Out now, the July/August 2008 Issue of British Archaeology Magazine

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 09 June 2008 Page Views: 2220

On the cover: He wore gold in his hair. We divide the ancient past into three ages: stone, bronze and iron. But some leading archaeologists are now saying Britain also had a copper age, between stone and bronze at around 2450 - 2150 BC: one of them even compares it to the Renaissance. It was the age of Silbury Hill, the last stages at Stonehenge and the first metals, copper and gold and Britain¹s largest flint mine, at Grime¹s Graves. British Archaeology canvassed the views of six archaeologists and scientists for a major feature on this new and controversial topic.

OTHER STORIES INCLUDE

DRAWING TIME
To complement the copper age feature and last week¹s media stories about
Stonehenge, we take a fresh angle on current work around the stones: through
the eyes of six contemporary artists. Last summer Helen Wickstead brought
together Mark Anstee, Rebecca Davies, Leo Duff, Brian Fay, Julia Midgley and
Janet Hodgson, and asked them to respond to the excavations taking place
around them which they did in fascinating and varied ways

BONEKICKERS
BBC1 will soon screen a major drama series set in a fictional university
archaeology department, with a heroic team solving iconic historical
mysteries. In an exclusive interview, our new media columnist Greg Bailey
talks to co-writer and producer Matthew Graham, who with Ashley Pharaoh
created the cult TV series, Life on Mars and its sequel Ashes to Ashes

SEVERN ESTUARY
The government has launched a study of the Severn barrage, to reach 16km
across the estuary, and generate a substantial amount of electricity. Yet
this contribution to reducing carbon emissions was condemned by
environmental groups concerned about important wetlands. The estuary also
has very special evidence for the daily lives of the last hunter-gatherers
that roamed Britain 78,000 years ago, whose children¹s footprints litter
the foreshore largely overlooked in the conservation debate. Why is the
archaeology important, and how would it be affected by the barrage?

END OF PORTABLE ANTIQUITIES SCHEME?
Yet again, we champion the scheme that everyone around the world, except the
Museum Libraries & Arts council and the DCMS, thinks is the best thing since
bread. Now the threat is imminent, with a review soon to conclude on its
future. Mike Heyworth fears that a visionary scheme created by the
government in 1997 is about to collapse. If this happens, he says,
archaeologists will be forced to argue for strong legal controls on the use
of metal detectors a backwards step that would benefit noone

BACK TO EASTER ISLAND AFTER 90 YEARS
The last British archaeological project on Easter Island was in 1914. Now a
UK team is to investigate key sites. Sue Hamilton (UCL) and Colin Richards
(University of Manchester) say for the first time they will study the
complete landscape rather than discrete monuments. They plan to conduct the
first ever dig at the statue ³hat² quarry, and the first dig at the statue
quarry itself since Thor Heyerdahl¹s 1954 expedition

ANGLO-SAXON LONDON MAY DATE BACK TO AD500
Lundenwic, a busy industrial and trading centre on the north bank of the
Thames between what are now Trafalgar Square and Aldwych, was thought to
have been founded around 650. But burials in the town¹s first cemetery
excavated beneath the London Transport Museum have now been dated to
AD410550 and AD430640. One date comes from three adults buried together,
who may be a family group

LONDON SHOFAROT SURPRISE DATES
The shofar is a ritual Jewish instrument made from an animal horn: when the
walls of Jericho fell, shofarot were being blown. Two were found in 19th
century London and claimed to predate the expulsion of the Jewish community
from England in 1290. They have now been radiocarbon dated to AD16801939,
after the readmission of the Jewish community in 1656, raising the question
as to why these ritual objects had not been correctly buried within a
cemetery

GIN DRINKER¹S LINE
Japan invaded Hong Kong in 1941, storming a defence line that prefigured the
systems of British pillboxes. After years of aerial photo research and site
visits, even as surviving structures disappear, Lawrence Lai, YK Tan and
Stephen Davies have compiled a detailed picture of the scene

A PROFESSIONAL MOCKERY
Oxford University has an archaeological excavation and teaching project at
Marsham/Frilford, part of a large programme dating back to 1994. In recent
years, four developer-paid excavation projects have occurred around the
university project area: yet the Oxford archaeologists cannot find out what
was found. This, says Gary Lock, makes a mockery of what archaeologists are
required to do at universities

MY ARCHAEOLOGY: NEIL MACGREGOR
The accidental archaeologist who tells the story of societies

The best of the March/April issue is now online to read for free as well.

Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.

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