A rare Roman lantern made of bronze has been unearthed by a metal-detectorist in a field in England.

Danny Mills, 21, made the find in a field near Sudbury in Suffolk.

The area was dotted with plush Roman villas and country estates in the second century.

The object, described as a rare example of Roman craftsmanship, has been donated to Ipswich Museum where it is now on display.

In the autumn of 2009, Mr Mills, a metal detector user, found a large bronze object whilst metal detecting in a field near Sudbury.

He immediately reported the discovery to Suffolk Archaeological Unit.

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Dry weather in the UK has revealed “cropmarks” indicating the presence of hundreds of previously unknown archaeological sites.

The surveys show marks made when crops growing over buried features develop at a different rate from those nearby.

The newly-discovered Roman and prehistoric settlements include a site near Bradford Abbas, Dorset.

The Roman camp was revealed in June after three sides became visible in sun-parched fields of barley.

The lightly-built defensive enclosure would have provided basic protection for Roman soldiers while on manoeuvres in the first century AD and is one of only four discovered in the south west of England, English Heritage said.

The dry conditions also allowed well-known sites to be photographed in greater detail.

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Flint tools dating back to the Ice Age have been found during road repairs in Nottinghamshite, England.

The Highways Agency said the finds included ancient flint tools and flint knapping debris dating back to about 11,000 BC – around the end of the last Ice Age when Stone Age hunter-gathers returned as the climate began to warm up.

A46 Highways Agency project manager Geoff Bethel said: ”As the A46 follows the route of the old Roman road, we expected to uncover a number of artefacts from Roman Britain and we were not disappointed.

”But to uncover such rare flint tools dating back to the end of the Ice Age was very exciting.”
Evidence of such early people had been found in caves, but the pieces of flint found at Farndon appeared to show these people were making things out in the open, possibly in a temporary campsite, the Highways Agency said.

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Evidence found at Marden Henge hints it may have been the builder’s yard for Stonehenge.

If it wasn’t a village, or a temple, or a farm, or a cemetery, what was Marden for? Leary suspects the answer may be emerging in stone working tools, and flakes of sarsen, turning up all over the site. If you were going to drag sarsens the size of double decker buses from their original site to Stonehenge, he said, the obvious route is straight through a natural gap in the hilly landscape, which would take them through Marden.

The evidence that Marden was a sort of builder’s yard for the most famous prehistoric monument in the world may have been in the mud under the boots of Leary’s puzzled predecessors.

So why did the site’s temporary occupants leave? Maybe with Stonehenge complete, the sarsens shaped into the giant trilithons that still fill the hordes of modern visitors with awe, their job was done. They tidied up nicely, turned out the lights, and left.

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Evidence of 166 Anglo-Saxon homes razed by William the Conqueror in order to build Lincoln Castle has been found on the castle grounds.

The Domesday Book, a survey of his new kingdom, records how many houses were knocked down to make room but this is the first time their physical remains have been studied.

Cecily Spall, from Field Archaeology Specialists (FAS), said the discoveries, made in the north lawn area, give a glimpse of a revolution in the country.

“The Saxons would not have been able to do anything about this. The Norman Conquest remodelled Anglo Saxon England.

“New landlords were appointed and they laid waste to houses and they reassigned the ownership of property and land rights.”

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