Everyday Life In A Bronze Age Village Emerges In U.K. Excavation
Must Farm, an extraordinarily well-preserved Late Bronze Age settlement in Cambridgeshire, in the East of England, drew attention in national and international media as ‘Britain’s Pompeii’ or the ‘Pompeii of the Fens’.
The major excavation was funded by Historic England and Forterra Building Products Ltd, which owns the Must Farm quarry.
What did villagers in England eat for dinner 3,000 years ago? And what were they wearing?
These are the kinds of questions that archaeologists believe they can answer with a Bronze Age-era discovery at the Must Farm Quarry, some 80 miles north of London.
“What’s special about this is, it’s not the archaeology of the important people. It’s not burial mounds. This is the archaeology of the home,” David Gibson from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit says in an interview with All Things Considered.
Wood specialist Mike Bamforth examines the base of a Bronze Age wooden bucket at the excavation site.
Remains of a Bronze Age circular house show inner and outer post rings and collapsed roof timbers “like spokes in a wheel.”
The research team says say these circular Bronze Age homes were perched on stilts above a river.
Archaeologists believe that when a fire started, the residents fled, and their dwellings sunk into the river where they were preserved by the silt, creating a unique snapshot of everyday life thousands of years ago.
Among this treasure trove are whole pots with food inside, textiles made from plant fibers, a longboat, weapons, and colorful beads.
Gibson says they’re sending off pots for analysis. “It might even tell us exactly what their last meal was before the fire struck,” he says. And somewhat chillingly, “we know it was sudden because one of the pots with the food still had its wooden spoon stuck in it.”
Whole pots were preserved inside timber dwellings destroyed by fire. Archaeologists discovered there was still food in some of them.
He adds that they’ve found 29 complete food vessels and pots, ranging in size from 2 feet high to 2 inches. “It’s almost like someone has gone to the department store and ordered the full set for their house,” Gibson says.
It’s the “best-preserved Bronze Age dwellings ever found in Britain,” preservation group Historic England says in a statement.
Historic England and the Forterra Quarry are funding this $1,588,000 project over four years.
“Normally, when we do archaeology, we see the decay of a settlement, we see it going out of use, and we see the slow back-fill overtime of the ditches and the pits.
We don’t see a snapshot. So this is almost like, you get the opportunity to peek through the curtains and see people actually in their daily moment,” archaeologist Selina Davenport told the BBC.
Archaeologists are still excavating the site. They say the findings will eventually be displayed at nearby museums.
Solid gold ring with the lord of rings inscription found in the field
A gold ring engraved with a romantic message has been unearthed centuries after it was last seen.
Amateur treasure hunter Morley Howard was metal detecting in a newly ploughed field in Highbridge, Somerset, when he made his discovery.
The ring, with a Lord of the Rings-style inscription reading ‘In thee my choys I do rejoys’ is thought to be a 300-year-old posy ring, traditionally given by lovers in Elizabethan times.
Mr Howard, from Burnham-on-Sea, is now waiting for the ring to be dated by the British Museum.
He said: ‘When previously metal detecting on this land I’d only unearthed pre-decimal and modern items, but when the farmer recently ploughed the land, I thought I’d give it a couple of hours again.’
Mr. Howard said he’d searched the field before but decided to have another go after it was ploughed
Mr Howard, of Burnham-on-Sea, said the ring is the most exciting find he’s had in four years of treasure hunting
‘My metal detector was quiet initially, but just as I was about to turn around, my machine gave a good strong signal and I dug a small plug and lifted the soil to reveal a small band of yellow.
‘It was a marvellous moment – I thought what a loss it must have been for the owner at the time, but it was also a joy for me to get a treasure find.’
He took the ring to the Somerset Heritage Centre before sending it on to the British Museum where it will be verified by jewellery experts.
But Mr Howard believes it is an Elizabethan posy ring, which were traditionally given by lovers with romantic messages engraved on the inside in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.
He said: ”Many posy rings were made for women and are smaller, but this one is a male ring and weighs 6.8 grams. It’s hard to date as there are no maker’s initials or hallmarks.
The inscription reads: ‘In thee my choys I do rejoys’, which is a typical message found in gold posy rings
‘These posy rings can have a value of between £1,500-£4,000, and if it’s proven to be more than 300 years old it will be offered to a local museum to acquire.
‘If a museum wants it, they’ll have to pay the land owner 50 per cent and myself 50 per cent once it’s been valued.
