Category Archives: ENGLAND

Rare 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered on a beach in Wales, scientists believe

Rare 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered on beach in Wales, scientists believe

Dinosaur footprints found on a Welsh beach could have been made more than 200 million years ago, experts believe. Palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum believe the footprints – known as a trackway – date back to the Triassic period and were most likely left by an early relative of the famous Diplodocus.

Rare 200-million-year-old dinosaur footprints discovered on beach in Wales, scientists believe
The footprints were most likely left by an early relative of the Diplodocus

The footprints were discovered on a beach in Penarth in April last year by youth worker Kerry Rees, who was taking her daily lockdown stroll having recently moved to the area.

Kerry, from Ferndale in the Rhondda, was aware of the area’s history of dinosaur discoveries – with a fossilised skeleton of a distant cousin of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex found on the same stretch of coastline back in 2014 – and sent pictures of the footprints to the Natural History Museum for experts to investigate.

Museum palaeontologists Dr Susannah Maidment and Professor Paul Barrett were initially sceptical of the report – but now believe that the footprints are from the late Triassic era.

“We get a lot of enquiries from members of the public for things that could be trackways but many are geological features that can easily be mistaken for them,” said Dr Maidment.

“However, from the photographs, we thought they were a fairly good contender for something that could be tracked and that it would be worth taking a look.”

Kerry Rees discovered the trail whilst out walking on the beach in Penarth

After visiting the site to examine the discovery, Prof. Barrett said: “We believed the impressions we saw at Penarth were consistently spaced to suggest an animal walking. We also saw displacement rims where mud had been pushed up.

“These structures are characteristic of active movement through the soft ground.”

Researchers now think that the impressions are an example of Eosauropus, which is a name not of a dinosaur, but a type of track thought to have been made by a very early sauropod or near sauropod-relative – the group of dinosaurs that later included the Diplodocus.

“We know early sauropods were living in Britain at the time, as bones of Camelotia, a very early sauropod, have been found in Somerset in rocks dated to the same period,” said Dr Maidment. “We don’t know if this species was the trackmaker, but it is another clue which suggests something like it could have made these tracks.”

Experts visited the site to examine the discovery

Dinosaur trackways can provide information about how herds moved, as well as the way an animal may have walked – but there is not much existing evidence akin to the trail of footprints discovered in Penarth.

“These types of tracks are not particularly common worldwide, so we believe this is an interesting addition to our knowledge of Triassic life in the UK,” concluded Prof. Barett.

“The record of Triassic dinosaurs in this country is fairly small, so anything we can find from the period adds to our picture of what was going on at that time.”

The coastline has a history of dinosaur discoveries

The footprints are not the first to be discovered in Wales in 2021, with a four-year-old girl stunning palaeontologists finding an “internationally important” print on a trip to the supermarket.

Lily Wilder was walking along the coast between Barry and Sully with her father Richard when she spotted what experts have called “the finest impression of a 215 million-year-old dinosaur print found in Britain in a decade”.

‘Incredible’ 3,000-year-old Bronze Age roundhouse discovery dubbed ‘Britain’s Pompeii’

‘Incredible’ 3,000-year-old Bronze Age roundhouse discovery dubbed ‘Britain’s Pompeii’

The discovery of the “best-preserved” Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain was carried out by archaeologists excavating a site in East Anglian Fens, Cambridgeshire, back in 2016.

But to this day, Prof Alice Roberts, who presents the television programme Digging For Britain and has seen spectacular digs unearthed up and down the country, said this could be the best dig she has ever covered. She told Express.co.uk: “It is one of my favourite sites ever, it was just incredible.“

Cambridge University archaeologists digging at Must Farm quarry, in Whittlesey, uncovered the charred oak roof timbers of a roundhouse, conserved in stunning detail.

The wooden house is part of a 3,000-year-old settlement of family homes that would have been built on stilts above the water.

Prof Roberts said: “It is so unusual to have buildings from the Bronze Age first-of-all, wood preserved so you can actually see the whole structure of those roundhouses and several of them.

“And then it was the fact that it had gone up in flames and then fallen into the water and obviously nobody has gone back to collect anything from the site and afterwards you wonder what happened to the inhabitants of the village.

