From the Ice Age to the Stone Age: Happisburgh

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Britain, England, ice age, Leicestershire, Loughborough, prehistory, stone age, WEA

A series of footprints that were left by early humans around 900,000 years ago were discovered by a team of scientists led by the British Museum, Natural History Museum and Queen Mary University of London. The footprints left in ancient estuary muds were found at Happisburgh in Norfolk and are direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe. This video provides more information about the discovery.

From the Ice Age to the Stone Age: Boxgrove

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archaeology, Boxgrove, Britain, education, ice age, Leicestershire, Loughborough, prehistory, stone age, WEA

In the first session of ‘From the Ice Age to the Stone Age’, we examined the earliest evidence for hominins in Britain. One site that was mentioned as having significance to this story was Boxgrove in West Sussex. This short video clip from BBC’s 2002 documentary, ‘Apeman’, shows the refitting of flint fragments from that site.

Reading List: From the Ice Age to the Stone Age

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archaeology, Britain, education, ice age, Leicestershire, Loughborough, prehistory, stone age, WEA

Whilst it is not essential to do any background reading before the course begins, you may find it useful to do so. The reading list below contains books that you can read. You don’t have to read all of these and we don’t specify any that you must read. Instead, these are readings you can use to gain a preliminary understanding of topics, as well as to study in more depth those parts of the course you are particularly interested in. You may also want to take a look at magazines such as British Archaeology, World Archaeology and Current Archaeology.

Further suggestions about ways you can extend your understanding of topics through books, television etc may also be posted as appropriate here on the tutor’s personal blog, as well as on the WEA East Midlands Region History Space

Bahn, P. 2012. Cave Art: A Guide to the Decorated Ice Age Caves of Europe. Frances Lincoln Press.

Clottes, J. 2016. What Is Paleolithic Art?: Cave Paintings and the Dawn of Human Creativity. University of Chicago Press.

Cook, J. 2013. Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind. British Museum Press.

Cunliffe, B. 2013. Britain Begins. Oxford University Press.

Darvill, T. 2010. Prehistoric Britain. Routledge.

Dinnis, R and Stringer, C. 2014. Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story. The Natural History Museum.

Gosden, C. 2003. Prehistory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Milner, N et al. 2013. Star Carr: Life in Britain after the Ice Age. Council for British Archaeology.

Oliver, N. 2012. A History of Ancient Britain. W&N. (accompanies BBC TV documentary series of the same name. Documentary also available on DVD).

Oppenheimer, S. 2007. The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story. Robinson.

Pettitt, P and White, M. 2012. The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World. Routledge.

Pryor, F. 2004. Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans. Harper Perennial.

Roberts, A. 2010. The Incredible Human Journey. Bloomsbury. (accompanies BBC TV documentary series of the same name. Documentary also available on DVD).

Stringer, C. 2006. Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain. Penguin.

Waddington, C. 2007. Mesolithic Settlement in the North Sea Basin: A Case Study from Howick, North-East England. Oxbow Books.

The Anglo-Saxons: Lyminge Archaeological Project

Tags

archaeology, Britain, England, excavation, Kent, medieval, Saxon

Lyminge, Kent, is a picturesque village which has long been known as a site of an Anglo-Saxon royal monastery. Archaeological research now demonstrates that Lyminge is one of the best preserved monastic sites in Kent, a region where Christianity first gained a foothold in Anglo-Saxon England.

Excavations started in 2008 and are taking place on Tayne Field at the very centre of the village. This film caught up with the team in 2014 – during the final year of excavations. The film offers a chance to see the foundations of a sequence of spectacular Anglo-Saxon feasting halls and dwellings that the team has discovered.

In this film Dr Gabor Thomas also takes us through some of the beautiful artefacts and very rare fragments of early Angle Saxon glass that have been discovered and he tells us about the significance of these items to our understanding of the site. He also guides us through an extensive public engagement programme which really sets this archaeology project apart.

CBA Home Front Legacy day school

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archaeology, Britain, community, conference, East Midlands, Nottinghamshire

This day school in Bingham, Notts on 3rd October is part of the CBA’s efforts to show people across the UK how to identify and record our country’s WWI sites. The event is free to attend, but you do need to book as there are only 25 places are available. Further details, plus the programme and booking arrangements are available HERE.

Festival of Archaeology 2015

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archaeology, Britain, Places to Visit

The Festival of Archaeology is an annual event co-ordinated by the Council for British Archaeology. There are lots of events occurring throughout the UK over the next couple of weeks organised by museums, heritage organisations, national and country parks, universities, local societies, and community archaeologists. Check out their searchable database to find out what’s on near you.

Richard III discovery at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition

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archaeology, Britain, London, medieval, Places to Visit

ULAS News

University scientists present their research at public event from 30 June – 5 July 2015

The team behind the scientific detective story of the decade, the discovery of King Richard III, has been selected as one of 22 exhibitors at the Royal Society’s annual display of the most exciting cutting-edge science and technology in the UK.

The exhibit, at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2015, will reveal the crack team of scientists, historians, archaeologists and engineers at the University who worked tirelessly to find and identify the king who had been lost for 500 years and will bring together their expertise once more to provide a thorough account of the interdisciplinary research used to identify the remains of King Richard III.

The Richard III stand will also include an incredible 3D-printed replica of King Richard III’s skeleton created by Loughborough University using CT scans undertaken by the University…

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Evidence of Violence from a Late Black Death Cemetery

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archaeology, Black Death, Britain, England, health, medieval

This is a nice précis of research into community violence during the Black Death era as evidenced from archaeological remains

6 reasons to support the Staffordshire Hoard

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archaeology, Britain, England, medieval, Saxon

Heritage Calling

We have given £400,000 towards some ground breaking research into the Staffordshire Hoard. It will lead to an online catalogue detailing every one of the hundreds of objects in the Hoard. The plan is for the catalogue to be ready in 2017 with a major book about the collection published the following year. Working with the owners of the hoard, Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent City Councils, and Birmingham Museums Trust and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery who jointly care for the collection, we have already made some amazing discoveries. But £120,000 still needs to be raised to complete this incredibly important project.

Think you’d like to help? Here are six reasons to donate:

1. It’s the most important Anglo-Saxon find since 1939

The last significant discovery was the Sutton Hoo ship-burial in Suffolk more than 75 years ago.The Staffordshire Hoard was unearthed in July 2009 by a metal detectorist and is a spectacular mix of gold, silver…

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The Anglo-Saxons: Buildings and Burhs

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archaeology, Britain, England, medieval, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Saxon, WEA

This short video clip introduces the reconstructed Anglo-Saxon village at West Stow in Suffolk, which provides a good example of the living conditions of the ordinary people of this time period.

If you wish to find out more about how the Anglo-Saxons lived, you may wish to check out the following websites:

– Anglo-Saxon Life (BBC History)
– Anglo-Saxon Burh (Wikipedia)
– Alfred’s Towns, the Burhs