“This house was likely built by some of the earliest faming communities to settle in the Cork Harbour region and is assumed to have housed a single family group,” the video explains.
ryaner
A farmer in Co Westmeath has said he thought 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads found in his field were old horse ploughs, or scrap.
Thomas Dunne said the discovery was made after a piece of machinery fell off during silage cutting on his field in Coralstown.
The National Museum of Ireland issued an appeal earlier this month, after the axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher Hayes, Mr Dunne said: “We were cutting silage in a field when I felt a piece of steel come off the mower.
“We were afraid it would go into something else, so we got a man with metal detector to go and look for it.
“He found these under a row of beech trees. “We thought they were just bits of old horse ploughs or scrap. We could have thrown them back into the ditch the very same!”
The National Museum of Ireland has issued an appeal after 4,000-year-old Early Bronze Age axeheads were sent anonymously to the museum at the end of June.
The sender had fashioned packaging from a cardboard box of Flahavans Flapjacks with foam inserts inside cut to the exact size of the axeheads, each one smaller than the palm of a person’s hand.
They were accompanied by a letter stating they were discovered in the Westmeath area using a metal detector.
The museum has dated the axeheads to around 2150-2000 BC.
The sender said they wished for the axeheads to be conserved by the Museum but did not provide any contact details or further specifics.
The museum said the axeheads were “thoughtfully packed in foam cut-outs and cardboard, ensuring their safe arrival.”
More: rte.ie/news/2024/0713/1459683-national-museum-axeheads/
From the National Museum:
museum.ie/en-IE/News/Appeal-for-information-about-Bronze-Age-Axeheads-F
June 19, 2024
The death has taken place of Jack Roberts, a name synonymous with some of the most important archaeoastronomical discoveries at Irish megalithic monuments in the modern era.
Jack passed away after a short illness today. He lived at Gort, Co. Galway.
More: mythicalireland.com/blogs/news/death-of-author-and-archaeoastronomy-discoverer-jack-roberts
Ancient human remains which date back more than 2,000 years have been recovered by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The discovery was made after archaeologists were alerted to human bones on Bellaghy peatland in County Londonderry in October 2023.
It is thought the remains could be those of a teenage boy.
The PSNI said it is a “unique archaeological discovery for Northern Ireland”.
It explained that the remains had been carbon dated to “as old as 2,000-2,500 years”.
Det Insp Nikki Deehan said excavations “first uncovered a tibia and fibula and a humerus, ulna, and radius bone relating to the lower left leg and right arm respectively”.
“Further investigation revealed more bones belonging to the same individual,” she added.
Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of a cave dwelling that was constructed around 16,800 years ago by prehistoric humans.
The dwelling was found in the La Garma cave complex in the autonomous community of Cantabria, northern Spain, the local government announced in a statement.
The new discovery is “one of the best preserved Paleolithic dwellings” in the world, according to the Government of Cantabria. The Paleolithic, also referred to as the Old Stone Age, is a period in human prehistory that extends from the earliest use of stone tools more than 3 million years ago to around 12,000 years ago.
Continues: newsweek.com/archaeologists-find-16800-year-old-cave-dwelling-one-best-1850021
Damage done to an ancient Neolithic passage tomb in Co Sligo has been strongly condemned.
Photographer Ken Williams visited the site over the weekend and took photographs of words and shapes scratched into stones at the tomb which is over 5,000 years old.
More: rte.ie/news/regional/2023/1016/1411157-carrowkeel-graffiti/
Lasting damage has been caused to the Deer Stone in Glendalough, Co Wicklow, in what appears to be an act of vandalism, according to Project Manager for HeritageMaps.ie Pat Reid.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Philip Boucher-Hayes, Mr Reid said he believes someone lit a fire on the stone, which caused the boulder it is carved into to crack.
More: rte.ie/news/regional/2023/0809/1398883-deerstone-glendalough-wicklow/
‘The objective is to protect, conserve and promote an appreciation of the Hill of Tara’
There are “issues” affecting the Hill of Tara at the moment – traffic management, signage and interpretation, the erosion of visitor numbers through the site and their effect on the “very sensitive” earthworks which are injured by stud marks from people using the area as a training ground, the Chief State Archaeologist told Meath county councillors during a presentation on the Hill of Tara Conservation Plan to them at their February council meeting.
