Ancient Caithness site 'occupied for 1,000 years' (Scotland, United Kingdom)

The site of one of Scotland's most important mainland broch settlements may have been home to early people for up to 1,000 years, evidence suggests.
Archaeologists and volunteers have uncovered what could be the remains of walls dating back to 700 to 500 BC at Nybster in Caithness.
Andy Heald, of AOC Archaeology, said further investigations would need to be made to confirm the structure's age.
Evidence of possible Pictish and medieval occupation has been recorded.
A key feature of the site are the remains of a massive stone wall roundhouse, known as a broch.
Caithness has more brochs per square mile than any other part of Scotland, according to Highland Council.
Examples of the ancient buildings are also found on Orkney.
What lies beneath Nybster has intrigued the dig team, which is being led by AOC Archaeology and Caithness Archaeological Trust.
Mr Heald said he believed the site may have been occupied long before the Iron Age and provided habitation to various communities for 1,000 years.
He said: "We have dug down to what might be the earliest wall on the site and this wall may have been used to seal off the site as a territory, as if someone was saying 'this land is mine'.
"Typical of sites like these, it was reused and modified at different times."
Nybster is one of Scotland's most important mainland broch settlements Archaeologists are wary of any alterations that may have been made to the site during excavations led by Sir Francis Tress Barry in the early 19th Century.
A series of stone steps that may have been constructed on Sir Francis' instructions have been uncovered at the settlement.
From his Highland home at Keiss Castle, the British consul to Spain explored the ruins of nearby Caithness brochs.
According to an obituary written following his death in 1907, Sir Francis found the remains of elk, wolf, wild boar and a great auk, an extinct seabird.
Older artefacts found in the latest dig include the core, or centre, of a cannel coal bracelet.
The smooth circular stone was cut to create the hole in the bracelet.
It also suggests trade between the residents of Nybster and other parts of the Highlands because the nearest source of cannel coal is 50 miles (80km) away in Brora, in Sutherland.

Read More: BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-13237076

Roman kilns and Bronze Age remains at Plumley Wood

Archaeological fieldwork carried out in advance of mineral extraction unearthed a group of pottery kilns dating from the late Roman period. This is one of several discoveries revealed by Thames Valley Archaeological Services (TVAS) during the course of quarrying in the area and includes an important Late Palaeolithic site just to the south at Somerley.
The New Forest has long been recognized as an important centre of pottery production in Roman Britain, its products being widely traded throughout the province. It is, however, a somewhat surprising location for site director Andy Taylor and his team to find such an industry. The main drawback being the lack of locally available clay suitable for potting. It appears that the supply of timber for fuel was more important than the lack of clay.
The pottery produced here is distinctive for its shiny appearance, which seems to have been intended to imitate metallic vessels (silver or pewter); and even the shapes also seem to copy metal vessel shapes, such as the very typical indented beaker
The industry flourished in the later part of the Roman period, between around AD260 and AD370. Previous kiln sites for New Forest ware have been found at Fordingbridge and Rockbourne, both to the north up the Avon valley.
The opportunity to excavate large areas around the kiln sites is of particular importance as it will provide information about how the industry was organized. For example:
All of these questions require the excavators to adopt a landscape approach to analysis, rather than focusing narrowly on the kilns.
Four kilns have been identified so far in the Plumley excavations, with there being another possible two which are yet to be investigated.
The kilns consist of a simple pit, with a clay lining that would originally have extended as a dome over the top. A suspended floor, punctured with flues, divides the ware chamber above from the firebox below. Unfired pots would be stacked within the ware chamber and heat applied through a flue, which fires both the pots and the clay lining of the kiln itself.
To reach the high temperatures required to create the glossy finish of these wares, enormous amounts of fuel had to be burnt and the fires constantly tended. Once the firing process was complete, the dome had to be broken open to reach the finished pots, so in effect each kiln superstructure was only used once. However, the same pit could be reused for may firings, each time leaving a layer of spent fuel and sometimes creating laminations within the clay lining that reveal the repetition of the processes.
If a firing goes wrong, some pots will warp or not fire fully, and even if the kilns had not been found, these ‘wasters’ would be a clear indication of a pottery production process taking place on the site, as since they cannot be sold they will invariably be discarded close to the kiln itself.
The site contains several other Roman features, including enclosures and a possible post-built structure, presumably related to the pottery works. In addition, a Bronze Age round barrow (ring ditch) was discovered along with a post-built roundhouse.
While the excavations themselves were still ongoing an open day was held for the Avon Valley Archaeological Society. During the open day Jo Crane took a series of aerial photos from her plane showing the layout of the archaeology and the Society being given a guided tour!

Read More: Past Horizons: http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/04/2011/roman-kilns-and-bronze-age-remains-at-plumley-wood

Marden Henge excavations open window on Neolithic ritual (United Kingdom)

English Heritage archaeologists have uncovered a ceremonial building, thought to be 4,500 years old during a recent 6-week archaeological excavation at one of Britain’s most important but least understood prehistoric monuments, Marden Henge in Wiltshire, south west England.

Excavated Neolithic ceremonial structure at Marden Henge. Photo: English Heritage
The structure has been discovered on the site of a previously unknown smaller henge within the banks of the much larger Marden Henge and is one of the best preserved Neolithic buildings in Britain outside the Orkneys.

Balanced precariously on top of a bank, and with an opening straight out onto the slope of the internal ditch, it seems an unlikely choice for a dwelling. However, it would have been in a prime location overlooking the interior of the henge, to observe activities in the centre of it, or across to the River Avon below.

“the floor plan is not large enough to function as a dwelling and the unusually large hearth had generated an intense heat
”Jim Leary, an English Heritage archaeologist working at the site suggests that the building may have been used as a sweat lodge, remarking that ” the floor plan is not large enough to function as a dwelling and the unusually large hearth had generated an intense heat.”

