Can 4.5 Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Hold Secrets of Life on Earth?

Scientists are set to uncover the secrets of a rare meteorite and possibly the origins of oceans and life on Earth, thanks to Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) funding.

Research carried out on the meteorite, which fell in the UK earlier this year, suggests that the space rock dates back to the beginning of the Solar System, 4.5 billion years ago.

The meteorite has now been officially classified, thanks in part to the STFC-funded studies on the sample.

The Winchcombe meteorite, aptly named after the Gloucestershire town where it landed, is an extremely rare type called a carbonaceous chondrite.

It is a stony meteorite, rich in water and organic matter, which has retained its chemistry from the formation of the solar system. Initial analyses showing Winchcombe to be a member of the CM (“Mighei-like”) group of carbonaceous chondrites have now been formally approved by the Meteoritical Society.

STFC provided an urgency grant in order to help fund the work of planetary scientists across the UK. The funding has enabled the Natural History Museum to invest in state-of-the-art curation facilities to preserve the meteorite, and also supported time-sensitive mineralogical and organic analyses in specialist laboratories at several leading UK institutions.

Dr. Ashley King, a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellow in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum, said: “We are grateful for the funding STFC has provided.

Winchcombe is the first meteorite fall to be recovered in the UK for 30 years and the first-ever carbonaceous chondrite to be recovered in our country. STFC’s funding is aiding us with this unique opportunity to discover the origins of water and life on Earth. Through the funding, we have been able to invest in state-of-the-art equipment that has contributed to our analysis and research into the Winchcombe meteorite.”

The meteorite was tracked using images and video footage from the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll), a collaboration between the UK’s meteor camera networks that includes the UK Fireball Network, which is funded by STFC. Fragments were then quickly located and recovered.

Since the discovery, UK scientists have been studying Winchcombe to understand its mineralogy and chemistry to learn about how the Solar System formed.

Dr. Luke Daly from the University of Glasgow and co-lead of the UK Fireball Network said: “Being able to investigate Winchcombe is a dream come true.

Many of us have spent our entire careers studying this type of rare meteorite. We are also involved in JAXA’s Hayabusa2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx missions, which aim to return pristine samples of carbonaceous asteroids to the Earth.

For a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite to fall in the UK, and for it to be recovered so quickly and have a known orbit, is a really special event and a fantastic opportunity for the UK planetary science community.”

Funding from STFC enabled scientists to quickly begin the search for signs of water and organics in Winchcombe before it could be contaminated by the terrestrial environment.

Dr. Queenie Chan from Royal Holloway, University of London added: “The team’s preliminary analyses confirm that Winchcombe contains a wide range of organic material! Studying the meteorite only weeks after the fall, before any significant terrestrial contamination, means that we really are peering back in time at the ingredients present at the birth of the solar system, and learning about how they came together to make planets like the Earth.”

A piece of the Winchcombe meteorite that was recovered during an organized search by the UK planetary science community is now on public display at London’s Natural History Museum. 

Mystery as fully-sealed bottle of liquid discovered between skeleton’s legs

Experts at Hull’s largest-ever archaeological excavation believe they’ve made significant progress in unraveling the mystery of a bottle discovered between a skeleton’s legs. The unique blue-colored glass bottle marked ‘Hull Infirmary’ appears to have been placed in a grave at the former Trinity burial cemetery on purpose.

The fully intact sealed bottle also contained an unknown brown liquid. It was discovered earlier this year as part of the major excavation at the site where burials took place between 1783 and 1861.

A 70-strong team of specialist archaeologists have been working there since last year as part of the nearby £355m A63 upgrade scheme on Castle Street in the city centre. They are examining around 1,500 exhumed skeletons.

The site is one of the largest post-medieval cemeteries to have ever been excavated in the north of England and the discovery of the bottle initially raised a few eyebrows.

Osteology supervisor Katie Dalmon explained: “It’s quite normal to find artefacts such as rings, coins, items of clothing and even tableware such as plates in a burial plot but this bottle was quite unusual.

“Not only was it apparently specifically placed between the person’s legs but it was also sealed and was nearly full of liquid.”

