Moles Unearth Ancient Roman Artefacts

Archaeologists in England have discovered artefacts at an Ancient Roman fort – with the help of moles.

Volunteers from the Altogether Archaeology project have been developing a new archaeological survey technique at Epiacum (Whitley Castle) Roman fort near Alston in Cumbria: surveying molehills. The fort is a scheduled ancient monument, so it is illegal to disturb the ground within it without special consent. However, moles are not subject to scheduled monument legislation and they continue to dig around inside the fort. The moles’ digging disturbs archaeological deposits, thus bringing pieces of pottery and other finds to the surface where they can be gathered from molehills.

Altogether Archaeology volunteers worked with the moles to carry out an investigation of the fort. Using canes stuck in the ground, the fort was divided up into a grid of squares. The molehills in each square were sieved and any finds retained. The BBC reports that so far, the moles have unearthed both fragments of, and intact items made from, pottery and glass, as well as jet jewellery and even a decorative bronze dolphin.

Overlooking the South Tyne Valley, Epiacum is one of the least known, but best preserved, Roman forts in Britain. It was probably built in the early second century at about the same time as Hadrian’s Wall. The fort was garrisoned through until c. 400AD. It lies on the Maiden Way, the Roman road from Kirby Thore to Carvoran on Hadrian’s Wall, and experts think it was linked in some way to Roman lead and silver mining.

http://www.italymagazine.com/news/moles-unearth-ancient-roman-artefacts

Artefacts offer Pacific shark species absence clues

By Mark Kinver, Environment reporter, BBC News

Historical artefacts, such as this shark teeth weapon, are an "under-utilised source of data"

Nineteenth Century tools made from sharks' teeth suggest that two species of shark used to populate the Central Pacific but are no longer present.

Using artefacts from museums, a team of US researchers found that spot-tail and dusky sharks used to inhabit the reefs surrounding the Gilbert Islands.

The unusual historical data would help evaluate the success of ecological conservation measures, they added.

The findings have been published in the scientific journal PLoS One.

In their paper, the team from the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, and Columbia University, New York, said indigenous artefacts often represented an "under-utilised source of data".

"By examining the materials... we can gain access to the flora and fauna present during the time of their construction," they wrote.

"When these materials are assigned to a particular species, they can indicate which species were present in the past."

They said historical artefacts could be used to provide important insights in the absence of historical ecological data and provide an important first step in the assessment of the effectiveness of current conservation methods.

They observed that as shark teeth were "diagnostic to species", the artefacts allowed the team to identify some of the species that where present in the waters around the islands when the weapons were manufactured, between 1840 and 1898.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22005634