Mr Leary further remarked, “Just outside and on either side of the building were areas containing artefacts such as bone needles, pins, awls, and flint tools. The eastern spread was charcoal rich, representing possible rake-out from the hearth, and the western portion contained a large number of pig bones, which may be evidence of feasting.”
The lack of substantial postholes around the surface prompts the archaeology team to think that this may have been a temporary structure, used for a single event.
Mr Leary believes that the likelihood of finding more Neolithic buildings on the site are high and thinks there may be a series of temporary structures sitting on top of the henge bank, each with an associated midden. He added that there could also be earlier buildings preserved within the layers of the bank.
Henge monuments are enigmatic features of late Neolithic Britain (between 2400 BC and 2000 BC). They are enclosures formed of banks and ditches and most experts now believe that significant ceremonial or ritual activity occurred within them. Few, such as Stonehenge and Avebury in Wiltshire and Castlerigg in Cumbria, have impressive upright stone settings still standing.


Unlike Stonehenge and Avebury, Marden Henge no longer has any surviving stone settings, although it may once have had, but its sheer size is astounding. Comprising a substantial and well-preserved bank with an internal ditch that defines and encloses an area of some 10.5 hectares (approximately equivalent to 10 football pitches), it is one the largest Neolithic henges in Britain but has now been almost completely destroyed due to ploughing and erosion.

All that has remained is the evidence of a huge mound similar to a smaller version of Silbury Hill at the centre of the henge, which collapsed in 1806 and was completely levelled by 1817. English Heritage hopes to find out more about this feature by obtaining dating material from any surviving features within its centre.


Read More: Past Horizons: http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/03/2011/marden-henge-excavations-opens-window-on-neolithic-ritual

What did the Romans ever do for us (if they didn't build our roads)? (United Kingdom)

What did the Romans ever do for us (if they didn't build our roads)? (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists have found Britain's oldest properly engineered road, and the discovery could change the way we look at a key aspect of British history. Now, many of the country's key A roads – long thought to be Roman in origin – could now turn out to be substantially more British than scholars had thought.
The discoveries, in Shropshire, suggest that ancient Britons were building finely engineered, well-cambered and skilfully metalled roads before the Emperor Claudius's conquering legions ever set foot in Britain in the middle of the 1st century BC.
"The traditional view has often been that Iron Age Britons were unsophisticated people who needed to be civilised by the Romans," said Tim Malim, an archaeologist from the UK environmental planning consultancy, SLR, who co-directed the Shropshire excavation. "It's an attitude that largely has its roots in the late 19th century when Britain saw itself very much as the new Rome, bringing civilisation to the rest of the world." The Shropshire road was built, the archaeologists believe, up to 100 years before the Romans conquered Britain. The archaeologists suspect that the road may have been 40 miles long.
So far, they have found two sections, totalling 400m, but their alignment suggests that the road connected two key political centres of the Iron Age tribal kingdom of the Cornovii, the Cornovian "capital", the Wrekin hill-fort near modern Telford, and Old Oswestry hill-fort, near modern Oswestry.
The discovery of the road, revealed in the BBC History Magazine, is for the first time demonstrating the sophistication of British Iron Age cross-country road construction.
First a brushwood foundation (made of elder) was laid down. Then a layer of silt was placed on top of the brushwood, and finally a layer of cobbles was set into the silt to provide a good surface. A kerb system, kept in place by timber uprights, was even constructed to prevent the Iron Age highway slumping. The road was regularly maintained, and resurfaced at least twice during its life.
The excavations, funded by the UK's largest building materials company, Tarmac, have also provided remarkable information about the wheeled traffic using the Iron Age highway.
Prior to the final phase of use, there is no evidence for heavy wheeled vehicles. But in the very late Iron Age, there seems to have been a dramatic increase in heavy traffic, with evidence of the deep ruts caused by large wheeled vehicles, almost certainly carts carrying agricultural produce. The rut evidence suggests that the vehicles had axle widths of 1.9m and wheels which were 12 to 17cm wide.
The findings are likely to prompt archaeologists in other parts of Britain to re-examine some more straight-as-a-die typically Roman-looking roads to see whether they too were originally British native Iron Age ones.

Fuente: The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/what-did-the-romans-ever-do-for-us-if-they-didnt-build-our-roads-2238592.html#

Human remains found in Bronze Age pots (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists excavated the ground around the Carlinwell Stone at Airlie, near Kirriemuir, after it fell over earlier in the winter.
Both pots - known as collared urns - could be up to 4,000 years old and were typically used in early Bronze age cremation burials.
The 7ft (2.1m) high monolith will be re-erected on Friday.
One of the pots is about 4in (10cm) in diameter, and the other is about 8in, the archaeologists said.
Melanie Johnson, from CFA Archaeology of Musselburgh, said: "The pots are typical of early Bronze Age cremation burials.
"People were burned on pyres and their remains gathered, put into pots and buried upside down in a pit."
Rubbing stones
Ms Johnson said there was "plenty of bone" inside the pots, which would be enough to determine the gender and age of the person, and if they had illnesses or trauma wounds.
"They will be taken to a lab in Edinburgh, and radio-carbon dated," she added.
John Sheriff, an investigator with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historic Monuments of Scotland, said it was impossible to date the stone precisely but it is very likely to be neolithic or Bonze Age, and could "easily" be 4,000 years old.
He said: "This goes some way to proving that Carlinwell Stone is a genuine prehistoric standing stone, rather than something put up later.
"There was a fashion for putting up rubbing stones for cows during the 19th Century to stop them ruining the dykes by pushing against them, and they looked like standing stones, but we can say for sure this is prehistoric because of its great height.
"Human bones were found at the base of the stone in the early 18th Century, and my hunch is they were also Bronze Age, although it's possible there is no connection."
Soil samples from around the stone's socket will be analysed and any organic material found radio-carbon dated if possible.
That would go some way to solving the mystery of whether the stone was erected to mark the graves, or whether the pots were put in place afterwards.