The meeting took place ahead of last week’s act of vandalism on the site in which the Lia Fail was spraypainted with the word ‘Fake‘
Michael McDonagh said he didn’t know what Meath’s ambitions were for the All-Ireland but he DID know that it was an issue that would have to be dealt with. Also, at different times of the year there was difficulty with people camping out on the site.
The Hill of Tara means a lot of different things to many people, he said. To some it’s a very sacred place, to other people it’s a training ground, and to others it’s a place where they can let their dogs go free to do whatever dogs do. These were some of the challenges that must be faced in caring for the long-term future of the site.
Gardaí are investigating after graffiti was daubed on the ancient Lia Fail stone on the Hill of Tara earlier this week.
Locals walking the site were appalled to discover the words ‘Fake’ written on all sides of the ‘Stone of Destiny’ or ‘Speaking Stone’ which is believed to be over 5,000 years old.
The incident took place sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Spray paint was used to damage the stone, said to be a coronation stone for the High Kings of Ireland.
Gardaí in Navan have opened an investigation and are appealing for information. A spokesman said the stone was sprayed with graffiti sometime between Monday evening and Tuesday morning.
More: meathchronicle.ie/2023/02/08/gardai-investigating-after-ancient-hill-of-tara-stone-vandalised/
What to do with Loughcrew?... Ancient monument in need of protection for future generations
The National Monuments Service and Office of Public Works (OPW) have confirmed that work on developing a Conservation Management Plan for the Loughcrew site is to commence this year.
Loughcrew cairns, also known as the Hills of the Witch, are a group of Neolithic passage tombs near Oldcastle that are believed to be more than 5,000 years-old and could even pre-date the world heritage site at Newgrange.
Cairn T is one of the largest tombs in the complex and is aligned to sunrise at the spring and autumn equinoxes, when the sun lights up the chamber in a similar phenomenon to Newgrange. It has a cruciform chamber and a corbelled roof with some stunning examples of Neolithic art in Ireland.
However, concerns have been raised for some time over deterioration of the cairn and how best to preserve it.
Energy firm to fight notice over disputed wind turbine on site of Neolithic burial site KnockIveagh
Council wants structures removed from historic site which was also used for the coronation of early medieval kings
Ciaran O’Neill
December 11 2022 10:27 AM
A long-running dispute over the erection of a wind turbine at a historic site in Co Down has taken a new twist.
The turbine was erected on the top of Knock Iveagh near Rathfriland in 2017. Heritage campaigners were furious planning permission had been granted for the turbine on a 5,000-year-old Neolithic burial site which was also used for the coronation of early medieval kings.
It has now emerged the company which owns the turbine, Ayr Power Ltd, has been served with an enforcement notice by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council (ABC) to remove some of the structures associated with the turbine. If the structures are removed, it is understood the turbine would be unable to continue operating.
However, the Sunday Independent has learned Ayr Power Ltd has lodged an appeal against the order with the Planning Appeals Commission.
A Google docs page with photos and various links about the campaign to preserve the Konckiveagh landscape:
docs.google.com/document/d/124XnYyWdP9JpmO0qur9bbDrhPWb2g0PrncdLggkamGk/edit
Archaeologists says prehistoric site in Huelva province could be one of largest of its kind in Europe
A huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones has been discovered in southern Spain that could be one of the largest in Europe, archaeologists have said.
The stones were discovered on a plot of land in Huelva, a province flanking the southernmost part of Spain’s border with Portugal, near the Guadiana River.
Spanning about 600 hectares (1,500 acres), the land had been earmarked for an avocado plantation. Before granting the permit the regional authorities requested a survey in light of the site’s possible archaeological significance. The survey revealed the presence of the stones.
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 previously unknown stone circle has been found inside a Cornwall scheduled monument, a conservation group says.
The underground circle has been found inside Castilly Henge, near Bodmin, by Historic England (HE) and the Cornwall Archaeology Unit.
It was found during the site’s first modern archaeological survey to better understand the area, HE said.
The site has now been fenced, allowing it to be grazed by animals without damaging the structure, it added.
