|
|
 Log in |
Register
|
|
 |
 Add news item |
Showing 1-10 of 1,939 news posts. Most recent first | Next 10 
News |
MEGALITHOMANIA Glastonbury 2012Join us for the next UK Megalithomania Conference on 12th - 13th May 2012 at the Assembly Rooms in Glastonbury, with speakers including Michael Cremo (from the US), Robin Heath, Klaus Dona (from Austria), Brien Foerster (from Peru), Bob Trubshaw, John Neal, Meghan Rice, Andrew Gough, Kate Masters, Hugh Newman and more. Plus tours to Dartmoor, Avebury, Stonehenge (private access), Cornwall and around the sacred landscape of Glastonbury. http://www.megalithomania.co.uk |
Posted by Megalithomania5th February 2012ce |
RAM 2012Details for this years Rock Art Meeting Old Bewick Northumberland http://rockartuk.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/rock-art-meeting-20121.pdf |
Posted by fitzcoraldo4th February 2012ce |
Hill of Tara |
Conservation plan to protect Hill of Tara in the futureA conservation plan has been commissioned for the State-owned lands on the Hill of Tara by the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan. The minister, in collaboration with the Office of Public Works (OPW) and the Heritage Council, has commissioned the Discovery Programme to undertake the plan which, he said, "will illustrate the unique cultural and historical significance of Tara and identify appropriate policies to ensure its preservation and presentation". The area to be examined includes the immediate environs of the Hill which contribute to the experience and enjoyment of the monument. While the conservation plan will also consider access and visitor amenity issues, Mr Deenihan stressed that Tara was "essentially an outdoor experience and that should not change". The minister emphasised that the emerging conservation plan would "place a key emphasis on consultation with stakeholders, and the local community in particular". Ultimately, it is intended that the conservation plan for the Tara complex will act as an overarching framework for management and interpretation. Navan area town and county councillors received a delegation from the Department of Heritage and the Heritage Council to brief them on the commissioning of the plan at their January meeting. Ian Doyle of the Heritage Council, Brian Lacey of the Discovery Programme and Tom Condit of the Department's National Monuments Service, provided an initial information briefing about the planned preparation of the plan. Mr Lacey said the structure of a conservation plan is quite specific. It is recognised internationally as an ideal formula for protecting heritage and managing change in important historic places. Since 2005, when the Cunnane Strattan Reynolds Report on the conservation of the Hill was submitted, there have been much more developments, including the completion of the M3 and the excavations associated with the motorway building, numerous publications relating to Tara, as well as remote sensing surveys, Mr Lacey told the meeting. In the summer of 2010, the Discovery Programme and its partners at NUI Galway doubled the amount of geophysical surveys on the hilltop, revealing in the process what is almost certainly the previously unknown whereabouts of the medieval manor of Tara. While broadly welcoming the report, councillors expressed concerns about possible restrictions on the Hill, as well as 'Americanising' the monument. However, in response to Cllr Shane Cassells' concerns that the 'rawness' of Tara which attracted people would be lost, Ian Doyle said there was no intention of creating the 'Disneyfication' of Tara, but the manage and help understand its character. Cllr Joe Reilly said he hoped that the consultation process was not going to be similar to the recent one concerning Tara. "There is a sad history of consultation and failure to reach agreement 18 months ago," he said. Cllr Jim Holloway said it was an "exciting" project but that he hoped the "mystique" of Tara would be maintained. Cllr Tommy Reilly and Cllr Jenny McHugh asked that visitor facilities and car parking be looked at, with Cllr Reilly criticising the fact that the OPW centre is closed for the greater part of the year. Mr Doyle said the purpose of the plan was to look at four points - access, value, protection and enjoyment. The Department officials requested that a representative of the council be appointed to the steering committee to oversee the project, and councillors agreed to consider this. Archaeological works to investigate the significant degradation of the covering of the Mound of the Hostages have been completed. These excavations have resulted in the removal of a portion of the earthen mound over the passage tomb. Design options for conservation works to the passage tomb and the restoration of the mound are now being considered and will begin as soon as possible. The Mound of the Hostages, Duma na nGiall, is one of the most prominent monuments among the concentration of prehistoric sites on the Hill of Tara. The covering of the mound is showing signs of significant degradation which, according to Minister Deenihan, "has begun to increase as a result of the very inclement weather over the last few years". He said that a non-invasive geophysical survey had already been completed which was followed by investigative archaeological excavations overseen by his Department and the Office of Public Works. "The excavation results will feed into a detailed conservation and management plan for the mound," added the minister. The Tara-Skryne Preservation Group (TSPG) has welcomed Minister Deenihan's announcement of a conservation plan. Carmel Diviney of the group, which was formed during the M3 motorway controversy, said it is a most welcome announcement to all concerned about the long-ranging state of disrepair on the Hill. http://www.meathchronicle.ie/news/roundup/articles/2012/02/01/4008743-conservation-plan-to-protect-hill-of-tara-in-the-future/ |
Posted by moss2nd February 2012ce |
Ness of Brodgar (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork) |
