◊ Dear Microburins
The Eston Hills rescue archaeology project has kicked off and, three days in, we have features and flints. The weather has been mixed, but the hearty project team are delighted with progress, well-informed by previous geophysical work kindly provided by AOC Archaeology Group.
Read the ICE AND FIRE Week 1 Site Diary »
In other news, Mesolithic Spence has a job interview scheduled. Cross your fingers and roast a hazelnut for me?
♦ Spence
◊ Dear Microburins
Momentum continues across local government, emergency services and community groups to coordinate sustainable solutions to problems on Eston Hills – devasting fires, burned out vehicles and illegal off-roaders. Friends of Eston Hills campaigner Craig Hornby is adamant that solutions ‘are not rocket science’ but need the will, resources and concerted effort to put in place. Watch the video and read the Evening Gazette 10 May article »
“I think the biggest problem is not allocating sufficient funds and resources fast enough to tackle the issues. I have been lobbying the authorities for three and a half years for robust barriers to be installed at the points of access being used by illegal vehicles.
Barriers are now in place at Lazenby and Eston but the Flatts Lane barrier and plans for an earthwork barrier have been delayed six months, so the problems have persisted.”
Cleveland Police Commissioner, Barry Coppinger, has called the first meeting of an action group at Police Headquarters on Ladgate Lane at 1.30pm, Monday 15 May 2017.
Adam Mead, ICE AND FIRE project director, has also scheduled talks in local primary schools and a further visit to the hills:
Whale Hill Primary School, Eston | Talks on Fri 12 and Fri 19 MayLook out for a feature article on Teesside’s archaeology in the forthcoming Council for British Archaeology Newsletter no. 40!
♦ Spence | Get Involved!
◊ Dear Microburins
The ongoing problems on Eston Hills and neighbouring farmland will be the subject of a Public Meeting hosted by Anna Turley MP at the Cleveland Inn, 37 Cleveland St, Normanby, Middlesbrough TS6 0LX at 5.30pm on Friday 28 April 2017. Cleveland Police Commissioner Barry Coppinger and ICE AND FIRE project director Adam Mead will also be in attendance.
The meeting is intended to discuss and explore, in an open community forum, both the issues and how cooperation between local government authorities, the emergency services, landowners, schools, residents and businesses might work together more effectively.
Acts of fire-setting, the burning of abandoned vehicles, illegal 4×4 and off-road vehicles, fly-tipping and other anti-social behaviour persist on an increasingly frequent basis, despite ongoing efforts by local services and voluntary organisations, including the Friends of Eston Hills, and media coverage.
The ICE AND FIRE project team and its stakeholders also believe that shifting public opinion – across generations from school children, their parents and people who benefit from tourism and economic footfall – is a local and regional priority. While the project aims to rescue archaeological and environmental assets where they are at risk, the longer term solutions must involve a coordinated effort to make anti-social behaviour entirely unacceptable in a community that values its rich historic, archaeological and natural environment.
More about the project and summer fieldwork »
♦ Spence
◊ Dear Microburins,
I’m delighted, as TimeVista Archaeology, to be part of this project team: a HLF-funded community project on Teesside, North-east England – supported by the local MP – ICE AND FIRE! Volunteer opportunities for outdoor fieldwork and indoor activities will be announced soon – all with training, so no previous experience is needed. You can register your interest via the website. The rescue project will look at the prehistoric archaeology of this fragile upland landscape from the end of the last Ice Age. Most fieldwork will take place in summer 2017 but with seasonal fieldwalking too. DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE »
Project director Adam Mead is a Durham University archaeology student and we’re grateful for considerable support from the department and Teesside Archaeological Society.
♦ Spence
◊ Dear Microburins,
Tees Archaeology and Historic England have just published a summary report about the North-East Yorkshire Mesolithic Project that completed recently. The report is aimed at a general readership and accompanies an illustrated e-booklet aimed at kids, as well as a guide to prehistoric lithics (flint).
Although Teesside is perceived as a recent industrial landscape, the natural history and archaeology is all around. We have definite evidence for the early post-glacial pioneer colonisers, reindeer hunters, around 8500 BC—the Early Mesolithic—as well as evidence for the filling out of the landscape in the later Mesolithic into the advent of Neolithic farming communities and monument builders. This is a long six-thousand year epoch and one of rapid climate change, warm-and-cold events, rising sea levels, a tsunami, and the creation of today’s Island Britain.
Early Mesolithic flint projectile point, Deepcar type, c. 8500 BC (a little later than Star Carr) from Eston Hills, Teesside. White flint has sources in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, many tens of kilometres away. These rare but characteristic tools are found along river valleys.
Late Mesolithic flints from the North York Moors, c. 8000-4000 BC. Left are geometric narrow-blade microliths, usually used as projectile arrow barbs but also for other tasks; Top right are microliths and utilised flint blades; Bottom right is a core from which blades have been removed for working into tools. Coloured and speckled flint comes from beach and glacial till deposits on the NE coast and can still be picked up today. Some has been dragged over from Denmark and chalk beds now under the North Sea.
♦ Spence
◊ Dear Microburins
The 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
microburin 