British Stone Age Diet and Security Maximized by Location Choice

From The Independent:

Stone Age Brits were past masters at choosing the perfect ‘des res’, according to new research carried out by archaeologists.

Their investigations have revealed that, 300,000 years before the emergence of anatomically modern humans, prehistoric Britons were selecting their domestic real estate with tremendous care.

Nutritional and security considerations appear to have been the main criteria, according to the new research carried out by scholars at the University of Southampton and Queen's University, Belfast.

A survey of 25 major British and north-west French sites dating from 500,000 to 200,000 years ago has revealed that early humans – members of the now long-extinct species Homo heidelbergensis – predominantly chose to live on islands in the flood plains of major rivers. They avoided  forests and hills – and the upper and middle reaches of river systems,  and their estuaries. ...

The reasons for choosing flood plain areas and avoiding other locations were complex – but help to explain why Homo heidelbergensis was so successful for so long.

Read more:
Revealed: how prehistoric 'des res' gave Stone Age Brits a perfect diet

See also:
Early humans selected habitats based on nutrient rich food sources




SuccubaSuprema writes:


The information provided in this article is very interesting.  The last paragraph quoted above alludes to explanations which are provided in the article, following the portion I have quoted.

Does Stonehenge Ring True?

From Sci-News:

British researchers, reporting in the journal Time & Mind: the Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, may have cracked the mystery of why the builders of Stonehenge chose to haul some of its giant bluestones 320 km away from Wales to Salisbury Plain.

Read more:
Scientists Reveal Extraordinary Sonic Properties of Stonehenge Bluestones

Less Frequent Sex Due to 'Modern Life'?

From BBC News:

A once-a-decade poll of 15,000 Britons found those aged 16-44 were having sex fewer than five times a month.

The figure compared with more than six times a month on the last two occasions when the official National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles was carried out, in 1990-91 and 1999-2001.

The study's authors say modern life may be having an impact on libidos.

Read more:
Modern life 'turning people off sex'

A Psychotherapist for Every School?

From The Guardian:

One head is using his pupil premium to fund a full-time psychotherapist. He believes it is helping children's learning as well as their mental health problems ...

In a small office in a high school in a formerly industrial area in the West Midlands, I am talking to a psychotherapist. Each week up to 20 pupils at this mixed comprehensive have an appointment in this brightly lit, windowless room. They come to talk about problems with parents or friends, but also more nameless anxieties that can't be traced to a single cause.

Sometimes they come a few times, sometimes for a year. Initial consultations can be confidential – a letter sent to parents lets them know about the service and asks them to write back if they don't want their children to use it – but if sessions are regular, parents are told. ...

The headteacher ... believes the experiment is working, and cites improved attendance and GCSE results (59% of pupils here get A-C in five GCSEs including English and maths) and a reduced rate of exclusions.

Read more:
Should all schools have their own psychotherapist?


SuccubaSuprema writes:

I think this is an excellent idea, and that its implementation would benefit students, teachers, and staff at any educational institution, as well as the parents and the rest of the local community, to say nothing of society as a whole.  Kudos to the anonymous headteacher.

Archaeologists Admit Previous Errors About Stonehenge

From Culture24:

Admitting that their decade-long beliefs about the bluestones of Stonehenge were largely inaccurate, scientists say a particular sample of the stones – known as the spotted dolerite – could lead a path to the Pembrokeshire hills in the latest investigations surrounding the famous site.

Geochemical scrutiny of rock and debris has revealed that most of the dolerites come from Carn Goedog – about 1.5km away from the tors suggested by Herbert Henry Thomas, the geologist whose original theories about the samples were made in 1923.

“The geology of Pembrokeshire is unique,” says Dr Richard Bevins, of National Museums Wales, having spent more than 30 years studying the geology of the area, producing papers in successive years since 2011 with the help of Dr Rob Ixer, of University College London, and Aberystwyth University’s Professor Nick Pearce.

Read more:
Scientists see bluestones archaeology link between Wales and Stonehenge

Evidence of Bronze Age Burial Mound Revealed

From BBC News:

An archaeological dig on the site of a former World War Two airfield in Suffolk has revealed evidence of Bronze Age burial chambers.