'Incredible' 3,000-year-old Bronze Age roundhouse discovery dubbed 'Britain's Pompeii'
A 300-year-old roundhouse from the Bronze age was dubbed ‘Britain’s Pompeii”
They are some of the “best-preserved” Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain

“Because of that, you have got all the contents of those houses as well, and that is what I found utterly astonishing.“

The roundhouses, made out of wattle, reed and timber, and their contents collapsed into the water and into the river silt. Archaeologists say the speed and brevity of the event led to an almost instant entombment of the material.

Prof Roberts said: “Normally you just find scattered metal objects, bone objects and that kind of thing.

“But because of the incredible preservation, it went much further than that.“

The village was built about 1,000 years before the Romans settled in Britain.

The village was built about 1,000 years before the Romans settled in Britain. The surviving settlement was made up of five wooden roundhouses built closely together. Its discovery gives fantastic domestic detail into how ancient Britons arranged their homes, from cooking, to storage to crafts.

Prof said: “There was a fragment of a basket with little bundles of looked like twine inside it. It looked like a craft basket that had just fallen over inside somebody’s house.

“There were beautiful pieces of fabric, amazing pieces of textile that looked like very fine linen.

Prof Roberts comments come as her new series of Digging For Britain is set to air at the beginning of January 2022.

It was like somebody had gone to Bronze Age John Lewis and bought a whole dining set.”
Around 30 or so people lived in nine or ten wooden roundhouses erected on stilts on a platform

“It’s just a range of cultural artefacts. It was like somebody had gone to Bronze Age John Lewis and bought a whole dining set. Rather than one or two bowls, there were a whole set of different sized bowls with different functions. It was amazing.”

Duncan Wilson, Historic England’s chief executive said back in 2016: “A dramatic fire combined with subsequent waterlogged preservation has left to us a frozen moment in time.

“This site is of international significance and its excavation really will transform our understanding of the period.”

The site has been dubbed “Britain’s Pompeii,” although the Roman town-city was much larger (a plot of over 60 hectares with a population of approximately 11,000).

But in the English Fens, it was just a small river community of around 30 or so people living in nine or ten wooden roundhouses erected on stilts on a platform by the water.

Like the “Britain’s Pompeii” find, which featured on the series several years ago, the latest season of the show is jam-packed with stunning finds too.

Neanderthal Hand Axe Results in Steppe Mammoth Graveyard

Neanderthal Hand Axe Results in Steppe Mammoth Graveyard

Archaeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five prehistoric mammoths at a site ‘where cave-dwellers dined 215,000 years ago after finding a Neanderthal axe in a Cotswolds field. Experts discovered the remains of five of the animals – two adults, two juveniles and an infant – at a quarry near Swindon.

Digging at the site began after two keen fossil hunters, Sally and Neville Hollingworth, spotted a Neanderthal hand axe at the site. Experts from DigVentures then went on to find remains belonging to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth. 

Other discoveries at the site included delicate beetle wings and fragile freshwater snail shells as well as stone tools from the Neanderthal age.  

Neanderthal Hand Axe Results in Steppe Mammoth Graveyard
The site will feature in Attenborough And The Mammoth Graveyard (above) on BBC1 on December 30

The site will feature in Attenborough And The Mammoth Graveyard on BBC1 on December 30.

Sir David Attenborough will join Professor Ben Garrod and archaeologists from DigVentures to learn why the mammoths were there and how they died.

The discovery of the Neanderthal tools could mean the site was a ‘massive buffet’, according to experts. 

Prof Garrod, of the University of East Anglia, said: ‘This is gold dust. It could be that Neanderthals were camping there, maybe they caused the deaths of these animals, chasing them into the mud and enjoying a massive buffet.’

‘Maybe they found them there already and got a free meal,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘If the lab shows the cut-marks are human-made, our site will be one of the oldest scientifically excavated sites with Neanderthals butchering mammoths in Britain.’

Steppe mammoths lived from approximately a 1.8million years ago to about 200,000 years ago. Lisa Westcott Wilkins, from DigVentures, said: ‘Finding mammoth bones is always extraordinary, but finding ones that are so old and well preserved, and in such close proximity to Neanderthal stone tools is exceptional.

