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Showing posts with label Amesbury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amesbury. Show all posts

Monday, 21 September 2015

Amesbury in Wiltshire confirmed as oldest UK settlement

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Amesbury in Wiltshire confirmed as oldest UK settlement

Stonehenge Amesbury – including Stonehenge – is the UK’s longest continually-occupied settlement
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A Wiltshire town has been confirmed as the longest continuous settlement in the United Kingdom.
Amesbury, including Stonehenge, has been continually occupied since 8820BC, experts have found.
The news was confirmed following an archaeological dig which also unearthed evidence of frogs’ legs being eaten in Britain 8,000 years before France.
Amesbury’s place in history has also now been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.
David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, said: “The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways.
Continue reading the main story

Historic Wiltshire

“It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building, and presumably worshipping, monuments.
“The area was clearly a hub point for people to come to from many miles away, and in many ways was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself.
“The first monuments at Stonehenge were built by these people. For years people have been asking why is Stonehenge where it is, now at last, we have found the answers.”
Mr Jacques said the River Avon, which runs through the area, would have been like an A road with people travelling along it.
“They may have had the equivalent of local guides and there would have been feasting,” he added.
“We have found remains of big game animals, such as aurochs and red deer, and an enormous amount of burnt flint from their feasting fires.”
Site of the Amesbury dig The dig unearthed the largest haul of worked flints from the Mesolithic period
Previously, Thatcham in Berkshire, 40 miles from Amesbury, held the record for the longest continuous settlement in the country.
The dig in Amesbury also uncovered 31,000 worked flints in 40 days as well as animal bones such as frogs’ legs.
Mr Jacques said our ancestors were eating a “Heston Blumenthal-style menu”.
Continue reading the main story

Amesbury facts

  • Queen Eleanor of Provence – consort to Henry III – is buried at the town’s former abbey
  • Amesbury residents get a free visitors’ pass to Stonehenge each year
  • In 1965, the Beatles stayed at the Antrobus Arms Hotel whilst filming Help!
  • The area’s most famous resident – Police frontman Sting – lives in nearby Wilsford cum Lake
The find was based on a report by fossil mammal specialist Simon Parfitt, of the Natural History Museum.
Andy Rhind-Tutt, the founder of Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust, said there was “something unique and rather special about the area” to keep people there from the end of the Ice Age, to when Stonehenge was created and until today.
“The fact that the feasting of large animals and the discovery of a relatively constant temperature spring sitting alongside the River Avon, may well be it,” he said.
The dig was filmed and made into a documentary by the BBC, Smithsonian, CBC and others to be screened later in the summer.
The project was led by the University of Buckingham.

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broadcast nationwide from Monday, 29 April at 20:30 BST on BBC Four.

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Wednesday, 8 October 2014

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An eStonehenge occupied 5,000 years earlier than thoughtNew archaeological evidence from Amesbury in Wiltshire reveals traces of human settlement 3,000 years before Stonehenge was even builtxcavation funded with redundancy money shows Stonehenge was a settlement 3,000 years before it was built.
The archaeological dig, a mile from the stones, has revealed that people have occupied the area since 7,500BC.
The findings, uncovered by volunteers on a shoestring budget, are 5,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Dr Josh Pollard, from Southampton University, said the team had "found the community who put the first monument up at Stonehenge".
'Archaeological blind spot'
The small-scale project has been led by Open University archaeologist David Jacques, who had to plough his redundancy money into it to make it happen.
Courtesy of English HeritageThe first aerial photograph of Stonehenge was taken in 1906
He first spotted the Amesbury site in aerial photographs as a student.
The photographs, in an archive at Cambridge University, showed a site known as Vespasian's Camp just a mile from Stonehenge.
Assumed to have been completely landscaped in the 18th Century, Mr Jacques realised the area had not been and decided to investigate.
"The whole landscape is full of prehistoric monuments and it is extraordinary in a way that this has been such a blind spot for so long archaeologically," he said.
"But in 1999 a group of student friends and myself started to survey this area of Amesbury."
The site, which contains a natural spring, is the nearest source of fresh water to Stonehenge.
And Mr Jacques, with the theory it may have been a water supply for early man, believed there could be pristine and ancient archaeology waiting to be discovered.
"I suppose what my team did, which is a slightly fresher version, was look at natural places. Places in the landscape where you would imagine animals might have gone to, to have a drink," he said.

The Flying Archaeologist series

Aims to show how our knowledge of some of our most famous landscapes, and those more hidden corners of the country, is being transformed by the aerial view.
"My thinking was where you find wild animals, you tend to find people, certainly hunter gatherer groups coming afterwards."
And he was right.
Over the past seven years, the site has yielded the earliest semi-permanent settlement in the Stonehenge area from 7,500 to 4,700BC.
And carbon dating of material found at the site show people were there during every millennium in between.
"Here we are in this little nook at the bottom of a hill with a river running round it and it probably had more people coming to it in the Mesolithic period than it's had people coming ever since," he said.
'Tip of iceberg'
For a project that has had limited funding it is already generating excitement amongst other leading archaeologists.
Stonehenge
Professor Peter Rowley-Conwy, from Durham University, said: "The site has the potential to become one of the most important Mesolithic sites in north-western Europe."
And Dr Pollard, from the Stonehenge Riverside Project, said "being able to demonstrate that there were repeated visits to this area from the 9th to the 5th millennia BC" was significant.
"I suspect he's just hit the tip of the iceberg in terms of Mesolithic activity focussed on the Avon around present day Amesbury," he said.
The Flying Archaeologist - Stonehenge is broadcast on Friday, 19 April at 19:30 BST on BBC One West and South. The series is broadcast nationwide from Monday, 29 April at 20:30 BST on BBC Four.

