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Nancy Detchon

Dec 10, 2015

A Stonehenge round-up!

As ever, there’s always something happening with Britain’s number one archaeological site, so we thought we’d take the opportunity to give you a round-up on some of the news. The Feeding Stonehenge Project, based at the University of York, has been busily analysing analysing food residues found on many of the fragments of pottery excavated by the Stonehenge Riverside Project, which explored some of the landscape and monuments associated with Stonehenge between 2004-2009. The

Manchester Archaeology Day – a postcript

Nancy Detchon

Dec 7, 2015

Manchester Archaeology Day – a postcript

I recently posted a review of the Manchester Archaeology Day conference which was held at the University of Salford. One of the things I liked was the series of booklets published under the series title of “Manchester’s Past Revealed”. These are easy to read reports written in a jargon-free style on a number of sites in and around the Greater Manchester area. There are 14 volumes now available from a number of sources. More than half have been published by Oxford Archaeology

Nancy Detchon

Dec 1, 2015

Neolithic Britain – Part 1

Introduction As with our earlier posts on the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, we are going to break down the Neolithic in Britain to more manageable parts. We will be looking at the key characteristics of the Neolithic and what distinguishes this period from what came before. To this end we’ll consider aspects such as subsistence and material culture as well as more tricky ones such as ‘ritual’. When was the Neolithic? In terms of chronology most archaeologists who are intereste

Manchester Archaeology Day (@DGM_Archaeology)

Nancy Detchon

Nov 30, 2015

Manchester Archaeology Day (@DGM_Archaeology)

The Peel Building, University of Salford Saturday saw the 9th Manchester Archaeology Day – and this was an excellent chance to catch up with some of the work that has been happening in and around the city over the last year. The venue was generously provided by the University of Salford and it was no surprise to see the theatre full again. The day began with a welcome by our host Prof. Judith Smith of the School of Environment & Life Sciences, who was warm and generous in he

Nancy Detchon

Nov 27, 2015

Ancient Mesopotamia in Whaley Bridge!

It has been really busy of late, but we thought we’d share with you the fantastic time we had with the children of Class 5 at Taxal & Fernilee Primary School in Whaley Bridge. We’d been invited by their teacher Mr Darley to do a workshop as part of the children’s history theme – Ancient Mesopotamia. They had been reading the fantastic Varjak Paw books which had given them quite a bit of background information on Ancient Mesopotamia, and Mr Darley told us they were really exc

What to do when the excavation is ‘over’!

Nancy Detchon

Nov 16, 2015

What to do when the excavation is ‘over’!

For most people, archaeology is excavation. It’s what comes to mind when you ask them what they think archaeologists do. Well, as with most other jobs, there’s much more to it than meets the eye. Despite looking like a building site – largely because that was the next step – these are the some of the tools and equipment used by archaeologists packed and ready to go on to the next project. The first thing to do when the excavation is over is, of course, pack up and go home, or

Didn’t we mention archaeology on Anglesey?

Nancy Detchon

Oct 21, 2015

Didn’t we mention archaeology on Anglesey?

Back in June we visited Anglesey with our children to see some of the archaeology of the island. Our weekend was packed full of archaeology from the Neolithic tomb of Bryn Celli Dhu to church graveyards. Well now we’ve heard of a really exciting discovery of an extensive Neolithic site at Llanfaethlu on the western side of the island. The site emerged as work was being carried out prior to the building of a new school and it has become one of the most important Neolithic site

Nancy Detchon

Oct 6, 2015

The Celts – who were they and why are they in the spotlight?

This month could well be called ‘Celt month’ as a new exhibition, documentary series and book all aim to re-paint a picture of what we know about that ancient yet enduring group ‘the Celts’. So, who were the Celts? Well as with any question about past cultures and groups there are many answers to be found and some of them are included in some of this month’s new resources. First to appear was the new exhibition at the British Museum – Celts: Art and Identity. This exhibition

Nancy Detchon

Sep 21, 2015

Archaeology news in Staffordshire!

It’s about time we had more news from Staffordshire. So, first things first – over 50 skeletons have been found on the site of a medieval hospital in Litchfield. The site – known as St John’s Hospital – was situated just outside the gates of the medieval town. It was associated with St Chad a Northumbrian saint whose shrine was in the church which later became the cathedral. It has a long history of being a centre for pilgrims and it is thought the remains found during develo

Nancy Detchon

Sep 15, 2015

KS2 teachers: Comings and goings on TV, museums and more!

Well, while schools are getting settled in and universities are gearing up to the new academic year, here are a few items from the world of archaeology and heritage that have attracted my attention. You’d better be quick though as some are finishing very soon! On that note, it is worth beginning with the Horizon documentary First Britons. This is an ideal programme for KS2 history teachers as it outlines some of the progress that has been made in our understanding of how our

Nancy Detchon

Sep 7, 2015

More startling Neolithic discoveries!

