Issue 94

May/June 2007

Contents

news

Unique decorated jet lozenge from Suffolk matches Stonehenge gold

Heritage white paper praised: but who will pay for it?

Classic jadeite axe may leave UK

What was Roman interest in Silbury Hill?

New dates

In Brief & Phase 2

features

Ringed with the wrecks of slave ships: The Atlantic slave trade
Buy, sell, trade, drown. Jane Webster asks what archaeology can bring to the story

Churches face East, don't they?
Church alignments. Do churches face sunrise on saints' days? Ian Hinton surveys

Excavating Dover's Medieval seasfarers
Keith Parfitt and Barry Corke discover a fishing community

on the web

Recommended websites
Online glossaries and the CBA's Community Archaeology Forum wiki (CAF)

letters

Views and responses

CBA correspondent

Campaigns, comment and communications from the CBA
Adapting archaeology: Gill Chitty looks at climate change and archaeology in the UK

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

news

Unique decorated jet lozenge from Suffolk matches Stonehenge gold

A jet lozenge, being compared to the famous gold lozenge from Bush Barrow, near Stonehenge, has been found in South Lowestoft, Suffolk. It was in a pit with a flint knife and redeposited late neolithic or early bronze age pot sherds, excavated on an industrial site in March last year. The only other bronze age find was 50m away, a plough-damaged cremation burial in a fragmentary urn.

The oval pit, says Clare Good, project officer for Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service, was 1.2m by 1.3m across and 35cm deep. It was filled with black silt; consultant Valerie Fryer notes that some of the large lumps of charcoal found throughout are "flaked", indicating very high temperatures were achieved in the fire. There are also tiny fragments of burnt bone, but nothing to suggest a cremation burial. Neither the flint nor the jet is burnt.

The jet lozenge cannot presently be analysed by X-Ray fluorescence, but Alison Sheridan, head of early prehistory, National Museums Scotland, says, "There's no doubt that it's Whitby jet, of the soft variety". Distinctive traits include its mostly black colour, with some dark brown, and the criss-cross pattern of incipient cracking that betrays its botanical origins – wood of the Araucaria family, such as the monkey-puzzle tree.

The lozenge, with a domed front and flat back, is decorated with a unique, carefully-engraved "rocker" design, with two parallel lines around the edge, supporting 12 pendant semi-circles inside (two on each side and one in each corner), with a double circle and dot in the centre. Small floating lines of rocker decoration, some on the side facets, complete the design.

A pair of small holes cuts straight through the plate at each corner of the shorter axis. National Museums Scotland analysed the silt in these holes with a scanning electron microscope, and found a high level of copper. Sheridan suggests the plaque may have been fixed to a backing, such as a leather garment, using copper or copper alloy pins or rivets.

This is the first jet lozenge seen, but two decorated sheet gold lozenges were excavated from Bush Barrow, south of Stonehenge, in 1808 and one from Clandon Barrow, Dorset in 1882. They were in exceptional early bronze age grave groups, with items including copper alloy daggers, a gold belt hook (Bush) and an amber cup (Clandon). They are dated to c1900–1700BC.

At 65mm long, the jet lozenge is smaller than the large gold lozenges (Bush 185mm, Clandon 155mm) but twice the size of the smaller Bush lozenge. Its domed surface, which Sheridan says is likely to have had a higher sheen in the past, matches the shape given to the larger Bush lozenge in a controversial 1980s British Museum restoration.

A jet lozenge has been excavated with a flint knife in South Lowestoft. The lozenge is being compared to the famous gold plaque from Bush Barrow, near Stonehenge. Jet length 65mm, width 50mm; knife length 80mm; gold length 185mm.

Heritage white paper praised: but who will pay for it?

The much anticipated heritage white paper, published on March 8, brought praise for its strong support for heritage and for many of its recommendations. There is concern, however, about funding, when the national heritage budget seems to be under siege. The Department for Culture Media and Sport is seeking parliamentary time for new legislation in 2007/8. The paper was open for public comment until June 1.

In Heritage Protection for the 21st Century, DCMS secretary Tessa Jowell and Alun Pugh, Welsh Assembly minister for culture, Welsh language and sport, say, "We have carried out ground-breaking new research that underlines the popularity of the historic environment". The proposed heritage protection system is intended to be "understandable and accessible", engaging and involving the public. The system would be open to consultation and scrutiny, would rely much on local authorities and communities, and would "provide people with better access to improved information".