The ‘Hull Infirmary’ inscription on the side of the bottle was the first clue in what has become an ongoing piece of archaeological detective work.

The hospital was first established in temporary premises in 1782 – a year before the burial ground opened – and then moved to a purpose-built home in Prospect Street in 1784.

Katie added: “We now know a little bit more about the identity of the body – it’s a woman who was in her 60s at the time of death. We also know she was suffering from residual Ricketts and osteoporosis.

“She was also buried in the middle of a burial stack with the bottle. It was deliberately placed with the individual and was not part of any backfill.”

Tests have also been carried on the mysterious liquid in an effort to establish what it actually is with samples being sent to experts from Nottingham Trent University to carry out a high-tech analysis.

Katie said: “The tests have confirmed the presence of sodium, potassium and phosphorus and have also discounted any pharmaceutical materials being present.

“The results leave us with the likelihood that the liquid is probably urine but they also raise a whole series of other questions.

“What could this mean? Why was it placed there and, if it’s not the urine, what could it be?”

She said another theory being examined was that the liquid might have been a type of phosphate-based tonic drink.

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“These were popular in the 19th century when they were advertised as a cure for various medical ailments, including tuberculosis.

“We can’t be exactly sure at the moment so we are carrying out more tests to try to get a definitive answer.”

The team from Oxford Archaeology is expected to spend several years studying all the finding findings from the burial ground. Work on the actual site is due to end next month when the remaining giant tents covering the excavation area will be removed.

English cave may have ties to king-turned-saint and Viking invasion, archaeologists say

Archaeologists in England have identified a near-complete Anglo-Saxon cave house, which, they say, may once have been the home of a king who became a saint.

Thought to date from the early 9th century, the dwelling in the central English county of Derbyshire was discovered by a team from the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) and Wessex Archaeology, according to a news release published Wednesday.

The team carried out a detailed survey of the Anchor Church Caves in south Derbyshire, concluding that the caves probably date from the early medieval period rather than the 18th century as previously thought.

Edmund Simons, a research fellow at the RAU, told CNN the cave is a “small, intimate space” that is one of the oldest domestic interiors surviving in the UK.

While there are a few churches with intact interiors that date from a similar period, Simons said, “there’s nowhere else really where you can walk into somewhere where somebody ate and slept and prayed and lived.”

“It’s quite remarkable,” he added.

The researchers carried out a detailed study to reconstruct a house featuring three rooms, as well as a chapel.

Dating the cave house

A number of factors combined to date the dwelling to the early 9th century, Simons said. The caves are cut from soft sandstone rock and their narrow doorways and windows resemble Saxon architecture, while a rock-cut pillar is similar to one found in a nearby Saxon crypt.

The Anchor Church Caves are also linked by local folklore and a fragment of a 16th-century book to a saint. St. Hardulph has been identified as King Eardwulf, who ruled Northumbria until 806. He died around 830 and was buried five miles from the caves, in Breedon on the Hill in Leicestershire.

Around the time of his death, Viking raids on Britain, which started in the late 8th century, had grown in size. The Vikings arrived in the area and set up a winter camp in nearby Repton shortly after Hardulph’s death. As their Great Heathen Army slaughtered all the local religious figures, this suggests the cave house must date from before their arrival, Simons explained.

“All of these things fit together,” he added.

Hardulph would not have been a “beardy weirdy” who lived in the cave alone, said Simons, but a kind of living saint who had servants and disciples and visitors who would come to consult him. He is one of a number of deposed Saxon kings who lived out their years as monks or hermits as a way of keeping their status.

“A hermit is an important and holy person,” said Simons. “It’s an incredibly religious period.”

18th century renovations

In the 18th century, the caves were modified by local landowner and aristocrat Robert Burdett, who added brickwork and window frames so that he could invite friends for dinner in the “cool and romantic cells” of the caves, according to the press release.

At the time there was a growing interest in Romanticism, an artistic and literary movement that made connections to the medieval period, as well as the picturesque aesthetic of rural England.

Burdett also widened the entrances to get tables, drinks and women in wide skirts into the cave, Simons said.