The henge is one of 40 scheduled monuments protected by the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Megalith enthusiast who did much to further understanding of the Calanais stone circle and other ancient sites of the Isle of Lewis
Mike Pitts
When Julian Cope, the musician and antiquary, met Margaret Curtis on the Isle of Lewis in the 1990s, he was impressed. Curtis, who has died aged 80, was a “living legend” and a “psychic queen”, said Cope, who filled him with “a real sense of awe”. He devoted a chapter in his bestselling 1998 book The Modern Antiquarian to her and to Calanais, one of the most extraordinary ancient monuments in Europe.
Near the Atlantic coast in the remote Outer Hebrides, Calanais (pronounced as in the anglicised spelling, Callanish) is a stone circle at the centre of five rows dating from around 3000BC. The tallest of nearly 50 megaliths is over five metres high, and all are made of a distinctive streaked gneiss that glows against stormy skies. Curtis did much to further understanding of this and other overlooked sites on Lewis, becoming the island’s unofficial archaeologist and sharing her enthusiasms with an appreciative visiting public.
She found many more stones under the peat as she walked the moorland, probing with a metal bar. One, at Calanais itself, was re-erected in 1982, and she spotted the broken tip of another in a wall.
Archaeologists sometimes followed up her suggestions. Patrick Ashmore, who led excavations at Calanais for what is now Historic Scotland in the 1980s, praised the fieldwork and record-keeping of Curtis and each of her two husbands. On one occasion, quartz pieces she found when a road near her house was straightened led to the discovery of a bronze age burial cairn.
More: theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/07/margaret-curtis-obituary
Archaeologists excavating the windswept Ness of Brodgar are unearthing a treasure trove of neolithic villages, tombs, weapons and mysterious religious artefacts, some to be displayed in a blockbuster exhibition
If you happen to imagine that there’s not much left to discover of Britain’s stone age, or that its relics consist of hard-to-love postholes and scraps of bones, then you need to find your way to Orkney, that scatter of islands off Scotland’s north-east coast. On the archipelago’s Mainland, out towards the windswept west coast with its wave-battered cliffs, you will come to the Ness of Brodgar, an isthmus separating a pair of sparkling lochs, one of saltwater and one of freshwater. Just before the way narrows you’ll see the Stones of Stenness rising up before you. This ancient stone circle’s monoliths were once more numerous, but they remain elegant and imposing. Like a gateway into a liminal world of theatricality and magic, they lead the eye to another, even larger neolithic monument beyond the isthmus, elevated in the landscape as if on a stage. This is the Ring of Brodgar, its sharply individuated stones like giant dancers arrested mid-step – as local legend, indeed, has it.
Stone artefacts and tooth pre-date the earliest known evidence of the species in Europe by more than 10,000 years.
Archaeologists have found evidence that Europe’s first Homo sapiens lived briefly in a rock shelter in southern France — before mysteriously vanishing.
A study published on 9 February in Science Advances1 argues that distinctive stone tools and a lone child’s tooth were left by Homo sapiens during a short stay, some 54,000 years ago — and not by Neanderthals, who lived in the rock shelter for thousands of years before and after that time.
The Homo sapiens occupation, which researchers estimate lasted for just a few decades, pre-dates the previous earliest known evidence of the species in Europe by around 10,000 years.
But some researchers are not so sure that the stone tools or tooth were left by Homo sapiens. “I find the evidence less than convincing,” says William Banks, a palaeolithic archaeologist at the French national research agency CNRS and the University of Bordeaux.
The dolmen, located in Shankill, appears to have collapsed in late 2021.
A WEDGE TOMB located in Shankill, Co Dublin that is over 4,500 years old has collapsed.
The tomb, which dates back to the Neolithic period before the start of the Bronze Age, appears to have collapsed in late 2021, with photos showing the capstone having fallen in.
The tomb itself is located on farmland in Shankill, and is known as the Carrickgollogan wedge tomb.
Andrew Bambrick, who runs a heritage conservation community, says that the capstone appears had fallen in between the two supporting stones, and that it was sad to see it like this.
“It’s sad, it’s been in the country for over 4,500 years and it’s collapsed,” said Bambrick.
Photos taken of the monument in early 2021 show it surrounded by fencing and overgrown with brambles.
In more recent photos, there are fewer brambles surrounding the tomb, but the capstone has collapsed inwards.
Bambrick says that while wedge tombs have collapsed in the past, it is usually due to factors like tree roots displacing the tomb and over long periods of time, erosion.
Bambrick says that he has reported the collapse to the National Monument Service, but had yet to receive a response.
