The hidden interest of Kirby Muxloe Castle
Scientists have identified fin whale bones from the Cairns Broch, a large Iron Age stone-built complex and focus of a major research project in South Ronaldsay, Orkney. As part of their study of ancient whalebone use in the western Atlantic, Vicki Szabo from Western Carolina University and Brenna Frasier from St Mary’s University, Nova Scotia, have extracted dna and collagen data from a large prehistoric assemblage which also includes sperm and humpback whales. Second in scale only to the blue whale among living animals, fin whales are unlikely to have been hunted in the Iron Age, and were probably stranded.
A fin whale vertebra was found at the Cairns in 2016, carved into a tub-like container. A human jawbone and two neonatal lambs had been placed inside, and two red deer antlers propped against the outside. The vertebra had been wedged by a very large saddle quern (for grinding cereals) against the broch wall and close to the entrance, when the broch went out of use in the mid-second century ad – “an act of closure of the broch”, said Martin Carruthers, site director.
On 22 November two metal detectorists were convicted of theft and concealing their find, a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins and jewellery, and were jailed for ten and eight and a half years respectively. Two other men were convicted of concealing the find; one was jailed for five years, and the other awaits sentencing.
Coins in the hoard, as reported earlier in Britain in archaeology (Sep/Oct 2019/168), prove an unknown alliance between Alfred the Great of Wessex and Ceolwulf ii of Mercia. Gareth Williams, a British Museum curator, told the bbc, “You could argue that this is England's first hoard. It’s one of the most important finds I’ve seen in my career.”
Police investigation began in June 2015. Evidence showed that around 300 coins had been found at Eye, near Leominster, Herefordshire, with a gold-mounted crystal, rings, bracelets and ingots. Thirty one coins have been recovered. “We will do everything we can”, said Amanda