News

The latest edition of Archaeocast, our archaeology podcast, is now available. Listen to Archaeocast 14 and catch up with our Coastal and Marine geophysical survey team as they continue to study the submerged prehistory of aggregate licence Area 240 in the North Sea.

If you would like to, you can subscribe to Archaeocast via iTunes (it's free), and receive the latest episodes automatically.

Wessex are pleased to announce the opening of a new office in the City of Sheffield. This new addition significantly strengthens our national service and complements our existing regional centres in Salisbury and Maidstone.

The Sheffield office covers the north of England and offers the full range of archaeological services. These includes historic buildings and landscape surveys; evaluation, excavation and watching brief; desk-based assessments and Environmental Statements; and all aspects of post-excavation and publication.

We are delighted that our two key senior managers in the office, Richard O’Neill and Oliver Jessop, are already well known locally, having many years experience of working in Sheffield and the north of England.

For more information contact:

Richard O’Neill on 07876 507943 r.oneill@wessexarch.co.uk
or
Oliver Jessop on 07770 605256 o.jessop@wessexarch.co.uk

Wessex Archaeology - Sheffield
Unit R6, Sheaf Bank Business Park, Prospect Road, Sheffield S2 3EN
Tel: 0114 255 9774

May saw the publication of the fourth (of five) volume on the Archaeology of the Mary Rose. The publication programme is being managed for the Mary Rose Trust by Wessex Archaeology, with Julie Gardiner acting as the series editor. The latest volume Mary Rose: Your Noblest Shippe, Anatomy of a Tudor warship, largely written, and edited, by Peter Marsden is concerned primarily with a detailed description of the ship and how she operated as a functional warship.

The construction techniques used in building the original ship are discussed, and her structure as she was in 1545 is described deck by deck, from the Hold up to the Sterncastle. The rigging is described and reconstructed and operational aspects such as steering, mooring, anchoring, the ship’s boats, navigation and the removal of water discussed. A summary of the ship’s armaments is provided and her fighting capabilities considered. Evidence for how the ship was altered during her use, and how she might be reconstructed as a whole, are examined and the nature of and reasons for her sinking reviewed.

Mary Rose - Noblest Shippe cover: a newly commissioned painting by Geoff Hunt

418p, 287 b/w illus plus 15 fold-out sheets of deck plans, elevations, sections and rigging diagrams. The volume is available from Oxbow Books price £45.00 (hardback, boxed set)

ISBN-13: 978-0-9544029-2-1
ISBN-10: 0-9544029-2-8

Cover: Hill Hall: a singular house devised by a Tudor intellectualWe are pleased to announce the publication of "Hill Hall: a singular house devised by a Tudor intellectual" by Paul Drury and Richard Simpson. The project was funded by English Heritage, and managed and co-ordinated by Wessex Archaeology, who also produced the illustrations and provided the archaeological contributions.

This is the complete history of a building that began as a hunting lodge late in the eleventh century, to its rebuilding in the French-influenced classical style in the 16th century by Sir Thomas Smith, to the building's use as a prison four centuries later, its gutting by fire, and subsequent restoration beginning in the 1980s.

Find out more in our Books section.

Plans, sectional elevations and period plans of Hill Hall can be downloaded from the Archaeology Data Service.

The Festival of British Archaeology (formerly National Archaeology Week) is your unique chance to discover and explore the archaeological heritage of the United Kingdom. During this two-week archaeological extravaganza, which will run from Saturday 18th July to Sunday 2nd August, you can take part in excavation open days, hands-on activities, family fun days, guided tours, exhibitions, lectures, ancient art and craft workshops and much, much more.

The aim of this annual event is to encourage everyone, including young people and their families to visit sites of archaeological/historical interest or museums, heritage and resource centres, to see archaeology in action and to take part in activities on-site.

Our involvement

We are helping to organise an event for the Festival of British Archaeology:

Fabulous Food and Gruesome Grub
Saturday 18th July 10.00-16.00
Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum

Free activities and demonstrations. Explore the world of eating and drinking from the Bronze Age to the Victorians. Bring your artefacts to be identified. Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum with Wessex Archaeology and Salisbury Cathedral.

Telephone: 01722 332151 Email: museum@salisburymuseum.org.uk

In March 2009, at the request of Historic Scotland, Wessex Archaeology’s dive team investigated the wreck of the Iona I, a paddle steamer lost in 1862 in the Inner Clyde Estuary near Greenock, Scotland.

As part of our ongoing series of podcasts, this edition of Archaeocast was recorded at sea by our coastal and marine archaeologists during exploration of the Iona. You will hear about the story of the steamer, how it was involved with the American Civil War, and hear from divers exploring the Iona's remains on the seabed.

Listen to Archaeocast 12 online, or subscribe to Archaeocast with iTunes (this link opens iTunes if you have it installed) to download the latest editions automatically.

Time Team at Salisbury CathedralSalisbury Cathedral was recently the subject of an exciting Time Team investigation. Over three days the site of the original 13th century cathedral bell tower and the long-demolished 15th century Beauchamp Chapel were excavated.