‘Words can’t quite capture the thrill of seeing a mammoth tusk still in the ground or the feeling of standing in the middle of a site that has the potential to change how we see our closest human relatives and the Ice Age megafauna they shared their world with.’

Hundreds of steppe mammoth bones have been discovered – tusks, enamel, leg bones, in addition to stone instruments, together with a stone hand axe (proper).
Experts from DigVentures then went on to find remains belonging to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth
The discovery of the Neanderthal tools could mean the site was a ‘massive buffet’, according to experts

Ms Hollingworth, of Swindon, told the BBC: ‘We were originally hoping to find marine fossils, and finding something so significant instead has been a real thrill.

‘Even better than that is seeing it turn into a major archaeological excavation

‘We couldn’t be more pleased that something we’ve discovered will be learned from and enjoyed by so many people.’

Research is ongoing to understand why so many mammoths were found in one place, and whether they were hunted or scavenged by Neanderthals.

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: ‘This represents one of Britain’s most significant Ice Age discoveries in recent years.

‘The findings have enormous value for understanding the human occupation of Britain, and the delicate environmental evidence recovered will also help us understand it in the context of past climate change.’

DigVentures is a team of archaeologists who also organise archaeological digs that are open to members of the public to join.

Traces of 2,250-Year-Old Settlement Found in England

Traces of 2,250-Year-Old Settlement Found in England

The foundations of an Iron Age settlement have been uncovered during work to build a new roundabout. The discoveries, including pottery dating back about 2,250 years, came to light at the site of a junction near Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire.

The Iron Age site came to light during work to build a roundabout near Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire

In August and September digs took place after surveys showed Iron Age remains might be found there.

The finds give a “vital glimpse” into life at the time, archaeologist Robin Jackson said.

The site was first spotted on aerial photos during the planning stage to improve the junction of the A38 and A4104, the county council said.

Traces of 2,250-Year-Old Settlement Found in England
The discovery gives archaeologists a “vital glimpse” into Iron Age life, one expert said

An initial investigation turned up the pottery which showed the site had been occupied between 300 and 100BC.

Archaeologists also found a large ditched enclosure at the heart of the area which they believe may have been used to protect and distribute cereal harvests.

Only about a third of the site had been explored as excavations were restricted to the area disturbed by work for the roundabout, Mr Jackson said.

“It has given us a vital glimpse into what life would have been like in the Iron Age”, he added and said more analysis of the findings will take place in 2022.

Only a third of the settlement has been excavated as this is the area disturbed by the roundabout work

Previous roadworks have uncovered other archaeological finds in the county.

Musket balls and belt buckles were among English Civil War artefacts from the Battle of Worcester in 1651, unearthed during work on the A4440 Southern Link Road, Worcester, in 2019.

World’s oldest family tree reconstructed from Stone Age tomb

World’s oldest family tree reconstructed from Stone Age tomb

A nearly 6,000-year-old tomb unearthed in England holds the remains of 27 family members, representing a five-generation lineage descended from one man and four women, researchers have found using DNA analysis.

World's oldest family tree reconstructed from Stone Age tomb
An artist’s impression of how the Hazleton North barrow would have looked when it was newly built about 5,700 years ago.

The findings suggest there were polygamous marriages in the upper echelons of Neolithic society at that time because the researchers think it was unlikely that the ancestral man had four wives one after another; instead, he probably had more than one wife at the same time.

The analysis reconstructs one of the oldest family trees ever charted, said Iñigo Olalde, a population geneticist at the University of Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, and one of the lead authors of a study published Tuesday (Dec. 22) in the journal Nature. Scientists from Harvard University in Massachusetts, Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and the University of Vienna in Austria were also involved in the research.

The new techniques are likely to be quickly applied to other collections of ancient human DNA, he said. “This study is important because it’s the first large family tree that we get from prehistory,” he said. “But probably in the next few months or a year, we will get many more.”

Neolithic bones

The bones in the study were from the human remains of 35 people excavated in the 1980s from the Hazleton North barrow in the Cotswold Hills, near the twin cities of Cheltenham and Gloucester in western England.