The analysis is part of a wider project involving more than 170 cave houses in the English Midlands, he said, adding that some date from a similar period and preliminary investigations suggest that a few could be even older than the Anchor Church caves.

“It is extraordinary that domestic buildings over 1200 years old survive in plain sight, unrecognised by historians, antiquarians and archaeologists,” Mark Horton, professor of archaeology at the RAU, said in the news release.

“We are confident that other examples are still to be discovered to give a unique perspective on Anglo Saxon England.”

The study is published in the Proceedings of the University of Bristol Speleological Society.

Viking-Era Coins Discovered on the Isle of Man

A metal detectorist who made another astonishing find last year uncovered a Viking era “piggybank” of silver coins on the Isle of Man. Former police officer Kath Giles discovered the 1,000-year-old fragments in a field in the north of the island.

Details of the 87 coins, which were found in April, were made public for the first time at a coroner’s hearing.

The coins were minted in England, Dublin, Germany and the Isle of Man.

Ms Giles previously made headlines when she discovered a collection of gold and silver Viking jewellery, which was declared treasure in February.

Manx National Heritage’s curator of archaeology Allison Fox said it was a “wonderful find”.

It would help increase understanding of the “complex Viking Age economy” in the area surrounding the Irish Sea, she added.

It is thought the silver pieces, which date from between AD 1000 and 1035, had been deliberately buried by the owner for safekeeping.

American coin specialist Kristin Bornholdt-Collins, who helped to identify the provenance and age of the pieces, said the hoard may have been used as a Viking Age “piggybank”, which would account for some of the older coins in the collection.

Dr Bornholdt-Collins said once buried the hoard may have been “added to overtime”, although most of the pieces were a “direct reflection” of what was circulating in and around the island at the time.

Other items found included 13 pieces of silver arm rings, which were also used as currency during the period.

The collection will be put on display at the Manx Museum in Douglas before being taken to London for valuation at a later date.

Under Manx law, finds of archaeological interest must be reported to Manx National Heritage and those legally declared treasures at an inquest become the property of the crown, with the finder rewarded.

700-year-old Pope’s seal found in Shropshire field

The number of archaeological objects officially unearthed in Britain has reached the 1.5million mark – with the discovery of a seal belonging to a 13th-century pope. The medieval find, which is more than 750 years old, was a seal of Pope Innocent IV and may have links to an English monarch.

Born Sinibaldo Fieschi, Pope Innocent IV, whose papacy began in 1243, used the lead coin-like object to confer political and religious favours.

Experts believe the seal, which was discovered by a metal detectorist in Shropshire, may have ended up there because the Pope was trying to obtain Henry III’s support in his claim for Sicily.   

Peter Reavill, the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme finds liaison officer for Shropshire and Herefordshire, said another explanation was that it may have been given as an ‘indulgence’ to a rich, powerful individual who gave money to the church in exchange order to keep him ‘out of purgatory.’  

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Mr Reavill said: ‘We don’t know who he (the Pope) sent the letter to. All we know is the lead seal has dropped off.’

While the seal, which would have been kept as a ‘talisman’, does not have a huge value, ‘the archaeology of the region is definitely richer for its find,’ he said.

The object is the 1.5 millionth to be discovered in the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).

The scheme was created in 1997 so archaeological objects found by the public can be recorded to help advance knowledge of the past.

Experts say the finds, which have included the gold treasures of the Staffordshire Hoard, have radically transformed what ‘is known about life through time on the British Isles.’

The seal was found before metal-detecting was prohibited under the lockdown.

Museum director Hartwig Fischer said: ‘We look forward to many more objects being recorded, and who knows what exciting discoveries are yet to be found.’

Under the Treasure Act in 1996, finders have to report all finds of potential treasure to the local coroner within 14 days – or face an unlimited fine or up to three months in prison.

Items listed as potential treasure include two or more coins over 300 years old, objects made of precious metals, such as gold and silver, which are over 300 years old, groups of prehistoric metal objects, and any objects found in the same place as other items of treasure.

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The coroner will then decide if the item or items are a treasure, at which point it will be offered to a museum – and then the finder, landowner or tenant of the land will get a reward.

