◊ Dear Microburins,
There are still places available for this conference in Edinburgh, Saturday 17 June 2017, free entry. Hope to see you there!
♦ Spence | FSA Scot
◊ 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,
Here are a couple of ranty reads with mentions of the Mesolithic.
First is another great post from Caroline Wickham-Jones on her Mesolithic archaeology blog. Caroline (pictured) eloquently expounds some of the problems with typology-based dating.
“It is important to remember that type fossils are a tool that speaks to us, rather than one that we should force to fit in. We need to look at our finds and think carefully about what they might mean.”
Second up is an article I wrote for the Hands on Middlesbrough heritage campaigning group challenging the alleged suggestion, made in 2012, “that Middlesbrough has no archaeology”. Middlesbrough and its neighbouring boroughs, and Teesside overall, have an amazing portfolio of over 10,000 years of archaeology and built heritage! I offer some tips — against the value of heritage, the historic and archaeological environments — for easy steps to take in championing our shared past. A recommended reading list, much available online, and links to related resources are included at the end of the article.
♦ Spence
◊ Dear Microburins,
My sister website at TimeVista Archaeology has been updated with the latest information about what I’ve been up to. It’s a very busy time with the new commercial aggregates project at Black Cat Quarry, entering its third week now, and with enough archaeology to welcome two diggers (of the trowel kind) for two weeks to record the current features. There are ditches, possible pits and, other than a sprinkling of tree-throws and animal burrows, a dark deposit on the gravel terrace edge which contains decorated Anglo-Saxon pottery sherds and animal bone. We’ve one worked flint blade fragment too — not easy to spot since the gravel is full of it, knapped by the digger’s bucket!
Post holes from the recent racing track circuit – still visible on Google Earth – are also evident, many containing 21st-century plastic bottles (still full), cola and beer cans, and modern debris. Top- and sub-soil stripping is continuing apace, constantly monitored, in what will be a 34 ha quarry extension over the next two years. We hope to sign-off the first area for gravel extraction before the Christmas break, if the county archaeologist agrees. The alarm is set for 5am and another week.
♦ Spence
microburin 