Since the loss of the irreplacable original is sadly felt by reagular readers like me I thought I would try and get a second incarnation going. Just hope it is more fortuate than the TFI. Merry Christmas to all. Hope someone has some news.
3D Visualisation of the Testwood Bridge and environment
The thrill of archaeologists’ discovery of the oldest bridge ever found in England can now be relived through a series of web pages. Wessex Archaeology has put up information on its website about how its staff found the timbers from a 3,500-year-old Middle Bronze Age bridge near Testwood, Hampshire and can be viewed at http://www.wessexarch.co.uk/projects/hampshire/testwood/index.html
The site gives full details of how 143 wooden stakes that formed part of the bridge were discovered during the construction of a reservoir by Southern Water. Also found were a bronze rapier and ppart of a boat dating to the same time, c1,500BC. The stakes were up to three metres (ten feet) tall and 25 cms (10 inches) wide and formed a bridge 26 metres (85 feet long) across a river which has since changed its course, possibly what is now the River Blackwater.
The stakes, which supported the bridge’s walkway, were preserved upright in mud and were so delicate that once exposed to the air they had to be sprayed with water three times a day. This kept them from crumbling into dust long enough for archaeologists to record them and remove them before the reservoir was built. Some planks that formed the bridge’s walkway were also preserved.
Carbon dating of the stakes, made from oak, alder and ash, date them to around 1,500BC, the oldest bridge ever found in England, another discovery of slightly older stakes in the River Thames is thought to be a jetty. A cleat, a curved piece of wood used to fasten crossbeams to the hull of a sea-going boat, was also found at Testwood. The rapier was 32 cms (13 inches) long without its wooden handle, which was not found. It was probably thrown into the water as part of a religious ritual.
“The bridge near Testwood is fascinating evidence for people’s early use of rivers,” said Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, who managed the project for Wessex Archaeology.
“We can image people in 1,500BC trading with other parts of Britain or the continent using sea-going boats similar to large canoes, the cleat we found was part of one of these. They would have brought their cargoes – including metalwork similar to the rapier we found, pots and people – to the Testwood bridge where they either went on by land or went furtheer upstream in smaller boats. Finding evidence for the bridge, the boat and the rapier at Testwood adds to our understanding of our ancestors’ use of seas and rivers.
The website pages provide details of the finds, and photographs of the work carried out by Wessex Archaeology during the project, in 1999. They also have a reconstruction of the bridge, the river and plants based on the remains of plants and insects found during the project.
Some of the timbers found at Testwood have been chemically conserved and have been given to Hampshire Museum Service for display. Others will be on display at the new Southern Water education centre at Testwood Lakes. The rapier is usually on display at Totton and Eling Heritage Centre, and a replica of the rapier will shortly be on display at the Testwood Lakes Centre.
Christopher Salisbury, who died on November 27 aged 75, was a Nottinghamshire GP and a leading expert in waterlogged wood.
For more than 30 years, he took a passionate interest in the archaeology of the River Trent, excavating the bottom of gravel quarries along its course while professional archaeologists chose to excavate the former river terraces at the top of the quarries.
Salisbury's approach proved more fruitful, yielding the discovery of Viking and Norman fish traps in the early 1970s. In the 1990s he found the remains of four medieval bridges at Hemington, for which he was named Archaeologist of the Year in 1994 at the British Archaeological Awards; he also won the Pitt-Rivers Award for best amateur project.
Salisbury also discovered a mill, two log boats at Shardlow, and most recently, possibly his most significant find, evidence of a great surface expanse of water at Aston on Trent which makes sense of a complex of ritual monuments that had previously been found there.
Christopher Ronald Salisbury, the son of an electrical engineer, was born at Kenilworth on October 12 1929 and grew up at Royal Leamington Spa. He went to Warwick School and read Medicine at Birmingham University, before doing his National Service with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Hong Kong and in Malaya during the Communist insurgency.