The barrow, or burial mound, was in a farmer’s field where hundreds of years of ploughing had threatened to destroy it completely, so archaeologists carried out the excavation to preserve what was left, Olalde said.

A few years ago, a different team of researchers extracted genetic material from the bones and teeth of the entombed remains, and Olalde worked with the DNA sequences they contained to piece together how the individuals were related.

It soon became clear that the interrelationships were very complex. “When this became apparent, I thought ‘Oh my God,'” he said. “It was quite surprising, but quite fun, to find all this family.” The analysis could pin down the interrelationships from just 27 of the 35 bodies, including two young girls.

Genetic analysis of the 35 people buried in two tomb chambers in the barrow shows that 27 of them were close biological relatives.
The genetic analysis shows that five generations of one family descended from one man and four women, were buried in the two tomb chambers of the Hazleton North barrow.
The Hazleton North tomb consisted of two L-shaped chambers within a much larger barrow made of earth and stone.
The barrow had been badly damaged by farmers ploughing the land for crops, and the tomb chambers were excavated in the 1980s to preserve what was left. The bones of 35 people were found.

The results showed that the men were usually buried near their fathers and their brothers. This finding suggested that descent was patrilineal — in other words, later generations buried at the tomb were connected to the earliest generation through their male relatives, the researchers said.

But the tomb was also split into two L-shaped chambers, located in the north and south of the structure, and the choice of which chamber individuals were buried in depended on the first-generation women they were descended from — the descendants of two of the women were buried in the northern chamber, and the descendants of the other two women were buried in the southern chamber.

That finding suggested these first-generation women were also socially significant in their community and that their status was recognized when the tomb was built, Olalde said. 

Family matters

Olalde also identified four men buried in the tomb whose mothers had been part of the lineage but whose fathers were not — termed “stepsons.” These stepsons could have been adopted into the family when their mothers joined it, although it was also possible that the women bore children from men outside the family who were not recognized as their partners, he said.

Two of the daughters of the lineage who had died in childhood were buried in the tomb, but no adult daughters of the lineage were buried there; instead, they may have been interred in the family tombs of their male partners, Olalde said.

In the same tomb, he also identified the remains of three women and five men who had no genetic relationship to the family. It’s possible that the women were married to men buried in the tomb and had either no children or only adult daughters who were then buried somewhere else, he said. 

The significance of the five unrelated men is not known, but they may have been adopted into the family or somehow connected through relationships that can’t be determined genetically, Olalde said. The Hazleton North tomb dates to very early in the Neolithic period in England, and it’s likely that the immediate ancestors of the people buried there had come to Britain from continental Europe as part of an immigrant wave of Neolithic farmers at that time, he said.

While Neolithic tombs found on the European continent don’t show such complexity, Olalde said, the relationships between those buried in the Hazleton North tomb probably reflect much earlier kinship structures within the immigrant society.

5 Ice Age Mammoths Discovered Near Busy Road in England

5 Ice Age Mammoths Discovered Near Busy Road in England

Experts who unearthed a 200,000-year-old mammoth graveyard say it is “one of Britain’s biggest Ice Age discoveries in recent years”. Archaeologists found the remains of five animals, including two adults, two juveniles, and an infant, at a quarry near Swindon.

5 Ice Age Mammoths Discovered Near Busy Road in England
The remains of at least five Ice Age mammoths were found at the quarry

The dig began after two keen fossil hunters spotted a Neanderthal hand axe.

Officials from the archaeological organisation DigVentures said that what they went on to find was “exceptional”.

The remains belong to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth.

Close to the mammoth remains, the team also found a number of stone tools made by Neanderthals.

A research team led by archaeologists from DigVentures discovered “surprisingly well-preserved” evidence at the site

DigVentures began the excavations after being alerted to the site by Sally and Neville Hollingworth, from Swindon.

Ms Hollingworth said: “We were originally hoping to find marine fossils, and finding something so significant instead has been a real thrill.

“Even better than that is seeing it turn into a major archaeological excavation

“We couldn’t be more pleased that something we’ve discovered will be learned from and enjoyed by so many people.”

