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The authors combine pollen, spores, sedimentary DNA, and animal remains to characterize the pre-Neolithic habitat of the site, inferring partially open woodland conditions, which would have been beneficial to large grazing herbivores like aurochs, as well as hunter-gatherer communities. This study supports previous evidence that the Stonehenge region was not covered in closed canopy forest at this time, as has previously been proposed.This study also provides date estimates for human activity at Blick Mead. Results indicate that hunter-gatherers used this site for 4,000 years up until the time of the earliest known farmers and monument-builders in the region, who would...

Provident Bancorp in Amesbury, Massachusetts, is grappling with a sizable cryptocurrency hit that it expects will result in a third-quarter loss. The $1.8 billion-asset bank this week delayed its latest earnings filing but estimated a third-quarter loss of $27.5 million related to loans to a cryptocurrency miner. That would compare with net income of $5.1 million reported for the third quarter of 2021. Provident cautioned in a regulatory filing Tuesday the official loss could exceed its estimates. It cited the highly publicized meltdown of the cryptocurrency mining industry in recent months. The "volatility in Bitcoin and rising energy costs called...

BOSTON — Exit renumbering work on a long stretch of Interstate 495 will begin Sunday night, according to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The project is part of the state's effort to comply with Federal Highway Administration requirements to have exit numbers based on mile markers. Advertisement Massachusetts previously used a sequential exit numbering method, and if that method continued to be used, the state would lose federal funding. MassDOT's exit renumbering work on I-495 between Middleborough and Amesbury will begin at 8 p.m. Sunday. The sign installations will be broken up into four segments as follows:

SNIP “On Wednesday ... a small bottle was recovered during searches of Charlie Rowley’s house in Amesbury,” police said in a statement. “Scientists have now confirmed to us that the substance contained within the bottle is Novichok.” SNIP ETC...

A man and woman found unconscious in Wiltshire were exposed to Novichok - the same nerve agent that poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal, police say. The couple, believed to be Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, fell ill at a house in Amesbury on Saturday and remain in a critical condition. Police say no one else has presented with the same symptoms. There was "nothing in their background" to suggest the pair were targeted, the Met Police said. Home Secretary Sajid Javid will chair a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee later to discuss the developments

AMESBURY — A recent quality inspection of the $300 million John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge replacement project turned up evidence of substandard work – for the second time – that could push back the project’s estimated late summer/early fall completion date. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation began work to demolish the 62-year-old Interstate 95 bridge over the Merrimack River and replace it with separate northbound and southbound bridges in 2013. While the northbound bridge was completed in 2015, quality inspectors for MassDOT recently found that concrete poured for a pier cap on the southbound bridge by an unnamed contractor did not...

Giant bull, wild boar and red deer bones left at a settlement a mile from Stonehenge prove that Amesbury is the oldest settlement in Britain and has been continually occupied since 8820 BC, according to archaeologists who say the giant monuments were built by indigenous hunters and homemakers rather than Neolithic new builders. Carbon dating of aurochs – a breed twice the size of bulls – predates the settlers responsible for the massive pine posts at Stonehenge, suggesting that people had first lived in Wiltshire around 3,000 years before the site was created in 3000 BC. Experts had previously thought...

Unearthed, the prince of Stonehenge By Roger Highfield (Filed: 21/08/2002) A prehistoric prince with gold ear-rings has been found near Stonehenge a few yards away from the richest early Bronze Age burial in Britain. Earlier this year, archaeologists found an aristocratic warrior, also with gold ear-rings, on Salisbury Plain and speculated that he may have been an ancient king of Stonehenge. The body was laid to rest 4,300 years ago during the construction of the monument, along with stone arrow heads and slate wristguards that protected the arm from the recoil of the bow. Archaeologists named him the Amesbury Archer....

Carbon dating from an archaeological dig by the university shows that the parish of Amesbury has been continually occupied for every millennia since 8,820BC. The origins of Amesbury have been discovered as a result of carbon dating bones of aurochs - twice the size of bulls, wild boar and red deer - following a dig at Vespasian's Camp, Blick Mead, a mile-and-a-half from Stonehenge. It dates the activities of the people who were responsible for building the first monuments at Stonehenge, made of massive pine posts, and show their communities continuing to work and live in the area for a...

AMESBURY, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) – An Amesbury man says someone sprayed offensive graffiti near his home on a beam that is part of a construction project, which was brought to a screeching halt due to the vandalism. Scott Taylor lives just feet from where a massive bridge project is happening on Interstate 95, and he says construction workers have been scattering debris all over his yard for almost a year. He woke up to the graffiti this week and that sent him over the edge. The message? “Welcome to Fallujah, baby.” "I think it's pathetic. I think it's cowardly. And I...

Excavation near Stonehenge found evidence of a settlement dating back to 7,500 BC, revealing the site was occupied some 5,000 years earlier than previously thought. Working at Vespasian’s Camp in Amesbury, Wiltshire, less than a mile from the megalithic stones, a team led by archaeologist David Jacques of the Open University unearthed material which contradicted the general belief that no people settled there until as late as 2,500 BC. Indeed, carbon dating of the material revealed the existence of a semi-permanent settlement which was occupied from 7,500 to 4,700 BC. The dating showed that people were present during every millennium...

Tests reveal Amesbury Archer ‘King of Stonehenge’ was a settler from the Alps The man who may have helped organise the building of Stonehenge was a settler from continental Europe, archaeologists say. The latest tests on the Amesbury Archer, whose grave astonished archaeologists last year with the richness of its contents, show he was originally from the Alps region, probably Switzerland, Austria or Germany. The tests also show that the gold hair tresses found in the grave are the earliest gold objects found in Britain. The grave of the Archer, who lived around 2,300BC, contained about 100 items, more than...