More: thejournal.ie/neolithic-tomb-collapse-5657763-Jan2022/
DNA analysis of bodies in Hazleton North long cairn finds five generations of an extended family
An analysis of DNA from a 5,700-year-old tomb has revealed the world’s oldest family tree, shedding “extraordinary” light on the importance of family and descent among people who were some of Britain’s first farmers.
A research team has examined the bones and teeth of 35 people in one of Britain’s best preserved neolithic tombs, near the village of Hazleton in the Cotswolds. The results, said Dr Chris Fowler of Newcastle University, are nothing short of “astounding”.
The researchers have discovered that 27 were biological relatives from five continuous generations of a single extended family. The majority were descended from four women who all had children with the same man.
“It tells us that descent was important,” said Fowler. “When they were building these tombs and deciding who to include in them, certainly in this case, they were selecting people who were close relatives of the people who were first buried there. They have this close connection to their immediate ancestors and that extends over several generations.
“Family was important and you can see that with the inclusion of some very young children in the tomb as well.”
Meath man and UCD professor well known for his research of passage tomb builders
George Eogan, who was widely seen as one of the leading archaeologists of his generation, has died aged 91.
Professor emeritus of celtic archaeology at University College Dublin (UCD), he had a particular interest in the Neolithic and Late Bronze Age studies and was the director of the Knowth excavations for more than 40 years.
He was well known for researching the passage tomb builders of Ireland and Western Europe and authored and co-authored volumes of the Excavations at Knowth series as well as several other books.
He died on Thursday at Our Lady’s Hospice following what his family described as a long and happy life.
In a tribute, the UCD School of Archaeology said Prof Eogan’s contribution to his field and to people’s understanding of Ireland’s past was immeasurable.
Having begun his academic pursuits with a PhD on late bronze age swords, Prof Eogan would go on to lead activities at Knowth for decades.
“He used his extensive international travels and decades of connections with museums to develop a unique understanding and insights into the things of Bronze Age Europe in particular,” his former university said.
More: irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/knowth-archaeologist-prof-george-eogan-dies-aged-91-1.4733265
- with ‘significant archaeological, conservational and ecological value’
Lydia Stangroom
October 22, 2021
Your eyes do not deceive you. Upon first glance, the ancient monument known as Hembury Fort Cross could well be mistaken as just a verdant hilly slope coated in trees. However, there’s a lot more to it than first meets the eye.
Granted, buyers searching specifically for an Iron Age hillfort may be scarce. Maybe you didn’t even know you were a buyer searching specifically for an Iron Age hillfort until now. Maybe you didn’t know what a hillfort (or ‘hill fort’ if you prefer— both terms are used) was until now; you wouldn’t be alone. Either way, Hembury Fort Cross is sure to cause intrigue.
It’s certainly not the normal sort of thing you’ll see on the property portals, not least because there is no form of dwelling included within the 38.8-acre area at Hembury Fort Cross, near Honiton, Devon, which is currently on the market via Savills at a guide price of £100,000. But digging a little deeper unearths a fascinating history.
IRISH ARCHAEOLOGISTS have made an incredible discovery in Cork, having unearthed the foundations of a house from the Neolithic era.
The ancient house is believed to be 5,700 years old, and was likely the home of a family from one of the earliest farming communities to have settled in the south of Ireland.
The house, dating back to approximately 3,700 BC, was unearthed following recent excavations by archaeologists after Cork County Council began two road realignment projects between Mallow and Mitchelstown in north County Cork.
Dairy farming could have been happening in Wales as early as 3,100BC, according to new research.
Shards of decorated pottery taken from the Trellyffaint Neolithic monument near Newport, Pembrokeshire, were found to contain dairy fat residue.
The residue could only originate from milk-based substances such as butter, cheese, or more probably yoghurt.
George Nash, of the Welsh Rock Art Organisation, said it was the earliest proof of dairy farming in Wales.
Red markings on a stalagmite dome in a cave system in southern Spain were created by Neanderthals more than 60,000 years ago, a new study says.
The staining was applied by a process of splattering and blowing about 20,000 years before modern humans arrived in Europe, the research suggests.
An earlier study attributing the markings to the extinct cousins of modern humans was questioned.
Some experts argued the staining in the Cueva de Ardales occurred naturally.
But a new study published in the journal PNAS supports the view that the red ochre pigments discovered in three caves in the Iberian Peninsula are a form of Neanderthal cave art.