‘If the ring is not acquired by a museum, then it’s returned to me and the land owner and we’ll decide what to do with it.’
The inscription is typical for a ring of the period.
Burnham-on-Sea dates back to Roman times, making it a favourite with treasure hunters. In 1607 the Bristol Channel flooded, swamping Burnham and leaving many treasures buried under the mud the water brought.
NORTH GYEONGSANG PROVINCE, SOUTH KOREA—According to a Korea Herald report, a pair of gilt-bronze shoes thought to date to the late fifth or early sixth century A.D. was found in one of three tombs at a burial site in Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom in eastern South Korea.
The tomb also contained saddles, bronze ware, iron pots, and earthenware. Researchers from the Silla Cultural Heritage Research Institute said such shoes were covered with T-shaped holes and were only used for funeral ceremonies.
The shoes were newly excavated from an ancient Silla tomb in Gyeongju for the first time in 43 years.
Tomb No. 120 in Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province (CHA)
A pair of gilt bronze shoes, a silver plate to embellish a belt, and horse harness ornaments were excavated from Tomb No. 120-2 in Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, the Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Wednesday.
Gilt bronze shoes from the Silla Kingdom were intended for funerals, not everyday use. This is the first time that such shoes were found from an ancient Silla tomb in Gyeongju since 1977 in ancient tombs in Inwang-dong.
The gilt-bronze shoes discovered May 15 in tomb No. 120-2 in Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province (CHA)
The pair of shoes featuring T-shaped holes on the surface and Buddhist gilt bronze ornaments were discovered near the feet of the buried body.
The excavation process for the shoes is still ongoing as of Wednesday. Gilt bronze shoes of a similar shape were found from the southern mound of Hwangnam DaeChong tomb in Gyeongju.
“The presence of gilt bronze shoes suggests that the buried person was from a royal family,” said senior researcher Kim Kwon-il at the Silla Cultural Heritage Research Center, which is in charge of the excavation.
In addition, a silver plate to embellish a belt was found near the legs and several Buddhist gilt bronze ornaments were found near the head.
The Cultural Heritage Administration said the Buddhist ornaments may have been used as part of or to decorate a hat. For grave goods, various horse harness ornaments, including a gilt bronze saddle and other gilt bronze embellishments, bronze irons, cast iron cauldrons, and earthware were found.
Tomb No. 120 in Hwangnam-dong is located in the Daereungwon royal tomb site. A tomb number was assigned but the past existence of an ancient tomb was unclear as a private residence was built on the site.
The Cultural Heritage Administration and the Gyeongju municipal government identified additional tombs in the north and south of Tomb No. 120 during its excavation last year.
Norway couple find Viking grave under floor of their house
A Norwegian couple got quite the shock when renovating their old family house near Bodø in northern Norway this month.
When the couple removed the floor, they began to find stones and pieces of iron. Archaeologists
After removing the floorboards and some sand with the intention to install insulation, the couple discovered several rocks. They continued digging and spotted something glittering in the light.
“It wasn’t until later that we realised what it could be,” Mariann Kristiansen from Seivåg near Bodø told Norway’s state broadcaster NRK of the find. “We first thought it was the wheel of a toy car.”
Naturally, they were curious, and then they saw something round glinting in the light. They knew that it had to be old because the house had been built in 1914 and the floorboards had not been moved since. The house has been in the same family for over a century.
After some further digging, the couple found an iron axe head and some other metallic objects, that were all obviously old. ‘It wasn’t until later that we realized what it could be” Mariann Kristiansen, one of the owners of the house, told The Local .
Viking ax head, representation of the find at the Viking burial site in Norway.
The couple contacted the local authorities and experts from the local Nordland county government came to inspect the finds. Martinus Hauglid told the couple that they had most likely found a grave from the Iron Age in Norway. This was the era when the Vikings ruled in Scandinavia and terrified most of the known world.
The archaeologist told The Local that the couple had found an “ax dated between 950 and 1050 AD”. The bead of glass, which was revealed to be blue dates from the same period.
A glass bead was among the first objects discovered in the Viking grave.
Viking Cairn
It is believed that the stones found underneath the flooring came from a burial.
The stones were likely part of a cairn. In this type of burial, a mound of stones and rocks are erected over the deceased which was a very common burial practice in the Iron Age.
A number of similar cairns were found in the Lendbreen Mountain Pass in Norway when a glacier melted. This was an important trade route in the Middle Ages .
