July 4, 2009
In December the Architects website reported the dropping of the Heritage Bill
http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3129091
Cross party condemnation as Heritage Protection Bill dropped
3 December, 2008 By Will Henley
MPs from all three main parties have criticised the government’s axing of the Heritage Protection Bill from next year’s parliamentary programme, amid claims historic buildings are being put at risk.
The dropping of the bill from today’s Queen’s Speech – ostensibly due to the prioritising of legislation to tackle the credit crunch and first predicted in BD last month – is a huge blow for English Heritage, which had hoped to take over responsibility for listing designations from the department of culture, media and sport.
The news also comes as leading policy thinktank Demos released a report warning that Britain would become a “cultural desert” if cuts to the conservation sector continued.
English Heritage described the axing of the bill as “disappointing, but understandable” in the economic climate but observers predicted the legislation could now take years to be realised – if at all.
EH chief executive Simon Thurley is expected to attend a summit with heritage groups next week to discuss what can be salvaged from the draft bill.
Key measures which require legislative approval include protection for buildings being considered for listing and the creation of a single register of listed assets.
“English Heritage is putting on a brave face,” said Victorian Society director Ian Dungavell. “They have been working so hard on it for years and years but have had the rug pulled from under their feet.”……. read more http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3129091
Now it is July (the bill was supposed to be ready for June!) and this is the news. from teh CBA website
There is deep disappointment again that the Heritage Protection Bill for England and Wales does not appear in the Draft Legislative Programme for 2009/10 announced by the Government this week.
The Programme indicates the legislation likely to be included in the Queen’s Speech for the next parliamentary session. Clearly there is now little expectation of the legislative reforms which the 2007 White Paper promised would place the historic environment at the heart of the planning system. The Bill aimed to simplify and strengthen existing legislation and introduce opportunities for people to be more involved in protecting and enhancing their local heritage. It also paved the way for the signing and ratification of the Hague Convention, the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. Without the Bill, the UK will soon be the only international power not to have signed the convention.
Mike Heyworth, CBA’s Director said:
The lack of Government commitment to these uncontroversial and widely supported reforms is deplorable. The Council for British Archaeology will be responding to the publication of the Draft Legislative Programme in the strongest terms. We will be working with the All Party Parliamentary Archaeology Group to progress the most badly needed reforms, some of which are possible through secondary legislation, and to press Government to deliver on other objectives for the heritage. Our historic environment fundamentally shapes the quality of our surroundings and is integral to policies for sustainability. It must be at the heart of new policies for the way places are designed and planned, not side-lined as a low priority.
July 2, 2009
One of the wounds can be seen on the front of the skull - nice to see him again
Wow.. been so long since I met this man. I helped to excavate him, and remember well the arrow in his chest, among other wounds. I called him the lucky knight… I remeber digging him along with Dave Murray and others from Kirkdale Archaeology. We spent years at Stirling, and this was one of the highlights.!
The report on the BBC website starts:
Archaeologists believe that bones discovered at Stirling Castle may have belonged to a knight killed in battle or during a siege in the early 1400s.
It is thought that despite the warrior’s relatively young age of about 25, he may have suffered several serious wounds from earlier fights.
Researchers thinks it is also possible he may have been living for some time with a large arrowhead in his chest.
The bones were discovered in a chapel at the castle in 1997.
They were excavated when archaeologists were working in an area of the castle which turned out to be the site of a lost medieval royal chapel.
Peter Yeoman, from Historic Scotland, said because the man was buried at the heart of a royal castle, it was indicative he was a person of prestige, possibly a knight
Now read on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8124109.stm
July 2, 2009
Most of the ancient city of Hasankeyf, in Batman province, will be submerged if South-eastern Anatolia project goes ahead, critics claim. Photograph: Alamy
Contravercial news about the Ilisu dam in Turkey. I worked on a project at Tille Huyuk back in the late 80s before the Attaturk dam was built, and the toll on both teh envirment, the people and the arhcaeology was huge. we saw it again and now again!
this time, among other sites, they would submerge the ancient town of Hasankeyf, which was used as a fortress by the Romans against the Persians and later destroyed by the Mongols. It was re-built in the 11th century by the Seljuks.
the report continues
today [Turkey] announced plans to resume a controversial £1bn dam project in the face of environmental protests that it would displace thousands of people, destroy habitats and drown priceless archaeological treasures.
The environment minister, Veysel Eroglu, said work on the Ilisu hydroelectric dam on the Tigris river in south-east Turkey would restart after a six-month funding suspension ends next week.
The announcement disappointed campaigners who believed that the project had suffered a potentially fatal blow last December, after German, Swiss and Austrian institutions announced they were withholding finance because fears about the dam’s environmental and social impact had not been addressed. The governments agreed that 150 World Bank conditions on the environment, heritage sites, neighbouring states and human relocation must be met.
more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/01/turkey-river-dam-environment
June 21, 2009
Archaeologists from the University of Bristol excavate the nunnery
Archaeologists believe they could have found the first-ever excavated Saxon nunnery, on a dig in Gloucestershire.