It states that the deposits stand out from other natural materials sampled in the caves because of their unusual colours and textures.
A BRONZE Age piece of artwork, suspected to be the oldest in Shropshire, has been discovered in Whixall.
The artwork, which has been carved onto a large Permio-Triassic new red sandstone block, shows markings that may connect it with burial chambers or sacred sites.
The discovery was made by James and Jasmine Dowley, of Whixall, while excavating a driveway.
The monolith is in a fine but weathered condition, and is thought to be potentially of regional and national importance.
Peter Reavill from the Portable Antiquities Scheme and local archaeologist Dr George Nash helped appraise the monolith, which is now up for auction later this year.
The Office of Public Works has said a security company will carry out a patrol of Loughcrew in Co Meath every evening, in light of recent vandalism at the historic site.
Earlier this week, it emerged that graffiti had been scratched into a stone at the Neolithic burial monument and an investigation was launched.
The OPW and the National Monuments Service said it is latest in a series of acts of vandalism at the national monument site.
Anthony Murphy, who discovered the famous ‘Dronehenge’ near Newgrange, made the discovery using a drone
A citizen archaeologist who discovered the world famous ‘Dronehenge’ near Newgrange, county Meath during the heatwave of 2018, appears to have found another potentially significant discovery in the Boyne Valley using a drone – a logboat that could date to Neolithic times.
Anthony Murphy said, “I went looking for a dolphin. I didn’t find him but I did find a logboat.”
Made by hollowing out a tree trunk, such logboats or dugout boats have, according to Dr Stephen Davis, UCD School of Archaeology, “an immensely long history of use in Ireland, with examples known from the Neolithic right the way up to Medieval times.”
“Closer investigation will be able to show more – for example tool marks would be able to tell whether it was made with metal or stone tools, and radiocarbon dating give an approximate age,” he added.
In the heatwave of 2018, a previously unknown henge was found near the Newgrange monument by Mr Murphy and Ken Williams.
More: independent.ie/news/citizen-archaeologist-discovers-ancient-logboatin-the-boyne-valley-40366402.html
By Seán Mac an tSíthigh
Iriseoir Fise
An ancient tomb, described by archaeologists as “untouched” and “highly unusual” has been discovered on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry.
The tomb was uncovered in recent days during land improvement works being carried out by a farmer.
The National Monument Service has requested that the location of the structure should not be disclosed in order to prevent the possibility of disturbance.
The tomb was uncovered by a digger during land reclamation work when a large stone slab was upturned, revealing a slab-lined chamber beneath.
On closer inspection an adjoining sub-chamber was found at what appears to be the front of the tomb.
The tomb contained an unusual smooth oval-shaped stone and what is believed to be human bone.
More:
rte.ie/news/2021/0416/1210287-tombs-kerry-dingle-peninsula/
Archaeologist says neolithic discovery may be among oldest salt-processing sites in western Europe
Neolithic people were manufacturing salt in Britain almost 6,000 years ago, before the building of Stonehenge and more than two millennia earlier than was first thought, a new archaeological discovery suggests.
Excavations at a site at Street House farm in North Yorkshire have revealed evidence of the earliest salt production site ever found in the UK and one of the first of its kind in western Europe, dating to around 3,800BC.
The finds, uncovered at a coastal hilltop site near Loftus, include a trench containing three hearths, broken shards of neolithic pottery, some still containing salt deposits, shaped stone artefacts and a storage pit – all key evidence of salt processing.
Some of these ancient mounds date back to 3000 BC, but many are buried under motorways
Manchán Magan
As our faith in fairies has receded in recent years, the fate of Ireland’s 32,000 remaining fairy forts has become increasingly perilous. Many of these circular earth mounds are over 1,000 years old, the remains of stone or wooden forts which housed an extended family in early medieval times. Others are remnants of underground passage tombs dating back to around 3000 BC.
In 2010 the environmentalist and author Tony Lowes first wrote about farmers destroying the forts on their land in the name of modernity and progress. A man on the Dingle Peninsula levelled a large part of the 3,000-year-old Dún Mór fort while the government was in negotiations with him to purchase it, and a farmer near Mallow in Cork destroyed the half of an extensive ringfort that lay on his own land, then tore down the other half when his neighbour was at a family funeral. There was also the story of a Cork dairy farmer who demolished two ringforts on his land, and whose family had previously destroyed three others.
