Moel y Gaer hillfort

3,000 year old Iron Age remains uncovered at North Wales archaeological dig

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL dig in North Wales has unearthed Iron Age remains thought to be about 3,000 years old.
The excavation, by  Bangor University’s School of History and Denbighshire and Flintshire’s  Heather and Hillforts Project, was carried out on Moel y Gaer hillfort on the Clwydian Range.
Investigators discovered that parts of the site, which contain metal working slag and dry-stone facing, date back to some time between the seventh and second century BC.
No artifacts have yet been found, but excavation leader Professor Karl, head of the university school and professor of archaeology and heritage, said pottery was virtually non-existent in the area during the Iron Age.
He added: “We have recovered some quite substantial charcoal samples so we can try to arrange carbon dating, which should hopefully narrow down our dating range for the construction of the rampart.
“I consider the dig to have been a great success and the results will hopefully answer the research questions we started out with as well as having opened up a couple of new ones – which we may try to explore in further fieldwork either at Moel y Gaer at some of the other hillforts in the area.”

Heather and Hillforts Survey Report: Moel y Gaer, Lantysilio

Bangor Univesity News

Mudlarks and shackles

MUDLARKS FIND ‘PRISONER’S SHACKLES’ ON THE MUDDY BANKS OF THE THAMES SHORE

The iron shackles, dating from either the seventeenth or eighteenth century, were uncovered about a year ago next to Salt Wharf, by mudlarks Steve Brooker and Rick Jones, who thought they were looking at a more commonly found cannon ball until the chain slipped out of the mud.

Experts are now pondering whether the find came from an escaped prisoner, who would have been due to be transported, instead of serving his or her prison term in Britain.

Steve, 48, from Bexleyheath, who has been a mudlark for about twelve years, said: “There are hundreds of items down there, from bodies to ironing boards. Three weeks before, I had found at least twenty cannon balls.”
The Thames, he said, was home to a large number of body building weights which metal detectors are naturally drawn to. The ball and chain was sitting on top of the weights.

Talking about the significant find, Steve said: “Because there is no comparison to it, it is extremely hard to get a date on it.” The find has been dated by its barrel lock, which Roy Stephenson, Head of Archaeology at the  Museum of London Docklands, says is likely to have originated from the Rhineland, now Germany.

Kate Sumnall, Finds Liaison Officer at the Museum of London Docklands, which has  put the ball and chain on display after unveiling it last week, said: “The river is the repository for so many of London’s stories.

“This extraordinary find gives us a tantalising glimpse of the human trials and tribulations of past Londoners.
“Whether a real-life Magwitch freed himself from the ‘great iron on his leg’, or perished in shackles, or whether this ball and chain was simply discarded, we can never know. Visitors to Museum of London Docklands will have to decide for themselves.”

The ball and chain is made from iron and weighs 8kg, with a skilfully crafted brass plate around the padlock keyhole.
Museum experts believe it would have been used to shackle prisoners during transport, but as it was uncovered with the lock fastened and no key, it raises the possibility a prisoner may have escaped from custody. From the eighteenth century prisoners were transported to Australia, turned into a penal colony by the British, instead of serving their terms in England.

Steve told the ‘News’ that the reason the Thames was so good for mudlarking, was because it was anaerobic and there was no oxygen in the mud.

The foreshore has large areas of thick black mud, which preserves objects that would corrode or rot away in other conditions. Steve, who has a licence which allows him to carry out searches on the Thames foreshore, allowing only mudlarks to dig, added: “There are two items coming up that will blow away the ball and chain. It’s quite special.”
The  ball and chain will be on display at the Museum of London Docklands for one month.