As if this summer hadn’t given us enough to think about with the excavations we reported on at Marden, Avebury and Dorstone Hill in our Summer of action posts, news reaches us of the remarkable discoveries made by Prof. Vince Gaffney of the University of Bradford and his team. As part of the on-going Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project, Prof. Gaffney and his team had surveyed a large area around Britain’s most famous monument. They have been using a number of methods to gathe

Nancy Detchon

Aug 24, 2015

Horizon’s First Britons

Last week the BBC aired the latest documentary in the Horizon franchise – First Britons. Since then there has been a lot of to-ing and fro-ing in discussion groups such as Britarch – a discussion list moderated by the CBA – and it has been interesting to see some of the points raised by the discussants – it has even moved on to include the Celts! For those of you who haven’t seen it, it is essentially an update of the work that has been carried out by archaeologists and scien

KS2 British prehistory – summer of action pt 4

Nancy Detchon

Aug 4, 2015

KS2 British prehistory – summer of action pt 4

The busy summer of activity continues, and while some projects such as those at Dorstone, Marden and the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project have finished their on-site work others, such as the Between the Monuments, are continuing and new excavations are about to begin. A nice chisel shaped arrowhead attached to Dr Mark Gillings. Courtesy Dr Mark Gillings. Dr Mark Gillings of the University of Leicester and Between the Monuments has been tweeting about the project and some of t

Nancy Detchon

Jul 28, 2015

KS2 British prehistory – summer of action pt3

This weekend saw me visit to 3 excavations of some importance in the story of our past. In terms of British prehistory the Neolithic is perhaps the most striking as it is the period when we begin to see, quite literally, traces of people in the past. The Neolithic is the time when monuments, some to the dead and others we still do not understand, appear in the landscape. The 3 sites visited were Avebury, Marden henge (also in Wiltshire) and Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire. Eac

KS2 British Prehistory – Dorstone Hill weeks 3 and 4

Nancy Detchon

Jul 27, 2015

KS2 British Prehistory – Dorstone Hill weeks 3 and 4

As promised Ian visited a number of excavations last week including Dorstone Hill – here’s his report. Hi everyone! Nice to be back after a whirlwind trip to Wiltshire and Herefordshire. I caught up with the team digging on top of Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire and as you see by the pictures, there have been significant developments – not least in the weather. Work on the excavation over the final two weeks has revealed more of the stone bank identified in earlier seasons. Pr

Nancy Detchon

Jul 20, 2015

KS2 British Prehistory – a summer of action pt2!

The summer of fantastic excavations on some of the most interesting sites from British Prehistory continues and now you can see some of what is being found! There are also some short video clips which reveal some of the life of people living in both the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Up in North Yorkshire, the team of Dr Nick Milner and her colleagues at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr have found even more of the fantastic Red deer skulls, which are thought by many to be part of

KS2 British prehistory – Dorstone Hill week 2

Nancy Detchon

Jul 16, 2015

KS2 British prehistory – Dorstone Hill week 2

Things are going nicely on top of Dorstone Hill. The second week of the excavation has revealed more of the structure and is looking rather good. As ever, as the work progresses, the students get to see more of how archaeologists work and practice some of the skills. In the pictures here, we see two of the students excavating ‘features’ on the site. ‘Feature’ is the term we use to cover what might be a multitude of differences in soil colour and texture, and which may turn ou

KS2 British Prehistory – Dorstone Hill excavations

Nancy Detchon

Jul 8, 2015

KS2 British Prehistory – Dorstone Hill excavations

Hello again! Now, as I blogged briefly the other day, a team from the University of Manchester led by our friend Prof Julian Thomas, has started this year’s excavations at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire. With the aid of modern technology, we are going to keep you up to date with what’s been going on. We want to thank Prof Thomas, Dr Irene Garcia Rovira and Ms Janey Green for permission to use their images. The team arrived last week and, as with most excavations, the first co

KS2 British prehistory – a summer of action!

Nancy Detchon

Jul 6, 2015

KS2 British prehistory – a summer of action!

If you are a Key Stage 2 history teacher/co-ordinator, this summer sees some really important excavations on famous and less famous sites. Right now there are excavations in Wiltshire and Herefordshire which are hoping to shed further light on life and death in the Neolithic (or New Stone Age) between 4,000 and 2,000 BC. We hope you can get to visit some of the excavations we will feature over the summer, including those we highlight today! The much eroded ditch and bank at M

Archaeology in Anglesey – there’s so much! (Pt 1)

Nancy Detchon

Jun 22, 2015

Archaeology in Anglesey – there’s so much! (Pt 1)

Well, it was good to get home after a weekend away in Anglesey and North Wales. We were so busy and saw so much I’m going to have to do separate blogs on what we saw! In part one, I’ll concentrate on the historic period of Anglesey, and not all of it – just a small area around a famous village, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Archaeology is not confined to ancient sites or artefacts in the ground. Buildings of many ages are also of interest to arch

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