The title of Lowes’ article in Village magazine was The Men Who Eat Ringforts, in recognition of the fact that these farmers (and developers and engineers) are invariably male. The title has been adopted for a volume of book art, Men Who Eat Ringforts, published by the conceptual artists Sean Lynch and Michele Horrigan of Askeaton Contemporary Arts. It’s a large-format book designed by Daly+Lyon, with thought-provoking essays by Sinéad Mercier and Michael Holly exploring the determined desecration of our ancient past.
A prominent prehistoric burial site near Augher was ransacked by “40 bikers” last weekend, a Clogher Valley councillor has said.
Speaking at a meeting of Mid Ulster District Council’s environment committee, Councillor Sharon McAleer told “how up to 100 bikers” arrived at Knockmany Forest on Sunday.
The SDLP representative claimed 40 bikers were seen going over Queen Anya’s burial site at the summit of Knockmany Hill and branded this act “not acceptable”.
“I have just been made aware of an issue that happened at Knockmany on Sunday [March 7] where up to 100 bikers had come to the car park and taken up all the parking spaces,” said Cllr McAleer.
“Unfortunately at Queen Anya’s burial site 40 bikers were counted going over the burial site which is just not acceptable.
“They have dug up all the ground and then proceeded to go down through the forest and destroy the wildlife, nature and fauna along the way.
“Lots of people in the community are annoyed about this as the place is packed with walkers.”
Researchers in Murcia find exquisite objects at women’s graves later used as sites for elite warrior burials
A burial site found in Spain – described by archaeologists as one of the most lavish bronze age graves discovered to date in Europe – has sparked speculation that women may have been among the rulers of a highly stratified society that flourished on the Iberian peninsula until 1550BC.
Since 2013, a team of more than a dozen researchers have been investigating the site of La Almoloya in the southern Spanish region of Murcia.
Home to the El Argar, a society that was among the first to utilise bronze, build complex urban centres and develop into a state organisation, the site is part of a vast territory that at its peak stretched across 35,000 sq km.
Research published on Thursday in the journal Antiquity has documented one of the site’s most tantalising finds: a man and a woman buried in a large ceramic jar, both of whom died close together in the mid-17th century BC.
More:
theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/11/bronze-age-burial-site-in-spain-suggests-women-were-among-rulers
Prehistoric Rock Artists Were Stoned, Archaeologists Finally Prove
Altered states of consciousness have been posited for the artists of antiquity and finally archaeologists have found the smoking datura in California – but stress it neither proves nor disproves shamanic ritual
Were artists centuries ago stoned to the gills when painting or engraving on cave walls? The possible use of intoxicants in the artistic process during prehistory has been fiercely debated in archaeological and anthropological circles, as is the meaning of the depictions. It has never been proved one way or the other.
There could be different motives behind – and meanings ascribed to – art created in southeast Asia 60,000 years ago, the glorious animal images of paleo-Western Europe and fairly recent cave drawings in the Americas. Some may whisper of secretive shamanistic practices and maybe others were made by bored teenagers with ocher to spare. We cannot say all were driven by the same urges, but now, for the first time, researchers have proven the consumption of an intoxicant in a place where rock art was created: Pinwheel Cave, California, which had been used during the late prehistoric period and through the colonial period.
The archaeologists couldn’t prove directly that the early Californians were buzzing when decorating the cave. But they could demonstrate that quids (wads of masticated plant matter like quids of chewing tobacco) rammed into crevices in the cave ceiling contained the hallucinogenic agent datura, among other things.
Discovery of marked plaquettes at Les Varines points to earliest evidence of human art in British Isles
They are small, flat and covered in what appear to be chaotic scratches, but 10 engraved stone fragments unearthed on Jersey, researchers say, could be the earliest evidence of human art in the British Isles.
The stones were found at Les Varines, on the island, between 2014 and 2018, and are believed to have been made by a group of hunters about 15,000 years ago.
While at first glance the engravings appear to be a haphazard array of marks, experts say a careful analysis has revealed the cuts were made in deliberate ways and in a clear order with straight lines made first and deeper, curved, lines made last.
Snails have shown an ancient naked figure sculpted into a chalk hillside is unlikely to be prehistoric as hoped, archaeologists have said.
