A “spectacular” Neolithic tomb on the Channel Island of Guernsey has yielded 4,500-year-old pottery and flints and a greenstone ax head.

He said: “We’ve found some quite significant archaeology. We’ve started to find structures that come away from the main gallery grave and we also have artefacts.

“So far the results have been quite spectacular.”

The Delancey Park structure is Guernsey’s only gallery grave, while there are two to be found in Jersey and more along the Atlantic coast of northern Europe.

Gallery graves belong to the late Neolithic period and are therefore more recently built than the more prevalent ‘passage’ graves, such as Les Fouillages and Dehus in the Vale.

Dr Nash explained: “The earlier constructions feature passages leading to an inner space, often with partitioned areas that may denote ‘engendering’ – the separate burial of males and females.

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Roman coins, pottery and slag found in Cornwall are challenging the notion that the Romans did not settle the South West of England.

Mr Smith said: “For Roman Britain it’s an important and quite crucial discovery because it tells us a lot about Roman occupation in the South West that was hitherto completely unexpected.

“The other Roman sites we know about [in Cornwall] have occupation in the 1st Century AD, of about AD50 to AD80, and that fits in with what we know about Exeter.

“In finding the pottery and glass, it’s saying the occupation is much longer and goes from AD60 up to about AD250, which turns the whole thing on its head.

Mr Clemes discovered Roman pottery and glass at the site
“It certainly means a rewrite of history in the South West.”

The site had previously been regarded as an Iron Age settlement, but the recent discovery of pottery and glass was found to be of Roman origin.

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Some of the earliest pottery ever found in Britain has been unearthed in Norfolk.

The Neolithic flints and pottery shards dating back more than 5,000 years were found by the Oxford East Archaeology unit next to Ormesby Broad.

They include a loom weight for weaving cloth and a rare whetstone, used for sharpening tools, something normally only found in burial grounds.

The dig preceded the creation of 12 man-made silt lagoons for the broad.

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The clay torso of a woman, which dates back 13,000 years, has been found in Japan.

The tiny figure, 3.1 centimeters in height and 14.6 grams in weight, depicts a female torso with breasts and a waistline.

The figure, which was discovered at the Aidanikumahara archaeological site, is from an incipient era of the Jomon Pottery Culture, according to the association.

Another female clay figure from approximately the same era was found in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture, in 1996.

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Thousands of pieces of pottery made by slaves has been found at an industrial site on the South Carolina coast.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports that archeologists digging at the Berkeley County site found 58,000 pieces of colonoware, a handmade pottery crafted by slaves. Officials say it is one of the largest concentrations ever found in the country.

Other artifacts include bone buttons, silver coins, pipe stems and porcelain doll heads.

In all, 125,000 artifacts were found at the site that used to be part of Dean Hall Plantation. The plant site is located where there once were 19 slave cabins.

Other items found during the dig included stoneware bowls, glass bottles, pipe stems and gold coins.

Archaeologist Ralph Bailey said the finds show that families lived on the site for 150 years.

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