Aug
05
2009
Pic: BBC |
Skara Brae is a Stone Age village of subterranean houses abandoned 5,000 years ago – now tourists travel from all over the world to Skara Brae to get a 3D glimpse of what Neolithic life might have been like. They see remarkably well preserved and well ordered homes, each with a dresser, beds, a hearth, and underground passageways linking one house to another. All that’s missing are the roofs. Skara Brae in Orkney is just a few metres from the sea and it is a constant battle to save it from coastal erosion reports the BBC. |
What remains is made of stone and that’s part of the reason Skara Brae has survived so long. The other is that when the village emptied of people it was slowly covered over by grass and sand.
For thousands of years it was hidden from view and protected from the harsh island weather, and it is that weather whipping up the sea nearby which is still Skara Brae’s greatest threat.
Orkney archaeologist Julie Gibson says recent geophysics have uncovered more of the village a short distance inland, but adds:
We don’t know exactly how much has disappeared into the sea over the years before proper coastal defences were put in.
Skara Brae will always be protected, but take a walk a little further down the beach and there’s a good illustration of the threat to other unprotected and unexcavated historic sites.
Scotland has thousands of historic sites around its coastline. Archaeologists would like to document as many as possible before coastal erosion washes some away, but some are already disappearing.
Read the full story on the BBC website.
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Mar
11
2009
Pic: Southern Daily Echo |
Four Stone Age axes, dating from a time when people had stopped hunting woolly mammoths and sabretoothed tigers and turned to farming, are giving clues to the origins of settled human life in the county of Hampshire reports the Southern Daily Echo.
It’s a mystery that could shed light on life in Hampshire 6,000 years ago. |
They were found at Hill Head and Titchfield, near Fareham, and at Beaulieu, in the New Forest, and Bartonon- Sea.
The tools, which are now in Winchester City Council’s collection, have been analysed and found to originate in the north Italian Alps from around 4,000BC. They had been carried for many miles before they were lost in Hampshire. But no-one knows why or how they got here.
Helen Rees, Winchester’s curator of archaeology, said their origins were a mystery.
There was probably a movement of people and the axes were brought in by settlers or they may have been traded.
The research is part of Project JADE, a three-year, one-million-euro programme, which is funded by the French Government.
[Source]
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Jan
13
2009
Pic: Moray |
The Scottish Press & Journal reports that Transport Scotland denied claims yesterday that the discovery of a Neolithic settlement would delay a long-awaited bypass on the A96.
The Scottish Government body said the Fochabers bypass, estimated to cost £19-25million and take two years to complete, “remains on schedule to meet the timescale recently announced”.
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Campaigners have waited decades for work to begin on the Fochabers scheme, which will divert traffic from the village’s narrow High Street and Mosstodloch, and speed up the flow on the main Inverness-Aberdeen road. Continue Reading »
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Dec
14
2008
Pic: BBC |
The BBC reports that a rare amber necklace believed to be about 4,000 years old has been uncovered in Greater Manchester.
Archaeologists made the find while excavating a cist – a type of stone-lined grave – in Mellor, Stockport. |
It is the first time a necklace of this kind from the early Bronze Age has been found in north-west England. Continue Reading »
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Dec
11
2008
Pic: The Mail |
The Mail Online reports that 8,000 year-old twine has been discovered in Britain. They say:
How old is a piece of string? In this case, 8,000 years - making it the oldest length of string ever found in Britain.
Our ancestors made it by twisting together what seem to be fibres of honeysuckle, nettles, or wild clematis, and used it in their struggle for survival as the last ice age ended.
This early piece of technology, measuring about 41/2in must have been a revolutionary advance at the time, useful for binding together weapons or tools. |
It has only survived thanks to the huge floods that followed the melting of the ice caps that once covered much of Britain. Continue Reading »
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