In February 1971, a young lad of fourteen years of age by the name of Timothy Roberts of Bristol was on a family visit to Maiden castle in Dorset. During the course of walking along the second (middle) bank on the southern side of the hillfort, he noticed the above carved chalk object protruding from the makeup of the bank, with its outer face towards the crest of the bank and 'opposite the point where the ramparts curve inwards in conformity with the original defences of the eastern knoll'. In an article on this chalk carving by Mr RAH Farrar, published in the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society Proceedings for 1974, Volume 96, published in 1975, Mr Farrar writes in respect of the date attributed ... Read More

In February 1971, a young lad of fourteen years of age by the name of Timothy Roberts of Bristol was on a family visit to Maiden castle in Dorset. During the course of walking along the second (middle) bank on the southern side of the ... Read More

This year my interest in the prehistoric sites of Britain has opened up 'the view from above', more by chance than design. The result has been an ongoing  joint film project with Pete Glastonbury and a close working relationship with the aerial photography company CamAero based in Dorset  The photograph above is Badbury Rings Iron Age hill fort in east Dorset. During the Roman era, five Roman roads formed a complex junction on the north side of Badbury.  Aerial footage seems to further reveal the sheer scale of the achievements of our prehistoric ancestors.   Below are Bronze Age barrows at the northwestern approach to Badbury Rings:   [caption id="attachment_1853" align="aligncenter" width="743"] Bronze Age barrows Badbury Rings[/caption] The Badbury barrow carving in the British Museum, described by Aubrey Burl ... Read More

This year my interest in the prehistoric sites of Britain has opened up 'the view from above', more by chance than design. The result has been an ongoing  joint film project with Pete Glastonbury and a close working relationship with the aerial photography company CamAero based in ... Read More

As Carl Sagan once said: 'Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.' The two chalk plaques below were discovered between King Barrow Wood and Stonehenge Bottom in the late 1960s by Major H.M. and Mrs. F. De M. Vatcher. They were found during the widening and lowering of the A303 road near Stonehenge in the chalk of the verge on the north side of the carriageway, 211 yards west of the wood. The larger plaque is approximately three inches square and seven-sixteenths of an inch thick. They were found near the base of the pit at a depth of a little under two feet from the surface. The upper part of the ditch filling was empty of finds ... Read More

As Carl Sagan once said: 'Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it we go nowhere.' The two chalk plaques below were discovered between King Barrow Wood and Stonehenge Bottom in the late 1960s by Major H.M. and Mrs. F. De M. ... Read More

Could the above chalk plaque currently on permanent display in the Stonehenge Visitor Centre be a 5000 year old lost map of Stonehenge and its surrounding area? I am minded this week that, other than a number of the actual stones at stonehenge, little of the dating of man's activities in the area is similarly 'set in concrete' and frequently resembles more closely the shifting sands Jacquetta Hawkes alluded to with her now famous quote 'every age has the Stonehenge it deserves or desires'. For example, archaeological evidence indicates that the main period of construction and activity at Durrington Walls falls between 2600BC and 2400BC. Beneath the outer bank at Durrington Walls, traces of an early Neolithic settlement were found, including sherds of round-based bowls, leaf-shaped arrowheads and other ... Read More

Could the above chalk plaque currently on permanent display in the Stonehenge Visitor Centre be a 5000 year old lost map of Stonehenge and its surrounding area? I am minded this week that, other than a number of the actual stones at stonehenge, little of the dating of ... Read More

These two Stonehenge chalk plaques form part of the permanent exhibition at the English Heritage visitor centre near the monument and features on their website here. I outlined the background of the discovery of these small objects in my first posting on this blog on 30 January 2014. The above image has been kindly provided by and is © English Heritage. The plaques were buried in a pit 2km from Stonehenge before the sarsen stone monument that we know today had been erected. English Heritage have dated the plaques to between 2900BC and 2580BC. In the area around Stonehenge leading up to this time there is evidence of 5600 years of man's activity already. Mesolithic postholes in the old visitor centre car park 8500BC to 7000BC. Activities at ... Read More

These two Stonehenge chalk plaques form part of the permanent exhibition at the English Heritage visitor centre near the monument and features on their website here. I outlined the background of the discovery of these small objects in my first posting on this blog on ... Read More

 On 21 December 2013, I first became aware of  an image of a thrush portrayed on the above Stonehenge incised chalk plaque. That moment proved to be the inspiration for this blog. This fascinating object was discovered between King Barrow Wood and Stonehenge Bottom in the late 1960s by Major HM and Mrs. F De M Vatcher. It was found along with a second slightly smaller plaque during the widening and lowering of the A303 road near Stonehenge in the chalk of the verge on the north side of the carriageway, 211 yards west of the wood. The plaque above is approximately three inches square and seven sixteenths of an inch thick. It was found near the base of the pit at a depth of a little ... Read More

 On 21 December 2013, I first became aware of  an image of a thrush portrayed on the above Stonehenge incised chalk plaque. That moment proved to be the inspiration for this blog. This fascinating object was discovered between King Barrow Wood and Stonehenge Bottom in the late ... Read More