Excavations were carried out in 2019 and 2020 after Sally and Neville Hollingworth spotted the remains in 2017

Lisa Westcott Wilkins from DigVentures said: “Finding mammoth bones is always extraordinary, but finding ones that are so old and well preserved, and in such close proximity to Neanderthal stone tools is exceptional.”

Other discoveries at the site include delicate beetle wings and fragile freshwater snail shells as well as stone tools.

Research is ongoing to understand why so many mammoths were found in one place, and whether they were hunted or scavenged by Neanderthals.

The team recovered bones including tusks, leg bones, ribs and vertebrae belonging to a species of Steppe mammoth

Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: “This represents one of Britain’s most significant Ice Age discoveries in recent years.

“The findings have enormous value for understanding the human occupation of Britain, and the delicate environmental evidence recovered will also help us understand it in the context of past climate change.”

The discoveries are explored in a new BBC documentary ‘Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard’, with Sir David Attenborough

It is believed the site dates back to between 210,000 to 220,000 years ago.

With sites from this period rarely so well-preserved, it is thought these new discoveries will help archaeologists, palaeontologists, and palaeoenvironmental scientists address big questions about Neanderthals, mammoths, and the impact of a rapidly changing climate on life in Ice Age Britain.

The discovery will be featured in a new BBC One documentary Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard which will be broadcast on 30 December.

Some of the bones are now being examined for evidence of butchery, and further work is being planned at the site

Archaeologists Unearth Celtic Warrior Grave Complete With Chariot, Elaborate Shield

Archaeologists Unearth Celtic Warrior Grave Complete With Chariot, Elaborate Shield

Some archaeological finds have to be seen to be believed, and the discovery of the 2,200-year-old grave of a male Celtic warrior has experts very excited indeed – as you’ll understand once you take a peek at the haul.

Among the findings in the grave is an ornate shield described as “the most important British Celtic art object of the millennium” by archaeologist Melanie Giles from the University of Manchester in the UK, as reported by the Independent.

Made in an early Celtic art style known as La Tène, the shield features an unusual scalloped edge and a triple spiral design called a triskele. The shield also shows organic forms such as mollusc shells, along with signs of having been repaired.

The shield was buried alongside a 2,000-year-old chariot drawn by two horses.

“The popular belief is that elaborate metal-faced shields were purely ceremonial, reflecting status, but not used in battle,” says archaeologist Paula Ware from the MAP Archaeological Practice in the UK, according to the Yorkshire Post.

“Our investigation challenges this with the evidence of a puncture wound in the shield typical of a sword. Signs of repairs can also be seen, suggesting the shield was not only old but likely to have been well used.”

Measuring 75 centimetres or nearly 30 inches across, the shield would have been crafted by hammering a bronze sheet of metal from underneath. Any leather and wood trappings that once existed on the defensive weapon have since rotted away.

Besides the shield, in a rather grim turn, the grave also features what looks to be a chariot, complete with horses – though it’s not clear if the horses were sacrificed for the purposes of the burial or had already died beforehand.

“These horses were placed with their hooves on the ground and their rear legs looking as though they would leap out of the grave,” Ware explained.

The horse remains.

Seeing all this weaponry, a method of transportation and provisions packed into the grave indicates how seriously Celtic tribes of the time considered the move to the afterlife.

The society that this warrior would have lived in would have wanted to give him as much help as possible in whatever came next.

The man himself is thought to have been in his late 40s or older when he died, sometime around 320-174 BCE. Nothing like this type of burial has ever been seen in the UK before, although another chariot-and-horse grave was uncovered in Bulgaria in 2013.

These latest findings haven’t yet appeared in a peer-reviewed paper, but come from a burial site originally uncovered in 2018, near the town of Pocklington, Yorkshire. A red glass brooch and pig remains (another potential animal sacrifice) have also been discovered in the same grave.

As work continues on the artefacts uncovered from the site, expect to hear more about this ancient warrior and his unusual burial in the months and years to come – there are still plenty of unanswered questions.

