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
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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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- Church of Santa María de Cambre, Cambre near A Coruña
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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 Post Medieval copper-alloy jetton of uncertain issue dating to the period AD 1550 - 1750. Rose/Orb type. Mint of Nuremburg.Obverse: Alternating crowns and lis with central rose.Reverse: Imperial Orb within tressure of three arches. [...]
A Post Medieval copper-alloy rose farthing of Charles I (AD 1625-1649), unclear rose type (AD 1636-1644) (North 2287-2290, Spink 3204), London mint. [...]
A Post Medieval silver sixpence of Elizabeth I (AD 1558-1603), not further defined, dating to circa AD 1558-1603. Tower of London mint. [...]
A Medieval silver voided long cross cut halfpenny of Henry III (AD 1216-172), Class 3a, dating to circa AD 1248-150. Moneyer: Nicole; Mint: London. Ref: North 1980: 182. [...]
A Medieval silver voided short cross cut halfpenny of John (AD 1199-1216), Class 4b/c, not further defined, dating to circa AD 1200-1204. Moneyer: Hue; Mint: York.. [...]
Incomplete medieval or early post-medieval gilded copper-alloy mount, perhaps from a box or a piece of furniture. If it was symmetrical when complete, then a little over half is extant. It is flat and has [...]
A Medieval silver voided short cross cut halfpenny of John (AD 1199-1216), Class 5b/c, not further defined, dating to circa AD 1205-1210. Moneyer: Adam; Mint: Northampton. [...]
An extremely worn post Medieval silver penny of Elizabeth I dating to 1578 - 1580. Second Issue, plain cross initial mark. As North Vol 2 (1991), p.135, no.2001. [...]
A post Medieval silver halfgroat of Charles I (1625-49), fourth bust, group D with sceptre initial mark dating to 1646-1649. London mint. As North 2258. [...]
A small medieval cast copper alloy annular or ring brooch, 25mm in diameter. The frame has a rounded cross section, 2mm wide and appears undecorated. The rear portion of a copper alloy pin remains articulated [...]
A Roman silver denarius of Severus Alexander (AD 222-235) dating to AD 222 (Reece Period 11). P M TR P COS P P reverse type depicting Jupiter, cloak behind and over right arm, standing left, holding [...]
[presumed to be] Copper alloy buckle, Borre style [MF]. Traces of decoration or damage. NLM accession number SFWH 13. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 900-1000 Length: 32.9mm, Height: 35mm, Thickness: 3.5mm [...]
An incomplete copper alloy millefiori enamelled plate brooch dating to the Roman period (c. AD 100-200). The remains of the brooch consist of roughly one third of the circular plate. The edge is chipped and [...]
[presumably] Copper alloy Borre buckle with fine brown patina on surfaces. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 900-1000Length: 35mm, Height: 26.3mm, Thickness: 5.3mm [...]
A Medieval silver penny of Edward I (AD 1277-1307), Class 9b, dating to AD 1300-1302 (N 1037). Mint of London. Ref: North 1980: 24. [...]
An incomplete copper alloy plate brooch dating to the Roman period (c. AD 100-200). The object is sub-circular in shape and the edge is heavily chipped. The outer face is decorated with a central cell surrounded [...]
Copper alloy die dividing the circle into three sections. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 700-1000Diameter: 18.46mm, Thickness: 2.03mm [...]
Complete Post Medieval handmade copper alloy uniform button of the Artillery regiment, c.AD 1790-1802.This button consists of a flat-faced disc with a wire attachment loop in the centre of the reverse. The obverse is decorated [...]
Incomplete Post Medieval milled copper alloy uniform button of the Royal Marines, c.AD 1850-1901.This button consists of a slightly domed disc, slightly corroded and with a brown colouration. The obverse is decorated with a wreath on [...]
A Medieval silver voided short cross penny of Richard I (AD 1189-1199), Class 2-4, not further defined. Moneyer: Meinir; Mint: Canterbury. [...]
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