News - Nottingham city museum opens up archaeological stores

Nottingham City Museums is offering a chance to go behind the scenes at its archaeological stores, offering a rare look at its prehistoric collection.

 

Manager Ann Inscker said: "Visitors will see material that hasn't seen the light of day for a long, long time."

 

The objects include flint tools from 50,000BC and an array of axes, hammers, spears, swords and pottery.

 

Most of the items in the collection were found in Nottinghamshire or the East Midlands.

 

Many have been found on the banks of the River Trent, through dredging in the 1960s and 70s.

 

"One of the former county archaeologists refers to it as the richest river in Europe for archaeology," said the collections manager. "The richness is here but it is behind the scenes."

 

The reason for this, Ms Inscker explained, is down to space and the national curriculum in schools, which starts with the Romans.

"[This has meant] we have a lot of material that doesn't have a front end," she said.

 

The archaeological collection began life at the Castle Museum in 1878. It has been built up over the last 130 years through donations.

 

It generally has less than one per cent of its 23,000 objects on display at any one time.

 

"People don't understand how much material we have," said Ms Inscker.

 

The objects are available for research and scientific analysis and Ms Inscker stresses the importance of keeping a local collection.

 

She said: "If everything is in London it will go into deep storage and it will take six months for an enquiry for you to actually get access to that material.

"By having it here it means that it is more accessible to the public.

 

"We want to learn and understand the local area from which this material comes," the collections manager added.

 

"If we left it all to people in London - they're not going to want to come up to the provinces and learn about archaeology here, not to the same extent and with the same passion we do.

 

"We need to make sure the facility stays here."

 

Behind the scenes tours of the prehistoric collections at Brewhouse Yard, Museum of Nottingham Life, will take place on 18 February, 6.30pm to 7.30pm, and 24 February 2011, at 10.30am and 2.00pm. Advance booking is advised, as places will be limited. Telephone: 0115 915 3620

 

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9398000/9398120.stm

 

News - Archaeologists look to protect rare prehistoric site (Farndon)

A group of amateur archaeologists are hoping to help protect a rare prehistoric site in Nottinghamshire.

 

They are bidding for funding to further investigate the fields around Farndon, where archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of Ice Age flint tools.

 

Professional archaeologist Daryl Garton is supporting Farndon Archaeological Research Investigations' bid.

 

"There isn't another site in Britain of the same age and with this spread of activity," she said.

 

"It's incredibly important." The prehistoric site was discovered during field walks carried out prior to the road widening of the A46 between Newark and Widmerpool.

Daryl was involved with the initial work for the Highways Agency.

 

She said: "There were about 330 surface finds but that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

 

"There will be lots more in the ploughed soil, hopefully left intact."

 

It is believed that the site was that of a camp, or several camps, where hunters would process kills after hunting animals, perhaps of herds such as wild horses and red deer migrating across the River Trent.

 

Farndon Archaeological Research Investigations (FARI) are bidding for £50,000 of Heritage Lottery Funding to be used over three years.

 

With this they hope to do more field walks, dig several test pits and carry out scientific tests they would otherwise not be able to afford.

 

Anne Coyne, from FARI, said the funding would be good, not only for archaeologists but also for the area. "It's like ancient family history, studying how our ancestors lived in the past," she said.

 

"It would be great to put Newark on the map in terms of prehistory."

 

As important as work in the field, FARI plans to communicate the importance of the site to the public, through talks and displays.

 

"Eventually what we'd like to do is put on a permanent display of the finds at the local museum at Newark for people to view for future generations," Anne added.

FARI are expecting to finalise their application by the end of March and hope to hear from Heritage Lottery Fund a few months later. They hope to start work in the summer of 2011.

 

Farndon Archaeological Research Investigations are putting on a series of events at Newark Library in February 2011. On 15 February professional archaeologist Daryl Garton will give a talk about the finds so far unearthed near the village. Between 17-19 February there will be a display of the original artefacts and on 19 February families can enjoy an archaeological craft activity, building a replica, edible, stone henge. For more information call FARI on 01636 616 640.

 

In Nottinghamshire there are only a handful of archaeological remains that date from the Palaeolithic time period

 

Fardon Field's location is unusual because prehistoric tools are usually found in protected environments such as caves not open fields

 

The flint tools found were used about 13,000 years ago for processing animal carcasses, scraping them out to make pelts for clothing.

They have been found spread over a huge area equivalent to 21 football pitches 

Archaeologists say the people who made the flint tools at Farndon might conceivably be the same people that made the cave paintings of bison and birds at Creswell Crags

From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9391000/9391437.stm

News – Creswell Crags offer a week of fun

PREHISTORIC times are set to come alive this half term at Creswell Crags in north Derbyshire with a series of events staged as part of the BBC’s Hands on History season.

A variety of free activities will be running from Sunday February 20 to Saturday February 26.

John and Val Lord will be demonstrating the ancient art of flintknapping to the public on Sunday, while on Monday ancient cave games will begin on the lower ground floor of the visitor centre.

There will also be Ice Age cave tours where families can discover the skills and tools employed by our ancestors thousands of years ago, as well as the wealth of animals that relied on the caves for shelter. 

There will also be a look at what life was like for prehistoric hunters at the edge of Europe.

From: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/crags_offer_a_week_of_fun_1_3062413

 

Trent Vale Archaeology Blog

As part of the Community Archaeology project on the river Trent the Trent Vale Landscape Partnership runs a blog with regular updates on their projects of this historic landscape which still has remains from prehistory to medieval and beyond.  Their latest blog covers the work done around Knaith the other weekend, the new mosaics at Gainsborough and recent work at Littleborough:

The latest instalment is available at: http://trentvale.wordpress.com/