A quick guide to bouncy druids

Sacrilege! Here is a guide to some of the things you may not know about Stonehenge and Jeremy Deller’s touring “recreational bouncer”, as it’s known in the trade. My headline was inspired by Mitch Benn’s must-hear song “Bouncy, bouncy druids”, so let’s start with that. Apparently he wrote it during the interval at Leeds City …

Sacrilege on tour

Don’t miss it! It’s wonderful, especially if you are a child or have children. It’s huge fun, and for many will be their first introduction to Stonehenge, and even the idea of prehistory. On the tour’s first day at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, Jeremy Deller and I were sheltering in a little tent …

The Airmen take off

Work on the Stonehenge visitor centre starts in a couple of weeks when Vinci Construction take possession of the Airman’s Corner site. That’s the formal line. But for me it began yesterday, when the Royal Engineers, watched by Wessex Archaeology and English Heritage, released the memorial from its concrete. The site takes its name from …

New discovery: TWO photos of the Magpie Musicians at Stonehenge in 1896

A funny thing happened before Stonehenge: Monumental Journey opened (as I write it has two weeks to go). We used a photo previously published twice by English Heritage (Richards 2004, 2007) as purporting to show a protest at Stonehenge by the residents of Amesbury against the fencing of the monument in 1901. I knew nothing …

The archaeology of the 2012 Olympics site

We’re really proud of the new British Archaeology. The cover shows the main feature, an exclusive insight into the archaeological research and excavations at the 2012 Olympic Park site, one of the UK’s largest recent field projects. Until the academic monograph is published later this year, this article is likely to remain the only authoritative …

And here’s another document I like

The job spec for Head of Interpretation (Stonehenge). Not a huge salary in its context (starts at £43,103), but hopefully the profile and peculiar nature of the two-year job will attract exceptional applicants. Interviews in eight days. And here’s another key archaeology job, perhaps a lifetime career, salary c £52k, “incredibly rewarding” and a very …

Human remains: good news for archaeologists, maybe

The slow-moving debate about how archaeologists working in Britain should be monitored and controlled when excavating or handling ancient human remains has at last reached its key stage: in May the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) issued a new application form. British Archaeology covered the issues, and asked that archaeologists, not the ministry, be allowed to …

Metal detecting in the US

There’s been a debate in the States involving serious issues, prompted by two TV series. One of them, a pilot that appears to have at least temporarily been shelved, was made by National Geographic, the other by Spike TV, creator of  “1000 Ways to Die” (“true stories about those who succumbed to the grim reaper …