Featured: New Book: Astrometrology: The Science of Ancient Metrology by Christopher Willett

New Book: Astrometrology: The Science of Ancient Metrology by Christopher Willett

Random Image

Namiuchi

Namiuchi

MeZolith Graphic Novel

MeZolith Graphic Novel

Login

Register here - as a registered user you get more features and fewer ads.

Who's Online

There are currently, 763 guests and 5 members online.

Sponsors

The September/October 2011 issue of British Archaeology is out now

Submitted by Andy B on Thursday, 11 August 2011  Page Views: 3988

Discoveries

<< Books/Products >>

WHO BUILT ROMAN ROADS?
“The rolling English drunkard”, wrote GK Chesterton, “made the rolling English road”. Then along came Roman engineers to straighten things out with martial efficiency. Thus one of the great premises of British history and popular culture. But it may be quite wrong. In the latest British Archaeology magazine, Tim Malim and Laurence Hayes give full details of the Shropshire dig that found a prehistoric metalled road.

AMONG OTHER STORIES

PROFESOR MUNAKATA’S ADVENTURE
A manga comic story about a violent plot against the British Museum sold 200,000 copies in Japan. Now it has been translated into English, and we have exclusive extracts from the book to be published by the BM in October. We reveal how the artist Hoshino Yukinobu was inspired by a British archaeologist who dug at Stonehenge in 1901 – and which of two modern theories about Stonehenge that recently went head to head in the media is adopted in the book

FIRST SCOTTISH GOLD LUNULA IN OVER 100 YEARS
Scraps of gold found by a detectorist in Dumfries & Galloway will focus attention on the mystery that is the lunula, a flat, crescent-shaped neck ornament thought to date from around 2300–2200BC, and described by some archaeologists as a symbol of power.

SACRED WATERS
Jim Leary and David Field have worked at several of Wiltshire’s great neolithic monuments, not least Silbury Hill and the henge at Marden (where Leary has recently directed important excavations). Noting that these are sited by springs and streams, they here take a wider view of the religious significance of fresh water in Britain some 5,000 years ago. Was the Thames once a sacred river to rival the Ganges?

LOST DARK AGE POWER BASE FOUND
Archaeologists believe their excavations beside the famous Pictish engraved stones at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, have identified a previously unknown Dark Age power centre, comparable in significance to royal sites in Scotland such as Dunadd, seat of the Scots, or Tintagel in Cornwall, whose rulers may all have been killed in battle before AD1000

7 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES
As one celebrates its 40th anniversary, another its 50th and a third its 150th – and a fourth looks back on its 300th – British Archaeology honours the regional archaeological society

THE LAW OF THE LAND
Government and law are shadowy features of the past, leaving subtle traces that present a difficult challenge for landscape archaeology. Yet, say Stuart Brookes, Andrew Reynolds and John Baker, recognising how pre-modern societies governed is crucial to understanding their worlds. Archaeology has much to say on the subject

THE BULLDOZER, THE SCHEDULER & THE COUNCIL LEADER
Archaeology and heritage are suffering as the country tries to pay off its debts. Perhaps we shouldn’t worry – it will get better. But will it? Three cases show how bad things can be, while some archaeologists are hopeful. Is this the beginning of the end? Or can imaginative action now lead to a glowing future?

REGULARS INCLUDE

* My archaeology
Mayan archaeologist and Times archaeology correspondent, Norman Hammond
* Letters
Detectorists are not all bad
* In view
Greg Bailey found BBC TV’s Planet of the Apemen in search of a voice
* Science
Is archaeology a science?
* Mick’s travels
Mick Aston celebrates the life and work of the late Philip Rahtz
* Books
Great digs, Roman mosaics and Anglo-Saxon metalwork
* Briefing
The UK's only archaeological events listing, with exhibition reviews
* CBA correspondent
Mike Heyworth defends England’s new planning policy
* Spoilheap
How archaeologists might reach the drinking public

British Archaeology is a bimonthly members' magazine that is also available in larger WH Smith stores and the best independent newsagents, and by subscription. Most of Issue 118 May/June 2011, is now available to read online.


