Stonehenge has always been enigmatic, due to its use of those definitive morticed trilithons, all of which where squared of, more like the structures of the Maltese temples and other stone structures closer to Africa, as opposed to those of the rest of Britain and most of the wider North-west European ritual landscape.
Category: Guide
What might Stonehenge Mean? Dartmoor and Carnac add to the Picture
- Filed under Barrow, Bell Barrow, Britain, Bronze Age, France, Funerary Urns, Hair Braid - Ring, Landscape feature, Megalithic, Mining, Neolithic, News, Radiocarbon Dating, Smelting, Stone alignment, Stone Circle, Stone Row, Wales
- amesbury, Anglesey, archer, boltby, Boltby Scar, britain, Bronze Age, Carnac, Dartmoor, France, Gold Tresses, Great Orme, Hill Fort, Kirkhaugh, Llanymynech, Nabta Playa, nenthead, Neolithic, North Yorkshire, Parys Mountain, Powys, Rouslton Moor, Shropshire, Stonehenge, Tabular Hills, wales, Yorkshire Moors
- 4 comments
Jun 27
Prehistoric mounds, cairns and boundary earthworks in Coverdale
- Filed under Archaeology, Barrow, Boundary Marker, Brigantia, Brigantia England, Bronze Age, Burial Mound, Dark Ages, Dark Ages Brigantia, Early Christian, Early Medieval, Guide, Iron Age, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Motte and Bailey, Mound, New Sites, Roman, Terraces, Visible Remains
A gazetteer of probable prehistoric mounds, cairns and boundary earthworks in Coverdale. It is not complete and is still being researched.
Jun 16
Hillforts: Defence or Ritual? – Part 1
- Filed under Archaeology, Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Critical Thinking, Defensive Structures, Earthworks, Guide, Hill Fort, Univallet Hillfort, Vitrified Fort
Over the last five years Iron-Age specialists have been re-examining what British hillforts were really for. The question is no longer just “fortress or farm?” but whether many of them were built first and foremost as places of gathering, display and ritual.
- Ad Gefrin, Barry Cunliffe, battle, Bowden, Castle Dykes, Ceremony, Debate, Defence, Hill Fort, Hill of Tara, hillfort, Iron Age, Julius Caesar, Maiden Castle, McOmish, Mortimer Wheeler, Northumberland, Paulinus, Ringforts, ritual, Ritual First, tacitus, Thornborough Henges, vitrified, Yeavering Bell
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Jun 15
Guide: Piles of Stones (OS Maps)
- Filed under Agriculture, Barrow, Burial Mound, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Ring Cairn, Spoil Heap, Visible Remains
On every late-Victorian and early-20th-century OS sheet the surveyors marked any conspicuous heap of stones they could not instantly classify as a tumulus, beacon, trig-point or boundary stone with the catch-all term “Pile of Stones.”
Jun 11
Guide: Ritual/Ceremonial Mounds
- Filed under Anglo-saxon, Bronze Age, Ceremonial Mount, Dark Ages, Early Christian, Early Medieval, Georgian, Guide, Landscape feature, Medieval, Neolithic, New Sites, Norman
These are raised platforms created first and foremost for cult, procession, assembly or conversion—not for fortification or routine boundary-making. They tend to be much more significant and monumental than other mounds and raised platforms. Some are the largest structures known of their type. In Britain, possibly the best known example is Silbury Hill in Wiltshire.
Jun 11
Guide: Spoil Heaps
- Filed under Archaeology, Guide, Industrial Heritage, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Mining, Spoil Heaps
These are artificial hills made from the unwanted rock, shale and tailings that come up with coal, metal ore, stone or clay when it is being mined or quarried. Because extractive industry is both deep and long-lived, single collieries or pits can generate tens of millions of cubic metres of spoil; pushed out by locomotive, conveyor or tippler wagon and dumped in successive layers, the piles quickly become a distinctive landform.