Archaeologists and pagans alike glory in the Brodgar complexInteresting article written in the Guardian by Liz Williams, though I found the original link on Heritage Daily; Archaeologists are notoriously nervous of attributing ritual significance to anything (the old joke used to be that if you found an artefact and couldn't identify it, it had to have ritual significance), yet they still like to do so whenever possible. I used to work on a site in the mid-1980s – a hill fort in Gloucestershire – where items of potential religious note occasionally turned up (a horse skull buried at the entrance, for example) and this was always cause for some excitement, and also some gnashing of teeth at the prospect of other people who weren't archaeologists getting excited about it ("And now I suppose we'll have druids turning up"). The Brodgar complex has, however, got everyone excited. It ticks all the boxes that make archaeologists, other academics, lay historians and pagans jump up and down. Its age is significant: it's around 800 years older than Stonehenge (although lately, having had to do some research into ancient Britain, I've been exercised by just how widely dates for sites vary, so perhaps some caution is called for). Pottery found at Stonehenge apparently originated in Orkney, or was modelled on pottery that did. The site at the Ness of Brodgar – a narrow strip of land between the existing Stone Age sites of Maeshowe and the Ring of Brodgar – is massive: the size of five football pitches and circled by a 10ft wall. Only a small percentage of it has been investigated; it is being called a "temple complex", and researchers seem to think that it is a passage complex – for instance, one in which bones are carried through and successively stripped (there is a firepit across one of the doors, and various entrances, plus alcoves like those in a passage grave, which are being regarded as evidence for this theory – but it's a bit tenuous at present). Obviously, at this relatively early stage, it's difficult for either professional archaeologists or their followers to formulate too many firm theories. When it comes to the pagan community, I don't think that its sounder members will be leaping to too many conclusions too soon; as discussed in a previous column, some of us would prefer to rely on the actual evidence rather than rushing off at a tangent. I cannot help wondering whether the relatively muted response across the pagan scene to the Brodgar findings has to do with the fact that the central artefact discovered so far –" the "Brodgar Boy" – is apparently male rather than female. I am cynical enough to wonder whether, if it had been a northern Venus, there would be much more in the way of rash speculation about ancient matriarchies. Will we see the pagan community flocking to Orkney at the solstices? I doubt it. Orkney is a long way off and rather difficult to get to, whereas Stonehenge and Avebury are with a reasonably easy drive if you happen to live in the south of the country. In the days when the site was at its peak, most traffic would have been coastal, and remained so for hundreds of years to come. (And to be fair, many modern pagans aren't actually too keen on trampling over ancient sites, sacred or otherwise, due to awareness of their relative fragility). With regard to the "boy" himself, and other ancient representations of the human form, we simply don't know why people made them. Maybe they are gods, goddesses, spirits. Maybe they're toys, or lampoons of particular individuals, or just someone doing some carving in an idle moment. It's hardly a startling theory that, throughout history, people have made stuff for fun: I've always been very amused by Aztec pots made in the shape of comical animals, looking for all the world like the early precursor to Disney and somewhat at variance with the sombre bloodiness of other aspects of that culture. As soon as the Bronze Age arrived, Brodgar was completely abandoned. There was apparently a mass slaughter of cattle, which would have fed as many as 20,000 people on the site; this is being taken by some experts as evidence of a complete and sudden cultural replacement. But whether it has ritual significance or not, the sheer size, age and numbers involved with the Orkney site make it of immense importance to the history of ancient Britain. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/jan/31/archaeologists-pagans-brodgar-complex http://www.heritagedaily.com/2012/01/archaeologists-and-pagans-alike-glory-in-the-brodgar-complex/ |
Posted by moss 1st February 2012ce |
County Down |
The forgotten Mound of DownThis is interesting - may be prehistoric, possibly not. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-16757999 |
Posted by tjj29th January 2012ce |
Stonehenge (Stone Circle) |
Stonehenge in exhibition of Hardy's Wessexpaintings of Stonehenge and Silbury Hill feature in ths exhibition of Hardy's Wessex http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/leisure/entertainments/9494732.Trio_collaborate_for_exhibitionof_Hardy_s_Wessex/ |
Posted by texlahoma27th January 2012ce |
Starr Carr (Ancient Village / Settlement / Misc. Earthwork) |
Star Carr archaeologists given more than £1m in fundingArchaeologists excavating what they claim is Britain's oldest house have secured more than £1m in funding. The circular structure at Star Carr near Scarborough was found in 2008 and dates from 8,500BC. Archaeologists from the Universities of Manchester and York say the site is deteriorating due to environmental changes. The European Research Council has given them £1.23m to finish the work before information from the site is lost. Time running out Nicky Milner, an archaeologist from the University of York, said the site was deteriorating rapidly. "The water table has fallen and the peat is shrinking and it is severely damaging the archaeology," she said. "The water keeps the oxygen and bacteria out and because they are now going into these deposits that is causing a lot of problems. The area was settled by hunter gatherers about 11,000 years ago "We haven't got much time left