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T.R. Hummer
London's earliest timber structure found during Belmarsh prison digLondon's oldest timber structure has been unearthed by archaeologists from Archaeology South-East (part of the Institute of Archaeology at UCL). It was found during the excavation of a prehistoric peat bog adjacent to Belmarsh Prison in Plumstead, Greenwich, in advance of the construction of a new prison building. Radiocarbon dating has shown the structure to be nearly 6,000 years old and it predates Stonehenge by more than 500 years. Jacobs Engineering UK Ltd acted as the managing consultants, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, and the work was facilitated by Interserve Project Services Ltd.
The structure consisted of a timber platform or trackway found at a depth of 4.7m (about the height of a double decker bus) beneath two metres of peat adjacent to an ancient river channel (image available). Previously, the oldest timber structure in Greater London was the timber trackway in Silvertown, which has been dated to 3340-2910 BC, c. 700 years younger.
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UK scientists developing intelligent harvesting robot to save farms up to £100,000 a yearResearchers at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington have developed imaging technology to be used in an intelligent harvesting machine that could minimise wastage and solve an impending labour shortage for UK farmers.
Annual waste for certain crops can be up to 60% - which can mean up to £100,000 of lost revenue for an average farm every year, according to farmers who were consulted during research. Falling number of migrant labourers means that healthy crops cannot be gathered and so farms are losing crops due to harvesting at the wrong time.
NPL 's scientists are working with KMS projects and Vegetable Harvesting Systems (VHS) to turn the technology into an intelligent harvesting machine, which can look beneath the leafy layers of a crop, identify the differing materials, and enable precise size identification. This can be used to develop a fully automated harvesting robot, which would be able to fill the gap left by the labour shortage.
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BBC NEWS | UK | England | Devon | Cannibalism theory over bone-findA human bone found in Devon with tool-cut marks thought to have been made during a ritual ceremony 9,000 years ago may be evidence of cannibalism.
The arm bone was identified by Torquay Museum staff documenting animal remains discovered in Kents Cavern in Torquay.
Some archaeologists have suggested the marks, thought to have been made by a stone tool, are a sign of cannibalism, the museum said.
The caves are the oldest Scheduled Ancient Monument in Britain.
Evidence of human occupation dates back 500,000 years.
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