News- Project to map ancient landscape of England may reveal burial grounds under your house (National)

The School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford is to compile a map of prehistoric England for the first time.

The 'Portal to the Past’ project will allow people to look online to discover the history of their own area over 3,500 years, from the Bronze Age in 1500BC to the Domesday Book in 1086.

Professor Chris Gosden, who is leading the project, said local history is one of the most popular internet searches after family ancestors.

However at the moment the parish records will only show up to around 1,000 years ago.

The five year project, funded by £1.8 million from the European Research Council, will bring together all the available data into a digital archive to create maps and as much information as possible about prehistoric England.

Prof Gosden said most modern day parishes are based on how the land was set out in Roman estates or even before then by peasant communities.

He said there could be metal works, ancient field systems, peasant huts, a Roman villa or even human bodies under modern buildings.

“We tend to look at surface of the world we live in but as soon as you look beneath the surface there will be a wealth of ancient features," he said.

Most of the data will be from English Heritage aerial photographs showing ancient sites of interest. There is also £100 million spent every year by developers carrying out archaeological research on sites before building work begins and private research by museums and individuals.

Material will also be drawn from county archives, databases of ancient coins, and the Portable Antiquity Scheme (which records the archaeological finds made by metal detectors). Oxford researchers will work with the British Museum, the Archaeology Data Service and local history experts with a good knowledge of the period.

Prof Gosden said bringing all the information about ancient England into one website will reveal where the landscape has developed and indeed, stayed the same.

Access to maps and databases on artefacts may also help budding archaeologists or even treasure hunters to find more.

“England is extraordinary in the level of potential information about the ancient landscape,” he said.

“We hope this project will provide an in-depth analysis of the whole of England, so we can glean new insights into how the landscape has changed and developed. We want to discover what this huge database of information on ancient sites can reveal about England at a national level. Until now we have had fragments of information about landscape use during this period but this project allows us to form a bigger picture of overall patterns and regional variations within England."

The Portal to the Past website is expected to go live in 2014. It will be available through the University of Oxford School of Archaeology website at http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8675237/Project-to-map-ancient-landscape-of-England-may-reveal-burial-grounds-under-your-house.html

Nottingham to host the Warren Cup in a major exhibition of Roman artefacts

A famous Roman artefact once considered too shocking to be exhibited is coming to The University of Nottingham as part of a major new exhibition.

The Warren Cup, a silver cup decorated with scenes of male homosexual love, was recently featured in the BBC series A History of the World in 100 Objects and has its permanent home in the British Museum. It is only the second time the cup has left the Museum to be displayed outside London.

The cup will form the centrepiece of a three-month exhibition Roman Sexuality: Images, Myths and Meanings running at the University’s Weston Gallery at the Lakeside Arts Centre, which brings together a wide variety of artefacts and images from Roman art and archaeology and investigates what they meant to those who made and used them.

The exhibition marks the first collaboration between The University of Nottingham Museum and the British Museum and will offer people in the city and region the chance to see rare and celebrated Roman artefacts without having to travel to the capital.

The exhibition is co-curated by Clare Pickersgill of the University of Nottingham Museum, Dr Paul Roberts of the Department of Greece and Rome, British Museum in collaboration with Manuscripts and Special Collections, University of Nottingham

Dr Roberts said: “When we think about the Romans we think of gladiators, emperors and soldiers, but this exhibition focuses on ordinary people — and a fundamental part of their lives.

“Roman writers had set views on sex but objects like the Warren Cup or even humble oil lamps tell a different, more diverse, story. These objects — and people’s reactions to them — also make us think about issues of sexuality in our society.”

The Warren cup was made in around 15BC–AD15 and believed to have been found at Bittir near Jerusalem. It is named after the American Edward Warren who purchased it in 1911. Warren was one of the most well-known collectors of his day — other famous pieces in his collection included Rodin’s The Kiss, now on display in the Tate Modern Gallery in London, and the painting of Adam and Eve by Lucus Cranach, now at London’s Courtauld Institute.

