Video published on the BBC News web site on 23rd January 2014:
Winter storms which battered the coast of Wales have exposed previously hidden traces of the area’s Stone Age landscape.
A four mile stretch of coastline near Tywyn on the west coast of Wales was so altered by the sea that it was pushed back 50 feet (15 metres).
The new coastline has revealed the existence of ancients forests, with the remains of trees dating back 6000 years.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 29th June 2012:
A reindeer engraved on the wall of a cave in south Wales has been confirmed as the oldest known rock art in Britain.
The image in Cathole Cave on Gower, south Wales was created at least 14,000 years ago, said Bristol University.
Archaeologist Dr George Nash found the engraving while exploring a rear section of the cave in September 2010.
He said uranium dating showed it was the oldest rock art in the British Isles, if not north-western Europe.
Full article, with photo, at bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-18648683
From an article published on the News Wales web site on 24th January 2011:
Army Preparation Course students have helped to repair a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. The group of 14 from Pembrokeshire College joined the National Park Authority’s Archaeologist and Rangers to help reinstate damaged Bronze Age burial cairns on the Preseli Hills
On the summit there are three cairns, probably for Bronze Age burials.The site is nationally important and is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument. As such, it is a criminal offence to alter it without permission. However, visitors have been moving stones to make shelters within the cairns.
The students have been helping to restore them to their original formations.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 13th May 2009:
A £25m plan to revitalise the world-renowned Stonehenge in Wiltshire, including diverting a nearby road, has been announced by the government.
Also included in the plan from the Stonehenge Programme Board are proposals for a new visitor centre at nearby Airman’s Corner.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 1st December 2008:
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.
Experts from the University of Manchester Archaeological Unit said a amber necklace was one of the ultimate status symbols of the period.
The necklace consists of dozens of pierced amber beads of various sizes, linked together on a length of fibre.
It was discovered in the cist by experts from the university and local Mellor Archaeological Trust, who said the mystery was now how the material got to the north west.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 28th January 2008:
The remains of an Iron Age man found in a peat bog are leaving the British Museum for the first time in 17 years.
Lindow Man was found in a Cheshire marsh in 1984, nearly 2,000 years after his horrific death.
Chemicals in the bog preserved the body and researchers found his throat was slit and he was garrotted, possibly as a sacrificial victim.
Lindow Man is being moved from London to the Manchester Museum, on long-term loan, and will be displayed from April.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 7th December 2007:
A 29,000-year-old skeleton is being displayed in Wales for the first time since it was discovered in a Gower cave in the 1820s.
The Red Lady of Paviland, actually the remains of a young male, is the earliest formal human burial to have been found in western Europe.
It is going on show on Saturday at the National Museum in Cardiff.
Artefacts also include a 13th Century figure of Christ, Bronze Age jewellery, a Viking sword guard and a Roman cup.
All were found at various locations throughout Wales and are brought together for the first time for the exhibition Origins: In Search of Early Wales.
From an article by Mark Pivac, published on the BBC News web site on 12th July 2007:
A team of explorers has set sail from the US for Spain in a 12-metre-long (40ft) reed boat, hoping to spend about two months sailing across the Atlantic.
They are trying to prove that Stone Age people crossed the ocean thousands of years before Christopher Columbus in the 15th Century.
Aymara Indians in Bolivia, who still use reed boats, built the new vessel.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 27th February 2007:
A drink of milk was off the menu for Europeans until only a few thousand years ago, say researchers from London.
Analysis of Neolithic remains, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests no European adults could digest the drink at that time.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 25th January 2007:
Archaeologists who found the remains of human “Hobbits” have permission to restart excavations at the cave where the specimens were found.
Indonesian officials have blocked access to the cave since 2005, following a dispute over the bones.
But Professor Richard Roberts, a member of the team that found the specimens, told BBC News the political hurdles had now been overcome.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 12th January 2007:
A genetic breakthrough could help clear up some long-standing mysteries surrounding our closest evolutionary relatives: the Neanderthals.
Scientists have reconstructed a chunk of DNA from the genome of a Neanderthal man who lived 38,000 years ago.
The genetic information they extracted from a thigh bone has allowed them to identify more than a million building blocks of Neanderthal DNA so far.
From an article by Paul Rincon, published on the BBC News web site on 15th November 2006:
A genetic breakthrough could help clear up some long-standing mysteries surrounding our closest evolutionary relatives: the Neanderthals.