Fuente: BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-12689919

Roman find on Cumbrian farm stuns visiting archaeologist (United Kingdom)

Roman find on Cumbrian farm stuns visiting archaeologist (United Kingdom)

Karl James Langford, 36, and his wife Lisa, 43, are over the moon with their chance discovery of a sandstone fragment which still bears part of a Roman inscription.

The couple had gone with their two children – a boy aged two and a five-month-old girl – to visit the remnant of the Maglona Roman fort near Wigton last week when Lisa spotted the stone on the ground. It had been exposed by a heavy rain storm.

Still clearly visible on the sandstone fragment – which is about the size of a tea saucer – are the Roman letters M, R and P.

Karl, 36, believes the artefact may once have spelled the name of the settlement, which was abandoned a few decades before the Romans pulled out of Britain in AD 410.

He said: “We were having a short holiday to see Hadrian’s Wall and wanted to see the Maglona Roman Ford, known locally as Old Carlisle. Lisa found the stone alongside a wall that overlooks the remains of the Roman fort.

“It would have been garrisoned by about 1,000 men who were mainly auxiliary soldiers and there to support the eastward side of Hadrian’s Wall. I feel this is quite a significant find.

“It’s impossible to know for sure but I suspect the M may have spelled out the name Maglona, and perhaps the P and the R were part of the word prefectus, [usually indicating a soldier who was the third most senior in a legion.]

“A find like this shows that important archaeological finds are not always made by people with a metal detector.

“The stone would have been inscribed at the site of the fort and it was interesting to find out that the farmer’s son there is a stonemason, doing the same kind of work today.”

Lisa, who shares Karl’s passion for history and archaeology, said: “It was pouring with rain and very, very muddy and I was walking ahead of Karl with our daughter in her carrier when I glanced down.

“I did a double take and then called Karl over, but he thought I was joking.”

Lisa said it was the second time she has made a chance archaeological find.

“When I was a teenager I dug up a vegetable patch and found a canon ball which dated from the English Civil War and the time of Cromwell. Finding the Roman stone was quite exciting.”

The couple, who were on the site with the farmer’s consent, hope to return to the Roman Fort to further explore it while Lisa would like the stone to possibly go to Tullie House Museum in Carlisle, which is due to open a new exhibition about the Roman Frontier in the summer.

Fuente: News & Stars: http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/roman-find-on-cumbrian-farm-stuns-visiting-archaeologist-1.813523?referrerPath=news

Jade sculpture found at amphitheatre (United Kingdom)

Jade sculpture found at amphitheatre (United Kingdom)

Director of Archaeological Park Viminacium, Miomir Korac, has said for Tanjug while major excavation was taking place at the Roman amphitheatre site at Viminacium, a sculpture made of jade and of excellent craftsmanship was discovered.
“Only a few days ago we had the discovery of jade figurine more than 35 centimetres long, but this one, just like that first one, is unfortunately not complete. What is fascinating, though, is that it’s made out of one piece and of jade and that the craftsmanship is excellent. This points to the fact the workshop must have been at this very place,” said Korac.
Korac pointed out the latest sculpture shows signs of meticulous work of a master, but that the figurine’s head has not been preserved, neither has its lower torso. The archaeological digging is still under way and Korac hopes further finds at the site will reveal the identity of the master.
Korac says that near the site where the jade figurine was discovered in the amphitheatre, a bronze, gilded eagle was found, obviously once perched upon a two-wheeled cart.
- “The Roman amphitheatre Viminacium is the only one in the central Balkan region and in the region of south-east Europe. Its size and degree preservation are astounding – the preserved walls are five metres high,” said Korac and added archaeologists had yet to come to the central point of the site – more than 18 metres underground.
The director of the Archaeological Park said acoustics at the Viminacium, which once could house 12,000 spectators, was typical of all Roman amphitheatres. Entire building blocks and even iron axis of a massive wooden door have been preserved.
- “We are definitely in for many more surprises here at the site, just like this jade figurine and the bronze eagle. I hope there are more discoveries before the summer’s end,” said Korac.

Read More: Blic: http://english.blic.rs/Culture-Showbiz/6716/Jade-sculpture-found-at-amphitheatre

Roman villa found in Welsh 'military zone' (United Kingdom)

Roman villa found in Welsh 'military zone' (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists have discovered a 4th Century villa near Aberystwyth, the first time they have found evidence of Roman occupation of North and mid Wales.
Findings indicate Abermagwr had all the trappings of villas found further south, including a slate roof and glazed windows.
The villa is likely to have belonged to a wealthy landowner, with pottery and coin finds on the site indicating occupation in the late 3rd and early 4th Centuries AD.
It was roofed with local slates, which were cut for a pentagonal roof. The walls were built of local stone and there was a cobbled yard.
Roman villas were high-status homes of wealthy landowners which sat at the heart of a farming estate. They are common throughout southern England and south Wales, but rare in mid and west Wales.
It was thought that Wales was a "military zone", abandoned by the Romans a few decades after the first century.
Dr Toby Driver, of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and Dr Jeffrey Davies, formerly of Aberystwyth University, had previously excavated at the nearby Trawscoed Roman fort, which had been abandoned by AD 130.
"Our trial excavations this year have confirmed the remains of an imposing Romano-British building in the heart of mid-Wales, where no Roman villas were previously known" they said.
"The discovery raises significant new questions about the regional economy and society in late Roman Wales, and raises the possibility of future villa discoveries in the surrounding countryside".