Following Warren’s death, the cup was offered to several institutions, including the British Museum, but was considered too sexually explicit to display and none would take it. In 1953, the cup was turned away from the United States after its images offended the sensibilities of a customs official.

Only in 1999, following major changes in the law and public attitudes towards homosexuality, was the Cup finally given a permanent home in the British Museum, where it is now one of its most celebrated and discussed pieces.

The new exhibition begins by looking at how Victorian attitudes have affected the way we have collected, displayed and studied objects like the Warren Cup and looks at all aspects of love and sex in the Roman world including the gods, goddesses and myths associated with sexuality.

The Roman world was more comfortable with sexual imagery than many other cultures. Roman art, from luxury items such as the Warren Cup, to wall paintings, sculpture and everyday tableware and lamps, was filled with depictions of the body and human intimacy. The Romans, like the Greeks, believed that sex and sexuality were governed by several deities, including Venus, goddess of love, and Bacchus, god of wine and fertility, and their images fill Roman art and mythology.

In addition, the exhibition features objects which to modern eyes may appear to be sexual but to the Romans conveyed other meanings connected to fertility, superstition or humour.

Terracotta body parts such as wombs or breasts, and figurines showing birth or nursing mothers were common offerings at temples and shrines and also graves. Superstition provided the largest body of sexual imagery. Images of the phallus were made from materials including gold and bronze, pottery, bone and coral. Statuettes, plaques, mosaics, shop signs, tintinabula (wind chimes) and jewellery were used to protect businesses, households, children and even animals.

Clare Pickersgill said: “The University Museum currently displays a wide variety of Roman artefacts from regional excavations, especially Margidunum at Bingham, that show many aspects of everyday life. This exhibition enables another Roman topic, not commonly discussed and often misunderstood, to be explored.”

The exhibition also contains objects from The University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections Department alongside pieces from Nottingham City Museums and Galleries and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Cambridge.

Roman Sexuality: Images, Myths and Meanings runs at the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, University Park campus from January 14 2011 to April 11 2011 and is open Monday to Friday 11am to 4pm and Saturday and Sunday from 12pm to 4pm.

A series of lectures and gallery talks are planned to accompany the exhibition and more information can be found at lakesidearts.org.uk/Exhibitions.html

Entry to the exhibition is free but please note that the explicit imagery on some exhibits may be unsuitable for children and it is advised that adults accompany children under the age of 16.

From: http://presszoom.com/story_163746.html

Robin Hood 'based on William Wallace'

Nottinghamshire is generally thought to have been the home of the outlaw who stole from the rich to give to the poor, with neighbouring counties Yorkshire and Leicestershire also claiming links.

But historical novelist Jack Whyte claims that the roots of the character forever associated with Sherwood Forest may be north of the border.

He found what he claims are striking similarities between the lives of Robin Hood and the of Scottish knight William Wallace – Mel Gibson's character in the 1665 film Braveheart – while researching his latest book The Forest Laird.

Mr Whyte, 70, who left Scotland over 50 years ago to lives in Canada, believes the only surviving example of Wallace’s seal provides supporting evidence.

It appears on The Lubeck Letters which he sent to the German city in 1297, a month after his victory at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, to inform European traders that Scotland was still open for business.

Mr Whyte said: “The seal shows his personal emblem is a long bow. There, I thought, is the evidence that Wallace was a bowman.

“When you dig into the research, it shows he worked for his uncle Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie, Renfrewshire, and that he was a woodsman, the medieval equivalent of gamekeeper. He was accused of poaching and outlawed, so he spent much of his youth hiding in Selkirk forest.

“So here's this guy, an outlaw, a bowman, living in a forest, who has a girlfriend called Mirren, which is Scots for Marion. She is abducted and supposedly killed, as suggested in the film Braveheart, by the Sheriff of Lanark, William Heselrigg.”

“You don't have to be a genius to add up two and two and get Robin Hood. And I firmly believe that this man, as a young man, was the archetype from which the legend of Robin Hood grew.”