Martinus congratulated the couple on their find and stated that they had done a good job, by reporting things so soon. The archaeologist said that it was the first instance of a Viking grave being found under a private dwelling in his 30 year career.
Archaeologists have begun an investigation of the grave. Forbes reports that under Norwegian Law any human artifacts or “activity before 1537 are automatically preserved”. The items found by the couple have been transported to a museum for conservation and safekeeping.
These stones formed the top of what archaeologists believe is a Viking burial ground.
End of the Viking Age
Martinus is quoted by Forbes as stating that the finds under the floorboards date back to a time “when Norway transitioned to Christianity to become one kingdom”. This was the time when kings like Olaf Tryggvason , attempted to dominate the many chiefdoms and create a centralized state.
Some of these monarchs sought to impose Christianity on the pagan Norse as part of their efforts at state-building and this led to many civil wars. The grave could help researchers to better understand this crucial period in Norwegian history which saw the demise of the Viking Age.
It appears that the original builders of the house, over a century ago, were not aware that they were building a private residence on a grave. It is quite possible that they unearthed items and simply discarded them. This raises the possibility that some Viking-era grave goods were lost or destroyed during the construction of the family home.
Viking era grave goods displayed at the National Museum of Iceland.
Archaeologists Discover More Than 200-Year-Old Shipwreck In Mexico’s Caribbean.
QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO— BBC reports that an eight-foot cannon, anchor, and pig-iron ingots thought to have been used as a ship’s ballast were spotted by a fisherman in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of southern Mexico.
The wreckage rests in shallow waters and rough ocean currents at the Banco Chinchorro atoll reef, a dangerous area where 70 historic shipwrecks have been registered.
Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said the vessel could be the remains of an English sailing ship built in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.
They believe the ship sank more than 200 years ago after hitting a reef. While most of the wood has rotted away, the ship’s cannon and anchor are well preserved.
The wreck has been named after Manuel Polanco, the fisherman who first spotted it and reported it to Mexico’s National Archaeological Institute.
‘Nightmare Reef’
The wreck was found in the waters of the Banco Chinchorro atoll reef, about 35km from Majahual on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, and is thought to date back to the late 18th or early 19th Century.
The archaeologists think that it sank after hitting the Chinchorro Bank, which was colloquially known as “Nightmare reef” or “Sleep-robbing reef” because of the dangers it posed to seafarers.
Mexico has declared the area an underwater cultural heritage site because of the many wrecks which can be found there, including two Spanish galleons.
The Manuel Polanco is the seventieth wreck to be found in the area.
The anchor was found in shallow waters at Banco Chinchorro
Underwater archaeologists said the currents where the cannon was found were strong
Mexico’s National Archaeological Institute (INAH) was alerted to the remains of the sailing ship – an anchor, a 2.5m-long (8ft) cannon, and pig iron ingots believed to have been used for ballast – by fisherman Manuel Polanco.
Mr. Polanco, who is now retired and in his 80s, already made some remarkable discoveries in the 1960s and 70s.
Among his best-known finds are the wreck of a ship dubbed “40 cañones” (40 cannons) and “The Angel”, a sailing ship which transported logwood – a natural source of purple dye – from Mexico to Europe.
He spotted the remains which INAH archaeologists are now studying as early as the 1990s, but archaeologists only carried out their first dives to inspect it in the past two months.
To honour his contribution to underwater archaeology, INAH scientists decided to name the newly located wreck after Mr. Polanco.
Due to his advanced age, Mr. Polanco did not accompany the archaeologists but sent his son Benito to help archaeologists locate the wreck instead.
The INAH scientists think the remains could have belonged to a British sailing ship but said they needed to carry out further studies before they could confirm its origin.
Archaeologists discover giant defensive minefield from the roman iron age
Archaeologists have unearthed a massive structure in Lolland that is believed to have been used to ward off an attacking army back in the Roman Iron Age. So far, 770 meters of the structure have been detected.
In 2013 a team of archaeologists from the Museum Lolland-Falster in Denmark discovered a vast ancient “hole belt”: a defense land work featuring over 1000 long lines and rows of small holes dug into the ground.
According to archaeologist and Museum Inspector, Bjørnar Mage, talking to TV2 EAST , this hole belt was designed to slow down hostile advancing armies from the south coast of Lolland and it was built during the reign of the Roman Empire in Europe, and while 770 meters of the belt have been measured, museum staff estimate it may be up to twice as big.
