Neolithic finds unearthed by Ormesby St Michael dig (United Kingdom)

Neolithic finds unearthed by Ormesby St Michael dig (United Kingdom)

Some of the earliest pottery ever found in Britain has been unearthed on farmland on the Norfolk Broads.
The Neolithic flints and pottery shards dating back more than 5,000 years were found by the Oxford East Archaeology unit next to Ormesby Broad.
They include a loom weight for weaving cloth and a rare whetstone, used for sharpening tools, something normally only found in burial grounds.
The dig preceded the creation of 12 man-made silt lagoons for the broad.
They will hold sediment from the eastern arm of Ormesby Broad and are aimed at improve water quality and encouraging wildlife in a £120,000 project funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
'Rarely seen'

The excavation also uncovered an extensive Middle Bronze Age field system dating back to about 1,500 BC.
These systems were not thought to have existed further east than the Cambridgeshire Fens, indicating that such organised systems of farming were in use in the Broads earlier than previously thought.
Richard Mortimer, senior project manager at Oxford Archaeology East, said: "We have not only shown that contrary to virtually all published sources and expectations Norfolk certainly does have Middle Bronze Age field systems, but they have a complexity that has rarely been seen elsewhere in the county.
"It seems man, who dug out the Broads, was living and farming here earlier than we thought. It adds a new chapter to the Middle Bronze Age story for Norfolk".

Fuente: BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/norfolk/10342496.stm

Scars from lion bite suggest headless Romans found in York were gladiators (United Kingdom)

Scars from lion bite suggest headless Romans found in York were gladiators (United Kingdom)

The haunting mystery of Britain's headless Romans may have been solved at last, thanks to scars from a lion's bite and hammer marks on decapitated skulls.
The results of forensic work, announced today, on more than 80 skeletons of well-built young men, gradually exhumed from the gardens of a York terrace over a decade, suggests that the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard has been found.
Many of the 1,800-year-old remains indicate much stronger muscles in the right arm, a condition noted by Roman writers in slaves trained from their teens to fight in the arena. Advanced mineral testing of tooth enamel also links the men to a wide variety of Roman provinces, including North Africa, which was another a feature of gladiator recruitment.
The conclusions are consistent with York's importance in the Roman world as a provincial capital and major military base for years of campaigning north of Hadrian's Wall. Many senior generals and politicians held posts in the city and Constantine appointed himself emperor there in 306AD. Such distinguished residents would have required a high standard of social life, according to the York Archaeological Trust, which has supervised the excavations in Driffield Terrace.
Field officer Kurt Hunter-Mann said the accumulation of evidence now pointed to a gladiator graveyard rather than to a military suppression of aristocratic rebels by Caracalla, another emperor who visited York, as suggested by earlier theories.
Signs of respect accorded to the remains, including piles of grave goods for use in the afterlife, had appeared to support the earlier notion. The initial finds of some 60 skeletons also turned up evidence suggesting lavish funeral feasts, with beef, pork and horsemeat on the menu.
But accounts of gladiator burials make it clear that similar pomp accompanied the rites for many long-serving gladiators, who were comparable to modern football stars apart from their often bloody end. Decapitation was a regular conclusion to bouts and the coup-de-grace often came with a hammer blow to the head.
Other theories about the grave have included a pagan rite involving decapitation, or a pogrom against a minority group such as Christians, but evidence for either is lacking. Gladiators were brought into the debate in earnest three years ago, when the discovery of burials of arena combatants at Ephesus in Turkey revealed a similar combination of hammer blows to the skull and decapitation as at York.
The animal bite has also tilted the balance of the evidence, after a further 23 skeletons were found during excavation for a resident's patio. Hunter-Mann said: "It is one of the most significant items of the evidence accumulated. A large carnivore bite – probably a lion's but possibly from a tiger or bear – must have been sustained in an arena. The great majority of the skeletons are also male, very robust and mostly average height, which is telling along with the arm muscle asymmetry."
York appears to have held major arena events until as late as the fourth century AD, avoiding the decline into the spectacle known as Venatio, or the hunt, which saw cash-starved provincial governors provide deer and even rabbits in place of the exotic beasts associated with gladiator spectaculars.
Dr Michael Wysocki, senior lecturer in forensic anthropology and archaeology at the University of Central Lancashire, who has carried out recent tests, said: "We don't have any other potential gladiator cemeteries with this level of preservation anywhere else in the world. It is a unique Roman burial assemblage. Anthropologically speaking, the material is particularly significant because it includes such a broad spectrum of healed and unhealed injuries associated with violence.
"Nothing like the bite marks has ever been identified before on a Roman skeleton. It would seem highly unlikely that this individual was attacked by a lion or tiger as he was walking home from the pub in York 2,000 years ago."
Work is continuing on the remains and at the dig, which will be featured in a Channel 4 documentary, Gladiators: Back From The Dead next Monday (14 June). The discoveries add to the formidable Roman reputation of York, which has the remains of walls, tombs and a large civil settlement, plus a ghostly cohort of soldiers whose tramp through the cellars of the Treasurer's House by York Minster is the subject of centuries of claimed sightings.

