I’m looking forward to this one. It’s in the Cantiaci lands, and it looks like a challenge – two possible sites, both ambiguous. I just hope they don’t find definitive evidence in the last hour. That has happened so often, it’s downright suspicious_________________Sir Mark

Well I guess I’m very much in the minority over this one. I thought it interesting, if only to see the incredible state of preservation of the boat, but… They were partially uncovering a Roman boat, which was known about and already partially excavated in the past, only to take a chunk out of it and then cover it over again. The state of preservation of wood, artifacts and relics in the lowlands is quite something, on a par with Bog Bodies._________________

Where your dreams lead….follow.

Possibly nothing to do with this, but here goes! When the sand from certain foundries is delivered it is the same colour as normal sand, ie; Sandy! After it has been used for making moulds and had molten steel (or cast iron) tapped into it, the sand gets ‘burnt’ or turns black! I know for a fact that the black sand gets sold on, as it’s no use for a foundry anymore.

The last place I worked at, we had to go to great pains to keep the black sand apart from the new, sandy coloured sand!!

The issue of water supply was mentioned, and I thought at the time, it would have taken a lot of work to use water from the river, rather than from a spring. This point was brough home on a later programme on BBC2. Boris Johnson was at the Pont du Gard ,Roman Aqueduct in France. It was said that the prime purpose of this massive piece of engineering, was to supply water to the baths and fountains.

As well of course, to show the power of the Emperor.

The issue of water supply was mentioned, and I thought at the time, it would have taken a lot of work to use water from the river, rather than from a spring. This point was brough home on a later programme on BBC2. Boris Johnson was at the Pont du Gard ,Roman Aqueduct in France. It was said that the prime purpose of this massive piece of engineering, was to supply water to the baths and fountains.

As well of course, to show the power of the Emperor.

That is an interesting site, Jean. Listening to R5 at work yesterday morning, there was a 3hr programme all about the civil war in Former Yugoslavia. To ease the fragile ethnic tensions, which still exist, possible victims of genocide are called “the missing” (as I think victims of the Junta are in Argentina) The main priority, when a body(ies) is found, is to identify that person and let their family give them a proper burial._________________

There are any amount of theories as to the purpose of this, or any of the other Henges. Some sound plausible, some not. I’m reminded of the sketch in Dead Ringers, where they send up TT. Where Phil (I think) finds a piece of pottery, on the basis of this, they assume there was a large Roman town there, with temples mosaics etc (or words to that effect). At Durrington, how do they know that every hole was a post hole ? if they were post holes, how high were the posts, and how thick ? You cant tell the thickness of a post by the size of the hole. It’s possible the posts were only short, and forming supports for a fence . Perhaps it was an animal enclosure, and where animals were slaughtered for food, not to part of a ritual. Perhaps it was a defensive stockade to keep out marauding foreigners ?

The fact is, we’ll never know for sure.