****

Mudlarks, history enthusiasts some of whom have been likened to amateur archaeologists, have special permits to search and dig the foreshore from the Port of London Authority.
Digging on the north side of the Thames between Westminster in central London and Wapping in the east of the city is strictly prohibited because it is so rich in archaeological deposits.
There are only 51 “official” mudlarks who have achieved this recognized status — through the Society of Thames Mudlarks — by recording their finds through institutions like the Museum of London.
Shackles found in River Thames hold ghoulish tale

Mud glorious mud! From hoards of silver to a prisoner’s ball and chain – scavengers are finding treasures on our riverbanks

River Thames “Mudlarks” Dig Up Medieval Toys
British Museum
Museum of London unveils remarkable collection of buttons recovered from Thames
The Society of Thames Mudlarks

HOW TO MUDLARK
The Port of London Authority: The PLA owns the riverbed of the Thames, up to the mean high-water mark. The public is allowed to beachcomb on the shores, but serious mudlarks – and anyone intending to dig (even if it’s only scraping the surface) or use a metal detector – must obtain a license (£9 per annum) from the PLA and abide by its rules. The Authority also issues licenses to the Society of Thames Mud-larks and Antiquarians, a group of serious searchers with no desire for either publicity or increased membership. The Port of London Authority is at Devon House, 58-60 St Katharine’s Way, London E1 9LB (071-265 2656).
Mudlarks and the law: In any area, laws of trespass and other restrictions should be observed. When in doubt, contact the landowner or landowning authority. Any interesting objects found should be shown to the local museum. Museums are generally happy to give opinions and advice. Since resources are limited, however, assessments can take time.

PICKINGS FROM TIME AND TIDE

Manchester slums

Unearthing Manchester’s Victorian slums

“This is our archaeological handbook,” says Chris Wild, brandishing  The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844, a muddy, thumbed paperback, “Engels.“
This, though, is far from being the only contemporary account of late 19th-century living conditions in this part of inner-city Manchester . In 1870, the Manchester Guardian – as this paper was then known – published a series of articles on the city’s slums, opening with a scene of 18 adults and several babies squeezed round a single fireplace. Along with Engels’ account, the newspaper’s archive reports proved influential in the decision to investigate this site. And, not one to leave an investigation unfinished, the Guardian has today returned to the same streets (Miller, Dantzic and Angel) near the city’s Victoria Station.
Soon I’m kneeling on the ground in an area where Engels described “cattle-sheds for human beings”. Archaeologists are uncovering some of the worst of these slums, the subdivided cellars where people shared beds or slept in doorways while pigs ate human waste in alleys above. A collection of rubbish – bottles, a woman’s shoe, broken crockery – lies on the dirt before me.
Little more than a century ago, this part of Manchester, then the powerhouse of the industrial revolution, was as near to hell on earth as you are likely to get in peacetime. The poor, including thousands who fled the Irish potato famine around 1850, came here for the work. Many of them would have had jobs in a large Arkwright mill on the edge of this site. They suffered industrial injury, cholera, TB and typhus; consumed adulterated food and contaminated water; and lived in a maze of wet, filthy, light-deprived rooms and passages. At the end of Dantzic street was a stone-flagged area that became a playground in the 1880s (LS Lowry painted it as  Britain at Play in 1943). The stone flags were to stop illegal excavation and sale of the soil for fertiliser: it contained the mass graves of some 40,000 paupers.
By the 1950s the houses had gone, through a combination of slum clearance and wartime bombing. Today, it’s a car park. Meanwhile, in 1863 the newly founded Co-operative Society opened its offices a couple of blocks away. It stayed put, so now a collection of listed buildings, one of them as recent as 1962, fills 20 acres. It is, says the Co-op, the largest regeneration site in Manchester. In 2012 its huge new HQ will rise over the Angel Meadow car park.
Wild, an archaeologist specialising in industrial remains, has taken me and the Co-op’s head of planning and property strategy, Ruairidh Jackson, to a heap of soil and rubble from which a bright orange mechanical excavator scoops at the ground. Wild works for  Oxford Archaeology, an educational charity that assessed the site for the Co-op to support its planning application.
It is now August, and day three of a nine-week excavation. Even within the profession, industrial archaeology remains a controversial area; some academics, especially, perhaps, historians, still question the need for digging the remains of such recent times.
“They say we’ve got all the information,” says Wild. “But we’re testing the texts.” The historic maps, for example, are proving inconsistent. Wild hopes they will be able to show the actual house plans, and he is convinced his work will reveal details overlooked by contemporary accounts.
We stop at the foot of a ceramic toilet, dating from the late 19th century and cemented into a small, square floor. Beneath, explains Wild, lies the earth of an earlier pail closet – just a bucket under a plank. Broken drains protrude from the side of the trench, and cellar walls made from poor-quality bricks bow under pressure. These were once homes.
Just one cubic metre of inner-city Manchester would be expected to generate more artefacts than found in a century of excavation at Stonehenge. “There were more people living in this part of Manchester than in the whole of Britain in the bronze age,” he says. “This is the archaeology of the masses.”
The thimbles and toys, the bits of clothes and china, have a poignant association with known events, and, potentially, named individuals. With such objects Jackson anticipates links with Manchester’s People’s History Museum, due to re-open soon with a new extension – and with the Co-op’s own archive.
“I want the younger generation to see this,” says Wild, looking across a row of Victorian lodging-house cellars. “We should help the rest of the world not to make the mistakes we made.”