The British Museum and BBC History Magazine have published a list of 10 of the most important discoveries of the past 23 years.

They include gold vessel the Ringlemere Cup; the 2,581 coins known as the Chew Valley Hoard; the Staffordshire Moorlands pan and the Staffordshire Hoard – the largest find of Anglo-Saxon gold.

Michael Lewis, head of the PAS and Treasure at the British Museum, said that ‘even the smallest and most modest items offer clues about our history, so we encourage everyone who makes a find to continue to come forward.’

‘Entire Streets’ Of Roman London Uncovered

About 10,000 finds have been discovered, including writing tablets and good luck charms. The area has been dubbed the “Pompeii of the north” due to the perfect preservation of organic artefacts such as leather and wood.

One expert said: “This is the site that we have been dreaming of for 20 years.”

Archaeologists expect the finds, at the three-acre site, to provide the earliest foundation date for Roman London, currently AD 47.

The site will house media corporation Bloomberg’s European headquarters.

It contains the bed of the Walbrook, one of the “lost” rivers of London, and features built-up soil waterfronts and timber structures, including a complex Roman drainage system used to discharge waste from industrial buildings.

Organic materials such as leather and wood were preserved in an anaerobic environment, due to the bed being waterlogged.

‘Beautifully preserved’

Museum of London archaeologists (MOLA), who led the excavation of the site, says it contains the largest collection of small finds ever recovered on a single site in London, covering a period from the AD 40s to the early 5th Century.

Sadie Watson, the site director for MOLA, said: “We have entire streets of Roman London in front of us.”

At 40ft (12m), the site is believed to be one of the deepest archaeological digs in London, and the team has removed 3,500 tonnes of soil in six months.

More than 100 fragments of Roman writing tablets have been discovered. Some are thought to contain names and addresses, while others contain affectionate letters.

A wooden door, only the second to be found in London, is another prized find.

MOLA’s Sophie Jackson said the site contains “layer upon layer of Roman timber buildings, fences and yards, all beautifully preserved and containing amazing personal items, clothes, and even documents.”

The site also includes a previously unexcavated section of the Temple of Mithras, a Roman cult, which was first unearthed in 1954.

The preserved timber means that tree ring samples will provide dendrochronological dating for Roman London, expected to be earlier than the current dating of AD 47.

The artefacts are to be transported back to the Museum of London to be freeze-dried and preserved by the record, as the site will eventually become the entrance to the Waterloo and City line at Bank station.

18th century Ice House re-discovered beneath the streets of Marylebone London

Archaeologists in London have re-discovered a subterranean ice house near Regents Park. Dating back to the 1780s, the egg-shaped cavern was used to store ice, which was imported from as far away as Norway.

Made from bricks, the structure would have been one of the largest of its kind at the time, according to the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).

The egg-shaped chambers measure 25 feet (7.5 meters) wide and 31 feet (9.5 meters) deep. Archaeologists with MOLA found the ice house, also known as an ice well, along with its entrance chambers and vaulted ante-chamber, during preparation for the development of the Regent’s Crescent residential project.

MOLA said the ice houses are in remarkable condition, given that buildings directly above it were destroyed during the London Blitz of the 2nd World War, and that a subway line runs about 32 feet (10 meters) underneath, as the Guardian report.

It is hard to believe that a structure as large as this could have gone missing, but the entrance was buried during clean-up operations after the Blitz.

“There was always an understanding that there was an ice house here somewhere, but we were not sure where,” David Sorapure, the head of Built Heritage at MOLA, told the Guardian.

“Even after we found where the entrance was, we were not quite sure how big it was, or how you got in.”

MOLA is working at the site on behalf of Great Marlborough Estates, which is currently redeveloping Regent’s Crescent, which once boasted elaborate stucco terraces designed by architect John Nash, who also designed Buckingham Palace.

The ice well was built underneath the terrace in the 1780s by Samuel Dash, who had ties to the brewing industry. By the 1820s, ice-merchants and confectioner William Leftwich was using the Ice Houses to store and supply ice for wealthy Londoners, according to MOLA.

