Category Archives: British archaeology

Anything British and Archaeological.

Immersed In Lithics Conference | 25-27 Feb 2016 Manchester University

Posted on by
Reply

◊ Dear Microburins,

With permission from the organising team, I’m pleased to announce that registration is now open for this conference. It brings together lithic researchers from all aspects of the discipline—with a particular focus on new and current approaches to lithics—and aims to discuss a variety of innovative methods of lithic analysis.

Immersed-in-Lithics-PosterMore Info | http://immersedinlithics.org/ »

  • Thu 25 Feb | Evening round-table discussion with keynote speakers followed by an informal wine reception
  • Fri 26 Feb | A day of paper presentations and posters
  • Sat 27 Feb | Stone Age Big Saturday! at the Manchester Museum, a family event offers the perfect opportunity for researchers to interact with the wider public

Manchester is rather busy this week and so please do book accommodation early. Both venues are on the university campus (close to Oxford Road) and generally a fair distance from hotels. Maps can be downloaded from the website. See you there!

♦ Spence

Submerged Prehistory and Palaeolandscapes of the British Isles | Free Paper until Jan 2016

Posted on by
Reply
Excellent open access paper (and bibliography) free to download until 30 January 2016
Bicket, A. and Tizzard, L. (2015) A Review of the Submerged Prehistory and Palaeolandscapes of the British Isles. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 126: 643–663.
DoggerlandImage | Doggerland inundation after Sturt, F., Garrow, D. and Bradley, S. (2013) New models of North West European Holocene palaeogeography and inundation. Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (11): 3963–3976.

 

WessexWessex Archaeology write:

Wessex Archaeology, Coastal & Marine and Geoservices divisions, have been developing market-leading expertise in submerged prehistory and palaeolandscapes research for well over a decade. As part of our remit to disseminate our work we have synthesised the results of the last 15 years of the many commercial investigations and research in this newly-published review for the Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association.

 

The paper summarises over a century of interest in submerged prehistoric landscapes under the North Sea and around all the coasts of the British Isles, from early theories trying to understand how our early prehistoric ancestors lived within now-flooded offshore landscapes to current high-tech survey methods for investigating sites and inundated river systems. The review provides a comprehensive bibliography and online resources (many open-access) to encapsulate the work to-date on this fascinating and rapidly developing discipline of submerged prehistoric archaeology.

 

We can share the article via this link until January 30, 2016, no sign up or registration is needed – just click and read! After this date the site provides an abstract and a login prompt.

 

Note | The download link above worked better in Internet Explorer than Mozilla Firefox.

♦ Spence

Archaeology Podcasts | Gathering Night with Schools Prehistory | Mesolithic Archaeology

Posted on by
Reply

…and not just for kids!

Prehistories_GathNightKim Biddulph, Director of Schools Prehistory, has launched a series of podcasts where she invites archaeologists and experts in teaching prehistory to review books about Britain BC.

GatheringNightWithout intending any hubris here, I had the immense pleasure of reviewing the fantastic novel The Gathering Night by Margaret Elphinstone – with Caroline Wickham-Jones and Kim. Our 2.5 hour recorded session has been deftly edited to 1hr:20mins where we talk to the archaeological and environmental record around which the author has woven a beautiful story. That story is replete with people, with names, in a tangible and changing environment, a landscape with names, seasons with names, and a mega disaster which is very real. We know it happened. It was terrifying.

There are genders, generations, a crime story, gossip around fires and shamanistic – rites of passage – events. There is also social justice and a perception of – a relationship with – the natural environment that only echoes in a tiny but persistent way in our present, modern supermarket lives. Those engaged with this week’s COP21 Climate Change summit in Paris might find some sustenance in what we already know. It’s archaeology. But do we ever learn?

Recommended Reading

  • B Finlayson (2005) Wild Harvesters: The First People in Scotland. The Making of Scotland (Historic Scotland Series). Edinburgh: Birlinn.
  • V Gaffney, S Fitch and D Smith (2009) Europe’s Lost World: The rediscovery of Doggerland. York: Council for British Archaeology.
  • J Leary (2015) The Remembered Land: Surviving Sea-level Rise after the Last Ice Age. London: Bloomsbury.
  • C Waddington (2014) Rescued from the Sea: An Archaeologist’s Tale. Newcastle-upon Tyne: Archaeological Research Services and Northumberland Wildlife Trust.
  • G Warren (2010) Mesolithic Lives in Scotland. Stroud: The History Press.
  • C Wickham-Jones (2010) Fear of Farming. Oxford: Windgather Press.

♦ Spence

Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Durham University.
Timevista archaeology.

Mesolithic Teesside | Great free booklet by Tees Archaeology

Posted on by
Reply

Hunting the Hunter-Gatherers: Mesolithic Teesside

◊ Dear Microburins

Meso_TeessideThe lovely folks at Tees Archaeology have recently published a *free* and lavishly illustrated e-booklet on Mesolithic Teesside (oh yes, we have Mesolithic!).

The booklet brings together information about the first people of Teesside, north-east England, during the Mesolithic Period (around 10,000 – 4000 BC).

Congratulations to ‘flintman’ Peter Rowe and local artist Nigel Dobbyn!

♦ Spence

Scottish News | Late Glacial Ahrensburgian-style lithics from Islay

Posted on by
Reply

◊ Dear Microburins,

Lateglacialchippedstonetools,RubhaPortant-Seilich647510_40239The University of Reading today issued a press release on exciting Late Glacial finds and geo-archaeological evidence from Islay, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. Trial excavations in 2013 have, literally, just scratched the surface.

“The archaeologists are grateful to the game-keeper who came across the Mesolithic objects after the pigs, who were released on Islay to reduce bracken, unearthed them, and thankful to the resident who knew of the earlier work the Reading team had conducted on the island, and tipped the researchers off.

Several layers of volcanic ash were found at Rubha Port an t-Seilich coming from both above and below the stone artefacts. This has enabled the team to date them [Tephrochronology] at 12,000 years old, 3000 years older than any previous discovery on Islay.”

All praise to the JQS for being open-access too!

♦ Spence

Mesolithic Sites and Finds Update | East Islay Mesolithic Project

Posted on by
Reply

◊ Dear Microburins,

The UK Mesolithic Sites & Finds page has been updated with:

  • East Islay Mesolithic Project | Storakaig and Rubha Port an t-Seilich Archaeological evaluation of new Mesolithic sites on Islay, western Scotland by Steven Mithen and Karen Wicks (Website and video).

MesArrow_WillLord_YoutubeThe Mesolithic Videos page also now includes a new Youtube video:

  • Mesolithic Arrow | Will Lord | 27-Sep-2015 Youtube (15min)
    Watch master flint knapper and tool-maker Will Lord create a fletched Mesolithic arrowhead.

If you have other suggestions to add, with a webpage or press/media link, please get in touch.

♦ Spence