Fuente: Guardian.co.uk: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jun/07/york-gladiator-graveyard

Neanderthal man was living in Britain 40,000 years earlier than thought

Neanderthal man was living in Britain 40,000 years earlier than thought

Neanderthal man was living in Britain at the start of the last ice age - 40,000 years earlier than previously thought, archaeologists have said.
Francis Wenban-Smith from the University of Southampton discovered two ancient flint hand tools used to cut meat at the M25/A2 road junction at Dartford, Kent, during an excavation funded by the Highways Agency.
Tests on sediment burying the flints showed they date from around 100,000 years ago - proving Neanderthals were living in Britain at this time.
The country was previously assumed to have been uninhabited during this period.
''I couldn't believe my eyes when I received the test results,'' said Dr Wenban-Smith.
''We know that Neanderthals inhabited Northern France at this time, but this new evidence suggests that as soon as sea levels dropped, and a 'land bridge' appeared across the English Channel, they made the journey by foot to Kent.''
Early pre-Neanderthals inhabited Britain before the last ice age, but were forced south by the severe cold about 200,000 years ago.
When the climate warmed up again between 130,000 and 110,000 years ago, they could not get back because, similar to today, the Channel sea-level was raised, blocking their path.
The new discovery, commissioned by Oxford Archaeology, showed they returned to Britain much earlier than 60,000 years ago, as previous evidence suggested.
David Score, Oxford Archaeology Project Manager, said: ''The fieldwork uncovered a significant amount of activity at the Dartford site in the Bronze Age and Roman periods, but it is deeper trenches excavated through much older sediments which have yielded the most interesting results - shedding light on a long period when there was assumed to have been an absence of early man from Britain.''
One theory is that Neanderthals were attracted back to Kent by the flint-rich chalk downs which were visible from France.
These supported herds of mammoth, rhino, horse and deer - an important source of food in sub-arctic conditions back then.
"These are people who had no real shelter - no houses, not even caves - so we can only speculate that by the time they returned, they had developed physiologically to cope with the cold, as well as developing behavioural strategies such as planning winter stores and making good use of fire,'' said Dr Wenban-Smith.
Dr Wenban-Smith explained more evidence was needed to date their presence more accurately, to show how many were living in Kent at this time, how far they roamed into Britain and how long they stayed for.
The English Channel was also a critical area for further research, with the buried landscape between Boulogne and Newhaven possibly containing the crucial evidence, he said.
Other results from the project include the discovery of a woolly rhino tooth in the floodplain gravels of the River Darent, dated at around 40,000 years old.

