PRESS RELEASE: Rescue Dig of the Year award for 2016, for Drumclay Crannog Project

Nora Bermingham and Caitríona Moore accept Current Archaeology’s prestigious Rescue Dig of the Year award for 2016, for their work on the Drumclay Crannog

The award for Rescue Dig of the Year (sponsored by Export and General Insurance for the second year running) was accepted by Dr Nora Bermingham and Caitríona Moore who carried out the rare excavation of a crannog (a medieval artificial island) in Co. Fermanagh on behalf of the Department of the Environment and Department for Regional Development in Northern Ireland. The well-preserved remains of timber structures and thousands of artefacts uncovered at this important site, are set to revolutionise our understanding of crannog life.

The prize forms part of the celebrated Current Archaeology Awards given each year by Current Archaeology, the UK’s leading archaeology magazine. TV personality and archaeologist Julian Richards (of Meet the Ancestors fame) announced the winners of the 2016 awards on 26 February, during the Current Archaeology Live! event, held at the University of London’s Senate House, which saw a record number of ticket sales for the conference, and was attended by over 400 people.

Nora Bermingham said:

‘Thank you so much to everyone who voted for us. This was a tiny little rural excavation in Northern Ireland, and we’re thrilled to have won. Doing Drumclay was the experience of a lifetime, and I don’t think it will be matched – it was a real privilege to direct that excavation and see the wonders that came out of it. We had a wonderful crew, and we would also like to thank the Department of the Environment and Department for Regional Development in Northern Ireland.’

John Mitchell said:

We are delighted once again to be sponsoring this prestigious award – and we are very happy that it has been won by the Drumclay Crannog Project.  It is well deserved!

  

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Ice Age engravings found in Jersey

The recent discovery in Jersey of fragments from stone slabs proves that, like us, settlers in the UK were tablet aficionados 14,000 years ago. Plus ça change... 

The dig uncovered stone engravings which are similar to those discovered on the continental mainland - which are also dated similarly - but are the first of their kind here and pre-date the earliest discovered art in Britain. 

The 'art' in question - for we are using the term a little loosely here - comprises a series of criss-crosses carved into tablets, and are significant in that they perhaps mark the point when our ancestors began to think in a more abstract way. 

Unlike at other Magdalenian sites where tablets have been discovered with representations of other horses and animals on them, the carvings consist exclusively of repeated lines, leading experts to surmise whether the artist in question is in fact a distant ancestor of Ed Miliband. 

The discoveries were made by archaeologists who have been patiently toiling away at the site - 'Les Varines' - for five consecutive summers. And Dr Conneller, a lecturer at the University of Manchester, is hopeful their labours will bear yet more fruit:

"We're hoping this is a hint of what is to come, because at some other sites you get hundreds of these pieces. What we've got at the moment is only a fragment of something much larger."

A fragment of something much larger indeed:- Dr Silvia Bello of the Natural History Museum is confident that the fragments are the real deal, revealing a shift in hunter-gatherer attitudes from the simplistic to the aesthetic:

"the stones ... show clear incised lines consistent with being made by stone tools, and they do not have any obvious functional role."

£180,000 has been invested by the Jersey States in the project - dubbed the Ice Age Island Project - and work resumes. 

We'll keep you updated as more discoveries, fingers crossed, follow.  

For competitive archaeology insurance, click here. 

Hat-doff to the BBC for pictures.

Sinister Catacombs of Odessa: the Lost Girl

Everybody knows about the Parisian catacombs, but the sprawling lesser-known maze beneath Odessa harbours a notoriety which continues to this day.

Urban exploration is a burgeoning pastime among young people and archaeologists who fancy themselves as Howard Carter types. E&G staff have been known to dabble in it during work hours, counting a Victorian swimming baths in Bristol as one of our favourite haunts.

Catacombs, however, are a different animal entirely. The Odessa tunnels in Ukraine span three levels, cover a staggering distance of 2,500 kilometres and have 1,000 (known) entrances.

So large are the catacombs, in fact, that they haven’t even been fully mapped.

Starting out as an isolated series of limestone mines in the 19^th-century, local smugglers began connecting them in a macabre game of dot-to-dot that would eventually claim lives.

It is very difficult to convey in words just how dauntingly expansive a 2,500 kilometre network of tunnels is, especially when they often lead nowhere or double-back on themselves. Resembling enormous black bronchi (see map at top), the tunnels are arid and stifling; they provide no bearings or signposts for the lost.

Which compounds the tragedy of the case of a 19 year old girl who wandered, perhaps while intoxicated, into one of the entrances after having been to a New Year party in 2005. She was only discovered four months later by urban explorer hobbyists after police, having been informed that the girl was missing, refused to enter the catacombs should they suffer the same fate. One story has it that she was initially with a group of friends when she entered the tunnels and ran ahead to scare them. It was said that they went a different direction, and never saw her again. 

Despite the government having attempted to seal the known entrances in 1980, others are frequently being discovered. Along with explorers, the catacombs have become popular with derring-do teenagers and archaeologists who are intrigued by its history as a hiding place for civilians and officials in WWII.

The body of the lost girl, named Masha, was recovered two years after her disappearance, in 2007. Based on where her body lay it is believed she spent three days wandering the catacombs, trying to find her way out, before perishing of dehydration. Her case serves as a reminder of the dangers the catacombs of Odessa continue to pose to the carefree or ill-prepared. 

For competitive bespoke archaeology insurance click here. 

For competitive bespoke travel insurance click here. 

