BTW, just recalled listening to Wengrow being interviewed about this stuff on Novara. Very cogent and persuasive:
Also this interview with Wengrow:
BTW, just recalled listening to Wengrow being interviewed about this stuff on Novara. Very cogent and persuasive:
Also this interview with Wengrow:
expanding on thisSecond century Buddha statue dug up in an Egyptian Red Sea port: A marble statue of Buddha was uncovered in Berenike at the Red Sea
Many people discovered new interests closer to home as a result of Covid-19 lockdowns. For Dr Joseph Botting and Dr Lucy Muir, it was a 10-metre-wide quarry in a sheep field near to their home in Llandrindod, central Wales, which appeared to be teeming with tiny fossils.
Now researchers believe the site could help plug gaps in scientific understanding of how evolution proceeded after the Cambrian explosion – the period when the ancestors of most modern animals are believed to have evolved. It could even prove to be as important as the Burgess Shale in Canada that preserves one of the world’s first complex marine ecosystems, experts say.
The Welsh site, known as Castle Bank, dates from the Middle Ordovician period, about 460m-70m years ago. It represents a community of diverse and mostly diminutive (1mm to 5mm in body length) marine organisms that existed at a time when ocean covered what is now mid-Wales.
The newfound barrows range in size, with the smallest measuring about 33 feet (10 meters) across and the largest spanning 165 feet (50 m). But most of the barrows are between 65 and 100 feet (20 and 30 m) across.
Google Portable Antiquities Scheme, or your local county Small Finds team.been meaing to post this for a while. Found this on the beach at spurn head some years ago - some sort of flint tool, its definitely been worked. Advice on where to get more info appreciated. View attachment 380196View attachment 380197View attachment 380198
been meaing to post this for a while. Found this on the beach at spurn head some years ago - some sort of flint tool, its definitely been worked. Advice on where to get more info appreciated. View attachment 380196View attachment 380197View attachment 380198
The pits could offer extraordinary new insights. They are in alignments and clustered around former stream channels, suggesting a spiritual significance.
Such is the scale of this site that it has more such pits in a single area than anywhere else in England and Wales, including Stonehenge. Radiocarbon dating revealed they are from 7,700 to 8,500 years ago.
Archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola), who are conducting the research, said: “This date makes the site incredibly significant because there are very few Mesolithic sites in the UK that are this substantial. Evidence from this period is often slim”
Prof Joshua Pollard... described the discovery as very exciting.
He said: “While we know of other large and enigmatic pits dug by hunter-gatherers from elsewhere in Britain, including at Stonehenge, the Linmere pits are striking because of their number and the wide area they cover.”
Digging such vast pits would have been an extraordinary feat. Measuring up to 5 metres (16.4ft) wide and 1.85 metres deep, each one is round with steep sides, some flaring out into a wider base.
25 Mesolithic pits have been discovered in Linmere, Bedfordshire.
View attachment 381733
Discovery of up to 25 Mesolithic pits in Bedfordshire astounds archaeologists
Good point.that's a remarkable discovery.
I have a quibble with the article though.
third paragraph :
"The pits could offer extraordinary new insights. They are in alignments and clustered around former stream channels, suggesting a spiritual significance."
last sentence:
"Wolframm-Murray said: “This work will reveal the environment these people lived in, and hopefully answer the question ‘what were these pits for?’” "
we'll wait for the final report, but lemme guess ... large pools by a stream... fishponds to provide a controlled supply of food? ... catchments for flooding? ... reservoirs for irrigation? ... some or all of these?
... you know, something material?
It's the time-honoured "no idea what it is so let's just call it ritual" duck 'n dive again
Good point.