Recent work by Wessex Archaeology in the Thames Estuary has been captured in two BBC programmes Thames Shipwrecks: a race against time. The programmes have been produced by Touch Productions and broadcast on BBC2 on Tuesday 26 August and Tuesday 2 September 2008.

Thames Shipwrecks: a race against time (BBC 2)

Find out more about the background to our work and involvement in the series over at Splash, our coastal and marine archaeology blog.

There are just a few spaces left on the 2008 Practical Archaeology courses at Down Farm, Cranborne Chase, Dorset. This excellent training course offers 5 days excavation on an Iron Age site, with first class tuition in fieldwork techniques together with workshops on identifying pottery, flint and bone. Courses run from 1st to 5th and from 8th to 11th September and are suitable for all levels of experience.

To find out more please visit the Training section of our website.

Practical Archaeology Course 2007 Team Photo

Despite big black clouds and the occasional spot of rain, National Archaeology Day at Salisbury Museum was a big success again this year. More than 670 visitors enjoyed a wide variety of family activities from making pots to building Stonehenge. There was even an opportunity to go snorkelling underwater for finds! Visitors were fascinated by Neil Burridge’s demonstration of Bronze Age metal-working while children enjoyed helping Julian Richards build a huge Stonehenge trilithon.

Building a trilithon with Julian Richards

Visitors had a go at the various stages of archaeology from excavating and recording to finds washing and conservation. They tried their hand at metal detecting and making pots, made models of Stonehenge and reconstructed faces like the experts on ‘Meet the Ancestors’.

'Snorkelling' for underwater archaeology

Volunteers from Salisbury Museum, The Wiltshire Conservation Centre, Salisbury Cathedral, National Trust and Wessex Archaeology were joined by local societies for what has become a favourite annual event.

Phil Harding is to be awarded an honorary degree by Southampton University. The award, the honorary degree of Doctor of the University, will be conferred at a ceremony at the University on Thursday 24 July and is for outstanding personal achievement in the field of archaeology.

Phil said ‘This is a great honour. I am delighted to have my archaeological achievements recognized by the university. As a man whose heart is in Wessex, I am particularly pleased that it’s Southampton that have given this to me.’

Sue Davies, Chief Executive of Wessex Archaeology, commented ‘I am thrilled for Phil. This award is thoroughly deserved.’

The university’s citation along with details of the other distinguished honorary graduates who include a Baroness, a Dame, an Admiral and Knights of the Realm, are available at the University of Southampton Media Centre.

National Archaeology Week 2008 is almost upon us and this year it comprises a whole nine days of events beginning on the 12th July.

This annual event is organised nationally by the Council for British Archaeology and aims to give everyone the opportunity to learn about the heritage that is all around us by becoming involved in archaeology. Come and join Wessex Archaeology as we celebrate National Archaeology Day at Salisbury Museum and explore our prehistoric past.

Entrance to the museum is free on the 12th July and there are a host of family friendly activities to get involved in.

You can watch displays of flint knapping and bronze casting; build ‘Stonehenge’ on the back lawn with Julian Richards or recreate the face of a Bronze Age person. Why not try your hand at metal detecting or visit Wessex Archaeology’s Time Travelling by Water stand to explore some submerged finds using diving equipment. In the lecture hall we will be exploring the methods archaeologists use to explore our past and inviting you to have a go at becoming an archaeologist yourself!

You can bring your mystery artefacts along to be examined by Wiltshire’s Finds Liaison Officer and see if you can guess what some of her mystery objects are. Whilst you’re visiting, why not view the museum’s displays including the newly opened Inspired by Stonehenge exhibition.

This event is brought to you by Salisbury Museum, Wessex Archaeology, The National Trust, Salisbury Cathedral and Wiltshire County Council’s Conservation Lab who have joined forces to create this Stonehenge Spectacular!

Entrance to the museum on National Archaeology Day is free and the museum is located opposite the cathedral cloisters, in the Cathedral Close. The museum will be open from 10am till 4pm and we look forward to seeing you on what promises to be a spectacular day.

For more information on National Archaeology Week and other activities that will be happening across the country this July, visit the CBA’s National Archaeology Week website.

Excavation of a Neolithic House at HortonArchaeologists have found the site of one of England’s oldest houses. The Stone Age house at Horton, close to Windsor Castle, is thought by experts to be well over 5,000 years old.

The single story house at Horton was rectangular, some 10 metres long by 5 metres wide. Dr Alistair Barclay of Wessex Archaeology said ‘this house is not big by today’s standards. But it was a dramatically different from the tents that people had been living in before.’

The walls of the house were probably made of split logs and the pitched roof would have been of reeds or grass. Two partition walls either side of a central passage divided the house into two. These walls could have supported an upper story or attic in parts of the house.