The hole belt is thought to have been located about a kilometer from the coast between two impassable wetlands meaning attacking enemies advancing into Lolland, would have been seriously hampered, says Bjørnar Måge.
Since 2013, two smaller excavations have studied the hole belt but this recent excavation was the first to illustrate how large this ancient military feature actually was, and revealed that it had built at one time in a major constriction project.
The massive structure may have stretched 1.5 km across Lolland.
Tomb of the Pagan Prince
The hole belt might have been built in the days leading up to a major battle , but maybe it was a reaction to a concrete threat where you “wanted to make sure you had time to defend yourself against an advancing enemy,” says Bjørnar Mage in a Nyheder article. And this apparent immediacy in the building of the structure is supported in the fact no evidence has been discovered that the belt was ever maintained after its construction and it appears that it had been left to lapse.
So far, three-hole belts have been found to the east of the main belt, but a number have been found in Jutland. However, this belt is much wider than any of the Jutland examples.
Bjørnar Måge believes the building of the hole belt required “considerable strength and hinterland” and that it was beyond the abilities of the average local farmer, leading him to suspect that “a local warlord or prince” was behind the construction.” He said it takes “time and a lot of manpower” to build such a large defense force and this is only something that would make sense if there was a “major man behind it.”
Perhaps lending weight to this line of thinking, not far from the hole belt in the town of Hoby near Dannemare, archaeologists discovered a stone built tomb dating from the Roman Iron Age but the researchers have not yet been able to associate the two sites yet.
Hundreds of markers map out the elements of the hole belt.
Imagine For A Second, The Horror Of Being Trapped In A Hole Belt
The coasts of Denmark during the late Iron Age were invaded by armies from Norway and Eastern Europe but no historical records exist pertaining to military activities in the north of the country, but the belt indicates a major battle was prepared for.
Putting ancient hole belts in context, Bjørnar Måge compares them with “modern minefields” designed specifically to delay advancing enemy forces. According to writers J.E. and H.W. Kaufmann’s 2018 Classical to Medieval Fortifications in the Lands of the Western Roman Empire, “Caesar’s Lilies”, were Roman-built ditches about 1 meter (3.3ft) deep containing sharpened wooden spikes and Bjørnar Måge, said Viet Cong soldiers used “ Caesar’s lilies” against American soldiers as recently as the Vietnam War.
Example of Roman Lilia at Rough Castle, Antonine Wall.
The archaeologists in Denmark believe the hole belt was designed to delay advancing armies so that the native army could get into the most tactically suitable positions, from where they could “shoot the attackers with arrows from towers” arranged behind the hollow belt.
But at this time no archaeological remains of such towers have been found, says Bjørnar Mage, however, towers were not needed to seriously hamper an advancing Roman army, for example:
Imagine you are on the front line of a Roman army. You’ve just spent eight months advancing into Denmark, sleepless and weary having defended your camp from native guerrilla attacks every night. Your sword is blunted chopping the skeletons of Denmark’s indigenous peoples and you are standing amidst your 6000 brothers in arms when you are deafened with the war cry “We Are Legion” as your field commander signals you to advance into the hole belt.
Tip-toeing around thousands of wooden spikes and deep pits your advance is slow, but you are almost at the other side and stop to take a breath, and to prepare your psychology for another mass-slaughter.
But then, your accumulated worst fears arrive in one nightmarish moment as the Danish infantry begin to thin, making way for their special forces who ride forward through the morning mist: 200 mounted cavalries armed with bows who fringe the hole belt.
Realizing their destiny, panic spreads among your men and most are reduced to whimpering as the sky quickly darkens with thousands of heavy oak, iron-tipped arrows, and for the last time your thoughts turn to your family and the swaying wheat fields from whence you came, and to where you will now return, courtesy of the hole belt.
Unfortunately, due to its environmental circumstances, the Lolland hole belt is rapidly disappearing and Bjørnar Mage said that if the site had been left for as little as five more years “there would probably be nothing left” and he says only the bottom five centimeters of the belt have been preserved in many areas of the structure.
600 million-year-old fossils of tiny humanoids found in Antarctica
In the rocky terrain of the Whitmore mountain range in Antarctica there have been found fossilized skeletal remains of what seems to be extremely small humans.
Tiny fossilized skeletons were found in the Whitmore mountain range
Interestingly enough, this discovery was made while yours truly was in Antarctica on assignment for The National Reporter to debunk a ridiculous tabloid story about a UFO base in the area.