Norham

Dig reveals medieval buildings on site of new Norham housing estate

ARCHAEOLOGISTS taking part in a pre-development dig in Norham have uncovered what appear to be the remains of early medieval buildings.
Samples have been sent off for radio carbon dating to find out exactly how old the buildings are, but archaeologists think they could date back to the 12th century when Norham Castle was built.

Philippa Cockburn, of Tyneside-based Archaeological Research Services, said: “Norham is a historic village with its castle and church, so we were always likely to find some interesting archaeology here but it’s always a pleasant surprise when you come across something like this.”

Colleague Dan Amat said: “It’s been an exciting dig. We’ve found some early medieval walls but we’re not quite sure what it is. It could be a farm dwelling or an outbuilding. There is a hearth with burnt bits around it and we’ve found some bits of pottery which should enable us to put a firm date on it all.

“There is also a one-metre deep well which could go down about 20 metres. We tried to dig down but unfortunately the earth was so firm it blunted our digging machine!”

The pair have spent the past two weeks digging in the Glebe Field opposite Norham St Coelwulf’s First School. Earlier this year, seven trenches had been dug to give them a rough idea of where to look.

Dan added: “Aerial photography had also been taken which showed traces of settlements in the field nearby and from the results of the trench digs a few months ago it was pretty obvious there was something here.”

A planning application to build 25 affordable homes on the site was submitted to Northumberland County Council earlier this month. It is not thought the archaeological findings will impact on the plans.

English heritage: Norham Castle Archaeological Investigation Report

Basil Brown

Amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to be honoured

HE made one of the most important archaeological discoveries in the United Kingdom unearthing priceless treasure which is now displayed in the British Museum.

Among the historical artefacts was the unique discovery of a seventh century ship believed by many to be the grave of an Anglo Saxon king.

But ironically the final resting place of Basil Brown, the man who made the incredible discoveries at Sutton Hoo in 1939, remains a mystery.

Now it is hoped surviving relatives of the self-taught archaeologist will get in touch with the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History which is planning a special service in Mr Brown’s honour.

The group has commissioned the creation of a plaque in his memory which will be unveiled on August 30 at Rickinghall Inferior Church, in his home village, to mark 70 years since the ship was unearthed.

Institute chairman Edward Martin said: “We had the idea for the plaque a couple of years ago but started actively sorting it out last year knowing the 70 year anniversary was coming up.

“We are going for the end of August as that is when the excavation ended.”

Despite the amazing discoveries he made, Mr Brown was not qualified in archaeology and was forced to step aside from being in charge of the Sutton Hoo dig.

Mr Martin said: “He was a man who was very keen on archaeology and very skilled in excavation.

“He hadn’t been to university or had wide schooling, his father was a farmer and he was going to be a farmer until things did not quite work out like that.

“He drifted into it but it was something he enjoyed and loved and was he employed in a sort of way by Ipswich Museum to do things and then the owner wanted this excavation at Sutton Hoo so Basil was the man.”

Mr Martin added: “He could see differences in soil very clearly and it was only when he had cleared it that it became clear how important it was and an academic was bought in from outside.

“It went from something of county and regional importance to something of national importance so it was awkward for him.

