Boltby is a very important ancient site IMO. A gold “hair braid”, was found there, linking it to the Amesbury Archer, buried with two similar hair braids. This also provides a link to the founding of Stonehenge, which helps set a potential scene for a possible “zeitgeist”, of the day.
Category: Britain
Nov 23
The Story of Boltby Scar
- Filed under Brigantes, Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Bronze Age, Celtic Tribes, Defensive Dike, Defensive Walls, Dike, Europe, Fort, Hair Braid - Ring, Hill Fort, Iron Age, Landscape Archaeology, Linear Earthworks, Mining Landscape, Promontory fort, Stories of Brigantia
Swaledale
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Cairn, Europe, Flint Scatters, Geology, Geomorphology, Hill Fort, Iron-Age, Megalithic, New Sites, Promontory fort, Ring Cairn, Rock Art, Univallet Hillfort
Swaledale occupies the long, sinuous valley carved by the River Swale on its 45-kilometre descent from Nine Standards Rigg (662 m) on the Pennine watershed to Richmond in lower Teesdale. The dale narrows between rough gritstone scarps near Keld, broadens to a patchwork of hay-meadows around Muker and Gunnerside, then opens into a tree-fringed flood-plain west of Reeth before the river cuts through the Carboniferous escarpment to meet the Vale of Mowbray.
- Arkengarthdale, Bainbridge, Barns, Benedictine, Blakethwaite Smelt Mine, Brigante, Brigantes, Brigantia, Bunton, Buttertubs, cairn, Cateractonium, Catterick, Cistercian, Corpse-way, Crackpot, Craclpot, Cup-mark, Deer Park Wood, Downholme, Dyke, Dykes, East Gill Force, Ellerton Abbey, Enclosure Acts, field-barns, Fort, Fountains Abbey, Franciscan, Fremington Edge, Fremmington, Friary, Gangs Flats, Gill, Great Pinseat, Great Scar, Great Scar Limestone, Great Shunner, Greyfriars, Grinton, Grinton Moor, Gunnerside, Gunnerside Gill, Harkerside Moor, Hay-meadow, hay-meadows, Healaugh, Herkersdie Moor, Hill Fort, Hind Rake, How Hill, Humber-Flanders export route, Hunter Gatherer, Hush, Hushes, Iron Age, Ivelet Bridge, Keld, Keldside, Kisdon Force, Kisdon Hill, Lead Mining, Lead-veins, Lower Teasdale, Lower Teesdale, Maiden Castle, market, Marrick Priory, Marske, Marske Deer Park, Marske Hall, Meadow, Mine, Mining, monk, Monks, Muker, Norse, North Yorkshire, nun, Nuns, Old Gang, Packhorse Bridge, Parliamentary Walls, Penine Watershed, Pennine watershed, Reeth, Richmond, Rievaulx Abbey, Ring Cairn, River Swale, Rock, rock-art, Roman, Sheep, Shunner Fell, Skeb Skeugh, Smelt, smelting, St Martin's Priory, Stainmore, Standards Rigg, stone, Swale, Swaledale, Tan Hill, Tan Hill Pub, terraces, Thwaite, Trajanic Lead Pig, vale of Mowbray, Walburn, White Rigg, Wool, Yorkshire Dales
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Aug 04
Guide: Parliamentary-walls and the Northern Enclosures
- Filed under Britain, Enclosure Acts, Europe, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape Legislation
Between the mid-18th and late-19th centuries the British Parliament passed almost 5,000 local “Inclosure Acts.” Each Act authorised a team of appointed commissioners to survey one specific township or parish, divide its open-field strips, common pastures, and “wastes” into new, privately owned parcels, and lay out straight roads and boundary walls or hedges. The commissioners issued a legal award map and schedule that became the new title deeds.
County Durham
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Europe
County Durham’s landscape is often described as a “three-belt county.” To the west rise the high, windswept Pennines; in the middle lies a sheltered coal-bearing vale that funnels every main road and railway; and to the east stands the pale Magnesian-Limestone escarpment ending in low cliffs above the North Sea.
Aug 02
The hero archetype and Lugh
- Filed under Breogans, Britain, Bronze Age, Castro Hillfort, Celtic Gods, Celtic Life, Celtic Tribes, Dark Ages, Dragons, Early Christian, Early Medieval, France, Giants, Ireland, Iron Age, Lugh, Medieval, Mercury, Mesolithic, Myth and Legend, Neolithic, Palaeolithic, Portugal, Roman, Roman Culture, Roman Gods, Spain, The Devil, Viking, Wales
At its core the “hero” is the figure who steps out of ordinary society, confronts chaos or a monster, and returns (or dies) having secured order for the group. In Jungian and comparative-myth terms it sits in the “warrior-champion” slot of the collective story-board; evolutionists would say it crystallises the survival value of decisive coalition leadership in small bands.
