Romans at Silbury Hill

English Heritage testing the geophsysics plots. There are now some good films about Silbury Hill itself on the web. English Heritage 2007 Four short videos (total 35 minutes) about the recent conservation work, including a fabulous tour of the section exposed inside the tunnel with Jim Leary – every excavation should have records like that. …

Fascinating photo essay with human skulls

"Skulls everywhere" at Life, from that lovely mawkish daguerrotype to Stonehenge, with some pretty shocking images in between (and I never knew that Jonathan Swift's tomb in St. Patrick's Cathedral displayed a cast of his skull)

“So what are we going to do about it?” Here’s one answer, David

Delighted to see that David Cameron is such a strong supporter of tourism. We have a long way to go to break the cultural snobbery that separates the staples of the UK industry – catering, accommodation, tour guides, campsites, postcards, guidebooks, souvenirs and so on – from middle class respectability. It's better than it was, …

Extraordinary find at Marden henge

And so to Marden. There are four large henges in Wessex, at Avebury, Marden and Durrington Walls (near Stonehenge), all in Wiltshire, and Mount Pleasant near Dorchester, Dorset. Avebury and Durrington have both been subjected to new excavation and survey, with dramatic results. Excavation by Geoffrey Wainwright at Marden in 1969 showed that like the …

Analysing the new site near Stonehenge

There have been two really interesting discoveries in the Stonehenge area over the past few weeks. One is at Marden, the great henge earthwork in the Vale of Pewsey near the source of the river Avon. I’ll write about that in my next post, but first I’d like to add a few words to the …