“Unfortunately that displaced Basil from running it although he was still there during it, he couldn’t be in charge.”

As well as honouring him with the plaque, the institute is hoping to find out what happened to Mr Brown’s ashes after he was cremated at Ipswich Crematorium in 1977.

Mr Martin is making inquiries in the hope of being able to lay a wreath at the site.

Anyone is welcome at the service on August 30 at 3pm will see the plaque handed over by its creator institute member Gilbert Burroughes who will talk about Mr Brown.

Mr Burroughes, who formed an interest in archaeology after meeting Mr Brown in the 1950s, said yesterday: “He was a humble man, he was not pushy at all and whilst he was not a professional in the sense that he went to university and got degrees he was an excellent archaeologist and I think that really stands out by the fact that anyone who looks at the photographs of the Sutton Hoo boat can see it was not an amateur dig.”

Flickr: 70th Anniversary Garden Party

London’s early trackway

London’s Earliest Timber Structure Found During Belmarsh Prison Dig
London’s oldest timber structure has been unearthed by archaeologists from Archaeology South-East (part of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London). It was found during the excavation of a prehistoric peat bog adjacent to Belmarsh Prison in Plumstead, Greenwich, in advance of the construction of a new prison building. Radiocarbon dating has shown the structure to be nearly 6,000 years old and it predates Stonehenge by more than 500 years.
Jacobs Engineering UK Ltd acted as the managing consultants, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, and the work was facilitated by Interserve Project Services Ltd.
The structure consisted of a timber platform or trackway found at a depth of 4.7m (about the height of a double decker bus) beneath two metres of peat adjacent to an ancient river channel . Previously, the oldest timber structure in Greater London was the timber trackway in Silvertown [*] , which has been dated to 3340-2910 BC, c. 700 years younger.
Wetlands adjacent to rivers such as the Thames were an important source of food for prehistoric people, and timber trackways and platforms made it easier to cross the boggy terrain. The structure discovered at Plumstead is an early example of people adapting the natural landscape to meet human needs. The peat bogs which developed at Plumstead provided ideal conditions to preserve organic materials, which in other environments would have rotted away. The peat not only preserved wood, but also other plant matter – down to microscopic pollen grains – which can inform us about the contemporary landscape.
English Heritage, the government’s advisor on the historic environment, provides planning advice in respect of archaeology within Greater London and was involved in the discovery at the Plumstead site.
Mark Stevenson, Archaeological Advisor at English Heritage said: “The discovery of the earliest timber structure in London is incredibly important. The timber structure is slightly earlier in date than the earliest trackways excavated in the Somerset Levels, including the famous ‘Sweet Track’ to Glastonbury, which provide some of the earliest physical evidence for woodworking in England.
“This large area of development has been the subject of extensive building recording of the old Royal Arsenal (East) site as well as detailed work to map the buried ancient landscape.”
Archaeology South-East Senior Archaeologist Diccon Hart, who directed the excavation, commented: “The discovery of the earliest timber structure yet found in the London Basin is an incredibly exciting find. It is testament to the hard work and determination of those who toiled under very difficult conditions to unearth a rare and fascinating structure almost 6,000 years after it was constructed.”
Other notable finds from the archaeological excavation include an Early Bronze Age alder log with unusually well-preserved tool marks made by a metal axe. This item has been laser scanned at UCL’s Department of Civil, Environmental and Geometric Engineering and is currently undergoing conservation treatment prior to its display in Greenwich Heritage Centre, Woolwich
The study of the samples will continue for the next couple of years as the archaeological team learns more about this intriguing structure and the environment in which it was built.

* Crockett, A.D., Allen, M. J. and Scaife, R. G., 2002. ‘A Neolithic Trackway Within Peat Deposits at Silvertown, London’. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 68, pp. 185-214.

Early Bronze Age dagger grave and…another log boat

As old as the pyramids … the dagger unearthed from tribal leader’s grave

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Perthshire have unearthed a spectacular early Bronze Age grave containing a gold-banded dagger still wrapped in its 4,000-year-old sheath.
The discovery follows drama at the site last week, when a giant crane was brought in to lift a four-tonne capstone that had sealed an ancient burial chamber for four millennia.