Reconstruction of the Neolithic house at Horton, by Will Foster and Tom Goskar

There would not have been a chimney. Smoke would have seeped out through the roof which was high enough to avoid catching fire from sparks flying from the fire.

Other finds of Neolithic date near to Horton include a burial site and a ritual processional way known as a cursus that stretched for 2.5 miles. Because of their size, these burial and ritual sites have been easier for archaeologists to find.

In contrast only about a dozen Neolithic or Stone Age houses are known from England and the Horton house is one of the most complete examples yet found. Pending radiocarbon dating, the house is thought to date to about the 37th century BC. Pieces of pottery and flint tools from the house and some nearby pits are consistent with this dating.

Aerial view of the Neolithic house during excavation

Dr Barclay added ‘we used to think of the Neolithic as the time when people started to farm. The evidence we now have, shows that hunting and gathering wild foods was still important. Crops were grown, but on a small scale. We can also see that cattle, pig and sheep were herded. It may be that in the river valleys, clearings for grazing came to be used for growing crops.’

Andy Spencer of CEMEX, who are paying for the dig, said ‘we have just installed a high-tech ready mix concrete plant and overhead there are planes taking off and landing at Heathrow. But what these Stone Age people built all that time ago using just stone tools and natural materials is really impressive. They were innovators too.’

Find out about our other discoveries at Horton.

New school pack brings Avebury to life

Wessex Archaeology has produced a new online Teacher’s Kit for Avebury World Heritage Site, commissioned by English Heritage.

The new Teacher’s Kit is available online from today. It will soon be available on the English Heritage website.

Avebury from the air

The Kit will help schoolchildren heading for Avebury and the surrounding monuments make the most of their trip to the World Heritage Site. It is a downloadable resource for teachers of Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils. As well as information sheets for teachers there are on-site investigation sheets, puzzles, maps, treasure hunts and other games and activities to help pupils to learn about the history of these historical sites in an entertaining and engaging way.

“We want to encourage more schools to come to Avebury World Heritage Site and ensure that pupils have an educational and stimulating visit,” explained Lucy Bradley, Education Manager for English Heritage in the South West.

“The site is steeped in a rich and mysterious history and there is so much children can learn from a visit here. This new web resource will help them to discover the site’s historical significance using fun learning tools”.

The Teacher’s Kit came about after last year’s successful project at Silbury Hill to stabilise the ancient man-made mound. “Pupils from two primary schools and a secondary school visited while the work was in progress. The visit really helped the children to get an in-depth learning experience of the mysterious hill”, said Lucy “So we thought it would be great if we could create a Teacher’s Kit which encourages active learning for visits to the whole World Heritage Site.”

Avebury World Heritage Site is a Neolithic landscape which encompasses Avebury Stone Circle, West Kennet Long Barrow and Avenue, The Sanctuary, Windmill Hill and Silbury Hill.

Avebury Stone Circle, West Kennet Long Barrow and Avenue, The Sanctuary and Windmill Hill are managed by The National Trust on behalf of English Heritage.

View the Avebury Monuments Teacher’s Kit.

Our offer of selected free publications has been extremely popular, and they have been rushing off the shelves. However, we do have five titles still available for free (+ £2.50 P&P to UK addresses only).

Excavations in the Burghfield Area, Berkshire: Developments in the Bronze Age and Saxon Landscapes
by C.A. Butterworth and S.J. Lobb
Published 1992: Report 1

Excavations on Reading Waterfront Sites, 1979-1988
by John W. Hawkes and P.J. Fasham
Published 1997: Report 5

Archaeological Survey of the Lower Kennet Valley, Berkshire
by S.J. Lobb and P.G. Rose
Published 1996: Report 9

Excavations in Newbury, Berkshire, 1979-1990
by A.G. Vince, S.J. Lobb, J.C. Richards and Lorraine Mepham
Published 1997: Report 13

Charter Quay: The Spirit of Change
The Archaeology of Kingston’s Riverside
by The Trust for Wessex Archaeology Ltd.
Published 2003

We have also reduced the price of many other publications, and have several new titles available. Please see our publications section for pricing and availability.

Do you want to work in the exciting world of archaeology? The way archaeology works is changing. Computers are becoming an essential tool for archaeologists, and used for everything from databases, geographic analysis, 3D visualisation, and web publication.

We are looking for people with these skills and more (see our archaeological computing specialists advert for a full list) to join the Wessex Archaeology IT team. You don’t need to be an archaeologist to apply, but a healthy interest in heritage is essential!

Head over to our vacancies section to read more and download an application form.

[UPDATE] Applications for these posts are now closed.