Specific proposals include:

• a single system for national designation in historic asset records (HARs), to replace listing, scheduling and registering
• designation to include early human sites with no structures, and to be determined by architectural, historic or archaeological interest, retaining the present grades I, II* and II
• responsibility for designation in England to be devolved to English Heritage
• improved UK-wide protection for marine heritage
• a statutory duty on local authorities to maintain or have access to a historic environment record (HER)
• world heritage sites to be put on the same planning footing as existing protected areas, such as conservation areas or national parks
• enhanced protection for farmed archaeological remains, with owners encouraged to take sensitive sites out of cultivation.

Government appreciation of the importance of heritage in British life is further indicated by the DCMS paper, Culture and Creativity in 2007, which praises English Heritage and quotes the Chester Roman Amphitheatre project (feature, Mar/Apr) as an example of community heritage in action. In a speech at Tate Modern on March 6, prime minister Tony Blair said "arts and culture matter to a modern nation like Britain", and referred approvingly to museums and the History Matters campaign.

The white paper was welcomed by, amongst others, the CBA, English Heritage, Heritage Link, the Society of Antiquaries and The Archaeology Forum, though it was noted that it contains no reference to the much-criticised practice of levying VAT on repairs to listed buildings. But all bodies expressed reservations about funding. Particular pressure would be put on already stretched local authorities, and on English Heritage, whose government grant has been cut in real terms, despite denials from the DCMS (Letters, May/Jun 2005). EH is currently planning significant cuts in grants of the type that helped fund work at Seahenge (Sep 2004) and the Anglo-Saxon Prittlewell grave (May 2004).

Grounds for concern were underlined when Jowell announced in March that further substantial heritage sums would be diverted to the 2012 Olympics. The Heritage Lottery Fund will lose £90m, the equivalent, a spokesperson told British Archaeology, of preventing the conservation of 240 archaeological sites. A further Treasury contribution of £5bn is expected tocome partly from the DCMS. Research reports and the white paper, with contacts for responses, can be found at www.culture.gov.uk/Reference_library/Consultations/2007_current_consultations/hpr_white_paper07.htm.

• Culture minister David Lammy tells British Archaeology, "We have made a strong case to the Treasury on the importance of the heritage sector". But he notes he cannot guarantee funding for the Portable Antiquities Scheme after 2007/08.

Classic jadeite axe may leave UK

A fine neolithic jadeite axe blade, once owned by a highly regarded British archaeologist, will likely leave the country unless £24,000+vat can be raised. It was collected by Augustus Pitt Rivers in the 19th century from Mrs Cartwright, a friend and Dorset landowner, and is marked as having been found at Newton Peverill, Sturminster Marshall, inland from Bournemouth. Culture minister David Lammy has placed an export bar on the axe, which will expire on April 20, or July 20 if serious intentions to raise the funds to purchase it are expressed.

Over 100 jade axes or fragments have been found in Britain. Though only two have a good context (a mint condition axe from the Sweet Track on the Somerset Levels, dated to 3807/6BC, and a contemporary piece from a tomb at Cairnholy, near Dumfries), they are thought to have reached Britain in the early neolithic, c3900–3800BC.

Most are jadeite or omphacite, with a few made of eclogite. A project led by Pierre Pétrequin, University of Besançon, has traced their source to the Piedmontais in the foothills of the Italian Alps, where working areas have been identified. Pétrequin argues axes were likely already old by the time they reached Britain. Alison Sheridan, National Museums Scotland, believes they were "community treasures of the pioneer farming communities". The Dorset axe has not been analysed, but, says Sheridan, its precise origin could be non-destructively determined.

Pitt Rivers, a pioneer of excavation and the first government inspector of ancient monuments, opened a museum at Farnham, Dorset in 1885. It closed after the death of his grandson in 1966. Most of the British collection went to the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum, but some finds had already been sold.

The jade axe was offered for sale by Rupert Wace Ancient Art, London.

What was Roman interest in Silbury Hill?

In March, English Heritage released a new geophysical survey around Silbury Hill, Wiltshire. The discovery of a Roman "village" was reported in the national broadsheets, but none printed the extraordinarily detailed plot. A pattern of rectangular blocks or enclosures on the northsouth chalk ridge south of the present A4 is less clearly matched on the lower ground east and north-west of Silbury.

None of these remains is dated, but the Roman attribution comes partly from a puzzling concentration of finds in the area dating back to 1867, when excavations near the hill found Roman artefacts and signs of a building. Later finds include four wells, one of which contained tiles and the base of a stone column, a grave and, along the valley east of the stream and north of the A4, the foundations of stone buildings, whose number rose to at least 10 as a result of parch marks in the dry summer of 1995. Artefacts span the 1st to the 4th centuries AD.

