekend he is visiting  Duncarron Fort which is being built by the trust to help educate people on Scottish History.  The BBC reports : The actor is a friend of the trust’s chief executive Charlie Allan, after the pair met on the set of Gladiator.

Crowe announced his visit on Twitter saying:

“First time in Scotland, special.”

The star said he had  ”Scottish heritage”   in his family.

He is expected to arrive at the fort later, tour the site and meet those working on the project.

The Clanranald Trust is creating a motte and bailey, typical of a Scottish clan chief’s residence, where people will eventually be able to to experience the atmosphere of an authentic medieval working community.
The charity also provides extras for film battle scenes and the hope is that the site at Duncarron may be used as a filming location in the future.
Crowe has been supporting the trust’s work since meeting Mr Allan while filming Gladiator.

In 2009 he gifted a battering ram used as a prop on the set of Robin Hood to the fort project.

Last month he used Twitter to urge his 200,000 followers to support the work being done at Duncarron.

Work began to create the medieval village at Duncarron in 2008He also tweeted a “shout out” to First Minister Alex Salmond and other government ministers to thank them for backing the trust.
He said:

“Clanranald educating folks on Scottish history, also focus on helping the long-term unemployed and the criminal reform service, tough jobs.”

As part of a joint project between the trust and North Lanarkshire Council offenders on community service orders have helped with building and labouring work at the fort.
Chief executive, Mr Allan, who starred alongside Crowe in Gladiator and Robin Hood, said:

“Russell has always been interested in what we are doing ”He is the only guy on the planet I look up to. He is pleasant, generous and a great laugh.”

He added:

“His ongoing interest, support and encouragement in our project means an awful lot to us.”

To Find out more about this exciting project visit http://www.clanranald.org

Source

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Descripition Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Appbrain at http://www.appbrain.com/app/celtic-myth-show/tv.wizzard.android.celticmythpodshow841 or by using the QR code opposite.
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Originally posted 2011-06-05 11:22:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Now the public has the chance to view the much talked-about discovery, as the coins and the cow’s leg bone in which they were hidden have gone on display at the Town House Museum, King’s Lynn.

The annual summer excavation of a Saxon burial ground in the valley of the Heacham River has also uncovered evidence of an earlier, Iron Age settlement.

The hoard of 32 Gallo-Belgic E staters has been described as the most significant find since the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project (Sharp) began in 1996.

Twenty of the coins, depicting a stylised horse on one side, were hidden inside the bone.

Ambiani tribe of Gaul

They are believed to have been made by the Ambiani tribe of Gaul in northern France 2000 years ago, and there are two main theories about why they were buried.

One is that the owner, perhaps a mercenary who had been fighting the Romans in Gaul, had been paid in gold staters and decided to give a votive offering to the gods for his safe passage home.

Alternatively, he may have decided that his precious coins were too valuable to carry around, so hid them in the bone and buried them to be retrieved later. But he was then either killed or forgot where they were.

The hoard was declared treasure and recently acquired by King’s Lynn Museums for £4000, which was raised by the museums’ Friends and contributions from the Museums, Libraries and Archives/Victoria and Albert purchase grant fund and the Headley Trust.

It will become one of the star attractions when Lynn Museum re-opens next year after a £1m redevelopment but has gone on display at the Town House Museum in the meantime.

We thought it would be nice for people to see it – at least temporarily.

said area museums officer Robin Hanley.

It’s a very important discovery and it’s a really interesting story. It’s fantastic to have them in the collections and they’ve attracted an awful lot of interest.

Read the original article at EPD24.

Originally posted 2009-08-26 08:30:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The CMP Logo Pic: Gary

The most amazing competition we’ve ever run! A chance of a lifetime! Flag Fen is a lake-side Celtic site which has become revealed as the years have taken all the water away. Now is your chance to take part in the incredible Flag Fen Lives! project! It is estimated that a large part of the site will be lost within the next 20 years if work is not carried out now. That is why Flag Fen Lives is so important and our competition will put you right in this real-time, hands-on discovery of Ancient Celtic life! So, not only do you get the chance to win the most amazing prize but this show also contains two fantastic pieces of music!

The Flag Fen Rescue Project – Flag Fen Lives!

Flag Fen is home to a wooden causeway some 3,500 years old that is so unique it is held by experts all over the world in the same esteem as Stonehenge. It has many secrets – many of which are about to be unearthed in a ground-breaking new dig.

The ancient wooden monument is a marvel of engineering. A kilometre long, the causeway and platform have been perfectly preserved in the wetland for centuries. It was built by Bronze Age people as part of what is thought to be a place of worship.

Clues to its past are still to be discovered – so get on down to Flag Fen this summer with archaeologists from Channel 4’s Time Team! Vivacity has teamed up with DigVentures to offer a number of opportunities for everyone to get involved from 24 July to 12 August.

Adults aged over 17 can take part in the dig for a day, weekend or even the whole three weeks. There is also a Summer School for 8 to 12-years-olds, a host of activities for all the family during the dig including flint knapping, bronze casting and prehistoric cooking as well as live updates of the excavation and discoveries as they happen online throughout the dig.

