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: Landscape feature
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.
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Jul 21
Snake Iconography in the British Isles
- Filed under Archaeology, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Mace Head, Neolithic, Passage Tomb, S-curved, Snake Mound
Syncretism through the ages Syncretism, the amalgamation of different religions, cultures, or schools of thought, has its roots in the ancient world. Thoughts on Celtic Religion – Raimund, Karl To begin with, lets first look at the sources available to us: There are quite numerous sources available, contrary to Read more Hillforts: Defence or Ritual? …
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.
Castro de Trona fort – Pontevedra, Spain
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia Espania, Castro Hillfort, Fort, Late Iron Age, New Sites, Roman, Terraces
Castro de Trona is an oval enclosure with significant terracing to the west and a large ditch to the east. This castro (a hillfort settlement) has an accepted date of around 600 BCE. Like many others in Galicia, this castro reached its peak during the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. It measures approximately 200 metres east to west by 150 metres north to south.
Roman Rig Defensive Works
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Dark Ages, Dark Ages Brigantia, Defensive Dike, Defensive Structures, Dike, Europe, Iron Age, Late Iron Age, Linear Earthworks, Medieval, Petilius Cerialis
The Roman Rig is a defensive dyke built to defend against attack from the south. It runs from Sheffield, past Templeborough and carries on almost to Doncaster. If this is a Brigantian dyke it would certainly add weight to Websters definition of the Roman border in the period.
- Adwick-le-Street Roman Fort, Carl Wark, Cartimandua, Danes Camp, Defensive Earthwork, Defensive Works, Doncaster Roman Fort, Dunum, Dyke, Linear earthwork, Mam Tor, Petilius Cerialis, Roe Wood, Roman Rig, Scoles Coppice, South Yorkshire, Sutton Common, Templeborough Roman Fort, Venutius, Wincobank
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Kirkhaugh Cairns – Cumbria
- Filed under Barrow, Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Bronze Age, Cairn, Europe, Finds, Funerary Urns, Hair Braid - Ring, Megalithic, Mining, New Sites, Rock Art
This mound is 22ft. in diam. and about 3ft high. It has been built upon a natural knoll which makes the barrow look larger than it is. Excavation showed that the mound has an earthy core with a rubble capping.
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
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.
- 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
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Oval Barrow east of Ulshaw Bridge
- Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Burial Mound, Landscape feature, Long Barrow
This unexcavated and undated barrow matches many of other Late Neolithic / Early Bronze-Age round barrows (c. 2400–1500 BC) dotted along the flanks of the Yorkshire Dales.
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Announcing: The Brigantian News!
- Roman Road to the West uncovered under Manchester Street 16 July 2025
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APost medieval copper-alloy token farthing issued for the poor of Great Yarmouth, dating to 1669. Obverse: Arms of the Borough of Great Yarmouth, legend GREAT. YARMOVTH. 1669. Reverse: Arms of the Borough of Great Yarmouth, [...]
A Roman copper-alloy sestertius of Trajan (AD 98-117) dating to circa AD 98-117 (Reece Period 5). Uncertain reverse type. Unclear mint. [...]
A small post medieval uniface cast lead alloy token of 14.8mm diameter. One side has the initials WS over a line with unclear lettering or numerals (possibly a date of 1718 or similar) below. [...]
A Medieval silver Edwardian penny, not further defined, dating to circa AD 1279-1377. Unclear mint. [...]
A worn Roman copper-alloy nummus (AE4) of an unidentified emperor. Probable falling horseman (FEL TEMP REPARATIO) reverse type, dating c. AD 348-358. Probably a contemporary copy given reduced size.Measurements: diameter: 11.8 mm and weight: 1.38 [...]
A Medieval silver voided short cross cut farthing of Henry II-John, Class 1-4, not further defined, dating to AD 1154-1205. Moneyer: Rein..Mint: Unclear. [...]
A small post medieval cast lead alloy token of 16mm diameter. One side has an image of a cockerel, standing right, with head raised (Powell Type 18). The other side has an unclear branched motif, [...]
A Medieval silver voided long cross cut farthing of Henry III (AD 1216-1272), not further defined, dating to AD 1247-1272. Moneyer: uncertain; Mint; Canterbury. [...]
A Medieval silver halfpenny of Henry VI, first reign (AD 1422-1461), plain issue, dating to AD 1427-1430 (N 1453). Mint of London. Ref: Withers and Withers 2003: 35; North 1975: 62. [...]
A silver Medieval Venetian soldino of Michele Steno (AD 1400-1413) dating to the period AD 1400-1413. S MARCVS VENETI reverse depicting Winged and nimbate lion of St Mark facing within a circle, holding a book of gospels (type 1). Mint [...]
An incomplete Medieval silver voided short cross penny of Henry III (AD 1216-1272), Class 6c3,dating to AD 1217 (N 976/3). Moneyer and mint uncertain, probably Canterbury. [...]
A fragment of a post-medieval silver sixpence of James I, struck 1604-1624. The coin has a neat linear break which has either been done using a knife or (and more likely) which has split along [...]
A complete copper-alloy Roman nummus of Diocletian, dating to the period AD 296-7 (Reece period 15). GENIO POPV-LI ROMANI reverse type, depicting Genius standing left, holding patera and cornucopiae. Mint of Trier.RIC VI 170a, B [...]
A medieval silver cut halfpenny of Henry II-III, short cross variety. Mint of London. Uncertain moneyer. Struck AD1180-1272.Diameter 18mm. Weight 0.51g. [...]
A complete worn copper-alloy 17th century traders token halfpenny of Cheny Bourne of Milton in Kent. Williamson (1967, 377) Kent no.431Description: Obverse: A sugarloaf. Legend: +CHENY.BOVRNE.OF Reverse: 'C.F.B' in two lines. Legend: +MILTON.[IN.]K[ENT].Measurements: Diameter: 15.8 mm and weight: 0.83g. [...]
A worn post-medieval silver groat of Mary. The coin has two parallel creases in the surface indicating where it was folded twice, probably for use as a love token.Diameter 22mm. Weight 1.38g. [...]
A Medieval silver voided long cross penny of Henry III (AD 1216-1272), Class 5b, dating to AD 1250-1256 (N 992). Moneyer: Willem; Mint: Canterbury. Ref: North 1980: 182 [...]
A silver penny of Henry VIII, Mint of Durham. Obverse: King enthroned holding orb and sceptre. Reverse: Royal shield. No marks (Sede Vacante?). Struck AD1529-30. North no. 1812.Diameter 14mm. Weight 0.45g. [...]
A medieval silver cut halfpenny of Henry III, voided long cross type. Class 3, struck AD1248-1250. Moneyer Henri, mint London.Diameter 18mm. Weight 0.58g. [...]
A Medieval silver penny of Edward III (AD 1272-1307), fourth coinage, Pre-Treaty period, Series E or F, not further defined, dating to circa AD 1354-1356. Unclear mint. [...]
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