Fuente: Thelegraph.co.uk: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7794447/Neanderthal-man-was-living-in-Britain-40000-years-earlier-than-thought.html

Secrets of ancient Scottish hunters revealed by camp

Secrets of ancient Scottish hunters revealed by camp

It was an age when reindeer roamed the Scottish landscape, competing for territory with human raiding parties from what is now the North Sea.
The country lay under glaciers as far south as the Highland Line, and a mini ice-age was fast approaching.
Today, for the first time, Scottish archaeologists will tell the story of this remarkable period at a national conference in Glasgow.
Alan Saville, of National Museums Scotland, will join archaeologist Tam Ward to discuss ongoing work at Howburn Farm, an ancient human campsite discovered by amateur enthusiasts in 2005. The discovery, north of Biggar, is the oldest so far found, and proves that humans lived in Scotland as long as 14,000 years ago.
Initial estimates suggested stone tools at the scene were made in around 2000 BCE, but last year they were shown to be more than four times as old, making them the earliest signs of humanity so far discovered in Scotland.
Now, experts have pieced together some of the life story of the humans who would have used them.
Saville told The Herald these early arrivals would have been physically similar to today’s Scots, but with a markedly different lifestyle.
“If you dressed them in a suit and walked them down the street you wouldn’t notice the difference, but they were nomads, hunters,” he said.
“They lived in small groups, probably tribes of some sort. It’s virtually impossible to tell how many used this site at one time, but probably no more than half-a-dozen or so.”
Saville described the Howburn Farm site as “a forward camp rather than a base camp”, suggesting it was a temporary home for a hunting party.
The hunters would most likely have been men and younger boys, he said, but archaeologists are still debating how they would have used the stone and flint tools that have been discovered.
“It’s one of the $64,000 questions about this period – whether these small, blunted points were used as tips and barbs of spears or of arrows,” Saville said.
The implements are about 4cm in length, and as many as 40,000 fragments have been uncovered so far.
It appears that the hunters made their own weapons at the campsite, and it may have been visited by several groups over a number of years.
The men would most likely have hunted reindeer and horses, Saville said, citing similarities between their tools and others used for this purpose on the continent.
In those days, Scotland’s climate would have been similar to modern Scandinavia, but a mini ice-age that began about 13,000 years ago sent temperatures plummeting for a 1000-year
period in the interim.
This would have forced hunting parties and their prey back across the North Sea basin towards Denmark and Germany, meaning the humans who roamed Scotland 14,000 years ago were probably not ancestors of modern Scots, unless their descendants returned during one of numerous invasions over the last two millennia.
Saville said the find in Scotland was slightly different in character to other sites in Yorkshire and southern England, and that it had more in common with those in other northern European countries.
The absence of any discoveries in the north of England may point towards a buffer zone between two distinct populations of early nomads.
The nomadic way of life persisted for thousands of years, until the neolithic age saw the advent of farming. Advances in the Bronze and Iron Ages then allowed urban centres to spring up, paving the way for the world as we know it today.
Tam Ward, the amateur archaeologist who led the exploration of Howburn Farm, said his group – the Biggar Archaeological Trust – was turning up new sites every weekend.
“We’re finding mesolithic sites all over the place, dating from about 10,000 years ago to 6000 years,” he said.
The Archaeological Research in Progress Conference 2010 takes place at the Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park, Glasgow today. Entry is free.

Fuente: The Herald Scotland: http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/secrets-of-ancient-scottish-hunters-revealed-by-camp-1.1031197

Archaeological study unearths Roman Villas and clues to Iron Age Yorkshire

Archaeological study unearths Roman Villas and clues to Iron Age Yorkshire

The combined results of a five-year aerial archaeological study which uncovered Iron Age and Roman forts in West Yorkshire have been revealed today in a new book.
Aerial photo mapping undertaken as part of English Heritage's National Mapping Programme was combined with older aerial photographs, the results of field walking and geophysics together with data from archaeological digs to produce the study, which covers the 65-kilometre Magnesian Limestone Ridge, running from Wetherby in the north to Dinnington in the south.
Most of the cropmarks belonged to the Iron Age (600BC to 50AD) and Roman period (43AD to 410AD). The potential site of a Roman villa near Aberford in West Yorkshire has also been revealed for the first time, along with a possible new Roman fort on the south bank of the River Don at Long Sandall, near Doncaster, adding weight to a long held belief that such a fort once existed locally.
Evidence of what are supposedly pre-Roman defensive works are also found on the north side of the River Don.
Hundreds of prehistoric trackways were also revealed along with scores of enclosures, some likely to have been used to corral cattle.
"This study combines all the available evidence for the historic landscape of this area of Yorkshire which covers 1,500 square kilometres," explained Ian Roberts, Principal Archaeologist with West Yorkshire Archaeology Services and one of the authors of the new report.
"The only documentary source for how people lived 2,000 years ago are Roman writers, so we need to be able to read the landscape to make sense of how our ancestors lived.
"In many areas settlement was surprisingly intensive, while others are bereft of evidence. Alarmingly, we also noted that some cropmarks clearly visible in photographs from the 1970s and 1980s have vanished in more recent images because they have been ploughed out. That adds urgency to the need to record and understand clues in the landscape before they are lost for good."
Cropmark Landscapes of the Magnesian Limestone of South and West Yorkshire by Ian Roberts with Alison Deegan and David Berg is available from Archaeological Services WYAS, PO Box 30 Nepshaw Lane South, Morley, Leeds, LS27 0UG. £15 (£3.50 post and packaging).