Scientists have reconstructed a chunk of DNA from the genome of a Neanderthal man who lived 38,000 years ago.
The genetic information they extracted from a thigh bone has allowed them to identify more than a million building blocks of Neanderthal DNA so far.
Extracts from an article published by Bristol University on 25th August 2006:
Neandertals were much more like modern humans than had been previously thought, according to a re-examination of finds from one of the most famous palaeolithic sites in Europe by Bristol University archaeologist, Professor Joao Zilhao, and his French colleagues.
Professor Zilhao has been able to show that sophisticated artefacts such as decorated bone points and personal ornaments found in the Châtelperronian culture of France and Spain were genuinely associated with Neandertals around 44,000 years ago, rather than acquired from modern humans who might have been living nearby.
Extracts from an article published in the Independent on 29th August 2006:
The discovery of European corpses thousands of miles away suggests a hitherto unknown connection between East and West in the Bronze Age.
Solid as a warrior of the Caledonii tribe, the man’s hair is reddish brown flecked with grey, framing high cheekbones, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard. When he lived three thousand years ago, he stood six feet tall, and was buried wearing a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. He looks like a Bronze Age European. In fact, he’s every inch a Celt. Even his DNA says so.
But this is no early Celt from central Scotland. This is the mummified corpse of Cherchen Man, unearthed from the scorched sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the far-flung region of Xinjiang in western China, and now housed in a new museum in the provincial capital of Urumqi.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 24th August 2006:
Archaeologists working on a gas pipeline near Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire have unearthed what they believe to be a 3,400-year-old canoe.
Work has stopped on a section of the pipeline near St Botolphs to allow the Bronze Age oak relic to be recovered.
It is the first such discovery in Wales and only 150 exist across Europe.
From an item published on the BBC News web site on 8th August 2006:
Hot weather has produced parched landscapes which have allowed experts to detect the outlines of some of Wales’ earliest buildings...
See the aerial photos, including an image of the newly discovered circular enclosure and barrow near Aberystwyth.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 6th August 2006:
Archaeologists excavating an Iron Age farmstead in west Wales say the site may have been home to “several families” as early as 200 BC.
After two weeks’ digging at the 2,000-year-old plot, the team have uncovered the remains of a circular house together with pits and postholes.
Other buildings found last year appear to have been surrounded by two large protective ditches and banks.
The site, near Tremain, Ceredigion, is open to the public on Sunday 6 August.
A day school aimed at anyone who is interested in the history and archaeology of Ceredigion is running on Saturday 4th March between 10.50 a.m. and 4.30 p.m.
The event is taking place at the Hugh Owen Lecture Theatre, Aberystwyth University [sic].
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 11th December 2005:
Parts of an Iron Age hillfort are to be closed to the public while essential repair work is carried out.
About £40,000 is to be spent repairing badly eroded ramparts at Danebury Hillfort near Stockbridge, Hampshire.
Parts of the fort, which sees between 70,000 to 100,000 visitors a year, will be temporarily closed as the four months of work is carried out.
The overall site will still remain open and the repairs are expected to be completed by mid-March.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 5th December 2005:
The remains of a skeleton found underneath a medieval ship discovered buried in the banks of the River Usk in Newport are that of an Iron age man.
Tests carried out on the bones which were found in December 2002, have shown that they date back to 170BC.
It makes the skeleton about 1,500 years older than the 15th century ship.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 19th October 2005:
A campaign to raise public awareness of a historic countryside area to safeguard it for the future is to be launched next month.
The campaign is to use a range of arts to get people interested in and to understand the history of the South Dorset Ridgeway, north of Weymouth.Photography and painting competitions are among the ways organisers hope to raise awareness of the area.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 29th July 2005:
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a Roman lead smelting site in a peat bog in Ceredigion.
Dating back about 2,000 years, Cambria Archaeology said mines in the Borth area could have supplied the heavy, bluish-grey metal for production.
Someone should really point out to this lot that 2000 years ago the Romans hadn’t got to Wales. Even taking the inaccuracies of carbon dating into account, it seems likely that the lead smelting was being carried out by the indigenous Celts rather than Romans.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 21st May 2005:
Mining for copper and zinc could return to Anglesey’s Parys Mountain mine after an absence of almost 100 years.
As a result of recent increases in world metal prices, owners Anglesey Mining plc are starting exploratory drilling work.Finance director Ian Cuthbertson said they were confident of “significant reserves” at the site, which has been mined since the Bronze Age.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 4th May 2005:
Archaeologists have discovered iron age remains under the route of a new bypass around the village of Leybourne.