to excavate and we want to do some specialist analysis before all this important information vanishes forever." The site was first discovered in the 1940s and has since been the subject of extensive research. The latest excavation led to the discovery of what would have been a 3.5 metre diameter house occupied by hunter gatherers about 11,000 years ago. The remains were dated by radio carbon and the type of tools used helped identify the house as being from 8,500BC. Large settlement The discovery suggested that people from this era were more attached to settlements than had been previously thought. Items such as the paddle of a boat, arrow tips, masks made from red deer skulls, and antler head-dresses which could have been used in rituals, have all been uncovered. Dr Milner said: "What we have here is a massive site, we have structures and we have a timber platform on the edge of what would have been a lake. This suggests that people were living here for quite a long period, for generations, in a large group. "We have to do more excavation to understand more." Star Carr would have been settled at the end of the last Ice Age and the team believes it may also offer insights into how people reacted to climate change. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-16721738 |
Posted by moss 27th January 2012ce |
Stonehenge and its Environs |
Stonehenge tunnel idea resurrectedStonehenge tunnel idea resurrected 7:10am Tuesday 17th January 2012 By Annie Riddle The idea of building a tunnel under Stonehenge has been resurrected by a consortium of council leaders from across the South West. Wiltshire was among the authorities represented at a summit meeting to discuss A303 improvements, organised by Somerset County Council last week. They discussed ways to raise the £1billion needed to widen the remaining single lane sections of the road between Wiltshire and Devon. The tunnel, which would have cost more than £500million at the last count, is one of five separate schemes they believe are needed. Somerset?€™s leader Ken Maddock believes there is scope to seek new funding in the light of Chancellor George Osborne?€™s autumn statement, which said that pension funds could be used to fund up to £20billion of infrastructure schemes. He said: ?€œThis is a fabulous opportunity to put a joint bid together that will bring huge benefits to the whole of the West Country.?€ The 2.1km tunnel plans were shelved in 2007 after the government said the soaring cost was not justified. http://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/salisbury/salisburynews/9474384.Stonehenge_tunnel_idea_resurrected/ |
Posted by Chance20th January 2012ce |
Sheriffside (Hillfort) |
Gearing Up For Second Dig At SheriffsideMore details of a second archaeological dig in April. More info : http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/aroundthecountry/articles/2012/01/19/422482-gearing-up-for-second-dig-at-sheriffside |
Posted by drewbhoy19th January 2012ce |
Avebury & the Marlborough Downs (Region) |
EXHIBITION: Landscape with Stones: paintings and woodcuts by Nick SchleeAn exhibition of oil paintings and woodcuts by British landscape artist Nick Schlee, focusing on Avebury and the Ridgeway. This new exhibition features some of Nick Schlee's most bold and vivid work portraying the ancient monument of Avebury and the nearby Ridgeway. 80 year old Nick says of the exhibition: "More than half of the pictures in the exhibition feature those mysterious ancient stones that mean little to most of us, but must have meant a great deal to our forebears. Painting them, without being able to share the feelings they engendered for the people who erected them, is a problem. I can only describe their outside appearance. The spirit within is closed to me. It is as if I were recording the skin of a peach without any idea of its taste, its texture and delicious succulence. We are probably all aware of the difficulties and dedication that went into bringing these stones to where they stand today. This is what, to my mind, contributes to making them so unnerving. Their presence disturbs me in the same way the purposeful ditches of Avebury disturb me. When I paint their portraits, from close up or afar, I am trying to find a place for them in the powerful rhythms, space and colour of the natural landscape. The result is that they take on the role of rugged, weather-battered statues. Because I find it impossible to find an understanding of them that matches my own experience I deliberately inject a febrile nervous energy into my drawing of them. I hope that in this way I will convey to viewers the former power they held for early inhabitants of the area. I tremble. But at what I am not sure. In contrast, the vast panoramas along the Ridgeway move me more directly. Here I feel more confident that I do not miss anything important. What I see of the rolling landscape with its sky and clumps of trees resonates powerfully in way that reaches inside me today as they must have always done to others over the centuries. I use heightened colour and emphasised rhythmic line in my paintings to try make sure that those looking at them share the excitement the Wiltshire landscape creates in me." Although this is the first time Nick's work has been exhibited at the Museum, he has had many solo exhibitions, including at the Yehudi Menuhin School, Gallery 27 in London and the West Berkshire Museum. He has also participated in many group exhibitions including Templeton College, Oxford and the Modern Artists Gallery. His work is held in public collections, including the City of London Guildhall Gallery, the Wessex Collection at Longleat House and Southampton City Art Gallery. More information about the artist and his work can be found on his website -www.nickschlee.co.uk/ *Exhibition runs from 14 January to 2 September 2012.*Cost: Usual Admission Charges Apply http://www.wiltshireheritage.org.uk/events/index.php?Action=2&thID=692&prev=1 G x |
Posted by goffik17th January 2012ce |
Showing 1-10 of 1,939 news posts. Most recent first | Next 10
Top of page