Posted in Archaeology, Art & Design, History, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, art, History on August 31, 2017| 6 Comments »
A mysterious crack has appeared in this stone head in the lounge
I have been meaning to compile a blog post about my favourite “ancient stone heads of the world” for a while – and now I have an excuse. The small stone head I bought at the Ideal Home Exhibition in the 1980s has suddenly developed a crack. (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Dorset, England, History, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, dorset, History on August 25, 2016| 19 Comments »
View from Cerne Abbas viewing point in Dorset
I’m just back from my annual trip to Dorset, so my next few posts will probably feature a few new things I saw for the first time.
One day, while heading somewhere else, I looked at the map and realised we were going to pass by the famous Cerne Abbas Giant, one of those old chalk figures that brighten the area – and this one is famous for being a bit “rude”. (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Non-digital archive, Nostalgia, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, megaliths on June 24, 2013| 4 Comments »
One of the alignments of standing stones at Carnac in Brittany, France, in 1975…
This self-indulgent trip down memory lane has been prompted by two things. It was the midsummer solstice on Friday and the Le Mans 24-hour car race took place at the weekend. Bringing these together, here are my very faded images from an archaeology field trip to see the megaliths (“huge stones”) of Brittany (including Le Mans) in 1975.
It was my first (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Dorset, England, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, dorset, flowers, Nature, Summer on August 9, 2011| 11 Comments »
The approach to Badbury Rings, near Wimborne in East Dorset, in August 2011
Last week (August 1) I was in Dorset and without any planning in advance I found myself going for a walk around the Iron Age hill-fort of Badbury Rings.
Agrimony at Badbury Rings
As well as its archaeological value, the area is home to a dozen or so orchids – not (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Nostalgia, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, geology, Nostalgia on January 31, 2011| 16 Comments »
My lovely flint hand axe knapped by Bruce Bradley in the early 1970s at Cambridge
These musings on the stone called flint and its poorer-quality relation chert are prompted by the recent discovery of 120,000-year-old stone tools in the United Arab Emirates. Read more about that here.
This 120,000-year-old chert hand axe was discovered in the United Arab Emirates
Those tools are made of chert, a fine-grained silica-rich microcrystalline sedimentary rock found in limestone. But when it is of fine quality and found in chalk, it is called flint.
Worked flint is beautiful – hard, glassy, grey, touchable. I first held it in my hands when studying prehistoric archaeology in the early 1970s.
At the time Bruce Bradley (now Professor) was studying for his PhD in experimental archaeology at Cambridge University. He was famous even then for his flint-knapping technique – it was said that it was lucky he wore spectacles as they were covered in tiny chips from the flying fragments of stone and he would otherwise have been blinded.
When he left he sold off many of his pieces. I have to admit I didn’t go to the sale myself, but my fellow student Matthew Spriggs picked up some flint tools for me. Thus I acquired the large hand axe, an arrowhead and a small sickle, all of which are pictured here.
And thanks to the miracle of Google, I find Matt is now an archaeology professor in Australia. I wondered what had happened to him!
A close-up of the beautiful flint-knapping on this hand axe by Bruce Bradley
Excellent flint arrowhead knapped by Bruce Bradley at Cambridge, England, in the early 1970s
Posted in Archaeology, Gwent, History, Trees, Uncategorized, Wales, tagged archaeology, geology, Gwent, History, Monmouthshire, Trees on January 8, 2011| 4 Comments »
Tintern Abbey, December 31, 2010
On the same dark mid-winter day that we visited Usk and Monmouth, we also went to Tintern Abbey in the lovely Wye Valley.
We are members of Cadw and get in “free”, so we always visit when we are in the area. (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Art & Design, History, Nostalgia, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, art, design, History, Nostalgia on July 18, 2010| 4 Comments »
The golden mask of Tutankhamun has become iconic – and I have seen it in the “flesh”... it is now back at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo
The mysterious Egyptian king Tutankhamun is back in the news this week as the archive of Howard Carter goes on line thanks to the work of Oxford University archaeologist Jaromir Malek.
Howard Carter spent years documenting the thousands of artefacts from the tomb he uncovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. At the time, after making a small hole in the door of the tomb and shining a candle light through, he was asked by his patron Lord Carnarvon if he could see anything. He famously said “Yes… wonderful things!”
On the fiftieth anniversary of this discovery, just 50 of the thousands of “wonderful things” from the tomb came to London to go on display at the British Museum. I was lucky enough to (more…)
Posted in Archaeology, Non-digital archive, Nostalgia, Photography, Uncategorized, tagged archaeology, Nostalgia, photography on June 16, 2010| 16 Comments »
Stonehenge in Spring 1974...
As we draw near to the northern hemisphere’s summer solstice, I thought I would post some old black and white pictures I took of Stonehenge and other West Country prehistoric monuments during an archaeological field class in Spring 1974.
Those were the days! Such monuments were not the tourist attractions they are today and they were often in isolated spots with no visitor centres nearby.
This weekend the (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 