Category: Bronze Age

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

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.

Amesbury Archer, boltby, Brigantia, Bronze Age, Dykes, Enclosure, Hair Braid, Roulston, Scar, Stonehenge, Stories of Brigantia, Yorkshire Moors
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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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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? …

Bronze Age, Coiled Torcs, Iconography, Iron Age, Knowth, la tene, Loch Nell, Neolithic, Passage Tomb, Pennanular Ring, Pictish, Prehistory, Serpent, Serpent Mound, serpentiform, Snake, Snaked Headed
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Wincobank Hill Fort

Filed under Brigantia England, Britain, Bronze Age, Hill Fort, Iron Age, Mesolithic, Roman, Vitrified Fort

This is an oval fort with an internal area of 2.5 acres. A bank, ditch and counterscarp bank are continuous around it except on the N side where ditch and counterscarp have been destroyed.

Dryburn Henge, Cumbria

Filed under Brigantia, Brigantia England, Bronze Age, Class I, Enclosure, Henge, Late Bronze Age, Neolithic, Ritual Landscape

Dryburn Henge lies on Alston Moor in Cumbria, within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It occupies a strategic nodal point on the high moor, roughly at NY 760 430, where routes across the Pennine watershed converge. The surrounding terrain is underlain by Carboniferous Great Scar Limestone and interbedded Yoredale shales, with scattered fluvioglacial gravels in valley bottoms.

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.

Amesbury Archer, barrow, Basket, britain, Bronze Age, cairn, Cumbria, Earliest Gold, Early Bronze Age, Gold, Hair Braid, Kirkhaugh, Metalworker
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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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Megalithic Stone Monuments in France May Be Europe’s Oldest

Filed under Britain, Bronze Age, France, Mesolithic, Neolithic, News, Ritual Landscape, Stone Circle, stone circles, Stone Row

The recent University of Gothenburg–led excavations at Le Plasker, and their startling radiocarbon dates of 4600–4300 BC for the Carnac alignments, deserve both applause for methodological rigor and a measured dose of critical scrutiny before we rewrite Neolithic Europe’s storybook.

Alignments, Avebury, Bat of Morbihan, britain, Brittany, Bronze Age, Carnac, England, France, Le Plasker, Megalith, Megalithic, Neolithic, News, Plouharnel, Standing Stone, stone circle, Stonehenge, University of Gothenburg
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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.

Barrows, Boundary Markers, Bronze Age, Cairns, Coverdale, Ditches, Dykes, Earthworks, Iron Age, Medieval, Mounds, North Yorkshire, Yorkshire Dales
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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.