Category Archives: British archaeology

Anything British and Archaeological.

Compelling Kickstarter digital project | 3D Virtual Prehistoric Worlds | Donate as little as £1

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Kickstarter_VPW

Donation window is now closed but was very successful!

Digital heritage professional Marcus Abbott is using Kickstarter, an innovative way to fund projects, to raise donations for his Virtual Prehistoric Worlds project—an explorable visualisation of a 3D digital world generated from archaeological and palaeo-environmental data.

“This project is a visual representation of what we know about a past landscape, it combines archaeological data and scientific data with cutting edge digital recording and visualisation techniques to produce a virtual world.

This world is a representation of the Bronze Age in East Anglia and focuses on an area known to be of religious significance during this time. The landscape is a wetland environment and has been generated entirely digitally. The archaeology has been reconstructed from actual evidence found on sites in the area. Round houses and wooden platforms, track ways, fences and the great causeway structures of Flag Fen are all present in the landscape.”

You can pledge as little as £1 to support this exciting project and join more than 58 backers who have already offered over £1,000. There are just seven days to go—and every extra pound helps bring the project to realisation. The funding window closes on 7 October 2013.

♦ Spence

Bradford Kaims Neolithic-Mesolithic wetland | Great new video from Bamburgh Research Project

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Bradford Kaims is the latest venture of Bamburgh Research Project, working with the local community, volunteers and Universities to investigate a truly remarkable preserved ancient wetland site, located a few miles from Bamburgh, near the village of Lucker in Northumberland. The work has been supported by grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

BRP-BK-VideoThis latest short video, one of three, gives an idea of the great potential of the site but also the risks from water table fluctuations and drying—as always adding a sense of urgency to recovery before it’s too late.

“We were very fortunate to have Dr Richard Tipping, an expert in environmental sciences, out with a group of staff and volunteers. His knowledge is extensive and his enthusiasm was definitely infectious. There is something almost magical about preservation properties of peat and the ability of a real expert to read a core sample in the manner of an open book of environmental history.”

The extensive wetland that formed here in the Late Glacial period was a large lake system throughout the Holocene. Pollen and palaeo-environmental evidence recovered from deep auger cores spans the last 12,000 years. Many sites of archaeological interest are known in this area, from Mesolithic and Neolithic scatters, to Bronze Age cairns and votive deposits, Iron Age hillforts and Medieval villages.

♦ Spence | Twitter @microburin

Final day at Low Hauxley | Rescued from the Mesolithic sea

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Dear microburins, I thought you might like to see the final pictures from Low Hauxley, Northumberland. The dig was a blast—an incredible, amusing and dedicated crew of volunteers, countless visitors and a community interest that reverberated around the Warkworth, Amble … Continue reading →

Yorkshire 9000BC | Fly around Mesolithic Lake Flixton : experience the sounds

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Hello Microburins,

Yorkshire9000BC_VimeoHere’s a great short video fly-through the Mesolithic landscape of Lake Flixton, Vale of Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. Ongoing excavations at Star Carr and Flixton Island are the current manifestation of research since the 1950s. This CGI video incorporates  recordings of what the the post-glacial landscape may have sounded like 11,000 years ago, when hunter-gatherers shared their environment with wild ox, bears, beavers, horses, boar, wolves and a hazelnut or two.

“The model is based on pollen cores and archaeological excavations (including the currently active ones). It was created for the Yorkshire Museum’s new ‘Prehistoric Yorkshire’ exhibition in partnership with members of the Star Carr Project at the University of York Department of Archaeology. Sound design is by Jon Hughes.”

Watch and listen now (1m 35s, silent intro) »

Related stuff

♦ Spence

Rescued from the sea | Excavations at Low Hauxley | Island of the dead? (video)

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Updated 15-Aug with tsunami article

Click to watchAn ongoing rescue project is taking place in Northumberland where coastal erosion has revealed a Bronze Age “cemetery” burial cairn and evidence back to the Mesolithic. There are flints for sure but also antler and hundreds of preserved footprints in the peat beneath the present beach dated to over 7,000 years ago—adults, children and animals.

More media coverage is promised over the coming weeks, but here’s a great 8 minute video hosted by the inimitable Clive Waddington of Archaeological Research Services Ltd. This is a huge community project with more than 150 local volunteers and over 300 school children involved, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, Newcastle University, UK Coal and The Leader Project. Clive is well-known for the excavations of a Mesolithic house at Howick, Northumberland—one of the earliest Late Mesolithic structures in Britain, occupied from about 7800 cal BC, repaired and rebuilt over many generations. Will they find similar at Low Hauxley?

Recommended Reading

  • Barton, R.N.E. & Roberts, A. 2004. The Mesolithic period in England: current perspectives and new research, in Saville (2004, 339-58).
  • Passmore, D.G. & Waddington, C. 2012. Archaeology and Environment in Northumberland: Till Tweed Studies, vol. 2 of 2. Oxford: Oxbow.
  • Saville, A. (ed.) 2004. Mesolithic Scotland and its Neighbours. Edinburgh: Soc Antiquaries Scotland.
  • Waddington, C. (ed.) 2007. Mesolithic Studies in the North Sea Basin, a Case Study from Howick, North-East England. Oxford: Oxbow.
  • Waddington, C. & Pedersen, K. (eds) 2007. Mesolithic Studies in the North Sea Basin and Beyond. Proceedings of a Conference held at Newcastle in 2003. Oxford: Oxbow.

♦ Spence

Decorated timber totem from Wales | Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic | Windfarm find

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MaerdyMicroburin’s UK Mesolithic Sites & Finds page has been updated with:

Maerdy Wind Farm, Rhondda Valley, Wales | 6,270 year old decorated timber “marker”, late Mesolithic or early Neolithic.

“The timber, which measures around 1.7m long, has an intricate pattern along one side and an oval motif at one end. It is believed to have been used as a tribal marker post indicating a tribal boundary, a hunting ground or a sacred site.”

The wood is now undergoing a conservation program of wax-glycol treatment at York Archaeological Trust labs where it is expected to stay until 2014.

Is it decorated timber, or natural (and insect) processes at work? Some skeptics are asking. Quote: “unless Maisie Taylor has blessed it….” | Keep watching!

♦ Spence