After returning to Nottingham he set up in general practice with his first wife Maxine (née Sunderland), whom he married in 1958. Although a gentle, kind character, he did not believe in prescribing drugs for patients who came to him with no detectable physical symptoms, and he was among the first GPs to warn against the addictiveness of tranquillisers.
Having already begun his work in the gravel quarries, in 1968 Salisbury became a founder member of the Nottingham Historical and Archaeological Society, formed to preserve the city's unique network of man-made subterranean caves. His award-winning photographs of the caves were later used to promote them as a tourist attraction.
His researches in the Trent quarries became widely known over the next 25 years, from his lectures and through the many articles he wrote and illustrated for leading archaeological journals here and in America. Using material he had collected, a Tree Ring Dating Laboratory was founded at the University of Nottingham. His observations of the Trent quarries enabled him to chart and date the river's various meaderings over millennia.
Christopher Salisbury retired as a GP in 1992 to devote more time to archaeology, his knowledge of which he was always happy to share. He was appointed a research associate at the Archaeology Department at the University of Nottingham.
His pet project at the time of his death was the restoration of Fishpond Wood at Owthorpe, a unique system of fish ponds dating from the English Civil War. The ponds had once been part of the estate of Colonel John Hutchinson, who defended Nottingham against the Royalists in 1643, and were described in the memoir of his wife Lucy. Salisbury greatly admired Lucy Hutchinson and heard the rustling of her skirt as he went about his work.
Salisbury's first marriage was dissolved in 1988, when he married, secondly, Hazel Wheeler, a professional archaeologist with the Trent Valley Archaeological Society Research Committee. She survives him, with a son and daughter from his first marriage.
I have solved riddle of the Sphinx, says Frenchman
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent (Filed: 14/12/2004)
Archaeologists, who are able to tell us who built the pyramids of Ancient Egypt, have puzzled over the riddle of the Sphinx for generations.
The identity of the ruler who ordered the building of the 65ft high, 260ft long limestone half-human statue that has guarded the Giza Plateau for 4,500 years has been lost in the sands of time.
Now, following a 20-year re-examination of historical records and uncovering new evidence, Vassil Dobrev, a French Egyptologist, claims to have proved that the largest single stone statue on Earth is the work of a forgotten pharaoh.
The most popular theory of the origins of the Sphinx is that it was conceived by Khafre, a king of the Fourth Dynasty whose pyramid sits behind the statue.
However, in Secrets of the Sphinx, a documentary to be broadcast tonight on Channel Five, Dr Dobrev says it was created by Djedefre, Khafre's half brother and a son of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid.
Dr Dobrev, of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo, said: "It is incredible. The most important image in Egypt, the Sphinx, and we can't say who it was with certainty.
"This is the first time it has been proposed that the Sphinx has been built after the death of Khufu by his son Djedefre who succeeded him."
Khafre, the builder of the nearby second pyramid at Giza who ruled from 2558 to 2532 BC, has traditionally been credited with creating the Sphinx.
He is referred to in the Dream Stella, a stone tablet that tells of a young prince who dreamed that the Sphinx promised to make him king if he cleared the sand from its paws. He built both the pyramid behind the Sphinx and two temples in front of it.
However Dr Dobrev noticed that the causeway connecting Khafre's pyramid to the temples was built around the Sphinx - meaning it was already in existence.
All known statues of Khafre show him with a beard - but the Sphinx has none. Dr Dobrev says fragments of a giant beard found beneath the sphinx that survive in Cairo Museum were a later addition.
Several years ago Rainer Stadelmann, the former director of the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, suggested an alternative theory, that Khafre's father Khufu - the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza - created the Sphinx.
A small statuette of Khufu, the only commonly acknowledged image of the pharaoh, shows him to have a very square chin, like the Sphinx.
Dr Dobrev says he has uncovered other images of Khufu, none of which have beards, and that this proves the sphinx represents Khufu.
The nemes, the sphinx's headdress, has markings representing two small pleats and one large. Khufu is shown with a similar nemes in at least one other statue.
