Digital Digging - Home Page
Welcome

Welcome to Digital Digging - there is plenty here to watch, look at, read or listen to - you can even whistle while you're doing it if you so choose - you've only yourself to disturb.

If you've arrived here by way of today's Western Daily Press, please make use of our comments system - if there is anything in the Somerset/Wiltshire region you would like to see featured, leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

On the other hand, if you'd just like to say hello, you're more than welcome.

Also, if you are anywhere else in the country/world, don't let that hold you back - please feel free to chip in too. I'm only currently limiting it to Somerset/Wiltshire because they have conjoining HER's.

The comments page can be found here.

Image of the Month (June)

Once again we fall back on the high achievers at Wessex Archaeology to provide us with our image of the month.

The image depicts five beautifully worked flint arrowheads found in the grave of the Boscombe Bowmen. (credit: Karen Nichols, Wessex Archaeology)

Find out more about the bowmen from the Wessex Archaeology website.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Copper smelting in 45 minutes on a cold day

New in Features. . .

Experimental archaeologist Eddie Daughton takes us through the steps of copper smelting.

The yield is surprisingly high, and the copper ore (along with the tools) came from the copper mine at Great Orme.

Keep your eyes peeled for 'Copper smelting in 45 minutes' the movie - coming soon. . .

Click here or on the image to continue

Wessex Super Henges

New to the Map Room.

Much neglected when compared with their stone/timber circle cousins, the super henge group is comprised of some truly monumental. . . er. . . monuments.

Everyone has heard of Avebury, and many have heard of Durrington Walls, but what of Marden, Knowlton and Mount Pleasant? Well here they are. . .

The Map Room

The Map Room is where we keep shelf after shelf of cartographical wonders. So far we have mapped the Iron Age hillforts of Somerset and Wiltshire, the henge monuments, long barrows and prehistoric trackways of Somerset, and the super henges of Wessex.

You can also download the .kmz file associated with any of the maps, which will enable you to swoop, zoom and dart around the locations using Google Earth. You can fly solo, or choose the tour, and sit back and relax. More instructions here.

The Model Room

The Model Room is where we display our reconstructions. To start off we have a selection of the henge monuments of Wessex and Somerset, including Durrington Walls South Circle, Woodhenge, Stanton Drew and the Sanctuary at Avebury.

You can look at the image page of each reconstruction or download the associated .kmz file and download the model into Google Earth, where you can get inside it, and look at it from any angle you choose. More about Google Earth here.

The Radio Room

The Radio Room is crammed full of programmes of an archaeological nature, gathered here for your listening pleasure. The newest addition is Secrets of Stonehenge, a programme introduced by Francis Pryor, focusing on the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

Although the files are in realplayer format you don't need realplayer to listen to them. There is a link you can follow to download a non-intrusive alternative.

The Projector Room

The Projector Room is currently showing a handful of presentations, chief amongst them in terms of sheer delight is Billy and Dec's Bronze Age beer brewing.

If only all experimental archaeology was so intoxicating. . .

Look in over the next few weeks - I'm assured fresh reels will be dispatched in time to allay boredom.

The News Room

The News Room is run by Kitty (left). She is responsible for perusing hundreds of journals, flyers and websites every day to bring to you all that is noteworthy in the world of archaeology.

The denizens of the news room concentrate exclusively on British archaeology. This is not born of a misplaced sense of jingoism* - it's because we have enough to be getting on with without involving the rest of the world.

*To settle any qualms you may have about a possible nationalistic bent to our organisation, we would like to point out that we are an equal opportunities employer - Kitty herself is rumoured to be of partial Norman descent.

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