The site, on the outskirts of Ipswich, is being excavated in readiness for a new care home due to open in 2015.

Fragments of pottery and urns indicated the site was "very close to a burial mound", archaeologists said.

Read more:
World War Two Ipswich airfield site reveals Bronze Age finds

Iron Age Cauldron Replica Unveiled

From This is Wiltshire:

A REPLICA of a cauldron said to be one of the biggest Iron Age archaelogical finds in Europe has been unveiled in Chiseldon Museum.

The cauldron was one of 17 initially discovered in 2004 by treasure hunter Peter Hyams, who is a member of the Chiseldon Local History Group.

The actual cauldrons, which are too fragile to be kept in Chiseldon, were then excavated by professional archaeologists from the British Museum and Wessex Archaeology and are now at the British Museum.

But in 2011, to mark Chiseldon as the cauldrons’ original site, the history group commissioned local blacksmith Hector Cole, a master arrowsmith and archaeological ironworker with a global reputation for recreating archaeological items, to create a replica of the cauldron as it would have been when it was buried in the Iron Age, 800 BC – AD 43.

Read more:
Bubbling excitement over cauldron replica

Pseudo-Progress Threatens Iron Age Hill Fort

From PastHorizons:

Old Oswestry is one of Europe’s best preserved iron age hill forts, a site that has existed for more than 3,000 years and can be seen for miles around.

The war poet Wilfred Owen completed his army training on the grassy mounds of Old Oswestry, which is also said to be the birthplace of King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere. It is likely that the Shropshire lad himself, AE Housman, would have spent time admiring the views from the fort’s majestic summit on the Shropshire-Wales border.

Now, in what critics say is a result of the government’s new planning policy, proposals have been drawn up to build almost 200 luxury homes next to the ancient site, angering local residents and heritage groups. Some 6,000 people have signed a petition opposing the development, part of the county council’s plan to build 2,600 homes by 2026 to comply with government targets.

One of 25 hill forts in Shropshire, Old Oswestry has a series of perimeter ditches, formed between ramparts, that were designed to slow down attackers. An archaeological survey in 2010 found man-made structures in fields to the north-east of the fort. Two years ago the discovery of an iron age road, thought to connect The Wrekin, near Telford, with fields near the site, indicated that there was likely to be important evidence of past cultures buried under the soil.

Read more:
Iron age hill fort threatened by plans to build 200 luxury homes

Digital Reconstructions of Roman Britain

From The Daily Mail:

A professor has teamed up with digital artists to create striking pictures of how Roman Britain would have looked 2,000 years ago.

The CGI images include a Roman ‘motorway’ stretching from Exeter to London, a forgotten port and luxurious-looking barracks for the occupying forces.

Another image of the Roman town of Calleva Atrebatum, located in Hampshire, has been produced that paints a picture of a wealthy and bustling settlement.

Read more (and check out the images!):
From a bustling port to a 160-mile 'motorway': Amazing digital reconstructions bring forgotten Roman Britain to life

SuccubaSuprema writes:

Note the reconstructed buildings in the images.  These are typical of Roman architectural style.  Architecture is, of course, an aspect of material culture.  By importing this style into Britannia Romana, the Roman conquerors were doing two things:  (1) bringing a bit of home to a foreign posting and thus theoretically making themselves more comfortable (I say "theoretically," as many of the soldiers and other persons representing the Imperium may not have been natives of Latium or even Italia;  still, if they were from the lands of the Imperium, which is likely, then they would undoubtedly have been familiar with this style), (2) introducing foreign material culture to a conquered people and thus engaging in cultural imperialism.  I'm not a fan of cultural imperialism, then or now (I'm also not a huge fan of the Imperium Romanum or any other empire, or imperialism in any form;  but I do appreciate much about the culture of Roma and Italia, then and now).  However, this is history, and there is nothing we can do to alter the past (and even if there were, the effects on all that has come since, as well as the present and the future, would be unpredictable).  We can, however, learn from the past, and we can also appreciate this architectural style, even if we dislike cultural imperialism.