- !Kung, Ache, Achiles, Arjuna, Arthur, Balor's Eye, Bee, Bees, Bhagavad Gita, britain, Buffalo, Castro, Catalhoyuk, Cattle, Cúchulainn, Deity, Divinity, Egypt, Embodiment, France, Galicia, gaul, Geryon, Gilgamesh, Giraffe, Gobeki Tepe, god, Greogans, Haasi, Hadza, Hector, Heel, Heracles, Hercules, Hero, Hero Archetype, Hoan, Hunter Gatherer, Hydra, Integration, Inuit, ireland, Iron Age, Ivory, Kalahari Desert, Kudu, la tene, Lagash, Legend, Lion-Man, Lugh, mammoth, Mercury, MeriamTurtle, Mesopotamia, Monotheistic, myth, Narmer, Naro, Nuliajuk, pagan, Paraguay, Pharoh, Poigs, Proto-Hero, Raven, religion, Roman, Salish, Salmon, San Culture, Seal, Sedna, Serpent, Snake, Sockeye, Sorcerer, Spain, spear, St Michael, Sumer, Synchronicity, T-Pillars, Ulster, Zebra
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Cana Barn Henge
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Class IIa, Europe, Henge, Liminal Spaces, Neolithic, New Sites
The stats for this Neolithic monument are astounding: 200m across, once a great circle of earthen banks and deep ditches. Today, almost lost: 5,000 years of plough and neglect have flattened the banks and filled the ditches, and Cana Henge is now nothing but a smoothly undulating grassy field on the moor overlooking Ripon.
Millbarrow long barrow (Winterbourne Monkton)
- Filed under Animal Remains, Antler Pick, Barrow, Britain, Early Neolithic, Europe, Flint Scatters, Grooved ware, Human Remains, Landscape feature, Long Barrow, Mortlake ware, Neolithic, Peterborough ware
Millbarrow once stood on a low chalk spur 2 km north‑west of Avebury, just above the spring‑line where the Kennet valley opens onto the Marlborough Downs (NGR SU 0943 7221). From its east–west‑aligned crest the ground falls gently south to Windmill Hill and east into the Kennet valley, giving the mound clear sight of the Avebury monument complex, and easy access to water and pasture.
Horslip (Windmill Hill) Long Barrow, Avebury
- Filed under Barrow, Britain, Early Neolithic, Europe, Flint Scatters, Long Barrow, Neolithic
Sitting on the south‑east shoulder of Windmill Hill (grid ref. SU 086 070), 140 ft (43 m) above the Kennet valley, the Horslip long barrow commands the same chalk ridge that carries the famous Early‑Neolithic causewayed enclosure 400 m upslope.
Roman Road to the West uncovered under Manchester Street
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Europe, News, Pottery, Roman, Roman army, Roman Culture, Roman pottery, Roman Roads, Samian ware, Samian ware
A stretch of Roman road just 38-40 cm (15 in) below Liverpool Road in Castlefield. The trench shows the classic Roman construction sequence – a cambered rubble core surfaced with tightly packed cobbles – and runs on a north-east/south-west alignment that leaves Mamucium’s north gate and heads towards modern Salford.
- Agger, Bremetennacum, butchered animal bone, Chester, coarse utilitarian jars, Coccium, Condate, decorated glass, Deva, Deva Victrix, Eboracum, England, Lancashire, Liverpool Road, Liverpool Street, Mamucium, Manchester, Metalled Road, Northwich, Ribchester, Roman Britain, Roman Road, Samian ware, Street, Wigan, York
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Doncaster Roman Fort (Danum)
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Defensive Structures, Europe, Fort, New Sites, Roman, Roman army
← South Yorkshire Roman Rig Defensive Works The Roman Rig is a defensive dyke built to defend against attack from the south. It runs from Sheffield, past Read more Templeborough Roman Fort – Rotherham Templeborough Roman Fort occupies a commanding position on the north bank of the River Don at Rotherham (OS grid SK Read …
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Announcing: The Brigantian News!