Dr Dobrev says the Sphinx was built by Djedefre in the image of his father Khufu, identifying him with the sun god Ra in order to restore respect for their dynasty.
George Reisner, a respected American archaeologist in the 1930s, portrayed Djedefre as a plotter whose tomb was built away from Giza because he tried to murder his brother Kawab. Dr Dobrev says Reisner's theory is unsubstantiated. He asks why a carved stone list of donations made to Kawab's daughter would have an emblem of Djedefre on it if he was her father's murderer. He says that Djedefre was a visionary builder who built a sun temple at Abu Roash, six miles from Giza, a structure so far believed by archaeologists to be a pyramid.
Dr Dobrev re-examined graffiti carved by workers at a site called Zawiyet el-Aryan and believes this shows he has uncovered Djedefre's pyramid tomb
Dr Nigel Strudwick, of the British Museum, said: "It is not implausible. But I would need more explanation, such as why he thinks the pyramid at Abu Roash is a sun temple, something I'm sceptical about. I have never heard anyone suggest that the name in the graffiti at Zawiyet el-Aryan mentions Djedefre.
"I remain more convinced by the traditional argument of it being Khafre or the more recent theory of it being Khufu."
UNIQUE ROCK CARVING FOUND AMONGST ARCHAEOLOGY AFTER MOORS FIRE By Richard Moss 20/12/2004
Archaeologists are pondering one of the most intriguing archaeological discoveries for some years after a fire revealed a unique carved stone thought to be 4,000 years old.
The find came to light after a blaze in 2003 at Fylingdales near Whitby consumed two and a half square kilometres of heather moorland - before being brought under control by hundreds of fire fighters and a water-dumping helicopter.
However, in the fire’s aftermath archaeologists were astonished to find a vast array of archaeological remains – uncovered by the intensity of the blaze, which burnt away much of the peat.
“The fire had a devastating impact, but it also revealed an astonishing archaeological landscape,” said Neil Redfern, English Heritage Inspector of Ancient Monuments.
“When we stepped over the scorched terrain and reviewed aerial photographs, we were confronted by a vast number of features we had no idea existed before. To find such well preserved signs of settlement and human activity over such a long period in such a small area is amazing.”
The carved rock is believed to be unique in England. Picture courtesy English Heritage
The area yielded Mesolithic flints, 185 carved rocks (three times the previous recorded number), old trackways and evidence of the 17th century alum industry. There were even slit trenches from the last war.
But of the many finds the most interesting and significant is the carved stone – adorned with a carved zigzag design around a central feature, which resembles an angular hour-glass.
Archaeologists believe the stone to be unique among examples of late Neolithic/Bronze Age rock art, which is usually dominated by curvilinear cup and ring marks. Instead, the designs on the stone recall those found on materials such as beaker pottery – opening up a wealth of interpretive possibilities.
"We laser scanned the stone so we could rotate it and look at it from different angles," explained Mr Redfern. "We're now thinking the stone is possibly some kind of map - the laser technology means we can see a landscape with mountains and sky."
The task of understanding and interpreting is ongoing although Mr Redfern admits that experts have few clues to go on.
"The great thing is that with an image like this you can come up with all sorts of theories," he explained. "With rock art there aren't that many people that really know - so we can all enjoy the experience of working out what it actually means."
The devastating wildfire left large tracts of moorland scorched and blackened. Picture courtesy English Heritage.
The stone, although examined, photographed and laser scanned, was left in situ in the ground along with many of the found items. The unusual step of leaving it in place is part of an ambitious project to restore the rich ecology of the moor, which is part of a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
"I would say: 'why do you need artefacts to go into a museum?' Someone put it there in the past, so who am I to remove it? To me it's not an artefact if it's removed from its context - it's part of that landscape," added Mr Redfern.
The restoration of the moorland has been facilitated by a £200,000 grant from Defra, under a Countryside Stewardship Scheme Special Project. As well as restoring the moor’s dynamic range of habitats for wildlife and plants, the re-vegetation is also intended to protect the archaeology beneath the ground by preventing erosion.