Tests of soil samples extracted from Dorset’s Cerne Abbas Giant to determine its exact age have been delayed by the coronavirus epidemic.
They are not due until later in the year.
However, land snail shells found in the samples suggest it may date to medieval times, separate tests have found.
A survey of ancient Irish genomes has found evidence that the parents of an adult male buried in the heart of the Newgrange passage tomb were first-degree relatives.
The research of the male’s genome suggests that he was among a ruling social elite which is similar to the inbred Inca god-kings and Egyptian pharaohs.
The study, which was led by archaeologists and geneticists from Trinity College Dublin, focused on the earliest periods of Ireland’s human history.
The team conducted a painstaking genetic analysis of the ancient bones of 44 individuals recovered from all the major Irish burial traditions court tombs, portal tombs, passage tombs and other natural sites.
Famous for the annual winter solstice, little is known about who was buried in the heart of the Newgrange passage tomb which was built over 5,000 years ago.
Conference hears many more discoveries could be made at archaelogical site
An underwater archaeological reconnaissance of the bed of the River Boyne near the Brú na Bóinne complex in Co Meath has revealed features that may represent log boats or man-made quays, a research conference was told on Saturday.
The sonar study, carried out by Annalisa Christie of University College Dublin and Dr Kieran Westley of University of Ulster, surveyed 10km of the river from Oldbridge to a weir 1.8km east of Slane Bridge.
Christie told the conference, titled The Pleasant Boyne and organised by the UCD school of archaeology as part of its world heritage programme, that it was likely that for the first visitors to this landscape, the river provided the easiest way to travel, offering an accessible route through a largely wooded landscape. As such, it represented a major communications artery, not just for local visitors but also connecting communities in the area to those from farther afield, such as Wales or even Orkney.
By Michael Le Page
A piece of 50,000-year-old string found in a cave in France is the oldest ever discovered. It suggests that Neanderthals knew how to twist fibres together to make cords – and, if so, they might have been able to craft ropes, clothes, bags and nets.
“None can be done without that initial step,” says Bruce Hardy at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. “Twisted fibres are a foundational technology.”
His team has been excavating the Abri du Maras caves in south-east France where Neanderthals lived for long periods. Three metres below today’s surface, in a layer that is between 52,000 and 41,000 years old, it found a stone flake, a sharp piece of rock used as an early stone tool.
Examining the flake under a microscope revealed that a tiny piece of string (pictured top right), just 6 millimetres long and 0.5 millimetres wide, was stuck to its underside. It was made by twisting a bundle of fibres in an anticlockwise direction, known as an S-twist. Three bundles were twisted together in a clockwise direction – a Z-twist – to make a 3-ply cord.
“It is exactly what you would see if you picked up a piece of string today,” says Hardy. The string wasn’t necessarily used to attach the stone tool to a handle. It could have been part of a bag or net, the team speculates.
Plans to dig a two-mile (3.2km) road tunnel near Stonehenge have been given the go ahead by the chancellor.
The A303, which often suffers from severe congestion, currently passes within a few hundred metres of the ancient monument.
The plan is to build a dual carriageway alternative out of sight of the World Heritage site but it is opposed by some archaeologists and environmentalists.
Rishi Sunak told the commons: “This government’s going to get it done.”
Chauvet Cave: a 36,000-year-old art gallery, normally closed to the public, opens to everyone through immersive tech
Gold bulla is described as one of the most important bronze age finds of the last century
The British Museum has acquired a shimmering 3,000-year-old gold sun pendant heralded as one of the most important bronze age finds of the last century.
The astonishingly well-preserved pendant, or bulla, was discovered by a metal detector enthusiast in Shropshire in 2018.
Neil Wilkin, the museum’s bronze age curator, recalled dropping everything when he first saw it. “I was absolutely flabbergasted, I couldn’t believe my eyes,” he said. “To me it is the most important object from this period, the first age of metal, that has come up in about 100 years.”
The pendant has been purchased for £250,000 using money from the Art Fund and the American Friends of the British Museum.
More: theguardian.com/culture/2020/mar/04/british-museum-acquires-3000-year-old-shropshire-sun-pendant
Neanderthal 'skeleton' is first found in a decade
By Paul Rincon Science editor, BBC News website
Researchers have described the first “articulated” remains of a Neanderthal to be discovered in a decade.
An articulated skeleton is one where the bones are still arranged in their original positions.