The team uncovered new information about the construction of the cathedral, and learned more about those buried within the chapel.

The exhibition, which was created by Wessex Archaeology, will be opened by Phil Harding and runs from 1 May to 31 October 2009 in Salisbury Cathedral’s atmospheric medieval cloisters. It features artefacts, text and audio-visual material from the programme, which was first aired in February. Visitors will learn about what happens behind the scenes of Time Team, how they work with experts from Wessex Archaeology, and learn about Bishop Beauchamp, one of Salisbury’s most colourful bishops.

Phil, whose day job is with Wessex Archaeology, said: “To do a dig here was a once in a lifetime experience. What we found underlines what incredible engineers and geologists those original builders were.”

Find out more about the exhibition on the Salisbury Cathedral website.

The team that joined together to recover the remains of unique find, a hoard of 2,000 year old cauldrons found at Chiseldon, near Swindon, Wiltshire, has been awarded a top archaeological prize.

The ‘Rescue Dig of the Year' award went to the team that recovered the Iron Age cauldrons at the "Archaeology Festival '09." The festival was organised by the leading archaeology magazine ‘Current Archaeology' and held at the National Museum and Galleries of Wales and the University of Cardiff, February 6-8th, 2009. The awards were decided by on-line voting by the magazine's readers.

Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology who led the excavation team said ‘this award recognises not just the importance of the find but also the way so many people with an interest in our past have worked together.'

When metal detector user Peter Hyams discovered a metal bowl at Chiseldon, he did not dig it up. He left it the ground and reported the find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). But this left Peter and everyone else with a puzzle. How old was the buried find?

Peter was convinced that further work was needed and local archaeologist John Winterburn and the Local History Society came forward to do a small excavation. This showed that the bowl was actually a cauldron, apparently of iron, and that there might be a second one. But the objects were too big to get out of the ground and their date remained a puzzle. There was not enough information for experts to be able to identify and date the cauldrons. Then scientific analysis of some of the metal at Oxford University suggested that the cauldrons were prehistoric, much earlier than had been thought. This would make them Treasure under the Treasure Act.

Realising the significance of this, Katie Hinds the local PAS Finds Liaison Officer then asked Wessex Archaeology, the largest archaeological organisation in the region, and who had already helped the PAS with a number of other discoveries, if they could help. The PAS had limited funds available but it was clear that this would not be enough so Wessex took on the excavation and donated their time. The British Museum sent a conservator, Alex Baldwin, to help with the difficult task of removing the cauldrons intact. With the help of Peter Hyams, the farmer - who lent a JCB digger, members of the Chiseldon Local History Society, the Wiltshire Archaeological Society, archaeologists from Cambridge University and the PAS, the cauldrons were excavated.

To everyone's astonishment there was not just one or even two cauldrons, but a dozen, all made from wafer thin metal. It was the largest hoard of Iron Age cauldrons found, not just in Britain, but in Europe. The Chiseldon cauldrons are a unique find, the remains of a great feast.

Wrapped in bandages stiffened with plaster of paris, and still full of soil, the cauldrons were carefully removed from the pit in which they had been buried and then taken to the British Museum. At a Coroner's Inquest the cauldrons were declared Treasure and an independent valuation committee determined the reward payable to Peter Hyams for reporting the find. This allowed the British Museum to acquire the hoard and in the autumn of 2008 Alex Baldwin started the next stage of work, micro-excavating one cauldron in the Research Laboratory as part of an exhibition ‘Conservation in Focus' while visitors asked questions. This work was also aimed at establishing how well-preserved the cauldrons were. It would also allow an accurate estimate for how long it would take to excavate and conserve all of the cauldrons. The scale of the work needed is beyond the Museums' normal resources.

Soon it was possible to see for the first time what one of the cauldrons looked like and it proved to be much better preserved than anyone had hoped. The date of the great feast can now be narrowed down to the second or first century BC. Reacting to the news of the prize, Alex said ‘it's great to see the collaborative work acknowledged by an award, especially when it was decided by the readers of the magazine.'

Dr Roger Bland, Head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, added ‘the Chiseldon cauldrons show both the strength and weakness of the current arrangements for reporting archaeological finds. The find, which is of international significance, was properly reported through the PAS. This shows how effective the scheme is but it has no funds available for follow up excavations. The significance of the find only became clear because Wessex Archaeology stepped into the breach and everyone donated their time. We are very grateful for this. And this still leaves the British Museum with the challenge of raising significant funds to be able to do the essential conservation that will unlock further secrets and allow the full story of this unique find to be told.'

The latest edition of our archaeology podcast, Archaeocast, is now online.

Listen to Archaeocast 11 to get a sense of what it is like to dive a shipwreck, including a live interview with one of our divers direct from the seabed. This edition of Archaeocast is presented by Gemma Ingason, outreach officer for our Heritage Lottery Funded coastal and marine archaeology programme, Time Travelling by Water.