British Archaeology March / April 2007 Out Now

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 12 February 2007 Page Views: 2049

Bones surprise witness to ancient violence. A new study of human remains excavated over 200 years ago from Boles Barrow, a Wiltshire burial mound dating from 4000–3500BC, reveals a story of brutal violence. Martin Smith and Megan Brickley dismissed 19th century tales of a massacre, as such interpretations of ancient bones were common in the past and are usually shown to be baseless. So they were surprised to find that many of the heads, mostly male, had been struck with a blunt instrument such as a stone axe, perhaps in hand to hand fighting.

Britain’s first stone age farmers are often portrayed as peaceful and egalitarian, but re-examination of human remains in museum collections – even as Pagan groups are asking for their reburial and loss to science – is uncovering a different story.

* Mesolithic people more sophisticated than thought. Ray Mears’s Wild Food series on BBC TV is showing how our hunter-gatherer forebears knew how to eat well, but archaeologists are beginning to discover that other areas of their lives were also sophisticated. In two new cases, one in Scotland and one in Ireland, finds from excavations were so surprising that archaeologists had to repeat radiocarbon dating before everyone would believe them.

At Crathes, near Aberdeen, an unusual neolithic timber building (38–3700BC) has been excavated. A nearby line of 12 deep pits, running 60m along a ridge, was thought to be the same age, but radiocarbon showed they were dug by much older mesolithic hunter-gatherers. The implications were so startling that Historic Scotland funded more radiocarbon dates, confidently dating the pits, which contained much charcoal, to 8000–7500BC. Their function is not known, but they may have held large ritual posts or have had something to do with hunting large game.

In Ireland three pits containing cremated human remains were found beside the river Shannon at Hermitage, Co Limerick. Scientific study showed the people were skilled at the complex processes involved, and the site of the cremation pyre was nearby. The pits were radiocarbon dated to the mesolithic, over 8,000 years ago. Some archaeologists found this difficult to accept: the dates “turned perceived notions of the early mesolithic period in Ireland on its head”. Buried remains of Europe’s hunter-gatherers are rare, and no cremations of these people had been found in Ireland or Britain. Now the dates have been confirmed with new analyses on the human bones, dating them to 7500–7000BC.

* Chester’s Roman amphitheatre revealed. Argument after its discovery in the 1920s rose to the prime minister. New revelations at Britain’s largest excavated Roman amphitheatre have followed years of further local controversy, and the rchaeologists too find themselves in disagreement. As Chester is about to host an international conference, Dan Garner and Tony Wilmott ask what is it about Chester’s amphitheatre that stirs people?

* Child’s boot and bible found in chimney
A child’s ankle boot holding a miniature bible has been found in a chimney cavity in Ewerby, Lincolnshire, likely placed there to protect the child from evil spirits. The book – said to be an example of the smallest complete bible ever printed – was published in Glasgow by David Bryce and Son in 1901, making this an unusually recent anti-witchcraft deposit.

* UK government lets down heritage
On January 25, in the first parliamentary heritage debate for over a decade, MPs were unanimous in criticising the government for saying it supports the heritage while cutting funding and threatening a major crisis. Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield and LibDem spokesman on arts, culture and heritage, writes that heritage minister David Lammy should be fighting for more heritage funding from the Treasury, not making excuses to justify less.

* Steven Mithen visits Blombos
Renowned archaeologist and writer on human origins goes to the cave in South Africa that is retelling the story of the first modern humans and how they thought over 70,000 years ago

* The nomad warriors of ancient Wessex
What was a typical British house like 4,000 years ago? They are so rare we cannot say. Perhaps, says Andrew J Lawson reporting from travels in central Asia, that is because people were always on the move, like the nomadic herdsmen of Mongolia.

* Re-enacting lost prehistoric skills at Boston Spa
A Yorkshire community archaeology group heated flints beneath a fire, rediscovering a sophisticated technology abandoned thousands of years ago.

* Demolishing ancient buildings in a Scottish quarry
Emma Sanderson describes an impressive community experiment in the construction – and demolition – of replica ancient stone structures in a quarry at Spittal in the north of Scotland.

* Mick’s travels
In his regular feature, Time Team’s Mick Aston visits the Isle of Man

British Archaeology magazine, The voice of archaeology in Britain and beyond

More, including a selection from the latest issue to read on the web, (Jan 2007) on their home page.

Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.

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