Although earlier finds had been described as suggesting at least 10ha of settlement either side of the A4 and a further 12ha beside the stream, the detail of Neil Linford's survey will focus new attention on the Roman interest in Silbury Hill and the Swallowhead spring, source of the river Kennet. The A4 here follows a Roman road aligned on the neolithic hill, linking the small town of Cunetio, near Marlborough, to the east with Bath to the west, where a hot spring was enclosed by a temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva.

New dates

English Heritage has been working with archaeologists on major prehistoric dating projects, exercising extreme caution about samples and analyses, and using Bayesian statistics to exploit known stratigraphic sequences. In a study of fivewell-known long barrows, burial ended at four, structurally quite different from each other, close to 3625BC; contrary to common assumption, their use was brief. The preferred model in a new sequence for Silbury Hill, Wiltshire sees a primary mound raised 2415-2190BC, with construction continuing over 140–435 years. A revised date of 2455–2210BC has been proposed for the sarsen circle at Stonehenge. At Silbury and Stonehenge, however, scientists say there is unlikely to be agreement without new excavation.

In brief

Fieldwork

The Heritage Lottery Fund has given the Merioneth Historical and Record Society £50,000 to research the farm and field names of Ardudwy, Gwynedd. Local groups will record oral testimonies and place names in danger of being lost on a website. Project leader Rhian Parry said, "Names are lost daily. They connect us to our ancestors and to our heritage".

New NHMF appointment

Bob Bewley, currently English Heritage regional director for the south-west, has been appointed director of operations at the National Heritage Memorial Fund. Bewley, who earlier had worked in the RCHME/EH Air Photography Unit, will succeed Stephen Johnson, also a former archaeologist. The NHMF supports emergency acquisitions with an annual government income which rose to £10m on April 1, and operates the Heritage Lottery Fund. Bewley will be implementing the 2008–13 strategic plan, at a challenging time for the HLF.

Coin find

Aunique Merovingian coin from Market Harborough, Leicestershire was due for auction on March 29. The gold tremissis, minted in Aquitaine c590–670, was found by a metal detectorist in an area known from fieldwalking by local archaeologists to contain early medieval settlement. The coin's obverse is inscribed betoregas fit (made in Bourges), with a bust. The reverse shows a croix chrismée (Christogram with the rho substituted for Latin R), surrounded by Alpha and Omega; MVMMOL probably represents the moneyer, Mummolus. A Portable Antiquities Scheme spokesperson said Merovingian gold coins from Aquitaine had previously been found only in Norfolk and Kent.

Mining disaster

Following recommendation from English Heritage, culture secretary Tessa Jowell has approved designation of a cargo of 19th century Cornish mining equipment under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Discovered by local divers off Little Ganinick, the Isles of Scilly in 2005, the well-preserved cargo complements the landscape of the Cornish mining industry granted world heritage site status last year. The as yet unidentified ship awaits discovery.

Phase 2

Colchester Archaeological Trust's Philip Crummy says evidence has been found for the location of the 12 gates into Colchester's Roman stadium (News, Jan/Feb): "We have now got all the elements of the circus", he told the East Anglian Daily Times in March.

The Roman Sevso silver, claimed by Hungary but which the Marquess of Northampton hopes to sell (feature, Jan/Feb), may once have contained a further 229 pieces, mostly spoons. "The Sevso story gets murkier and murkier", Colin Renfrew told the Art Newspaper.

The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society's museum, threatened with closure (News, Mar/Apr), has been temporarily reprieved. Wiltshire county council has said it will reinstate the grant for 2007–8, deferring decision on further grants pending a review of the museums in Devizes and Salisbury.

The excavations at Durrington Walls, Wiltshire received extensive coverage in January from all the UK press, Channel 4's Richard &Judy, the New York Times and websites around the world. It's good to see good archaeology well publicised: which is why readers of British Archaeology were able to read about the Durrington neolithic houses last October (News, Nov/Dec 2006).

English Heritage notes that all of its 446 Brandt prints are still online, contrary to a claim in Briefing (Jan/Feb). The misapprehension came about because there was no direct link from the Endangered Buildings feature. They can be found by searching the picture gallery for Brandt at viewfinder.english-heritage.org.uk. Apologies.

Eagle-eyed bibliophiles will have noticed that the top ten book chart in the last issue seemed to be numbered backwards. It was: Homo Britannicus was no. 1.

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
Stephen Dedalus in Ulysses, James Joyce.

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