To the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London have constructed the portable basketball arena.
The 2012 Olympic Games which will take place in London, will be rather burdensome for the British budget. For example, for the Olympic Stadium are invested more 500,000,000 pounds. Besides it, in plans the tens of Olympic objects, sport arenas, and infrastructural complexes. Among the Great Olympic objects is possible to name the Center of Water-sports (by Zaha Hadid), and the 1st Cable Car in London.
But, if the rope-way is necessary to London and after Olympic Games, but the huge basketball stadium it's a absolute anchor for a city. So for economy of the Olympic budget the decision to build portable arena for this sport was accepted.
Portable Olympic Arena
The project of the Basketball Arena which can accept simultaneously twelve thousand spectators, will be developed by the architectural and engineering companies: Sinclair Knight Merz, Wilkinson Eyre and KSS. The main feature of this arena consists that arena will be created from easily erected elements that has allowed to erect all complex for 15 months.
Thus, after the termination of the Olympic and Paraolympic Games this basketball stadium will be quickly disassembled. But not for ever. Further, the basketball arena can be collected again in any place.
Interior of Basketball Arena
Such portable arena will allow to save ten millions pounds. And, if it will be possible to sell this stadium it's even better.
When amateur metal detector enthusiast Charles Wood picked up a faint signal in a muddy field, the 44-year -old had no idea he had just stumbled onto one of the most significant Saxon graves discovered in recent years.
Side view of the grave [Credit: Banbury Guardian]
Mr Wood and other members of the Muddy Boots Metal Detector Club had been permitted onto private land near the Rollright Stones, an ancient formation of Stone and Bronze Age megaliths near the village of Long Compton.
The land is farmed and each year hosts the Rollright Fayre. So at first Mr Wood thought he had discovered just another bottle cap or a broken farm implement.
Instead, close to the King’s Stone on March 28, the London-based IT professional found a well preserved skeleton, believed to be a Saxon woman dating back to about 600 AD.
“I wasn’t that enthusiastic about digging for the signal,” said Mr Wood. “The ground had been polluted by festivals and it was very deep.”
“But when we dug we exposed what appeared to be the rim of a metal bowl . We thought it was a tractor piston at first but we soon realised we had found something more.”
The group contacted finds liaison officer Anni Byard at Oxfordshire County Council and the next day experts from Oxfordshire, Surrey and Buckinghamshire made a site visit. Then began a painstaking three-day excavation.
They found a skeleton between 4’11 and 5 feet tall, buried in a north/south orientation. Affectionately known as ‘Rita of Rollright’ by some of the discoverers, the remains were buried with grave goods including silver, copper alloy pins, a metal chain, an amber bead and a rock crystal amulet attached to an iron chain. A small quantity of silver was also found.
This bronze Saxon Patera is would have been used for cooking or votive offerings. Only five have been found in Britain [Credit: Banbury Guardian]
A decorated antler disk was found under the woman’s back, which could have been a hair or dress accessory, as well as metal hinges and a lock plate which could have formed part of a wooden box. This may have contained the bronze ladle that sparked the find.
Mr Wood added:“It was a once in a lifetime find. I could detect for the next 14 years and not find anything like it.”
The skeleton and grave goods have been taken to the British Museum in London for analysis. An inquest into the discovery will be held by a coroner in Warwickshire to determine the value of the artefacts.
Anni Byard, West Berkshire & Oxfordshire finds liaison officer under the Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: “This is one of the most significant single Saxon graves discovered in several years. We are all very excited to see what the analysis shows us.”
Expert analysis will reveal much about ‘Rita’ but discoverer Charles Wood said the condition on the grave and the grave goods give valuable some clues.
He said: “The skeleton is well preserved (movingly so, the bones of her left hand reflected careful placement across her waist), and the Portable Antiquities Scheme team hope tests will reveal much about the woman and her life.
“We do already know she was a young adult of around 5 feet in height, and that she probably died in the middle years of the 7th Century.
We also know that she was loved and respected; the accompanying grave goods were prized. The well preserved long handled pan is a Saxon copy of a Roman patera.
“Also contained in the grave were a large amber bead, an amethyst set silver mount, and a large crystal ball or spindle whorl. All of these items denote respect and status, but their amulet-like nature also hints the lady may have been a healer or wise-woman.
“The position of the grave in close association with the King’s Stone is also suggestive of spiritual status. Whilst some of these elements are found in other Saxon burials their combination here is both rare and fascinating.”
Anni Byard, finds Oxfordshire and West Berkshire finds liaison officer under the Portable Antiquities Scheme, agreed. She said: “The location of the grave is of significance, and the items found with her were possibly religious in nature.
“She was definitely somebody of importance at that time, but this will take further investigation. We are currently trying to raise grants to examine the soil of the grave, this might be able to tell us something more.”
Ongoing research into the grave site is currently being undertaken by Anni Byard and Helena Hamerow, a professor at Oxford University’s School of Archeology with assistance from Historic England, the British Museum and members of the Rollright Trust.
Author: David Gazet | Source: Banbury Guardian [August 07, 2015]
An intricately carved gold ring containing a stone engraved with an image of Cupid — a god associated with erotic love — has been discovered near the village of Tangley in the United Kingdom.