The new specimen was uncovered at Shanidar Cave in Iraq and consists of the upper torso and crushed skull of a middle-aged to older adult.
Excavations at Shanidar in the 1950s and 60s unearthed partial remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women and children.
During these earlier excavations, archaeologists found that some of the burials were clustered together, with clumps of pollen surrounding one of the skeletons.
The researcher who led those original investigations, Ralph Solecki from Columbia University in New York, claimed it was evidence that Neanderthals had buried their dead with flowers.
This “flower burial” captured the imagination of the public and kicked off a decades-long controversy. The floral interpretation suggested our evolutionary relatives were capable of cultural sophistication, challenging the view – prevalent at the time – that Neanderthals were unintelligent and animalistic.
Martin Bushell spotted the 5,600-year-old skull fragment digging in the muddy banks of the Thames
A human skull from the Neolithic era has been put on display at the Museum of London.
But the incredibly rare specimen wasn’t found in some elaborate archaeological dig. The skull was unearthed by a sharp-eyed mudlarker strolling the banks of the River Thames.
“When I first saw it, I thought it was a pot that might have been upside down — like a ceramic pot,” Martin Bushell told As It Happens host Carol Off. “It looked more like a crab shell.”
Mudlarkers are amateur archeologists who scour the banks of the Thames at low tide for treasure and historic artifacts. The tradition dates back to the Victorian era.
Archaeologists are planning an ambitious survey of part of the seabed off Jersey where Neanderthals once lived.
The site is part-exposed during spring low tide, giving the team a four-hour window to dig while the sea is out.
Stone tools and mammoth remains have been recovered from the Violet Bank over the years.
Analysis of birch tar describes a female hunter-gatherer with dark skin and blue eyes
At the dawn of the Neolithic era, a young woman discarded a lump of ancient chewing gum made from birch tar into a shallow, brackish lagoon that drew fishers to the coast of southern Denmark.
Nearly 6,000 years later, researchers excavating the site spotted the gum amid pieces of wood and wild animal bone and from it have reassembled her complete DNA and so painted the broadest strokes of her portrait.
More: theguardian.com/science/2019/dec/17/neolithic-dna-ancient-chewing-gum-denmark?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
While the archaeologists have been busy finding new monuments of interest, the State has been busy facilitating their systematic removal
Mon, Dec 9, 2019, 05:00
Mark Clinton
According to the legal definition, there are five alternative criteria under which a monument qualifies as a national monument. Defying alphabetical order, “historical interest” is the first listed criterion. In 2003 the Carrickmines Castle site was recognised as a national monument before the Supreme Court. And now we are launching the history of the settlement and fortification, its long-term occupants the Walshes, their cousins in Shanganagh, Kilgobbin, Balally, etc, and, among many other players, that of the besieger of Carrickmines in March 1642, Sir Simon Harcourt. It is a colourful story, with a big finale. Truly, a site worthy of its national monument status.
And yet, the site, the national monument, is no more, save for some sad remnants, scattered about a busy roundabout. Ah yes, the Carrickmines junction. A junction not connecting with any national routes or, indeed, with a road of any significance. A junction whose planning origins remain unknown despite the best efforts of the Flood-Mahon tribunal. One of a daisy-chain of junctions along a motorway originally designed to carry national traffic unimpeded around Dublin city. A junction that effectively destroyed the integrity of the national monument. How did this happen?
The National Monuments Act, passed in 1930, brought legal protection to our ancient built heritage. On a number of subsequent occasions the Act was amended and strengthened to remove weaknesses and loopholes. Particular credit should go to former ministers Michael D Higgins and Síle de Valera for their significant contributions to the protective legislation.
An expert gasped when he saw coins unearthed by two men now convicted of theft
On a sunny day in June 2015 amateur metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies were hunting for treasure in fields at a remote spot in Herefordshire.
The pair had done their research carefully and were focusing on a promising area just north of Leominster, close to high land and a wood with intriguing regal names – Kings Hall Hill and Kings Hall Covert.
More: theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/nov/21/detectorists-hid-find-that-rewrites-anglo-saxon-history
The heaviest intact prehistoric gold hoard ever found in Ireland has gone on public display at the
Donegal County Museum in Letterkenny.
More: rte.ie/news/ulster/2019/1119/1092820-donegal-gold-hoard/
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