Jun 10
Guide: Hillfort Mounds of Europe
- Filed under Archaeology, Castro Hillfort, Contour/Plateau Fort, Europe, Guide, Hidden Remains, Hill Fort, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Multivallete Hillfort, New Sites, Oppidum, Promontory fort, Slavic Gord, Univallet Hillfort, Vitrified Fort
Guide: Common Features of Iron Age Hillforts This article attempts to serve as a guide for many of the features of the hillforts found in Britain, in Read more Guide: Iron-Age minting: Ceramic Pellet-mould trays This article explores the most tangible evidence we possess for indigenous minting north of the Humber: the smashed ceramic “pellet-mould” …
Jun 10
Guide: Barrows
- Filed under Archaeobotanical, Barrow, Bell Barrow, Bowl Barrow, Bronze Age, Dark Ages, Disc Barrow, Europe, Guide, Iron Age, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Long Barrow, Neolithic, Ring Barrow, Ritual Landscape, Roman, Round Barrow, Square Barrow, Steppe Kurgan
A barrow is a mound of earth and/or stones raised over a grave or group of graves. Used from the Neolithic through to the Iron Age (roughly 4000 BCE to 500 CE), barrows were often constructed to honour elite individuals, such as tribal leaders, warriors, or chieftains. They are frequently found singly or in cemeteries known as barrow fields.
- AngloViking, Arras Culture, barrow, Barrow Timeline, Bell Barrow, Bowl Barrow, britain, Bronze Age, Burial Mound, Disc Barrow, Eastern Europe, Hallstatt, Iberian Peninsular, ireland, Iron Age, la tene, Long Barrow, Neolithc, Nordic Bronze Age, Ring Barrow, Roman, Round Barrow, ScandinaviaUkraineCentral Europe, Square Barrow, Steppe Kurgan, timeline
- Leave comment
Jun 07
Guide: SAR Doppler Tomography
- Filed under Archaeology, Geophysics, Guide, Hidden Remains, New Sites, Remote Sensing and Analysis, Reports
Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) already relies on Doppler shifts: echoes from scatterers in a side-looking radar beam have slightly different frequencies as the platform flies past, and focusing those micro-shifts yields a two-dimensional image.
- 3-D mapping, Airborne P-band, Archaeology, Back-scatter, Baseline (B⊥), Beam-forming Algorithm, Biomass, Capon, Coherence, coherent stack, Cryosphere, D-TomoSAR, differential processing, Doppler spectral cube, Forests, Height Resolution, Heritage monitoring, Infrastructure, InSAR, Interferometric SAR, Look Angle (θ), MUSIC, Penetration Depth, perpendicular baseline (B⊥), radar wavelength, RIAA, SAR, SAR Doppler Tomography, Satellite X-band stack.TerraSAR-X, Synthetic-Aperture Radar, temporal decorrelation, Tomographic SAR, TomoSAR, topography under vegetation, Voxel, Wavelength (λ)
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Jun 01
Guide – Exploring the Past with LIDAR
- Filed under Archaeology, Guide, Landscape Archaeology, LiDAR, New Sites, Reports
Imagine being able to see the landscape around you in a completely new way—an invisible layer revealing the hidden structures of the past, right beneath the surface.
- Archaeology, coverage, data access, data collection, data processing, elevation model, Exploring, laser pulse, LIDAR, mapping, maps, OpenTopography, Past, point clouds, Project-specific analysis, Quantum Spatial, shaded relief maps, Surdex Corporation, Topcon Positioning Systems, UK LIDAR Data Service, visualisation
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- An introduction to Brigantian Druidry
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- The Gallus Frontier – Brigantia against the Romans
- The growth of Christianity 50AD – 1100AD
- The Kingdom of Venutius
- The use of the word Lady in relation to water related structures
- The walled gardens of Brigantia
- Yorkshire’s “Sacred Vale” – The Dawn of Brigantia
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- Biefing – The Myth of Breogán and the Tower of Heracles
- Briefing – Galicia’s Political History and Separatist Sentiment
- Briefing – Geography and Geology of Galicia
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- Briefing – Roman Interaction with Galicia and the Iberian Peninsula
- Church of Santa María de Cambre, Cambre near A Coruña
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Heritage Gateway
Announcing: The Brigantian News!
- Roman Road to the West uncovered under Manchester Street 16 July 2025
- What might Stonehenge Mean? Dartmoor and Carnac add to the Picture 3 July 2025
- Megalithic Stone Monuments in France May Be Europe’s Oldest 1 July 2025
- Drumanagh Promontory Fort – First Ever Intact Roman Pot Found in Ireland 5 June 2025
Portable Antiquities News
A Medieval silver penny of Edward I (AD 1272-1307). Class 1c (North 1012) dating to AD 1279. London mint. North (1991: 28). Overall dimensions: 18.2mm in diameter, 0.6mm in thickness and 1.23g in weight. [...]
A Post Medieval silver penny of Elizabeth I (AD 1558-1603). Uncertain initial mark and issue (North 1988, 2001, or 2017. London mint. North (1991: 133-137). Coin has been bent into a V-shape and has cracked [...]