In a dig before the construction work, ditches containing pottery, burnt daub, charcoal and animal bone were found.
Kent County Council archaeologist, John Williams, said the remains suggested there were Iron Age farming settlements in the area more than 2,000 years ago.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 7th April 2005:
Ancient hominids from the Caucasus may have fed and cared for their elderly, a new fossil find has indicated.
The 1.77 million-year-old specimen, which is described in Nature magazine, was completely toothless and well over 40; a grand old age at the time.This may suggest that the creature lived in a complex society which was capable of showing compassion.
These hominids – like humans – may also have valued the old for their years of acquired knowledge, researchers think.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 11th March 2005:
Pigs were domesticated independently at least seven times around the globe, a new study has found.
The discovery was made by linking the DNA of tame porkers with their wild relatives, Science magazine reports.
Researchers found farmed pigs in several locations were closely related to wild boar in the same region, suggesting local domestication.
This challenges the notion that boar were tamed just twice before being transported throughout the world.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 9th February 2005:
A chariot burial site uncovered in West Yorkshire could be the final resting place of one of Britain’s ancient tribal leaders, archaeologists say.
The well-preserved remains, found by road contractors near Ferrybridge, are thought to be about 2,400 years old.But evidence suggests that people were still visiting the grave during Roman times – 500 years after his burial.
Experts believe that native Britons may have used the site as a shrine to re-assert their national identity.
Archaeologist Angela Boyle said the site, uncovered during the £245m upgrade of the A1, was “one of the most significant Iron Age burials ever found”.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 16th February 2005:
An archaeologist’s car containing two axes from the Ice Age has been stolen from outside a Birmingham hotel.
Mark Olly, of Warrington, Cheshire, was giving a lecture on druids at the Wellington Hotel in Bromsgrove Street, when the vehicle was taken on Tuesday.A replica of a 750BC bronze sword, with a distinctive brass discoloration on the blade, was also taken, along with electrical goods worth nearly £5,000.
Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact West Midlands Police at Steelhouse Lane police station or the Wellington Hotel direct.
From an article by Kim Griggs published on the BBC News web site on 14th February 2005:
Nestled into the verdant hills of the New Zealand region of the Wairarapa is the world’s newest “Stonehenge” but this henge is no mere pastiche.
Instead, Stonehenge Aotearoa, which opened this weekend, is a full-scale adaptation of its Salisbury Plain ancestor, built to work for the Antipodes.
The aim of the Kiwi Stonehenge is to help people rediscover the basics of astronomy.
“You can read as much as you like in a book how the sun and the moon work, how people use stars to navigate by, or to foretell the seasons,” says Richard Hall, president of the Phoenix Astronomical Society which built the henge.
“You stand here amongst the henge and you show people exactly how it works. Somehow it simplifies it and it becomes that much more easy to understand,” he said.
Excerpts from an article published on the BBC News web site on 10th February 2005:
In 1848, a strange skull was discovered on the military outpost of Gibraltar.
The remains were named Homo neanderthalensis – or Neanderthal Man – an ancient and primitive form of human.
But was Neanderthal really the brutish ape-man of legend, or an effective rival to our own species? And how exactly had he been driven to extinction?
This week’s Horizon programme brings together a team of leading experts to see just what we could find out about this remarkable creature, from the bones themselves. But to begin we needed a skeleton, and no complete Neanderthal has ever been found.
However, Gary Sawyer, a reconstruction expert at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, US, realised that enough partial skeletons existed to create an entire composite skeleton from casts of the fragments.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 2nd February 2005:
A burial ground on a Wiltshire farm has been protected from plough damage by an agreement between the farmer and Defra.
Bourton Manor Farm, north west of Devizes has 28 Scheduled Monuments of national importance.
These include 10 barrows which are thought to be either Neolithic or early Bronze Age.
Plough damage is being prevented by returning the surrounding area to grassland using funding under Defra’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme.
Excerpts from an article published on the BBC News web site on 3rd February 2005:
Skeletons from the Bronze Age that were found in an archaeological dig in Kent and said to be among the best preserved from that time, are to go on show.
VIPs are being given the chance to see what was found on Thursday.
The exhibits are to go on display at Westgate-on-Sea although some have been taken elsewhere in England to be looked at by other experts.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 28th January 2005:
Archaeologists have unearthed a unique site in Kent which they claim contains the best preserved examples of Bronze Age skeletons.