About our Flag Fen Competition

Thanks to one of our very generous listeners, Scott McGovern, we can offer you the prize of a lifetime! The chance to visit Flag Fen, one of the largest Sacred Water sites in Europe, and take part in the archaeological dig for a day and listen to a fascinating lecture in the evening! This is an amazing prize and we give our heart-felt thanks to Scott for enabling one of our lucky listeners to be so intimately involved with real-time, ground zero research into the everyday and sacred lives of the Ancient Celts!

Not only that, but we can also tell you that DigVentures have told us that shortly after the competition they will be opening up the few remaining places on the digs so that those that missed out during the chance for being on site can still do so, and the ‘Site Hut’ will still be available to others for a minimum donation to the project!

Ruthie and I have our cups of tea already booked in the Site Hut and we’ll try to keep you updated with discoveries as they are made, but why not come and join us for a cup of tea in the hut everyday and see what’s going on?

How to Listen

The Episode is available for subscribers on the feed, or you can download it or listen to it from ourEpisodes page. You can find the Shownotes for this episode in the Shownotes section.

If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Hope you enjoy it,

Gary & Ruthie x x x

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Handster at http://www.handster.com/celtic_myth.html or by using the QR code opposite. It’s als found on the Opera Marketplace as well as AppBrain in the US.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Pic: Newgrange Ireland

A new critical analysis has revealed that the world famous Irish passage-tomb mound Newgrange did look quite different in prehistory than hitherto believed. Newgrange is probably a multi-period mound with 5-6 phases spanning from the Passage Tomb Period to the Early Bronze Age. This theory clashes with the traditional view introduced by Professor Michael O’Kelly, who led the excavation and the controversial restoration with the addition of a white wall around themound over the years 1962-75.

O’Kelly believed that Newgrange was a single-period mound, and that the great quantities of mound fill, which covered the kerbstones and extended far beyond them, had slid out from the mound when a wall, which held the mound fill in place, did collapse.

The new analysis, carried out by the Danish archaeologist Palle Eriksen in a paper called ‘The Great Mound of Newgrange’, is based on studies of the sections documented by O’Kelly. The mound fill comprises fist to head-size stones between 3-4 thin layers of turfs. According to O’Kelly these layers of turfs were laid by the megalith builders. Continue Reading »

Originally posted 2009-02-16 10:35:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Kilkenny Castle Pic: Wikipedia

Margery Brady of the Irishtimes.com reports that : This spring offers the first opportunity see a copy of a number of pages of the Book of Pottlerath, an illuminated manuscript which dates back to the 15th century, in its native Kilkenny. Although the book does not contain as many ornate illustrations as the Book of Kells, many of the letters are highly decorated. The original is now housed in the Bodleian library in Oxford, but it arrived there by a long, circuitous route.

James, 4th Earl of Ormond, known as the White Earl, had a great interest in archaeology and history, and it was he who initiated work on the manuscript. When he died of the plague in 1452 he left it to his nephew Edmund Butler, who was building a castle at Pottlerath, Kilmanagh, Co Kilkenny.

In 1453 Edmund decided to enlarge the manuscript, incorporating the earlier work, and he commissioned his scribe Sean Buidhe O’Cleirigh, with his fellow scribes, to continue work on it. It was completed a year later, in 1454 and was called The Book of Pottlerath. It is interesting to note that the earlier part of the manuscript is today in better condition than the subsequent part.

During the War of the Roses, in 1461 James, 5th Earl of Ormond was beheaded and his head was displayed on Tower Bridge. His brother and heir returned to Ireland and summoned to arms Edmund of Pottlerath, with the local Butlers in Kilkenny and Clonmel. Thomas, Earl of Desmond, united with the Earl of Kildare to oppose the Butler insurrection. A battle took place in Pilltown, south Kilkenny, and the Butlers were defeated, with a loss of 410 men. Edmund was among the prisoners. Part of the ransom demanded for his release was The Book of Pottlerath. It was to take some years for the book to return to the Butlers.

It is thought that The Book of Pottlerath came back to the family as part of the dowry of Joan FitzGerald (daughter of 10th Earl of Desmond) when she married James the Lame, 9th Earl of Ormond and eldest son of Piers, in 1532.

From there, the manuscript went into the hands of Sir George Carew, president of Munster, who had the book bound in leather. He died in 1624, bequeathing his collection to Sir Thomas Stafford. Stafford either sold or gave it to William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of the University of Oxford, who in turn gave it to the University for the Bodleian Library in 1636, with the condition that it would not leave Oxford; so it cannot be loaned to any Irish museum. A copy could be made for display in Ireland.