Fuente: Culture 24: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history+%2526+heritage/archaeology/art79156

Anglo-Saxon finds at new Cheltenham academy site

An Anglo-Saxon settlement has been discovered on the site of the new All Saints' Academy in Cheltenham.

Two skeletons, pottery and a large timber hall, all thought to date back to between the 6th to 8th Century, have been uncovered.
Steve Sheldon, of Cotswold Archaeology, said it was previously thought the area did not succumb to Saxon control during that period.
He said the settlement was one of the best finds of his career.
'Saxon influence'
It is thought the hall, measuring 11m by 6m (36ft by 20ft), was used for communal events such as feasts.
Mr Sheldon, who is directing the excavation, said he "didn't expect to find much" when the team started work.
Cliff Bateman, project manager at Cotswold Archaeology, said: "It would now appear that there were more pockets of Anglo-Saxon control in the Severn Valley than we previously thought.
"Anglo-Saxon burials have been found in Bishops Cleeve and Tewkesbury, but this discovery shows Saxon influence right on the very doorstep of Gloucester."
The academy is being built on the site of the former Kingsmead School.
'Learning opportunity'
Pupils from the former school, and from Christ College, will have a chance to look at the finds on 25 May before they are removed for dating and recording.
The items will then be donated to Cheltenham Museum.
Construction on the site is continuing and the academy is still on track to open in September 2011.
Helena Arnold, director of children and young people's department at Gloucester Diocese, said: "This will provide an excellent learning opportunity for students even before the construction process is under way.
"Whilst the academy looks to the future to provide first class facilities for the 21st Century, the archaeological find is an opportunity too for students to learn about the past and the culture from which we have developed."


Fuente: BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8691565.stm

Derbyshire Iron Age bones were of pregnant woman

Tests carried out on a skeleton discovered at an archaeological dig in Derbyshire have found it was that of a pregnant woman.

Experts said they were surprised by the female find because the site, near Monsal Dale in the Peak District, had been believed to be a military scene.

Now, extra lottery funding means there can be a second dig at the Fin Cop hill fort site to find out more.

Archaeologists unearthed the Iron Age skeleton last August.

During the excavation, the woman was uncovered among the jumbled stone of a collapsed rampart.
The main focus of the dig was to find how the ramparts of the hill fort were built and when they were erected and archaeologists described the skeleton find as "unexpected".

Experts said it was evident the woman had been thrown into the ditch as the stone wall of the hill fort was being pushed in.

Specialist analysis of the bones revealed the woman to have been about 21 to 30 years of age when she died between 300 and 200 BC.

The Longstone Local History Group has now been awarded a grant of nearly £50,000 to continue to research the area with the help of Archaeological Research Services Ltd.

One of the project managers, Jim Brightman, said: "Quite a lot of very important finds cannot look like much on site.

"But when you get back to the lab, throw the scientific techniques and analysis at them, that's when you start to get the story out.

"The bones are a great example of that, we found out so much more by analysing them."