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Mesolithic life before Stonehenge found at Amesbury

Mesolithic life before Stonehenge 

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Aerial archaeologist Ben Robinson visits Amesbury in Wiltshire where excavations have revealed that the history of people living in this location dates back much further than previously thought.
New evidence from the dig, at a site called Vespasian's Camp, has revealed traces of human settlement 3,000 years before nearby Stonehenge was built.
A team of archaeologists has uncovered evidence of sustained hunter gatherer activity which dates to 8,000 years ago - long before Stonehenge
David Jacques explains why the discovery is of international importance and what it means in terms of unlocking the secrets of Stonehenge, located less than a mile away.
The Flying Archaeologist - Stonehenge is broadcast on Friday, 19 April at 19:30 BST on BBC One West and South. The series is broadcast nationwide from Monday, 29 April at 20:30 BST on BBC Four.
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Amesbury dig 'could explain' Stonehenge history

Amesbury dig 'could explain' Stonehenge history

Amesbury Museum & Heritage CentreThe excavation at Amesbury will be led by David Jacques (r) and filmed by a documentary crew

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A group of archaeologists is undertaking a major dig in Wiltshire, which it is hoped could explain why Stonehenge was built where it was.
The team, which consists of leading experts in the Mesolithic period, also hopes to confirm Amesbury as the oldest continuous settlement in the UK.
The site already boasts the biggest collection of flints and cooked animal bones in north-western Europe.
The dig in Amesbury will run until 25 October.
The term Mesolithic refers to specific groups of archaeological cultures defined as falling between the Palaeolithic and the Neolithic.
'Something really special'
Andy Rhind-Tutt from Amesbury Museum said Amesbury pre-dated Stonehenge by as much 5,000 years, and could "go a long way" to explaining why Stonehenge is where it is.
"No-one would have built Stonehenge without there being something really special about the area.
"There must have been something there beforehand and Amesbury may well be it - [it could be] one of the greatest Mesolithic sites in the country."
Mr Rhind-Tutt said the team would also be looking to "find evidence of settlement for 10,000 BC".
"In previous excavations, they've found evidence of settlement up to 7,596 BC - a boar's tusk - but we're not at the bottom of the trench yet.
"Thatcham near Newbury [in Berkshire] is proving to be the oldest continuous settlement in the UK, but if Amesbury has older evidence this time, then it will be instead.
"At the moment, it is only 104 years short of being the oldest."
Well-preserved remains of a Mesolithic settlement dating from 7,700 BC have previously been found at Thatcham, which is 41 miles (66km) from Amesbury.
The Amesbury dig will also be filmed and made into a documentary by the BBC, Smithsonian, CBC and others to be screened at a later date. The project it being led by Buckingham University.

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Amesbury in Wiltshire confirmed as oldest UK settlement

Amesbury in Wiltshire confirmed as oldest UK settlement

Stonehenge Amesbury - including Stonehenge - is the UK's longest continually-occupied settlement

Related Stories

A Wiltshire town has been confirmed as the longest continuous settlement in the United Kingdom.
Amesbury, including Stonehenge, has been continually occupied since 8820BC, experts have found.
The news was confirmed following an archaeological dig which also unearthed evidence of frogs' legs being eaten in Britain 8,000 years before France.
Amesbury's place in history has also now been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records.
David Jacques, from the University of Buckingham, said: "The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution in a number of ways.

Historic Wiltshire

"It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building, and presumably worshipping, monuments.
"The area was clearly a hub point for people to come to from many miles away, and in many ways was a forerunner for what later went on at Stonehenge itself.
"The first monuments at Stonehenge were built by these people. For years people have been asking why is Stonehenge where it is, now at last, we have found the answers."
Mr Jacques said the River Avon, which runs through the area, would have been like an A road with people travelling along it.
"They may have had the equivalent of local guides and there would have been feasting," he added.
"We have found remains of big game animals, such as aurochs and red deer, and an enormous amount of burnt flint from their feasting fires."
Site of the Amesbury dig The dig unearthed the largest haul of worked flints from the Mesolithic period
Previously, Thatcham in Berkshire, 40 miles from Amesbury, held the record for the longest continuous settlement in the country.
The dig in Amesbury also uncovered 31,000 worked flints in 40 days as well as animal bones such as frogs' legs.
Mr Jacques said our ancestors were eating a "Heston Blumenthal-style menu".

Amesbury facts

  • Queen Eleanor of Provence - consort to Henry III - is buried at the town's former abbey
  • Amesbury residents get a free visitors' pass to Stonehenge each year
  • In 1965, the Beatles stayed at the Antrobus Arms Hotel whilst filming Help!
  • The area's most famous resident - Police frontman Sting - lives in nearby Wilsford cum Lake
The find was based on a report by fossil mammal specialist Simon Parfitt, of the Natural History Museum.
Andy Rhind-Tutt, the founder of Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust, said there was "something unique and rather special about the area" to keep people there from the end of the Ice Age, to when Stonehenge was created and until today.
"The fact that the feasting of large animals and the discovery of a relatively constant temperature spring sitting alongside the River Avon, may well be it," he said.
The dig was filmed and made into a documentary by the BBC, Smithsonian, CBC and others to be screened later in the summer.
The project was led by the University of Buckingham.

More on This Story

Related Stories

From other news sites

Related Internet links

Around the BBC

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites

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