Mr Redfern believes this innovative approach will prevent the rich archaeology of the area being destroyed. “The success of this approach is clear to see on the ground and will serve as a template for how agencies and landowners handle similar disasters elsewhere in the country,” he added.
ARCHAEOLOGISTS EXCITED BY 500,000-YEAR-OLD AXE FIND IN QUARRY By David Prudames 16/12/2004
A Stone Age hand axe dating back 500,000 years has been discovered at a quarry in Warwickshire.
The tool was found at the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry at Waverley Wood Farm, near Coventry, which has already produced evidence of some of the earliest known human occupants of the UK.
It was uncovered in gravel by quarry manager John Green who took it to be identified by archaeologists at the University of Birmingham.
"We are very excited about this discovery," enthused Professor David Keen of the university's Archaeology Field Unit.
"Lower Palaeolithic artefacts are comparatively rare in the West Midlands compared to the south and east of England so this is a real find for us."
Despite being half and million years old the tool is very well-preserved and will eventually go on show at Warwickshire Museum.
Amongst other things, the hand axe would have been used for butchering animals, but what is perhaps most intriguing about it is that it is made of a type of volcanic rock called andesite.
Andesite bedrock only occurs in the Lake District or North Wales and this is only the ninth andesite hand axe to be found in the midlands in over a century. Archaeologists are now trying to figure out how the tool might have got there.
Although it is possible the rock was transported to the midlands by glacial ice from the north west there is as yet no evidence for it, which suggests humans might have brought it into the area.
The lack of material for good quality hand axes in the midlands would probably have been known to our ancestors, therefore these tools could have been brought in ready made.
It may also be significant that all previous andesite hand axe finds have been made in deposits of the Bytham River, a now lost river system that crossed England from the Cotswolds via the West Midlands and Leicester to the North Sea.
This valley was destroyed in a later glaciation and seems to have provided a route into the midlands for Palaeolithic hunters.
Half a million years ago the area was at the edge of the human world, linked to Europe along the Bytham valley and across a land-bridge existing before the cutting of the Straits of Dover.
In addition to the hand axe the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry has produced 18 other Palaeolithic tools, currently under investigation by the team at Birmingham Archaeology.
Other finds in the area include bones and teeth from a straight-tusked elephant, which are also set to be displayed at Warwickshire Museum.
IRON AGE FORT IN LEICESTERSHIRE DEFENDED FROM RAIDING RABBITS By David Prudames 17/12/2004
During the Iron Age it stood up to marauders, protecting the people of ancient Leicestershire against anyone that might do them harm. But a couple of thousand years later Burrough-on-the-Hill was in need of a little defending of its own.
They might not sound as fearsome as a neighbouring tribe, or even the might of the Roman Empire, but the ancient hill fort has recently been under attack from the local rabbit population.
However, under the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme, farmer and Country Park Ranger, Tim Maydwell, has been fighting back.
"The rabbits may have been attracted to this site by the abundance of scrubby vegetation around the fort," explained Mr Maydwell, whose family have farmed in the area for generations.
"They’ve made their warrens in the foundations of the old ramparts and now there is a danger of land slippage. I didn't want to eradicate the rabbits, nor did I want to completely clear the scrub as it is a valuable habitat for nesting birds such as the linnet."
The ancient hill fort was made a Scheduled Ancient Monument by English Heritage in 1970, which affords the site legal protection and makes maintenance a requirement by law.
Leicestershire boasts many important Iron Age sites, including what archaeologists believe may be a temple complex at which a massive hoard of coins was recently found. Courtesy The British Museum.
"Burrough-on-the-Hill is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and one of the few remaining examples of this style of iron age hill fort," said Kate Fearn of English Heritage.
"It has superb views over High Leicestershire and has been much visited by the public over the years. Not surprisingly this has also contributed to soil erosion, along with the rabbit damage and the influences of the weather."
The land is managed by Leicestershire County Council, who, alongside Defra's Rural Development Service, English Heritage, the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust and the Ernest Cook Trust have been working to combat the problem.