Read More: Telegraph.co.uk: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7910534/Roman-villa-found-in-Welsh-military-zone.html

Archaeologists virtually excavate Stonehenge (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists virtually excavate Stonehenge (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists are carrying out a virtual excavation of Stonehenge to discover what the area looked like when the monument was built.
The multi-million pound Euro study will map the terrain and its buried archaeological remains with pinpoint accuracy, organisers claim.
The millions of measurements will then be analysed and incorporated into gaming technology to produce 2D and 3D images.
The research will take three years.
Equipment will be spread over an area spanning 4km this year and a total of 14km over the next three years.
Project leader Professor Vince Gaffney, from the University on Birmingham, said: "We aim to unlock the mysteries of Stonehenge and show people exactly what the local area looked like during the time the monument was created.
"The results of this work will be a digital chart of the 'invisible' Stonehenge landscape, a seamless map linking one of the world's most famous monuments with the buried archaeology that surrounds it."
Dr Christopher Gaffney, from the University of Bradford, said: "Rather than looking at typically small discrete areas we intend to cover the whole of the World Heritage Site.
"We will do this using emerging technology that allows us to pull large banks of sensors behind a quad bike and using real time GPS to locate the measurements."
The study is funded by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology, in Vienna, and the University of Birmingham, and is assisted by the National Trust and English Heritage

Fuente: BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-10689609

Marden Henge dig uncovers 4,500-year-old dwelling (United Kingdom)

Marden Henge dig uncovers 4,500-year-old dwelling (United Kingdom)

A dwelling, thought to be 4,500 years old, has been discovered by archaeologists in Wiltshire.
Excavation work at the prehistoric site of Marden Henge, near Devizes, started three weeks ago and experts say the find has "exceeded expectations".
Marden Henge no longer has any standing stones and is said to be one of Britain's least understood ancient sites.
The work is scheduled to last for three more weeks.
Archaeologist Jim Leary, from English Heritage, said: "It's absolutely fabulous. It's exceeded all of our expectations.
I don't think we're looking at a normal house. I think we're looking at something equivalent to a priest's quarters.”
"We have some wonderful finds coming up and some very fresh looking flint flakes and some pieces of pottery, but far and away the most exciting find so far is over in trench C.
"It looks as if we have a Neolithic building. We're talking about four and a half thousand years old - so about 2400 or 2500BC.
"Up until a few years ago it would have been unique but a couple of years ago archaeologists were digging at Durrington Walls and they found a number of these buildings.
"I don't think we're looking at a normal house. I think we're looking at something equivalent to a priest's quarters.
"We do seem to have a hearth and it seems that whoever lived there was a very clean person and regularly cleaned out the hearth.
"Just outside the front door we can see this long spread of charcoal and general rubbish material.
"It contains really good fresh flint flakes, pottery, bone pins - things that don't normally survive on archaeological sites. We're getting a really good insight into life in that building."

Fuente: BBC News: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-10684042

Archaeologists discover late-Roman cemetery at site of derelict pub (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists discover late-Roman cemetery at site of derelict pub (United Kingdom)

Archaeologists discover late-Roman cemetery at site of derelict pub
One of the 46 human skeletons found at the site so far. ARCHAEOLOGISTS have found what is thought to be a late-Roman cemetery in a county village.
So far, a total of 46 human remains have been excavated and archaeologists say they expect to have found more than 50 by the time they finish next week.
The discovery was made during a five-week dig taking place as part of the development of a derelict pub in Caistor, near Market Rasen.
Specialists from Pre Construct Archaeological Services Ltd, say the cemetery is the first of its kind to be discovered in the area, branding the find as "significant".
Director of the firm Colin Palmer-Brown said: "The graves are orientated from east to west, with the heads to the west which fits well with Christian tradition. There is an absence of grave goods, such as brooches or accessories, which is also consistent with Christian burials.
"Burial traditions change over time and the fact that these appear to be Christian suggests this cemetery dates back to the late Roman period, around the fourth century AD after the Emperor Constantine I legalised Christian worship in AD313.
"This find is very significant as little was known about Caistor. It isn't near any known Roman road. One theory is that Caistor could have been part of the east coast defences in the late-Roman period and it was a supply base for a garrison."
Shards of pottery found alongside the graves – although not left as memorial items – strengthen the case for it being a late-Roman cemetery, said Mr Palmer-Brown.
Teams from Pre Construct initially found six sets of human remains during the pre-planning process. That find then led to the discovery of men, women, teenagers, children and babies.
Archaeological site manager Fiona Walker said there is evidence that some of the bodies were in coffins. "We can see nails and even the remains of straps in some areas," she said.
The former pub is being turned into a Lincolnshire Co-operative food store with a £1.3 million development. Contractors Taylor Pearson started on site in May and the store is set to open in November.
Special permission from the Ministry of Justice will allow the human remains to be exhumed, before being privately reburied.
They will then be cleaned and examined by Pre-Construct's in-house osteologist, who will determine sex, approximate age and even whether they had suffered from any illness or injury.
Staff from Lincolnshire Co-operative say they may create some kind of display to remember the history of the site.
Store development manager Matthew Wilkinson said: "It has been fascinating to find out more about the history of the site."