It is not the first time connections have been suggested between Scotland and Robin Hood, with David of Scotland, the Earl of Huntington, suggested as a possible role model.

But Dr David Crook, a Robin Hood expert at the University of Nottingham, said he believed the figure was a real thief whose story has been embellished over the years.

He said: “It happens all the time. None of the theories I've ever heard of are on to anything as far as I'm concerned.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/8235948/Robin-Hood-based-on-William-Wallace.html 

Probably explains why he was always "riding through the Glen" in that film!!!

University of Sheffield 2011 Field Schools

Manor Lodge Project 2011
Between 13 June and 15 July 2011 The Department of Archaeology will be offering fieldwork training at the Scheduled Ancient Monument at Manor Lodge, Sheffield. The focus will be on the location of the medieval and sixteenth-century hunting lodge of Sheffield. The hunting lodge sat amidst medieval parkland, and was only subsumed within the urban sprawl from the 1930s. One of the most well-known events in the history of Sheffield Manor Lodge was the period in the late sixteenth century when Mary Queen of Scots spent part of her captivity there. She was in the custody of George Talbot, sixth Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, known popularly as Bess of Hardwick. Our excavations seek to illuminate this period of Sheffield´s history, when the Manor Lodge was at the centre of events of national and international significance. Once the property passed into the hands of the Dukes of Norfolk the lodge fell into a ruinous state, and in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a pottery kiln was constructed at the site, coal mining occurred and workers´ cottages were built amidst the ruins. All traces of this industrial activity were stripped away in the early twentieth century, and one of our aims is to throw light on this aspect of the site´s history.
 Thornton Abbey Field School - 19 June to 16 July 2011During the 2011 season we will be concentrating our efforts just to the north of the church and the graveyard, in an area that has seen no previous survey or excavation work. Documentary research suggests that this area contained the mill as well as the ‘great barn’ of the monastery, and these are known to have continued in use well into the post-medieval period. On the ground the water channels, or ‘leat’, for the mill are clearly visible as well as the medieval bridge that crossed it (see right).

Students attending the field school will play a central role in continuing the geophysical and topographical survey of this area, as well as taking part in the excavation of the possible barn and mill areas. Whilst all work is supervised by experienced staff from the University of Sheffield, volunteers get to take part in all the key activities.

The field school fee is £180 p/w. This includes supervision, course materials, all meals, accommodation and weekly pick up & drop off at the local train station (Thornton Abbey).

If you live within the County Council districts of North Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire or West Lindsey you can attend the excavation for free so long as you provide your own food and make your own way to site.

Accommodation is in the form of camping close to the site, and we have a limited number of tents that may be borrowed if requested in advance.

From: http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/archaeology/field-schools-index

Archaeologists to probe Sherwood Forest's 'Thing'

A team of experts hope to shed new light on one of Nottinghamshire's most mysterious ancient monuments.

A 'Thing', or open-air meeting place where Vikings gathered to discuss the law, was discovered in the Birklands, Sherwood Forest, five years ago.  In January 2011 experts plan to survey the hill and see if they can detect signs of buried archaeology and the extent of the site.   The site was found by three local historians after a treasure hunt.   It started after husband and wife team Lynda Mallett and Stuart Reddish, along with their friend John Wood, came into possession of a 200 year old document.    It described a walk around part of Sherwood Forest which marked an ancient boundary.  They searched for the boundary on the landscape and found a place called Hanger Hill on which stood three stones.

The historians, from Rainworth, researched further and found that the same place was called Thynghowe on a 1609 map.   This was significant.   "A 'thyng' is the name of a Viking assembly site while a 'howe' is possibly a Bronze Age burial ground," said Lynda.

Lynda and Stuart then formed The Friends of Thynghowe and invited members from the three local historical societies to join them.   Over the last five years they have researched the site, establishing its importance.   References to Nottinghamshire's Thynghowe have been found in an ancient Forest Book dating back to the 1200s.


