Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed two obsidian blades used as bronze age surgical tools and skulls showing evidence of scarring.

What makes you think they were used for surgery?

We have found traces of cuts on skulls in a nearby graveyard. Out of around 700 skulls, 14 have these marks. They could only have been cut with a very sharp tool. At this time, 4000 years ago or more, it could only have been an obsidian blade. The cut marks show that a blade was used to make a rectangular opening all the way through the skull. We know that patients lived at least two to three years after the surgery, because the skull has tried to close the wound.

Have you uncovered any clues to why this surgery was performed?

There seem to be three main reasons. The first is to relieve the pressure of a brain haemorrhage; we found traces of blood on the inside of some of the skulls. The second is to treat patients with brain cancer, as we can see pressure traces from the cancer inside some of the skulls. And the final reason was to treat head injuries, which seem to have been quite common. The people of Ikiztepe got their copper from mines in the local mountains, and we think they had to fight other local people for access to it.

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A drought in Oxfordshire has revealed several Bronze Age graves.

Hot air balloon pilot Michael Wolf, of Reading Road, Wallingford, was training another pilot near North Stoke when they spotted several dark circles in a farmer’s field.

Crops had grown at different speeds because of ancient ditches hidden beneath the soil which once surrounded prehistoric burial mounds.

The site dates back 3,500 years but is hidden under fields and normally cannot be seen.

The 52-year-old said: “In twelve years of ballooning, I have never seen anything as clear as this. It was like looking down on a map.

“I have flown over this field before, and never seen any marks. The hot weather must have created absolutely perfect conditions for seeing the marks.”

He added: “There were seven or eight big circles. It was absolutely fantastic.”

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Archaeologists are attempting to excavate a burial mound without removing the 9th century Pillar of Eliseg that sits on top of it.

Archaeologists are to start excavations on a suspected ancient burial site to try to understand the significance of a Llangollen landmark.

But the team will have to work carefully because the 9th Century Pillar of Eliseg, a CADW-protected ancient monument, stands directly on top of the barrow – burial mound – and the archaeologists can’t disturb it.

Medieval archaeology Professor, Nancy Edwards, from Bangor University says it is the first time the site has been dug since 1773 when, it is believed, a skeleton was unearthed.

“We are trying to date the barrow in its broader archaeological context,” she said, as the site could date back to the Bronze Age.

The history behind the monument and why it was erected on the mound in the late 1700s by Trevor Lloyd of Trevor Hall, who then owned the land, is not yet understood.

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A range of glass vessels dating back to the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th century and a unique vessel from the Bronze Age have been found in Macedonia.

In addition to the find from the Bronze Age, the most significant of the latest finds at the Strumica Fortress are the rare examples of small glass amphorae, the archaeologists told the Vecher newspaper.

According to them, these latest finds only confirm what previous discoveries have suggested – that Strumica was a significant centre during its entire existence, through which passed cultural influences from the North to the South and from the East to the West.

Regarding the glass amphorae, there are several such vessels in the Tsarevi Kuli site, but in Macedonia as a whole, such vessels were found only in the Zelino area around Skopje, archaeologist Zoran Ruyak, head of the Tsarevi Kuli excavations told the publication. They were written about in the 1970s, and since then – according to the archaeologists, no such findings have been made.

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A Bronze Age ditch has been found in Hereford which may have been used to mark the city’s old boundary.

It is 5m (16ft) deep in places and was found using aerial, laser scanning equipment to map the land’s contours.

The ditch has been filled in with earth over the years and now resembles only a slight depression at ground level.

It runs from Aubrey Street to the River Wye via King Street and may have marked the limit of the king’s jurisdiction.

Site archaeologists said Norman settlements inside the ditch probably fell under the king’s jurisdiction and tax district, while land outside of the ditch beside Hereford Cathedral belonged to the bishop.

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