News

Several interesting things are occurring at the moment involving the Ice Ages, our two Roman Road projects, and mapping apparent outer defences to the Iron Age hill fort on Old Winchester Hill.

Ice Ages

While we were working with the Dorset Group on the Roman Road to Exeter in Dorset we probably stumbled on the causes of the Ice Ages. The results are published in this issue. Both groups had interests in climate change (generally sceptical) and the ice ages - with theories of why they appear to have been going on like clockwork for several millions of years. One can understand why the ice flows outwards from the poles due to snow at the poles - which will then have positive feedback, as the ice sheet will reflect more sunlight so the Earth cools. Eventually the ice caps should reach an equilibrium where melting in warm latitude equals the rate of advance. One can imagine a climate fluctuation reversing this process by causing the Polar Caps to retreat slightly - with the same feedback causing more retreat, and so on. What is not understood is why they only take 10k years to retreat, but 90k years to advance. In this short time the Polar Caps nearly halve their area. The key we reckon is that where there is around 3km of ice it acts as a blanket, causing the ice at the rock surface to melt due to the Earth's hot interior. Under ice lakes are known, and calculations indicate that the baulk of the water released during the 10k years is already melted under the Polar Caps during the previous 90k years. When the equilibrium is approached, the rate of advance slows, allowing the melt front to catch up. A climate fluctuation here will cause the under ice lakes to leak out rapidly, triggering the retreat.

We intend to publicise this finding. There are groups who consider the start of the next Ice Age should be coming, and report many cases of glaciers advancing (while the press tends only to report those retreating). The Climate Change people seem to ignore the fact that the next Ice Age could burry Britain under miles of ice down to London. We are asking people to make comments, which will be added to the on-line version of the report, and so start a discussion.

Hill Fort outer defences

It was easy to establish that the outer defences of the Iron Age Hill Fort on Old Winchester Hill extended near a mile west of the traditional ramparts - because they came off the Roman Road where we first recognised them. Here they are defending a hilltop which is easy to defend and connects with the Hill Fort. The outer-most defence is shown as the blue dotted line on the 1" : 1 mile Chichester Roman Road Map towards its SE corner. The southern defence is the northern lane of Roman Road (blue line). Providing a defendable enclosure for their live-stock was probably the aim. There are at least three fighting terraces forming these outer defences - if an outer one was breached they could fall back on an inner one higher up. Though over quite long stretches two of them can run together as in the case of this westerly hill.

It was also easy to establish that they ran for half a mile SE from the traditional ramparts - again because of the Roman Road. The road from West Meon to Teglease Down was likely to constitute the eastern outer defence - as can be seen it is running on the top of the downs with a steep drop to its east. These outer defences were quite close to the traditional ramparts to their immediate north and south.

The problem was how far did they extend over the downs towards West Meon. Two fighting terraces run together on lower ground to the north of the ramparts, and turn into the northerly steep valley running SE. Only one fighting terrace comes out of this valley running NW - so it is likely that such an enclosure was made over these downs. But there are many escarpments it could run along towards Warnford and West Meon, some in built up areas - and it is not obvious how it could get back to that West Meon - Teglese road (Old Winchester Hill Lane) which is likely to remain the eastern outer defence.

The break through came in the last field day of 2014, when it was realised that the lane into Warnford (Hayden Lane) runs below a natural escarpment, the top of which has been fashioned into a fighting terrace. A bank and ditch with its top flattened for a fighting terrace runs up the hill to this spot carrying on the line previously mentioned. Natural escarpments are used often in these outer defences - with a palisade on top they are virtually impregnable - here a detour has been made to use it. Then it runs down hill till the escarpment ends (where the lane is using it too). Then a large flattened bank and ditch runs up the hill to the summit of the downs (where modern masts stand).

Three parallel features in Chawton Park Wood

Where these three features on the Winchester London Roman Road go eastwards is reported in this issue, with some attempt to interpret what they are. Excavation will continue on the southern feature, a crushed flint metalled road with packed flint revetments, over August Bank Holiday. In September we will be able to excavate in the fields of Roe Downs Farm, which may be necessary for the southern roadway. We will also look at disturbances in these fields which may have been dykes blocking these three features in post Roman times, and the Dark Circles started last year. There are over a dozen of these circles visible on air photos, and on newly cultivated ground, which were thought to be Roman dew ponds or earlier hut circles - but last year's work suggest they are not either - details & Booking Form.

Chilcomb excavation

The first excavation on the Chichester Roman Road at the Chilcomb Zig Zag has found a colony of Roman snails below the concrete. There are a large number of these snails found on the curious ledge found within the Cut-back - these may be deliberate cultivation. But to get down deep some way must have existed for the snails to get there - possibly by a Roman culvert. A greater area will be opened during Easter and May digs - details & Booking Form.

At the other end of our surveying under Old Winchester Hill we have mapped two lanes, but have found 3 lanes entering Coombe Wood further east. In trying to find where the third lane started, we found the 40' lane taking a completely different route from Exton. It follows Stocks Lane, which appears to shown on air photos as three dark lines - until it is realised that the scale of the photo means the lines are 180' apart - and the Stocks Lane is only 1 of these lines. In places the outer dark lines show up optically as ditches - and can be darker on the air photo than Stacks Lane. This is a remarkable find, and the course so far established is shown as the southerly blue line in the map below.

To print Full Size Landscape Copy of updated 1" Map

Click here for full size Map then check your margins 9mm and set to Landscape [File - Print Set-up - Landscape, Margins 9mm. File - Print..]. After printing reset to default margins and Portrait. Thick blue line indicate 2 or 3 lanes.