While few traces survive of the body buried in the primitive stone coffin, found near the village of Forteviot, several clues suggest the remains are those of a tribal leader or warrior of “tremendous importance”.

More astonishing, said archeologists, were the organic materials preserved in the sealed grave. They include a wooden bowl, what may be a leather bag, plant fragments and tree bark. There were gasps of astonishment from watching archeologists when the grave, which dates back to the time of the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, was revealed intact.

“The high quality of preservation is of exceptional importance for understanding the centuries when metals were first introduced into Scotland,” said Dr Kenneth Brophy, of the University of Glasgow. He is co-director of the  Strathearn Environs & Royal Forteviot (SERF) project, which also involves experts from the University of Aberdeen.

Only two or three daggers from this period have been found in Scotland, but this find is even more unusual.

Dr Brophy said: “It is also incredibly rare to find some kind of animal skin wrapped around the dagger. The metal is in good condition. It’s a spectacular and unusual find.”

The materials have been brought to Edinburgh for conservation and examination, and are currently being kept in cold storage at the laboratory of the AOC Archaeology Group.

Rated of national importance, the finds are likely to become part of the  National Museum of Scotland’s collection. Markings on the underside of the capstone may be pecked carvings of an axe. Two more axes may also have been pecked into the stone next to where the head would have lain.

Dr Brophy said: “They dug a huge hole, then placed a stone coffin in the ground, about a metre long and 70 centimetres across. The body would have lain crouched on its side. Then they placed a four-tonne stone on top of it. They would have used ropes and pulleys of some kind. It would have been very crude techniques.”

And he added: “The scale of the effort and the unique carvings are all pointing to a person of huge importance.”

The grave had been laid in a bed of quartz pebbles in sand. The Bronze Age chamber was placed in a complex of Stone Age sites at Forteviot, dating perhaps as early as 3,000BC.

Further reading:
J. Wall ‘The role of daggers in Early Bronze Age Britain: the evidence of wear analysis’ Oxford Journal of Archaeology 6 (1987) 115-8.
Gerloff, S. 1975. The Early Bronze Age Daggers in Great Britain and a reconsideration of the Wessex Culture. Prähistorische Bronzefunde VI, 2. Munich: Beck.
Baker, L., Sheridan, J.A. & Cowie, T.G. 2003. ‘An Early Bronze Age ‘dagger grave’ from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife’. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 133, 85–123.
White, Andrew (2003) ‘An early Bronze Age dagger from the Kendal area.’ Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 3 (3rd series) . pp. 214-215.
And….

VOLUNTEERS AIM TO RECREATE ANCIENT LOG BOAT

IT MAY have taken Bronze Age man months to do the original job, but yesterday a team of volunteers began a challenge to build a replica of a 3,000-year-old log boat in 21 days.

The 10m-long vessel, to be hewn from the trunk of a single Douglas fir, is being built on the shores of Loch Tay in a joint project involving Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust and the  Scottish Crannog Centre.

The two groups have commissioned Damian Goodburn, who specialises in prehistoric methods of woodwork, to lead the team.

The aim is to recreate the Bronze Age vessel known as the Carpow log boat, which was discovered in the Tay, near Abernethy, nine years ago.

The Carpow log boat was  recovered in 2006 and is currently undergoing conservation at the National Museums of Scotland.

Dr Steven Timoney, the outreach officer with the heritage trust, said the team were using a mixture of both Bronze Age and modern day tools to ensure they meet their deadline.

BBC: Bronze age boat recreated at loch

Iron Age log boat

Discovery of log boat shows how sea levels rose in past

THE DISCOVERY of a prehistoric boat which had been buried for more than 2,000 years beneath a farm field has already provided historians with an insight into Iron Age life in Yorkshire.
But now academics say the vessel which dates back to 300BC is also helping to show how the face of the region would change in future if the sea levels continue to rise.

As a debate rages over plans to allow land around the River Hull to revert to a swamp in an attempt to protect urban areas from a repeat of the 2007 floods, a group of scientists can provide a unique insight into what wide-spread flooding of the East Yorkshire countryside would look like.