While modern refrigeration had yet to be invented, that did not deter Englanders from wanting easy access to ice.

It was not possible back then to create ice artificially, so it had to be gathered from local waterways and stored in subterranean ice houses, of which there were thousand in London alone (though much smaller than the newly discovered ice house).

As the Guardian reports, workers at the ice house would descend into the chambers to collect pieces of ice when needed. The ice would have been delivered to customers, including restaurants and potentially doctors and dentists, via a horse-drawn cart.

While we may take access to ice for granted today, the frozen stuff was in high demand in Leftwich’s day. According to a MOLA press release:

Leftwich was one of the first peoples to recognise the potential for profit in imported ice: in 1822, following a very mild winter, he chartered a vessel to make the 2000 km round trip from Great Yarmouth to Norway to collect 300 tonnes of ice harvested from crystal-clear frozen lake, an example of “the extraordinary the length has gone to at this time to serve up luxury fashionable frozen treats and furnish food trader and retailers with ice” (as put by David Sorapure, our Head of Built Heritage).

The venture was not without risks: previous import had been lost at sea or melted whilst baffled custom officials dithered over how to tax such novel cargo.

The newly re-discovered ice houses have now been designated a Scheduled Monument by Historic England. Restoration work is planned for the structures, along with the construction of a viewing corridor to allow public access.

Archaeologists discover medieval skeleton with his boots still on in London

Archaeologists excavating a site along with the Thames Tideway Tunnel—a massive pipeline nicknamed London’s “super sewer”—have revealed the skeleton of a medieval man who literally died with his boots on.

“It’s extremely rare to discover any boots from the late 15th century, let alone a skeleton still wearing them,” says Beth Richardson of the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA).

“And these are very unusual boots for the period—thigh boots, with the tops, turned down. They would have been expensive, and how this man came to own them is a mystery. Were they secondhand? Did he steal them? We don’t know.”

Unearthing skeletons amid major construction projects is not unusual in London, where throughout the centuries land has been reused countless times and many burial grounds have been built over and forgotten. (Learn more about London’s rich history.)

However, archaeologists noticed right away that this skeleton was different.

The position of the body—face down, right arm over the head, left arm bent back on itself—suggests that the man was not deliberately buried. It is also unlikely that he would have been laid to rest in leather boots, which were expensive and highly prized.

In light of those clues, archaeologists believe the man died accidentally and his body was never recuperated, although the cause of death is unclear. Perhaps he fell into the river and could not swim. Or possibly he became trapped in the tidal mud and drowned.

Sailor, fisherman, or “mudlarker”?

500 years ago this stretch of the Thames—2 miles or so downstream from the Tower of London—was a bustling maritime neighbourhood of wharves and warehouses, workshops and taverns.

The river was flanked by the Bermondsey Wall, a medieval earthwork about fifteen feet high built to protect riverbank property from tidal surges.

Given the neighbourhood, the booted man may have been a sailor or a fisherman, a possibility reinforced by physical clues.

Pronounced grooves in his teeth may have been caused by repeatedly clenching a rope. Or perhaps he was a “mudlarker,” a slang term for those who scavenge along the Thames muddy shore at low tide.

The man’s wader-like thigh boots would have been ideal for such work.

“We know he was very powerfully built,” says Niamh Carty, an osteologist, or skeletal specialist, at MOLA.

“The muscle attachments on his chest and shoulder are very noticeable. The muscles were built by doing lots of heavy, repetitive work over a long period of time.”

It was work that took a physical toll. Albeit only in his early thirties, the booted man suffered from osteoarthritis, and vertebrae in his back had already begun to fuse as the result of years of bending and lifting.

Wounds to his left hip suggest he walked with a limp, and his nose had been broken at least once. There is evidence of blunt force trauma on his forehead that had healed before he died.

“He did not have an easy life,” says Carty. “Early thirties was middle age back then, but even so, his biological age was older.”

The examination is continuing. Isotope investigation will shed light on where the man grew up, whether he was an immigrant or a native Londoner, and what kind of diet he had.

“His family never had any answers or a grave,” says Carty. “What we are doing is an act of remembrance. We’re allowing his story to finally be told.”