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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- Megalithic Stone Monuments in France May Be Europe’s Oldest 1 July 2025
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Portable Antiquities News
19 heavily abraded sherds of hand made pottery vessels of Bronze Age date. Several different vessels are represented. All demonstrate differential degrees of oxidation, some are possibly soot blackened from use. The fabrics are gritty with [...]
A Medieval silver long cross penny of Edward II (AD 1307-1327), Class 12b, dating to AD 1314 (N 1063). Mint of Canterbury. Ref: North 1975: 28. [...]
Hard hammer struck primary flake, the dorsal face is a thermal (frost) fracture, no retouch noted just irregular edge damage. Light to mid grey flint. 29.3 x 32.7 x 8mm, 8.2 g. Neolithic to Early [...]
A Medieval silver voided short cross cut Scottish halfpenny of William I or Alexander III dating to circa AD 1195-1249, not further defined. Unclear moneyer and mint. [...]
A Medieval silver long cross penny of Edward II (AD 1207-1227), Class 10cf5, dating to circa AD 1309-1310 (1043/1). Mint of London. Ref: North 1975: 25. [...]
A Medieval silver voided long cross cut halfpenny of Henry III (AD 1216-1272), Class 5c, dating to circa AD 1250-1256 (N 997). Moneyer: Willem; Mint: Canterbury. Ref: North 1980: 183. [...]
A Medieval silver voided short cross cut halfpenny of John (AD 1199-1216), Class 5b2, dating to AD 1202-1207 (N 970/1). Moneyer: Roberd; Mint: Canterbury or Northampton. [...]
Copper alloy coin. Nummus of Constans (335-350), Two Victories issue of 347-348, Reece period 17, on a markedly oval flan, possibly Trier mint, RIC vol. 8, page 152 nos 203 or 207Obverse description: bust diademed [...]
Copper alloy coin. Minim, small module irregular issue of either 275-285 if a barbarous radiate or 355-361 if a Fallen Horseman issue of 355-361. No discernible detail remains on either side of a worn spalled [...]
Copper alloy coin. Radiate or nummus indeterminate, later Roman issue of 260-410 on a worn smaller module round flan retaining no discernible detail on either side. Diameter: 15.9mm, Weight: 1.61gms [...]
Small copper-alloy fragment of a probable medieval or post-medieval vessel of some kind. It incorporates part of an what is here interpreted as an external (though integrally cast) element, such as a foot, handle or [...]
Copper alloy scabbard chape. A triangular sheet metal chape with an overlapping seam and open at its lower narrower end. The top edge is frayed and may have lost supplementary fixings. The casual finish may [...]
Lead alloy toy fragment. Solid cast model of a circular wooden tub with two binding hoops and vertical planking fed by the down-curved outlet from a vertical object of rhomboid section: a water pump whose [...]
An incomplete copper alloy strap mount or strap fitting dating to the Post Medieval period (c. AD 1500-1700). The object is roughly triangular in shape with an attachment loop at one end, with iron rivet [...]
A complete copper alloy pot leg, probably from a cooking vessel of Post Medieval date (c. AD 1200-1800).The leg is sub-triangular in plan and has a tear drop shaped cross section, it terminates at a pointed foot. The [...]
Copper alloy coin. Nummus of the House of Valentinian (364-378), Victory left, Reece period 19, on a worn brown flan.Obverse description: bust diademed and cuirassed right.Reverse description: Victory advancing left with wreath and palm; OF [...]
A fragment from a copper alloy brooch of late Iron Age to Roman date, circa 100 BC to AD 100.Only the upper part of the brooch remains. The brooch is a Le Tene III / Nauheim type and is formed from [...]
Copper alloy coin fragment. Radiate indeterminate, later Roman issue of 260-296, chipped all around flan.Obverse description: radiate head right.Reverse description: One or two draped figures undulating leftwards.Diameter (in excess of): 17.4mm, Weight: 1.46gms, die axis: [...]
Copper alloy coin. Possibly a nummus indeterminate, Reece period 16; if not, in view of the reverse legend, possibly a radiate issue of 260-296Obverse description: bust draped and cuirassed right , seen from front; encrusted.Obverse [...]
A complete Medieval cast copper-alloy strap end with forked spacer dating c. AD 1200-1400. The strap end comprises two parallel sheet plates with a forked spacer in between. The sheet plates are broadly rectangular with a [...]
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- The Story of Boltby Scar
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- Guide: Parliamentary-walls and the Northern Enclosures
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- The hero archetype and Lugh
- Head One – St Michaels Church, Kirklington
- Long Meg and her Daughters standing stone and stone circle
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