While investigating this silly story with several colleagues, we happened upon a group of paleontologists who were searching for evidence that dinosaurs had once roamed the Antarctic continent before it tore loose from Africa and South America and drifted southward to its present location.
Top; Basecamp with National Reporter tent in the foreground. Bottom; Star reporter Ace Flashman walking with his investigative team.
What they found instead astonished them, not only because of what it was but because of its age.
“We tested the fossils and have determined without a shadow of a doubt that they are at least 600 million years old.” Doctor Marly of Cambridge University told us.
“600 million years ago, jellyfish first appeared. There were no human beings in the world and there wouldn’t be any for nearly five hundred and 60 million years. There weren’t even any dinosaurs around at that time.”
“The first skeleton we found was hidden within the layers of a large piece of sedimentary rock that we had broken loose from the mountainside. We knew that it would most likely contain some fossils because of its type and age.” Dr.Marly explained.
“When we split the rock apart we were completely confused. Here was this fossil from an age when the appearance of the first vertebrates was still millions of years off and it was a complete skeleton. And not only that, it appeared to be human.”
The first fossilized skeleton they found was less than a foot tall.
“The second skeleton was a very good specimen, Unlike the first one, the second skeleton was in a fully extended position with excellent detail.” Dr. Marly told us.
“It is quite obvious from our study of these skeletons that they are definitely human and not a species of primate. Who they were and how large their population was and if they were technologically advanced is a complete mystery.”
The second tiny skeleton was very well-preserved and showed quite a bit of detail.
The fossils have been flown to the National Institute of ancient studies in Washington DC for further analysis.
The National Reporter will be doing a follow-up report on this amazing discovery within the next few months.
The National Reporter would also like to stress to our readers that these tiny fossilized humanoid skeletons are not the remains of extraterrestrial aliens as we expect the tabloids will be reporting it when the news breaks.
If you encounter any stories of these fossils that claim they are extra-terrestrial in origin, please ignore them.
Found with a metal detector: 52,503 bronze and silver Roman coins in a ceramic pot
The Frome Hoard is a hoard of 52,503 Roman coins found by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near Frome in Somerset, England. The coins were contained in a ceramic pot 45 cm (18 in) in diameter, and date from AD 253 to 305.
Most of the coins are made from debased silver or bronze. The hoard is one of the largest ever found in Britain and is also important as it contains the largest group ever found of coins issued during the reign of Carausius, who ruled Britain independently from 286 to 293 and was the first Roman emperor to strike coins in Britain.
The Museum of Somerset in Taunton, using a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), has acquired the hoard, officially valued at £320,250.
The hoard was discovered while Crisp was metal detecting in a field near Frome where he had previously found late Roman silver coins.
The late Roman coins, eventually totalling 62, were probably the remnants of a scattered hoard, 111 of which had been found on the same farm in 1867.
Whilst searching for more coins from the scattered hoard he received what he called a “funny signal” and on digging down about 35 cm (14 in) he found a small radiate coin and the top of the pot. Realizing that this must be an intact coin hoard he stopped digging and filling in the hole he had made.
Crisp notified Katie Hinds, the Portable Antiquities Scheme Finds Liaison Officer for Wiltshire, that he had found the hoard of coins.
Hinds, together with Anna Booth (Finds Liaison Officer for Somerset) and Alan Graham—an independent archaeologist contracted by Somerset County Council—visited the site to carry out an emergency excavation.
The excavation, led by Graham and assisted by Hinds, Booth, Crisp, and members of the landowner’s family, was performed over three days.
Graham initially excavated a 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) trench around the small hole that Crisp had dug and identified the pit in which the pot had been deposited.
A small black-burnished ware bowl had been inverted over the mouth of the larger pot, to form a lid.
First, he excavated the pit fill around the exterior of the pot, identifying organic matter which might represent packing material to protect it, and determined that the pot had been broken in situ long before its discovery.
He then excavated the pot itself. Due to the weight of the contents, the need for speedy excavation due to security concerns and the difficulty in lifting the broken pot with the contents still inside—which would be the preferred archaeological method, so that the contents could be excavated in controlled, laboratory conditions—the decision was taken to excavate the coins in the field.
The coins were removed in 12 layers, by which method it was hoped to determine if there was any chronological pattern in the deposition of the coins; that is, whether the earliest coins were at the bottom and the latest coins at the top.
The coins were collected in 66 labeled bags, and in total weighed approximately 160 kg (350 lb). Graham excavated and recorded the finds, and the others bagged the coins as Graham lifted them out.