One of the palaeolithic handaxes found by Jan MeulmeesterPhil Harding with some handaxes found on landAn amazing collection of 28 flint hand-axes, dated by archaeologists to be around 100,000 years-old, have been unearthed in gravel from a licensed marine aggregate dredging area 13km off Great Yarmouth.

The find was made by a Dutch amateur archaeologist, Jan Meulmeester, who regularly searches for mammoth bones and fossils in marine sand and gravel delivered by British construction materials supplier Hanson to a Dutch wharf at Flushing, near Antwerp, south west Netherlands.

The axes show that deep in the Ice Age, mammoth hunters roamed across land that is now submerged beneath the sea. These are the finest hand-axes that experts are certain come from English waters, although there have been a few finds on beaches, for example at Pakefield in Suffolk.

Phil Harding of Wessex Archaeology and Channel 4’s Time Team programme is an expert on the Ice Age. He said: “These finds are massively important. In the Ice Age the cold conditions meant that water was locked up in the ice caps. The sea level was lower then, so in some places what is now the seabed was dry land. The hand-axes would have been used by hunters in butchering the carcasses of animals like mammoths.”

He added: “Although we don’t yet know their precise date, we can say that these hand-axes are the single most important find of Ice Age material from below the North Sea.”

English Heritage, the Government heritage agency, is co-operating with Dutch counterparts, the National Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscape and Built Heritage to evaluate the finds. The hand-axes date to the Palaeolithic (or Old Stone Age) but exactly when in that 750,000-year time span is yet to be determined.

This map shows the approximate location of where the axes were collected by the dredging vessel

One of the palaeolithic handaxes found by Jan MeulmeesterOne of the palaeolithic handaxes found by Jan MeulmeesterWhile the hand-axes were discovered in Holland, the gravel came from a licensed marine dredging area in English waters known as Area 240 - some 13km off Great Yarmouth where the sea is about 25m deep. Bones and teeth, some of which may be from mammoths, were also recovered along with the axes.

Ian Oxley, Head of Maritime Archaeology at English Heritage, said: “These are exciting finds which help us gain a greater understanding of The North Sea at a time when it was land. We know people were living out there before Britain became an island, but sites actually proving this are rare.”

Ian Selby, Hanson’s Marine Operations and Resources Director, added: “The hand-axes were collected over a three-month period and this remarkable discovery only came to light in February when Mr Meulmeester, realising their importance, informed the wharf owners. As we manage our dredging very carefully, we were quickly able to identify the area where the finds came from. As part of our industry’s protocol with English Heritage, we have now moved dredging to another part of the seabed.”

The reporting of the hand-axes demonstrates the level of co-operation that exists between the dredging industry, through its trade association, The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association, and English Heritage. The protocol, signed in 2005, aims to protect archaeological remains discovered in English waters as a result of marine sand and gravel extraction.

Dredging

The reporting protocol for archaeological finds was an industry led initiative to prevent finds such as these going unreported. The potential for discovering finds has always been known to exist within dredging areas. The industry with consultants Wessex Archaeology and English Heritage established a mechanism through which any finds could be reported and assessed. The Guidance notes produced on behalf of English Heritage and BMAPA, can be viewed at: http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/marine/bmapa/index.html

Read our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about the handaxes.

Who’s Who

Hanson is one of the world’s largest suppliers of heavy building materials to the construction industry and is part of the HeidelbergCement Group, which employs 70,000 people across five continents. HeidelbergCement is the global leader in aggregates and has leading positions in cement, concrete and heavy building products. Hanson’s marine aggregate dredging business is the largest in Europe, delivering to 20 wharves around the UK and in Holland, Belgium and France.

The British Marine Aggregate Producers Association is the trade association for the British marine aggregate industry. It represents 12 member companies who collectively produce around 90 per cent of the 24 million tonnes of marine sand and gravel dredged from licence areas off the coast of England and Wales each year.

English Heritage exists to protect and promote England’s spectacular historic environment and ensure that its past is researched and understood. The national Heritage Act 2002 gave English Heritage responsibility for the submerged historic environment out to the 12 nautical mile limit. The maritime team of English Heritage is also responsible for managing historic wrecks designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

Wessex Archaeology is one of the largest archaeological practices in the UK, working with public authorities and developers to ensure the archaeological remains are recorded and preserved in the course of construction and extraction. Set up in 1979, Wessex Archaeology now employs more than 180 archaeologists and retains its charitable status, encouraging interest in archaeology and extending knowledge to the wider public. Wessex Archaeology has been working with the marine aggregate industry since the mid-1990s, carrying out desk-based, geophysical and diving investigations as well as designing and implementing the industry’s reporting protocol.