The discovery was made in a six-month excavation of a plot of land in Ramsgate, which is due to be the site of a new housing development.
The location has not been revealed because of its national importance.
Archaeologist Darren Godden said the find would help explain what happened to human remains during the Bronze Age.
According to Perth and Kinross Council, plans for 312 hectares of film studio and housing have now been withdrawn. That’s good news for the Belhie stone and anything else that may lay hidden in the surrounding countryside!
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 14th January 2005:
Archaeologists have discovered more than 250 new examples of prehistoric rock carvings, it has been revealed.
The panels were unearthed during a two-and-a-half year search of the moorlands of Northumberland by Newcastle University archaeologists.
They will feature on a new website featuring 6,000 images, which is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.
The carvings are thought to have been made between 3,500 and 6,000 years ago.
Among the new discoveries is a collection at Goatstones, near Wark, where 14 carved stones were recorded for the first time.
From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 20th December 2004:
During the Iron Age it stood up to marauders, protecting the people of ancient Leicestershire against anyone that might do them harm. But a couple of thousand years later Burrough-on-the-Hill was in need of a little defending of its own.
They might not sound as fearsome as a neighbouring tribe, or even the might of the Roman Empire, but the ancient hill fort has recently been under attack from the local rabbit population.
However, under the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme, farmer and Country Park Ranger, Tim Maydwell, has been fighting back.
From an article by Richard Moss, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 20th December 2004:
Archaeologists are pondering one of the most intriguing archaeological discoveries for some years after a fire revealed a unique carved stone thought to be 4,000 years old.
The find came to light after a blaze in 2003 at Fylingdales near Whitby consumed two and a half square kilometres of heather moorland before being brought under control by hundreds of fire fighters and a water-dumping helicopter.
However, in the fire’s aftermath archaeologists were astonished to find a vast array of archaeological remains – uncovered by the intensity of the blaze, which burnt away much of the peat.
“The fire had a devastating impact, but it also revealed an astonishing archaeological landscape,” said Neil Redfern, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments.
Read the full article on the 24 Hour Museum web site or see the BBC article about the same news item.
From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 16th December 2004:
A Stone Age hand axe dating back 500,000 years has been discovered at a quarry in Warwickshire.
The tool was found at the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry at Waverley Wood Farm, near Coventry, which has already produced evidence of some of the earliest known human occupants of the UK.It was uncovered in gravel by quarry manager John Green who took it to be identified by archaeologists at the University of Birmingham.
“We are very excited about this discovery,” enthused Professor David Keen of the university’s Archaeology Field Unit.
From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 19th November 2004:
Written in Stone?, on show at the Museum of Antiquities in Newcastle until January 8 2005, presents a series of colourful contemporary cast glass sculptures on display alongside fragments of ancient rock carvings.
Taking their inspiration from their Northumbrian ancestors, the modern work was created by a group of young people from Greenfield School, Newton Aycliffe.
“This is a really unusual project which has reaped enormous benefits, both for the schoolchildren and for the museum,” explained Lindsay Allason-Jones, Director of Archaeological Museums at Newcastle University.“We jumped at the opportunity to get involved, because we saw this as a way of engaging people all around the region with our collections, and it has also enabled us to creatively display this exciting new work alongside our existing exhibits, giving them a new dimension too.”
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 12th November 2004:
Motorbikes and 4x4 vehicles which were damaging one of Britain’s oldest roads have been banned from the area.
The temporary order has been imposed by a number of district councils on parts of the Ridgeway National Trail in south Oxfordshire during winter months.
In previous years the 6,000-year-old trail has been churned up by trail bikers and off-road riders.
From an article published on the BBC News web site on 12th November 2004:
Archaeologists are set to learn about new discoveries at one of Scotland’s most important ancient sites.
Investigators began work at Traprain Law in East Lothian after a major fire in 2003 which damaged some historical remains and endangered others.
The experts called in to carry out a full assessment made a number of finds, including 5,000-year-old Neolithic rock art and Bronze Age axes.
The details will be revealed at a conference in Edinburgh on Saturday.
From an article by Ishbel Matheson, published on the BBC News web site on 9th November 2004:
International experts in early human art are calling for greater protection to save many of these ancient paintings from destruction.
They say rock paintings by early man in Africa are particularly at risk, as human populations grow, and expose sites to vandalism and graffiti.