Fuente: This is Lincolnshire: http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/Archaeologists-discover-late-Roman-cemetery-derelict-pub/article-2400581-detail/article.html

'Biggest canal ever built by Romans' discovered (United Kingdom)

'Biggest canal ever built by Romans' discovered (United Kingdom)

Scholars discovered the 100-yard-wide (90-metre-wide) canal at Portus, the ancient maritime port through which goods from all over the Empire were shipped to Rome for more than 400 years.
The archaeologists, from the universities of Cambridge and Southampton and the British School at Rome, believe the canal connected Portus, on the coast at the mouth of the Tiber, with the nearby river port of Ostia, two miles away.
It would have enabled cargo to be transferred from big ocean-going ships to smaller river vessels and taken up the River Tiber to the docks and warehouses of the imperial capital.
Until now, it was thought that goods took a more circuitous overland route along a Roman road known as the Via Flavia.
"It's absolutely massive," said Simon Keay, the director of the three-year dig at Portus, the most comprehensive ever conducted at the site, which lies close to Rome's Fiumicino airport, 20 miles west of the city.
"We know of other, contemporary canals which were 20-40 metres wide, and even that was big. But this was so big that there seems to have been an island in the middle of it, and there was a bridge that crossed it. It was unknown until now."
The subterranean outline of the canal was found during a survey by Prof Martin Millett, of Cambridge University, using geophysical instruments which revealed magnetic anomalies underground.
The dig, which is being carried out in partnership with Italian archaeologists, is shedding light on the extraordinary trading network that the Romans developed throughout the Mediterranean basin, from Spain to Egypt and Asia Minor.
The archeologists have found evidence that trading links with North Africa in particular were far more extensive than previously believed. They have found hundreds of amphorae which were used to transport oil, wine and a pungent fermented fish sauce called garum, to which the Romans were particularly partial, from what is now modern Tunisia and Libya.
Huge quantities of wheat were also imported from what were then the Roman provinces of Africa and Egypt.
"What the recent work has shown is that there was a particular preference for large scale imports of wheat from North Africa from the late 2nd century AD right through to the 5th and maybe 6th centuries," said Prof Keay.
The British team believe that Portus and Ostia would have been home to a large expatriate population of North African trading families and commercial agents, some of whom had their names inscribed on tomb stones.
Portus was the main port of ancient Rome for more than 500 years and provided a conduit for everything from glass, ceramics, marble and slaves to wild animals caught in Africa and shipped to Rome for spectacles in the Colosseum.
Work on the massive infrastructure project began under the emperor Claudius.
It was inaugurated by Nero and later greatly enlarged by Trajan.
The British team, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, have uncovered the remains of a large Roman warehouse, a building identified as an imperial palace and a small amphitheatre which may have been used for gladiatorial fights, wild beast baiting and even mock sea battles for the private entertainment of emperors such as Trajan and Hadrian.
They also unearthed a dozen human skeletons and a 2nd or 3rd century white marble head of a bearded man which they believe may represent Ulysses.
Much less is known about Portus than neighbouring Ostia, and archaeologists hope that there are many discoveries waiting to be unearthed which could augment the understanding of ancient Rome's sophisticated trading network.
They expect Portus, which had to be abandoned after it began to silt up in the 6th century, to eventually rank alongside some of the world's best-known ancient cities. "Portus must be one of the most important archaeological sites in the world," said Prof Keay. "The great thing about Portus is that most of it has been preserved and there is much more to learn about the important role it played in Rome's success."

Fuente: Telegraph.co.uk: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7883996/Biggest-canal-ever-built-by-Romans-discovered.html

Huge hoard of Roman coins found on Somerset farm (United Kingdom)

Huge hoard of Roman coins found on Somerset farm (United Kingdom)

The largest single hoard of Roman coins ever found in Britain has been unearthed on a farm near Frome in Somerset.
A total of 52,500 bronze and silver coins dating from the 3rd century AD – including the largest ever found set of coins minted by the self proclaimed emperor Carausius, who lasted seven years before he was murdered by his finance minister – were found by Dave Crisp, a hobby metal detectorist from Devizes, Wiltshire.
Crisp first dug up a fingernail-sized bronze coin only 30cm below the surface. Even though he had never found a hoard before, when he had turned up a dozen coins he stopped digging and called in the experts, who uncovered a pot bellied pottery jar stuffed with the extraordinary collection, all dating from 253 to 293 AD – the year of Carausius's death.
Just giving them a preliminary wash, to prevent them from sticking together in a corroded mass as the soil dried out, took conservation staff at the British Museum a month, and compiling the first rough catalogue took a further three months.
How they got into the field remains a mystery, but archaeologists believe they must represent the life savings of an entire community – possibly a votive offering to the gods. A Roman road runs nearby, but no trace of a villa, settlement or cemetery has been found.
Roger Bland, a coins expert at the British Museum, said: "The whole hoard weighs 160 kilos, more than two overweight people, and it wouldn't have been at all easy to recover the coins from the ground. The only way would have been the way the archaeologists had to get them out, by smashing the pot that held them and scooping them out.
"No one individual could possibly have carried them to the field in the pot, it must have been buried first and then filled up."
Bland, who heads the Portable Antiquities service which encourages metal detectorists to report all finds, said the hoard had already absorbed more than 1,000 hours of work. He admitted his first stunned reaction when he saw the coins in the ground in April, was "oh my god, how the hell are we going to deal with this? Now I think it will see me out, the research will keep me going until my retirement."
"This find is going to make us rethink the nature of such hoards," he said. "The traditional thinking was that they represent wealth hidden in times of trouble and invasion – the Saxons were coming, the Irish were invading as always – but that doesn't match these dates."
The archaeologists praised Crisp for calling them in immediately, allowing the context of the find to be recorded meticulously. When a coroner's inquest is held later this month in Somerset, the coins are likely to be declared treasure, which must by law be reported. Somerset county museum hopes to acquire the hoard, which could be worth up to £1m, with the blessing of the British Museum.

