Andy Burnham's Blog, page 246

Museums and ancient sites to visit on a trip to Dubai

Dubai is best known for its spectacular modern architecture and vast shopping malls, but there is another side that is hardly known about, with recent archaeological discoveries telling us more about the prehistory of this now largely urbanised settlement. Read on to find out more about ancient Dubai and what there still is to see.

Dolmen dit los Tres Peyres

Dolmen near Causse de Cousis in Midi:Lot (46)

Butt Well

The well head is now dry but water flows freely behind it. It is situated in the woods below the rock on which Stirling Castle stands and can be found by walking along the lower paths into the woods from the bottom of Corn Exchange Road in Stirling.

Caral

Ancient City in Barranca Provence, Peru. Caral's chief excavator, Dr. Ruth Shady Solis, has called Caral "the Mother City" of the Americas. This city of a Late Archaic culture was built and occupied from around 2600 BC to 1900 BC (by carbon dating.) It is considered one of the oldest urban centers in the Americas, substantially predating Mayan, Mississippian, and Aztec cultures.

Kurhany Kolosy

Round Barrows in Swietokrzyskie. A large Bronze Age round barrow is located North-East of the village of Kolosy, in a prominent point of the landscape. It has 13 x 11m in diameter, although originally it was larger. At its top there is a statue of Lord Jesus Christ. Some 100m east of the monument there was another barrow, now ploughed out, in which burials of the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Corded Ware culture were found.

Bolton Museum

Bolton Museum has re-opened after an 18 month refit. Explore the new galleries including Bolton’s Egypt which draws on the town’s longstanding association with Egyptology. Bolton’s Egypt features a walk-through replica of the tomb of the ancient pharaoh Thutmose III. The exhibition features over 2,000 artefacts from Bolton’s significant collection.

Low Crag Dyke

Dyke in Yorkshire (North). The grid reference given is where the minor road down to Westerdale cuts through the dyke. This is the northern of the two Bronze Age cross dykes on Castleton Rigg and is a boundary feature. Its overall length across the rigg is about 200m.

Jershøj

A well preserved burial mound overgrown with trees in a field in Bornholm, Denmark.

Top British Universities to study archaeology, with advice for foreign students

Here is a guide to some of the best Universities to study archaeology in Britain, especially if you are looking to specialise in prehistory. This list is based on my - albeit external and rather subjective impression of some of their tutors and the quality of research we see from the institutions listed. Inevitably we get to hear more about graduate student research projects than the day to day experiences of undergraduate teaching, so you would like to leave feedback on your recent experiences in the comments to this article then please do go ahead, and rest assured your anonymity is assured if you tick the ‘anonymous’ box.

Killievair

Historic Environment Scotland write: "While visiting the Killievair Standing Stone near Brechin recently, one of our Heritage Casework Team field officers found it had fallen over. We commissioned the re-erection of the stone so the public could appreciate the monument as it was supposed to be.
This involved moving the stone, undertaking an excavation to record its socket and check for burials, and then re-erecting the stone in a new socket in its original location.". Standing Stone in Angus