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.
Category: Neolithic
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
- !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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Long Meg and her Daughters standing stone and stone circle
- Filed under Agriculture, Archaeology, Medieval, Neolithic, ploughing, Stone Circle
Long Meg and her Daughters is a remarkable Neolithic monument located near Penrith in Cumbria, England.
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.
Anciens Arsenaux Neolithic Settlement, Sion – Switzerland
- Filed under Animal Remains, Augustus Caesar, Civil Structure, Dragons, Early Neolithic, Enclosure, Europe, Field Systems, Hamlet, Hoof marks, Julius Caesar, Myth and Legend, Neolithic, New Sites, Planig‑Friedberg ware, Polished Stone Adze, Pottery, Quern Stones, Roman army, Roman baths, Roman City, Roman Culture, Roman Villa, Switzerland, The Devil, Vasi a Bocca Quadrata ware, Witches
Sion lies midway along the upper Rhône Valley, an east‑west trench gouged by repeated Pleistocene glaciers and now flanked by the Pennine and Bernese Alps. The settlement area sits on the alluvial fan of the Sionne torrent, a cone of well‑sorted sands and gravels that projects onto the wider Rhône flood‑plain.
- adze, Ard, Bronze Age, Causewayed enclusure, Chambered tombs, Cross Cut ploughing, cross ploughing, Early Neolithic, Europe’s oldest plough furrows, Flintbek LA, Guldager-Nygård, Iron Age, Les Arsenaux, Long Barrow, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Oppida, Oppidum, palaeolithic, Planig‑Friedberg ware culture, Pleistocene glaciers, ploughing, polished adze, Pottery, Quern, Rhône Valley, Roman, Seduni, Sedunum, South Street Long Barrow, Stone Tools, Torsted-Langagergård, Vasi a Bocca Quadrata culture, Vasi a Bocca Quadrata ware, VBQ
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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.
Bubeneč Neolithic Farm, Prague
- Filed under Agriculture, Early Neolithic, Field Systems, Neolithic, New Sites, ploughing, Research
Quite recently, initial excavation evidence from Bubenec, close to Prague was first announced to the public, pending full publication. As part of that media activity, the head archaeologist for the dig, Petra Maříková Vlčková explained that the excavation; below the future Canadian Embassy, in Prague’s Bubeneč district, cut through almost two metres of undisturbed deposits – a rarity in Central Europe.
Wellhill, Dunning Early Neolithic Farm – Perthshire
- Filed under Agriculture, Early Neolithic, Field Systems, Mesolithic, Neolithic, New Sites, Norman, Pottery, Scotland
The village of Dunning in Perthshire, Scotland, has been revealed through excavation as having traces of human activity dating back 10,000 years. This included evidence of what could be the earliest farming activity recorded in Scotland so far, and also remains of hunter-gathering activity dating back to the Mesolithic period.
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.
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Announcing: The Brigantian News!
- Roman Road to the West uncovered under Manchester Street 16 July 2025
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A complete lead alloy button dating to the Post Medieval period (c. AD 1500-1650). The button is circular in shape with a convex face and flat reverse. The face has moulded decoration of a central pellet [...]
A Roman copper alloy nummus of Constantine II (AD 317-337) dating to the period AD 323 (Reece Period 16). BEATA TRAN-QVILLITAS reverse type depicting globe on altar inscribed VOT//IS/XX with three stars above. Mint of Trier. RIC Vol. VII (p.200) No.412 [...]
A Medieval French copper alloy jetton of the four fleurs de lys in a lozenge type dating to AD 1488-97. Mint of Tournai. Mitchiner 1988, page 208, number 589.Obverse description: Four fleurs in a lozenge: within an arched [...]
A Medieval French stock Jetton dating to AD 1415-1497.Obverse: Crown with groups of pellets in field.Reverse: AMOVRS TOV SVI A VOVS SI, tripple-voided cross fleuretty within a double tressure of four arches. In the centre of the [...]
A medieval silver shortcross penny of Henry II (1154-1189), class 1b dating c. 1180-1185. Moneyer Reinald of Northampton mint. North (1994), p. 220 no: 963. [...]
An incomplete cast copper alloy pin of Early Medieval date (c. AD 700-900). It is missing most of its shaft.The pin has a polyhedral pin head, cuboid in form with chamfered corners forming 13 facets of unequal [...]
A complete cast copper alloy scabbard chape dating to the Post Medieval period (c. AD 1500-1700).The chape is made of a sheet folded into a conical tube, oepn at one end and forming a pointed [...]
A complete Medieval cast copper-alloy annular buckle with cast copper-alloy pin, probably dating to c. AD 1200-1450.The frame is circular in plan, and oval in cross-section, with no constriction for the pin. The frame is undecorated. The pin [...]
A near complete cast copper-alloy Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) small-long brooch, dating to AD 450-550. The object retains its head plate and bow, but it is missing it's pin.The brooch includes a cruciform head consisting of 3 long pointed, [...]
An incomplete copper alloy Colchester Derivative type brooch dating to the Roman period (c. AD 50-150). The object has complete wings with wing caps. The reverse of the head is concave and the remains of the spring mechanism have [...]
An incomplete copper alloy Colchester Derivative, Polden Hill type brooch dating to the Roman period (c. AD 75-175). The object has complete wings with wing caps and double linear decoration half way along and at the end [...]
An incomplete copper alloy Colchester Derivative, Polden Hill type brooch dating to the Roman period (c. AD 75-175). The object has complete wings with wing caps and moulded double linear decoration half way along each wing. [...]
An Roman copper-alloy nummus of Valens, dating to c. AD 367 - 375. Reece Period 19. SECVRITAS REIPVBLICAE, reverse type shows Victory advancing left holding a wreath. Mint uncertain.Diameter: 18.38 mmWeight: 1.87 g [...]
An incomplete cast copper alloy cloisonne enamel lugged disc brooch (Weetch type 20A), of the late early-medieval period dating c.AD 1000-1100.The brooch is bent and damaged with the enamel design incomplete and crushed. It comprises a [...]
A Roman copper-alloy nummus of Magnentius dating to AD 351 - 353 (Reece period 18). VICTORIAE DD NN AVG ET CAES reverse showing two Victories supporting a wreath inscribed VOT V MVLT X. Mint of Ambianum.RIC VIII [...]
An incomplete medieval copper alloy single loop composite buckle dating c. 1350-1450Only the frame and forked spacers survive, the pin and plate are missing. The frame is circular with a notched pin rest. The frame is bevelled [...]
An incomplete, medieval, copper alloy cast annular buckle dating c. AD 1250-1450.The frame is circular and undecorated, and has a circular cross section. One section is worn thin from wear. The pin is D-shaped in cross section with a [...]
An incomplete Roman copper alloy brooch of Colchester Derivative Harlow type dating c. 50-80. The brooch is missing the spring and pin. It has a semi-cylindrical head with incomplete and worn short wings and a double pierced lug to [...]
An incomplete copper alloy Colchester Derivative, Polden Hill type brooch dating to the Roman period (c. AD 75-175). The object has complete wings with wing caps and double linear decoration half way along and at [...]
A Roman copper-alloy nummus of Constantine I, dating to c.AD 320. Reece Period 16. VIRTVS EXERCIT, reverse type shows Military standard with drapery marked VOT/XX; on either side, seated captive. Mint of Arelate.RIC VII Arelate 205 Diameter: [...]
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