Articles

Here is our archive of articles and reports. Click ‘View Here’ to read the article. Click the ‘back’ arrow to return.

Jackdaw Crag Fieldwalking & South Pit-Alignment Pottery: report by Blaise Vyner, introduced by Malcolm Barnes, 2013 This field by the riverside path and cliffs is very important to the prehistory of Boston Spa. It is also the last remnant of Ox Close, the ancient field on which Boston Spa was developed in the eighteenth century. The report presents the results of fieldwalking surveys there by the group and contains an expert study of the early pottery we found. It also shows how aerial photographs and geophysical survey place the field in the Iron Age and Romano-British landscape it was once a part of.View Here 

Field Guide to Rocks of Boston Spa & Thorp Arch by Doug Holliday, Alison Tymon and Michael Mawson, 2013  This field guide was prepared  to accompany a guided walk in June 2013, looking at the 250 million year old Upper Permian limestone formations in the local river gorge. Exploration and recording work had previously been carried out by members of the Boston Spa & District Geological Researchers (BADGERS) and the West Yorkshire Geology Trust. This illustrated field guide also serves as a record for the local community of some aspects of the fascinating geological heritage to be found in the area. View Here               

Carved Stones from Boston Spa: report by Paul Bowers, CBA Forum, 2008     A study of the carved stones found in our excavations of the pit alignment at the Leys Lane site by an expert on prehistoric rock carvings, in which he dates the inscriptions by comparing them with similar designs from other ancient sites around Europe.  View Here

Petrology of Stones from Excavations of the Pit Alignments and ‘Sheepwash’: report by Vin Davis, Implement Petrology Group, 2008    A technical geological report which details the identification from thin sections taken from a range of stone artefacts excavated from the Leys Lane site.  View Here

A Prehistoric Portal to the Underworld?: article by Malcolm Barnes, introduced by Neil Falkner, Current Archaeology, 2007    Edited by Neil Falkner for Current Archaeology magazine, this takes an enthusiastic and imaginative view of the unusual discoveries we made during excavations of the Leys Lane pit-alignments. (This pdf version of the article is in the form of pages scanned from the magazine.)  View Here

Experiment in Heat Treatment of Flint: article by Malcolm Barnes: British Archaeology, 2007     A version of this article appeared in British Archaeology in 2007. It explains how and why we heated flint beneath a fire before attempting to knap flint tools at one of our annual experimental archaeology events.  View Here

Carbon-14 Dating Results Chart: Beta Analytic, 2007    All the dating results for samples of bone and wood from excavations at the Leys Lane site.  View Here

Residual Stones from the ‘Sheepwash’: report by Andrew Ogilvy, York Museum, 2007   A report on two unusual stone ‘artefacts’ found at the ‘sheepwash’ excavation in Wray Wood.  View Here

Luminescence Dating of Burnt Flint at Boston Spa: article by Malcolm Barnes: YAS Prehistory Research Section Bulletin, 2006    Important and surprising results were obtained by some hi-tech dating of burnt flint from the Leys Lane flint site, suggesting all is not necessarily what it appears with prehistoric burnt flint.  View Here

A New Take on Drawing Flints: article by Anne Wright: BSAHG Newsletter, 2006    When Anne took on the task of drawing the flint tools we had discovered, she studied how other people had gone about it and came up with her own method. This article describes the process.  View Here

Assessment of Biological Remains from the ‘Sheepwash’: report  by John Carrott: Palaeoecology Research Services Report, 2005    An important analysis of biological remains from the waterlogged ‘sheepwash’ is detailed in this report by John Carrot and his team.  View Here

Archaeobotany, or plants in the 4th dimension: article by Barry Wright: BSAHG Newsletter, 2005    In this article our archaeobotanist, Barry, explains how his pioneering methods can help archaeology and ecology work together to reveal the mysteries of hedges, woodland and ground flora and what story they can tell us of the past.  View Here

Summary of Recent Work: abstract of talk by Malcolm Barnes: WYAAS Day School, 2005    A brief summary of a talk given at a community archaeology conference about our work.  View Here

Geology of the Wray Wood ‘Sheepwash’: report by Prof NT Clifford, 2003    A report on the underlying geology of the ‘sheepwash’, which made the feature possible, by the late Neville Clifford, professor of geology at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, who was the valued and respected brother of one of our members.  View Here

Sweep Farm Fieldwalking: report by Malcolm Barnes, 1999-2003    This report contains the results of some of the fieldwalking surveys I did at Sweep Farm, Wetherby, during the two years prior to the formation of our group and many years before the A1 widening scheme and Wattle Syke archaeological excavations were carried out there.  View Here

Prehistoric Activity at Boston Spa: article by Malcolm Barnes: WYAAS Archaeology & Archives, 2002    A short article written for West Yorkshire Archaeology Service summarising our early discoveries of the Leys Lane flint site.  View Here