- Roman Road to the West uncovered under Manchester Street 16 July 2025
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Portable Antiquities News
A Late Medieval cast copper-alloy casket key dating to c.1200-1500.Sub-circular bow with a circular 7.4mm aperture, integral with an oval cross-section stem. The stem is solid apart from the tip that is hollow to a depth [...]
A Roman silver siliqua of Constantius II dating to AD 355-364 (Reece period 18). VOTIS XXX MVLTIS XXXX reverse type depicting the legend within a wreath, Mint of Arelatum. As Hoxne 84; RIC VIII 261/91. [...]
A silver threepence of Elizabeth I (1558 to 1603), second coinage and dated to 157(8?), with plain cross initial mark. London Tower mint. As North vol2, (1991) No. 1998. [...]
A silver post Medieval halfpenny of Elizabeth I dating to 1582-1603. No initial mark. London Tower mint. As North 2018. [...]
A silver medieval halfgroat of Henry VII (1485-1509), martlet initial mark dating to 1501-1509. Archiepiscopal mint of Archbishop Savage at York. As North 1714. [...]
A Iron Age silver "concave square" minim of the Regini and Atrebates / Southern region, possibly attributable to Tincomarus and dating to 50-20 BC. Obverse: square with concave sides, central pellet in ring. Reverse: annulet horse [...]
A probably Late Medieval to Post Medieval copper-alloy dagger or sword scabbard chape probably dating to c.1400-1650. Fabricated from copper-alloy 0.6mm sheet, rolled into a cone shape with an untidy/irregular seam at the rear, and an [...]
A post Medieval cast copper alloy discoidal 1/4oz trade weight. The weight has a upstanding rim enclosing a recessed upper surface bearing stamps of a crowned W for William III (1694-1702). [...]
A post-Medieval silver threepence of Elizabeth I (1558-1603). Second issue (1561-1582), probably portcullis initial mark and dated 1566 on the coin. London Tower mint. As North (1991) no. 1998. [...]
A complete silver Scottish twelve shillings coin of James VI of Scotland and I of England, eighth coinage post-dating accession to English throne, dating to 1603-1625, Lys initial mark. Reverse has a shield with arms of [...]
A silver Post-Medieval sixpence of Elizabeth I, dated 1569 with coronet initial mark. Mint of London. As North 1997. [...]
A silver Post-Medieval shilling of Elizabeth I, third issue with ‘A’ initial mark dating to 1583-1585. Mint of London. As North Vol 2, p.136, no.2014. [...]
A lead alloy pipe tamper dating to the 17th century. The plate has moulded decoration to both sides depicting Charles I (facing right) and Henrietta Maria of France (facing left). Both images are contained in [...]
A damaged lead-alloy Medieval pilgrim's ampulla, 50mm in length and 35mm wide, with a round bodied flask with a flaring open top which is partially complete. One side of the flask body has traces of moulded [...]
An incomplete Medieval cast copper alloy buckle plate, dating to c. AD 1100-1400. The plate is missing its buckle and part of its sprues. The buckle plate is sub-rectangular in plan. Projecting from one long edge [...]
A Roman copper-alloy nummus of the House of Valentinian , dating to AD 364-7 (Reece Period 19), GLORIA RO-MANORVM reverse type depicting the emperor with right hand dragging captive right and holding a labarum in left hand. Mint of [...]
A Post-Medieval copper alloy farthing of Charles I (AD 1625-1649), dating to AD 1636-1644. Rose type 2, with sceptres in saltire through single crown. Mint of London. Unclear initial mark. North (1991: 165) no. 2291. [...]
A clipped and heavily worn Roman copper alloy nummus of Gratian (AD 367-383) dating to the period AD 367-378 (Reece period 19). SECURITAS REI PUBLICAE reverse type depicting Victory advancing left, holding a wreath and palm. Unknown mint. [...]
A silver Roman siliqua of Honorius (AD 393-423) dating to the period AD 397-402 (Reece Period 21) minted in Milan VIRTVS ROMANORVM reverse type depicting Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and spear. Hoxne, p. 145, no. [...]
Fragment from a rectangular or trapezoidal buckle frame dating to the Post Medieval period (c.AD 1350-1700). The fragment consists of a corner and a short section of one side of the frame and a short section of [...]
Recent Articles and Site Pages
- The Story of Boltby Scar
- Swaledale
- Guide: Parliamentary-walls and the Northern Enclosures
- County Durham
- The hero archetype and Lugh
- Head One – St Michaels Church, Kirklington
- Long Meg and her Daughters standing stone and stone circle
- Cana Barn Henge
- Anciens Arsenaux Neolithic Settlement, Sion – Switzerland
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