The site is also thought to be a bronze age burial mound.   It is thought that Thynghowe may have marked the boundary between the Anglo Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Northumberland.   However, it may date back much further, as 'howe' is a term often used to indicate a prehistoric burial place.   "It's a very exciting find," said Stuart. "We're talking about 4,000 years of history in the heart of Sherwood Forest."   This and other Viking meeting place locations were chosen for their acoustics.

Stuart said a voice spoken at the meeting place in the Birklands can be heard from hundreds of yards away.   Research has found that the site was used for centuries.   "We've got documentary evidence that people met there right up to the 1800s. Local people were still meeting up there and raising each others spirits 200 years ago," said Stuart.   The site has now been recognised as a national rarity by English Heritage and added to their National Monument Record.

Funded by local donations The Friends of Thynghowe have been working hard to increase public awareness of the site's history.   "We've put a marked trail in, we've produced leaflets and booklets," said Lynda. "We've done a lot of work to promote this."  




Every April they also host an annual walk around Thynghowe, explaining all the history of the site. In 2011 it will be held on 16 April.   And they are now putting in an application for Heritage Lottery funding to develop 'trail tales' for school children.   "So they can start to connect these exciting stories with the real history of Sherwood Forest," said Lynda.   "This is our real cultural heritage," added Stuart. "We love Robin Hood, we love the Major Oak but this is real history. This represents families that have lived in the area and it belongs to the people of the area."

A topographical survey using total station and GPS will take place from 17 to 22 January 2011.  
Archaeologists from University College London will also be present using magnetometry to reveal the extent of the site and what may be beneath the ground.   Friends of Thynghowe and interested members of the public are invited to come along and help on Thursday, 20 and Saturday, 22, 9.30am - 12.30pm and / or 1.30pm - 4.30pm. Booking is essential.

If you are interested in attending on either or both of these dates please contact Alex Price, the Local Improvement Schemes Project Officer on 07753625571.

From:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/nottingham/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9155000/9155982.stm

Women of Steel Share Stories for Oral History Project

Sheffield´s Women of Steel have shared their stories with students from the University of Sheffield to keep alive their memories of working in the city´s steelworks during World War II.

The recordings were part of a wider campaign, led by the Sheffield Star in partnership with Sheffield City Council, for recognition for these women whose efforts in the workshops of the steel industry sustained Britain during the war.

Three women from the campaign met with five students from the University´s School of English this week (13 December 2010) to record their memories to produce permanent digital artifacts. They discussed their role in the factories, what they enjoyed about their work and personal memories of family life and relationships during this time.

The recordings were taken as part of the student´s Collaborative Learning and Teaching module in the School of English which sees students taking their own responsibility for a project. The project is linked to the Storying Sheffield module which sees students working with members of the local community to collect, record and produce stories about their lives in Sheffield through creative representations.

The recordings will be showcased at an event in February which is part of the Off the Shelf History Weekend. The interviews will also be made available to the public on the Storying Sheffield website and will feed into the Council´s current plans to produce a permanent memorial in the city centre to commemorate the women´s efforts during the war.

Holly Willis, a third-year student from the School of English, said: "It´s been so interesting to meet with people who lived through the war. Their experiences are so far removed from anything we have been through and I think it is really important to keep these memories alive and give these women an opportunity to pass their stories on to our generation. I´ve heard some really interesting stories today, and I think the ladies we´ve spoken to have also enjoyed hearing about how our generation view their efforts during the war."
Notes for Editors: The oral histories will be posted on the Storying Sheffield website in the new year.

Off the Shelf Festival - Highlighting History will take place 3 - 6 February 2011.

