'Oldest in Britain' Hallaton Roman coin may be evidence of early trade links with Corieltavi tribe

From the BBC:

A silver coin dug up as part of a hoard is the oldest piece of Roman money found in Britain, experts believe. The coin which has been dated to 221BC was found near the Leicestershire village of Hallaton with 5,000 other coins, a helmet and decorated bowl.


David Sprason, county council cabinet member for communities and wellbeing, said: "Leicestershire boasts the largest number of Iron Age coins ever professionally excavated in Britain in the Hallaton Treasure. To also have the oldest Roman coin ever found is something very special."


The Hallaton coin is on display at the Harborough Museum, Market Harborough, alongside other coins that were excavated at a late Iron Age shrine of the Corieltavi tribe dating to the first century AD.

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Archaeological dig uncovers the past in Llay

From the BBC:

Since 2002, archaeologists and local enthusiasts have been digging at the site of an Iron Age hillfort in Llay, Wrexham

Take a walk on the banks of the River Alyn from Bradley to Llay, what we call today the Caer Alyn project area, and you will see few glimpses of its former glory.

Gone are the Iron Age people who built the Caer Alyn hillfort and Watts Dyke, and gone are the wheels that drove Medieval mill machines. Today, we're using the landscape to tell the story of the past.

The Caer Alyn project started with just one test pit as part of the Channel 4 TV programme, Time Team's Big Dig in 2002. Since then the Caer Alyn community archaeological heritage project has gone from strength to strength.

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Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination by Karin Sanders: review

From the Telegraph:

Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination

By Karin Sanders

CHICAGO UP, £26, 317pp

In 1969, PV Glob, a distinguished professor of archeology in Denmark, published a remarkable book. The Bog People was written in response to a request from a group of schoolgirls at an English convent. These young ladies had become excited about photographs of the mysterious discovery, in a Danish bog, of a almost perfectly preserved body dating back to the Iron Age and known as the Tollund Man, from the area in which he was found.

He lay in the ancient peat, entirely naked except for a thin leather cap and a lanyard around his neck. As Glob described in his charming, plainly written book, Tollund Man joined Grauballe Man and Windeby Girl (who turned out to be Windeby Boy), disinterred from the Jutland fens; a mute, macabre gathering looking like crumpled, leathery marionettes.

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Iron age gold jewellery goes on display in Edinburgh

From the BBC:

A hoard of Iron Age jewellery found by a treasure hunter in Stirlingshire has gone on display in Edinburgh.

The four solid gold neck ornaments, or torcs, could be more than 2,000 years old.

They were found in a field by safari park manager David Booth, who was using a metal detector for the first time.

They are now owned by the Crown and have been placed on public view at the National Museum of Scotland for the next three weeks.

Fraser Hunter, the museum's curator, said "These four gold torcs are very beautiful, very displayable objects.

"They have many stories to tell."

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eBook: An Iron Age Settlement outside Battlesbury Hillfort, Warminster and Sites along the Southern Range Road

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A recent eBook from Wessex Archaeology is now available to download for free. “An Iron Age Settlement outside Battlesbury Hillfort, Warminster and Sites along the Southern Range Road” can be read online via the Scribd iPaper viewer or downloaded as a PDF file. The book is written by Chris Ellis and Andrew B. Powell. A few hard copies may also available for purchase (ISBN: 978-1-874350-47-7).

For further information and download instructions, please visit the Wessex Archaeology website at: http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/wiltshire/battlesbury/iron-age-settlement-ebook
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Beccles dig unearths ancient secrets

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From The Advertiser24:


Archaeologists attempting to piece together the history of an Iron Age site on Beccles marshes believe they are moving a step closer to drawing conclusions.

A team of students from University of Birmingham descended on the marshes for three weeks in the summer to try to unravel the mystery surrounding the site.

In 2006, three rows of wooden posts inserted into the ground were unearthed while flood defence work was being carried out.

The posts have been traced for about 500m from the contemporary dryland edge just outside Beccles, north to the edge of the River Waveney.

The digs have confirmed that the three parallel rows of large oak posts have been dated using tree rings to 75BC, which is the late Iron Age. It was initially believed that the posts could mark out a causeway that provided a main route into Beccles, although further interpretation of the site is currently under way.

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Rare sheep die in animal attack

From the BBC News:

Five breed rare sheep have been killed in two separate attacks at a Cambridgeshire education centre.

The Celtic (Soay) sheep were in a herd of 10 at Flag Fen Bronze Age Centre, an archaeology site in Peterborough. There are few of the species left in England.

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