A group of two lead alloy weights, most likely dating to the post medieval period (c.AD 1600-1800), all found in the same field. WA Number Outside Diameter mm Inside Diameter mm Thickness mm Weight grams [...]
A group of two lead alloy weights, most likely dating to the post medieval period (c.AD 1600-1800), all found in the same field. WA Number Outside Diameter (mm) Inside Diameter (mm) Thickness (mm) Weight (g) [...]
A group of five lead alloy shot dating to the post medieval period (c.AD 1600-1800), all found in the same field. WA Number Diameter (mm) Weight (g) Comments 5589 17.4 31.8 Visible sprue and seam. [...]
A group of two lead alloy shot dating to the post medieval period (c.AD 1600-1800). WA No. Length Diameter Weight Comments 5543 15.2 9.3 8.1 Small bullet. Three grooves around circumference 5594 9.2 4.8 Cream [...]
Silver coin. Worn long cross penny on a markedly oval flan, probably later medieval issue, perhaps of 1422-1485, probably York mint. Obverse description: facing bust with tall splayed bifoliate open crown whose ornaments appear to [...]
A square biface lead weight depicting a Chi-rho / shield of uncertain age, probably dating to the Late Medieval to Post Medieval period.Sub-square in plan with bevelled edges. One face has a linear depiction of [...]
Copper alloy brooch fragment. Cast headstud brooch, Mackreth type Headstud 5.a. A tubular case retaining the axis bar for a hinged pin [lost] is masked by short wings with two vertical ridges apiece; the stubs [...]
Copper alloy seal matrix. Cast octagonal tapered ‘chess piece’ seal matrix with a collared oval top loop and a circular face. The matrix bears the image of a cockerel with long curling tail feathers facing [...]
Copper alloy brooch, as kindly identified by the finder. A small cast Colchester brooch, probably Mackreth type C 4. A small brooch with the stub of a forward pointing loop and tiny oval wings at [...]
Silver coin. Penny, probably of Charles I (1625-1649)Obverse description: bust left, inner circleObverse inscription: [--]D.G.M.B'[--]II[--]Reverse description: Arms in cartoucheReverse inscription: [--]AONV[--]Diameter: 13.2mm, Weight: 0.49gms, die axis: possibly 6 [...]
A heavily worn copper-alloy Nuremburg rose/orb jetton of Hans Kravwinckel II dating to c.1586-1635.Obverse: alternating crowns and lis around central rose. Inscription: HANNS KRAVWINCKEL IN NVR. Reverse: orb surmounted by a cross within a three [...]
Silver coin. Republican denarius, as kindly identified by the finder, very worn, issue of Calpurnius Piso Frugis [which one is uncertain], probably issue of 90-67BC, Reece period 1Obverse description: Helmeted head of Roma right, small [...]
Base metal plated denarius or forgery, as kindly identified by the finder, of Plautilla (202-205), Reece period 10Obverse description: bust coiffed and draped rightObverse inscription: PLAVTILLA AVGVS[TA]Reverse description: facing figure with propped hoplon shield lower [...]
A Medieval silver cut farthing of John (AD 1199-1216). Class 5b2 (North 970) dating to AD 1204-1209. Mint and moneyer uncertain. North (1994: 221).Overall dimensions: 8.4mm in length, 9.9mm in width, 0.5mm in thickness and [...]
Copper alloy token. Milled halfpenny token issue of 1650-1671, possibly 1668Obverse description: wire-drawn circle with text over three lines: THEIR/HALF/PENYObverse inscription: *GABRIEL[---]ORDReverse description: Tudor-style rose within circleReverse inscription: *HOL[--]?OL?[--]This partial rendition elicited further information as [...]
A complete Iron Age gold stater of the East Wiltshire region, dating to the period 50-20 BC. Savernake Forest type. Plain obverse. Reverse: skinny horse right, pellet mane, solar spiral above and large wheel below, torc motif in front [...]
Copper alloy brooch fragment. The bow and foot of a cast Colchester brooch, Mackreth type C 2. A thin bow of plain rounded section tapers to its foot end where an integral unpierced catch plate [...]
Copper alloy brooch. Cast rear-hook fastening Colchester derivative brooch, cf. Mackreth types CD RH 5.c/?5.i. Plain semi-circular wings with a central blob of solder in the gutter formerly retained a spring [now lost] assisted by [...]
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