To read more about the journey of this fascinating manuscript click here

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You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

Thornborough Henges, North Yorkshire.Pic :Jane Tomlinson, Heritage Action

The Heritage Trust Blog reports : CAMPAIGNERS say allowing people access to a set of ancient monuments in North Yorkshire whose importance is said to rival Stonehenge is crucial to safeguarding their future. The Thornborough Heritage Trust has been set up to protect and raise awareness of the six “henges” and other Neolithic and Bronze Age sites on fields between Bedale and Ripon, with one of its first  objectives being to open them up to visitors.Dr Jan Harding, one of the trust’s founders and a senior archaeology lecturer at Newcastle University, said::

Despite being of unique cultural value and being described by English Heritage as the most important prehistoric site between Stonehenge and the Orkneys, it is closed to visitors, lacks educational information and sits in an extensively quarried landscape. At the moment, there isn’t even a display board. Getting some kind of formal access for the public is vital.”

It’s a while since we at Heritage Action went there (as part of our campaign against Tarmac PLC’s application to quarry its surroundings) but we do recall it was very visitor-unfriendly with no signage, parking or access. We also remember two more things that might be helpful:

In 2006 (while Tarmac was trying to get permission to extend their quarry) the landowner announced he wanted to make the monument into a tourist attraction with a car park and visitor centre and Tarmac were supportive:

 “We see no conflict in principle between tourists visiting the henges and continuation of our quarry at Nosterfield with the useful employment it provides. [Nidderdale Today, March 2006]

And earlier, in 2005, Tarmac offered to give 60 acres of land next to the Henges to a charitable trust on behalf of the Nation to protect it for all time from further exploitation, saying (in the words of their Area Director, Simon Phillips):

“The preservation of the henges is vitally important to us all, and we look forward to working with English Heritage and North Yorkshire County Council to develop this charitable trust.” [Ripon Today, June 2005]

Ah the benefits of a good memory! That might be the answer. Tarmac were both supportive of tourism and anxious to protect the Henges before they got permission so they’ll hardly be less supportive of tourism or less anxious to protect the Henges now they have got permission will they?  Nor less generous – the gift of the land would have been worth over a third of a million if it had happened would it not? So they’d hardly now refuse to finance some formal access, carparking, the best information boards money can buy and a fund to provide a Rolls Royce interpretation facility in the local village, as befits the most important prehistoric site between Stonehenge and the Orkneys. £350K would cover it splendidly.

Please help by reminding Mr Phillips about what he said (you can contact him via the press relations department of Tarmac pr@tarmac.co.uk and/or their parent company Anglo American james.wyatt-tilby@angloamerican.com  Hopefully he’ll remember, but just point him to this article to make sure. We’re confident both Tarmac and Anglo American, being honorable, honest companies, ever anxious to protect their reputations and help local communities will agree to donate the money without delay.

Source 1

Source 2

You can also now download a Celtic Myth Podshow App from the iTunes store. This is the most convenient and reliable way to access the Celtic Myth Podshow on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’re always connected to the latest episode, and our App users have access to exclusive bonus content, just touch and play! To find out more visit the iTunes Store or our Description Page.
You can now also find an Android version of the App which works identically to the iPhone version. You can find it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Wizzard-Media-Celtic-Myth-Podshow/dp/B004W8QR58 or by using the QR code opposite.
If you come to the site and listen or listen from one of our players – have you considered subscribing? It’s easy and you automatically get the episodes on your computer when they come out. If you’re unsure about the whole RSS/Subscribing thing take a look at our Help page.

The exposed “causeway” must be watered constantly in order to preserve it Pic: BBC News

Jason Palmer- Science and technology Reporter for  BBC NEWS  tells us: Renowned Bronze Age archaeological site Flag Fen in Cambridgeshire will host a first-of-its-kind dig that makes the public integral to the project.

The idea combines both “crowdfunding” and “crowdsourcing”; for contributions starting at £125, donors can get their hands very dirty and dig for a day.

The venture’s website will also stream live video from the dig as well as host lectures and interviews with experts.

The aim is to fully explore the site before it dries out and is destroyed.

Flag Fen was discovered in 1982 by archaeologist Francis Pryor, who uncovered part of a one mile (1.6km) causeway across the Fenland marshes in
Cambridgeshire.

The site lies largely underground, preserved for 3,000 years beneath a layer of peat that keeps artefacts from decaying.

An exposed part of the site, called the preservation hall, shows some of the thousands of timbers that make up the site poking up through the ground, and
these are regularly watered to stave off decay.

“It’s the only place in Europe where you can see this kind of archaeology exposed,”

said Lisa Westcott Wilkins, managing director of Digventures, the firm behind the new project.

Beneath, the peat will have preserved not just the wood artefacts such as  leather and other organic material, which at other Bronze Age sites will have
long since been consumed.

“The reason Flag Fen doesn’t have the sort of public profile of Stonehenge is  that there aren’t all these huge stones everywhere people can see – the entire site rests on top of very sensitive archaeology,”

she told BBC News.

But the water that has kept Flag Fen preserved until now is seeping away, due in part to climate change but largely to active drainage and the sprawl of neighbouring Peterborough, which nearly reaches the borders of the site.

Pic: BBC News

So the team at Digventures chose Flag Fen as its flagship site to try a new kind of archaeology, against a difficult global economic climate.

To read more about this fascinating project visit the BBC News report

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