Targeted scrub removal has taken place over several years and a number of cows and sheep have been drafted in to graze the site. The cattle control the harder grasses, while the sheep eat the softer stuff on top of the stone and earth ramparts.
Care has been taken to retain healthy gorse and hawthorn bushes and as a result the rabbit population is rapidly decreasing.
The careful maintenance of certain hardy plants is gradually resulting in the lowering the rabbit population.
Furthermore, hedgerows have been coppiced, gapped up and laid in the traditional style of the area and larger trees and shrubs are being conserved to aid local tree sparrows and owls.
Vegetation has also recovered to such an extent that parts of the site have now been designated as a Wildlife Site by Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.
"I'm delighted to say the condition of the ramparts is now greatly improved as a result of the grazing and grassland management," added Kate Fearn. "Thanks to the County Council and the funding partners the site will retain its value as an historic monument, a public amenity and a wildlife haven."
The Countryside Stewardship Scheme currently has more than 16,000 participants and offers payment to farmers and land managers to improve the natural beauty and diversity of the countryside.
Operating throughout England outside Environmentally Sensitive Areas, the scheme is one of 10 programes that make up DEFRA’s England Rural Development Programme.
"This is a real conservation success story," said Bill Field, a senior adviser at Defra's Rural Development Service in the East Midlands. "Five years of carefully monitored mixed grazing and timely scrub control are now paying off."
ARCHAEOLOGISTS UNCOVER YORK'S HIDDEN INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE By Caroline Lewis 13/12/2004
Archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust are working on the remains of an important Victorian iron foundry in York.
The team carrying out the excavation of the site hope to locate and record everything that remains of the Walker Iron Foundry before it is redeveloped into housing. The site had previously been covered up by a 1970s office block.
The Walker Iron Foundry at Walmgate was one of several in 19th century York, though the city is not known for its industrial heritage – unlike its neighbours Leeds and Bradford.
“We don’t do much industrial archaeology here in York,” said Dr Peter Ottaway, Head of Fieldwork at York Archaeological Trust, “so this is a unique opportunity to look at such a site. It’s very well preserved, too.”
Set up in 1837 by ironmonger John Walker (1801-53), this foundry was particularly significant. “This is where the Walker family made their name,” explained Peter.
Initially, Walker took on local commissions such as street railings and York’s first gas lamps, but as his reputation grew, he was offered major national and international commissions.
Apart from creating vital jobs for local inhabitants, Walker could count among his achievements the gates of Kew Gardens (1845-1846), the gates and railings of the British Museum (1850 – his most famous work) and even the gates of the Botanic Gardens of Mauritius.
In 1847 Walker was appointed the iron founder to Queen Victoria and he took on larger premises in the same area – the Victoria Foundry. The first foundry was kept in the family until 1856, when it was sold for £1000.
“There are all sorts of interesting structures turning up in the dig,” Peter told the 24 Hour Museum, “and we’ve got a lot of artefacts – things associated with the work and also many more personal effects, a lot of clay pipes and pieces of beer bottles. This gives us some idea of the people who worked there.”
So far, excavations have revealed brick walls that tally with the 1852 Ordnance Survey map, and several internal structures and artefacts. One of the structures uncovered has been identified as a brick-lined pit, which would have housed a steam engine-driven wheel that probably powered the foundry bellows.
Archaeologists hope yet to identify structures itemised in the building’s bill of sale, including the master’s house, smiths’ shops, warehouses and stables. Slag and debris will be studied to reveal what type of iron was used in the foundry and fieldworkers are looking for any other evidence of manufacturing techniques.
Pieces of fleur-de-lys railings that didn’t make it to the streets and large ceramic crucibles used for molten iron and steel have also been unearthed. One of the most interesting discoveries has been that the foundry was built in a somewhat dangerous position: on silty land reclaimed by a medieval dam. Precarious though it was, this site allowed easy access to raw materials and export routes via the River Foss.
