A rare Bronze Age spearhead has been found by workers while developing a wetland in Gloucestershire.
Experts discovered it at Cirencester Sewage Works, near South Cerney, earlier this year and on 10 May estimated it is about 3,500 years old.
Archaeologists said it appeared to be a family heirloom that was placed into a pit for a reason unknown.
Other items unearthed include a selection of prehistoric pottery fragments and flint tools.
A hoard of 17 Iron Age coins has been declared treasure trove by a coroner.
More Info :
The once monumental final resting place of a probable prehistoric chieftain and, potentially, his shaman has been discovered in southwest England.
It’s one of the most fascinating archaeological discoveries in southern Britain in recent years. Significantly, the duo formed part of a remarkable social and political process which changed human history – and still shapes our world today.
The probable chieftain or prestigious leader – a man in his thirties or forties – had been interred underneath the centre of a large funerary mound which had been constructed specifically for him inside his own personal 20m diameter ditched enclosure.
Note: It would be interesting to pinpoint this site near a confluence of four rivers..
A 6,000-YEAR-OLD PREHISTORIC BURIAL MONUMENT HAS BEEN UNCOVERED NORTHEAST OF CIRENCESTER IN THE COTSWOLDS BY ARCHAEOLOGISTS FROM BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY.
Believed to be around 1,000 years older than Stonehenge, the massive mound 60m long by 15m wide, was carefully built of soil and stone by the first farmers living in the area around 4000 BC. It provided a resting place for the dead and a symbol of identity for the living.
The barrow was first noticed about ten years ago and has since been studied through a wide range of geophysical surveys and evaluations that confirmed its identification. In the summer of 2016 proper excavations began with a team of around 80 students, graduates and archaeologists from across the world working to explore the stonework of the mound and define possible chambers inside the structure that might contain burials. Traditionally, up to 50 men, women and children were buried in such monuments over a period of several centuries, long before the discovery of metal working....
A new attraction which offers visitors the chance to experience life as an Iron Age villager opens this weekend. The Cinderbury settlement near Coleford in the Forest of Dean, includes several roundhouses, an iron smelting furnace, pottery kiln and clay-domed bread oven.
People can visit for the day, for a weekend, or experience an entire week, where they will wear authentic clothes, forage for food or learn to weave.
Director Jasper Blake said Cinderbury aims to be both fun and education. “The idea is that they come and experience some of the life an Iron Age person might have lived,” he said.
“We don’t want to make it a survival holiday, we want people to get back in touch with raw materials like wood and iron and stone.”
Those braving a week’s stay will live in a communal roundhouse, sleeping on animal skins, existing on a pre-Roman diet which excludes caffeine, sweets or potatoes and using compost-style toilets.
No mobile phones, wrist watches or any modern accessories will be allowed, although “tribal staff” will have access to telephones for emergencies.
“It’s not the only thing, we are open to day visitors and school parties, it’s very much an educational type project,” said Mr Blake, who hopes to inspire an interest in archaeology.
from news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4647917.stm
A team of university archaeologists has uncovered the remains of an Iron Age settlement in the grounds of a Gloucestershire castle.
The group, from the University of Bristol, found fragments of human bones and prehistoric flint tools in the gardens of Berkeley castle.
The discoveries were made by students taking part in a training excavation.
Mark Horton, head of archaeology, said: “To find prehistoric remains is an exciting and unexpected discovery.”
Parts of a ring ditch, which may have circled a house, were also uncovered in an area below the castle’s Victorian flowerbeds and greenhouses.
Berkeley castle has been owned and inhabited by the same family since 1156, but little is known about the early history of the site.
“It is possible this settlement was located on a small ridge of high ground, to be visible from the River Severn, and might even had been located to help prehistoric navigation,” Dr Horton said.
The excavations are due to be filled in, but it is hoped the artefacts will be put on display for visitors to the castle.
From BBCi, 7 June 2005
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/4614747.stm
More at www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk
Holidaymakers will be able to spend a week living in the Iron Age at a new tourist attraction being planned in the Forest of Dean. Tourists will give up their clothes and modern items and dress in costume and spend time living in the village of Cinderbury. They will sleep in primitive huts and will have to cook for themselves, mine ore, make tools and weapons and look after the village’s animals.
Mobile phones and watches will be confiscated and the project website says that “make-up, jewellery, hair products and perfumes are strongly discouraged and will possibly be mocked”.
The living history project is being created near Clearwell.
Although corporate funds are still needed it is hoped the village will be open by May.
For more information about Cinderbury or for anyone interested in funding the project go to www.cinderbury.co.uk
RESCUE – The British Archaeological Trust
Gloucester Archaeology Unit is threatened with closure. Gloucester City council are currently considering a number of ways to save money for next year, and the Archaeology Unit is a prime target.
Alex Hunt of the CBA reports that the proposal is apparently to cut the field unit section. According to the local Unison branch 5 out of 7 staff will go and the service will be reduced, relocated and refocused on providing purely planning advice and monitoring. The council plans to make a decision on the proposal on 16th October, so there is only a relatively short time in which to lobby them.
Not only is the unit a valuable service and an integral part of preserving Gloucester’s unique heritage, but closing it would save the council very little, only £28,000 in fact which is less than half of what the unit would have made in profit had it not been stopped from tendering for work.
Anybody who has ever dealt with the unit knows what an important role its staff play in protecting the archaeological remains of Gloucester city but also the incredible amount of ‘educational extras’ such as the yearly field school, events and work experience placements which will be lost.
Supporter Rebecca Briscoe, says ‘personally had it not been for the huge part the unit had to play in my archaeological awakening I would not be heading off to one of the top universities in the country to study archaeology at the beginning of this term. The presence of a unit so near to where I live and work was instrumental in the amount of works experience I and many budding archaeologists like me have gained. The incredible staff, whom I cannot praise enough, are too valuable a resource of experience and expertise to be discarded because of budget mismanagement by the city council.
In light of this anyone who feels strongly about this matter should write to
Kevin Stevens, Leader, or Paul Smith, Managing Director,
Gloucester City Council, The Docks, Gloucester, GL1 2EP,
or the local paper The Citizen
There are two round barrows here (you’ll have to look carefully though, as they are less than half a metre high), set close to the crest of a hill, and they were found to conceal some interesting burials. The smr record on ‘Magic’ says:
One of these barrows was partially excavated in 1847, when eight skeletons were found, lying in seven stone-lined graves arranged in a circle around the circumference of the mound. One of the skeletons was accompanied by a spearhead. Three feet below the top of the mound was another skeleton. Finds from the barrow included about 30 yellow glass and amber beads, several iron spearheads, a shield boss, a saucer-brooch, the decorative plates from three brooches, silver earrings and a bronze ring. The site was re examined in 1869 by Playne, who claimed that the centre portion of the barrow was undisturbed,
and reported finding charcoal, bones, potsherds and worked flints at ground level.
This doesn’t really enlighten us as to when the burials were made? It sounds rather like reuse of a bronze-age barrow?
A .pdf file detailing four cup marked stones.
By A. Marshall
From the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society 1986, Vol. 104, 220-225
Courtesy of the University of Gloucestershire website.
What’s it like living in an Iron Age village? How did they keep warm and make tools? Did they live more rewarding lives? A re-created Iron Age village [at Cinderbury] allows visitors to stay and find out.
Bill Thayer has put the text of this Victorian antiquarian’s book onto the internet. In places he has kindly linked back to this site. Though I don’t think George Witts himself thought of this.
[With thanks to Bill Thayer himself for updating this link].