The Tale of a Converted Victorian Swimming Baths

As a doctor of Archaeology, Export & General managing director Dr John Mitchell has a niche interest in the modern craze of “urban archaeology”; but the case of the Bristol Community Dance Centre is one building which he’d rather see preserved.

The Bristol Community Dance Centre is a converted Victorian swimming baths and spa-cum-dance studio; a monument to the fortitude of manager Alan Roberts who has run the premises since the 1980s; and a sentinel part of Bristol’s cultural landscape.

Both the studios and their custodian exude charm: Alan Roberts jokes that the ‘ravages of time’ have left their mark on him; but he isn’t intent on some cosmetic renovations of his own; it is the building that is in need of restoration.

The Bristol Community Dance Centre has been running for almost 30 years, during which time it has hosted performances by Disney, Elbow, Frank Bruno and other stars who regard the Studio One dancefloor as one of the best – if not the best – in Britain. The fact it was built over a former swimming pool makes it ideal for dance: the suspending metal springs beneath mitigate the risk of ankle splint injuries and conduce to more seamless dance manoeuvres. Both it, as well as the performance equipment in the studio, were fitted because of Alan’s tireless campaigning. During his stewardship a total of £1.5m in capital has been raised for fittings and renovations; having showed us the before and after photos of the building, it became clear that his contribution to not only salvaging the building from dilapidation – but also utilising it – has been a staggering feat.

Export & General have insured the studios almost since their inception, and we simply aren’t prepared to see its majesty crumble. It isn’t an exaggeration to say the Dance Centre has played a transformative role in Bristol’s community: Alan relates that a young local gangster - who regretted his life decisions and feared for his life to the extent he rarely went out - was taken to see the annual fandango and was so inspired that he joined the dance troupe, went abroad to dance and left his life of crime behind. This sense of purpose – Alan says – is an example of the magic of dance and drama, made more magic when set inside the soaring red brick walls, arching steel buttresses and vaulted ceilings of a listed Victorian baths. The question, then: isn’t the building owed a transformation of its own?

So Alan has spent thousands commissioning an architect to draw mock ups of what a renovated premises would look like. The results are simply stunning.

Plans include a plush new reception, glass veneers throughout the building including a glass balcony encompassing studio one and connecting the building’s 15 levels. The old tank and pump rooms would not only be restored, but given architectural significance: the Victorian bath tank would prop up a glass floor in the café, so you can peer into its fathoms while sipping a latte. A new studio dedicated to flamenco dance would be constructed in the spacious pump room, surrounded by towering steel beams, and would be the only one of its kind in Britain. The charming bathhouse fixtures like the spring valves, which are still connected to the historic 14^th century stream built by a Jewish sect running beneath the building, would be restored.

At Export & General we actively embrace innovation and heritage. While the two concepts may seem like uneasy bedfellows, we see Alan’s plans for the Dance Centre as a symbol of our ethos – and their realisation: its total embodiment.

Which is why we really rather like it, and hope it stays around. 

Click here to see Alan's plans.

Pigs Unearth 12,000 year old Stone Tools

A herd of pig archaeologists have unearthed tools left by hunter-gatherers at Islay around 12,000 years ago.

The stone implements gradually surfaced after years of porcine poking about the shore of the Scottish island, though the official line credits their gamekeeper with the find.

Evidence had previously suggested that the earliest dwelling at Islay dated back 10,500 years, but archaeologists at the site uncovered a level 3,000 years older. This was 'long before any humans should have been in the region' stated one archaeologist, almost as if the incursion of humans on the unspoiled islet had been rude.

As for the pigs, they were originally intended by their gamekeeper to clear bracken on the shore when their intellectual curiosity took over; an archaeologist at the University of Reading - a university in Reading - said that the findings had 'taken our breath away'. Unearthing who 'our' is would require the time and fortitude which only pigs in Islay seem to have, and so you'll have to forgive us for not expanding.

To read more about the discovery click here. For pig related news click here.

Artefact-it.com – looks interesting for community projects

This looks well worth further investigation!

As stated on their website:

“Our aim is to enable you to create a heritage resource for your community,  that will preserve memories, generate new research and interpret lost or forgotten heritage locations or buildings. We can help you with a project that will enable your society, voluntary group or heritage centre, to record and promote your heritage, preserving it for future generations and making it accessible to all.

We can create an interactive, digital, heritage resource in a number of formats which will enable the user to tailor their learning experience so they can view all or part of the information.  The participant can access filmed interviews, mini documentaries, photo galleries, oral history recordings and interviews, or a 3d virtual reconstruction which is an animated sequence of a chosen site from a specific period of history, showing how it may have once looked.

This information can be displayed on a laptop, tablet, pc or touch-screen.  It can be made into a CD-ROM or DVD or put onto a memory stick. It can also be duplicated or downloaded, ensuring your heritage is made available to the widest possible audience.  The company has had nearly 20 years experience working within the heritage sector, creating a range of resources from many different periods of history. The team is led by an archaeologist and work with professional historians and archaeologists specialising in a range of heritage fields"

In addition:

“We offer free funding advice, providing support through all aspects of the funding process and have extensive knowledge of appropriate funding bodies with a very high success rate.

We will work with a group from the beginning of an idea right through to the finished project and will seek funding for training packages which will enable your group to take part at all stages.”

Click here to see more 

Tel. 01225 920609

info@artefact-it.com

Call me to discuss your insurance needs on 0208 2550617 / 07768 865983

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