The discovery of the Stone Age Hand axes from the North Sea was awarded the Best Discovery Award in the prestigious British Archaeological Awards held at the British Museum on Monday.
The hand axes, described by Phil Harding as ‘massively important’, date back tens of thousands of years. They were used by Stone Age hunters at a time in the Ice Age when water was locked up in the ice caps and the North Sea was dry land. The axes were found in gravel that was dredged from the seabed near Yarmouth but landed in Holland.
Their discovery gives decisive proof for a submerged landscape that experts thought had been destroyed. It was thought that rising sea levels had swept away all traces of this Ice Age world. The discovery of the hand axes, announced earlier this year, surprised the experts and caught the public imagination around the world.
The international collaboration that ensured the axes were reported was acknowledged by the judges who awarded the prize jointly to Jan Meeulmeister, the amateur archaeologist and fossil hunter who identified the finds; the British Marine Aggregates Producers Association who run the scheme for reporting archaeological remains found in dredging for sand and gravel at sea; and Hanson Marine Aggregates Ltd who promptly stopped dredging in the area the finds came from. The judges also praised the collaboration between the Dutch and English government archaeology services.
Awarding the prize Alison Taylor said ‘The find was reported across the world on TV, radio and in newspapers, while the thousands of online hits demonstrate that this find really engaged with the public’s fascination with archaeology. Overall this was, and continues to be, an excellent archaeological project.’
Dr Antony Firth of Wessex Archaeology who run the reporting scheme for the British Marine Aggregates Association and who nominated the find commented ‘This award is thoroughly deserved. It recognises the vision of the industry in introducing and supporting this voluntary scheme. Having the scheme in place meant that the significance of the hand axes was recognised and action was taken internationally and promptly. As a result a find of crucial importance was saved.’
The following podcast relates to the ALSF funded Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea: A Scoping Study project undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in late 2007. The project is looking at what information is available about civilian and military crash sites around the UK.
In this, the second podcast relating to the Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea project the author of the report, Graham Scott, discusses the importance of these sites and some case studies of actual UK marine crash sites and what these tell us about the types of sites are on the seabed and their importance for aviation archaeology and management of aggregate dredging licences.
Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea (2) [21:17m]:
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The following podcast relates to the ALSF Funded Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea: A Scoping Study project undertaken by Wessex Archaeology in late 2007. The project is looking at what information is available about civilian and military crash sites around the UK.
In this podcast you will hear the Project Manager, Euan McNeill, discussing the origins of the project, through material found by aggregate dredging and reported through the English Heritage and British Marine Aggregate Producers Association Protocol for Reporting Finds of Archaeological Interest.
Euan discusses the origin of the protocol and the ongoing Implementation Service which is operated by Wessex Archaeology and administers the scheme. He also discusses the role the aggregate industry is playing in bringing to light archaeological finds, and pieces of aircraft in particular, and what impact this has on aggregate dredging.
Aircraft Crash Sites at Sea (1) [18:52m]:
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Published on
6 February, 2008 in
Projects.
Ever wondered about the plants and animals that live on shipwrecks? What sorts of effects do these critters have on archaeological remains? Can the types of flora and fauna that chose to colonise a particular wreck tell us anything about the stability of the site, for example?
These are some of the questions that Wessex Archaeology hopes to answer in the exciting new ‘Wrecks: Ecology’ project.
The project will investigate whether archaeological information from wrecks can also provide information about the plants and animals that inhabit them, and from this, say something about the environmental processes at work off the East Sussex coast.
Understanding the ecology of wrecks will improve the management, conservation and monitoring of these heritage sites. It will also improve archaeologists’ ability, when considering seabed developments, to better assess their potential positive and negative impacts on historical wrecks.
Visit the project website for more information.
The ‘Wrecks: Ecology’ project is funded by the Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) through English Heritage.