Trench One 5: From landscape to Netscape
Trench One 6: Written in stone
Trench One 7: Save our heritage
Trench One 8: Game on
Trench One 9: Time Team on the web
Trench One 10: The great Barbie hoax
Trench One 11: Studying archaeology on the web
Trench One 12: Magical history tour: schools resources on the web

Written in stone

From Trench One 6

Viewers of the Time Team Xmas Special at the end of last year will have shared in the breathless excitement of geophysicist John Gater as he spoke of a remarkable three-chambered monument at Mine Howe, on Orkney, into which cameras had recently been taken for the first time. John says that his excitement 'was somewhat compounded by only having 24 seconds in which to describe the monument', but even this brief taster was more than enough to whet the appetite for the promised investigation of the site by the Team, likely to take place later this year.

Mine Howe is just one of a number of large grassy mounds, or 'howes', in the area; the chambers are buried deep within it. A geophysics survey by John Gater for Historic Scotland and the Orkney Islands Council last year revealed that at one time it was surrounded by a huge ditch. A few hundred yards away is an ever larger howe, which local tradition says once swallowed up a telegraph pole.

For those who can’t wait for the future Time Team programme to find out more, there is an excellent report on the monument's discovery, context and significance, with good pictures, at www.orkneyjar.com/history/minehowe. The site, run by local enthusiast Sigurd Towrie, also contains linked sections on the brochs of Orkney and other prehistoric monuments in the region, including the Standing Stones of Stenness and Brodgar’s Ditch and Bank. Indeed, there’s not much about the Orkneys’ prehistory that can’t be found here. This is archaeology on the web as it should be: clear, informative, attractively presented – and exciting enough to make even a hardened geophysicist pause for breath. (The site name 'Orkneyjar', incidentally, is derived from the Old Norse word, which means 'Seal Islands', eventually shortened by Scots speakers to Orkney.)

The investigation of Mine Howe could eventually add greatly to our understanding of the wealth of prehistoric remains to be found in these remoter reaches of the British Isles. Also on the Orkney mainland, for example, is the famous Maes Howe monument, some 5,000 years old and (until the discovery of Mine Howe at least) the most impressive chambered tomb in Britain. Every year, around the time of the winter solstice, its inner chamber is lit by the rays of the setting sun; and last 21 December the Dutch astro-archaeologist, Victor Reijs, set up a live web broadcast to show and measure the effect.

If you missed it at the time, Reijs’s website at maeshowe.mypage.org features a number of videos, as well as information about his work. These include film of the monument and surrounding area in addition to that of the winter solstice sunlight within the tomb. There are also stereo pictures, a 3D model and an audio interview with Reijs about his work.

The winter solstice also saw a live webcast from Newgrange, Ireland's foremost Stone Age site, which is roughly contemporary with Maes Howe. At Newgrange it is the first rays from the rising sun that illuminate this passage tomb’s inner chamber via a hollow 'roof box' above the passage entrance. The Irish television company, RTE, broadcast the phenomenon for the first time last year, both on the web and on television. For TV and radio coverage of the event see www.rte.ie/news/1999/1221/solstice.html. It follows a truly stunning sunrise, which took place in almost perfect weather conditions, and includes lengthy interviews with experts about the site. The effect of the sun’s rays illuminating the tomb, which lasts for somewhat less than 20 minutes from start to finish, starts about 25 minutes into the video.

A good overview of the ancient monuments of Scotland can be obtained from the Ancient Scotland pages at www.ehabitat.demon.co.uk/scotland/index.html.

A simple 'point and click' map gives access to an excellent collection of photographs and information about a range of sites, including those in the Orkneys. Don’t forget, too, the Time Team investigation from the 1998 series, when the team travelled to the island of Sanday in Orkney to find out if four mysterious mounds were, in fact, evidence of a Viking settlement or Viking burials (programme two in the 1998 series, details of which can be found in the Time Team website archive).

Finally, still on the subject of stone monuments, it is worth mentioning here the excellent Megalith Map, part of Andy Burnham's Prehistory Zone, which I will feature in more detail in a future issue of Trench One. This map of Britain and Ireland, divided into 100 kilometre squares, indicates the locations of 1195 prehistoric stone circles and rows throughout these islands. Again, a simple 'point and click' procedure provides access to a range of information, including OS map references. Many of the pages also have links to images and text elsewhere on the web (there are 14, for example, for the Stones of Stenness), making this a master index for information about stone circles and rows on the web. The Megalith Map can be found at www.megalith.ukf.net/bigmap.htm.