The discovery of the  Hasholme log boat in a farm field has driven a research project mapping out how the River Foulness valley has looked dating back more than 10,000 years.

The boat was unearthed by chance by an archaeologist on his father’s former farm in East Yorkshire while drainage work was being carried out 25 years ago.

The farm had belonged to the father of Dr Peter Halkon – who has spent 30 years studying the archaeology of the Foulness Valley in East Yorkshire where he grew up.

The boat was found in a drainage ditch on dry land but had sunk into the ground when the site was part of an estuary to the Humber.

Scientists believe a cataclysmic flood between 800 and 500BC transformed the landscape from a low-lying area of woodland into open water.

Dr Halkon, who is now an archaeology lecturer at Hull University, began his research by looking at the impacts of the Romans on this part of the East Riding.

He and fellow archaeologist Martin Millett had found a Roman pottery kiln on the farm and were surveying drainage trenches in search of artefacts.

The boat was discovered as that work was going on when they spotted a heap of timber which had been dumped by one of the large drainage machines.

Dr Halkon said: “We noticed that part of the wood had been worked and we realised it was a boat – although we didn’t realise straight away how big it was at more than 12.5m.”

Tree ring dating shows that the boat was made from a tree which had been cut down between 321 and 277BC.

Dr Halkon said: “The boat was used to transport people and goods around this part of East Yorkshire. It contained a cargo of beef and timber when it sank.

“The area is now farmland but it was once an offshoot of the River Humber, with the drier land populated with small farming settlements”.

Since the discovery the scope of the research into the Foulness Valley has stretched back to 10,000 BC with findings from the Palaeolithic age.

Historians now know that the area was once home to one of the oldest and largest pre-historic iron industries after discovering scores of iron working sites and nearby settlements.

Archaeologists have also uncovered evidence of a forest through the discovery of oak trees and remains of red deer which date back to the Bronze Age between 2500 and 700BC.

The focus of Dr Halkon’s research is looking at how people have adapted to the changing landscape as the waters rise and recede from the East Yorkshire countryside.

He said: “Rising water levels is not always a bad thing. We have found evidence of axes from Wales dating back to the Neolithic period which show that the river opened up the area for trade.

“By studying lots of clues in the ancient landscape we have been able to put together maps of the valley showing how much of the land was underwater.”

Dr Halkon says understanding how the landscape was then, can help to determine how it might be in the future.

He said: “Throughout time there has been a cycle of global warming and cooling and associated variations in sea level.

“Two thousand years ago this East Yorkshire farmland was under water as part of the Humber estuary. The present rise in global sea levels may mean that the landscape is reverting to the way it was in the Iron Age. This is a natural cycle, although according to most scientists human intervention is undoubtedly exacerbating this pattern.”

Hasholme Boat

HASHOLME BOAT
The Hasholme Boat was discovered in 1984 during drainage works near Holme-on-Spalding-Moor.  The main hull of the boat is made from a single 14-meter oak log.  Dendrochronology (the dating of wood by studying tree rings) has shown the boat to have been made between 322 and 277 BC.  The boat could have carried a maximum crew of 18 rowers and 2 steersmen. Howevere, with a more modest crew of five it would have been able to carry about 5.5 tons of cargo.  When the boat sank, it was carrying butchered meat and partly-worked timbers.  The boat is currently undergoing a lengthy conservation process, with the water in its timbers being slowly replaced by a waxy chemical called polyethylene glycol (or PEG).

Further reading:
Millet, M. and McGrail, S. 1987. “The Archaeology of the Hasholme Logboat.” The Archaeological Journal 144: 69-155.
McGrail, S. 2007. “Assessing the performance of an ancient boat – The Hasholme logboat ” Oxford Journal of Archaeology  Volume 7 Issue 1 : 35-46

Kent’s Cavern cannibalism?