The annual dig, by the University of Bristol, has unearthed remains of a Saxon building in the grounds of the Edward Jenner Museum, Berkeley.
This is quite a find for the team, that has been excavating over the past 5 years.
Read the whole story here at the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/gloucestershire/8098317.stm
Archaeologists from the University of Bristol
June 13, 2009
A 2,000-year-old war grave crammed with up to 50 headless bodies has been uncovered by workers digging a new road for the Olympics.
Archaeologist from Oxford Archaeology works on Skull pit
The Iron Age victims found in the ancient burial site are thought to have been slaughtered by the invading Romans in about AD43.
All of them had been decapitated and some had their limbs hacked off. It has been discovered in the heart of Thomas Hardy country, on Ridgeway Hill near Weymouth, Dorset.
The site is being dug up to make way for a so-called Olympic Highway, an £87million relief road in time for the 2012 games.
Read the whole story here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192353/Mass-war-grave-50-headless-bodies-Olympics-site.html
This is a major find, and one that could shed light on the brutal war that followed the Roman invasion of 43 AD
June 10, 2009
The artefacts confiscated in London go on display in Kabul shortly
In a small room inside Kabul museum, staff are slowly unwrapping hundreds of stolen pieces of Afghanistan’s past.
Worth a fortune on the black market, the smugglers’ hoard was spotted and seized by customs officers at Heathrow airport in London.
Now it has been returned to Afghanistan.
More than 1,500 artefacts were recovered in an 11-day operation. Many are priceless objects of Islamic art looted in illegal excavations.
They include a magnificent tall bronze bird. Nine-hundred years ago, its owner would have burned incense in the drawer that slots into its puffed chest………………………..
read more here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8093573.stm
….The recovered items are a huge boost to the museum’s depleted collection – and to morale. But they’re just a fraction of what Afghanistan has already lost and of what is still slipping across its borders.
The 1,500 items seized at Heathrow were identified and catalogued by staff from the British Museum. They were eventually returned to Kabul with the help of the Red Cross and should go on public display here in the next few weeks.
June 9, 2009
Scholarship on Ancient Middle East Becomes Free Digitally Newswise —
A wealth of material that documents the ancient Middle East has become available through a new, free online service at the Oriental Institute.
The material comes from the extensive collection at the institute, which is a major publisher of important academic books on the languages, history and cultures of the ancient Middle East. The effort began in 1906, when the University started issuing publications that have been essential for studying the past…… .
……..Statistics on downloads of electronic files and sales of printed books have been carefully tracked, and the Publication Sales office has noted that the availability of free downloads has not adversely impacted the sale of the printed volumes. In fact, the availability of free PDFs of titles has increased print sales. After the complimentary distribution of 21 titles—books that had not been accessible via the Internet before 2008—print sales of those same titles increased by 7 percent compared to the previous two years.
Read more here: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/552994/
This shows that having free pdfs of reprots and publications will actually help sales ! Many people are loathe to put documents online for free, fearing it will affect sales of the hard-copy… this however, seems to show the reverse!
May 30, 2009
Reconstruction of a seagoing sewn ship - Murman shnjaka.
Well, as I have just returned from Croatian Island of Cres (where I have been on survey – more about that later) I found this.. and could do with a find like tht myself!! Pity I can’t stand doing more than paddling!
http://www.sindhtoday.net/news/1/14498.htm
read the whole article above
Archaeologists have found an ancient sewn ship over 2000 years old in Novalia, Croatia.
According to a report in Archaeological Discovery, the ship was found in the Caska Bay on the Island of Pag, near Novalja.
The lower part of the ship was found, body panels, ship skeleton and stitches, which the panels were connected with.
The research, which was organized by the city of Novalja in cooperation with the Zadar University and the French national institute for scientific research, was led by professor Zdenko Brusic from the Zadar University.
“In Roman times, Novalja was known for its port accommodation and was located on the old sea route from Greece to northern Italy and central Europe. The ships would wait in Novalja for suitable winds and because of that a town developed there that had various suitable services,” said Brusic.
see more about the sewn boat here, as well as images (like the one shown above) here
http://www.foteviken.se/sewnboat/boat/
Filed under Archaeology News
Tags: Archaeological, archaeology, BAJR, boat, croatia, liburnian, museum, roman, roman liburnian croatia boat ship wreck trade archaeology, ship, trade, wreck
May 13, 2009
Excavation in progress on the Tram Project site
Human remains dating from medieval times have been unearthed by archaeologists working alongside the tram route in Leith.
The discovery was made during a special dig in Constitution Street, where two 300-year-old skulls and several bones were found last September.
The South Leith Parish Church graveyard site is near the 16th and 17th century town defences.
New sections of the defences and burials have been found.
John Lawson, Edinburgh City Council archaeologist, said: “Since the archaeological excavations began in mid-April, 18 burials have been recovered.
“Some of them appear to have been partially disturbed by various cuts, possibly associated with construction work in the 18th century when the tenements where built, and most recently by modern services.
Read more here… http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8037805.stm
Of course I had to put this up… it being my home town :0)
Good work..