Fuente: Guardian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/08/hoard-roman-coins-somerset

Ancient hominids grabbed early northern exposure (United Kingom)

Ancient hominids grabbed early northern exposure (United Kingom)

Excavations at a site in southeastern England indicate that hominids chilled out there a surprisingly long time ago.
Discoveries at Happisburgh, situated on an eroding stretch of coastline near the city of Norwich, show that members of an as-yet-unidentified Homo species settled on the fringes of northern Europe’s boreal forests at least 800,000 years ago and well before many scientists had assumed, say archaeologist Simon Parfitt of University College London and his colleagues.
Hominids repeatedly trekked to this northern locale, Parfitt’s team reports in the July 8 Nature. In excavations from 2005 to 2008, the researchers found 78 palm-sized stones with intentionally sharpened edges in several adjacent sediment layers.
We suspect these tools were made by the last dregs of a larger hominid population that had come when the area was warmer but hung on and survived under challenging conditions as the climate cooled,” says anthropologist and study coauthor Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London.
Until a few years ago, researchers thought that hominids reached northern Europe no earlier than 500,000 years ago, remarks archaeologist Robin Dennell of the University of Sheffield in England. “Now it’s anyone’s guess when our earliest ancestors came this far north,” he says.
Fossil finds show that hominids migrating out of Africa reached western Asia by 1.8 million years ago (SN: 5/13/00, p. 308) and Spain’s Atapuerca Mountains by 1.2 million years ago (SN: 3/29/08, p. 196).
Recent stone-tool finds at another site in southeastern England, Pakefield, indicate that hominids lived there 700,000 years ago (SN: 1/14/06, p. 29). Because the climate warmed briefly at that time, researchers proposed that hominids spread northward when temperatures rose and retreated south when the going got cold.
The Happisburgh finds hammer that hypothesis, Parfitt’s team contends. An array of environmental clues — including remains of cold-adapted animals, insects and plants excavated along with the stone tools — indicate that hominids weathered chilly northern European winters.
Summer temperatures in Happisburgh were similar to or slightly warmer than those of today’s England, the scientists estimate, but winters were probably at least 3°C cooler: “… still miserable for those used to Mediterranean climes,” write geochronologists Andrew Roberts and Rainer Grün, both of the Australian National University in Canberra, in a comment published with the new report.
Happisburgh toolmakers lived just outside what is today a boreal zone, a densely forested, frigid swath of northern Europe and Asia. Forest plants and animals dwindled during ancient winters, the scientists say. Critically, though, geological analyses indicate that Happisburgh lay on an ancient course of the River Thames, near the North Sea and what was then a land bridge connecting southeastern England to continental Europe.
Ocean tides would have formed freshwater pools in the river and brought in marine life, such as the mollusks and barnacles whose shells have been unearthed at Happisburgh. Marshes on the river’s floodplain would have attracted animals such as mammoth, rhinos and horses. Bones of these creatures have also been recovered at the site, which has been worked by fossil hunters for more than a century.
Soil at the site contains evidence of a previously dated reversal of Earth’s magnetic field that provides a minimum age estimate of 780,000 years for the hominid finds. Excavated remains of extinct fossil plants and animals, combined with marine oxygen isotope data on ancient climate shifts, narrow the timing of hominid visits to relatively warm periods either around 840,000 or 950,000 years ago.
No hominid fossils have turned up at Happisburgh. Toolmakers at the ancient site may have been related to 800,000- to 1.2-million-year-old Atapuerca hominids in Spain, Stringer says. Discoverers of those fossils assigned them to a species called Homo antecessor, which they consider a precursor of European Neandertals and modern humans.
Homo erectus and small-bodied Homo floresiensis (SN: 5/8/10, p. 14) also existed at that time, but lived too far away in Asia and Indonesia to have reached Happisburgh, Stringer contends.
Although H. antecessor seems a good bet to have made the Happisburgh tools, the site has yet to yield evidence of controlled fire use, hunting or regular campsites, comments Dennell. “Were they tourists, migrants or colonists?” he asks. “We don’t know.”
Other potential hominid sites along an 83-kilometer (50-mile) stretch of coastline that includes Happisburgh may help to answer that question. “This area has the potential to be a British version of Olduvai Gorge,” Stringer says.
Work at Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge since the 1930s has produced key hominid finds dating to as early as 1.8 million years ago.

Fuente: Science News: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60971/title/Ancient_hominids_grabbed_early_northern_exposure

First humans arrived in Britain 250,000 years earlier than thought (United Kingdom)

First humans arrived in Britain 250,000 years earlier than thought (United Kingdom)