Near Nairobi this week, experts saw for themselves the problem facing rock art.
From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 26th October 2004:
Last year an incredible 47,000 historic artefacts were found by amateur archaeologists and reported, identified and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme.
From prehistoric weapons to a Victorian antidote to witchcraft, the unearthed objects span almost 500,000 years and were all discovered by metal detectorists, gardeners, farmers, builders or walkers.This extraordinary success was revealed on October 26 at London’s Roman Amphitheatre, where Arts Minister Estelle Morris, announced the publication of the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s Annual Report for 2003/4.
From an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 21st September 2004:
Experts have voiced their concerns about the future of prehistoric rock carvings on a boulder being used by climbers in the north of England.
Copt Howe, a large rock near the village of Chapel Stile in the Lake District, boasts a series of cup and ring markings believed to have been created between 4,000 and 6,000 years ago.
The site is used by climbers for bouldering, a hard-going, gymnastically-challenging form of climbing without the use of ropes on boulders and short out-crops.
At last this excellent resource is officially available! Here is the Press Release from the RCAHMW:
What is COFLEIN?
Coflein is the online database for the National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW) – the national collection of information about the historic environment of Wales.
The name is derived from the Welsh cof (memory) and lein (line).Coflein contains details of many thousands of archaeological sites, monuments, buildings and maritime sites in Wales, together with an index to the drawings, manuscripts and photographs held in the NMRW archive collections. Sites can be displayed on Ordnance Survey maps and ordered geographically, as well as by text queries. The data can be searched by location (place-name, area or Ordnance Survey 1:10,000 map sheet), by type (the classification or function of a site, monument or building) or by keyword.
Edited down from an article by David Prudames, published on www.24hourmuseum.org.uk on 7th June 2004:
Local campaigners have voiced their concerns following an application by building materials supplier Tarmac to extend gravel extraction operations near the Neolithic complex of henges at Thornborough in Yorkshire.
Last week Tarmac, which is already quarrying in areas around the henges, lodged a planning application with North Yorkshire County Council to begin gravel extraction at the nearby Ladybridge Farm site.
Campaign group the Friends of Thornborough has reacted by issuing a rallying call to the British public, seeking help in stopping the application’s success.
“Up to now my objective has been to publicise the danger that exists to a little known site that we believe should be recognised as being of national importance,” the organisation’s Mike Sanders told the 24 Hour Museum.
A meeting is planned for the evening of June 8, when the organisation will look at ways in which they can raise objections to the application as well as mobilising public support.
If you have a spare £70,000 in your back pocket, then here’s your opportunity to buy a genuine Bronze Age round barrow (or what’s left of it). Swanborough Tump is on the market along with Frith Copse, the 17 acre plot of semi-mature woodland that it stands on.
The agents, Woolley and Wallis, have yet to put anything on their web site about the sale, but further information is available on request. They describe the tump as, “marked by a low mound topped by an information pillar”. So much for Estate Agent spin.
From an article on the BBC News web site by Paul Rincon, published 28th April 2004:
The Neanderthals reached adulthood at the tender age of 15 according to a report in the journal Nature.
French and Spanish researchers analysed growth records preserved in the teeth of Neanderthals, modern humans and two other human species.
Breaks in the deposition of crown enamel reveal how fast teeth grow.
Neanderthals formed their crowns 15% quicker than we do, reaching adulthood when modern humans of the same age were still floundering in adolescence.
From an article on BBC News web site by Jonathan Amos :
The oldest pieces of jewellery made by modern humans have emerged in Africa.
Shell beads found in Blombos Cave on the southern tip of the continent are 75,000 years old, scientists say.
The pea-sized items all have similar holes which would have allowed them to be strung together into a necklace or bracelet, the researchers believe.
A Ceredigion paintball company based on land adjacent to Old Warren hillfort have recently caused a stir among some local residents by applying for planning permission to extend their operations. The Cambrian News recently carried an article about it, by Scarlet Jones. Most of the article focused on the alleged detrimental effects that paintballing has had on wildlife in the area, but it briefly alluded to the hillfort:
“The woodland itself is separated by means of a footpath from Old Warren Hill, the largest single ditched hill fort in Wales and a designated nature reserve.”
“I don’t think it would be suitable to have a paintball area so close to such a valuable piece of historical land.”
The application hasn’t yet been heard by Ceredigion County Council Planning Committee, but the consultancy period expired in December.
Source: The Cambrian News, Thursday 1st January 2004