“We don’t know how the man died,” Ware said, according to the Yorkshire Post. “There are some blunt force traumas but they wouldn’t have killed him. I don’t think he died in battle; it is highly likely he died in old age.”

“What his role was I can’t tell you. He has collected some nice goodies along the way – he is definitely not run of the mill.”

1,000-Year-Old Ink Pen Found in Ringfort is Ireland’s Oldest

1,000-Year-Old lnk Pen Found in Ringfort is Ireland’s Oldest

The British Isles’ oldest-known ink pen has been found during excavations of a Cashel, or stone fort, in County Clare. Archaeologist Michelle Comber of the National University of Ireland, Galway unearthed the 1,000-year-old writing implement from the Caherconnell Cashel.

Ireland’s oldest ink pen was discovered at the Caherconnell Cashel ringfort among many fine craftworking and metalwork tools.

This 140-foot-wide ringfort was built in the late 10th century and would have been home to wealthy — and, it seems, literate — local rulers until the early 1600s. Other artefacts from the site have shown that the occupants engaged in varied pursuits, from fine craftworking and metalwork to trade, games and music.

Most examples of early literacy in Ireland come from the Church, whose hardworking scribes painstakingly copied all manner of ecclesiastical texts. 

Most famous, perhaps, is the Book of Kells — a manuscript created in honour of Christ in 800 AD that is resplendent with elaborate calligraphy and illustrations. However, Dr Comber believes that the individual who used the Caherconnell pen likely did so in order to record more mundane things like family lineages and trades.

Dr Comber told MailOnline that the bone-and-metal Caherconnell pen is the earliest complete example of a composite pen from anywhere within the British Isles.

1,000-Year-Old lnk Pen Found in Ringfort is Ireland’s Oldest
Ireland’s oldest-known ink pen (pictured) — which sports a hollow bone barrel and copper-alloy nib — has been found during excavations of a Cashel, or stone fort, in County Clare

Earlier in British history, however, the Romans were known to use pens that were made entirely of a copper-alloy, rather than sporting a separate barrel and nib.

In England, several copper-alloy nibs have been found, albeit without the necessary barrel, dating from between the 13th and 16th centuries. On the flip side, a couple of hollow bone pen shafts have been recovered from the London area that data to the 13th–15th centuries. 

If, as suspected given their lack of splint point, these were originally used with attached nibs — much like the Caherconnell pen — such have been long lost.

According to Dr Comber, perhaps the most curious part of the discovery is the context from which it appears to have originated, namely in a secular, rather than religious, setting.

Perhaps the most curious part of the discovery of the pen (pictured) is the context from which it appears to have originated — namely in a secular, rather than religious, setting

‘The Caherconnell Archaeology project has been a hugely rewarding one, with many unexpected and exciting discoveries along the way,’ the archaeologist explained.

‘This find has, however, exceeded all expectations, revealing the tantalising prospect of an advanced secular literacy in 11th-century Ireland.’

The fact that most known evidence of early literacy in Ireland is associated instead with the Church — and no pen of this age or type had previously been found — led Dr Comber to seek confirmation that the artefact could, indeed, have functioned as a writing tool.

Accordingly, she teamed up with experimental archaeologist Adam Parsons of Blueaxe Reproductions to fabricate a replica of the historical implement. 

Dr Comber teamed up with experimental archaeologist Adam Parsons of Blueaxe Reproductions to fabricate a replica (pictured) of the historical implement — enabling the duo to demonstrate that the artefact would have worked perfectly as a dip pen

When put through its paces, the duo found that the modern duplicate does work — and its original counterpart would have worked — just perfectly as a dip pen.

Dip pens are those that have no ink reservoir as is characteristic of modern fountain pens and need to be returned to a well frequently to replenish their supply. This in itself set the Caherconnell pen apart, as the more common writing implement in the 11th century would have been the feather quill.

According to expert calligrapher and historian Tim O’Neill, the design of the Caherconnell pen would have lent it well for use on fine work — perhaps even the drawing of fine lines.

‘A metal pen from such an early date is still hard to credit,’ Mr O’Neill said.

‘But the fact that it functions with ink is there to see. It would have worked well for ruling straight lines — to form, for instance, a frame for a page.’