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Knap Hill lies on the northern rim of the Vale of Pewsey, in northern Wiltshire, England, about a mile (1.6 km) north of the village of Alton Priors. At the top of the hill is a causewayed enclosure, a form of Neolithic earthwork that appeared in England from about 3700 BC onwards. These earthworks are characterised by the enclosure of an area with ditches that are interrupted by gaps, or causeways. It is not known what they were used for; they may have been settlements, meeting places, or ritual sites of some kind. Knap Hill was the first causewayed enclosure to be excavated and identified. In 1908 and 1909 Benjamin and Maud Cunnington spent two summers investigating the site, and Maud Cunnington published two reports of their work, noting that there were several gaps in the ditch and bank surrounding the enclosure. The site has been scheduled as an ancient monument. About a thousand causewayed enclosures have now been found in Europe, including around seventy in Britain. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

Portrait of John Hunter Littler by Stephen Pearce

... that British general John Hunter Littler (depicted) had two horses shot from under him during the 29 December 1843 Battle of Maharajpore?
... that in the ballet West Side Story Suite, some of the dancers also sing?
... that Soedardjat Nataatmadja's instruction for parliamentary observers to wear traditional Sundanese clothing cost him his reelection?
... that the social study They Live on the Land was based on interviews with nearly the entire population of a rural Alabama town during the Great Depression?
... that Max Crabtree's "Big Daddy" was his brother Shirley?
... that the colonial bryozoan Beania magellanica, widely distributed in the Southern Hemisphere, has recently turned up in the Mediterranean Sea?
... that during the 1973 oil crisis, material scientist Henry Ehrenreich assessed photovoltaic cells and was an advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy?
... that a stereotypical True Pole is a Roman Catholic?

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On this day

December 29

Álvaro Arzú

1812 – War of 1812: In a three-hour single-ship action, HMS Java was captured by USS Constitution off the coast of Brazil.
1845 – The Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States, becoming the 28th state to be admitted to the Union.
1940 – Second World War: The Luftwaffe began a major night bombing raid on the British capital as part of the Blitz, beginning what was later called the "Second Great Fire of London".
1975 – A bomb planted by unknown perpetrators exploded at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing 11 people and seriously injuring 74 others.
1996 – Peace accords were signed under the leadership of President Álvaro Arzú (pictured) and guerilla leader Rolando Morán, ending the 36-year-long Guatemalan Civil War.

Maria Margaretha Kirch (d. 1720)
Diogo de Carvalho e Sampayo (d. 1807)
C. T. Hsia (d. 2013)

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Today's featured picture

The Wounded Knee Massacre was a massacre of Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army that took place near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, on December 29, 1890. In what was supposed to be a peaceful transport operation, troops of the 7th Cavalry engaged in battle with a contingent of Miniconjou and Hunkpapa Lakota, resulting in the deaths of more than 250 Lakota men, women and children, and 25 troopers. This photograph, taken three weeks after the massacre, shows Lakota corpses wrapped in blankets; the frozen bodies were subsequently collected and buried in a mass grave on a nearby hill.

Photograph credit: Trager & Kuhn; restored by Lise Broer

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