Prehistoric Britons could have been cannibals [Includes picture]

EARLY Britons could have been cannibals, research released today has revealed.
A human arm bone from a prehistoric cave in Devon was found to have seven cut marks made by a stone tool and had been fractured.
Scientists believe the marks on the 9,000-year-old bone show flesh was removed from it, or that dismemberment took place shortly after death.
Dr Rick Schulting, of the School of Archaeology at Oxford University, said: “There are cut marks, and it seems the bone has been intentionally split.
“These two together can raise the possibility of cannibalism.”
Dr Schulting added cannibalism was just one possibility, and that the markings could also have been part of a ritualistic burial process.
The bone from  Kent’s Cavern was first discovered by archaeologist and geologist William Pengelly in the 19th century.

The bone fragment was taken from Kent’s Cavern and is being kept at Torquay Museum, where it will be on display until September 6. [Sky]

The museum said only one other site in Britain had yielded similar human remains with cut marks of this age -  Gough’s Cave at  Cheddar Gorge.
“Some archaeologists have interpreted these marks as evidence of cannibalism, but ritual burial practice or dismemberment for transportation has not been ruled out,” a museum spokesman said. [BBC another picture]

Dover Castle Great Tower make-over

A taste of medieval life in all its gaudy glory
When the  Great Tower of Dover Castle throws open its doors again today, visitors will be struck by its power and its gaudiness: the 10metre-thick walls are 12th century, but everything inside the vast stone rooms, from the king’s fur strewn bed to the stained glass window lighting his chapel, is new and seething with colour. The effect is certainly striking, but does slightly look as if in 1179 King Henry II ran amok in a furniture warehouse on an extended free credit deal.
The £2.45m recreation by English Heritage of the castle’s lost medieval interiors is not history in tasteful shades of parchment and chalk. New oak doors an inch thick, painted green, bright blue or a dark red called Dragon’s Blood, open onto interiors both sumptuous and garish enough to make the unwary blink.
If a historian’s new theory is correct, the original was built by Henry at top speed and staggering expense to create the grandest B&B in Europe.
John Gillingham, professor of medieval history at the London School of Economics, believes that after the humiliation in 1179 of having to put the French king in makeshift lodgings, Henry urgently needed a palace to dispense regal hospitality to equally grand pilgrims bound for an acutely politically sensitive shrine: the tomb at Canterbury [cathedral] of Thomas Becket.
The saint was once his friend and chancellor, but all Europe believed that in 1170 Henry had him murdered. The king paid spectacular public penance, flogged by monks and then praying all night at Becket’s tomb. Henry’s vigil came as he faced rebellion by his wife [Eleanor of Aquitaine] and sons, and invasion from Scotland and Flanders.
The following morning the Scottish king was captured and the invasion fleet scattered. He was convinced Becket was back on side –  the saint’s miracles, recorded by the Canterbury monks, included healing his sick hawk.
“It was probably the greatest crisis faced by any English monarch, and despite recent incidents of political statements of regret, the most spectacularly successful apology in recorded history,” Gillingham said.
Over the centuries the rooms, which lodged kings and queens, knights and nobles, became offices, store rooms and cells for Napoleonic prisoners of war. The present floor boards probably came from 18th century warship decking, and the roofs were strengthened to take 19th century artillery on the battlements.
The lost interiors have now been recreated in by an army of craft workers: embroidered hangings in crimson and gold, tables and chairs in green, red and blue with carved gilded lions snarling from the supports, a scarlet and blue rug thrown over the king’s bed lined with grey and white fur which looks alarmingly like a pussy cat, but is probably that modish Norman import, rabbit.
“I think people are going to find it quite startling, but that’s the point – in the 12th century this wasn’t a quaint old stone castle, it was new and built to impress,” said archaeologist Edward Impey, project manager for English Heritage.
“Bright colour was expensive, and most people had none in their homes or what they wore. If you had money, and you wanted to impress, colour was what you wanted, plenty of it and the brighter the better.”
His attention to detail has been obsessive. Real log fires will be lit each day, and when he realised there wasn’t enough fuel, he took up his axe and went down into the woods at the foot of the castle to chop the logs himself.
“They had to be hand cut – obviously – and there didn’t seem to be anyone else on site who could wield an axe,” he explained.
The rooms are now fit to receive royalty again. France currently lacks a king, but even Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni might be impressed at the result.