Category: Publications

The Story of Boltby Scar

Boltby Church, Yorkshire Moors

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.

Guide: Ray Selkirk – The Maverick of Landscape Archaeology

Ray Selkirk - 1980

Ray Selkirk was a trailblazing landscape archaeologist who revolutionized how we interpret the hidden past beneath our feet. As a former World War II pilot, Selkirk brought a unique aerial perspective to archaeological surveying, allowing him to recognize subtle patterns in the landscape that often went unnoticed at ground level.

Guide: Francis Prior

A stylistic suggestion of Flag Fen

Francis Pryor stands as a luminary in British archaeology, whose profound insights into prehistoric Britain have reshaped our understanding of ancient societies.

Chapter 8 – The Early Bronze Age and Beyond

Chapter 8: The Early Bronze Age and Beyond The Early Bronze Age spans from about 2,200 BC to 1600 BC and was another period of change. It was during this time that there was the first widespread use of metals. Whilst there is certainly evidence of continued ritual use of the henges into and beyond …

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Cobscar Smelting Mill Chimney, Redmire, Wensleydale

The tall chimney on the moor near Redmire is connected to the Cobscar Smelting Mill, which was part of the lead mining industry that once thrived in the area. The chimney served a crucial role in the smelting process by exhausting poisonous lead gases away from the mill.

Chapter 7 – The Importance of Trade

What was so special about The Sacred Vale and Thornborough in particular, that meant this enormous monument complex had to be created? This is in no way a typical landscape for the time – nowhere else in Britain does a complex exist such as it does in The Sacred Vale.

Chapter 6 – The Other Monuments of the Sacred Vale

Except for the henge alignment at Thornborough, very little is known about the other monuments within the Sacred Vale.

Chapter 5 – The Later Neolithic Explosion

The one thousand years between 3,000 and 2,000 BC saw the Vale of Mowbray’s most significant period of development. It is at this time that the area between Boroughbridge and Catterick became the Sacred Vale, a premier ritual landscape, with Thornborough as its heart.

Chapter 4 – The early development of The Sacred Vale

The story of the Sacred Vale begins to the best of our knowledge at Thornborough and starts in the early Neolithic period, from 4,000 BC to 3,000 BC.

A splintered path

An AI generated image depicting Caratacus telling stories round a camp-fire. To illustrate and article about Iron Age Brigantia on brigantesnation.com

Vellocatus suggested the next instalment of his story should recount some of the background information relating to events leading up to the grand gathering at Thornborough.

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