In the engraving, Cupid (also known by his Greek name, “Eros”) is shown standing completely nude while holding a torch with one hand. The ring dates back around 1,700 years, to a time when the Roman Empire controlled England. The ring was discovered by an amateur metal detectorist. Researchers who studied it say that it may have been worn by a man or a woman and is engraved with spiral designs that contain bead-shaped spheres.
The image of Cupid is engraved on a stone made of nicolo, a type of onyx that is dark at the base and bluish at the top. The image on the stone “depicts a standing naked adolescent with crossed legs, leaning on a short spiral column; the short wings which sprout from his shoulders identify him as Cupid,” Sally Worrell, national finds adviser with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and John Pearce, senior lecturer in archaeology at King’s College London, wrote in an article published recently in the journal Britannia.
Cupid is shown resting one arm on a column while he holds a torch with the other, Worrell and Pearce wrote. Artistic depictions of Cupid were popular among the Greeks and Romans, and several other finger rings that have stones depicting Cupid are known to exist, the researchers noted. The design of this particular ring indicates that it was created around the fourth century A.D., they said.
A person using a metal detector discovered the ring in December 2013 and reported the finding to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, which was established in 1997 to encourage people to voluntarily report the discovery of artifacts.
In England and Wales, amateurs are allowed to use metal detectors to search for antiquities if they have permission from the landowner and if they avoid archaeological sites that have been granted protection by the government. Certain finds (such as those made of precious metal) must be reported to antiquities authorities.
Worrell said that Hampshire Museums Service has acquired the ring, which will be put on display at the Andover Museum in Andover, U.K.
A rare Viking hoard of arm rings, coins and silver ingots has been unearthed in Oxfordshire. The hoard was buried near Watlington around the end of the 870s, in the time of the "Last Kingdom".
The hoard includes rare coins, jewellery and silver ingots [Credit: Trustees of the British Museum]
This was when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex were fighting for their survival from the threat of the Vikings, which was to lead to the unification of England.
Archaeologists have called the hoard a "nationally significant find". The hoard was discovered by 60-year-old metal detectorist James Mather.
Metal detectorist James Mather helped to excavate his find on his 60th birthday [Credit: Portable Antiquities Scheme]
He said: "I hope these amazing artefacts can be displayed by a local museum to be enjoyed by generations to come."
The find in October was lifted in a block of soil and brought to the British Museum, where it was excavated and studied by experts from the British Museum in London and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
The Watlington hoard was received by the British Museum in a block of soil [Credit: Trustees of the British Museum]
The hoard consists of 186 coins - some fragmentary - and includes rarities from the reign of King Alfred "the Great" of Wessex, who reigned from 871 to 899, and King Ceolwulf II, who reigned in Mercia from 874 to 79.
During this period, King Alfred achieved a decisive victory over the Vikings at the famous Battle of Edington in 878, prompting them to move north of the Thames and travel to East Anglia through the kingdom of Mercia.
Conservation work included dislodging bangles from flint in the earth [Credit: Trustees of the British Museum]
Gareth Williams, curator of early medieval coinage at the British Museum, said it was a key moment in English history as Alfred forged a new kingdom of England by taking control of Mercia.
He said: "This hoard has the potential to provide important new information on relations between Mercia and Wessex at the beginning of that process."
Seven items of jewellery and 15 ingots were also found.
Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, said "Fascinating finds like this Viking hoard are a great example of the one million discoveries that have been unearthed by the public since 1997."
Under the Treasure Act 1996, there is a legal obligation for finders to report such treasures.
A very small treasure hoard – a handful of tiny fragments of beautifully worked Tudor gold – has been harvested from a muddy stretch of the Thames foreshore over a period of years by eight different metal detectorists.
The hoard includes five aglets and two beads, and fragments of more [Credit: David Parry/PA]
The pieces all date from the early 16th century, and the style of the tiny pieces of gold is so similar that Kate Sumnall, an archaeologist, believes they all came from the disastrous loss of one fabulous garment, possibly a hat snatched off a passenger’s head by a gust of wind at a time when the main river crossings were the myriad ferry boats.
Such metal objects, including aglets – metal tips for laces – beads and studs, originally had a practical purpose as garment fasteners but by the early 16th century were being worn in gold as high-status ornaments, making costly fabrics such as velvet and furs even more ostentatious. Contemporary portraits, including one in the National Portrait Gallery of the Dacres, Mary Neville and Gregory Fiennes, show their sleeves festooned with pairs of such ornaments.
Some of the Thames pieces are inlaid with enamel or little pieces of coloured glass. Despite the fact there is not enough gold in them to fill an egg cup, the pieces are legally treasure that must be declared to finds officers such as Sumnall, who is based at the Museum of London. She also records less valuable finds voluntarily reported under the portable antiquities scheme, and so has a good working relationship with the licensed mudlarks who scour the Thames shore between tides.
Sumnall said they were an important find as a huge amount of skill had been invested in the intricate pieces. “These artefacts have been reported to me one at a time over the last couple of years. Individually they are all wonderful finds but as a group they are even more important. To find them from just one area suggests a lost ornate hat or other item of clothing. The fabric has not survived and all that remains are these gold decorative elements that hint at the fashion of the time.”
Once the pieces have been through a treasure inquest and valued, the museum hopes to acquire them all, still glittering after their centuries in the mud.
Author: Maev Kennedy | Source: The Guardian [December 24, 2015]