Unfortunately for Walker, life on the riverside in this notorious slum area was not good for his family’s health and five of his children died. His son William Walker survived, and the business carried on in the family until it hit financial difficulties in 1923.
Yorkshire Museum & Gardens Museum Gardens, York, YO1 7FR, England T: 01904 687687 Open: Daily 1000-1700 Closed: Closed 25/26 December, 1 January
MUSEUM WANTS ICE AGE MEMORIES - IT'S CLOSER THAN YOU THINK! By David Prudames 25/11/2004
Staff at Yorkshire Museum are appealing for people with memories or photographs of the Ice Age to help them create a new exhibition.
Chances are you’re thinking Ice Age? Eh? Did they have cameras back then? Well, you’d be forgiven for thinking that, but in truth we’re still in the Great Ice Age.
According to the Curator of Geology at Yorkshire Museum, Camilla Nichols, this Great Ice Age has been going on for the last two million years.
"You say Ice Age and everybody thinks about woolly mammoths," Camilla told the 24 Hour Museum, "but in actual fact it was lots of cold bits punctuated with lots of hot bits."
"In the last two million years it's only been frozen seven percent of the time and yet it’s had such a fundamental impact on our landscape."
So, to help build up a picture of how the climate of an ice age fluctuates, the museum is planning an exhibition that will take visitors on a journey through the last two million years.
Running from May 28 until December 31 2005, the exhibition will look at the way climate affects life on Earth and the landscape around us.
Using artefacts from glacial rocks to animal bones, it will take in the cold bits and the hot bits, examining the impact that different climates can have, on plants, animals and us humans.
Which is where museum staff are hoping the public will be able to help out. To illustrate how climate can change very quickly, part of the exhibition will feature displays about the two most recent big freezes, the winters of 1947 and 1963.
Martin Lunn, Curator of Astronomy for York Museums Trust, is building this section and although he has plenty of images from 1947 images of 1963, which particularly affected the north of England, are proving harder to come by.
"The temperatures dropped on Boxing Day 1962 and the freeze lasted until March 1963," explained Martin. "Although 1947 had more snow, 1963 was the coldest winter since 1740 and temperatures got as low as -20°C."
In particular, Martin is hoping to hear from anyone who remembers this period and can help him bring alive the conditions with memories and photographs.
"In York the River Ouse was frozen over and the ice was four to five inches thick," he said, "there are reports of people playing football under Lendal Bridge."
"The years 1947 and 1963 are the only examples we’ve got in living memory of what it is like to experience really cold weather. During the cold periods of the Ice Age this was permanent and was what people would have had to be able to survive through."
While these major periods last occurred thousands of years ago, as Martin explained, those days could well return in the not too distant future.
"They’re the conditions we can expect within the next 20 years according to some scientists, who have predicted that the Atlantic Conveyor, or the Gulf Stream, which warms our shores will turn off because the ice is melting in Greenland."
If anyone out there has any photos or memories of winter 1963, Martin Lunn can be contacted at Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York, YO1 1FR or by email: martin.lunn@ymt.org.uk.
Women warriors from Amazon fought for Britain's Roman army By Lewis Smith
THE remains of two Amazon warriors serving with the Roman army in Britain have been discovered in a cemetery that has astonished archaeologists.
Women soldiers were previously unknown in the Roman army in Britain and the find at Brougham in Cumbria will force a reappraisal of their role in 3rd-century society.
The women are thought to have come from the Danube region of Eastern Europe, which was where the Ancient Greeks said the fearsome Amazon warriors could be found.
The women, believed to have died some time between AD220 and 300, were burnt on pyres upon which were placed their horses and military equipment. The remains were uncovered in the 1960s but full-scale analysis and identification has been possible only since 2000 with technological advances.
The soldiers are believed to have been part of the numerii, a Roman irregular unit, which would have been attached to a legion serving in Britain. Other finds show that their unit originated from the Danubian provinces of Noricum, Pannonia and Ilyria which now form parts of Austria, Hungary and the former Yugoslavia.