A spectacular haul of ancient flint tools has been recovered from a beach in Norfolk, pushing back the date of the first known human occupation of Britain by up to 250,000 years.
While digging along the north-east coast of East Anglia near the village of Happisburgh, archaeologists discovered 78 pieces of razor-sharp flint shaped into primitive cutting and piercing tools.
The stone tools were unearthed from sediments that are thought to have been laid down either 840,000 or 950,000 years ago, making them the oldest human artefacts ever found in Britain.
The flints were probably left by hunter-gatherers who eked out a living on the flood plains and marshes that bordered an ancient course of the river Thames that has long since dried up. The flints were then washed downriver and came to rest at the Happisburgh site.
The early Britons would have lived alongside sabre-toothed cats and hyenas, primitive horses, red deer and southern mammoths in a climate similar to that of southern Britain today, though winters were typically a few degrees colder.
"These tools from Happisburgh are absolutely mint-fresh. They are exceptionally sharp, which suggests they have not moved far from where they were dropped," said Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London. The population of Britain at the time most likely numbered in the hundreds or a few thousand at most.
"These people probably used the rivers as routes into the landscape. A lot of Britain might have been heavily forested at the time, which would have posed a major problem for humans without strong axes to chop trees down," Stringer added. "They lived out in the open, but we don't know if they had basic clothing, were building primitive shelters, or even had the use of fire."
The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, overturns the long-held belief that early humans steered clear of chilly Britain – and the rest of northern Europe – in favour of the more hospitable climate of the Mediterranean. The only human species known to be living in Europe at the time is Homo antecessor, or "pioneer man", whose remains were discovered in the Atapuerca hills of Spain in 2008 and have been dated to between 1.1m and 1.2m years old.
The early settlers would have walked into Britain across an ancient land bridge that once divided the North Sea from the Atlantic and connected the country to what is now mainland Europe. The first humans probably arrived during a warm interglacial period, but may have retreated as temperatures plummeted in subsequent ice ages.
Until now, the earliest evidence of humans in Britain came from Pakefield, near Lowestoft in Suffolk, where a set of stone tools dated to 700,000 years ago were uncovered in 2005. More sophisticated stone, antler and bone tools were found in the 1990s in Boxgrove, Sussex, which are believed to be half a million years old.
"The flint tools from Happisburgh are relatively crude compared with those from Boxgrove, but they are still effective," said Stringer. Early stone tools were fashioned by using a pebble to knock large flakes off a chunk of flint. Later humans used wood and antler hammers to remove much smaller flakes and so make more refined cutting and sawing edges.
The great migration from Africa saw early humans reach Europe around 1.8m years ago. Within 500,000 years, humans had become established in the Mediterranean region. Remains have been found at several archaeological sites in Spain, southern France and Italy.
In an accompanying article in Nature, Andrew Roberts and Rainer Grün at the Australian National University in Canberra, write: "Until the Happisburgh site was found and described, it was thought that these early humans were reluctant to live in the less hospitable climate of northern Europe, which frequently fell into the grip of severe ice ages."
Researchers led by the Natural History Museum and British Museum in London began excavating sites near Happisburgh in 2001 as part of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain project and soon discovered tools from the stone age beneath ice-age deposits. So far, though, they have found no remains of the ancient people who made them.
"This would be the 'holy grail' of our work," said Stringer. "The humans who made the Happisburgh tools may well have been related to the people of similar antiquity from Atapuerca in Spain, assigned to the species Homo antecessor, or 'pioneer man'."
The latest haul of stone tools was buried in sediments that record a period of history when the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field was reversed. At the time, a compass needle would have pointed south instead of north. The last time this happened was 780,000 years ago, so the tools are at least that old.
Analysis of ancient vegetation and pollen in the sediments has revealed that the climate was warm but cooling towards an ice age, which points to two possible times in history, around 840,000 years ago, or 950,000 years ago. Both dates are consistent with the fossilised remains of animals recovered from the same site.
"Britain was getting cooler and going into an ice age, but these early humans were hanging in there. They may have been the remnants of an ancient population that either died out or migrated back across the land bridge to a warmer climate," said Stringer.

Fuente: Guardian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jul/07/first-humans-britain-stone-tools

Sophisticated Amputation Methods Used During Stone Age (United Kingdom)

Sophisticated Amputation Methods Used During Stone Age (United Kingdom)

Stone Age doctors prove to be more medically advanced than we first imagined, as new evidence of surgery undertaken almost 7,000 years ago comes to light. Confirming advanced medical knowledge in 4900 B.C., the findings challenge the existing history of surgery and its development.
In a Neolithic site excavated in 2005 at Buthiers-Boulancourt, 40 miles south of Paris, scientists found the skeleton of an old man buried almost 7,000 years ago. Tests showed an intentional and successful amputation in which a sharpened flint was used to cut the man’s humerus bone above the trochlea indent.
Impressively, the patient was even anesthetized. The limb was cleanly cut off, and the wound was treated in sterile conditions. It has been common knowledge that Stone Age doctors performed trephinations (that is, cutting through the skull), but amputations have been unheard of up until now.
According to a research paper published in the Antiquity Journal, the macroscopic examination has not revealed any infection in contact with this amputation, suggesting that it was conducted in relatively aseptic conditions.
Scientists found that the patient survived the operation, and although he suffered from osteoarthritis, he lived for months if not years afterward.
According to the Daily Mail, researcher Cécile Buquet-Marcon said that pain-killing plants such as the hallucinogenic Datura were possibly used, and other plants such as sage were probably used to clean the wound.
The loss of the patient’s forearm did not exclude him from the community. His grave measures an above average 6.5 feet and contains a schist axe, a flint pick, and the remains of a young animal, which point to a high social rank.

Fuente: The Epoch Times: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/38229/

2000-year-old human skeleton found at Gloucestershire Roman villa dig (United Kingdom)

2000-year-old human skeleton found at Gloucestershire Roman villa dig (United Kingdom)

A 2,000-YEAR-OLD human skeleton has been unearthed alongside Iron Age artefacts near Tewkesbury.
Archaeologists uncovered signs of the ancient Roman villa in a field on the edge of Bredon's Norton. It is thought the finds could be of national importance.
Metal detector hunts in recent years had led historians to suspect an ancient community might be found there.
That was confirmed when contractors who were laying a new water pipeline began digging.
Senior project manager Stuart Foreman is leading a team of archaeologists on a six-week excavation at the site.
Mr Foreman, of Oxford Archaeology, said thousands of pieces of masonry, nails, tiles, pottery and clothing will have been unearthed by the time the project is complete.
The area being examined is 200 metres long and 15 metres wide.
He said: "Whenever you find a new villa, it's of national importance. It's pretty unusual to find a new villa that hasn't been recognised before. It's an important local centre."
He said large pieces of masonry and flagstone flooring had been found and it was well preserved.
He said: "Fragments of stone peg-tiles from the roof and sections of painted wall plaster indicate a building of high quality and status.
"The footings survive to a height of nearly 1m cut into the hillside."
He said it did not rank as highly as the famous Roman Villa at Chedworth, near Cheltenham, but was still an important addition to a cluster of villas found in the Cotswolds and upper Thames valley.
Experts estimate that the villa is more than 1,700 years old.
They do not know yet whether the skeleton is of a male or female but believe it is at least 2,000 years old. It has been taken to Oxford to be analysed.
The discoveries were made because Severn Trent Water is laying a new 10.5-mile water pipeline from Strensham water treatment works to Coombe Hill.
It will act as a back-up water supply for Gloucestershire in case the 2007 flooding of the Mythe water treatment works at Tewkesbury happens again. That led to 350,000 people losing their drinking water supply.
The items found by the archaeologists are expected to be handed over to Worcestershire County Museum.