Author events with historians and local history talks and walks have proved to be one of the most popular elements of the Off the Shelf festival and in 2011, for the first time ever, a mini festival is being organised on this subject. The four day event will include popular tv historians Michael Wood and Amanda Vickery, a talk on Black Diamonds by Catherine Bailey, illustrated talks by local historians, history walks, workshops, open days at Sheffield Manor Lodge and Bishops House and more. For details pick up a leaflet from 7 January 2011, visit the website below or telephone 0114 273 4400. http://www.offtheshelf.org.uk/

From: http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2010/1818.html

History of Miracles Goes Online

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have launched a new online catalogue examining the history of miracles through the ages. The database includes over 600 miracles spanning three continents and 800 years of history, and allows for exploration of links between records, such as locations, gender and the outcomes of the miracles. The information has already revealed that miracles became more diverse over the years and that the lower classes appeared to be more favourably treated by the saints. You can view the catalogue on the University of Sheffield website.

From: http://www.bbchistorymagazine.com/blog/miracles?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=Read%20more&utm_campaign=History%20Newsletter%2017%2F12%2F10http://www.bbchistorymagazine.com/blog/miracles?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term=&utm_content=Read%20more&utm_campaign=History%20Newsletter%2017%2F12%2F10

Fourth Annual Interdisciplinary Workshop at the University of Nottingham

The fourth annual Interdisciplinary Workshop at the University of Nottingham on Sunday 12th December. The event opens at 10.00 and covers several topics including:

‘Disabilities of Mind: Text and Narrative’ by Sally Crawford /Paul Crawford (School of Nursing, University of Nottingham) Christina Lee Wendy Turner (Augusta State University) Mental Health in Later Medieval England ‘Three Ventricles in Medieval Brain Mapping and Three Categories of Mental Disability in medieval law: a connection?’ Anne Bailey (Oxford University): 'Madness and Miracles: Hagiographical perceptions of mental illness in twelfth-century England'Legal impediments Chair: Irina Metzler: (Swansea University) ‘Speechless: Hearing and speech impairment as a medieval legal problem’ Ivette Nuckel (University of Bremen): ‘Risk and Danger in Late Medieval Underground Mining

Theresa Tyers & Rachel Middlemass (University of Nottingham): ‘Disabling Masculinity: manhood and infertility in the High Middle Ages’

On Monday 13th December:
The Impaired Body in the Scandinavian North Chair: Judith Jesch Malte Ringer (University of Nottingham): '”Seals’ fins and dogs’ heads”: infants with disabilities in the Nordic law codes' Amy Mulligan (University of Bergen): ‘The Boundaries of the Human: monstrous births, class-based deformity and anxious determination of bodily normativity in Old Norse-Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon literature and law’ Anne Irene Riisøy (Oslo University): ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes: body evaluation the Viking Way’

Leprosy Chair: Christina Lee Damien Jeanne (CRAHAM, University of Caen): ‘Leprosy, lepers and leper-houses in between human law and God’s law – 12th – 13th centuries’ Spencer Smith (Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales): ‘Under the skin of a Landscape: Medieval Leper Houses in North Wales’ Simon Roffey (University of Winchester): ’A tenth-century Leper Hospital? Excavations at St Mary Magdalen, Winchester’

Anglo-Saxon Minds and Bodies Chair: Sally Crawford Fay Skevington (King’s College, London): ‘The Unwhole are not like the Whole: the Semantics of Anglo-Saxon Disability’ Sarah Gilbert (Cambridge University), ‘A preliminary investigation of the treatment of people with mental illness or impairment in Anglo-Saxon England’

Contact: Christina.lee@nottingham.ac.uk for further information or see http://disease.nottingham.ac.uk/doku.php

Charles Dickens in Sheffield 1855/Sheffield Jungle 1910

An interesting story in today's Star over the find of an old newspaper revealing Charles Dickens visit to Sheffield in 1855 http://www.thestar.co.uk/headlines/1855-paper-tells-of-Dickens.6636841.jp . He appeared on 22nd December and read from his book "A Christmas Carol" at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers http://www.dickens-literature.com/Speeches:_Literary_and_Social/15.html

The BBC reported on a jungle which visited Sheffield in 1910!A multitude of exotic animals were displayed on the ex-slum site and its history is currently being researched by the University of Sheffield

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9221000/9221110.stm

The Jungle website is located at http://www.nfa.dept.shef.ac.uk/jungle/index.html