Note: Loads of interesting stuff this issue, with details of the Shropshire dig that found a prehistoric metalled road, a Dark Age power centre and prehistoric gold in Scotland, and Jim Leary and David Field writing about sacred waters
Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.

·
Books/Products
·
Please add your thoughts on this site

Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne

Newgrange and the Bend of the Boyne

More on Discoveries

Sponsors

More Books/Products

See all Books/Products →

"The September/October 2011 issue of British Archaeology is out now" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
Go back to top of page    Comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.
The road in Shropshire that was built by pre-Roman engineers by Andy B on Thursday, 11 August 2011
(User Info | Send a Message)
More on the lost 'Roman' road from Mike Pitts the Guardian:

The discovery of a road in Shropshire that was built by pre-Roman engineers suggests that indigenous Britons may have been much more accomplished than we – or the Romans – liked to imagine. The road itself tells the story well.

The route had long been known as a lost Roman road, named Margary No 64 after the man who first mapped what everyone assumed to be the country's earliest network. It was visible as a low earthwork and as marks in ploughed fields, and in 1995 archaeologists dug up a bit. Sure enough, it looked Roman.

But in 2009, quarrying by Tarmac was due to destroy 400m of it, giving archaeologists a rare opportunity to expose a long section of road, some of it, crucially, very well preserved. At first, it still looked Roman, from its cambered, cobbled surface on a metre of hardcore and a clay base, to the ditches at the sides with a thin scatter of Roman rubbish. However, dig director Tim Malim noticed that the road had twice been rebuilt, and knew its history could be dated using a technique that tells you when buried mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight.

The unexpected result was a more than 80% chance that the last surface had been laid before the Roman invasion in AD43. Wood in the foundation was radiocarbon-dated to the second century BC, sealing the road's pre-Roman origin. And Malim thinks a huge post that stood in 1500BC close to the crest of the hill was a trackway marker.

Continues:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/16/roman-road-made-by-britons
[ Reply to This ]
    Re: The road in Shropshire that was built by pre-Roman engineers by hewpop on Thursday, 11 August 2011
    (User Info | Send a Message)
    I learnt a poem quite a few years ago, but for the life of me I can't remember who wrote it or where I got it from. I used to recite it whilst looking for and following Roman tracks in Hertfordshire and Devon. Does anyone know the author? I may have got one or two words wrong, and maybe forgotten a line, but this is near enough.

    "Some luck is needed. you may walk that way a hundred times
    And then, in a certain light and the right season, say when the first green shoots best show the shaping ot the soil,
    You may see the line across that lonely field.
    And looking where the road once went, you can see the Roman might
    like a blaze of distant light
    And brighter still for all the dark between."

    Hewpop
    [ Reply to This ]
      Re: The road in Shropshire that was built by pre-Roman engineers by Runemage on Thursday, 11 August 2011
      (User Info | Send a Message)
      It's a really nice poem Hewpop and it's flabbergasted Google which is a rare event thes days. I've tried searching lines and phrases but the only full quotes link direct to this page. A mystery indeed.
      [ Reply to This ]

Your Name: Anonymous [ Register Now ]
Subject:


Add your comment or contribution to this page. Spam or offensive posts are deleted immediately, don't even bother

<<< What is five plus one as a number? (Please type the answer to this question in the little box on the left)
You can also embed videos and other things. For Youtube please copy and paste the 'embed code'.
For Google Street View please include Street View in the text.
Create a web link like this: <a href="https://www.megalithic.co.uk">This is a link</a>  

Allowed HTML is:
<p> <b> <i> <a> <img> <em> <br> <strong> <blockquote> <tt> <li> <ol> <ul> <object> <param> <embed> <iframe>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.