Archaeology
Neolithic finds at Cambridgeshire quarry
Archaeologists have made several new discoveries from the Neolithic period during excavations at the Needingworth quarry in Cambridgeshire, England.
The quarry is one of the largest sand and gravel extraction sites in the UK, managed by Hanson UK, a supplier of low carbon heavy building materials to the construction industry.
The site covers an area of approximately 975 hectares, which overtime will be phased to create Britain’s biggest reedbed along with open meres, wet scrub and grassland, all within a 700-hectare nature reserve.
A team of archaeologists from the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, part of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, have uncovered several clusters of Neolithic pits with datable material such as flint and pottery.
Image Credit : Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Some of the clusters contained Peterborough Ware, a decorated pottery style from the early to middle Neolithic that dates to roughly 3500 to 3000 BC. Peterborough Ware is known for the impressed pits made by bone or wood implements in its sides or circular ‘maggot’ patterns made using whipped cord.
One of the most notable discoveries is a decorated complete Grooved Ware pot (header image) from 2900 to 2400 BC. The vessel was found in a pit and was likely deposited whole, which overtime has collapsed from the weight of the soil above.
Since many Grooved ware pots have been found at henge sites and in burials, it is possible that they may have had a ritual purpose as well as a functional one.
Excavations at the Needingworth quarry site are ongoing, and the team plan to publish more information on their latest findings over the next week. You can follow the excavation by clicking here.
The Cambridge Archaeological Unit is the same team behind the famous Must Farm excavations, a Bronze Age settlement at Must Farm quarry near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.
Header Image Credit : Cambridge Archaeological Unit
An archaeological survey has identified three clusters of ancient qanats in the Diyala Province of Iraq.
A qanat, also known as a kārīz, is a system for transporting water from an aquifer or water well over long distances in hot dry climates without losing water to evaporation.
Qanats use a sequence of vertical shafts resembling wells, linked by a gently inclined tunnel that serves as a conduit for channelling water. Qanats efficiently transport substantial volumes of underground water to the surface without requiring pumps.
The water naturally flows downhill by gravity, with the endpoint positioned at a lower level than the origin. When the qanat is still below ground, the water is drawn to the surface via water wells or animal driven Persian wells.
Image Credit : State Board of Antiquities & Heritage
Some Qanats are divided into an underground network of smaller canals known as kariz, functioning similarly to qanats by staying beneath the surface to prevent contamination and evaporation. In certain instances, water from a qanat is stored in a reservoir, usually with nighttime flow reserved for daytime usage.
The technology for qanat’s first emerged in ancient Iran around 3,000-years-ago and slowly spread westward and eastward.
A recent survey within the Diyala Province has discovered three clusters of qanats stretching between the areas of Jalulaa and Kortaba. Initial studies dates the clusters to around AD 1000, a period known as the “Iranian Intermezzo”, when parts of the region were governed by a number of minor Iranian emirates.
The first cluster consists of 25 wells on a linear alignment connected to an adjacent 10 metre deep water channel. The second cluster also has 25 wells and is connected to a 13 km long hand dug channel, while the third cluster consists of 9 wells connected to water canals dug on both sides.
Header Image Credit : State Board of Antiquities & Heritage
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists have discovered a 16,800-year-old Palaeolithic dwelling in the La Garma cave complex, located in the municipality of Ribamontán al Monte in Spain’s Cantabria province.
The La Garma cave complex is a parietal art-bearing paleoanthropological cave system on the southern side of the La Garma Hill.
The cave complex is noted for one of the best preserved floors from the Palaeolithic period, containing more than 4,000 fossils and more than 500 graphical units.
A project led by Pablo Arias and Roberto Ontañón from the University of Cantabria has recently announced the discovery of a Palaeolithic dwelling within the cave system, described as “one of the best preserved Palaeolithic dwellings in the world.”
The dwelling is an oval space and is delimited by an alignment of stone blocks and stalagmites that supported a fixed structure of sticks and skins leaning against the cave wall. The total area of the space is around 5 square metres that centred on a camp fire.
Archaeologists also found vestiges of various daily activities associated with Magdalenian hunters and gatherers at the dwelling, including evidence of stone manufacturing, bone and antler instruments, and the working of fur.
In total, over 4,614 objects have been documented, such as dear, horse and bison bones, 600 pieces of flint, needles and a protoharpoon, shells of marine mollusks, as well as numerous pendants worn by the cave dwelling inhabitants.
Additionally, the researchers also found a number of decorated bones, including a remarkable pierced aurochs phalanx engraved with a depiction of both the animal itself and a human face—a distinctive artefact unique to the European Palaeolithic era.
Due to the national importance of the discovery, the team used innovative non-intrusive techniques in their study of the dwelling. This includes continuous tomography of the soils, 3D cartography, the molecular and genetic analysis of soils and Palaeolithic objects, mass spectrometry, and hyperspectral imaging.
Header Image Credit : University of Cantabria
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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