Artificial islands older than Stonehenge stump scientists

A study of crannogs in Scotland's Outer Hebrides reveals some were built more than 3,000 years earlier than previously thought. But what purpose did they serve?

When it comes to studying Neolithic Britain (4,000-2,500 B.C.), a bit of archaeological mystery is to be expected. Since Neolithic farmers existed long before written language made its way to the British Isles, the only records of their lives are the things they left behind. And while they did leave us a lot of monuments that took, well, monumental effort to build—think Stonehenge or the stone circles of Orkney—the cultural practices and deeper intentions behind these sites are largely unknown.

Now it looks like there may potentially be a whole new type of Neolithic monument for archaeologists to scratch their heads over: crannogs.

Read more from the article at National Geographic here.

2000-year-old figurine of a horned Celtic fertility god found in Roman settlement

The two inch metal charm, dating from the second century AD, depicts a faceless individual, holding a ‘torc’ or neck ring, and is thought to represent ‘Cernunnos’, the Celtic god of nature, life and the underworld.

It was found by archaeologists in farmland at the National Trust’s Wimpole Estate in a field which is to be turned into a car park.

Click here to read more.

Housebuilder uncovers Iron Age chamber on Lewis

A 2,000-year-old underground chamber has been uncovered during work to build a house on the Isle of Lewis.

The Iron Age soutterrain was revealed during the digging of the foundations for the property in Ness.
Local archaeologists, husband and wife team Chris and Rachel Barrowman, are recording the soutterrain.

Mr Barrowman said theories on the purpose of the stone-lined, flat stone-roofed structures included storing food.

Read the full story, and see pictures here.

 

"Halloween in Irish Folklore" by Irish Archaeology

"Halloween in Irish Folklore", a blog, by Irish Archaeology, filled to the brim with excerpts, and well worth the reading:

"These folklore accounts detail some of superstitions and festivities which once surrounded Halloween in Ireland. They are based on information supplied by schoolchildren to the Irish Folklore Commission in the late 1930s."

Halloween by Dúchas.ie

A downloadable presentation:

"From earliest recorded history in Ireland, Halloween (All Hallows Eve), or Oíche Shamhna was considered a turning point in the calendar. 

Samhain (November 1st), meant the start of winter, when cattle were brought down from summer pastures, tributes and rents paid, and other business contracted.

Samhain, marks the close of the season of light and the beginning of the dark half of the year, and was therefore perceived as a liminal moment in time when movement between the otherworld and this world was possible. ... "

Déithe na Spéire | Baile | Seinnteoir | TG4

A Science/History documentary from TG4 gives viewers a revolutionary new insight into Ireland's ancient sites: Déithe na Spéire | Baile | Seinnteoir | TG4

Barry Cunliffe: Who Were the Celts?

Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An Online Celtic Studies Coursebook

Exploring Celtic Civilizations | An On-line Celtic Studies Course-Book

Exploring Celtic Civilizations is an on-line course book suitable for undergraduates introducing the field of Celtic Studies: the various kinds of evidence available about Celtic-speaking communities through over two millennia and the methods available for understanding them. This digital course book thus presents texts as well as other sorts of evidence, such as aspects of material culture (e.g., archaeological artefacts), through on-line exhibits and data visualizations.

In Search of the Irish Dreamtime: Archaeology and Early Irish Literature by JP Mallory review

"In Search of the Irish Dreamtime: Archaeology and Early Irish Literature" a review by JP Mallory.

JP Mallory describes this book as a companion to his The Origins of the Irish,
from 2013, in which he sketched the emergence in the early medieval
period of a people who were recognisably Irish. In that book he briefly
examined the legendary history of Ireland as written down in
early-medieval times by clerical scholars who prized the vernacular
traditions of poetry, myth and legend and gave them an honoured place
side by side with the Latin learning of the church.

 He returns to that subject in this latest valuable study written in his characteristic accessible and witty style.

The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver

The BBC in the UK is airing a new series, starting 5 October 2015 at 21.00.  A link to The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver on BBC iPlayer can be found here.

Anthropologist Prof. Alice Roberts and archaeologist Neil Oliver go in search of the Celts - one of the world's most mysterious ancient people. In Britain and Ireland, we are never far from our Celtic past but in this series Neil and Alice travel much further afield, discovering the origins and beliefs of these Iron Age people in artifacts and human remains right across Europe, from Turkey to Portugal. What emerges is not a wild people on the western fringes of Europe, but a highly sophisticated tribal culture that influenced vast areas of the ancient world - and even Rome. Rich with vivid drama reconstruction, we recreate this pivotal time and meet some of our most famous ancient leaders - from Queen Boudicca to Julius Caesar - and relive the battles they fought for the heart and soul of Europe. Alice and Neil discover that these key battles between the Celts and the Romans over the best part of 500 years constituted a fight for two very different forms of civilisation - a fight that came to define the world we live in today. In the first episode, we see the origins of the Celts in the Alps of central Europe and relive the moment of first contact with the Romans in a pitched battle just north of Rome - a battle that the Celts won and that left the imperial city devastated.

Celts and Romans - Start the Week

Available on BBC iPlayer here.

On Start the Week Mary Ann Sieghart explores how far leaders and governments have shaped our world. Matt Ridley dismisses the assumption that history has been made by those on high, whether in government, business or religion, and argues for a system of evolution in which ideas and events develop from the bottom up. The historian Tom Holland revels in the antics of the house of Caesar, from Augustus to Nero, and how this imperial family greatly influenced the ancient world. Barry Cunliffe tells the story of the beginnings of civilisation across Europe and the Far East over the course of ten millennia while the curator Julia Farley concentrates on one of those groups - the Celts - and celebrates their distinctive stylised art in a new exhibition at the British Museum.

Producer: Katy Hickman.