Hilary Cool, the director of Barbican Research Associates, which specialises in post- excavation archaeological analysis, said that the remains were the most intriguing aspects of a site that is changing our understanding of Roman burial rites.
“It seems highly probable that we have a unit raised in the Danubian lands and transferred to Britain,” she says in British Archaeology.
“Though the numerii are generally referred to as irregular units, they are not thought of as having women among their ranks. However, the unit came from the area where the Ancient Greeks placed the origin of women warriors called Amazons. Could the numerii be even more irregular than anyone has ever dreamt?”
The cemetery at Brougham served a fort and the civilian settlement of Brocavum in the 3rd century and analysis of the remains of more than 180 people showed that everybody’s ashes were buried there. Archaeologists have been able to determine the ages and gender of the dead and to build up a detailed picture of Roman funerals in Brougham.
One of the sets of women warrior’s remains were found with the burnt remnants of animals. Bone veneer, used to decorate boxes, was also found alongside evidence of a sword scabbard and red pottery. The possessions suggest that she was of high status and her age has been estimated at between 20 and 40 years old. The other woman, thought to be between 21 and 45, was buried with a silver bowl, a sword scabbard, bone veneer and ivory.
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Archaeologists find fabled throne leg. LONDON, Dec 21 (IranMania) - Iranian archaeologists believe they have found a part of one leg of the throne of Darius the Great during their excavations at Persepolis, the ancient capital of the Achaemenid dynasty, the director of the team of archaeologists announced Sunday.
“Four archaeologists of the team found a piece of lapis lazuli during their excavations in water canals passing under the treasury in southeastern Persepolis last year,” said Alireza Askari, adding, “The studies on the piece of stone over the past year led the archaeologists to surmise that the stone had probably been a part of a leg of the throne of Darius.”
According to historical sources, the upper parts of the throne of Darius were been made of gold, silver, and ivory and its legs were made of lapis lazuli, Askari said.
The throne had been transferred to the treasury after Xerxes I, the son of Darius, was crowned king. In addition, the figures carved on the stone are similar to the relief works in different parts of Persepolis, he stated.
Archaeologists have speculated that the piece of stone fell into the canals after Persepolis was destroyed and looted by Alexander the Great.
Persepolis was established by Darius I in the late 6th century B.C. Its ruins lie 56 kilometers northeast of Shiraz. Darius transferred the capital of the Achaemenid dynasty to Persepolis from Pasargadae, where Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, had ruled.
Polly Curtis, education correspondent Tuesday December 21, 2004
Pupils will soon be able to study tourism and museum management as part of a new GCSE designed to make history "more relevant", the exams watchdog announced today.
The pilot of the history qualification, which will begin in 2006 with the first qualifications awarded in 2008, will link history to vocational training in areas including national heritage, museums, galleries, historic sites, archaeology, tourism, archives and media.
It follows in the vein of similar courses for GCSE science, which have attempted to give pupils who might not go on to be scientists enough practical understanding of aspects that affect their lives, or enable them to take technical jobs in the science field, such as lab technicians.
Similarly, the Tomlinson report on the future of 14 to 19 education called for a new style of maths teaching that would give pupils practical, or "functional" skills, though not necessarily academic ones.
However, the Qualification and Curriculum Authority, which has commissioned the exam board Oxford, Cambridge and RSA to design the course, insisted the history GCSE would have a rigorous academic element.
Pupils would still need a "thorough" understanding of the history of a period or place, but they would also be required to undertake a practical element, such as building a website to illustrate what they have learnt, or critically evaluating a museum display.
The chief executive of the QCA, Ken Boston, said: "The aim of the pilot is to allow students to make links between the history they study and its application to the world of work. There is now a wide range of employment related to our national heritage.
"This exciting and innovative approach to history GCSE would give students a rigorous grounding in both the historical knowledge and practical skills they need to take advantage of those opportunities. The combination of academic knowledge and practical experience is what many employers in this expanding sector want in their recruits."
The initial pilot will include about 50 schools. If successful it could go on to be offered at all schools.