Fuente: BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/derbyshire/8691348.stm

Face of Stirling Castle warrior reconstructed

Face of Stirling Castle warrior reconstructed

A reconstruction has revealed the face of a medieval knight whose skeleton was discovered at Stirling Castle.
Experts are now attempting to discover the identity of the warrior, who is likely to have been killed in the 13th or 14th Century.
The skeleton is one of 10 excavated from the site of a lost royal chapel at the castle. The skeleton of a woman was found near the knight.
Forensic anthropologist Professor Sue Black is leading the investigation.
It is believed the knight could have been killed during Scotland's Wars of Independence with England.
The castle changed hands several times and scientific tests have been used to work out whether the knight might have been a Scot, an Englishman or even French.
Efforts by Prof Black, of Dundee University, to find out more about the warrior's life and death will be featured in BBC Two's History Cold Case series on Thursday.
Richard Strachan, senior archaeologist with Historic Scotland, said the facial reconstruction gives a "powerful impression" of what the knight may have looked like.
"He was a very strong and fit nobleman, with the physique of a professional rugby player, who would have been trained since boyhood to handle heavy swords and other weapons and who would have spent a great deal of time on horseback," he said.
'Unusual' group
Historic Scotland, which cares for the castle, has announced it is commissioning further research to find out more about the 10 skeletons, which include two infants.
They date from the 13th to 15th Centuries and were found during preparatory work for a £12m refurbishment of the castle's Renaissance royal palace.
Biological anthropologist Dr Jo Buckberry, of the University of Bradford, is part of the team which will carry out the research.
She said: "Techniques have advanced a long way since the skeletons were discovered in 1997 and we can now tell much more about where people came from, their lifestyles and causes of death.
"This group is highly unusual, because of where and when the people were buried, suggesting that they might have been socially important and have died during extreme events such as sieges."
The facial reconstruction and other research results, will feature in a permanent exhibition due to open at Stirling Castle next spring.
History Cold Case - Stirling Man is being shown on BBC2 Scotland at 2100 BST on Thursday.

Fuente: BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/8687199.stm

The Cumberland News: West Cumbria floods uncover Roman finds prompting major probe

West Cumbria floods uncover Roman finds prompting major probe
By Thom Kennedy
Roman finds uncovered by the floods of last November have excited archaeologists – and are set for a major investigation.
The remains of a Roman fort at Papcastle have been open for several years, but nobody has ever known the shape of local roads, the size of the civilian settlement attached to it, where the river Derwent ran and where it was crossed, or where the site’s cemetery was located.
However, the floods which devastated Cockermouth last year also washed up several fragments of pottery, carved stone and possible architectural remains on the opposite side of the Derwent from Papcastle, giving new hope that some of the area’s ancient mysteries could soon be uncovered.
Now, archaeologists from Grampus Heritage and Training are to launch a survey of the land around where the finds appeared, and hope to find the remains of buildings, roads, and signs of occupation.
Using magnetometers – instruments that can detect buried walls – exploration will centre on fields alongside the River Derwent.
Project leader Mark Graham said the finds were exciting and could illustrate the size and shape of the domestic area around the fort.
He said: “A considerable amount of pottery has been found post floods. We’ve always suspected the Romans had some sort of river crossing at Papcastle. Hopefully, our searches might provide some answers.
“The field we are starting in is on the opposite side of the field from Papcastle – that may be evidence of a river crossing, or it may be that the course of river has moved and the site where we are looking was on the same side. We don’t really know the road layout around there, we don’t know where the cemetery was.”
Channel Four’s Time Team had looked at an area around Papcastle, but never as far from the fort remains as the new finds.
And there has never been a systematic geophysical investigation, but the new project will see magnetometers – instruments that can detect buried walls – used to survey a large area near where the finds were made.
Mr Graham added: “We will see if we can see into the soil. The logical next step would then be targeted excavation, with landowner permission, of particular features. We can’t guarantee the survey will produce anything, but by the end of June we should have an idea of how successful it has been.”
Volunteers are being sought to help with the investigation, details from which will form part of the county’s archaeological record.
Fieldwork takes place from May 24 to 28.
For details contact Grampus Heritage and Training on 016973 21516, or e-mail enquiries@grampusheritage.co.uk

Fuente: The Cumberland News: http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk/news/roman-flood-finds-prompt-major-probe-1.706438?referrerPath=news