Fuente: This is Gloucestershire: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/cotswolds/Roman-villa-remains-discovered/article-2378214-detail/article.html

Website maps Welsh archaeological finds (Wales, United Kingdom)

Website maps Welsh archaeological finds (Wales, United Kingdom)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL finds from across Wales can now be explored at the touch of a button, thanks to a new online database being launched tomorrow.
The website, Archwilio – which means “to explore” – catalogues the historic environment records of Wales, allowing users to freely explore details of thousands of different archaeological sites dating back more than 100,000 years.
Created using information from the four archaeological trusts of Wales, the new service is being launched by Welsh heritage minister Alun Ffred Jones.
Emily La Trobe-Bateman, of Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, said the website is an exciting step forward in recording data.
“Archwilio is the online access system to the Historic Environment Records (HER) of Wales,” she said. “The idea is to disseminate information leading to a wider understanding of our cultural heritage and historic environment.”
Currently around 100,000 individual entries are held by the four regions, which are continually updated and expanded as new information becomes available.
“As well as big well-known sites like castles, churches and hillforts, you’ve also got little records of deserted long houses and small deserted medieval settlements, which could be just a ruined cottage site in the uplands,” said Marion Page, HER manager with Dyfed Archaeological Trust.
As well as being able to view artefacts such as an Iron Age bronze plaque found at the Moel Hiraddug hillfort on the Clwydian hills in North Wales, web users can find details of any excavation work or archaeological discoveries local to them.
Among the sites are a Roman discovery beneath a school car park in Neath. The Glamorgan- Gwent Archaeological Trust is working with Wales and West Utilities, Dwr-y-felin Comprehensive School and Cadw to investigate the remains of a Roman fort called Nidum.
“These are the kinds of projects that can be discovered and shared by using the site,” said Mrs Page.
“It is a very exciting prospect to be able to share such a wealth of information on a database that will hopefully just grow and grow.”

Fuente: Wales News: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2010/06/30/website-maps-welsh-archaeological-finds-91466-26753513/

Roman fort found in Cornwall 'rewrites history' (United Kingdom)

Roman fort found in Cornwall 'rewrites history' (United Kingdom)

A Roman fort which has been discovered in Cornwall is challenging previous historical views about the South West.
Pottery and pieces of slag have been found at the undisclosed location near St Austell, suggesting an ironworks.
Experts said the discovery challenges previous thinking about the region's history as it had been thought Romans did not settle much beyond Exeter.
John Smith, from Cornwall Historic Environment Service, said: "This is a major discovery, no question about it."
'Crucial' find
Mr Smith said: "For Roman Britain it's an important and quite crucial discovery because it tells us a lot about Roman occupation in the South West that was hitherto completely unexpected.
"The other Roman sites we know about [in Cornwall] have occupation in the 1st Century AD, of about AD50 to AD80, and that fits in with what we know about Exeter.
"In finding the pottery and glass, it's saying the occupation is much longer and goes from AD60 up to about AD250, which turns the whole thing on its head.
"It certainly means a rewrite of history in the South West."
The site had previously been regarded as an Iron Age settlement, but the recent discovery of pottery and glass was found to be of Roman origin.
Archaeological enthusiast Jonathan Clemes discovered various artefacts by studying the earth after it had been ploughed.
He said: "You've got to know your pottery.
"If you come across a bit of pottery and you know what it is, it can tell you a great deal about the activity that went on in that area."
Following the discovery of the artefacts a geophysical survey of the site was conducted, which uncovered a fort, marching camp and various annexes.
Mr Smith said that prior to this discovery, it was believed that Roman forts had only been positioned close to the Devon border, because after settling for about 30 years, the Romans left the region for south Wales.
It will now be considered whether to excavate the area, or to leave it for a future excavation when techniques have advanced.

Fuente: BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/10372659.stm

Excavation at Iron Age hill fort near Melton Mowbray (United Kingdom)

Excavation at Iron Age hill fort near Melton Mowbray (United Kingdom)

One of Leicestershire's most important archaeological monuments is being excavated for the first time in nearly 40 years.
Trenches are being dug up in the Iron Age hill fort at Burrough on the Hill near Melton Mowbray in the hope of finding clues about life from 600BC.
The site was opened to the public on Sunday.
Site directors said hill forts were enigmatic monuments which had rarely been scientifically excavated.
Similar work had been carried out on the Burrough Hill site on a much smaller scale in the 1950s and 1960s.
Recent excavations have already revealed part of stone defences of the hill fort entrance, along with a cobbled road and timber gateway.
A second trench has revealed many Roman finds, suggesting the site had remained significant for nearly 800 years.
The work has been undertaken by scientists from the University of Leicester after English Heritage gave the go-ahead.
Dr Patrick Clay, of University of Leicester Archaeological Services, said a lot of information about the Iron Age in Leicestershire had been discovered over the past 20 years through examining small farmstead and larger undefended settlements.
He said: "The big gap in our knowledge has been how these large defended 'hill forts' fitted into the picture.
"Did they serve as market centres for surrounding farms or were they a tribal leader's capital - or both? This work may help to provide some of the answers."

Fuente: BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/england/leicester/10360424.stm