Saturday 20 April 2013

Wanted: manager to look after Stonehenge - the world's most famous stone circle

The ancient monument presents a unique challenge, as Charlie Cooper discovers

Job seekers of an archaeological persuasion, pay attention: the holy grail of heritage jobs could be yours. Stonehenge needs a new manager and if there were ever a workplace with “a unique set of demands”, this is it. The salary is around £65,000 and the closing date is 5 May.
The new general manager, employed by English Heritage, will be the chief custodian of Britain’s oldest national monument. It is the first time the site has had an overall manager and the new man or woman at the top will be responsible for the biggest changes at the site in a generation, with a state-of-the-art visitor’s centre set to open at the end of the year.





Artcle by: Charlie Cooper http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/wanted-manager-to-look-after-stonehenge--the-worlds-most-famous-stone-circle-8580897.html

Stonehenge Tour Guide

Thursday 18 April 2013

Mesolithic life before Stonehenge found at Amesbury

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 Wednesday, 1 May at 20:30 BST on BBC Four
Watch a clip here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22019089

Stonehenge Tour Guide

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Neolithic homes reconstructed for new Stonehenge visitor centre

English Heritage recreates prehistoric houses in Wiltshire based on local excavations that will be rebuilt for outdoor gallery


Volunteers construct one of three Neolithic houses near Salisbury, Wiltshire. English Heritage is using the experiment to decide how they will construct an outdoor gallery for visitors at Stonehenge. Photograph: Chris Ison/PA
A small housing estate of deceptively spacious detached dwellings, with excellent rural views and many period features – including central hearth and convenient smoke hole – is under construction in Wiltshire.Strictly speaking it is a brownfield rather than a greenfield site, but there have been no nimbys to complain since the city of Salisbury upped sticks and moved from the windy hilltop of Old Sarum to the plain below, more than 700 years ago.
The wattle and daub reed thatched houses, based on excavations of the dwellings believed to have been occupied by the Neolithic tribes who built the later stages of Stonehenge 4,500 years ago, are being reconstructed by volunteers for English Heritage, and will be rebuilt as an outdoor gallery for the long-promised new visitor centre for the world's most famous prehistoric monument.
While fierce argument continues to rage about the purpose of Stonehenge – status symbol, astrological calendar or cemetery – most sides agree that prehistoric peoples came there on special occasions but did not live there.
The low rectangular houses being built at Old Sarum are based on hut sites excavated by Prof Mike Parker Pearson a few miles from Stonehenge, at Durrington Walls, which he believes were occupied by the monument builders and also the scene of great mid-winter and mid-summer feasts that lasted for rollicking days and nights.
Post holes give good evidence for the timber hammered into the chalky clay which formed the frames of the houses, and also indicate the door openings. Scorched marks of hearths remain, but the building materials, probably willow woven between the posts and then made wind and watertight by plastering with clay, rotted away millennia ago – except for the base of one wall, believed to be the earliest example of chalk cob as a building material.
The upper levels, and the shape of the roofs thatched with straw or sedge, are conjecture, so several different styles are being tried out, included thatching over steeper ridges and shallow curved hazel hoops.
Susan Greaney, a buildings historian with English Heritage, said the evidence from Durrington Walls allowed them to try something special at the visitor centre. "The reconstructed houses will be an immediate and sensory link with the distant past."
The 60 volunteers started work, using flint axes, 12 tonnes of chalk and 2,500 bundles of hazel and willow rods, in the coldest March in a lifetime.
They expect to finish in May, and their work will be open to the public on 5-6 and 25-27 May.

guardian.co.uk,               

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