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.
Site Section: Cultural Heritage
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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Aug 04
Guide: Parliamentary-walls and the Northern Enclosures
- Filed under Britain, Enclosure Acts, Europe, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape Legislation
Between the mid-18th and late-19th centuries the British Parliament passed almost 5,000 local “Inclosure Acts.” Each Act authorised a team of appointed commissioners to survey one specific township or parish, divide its open-field strips, common pastures, and “wastes” into new, privately owned parcels, and lay out straight roads and boundary walls or hedges. The commissioners issued a legal award map and schedule that became the new title deeds.
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.
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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? …
South Street Long Barrow, Avebury
- Filed under Adult, Animal Remains, Antler Pick, Arrowhead, Couched Burial, Human Remains, Juvinile, Leaf-shaped, New Sites, Pottery
South Street long barrow once lay 1 km south‑west of Avebury village, midway between the Kennet spring‑line and the Windmill Hill plateau (OS grid SU 090 678; 165 m OD). From its crest the ground falls gently north‑east toward the henge and west toward Beckhampton, so the mound would have been visible from all Early‑Neolithic foci in the area yet lay on good grazing that could be tilled by the first farming groups.
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.
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Announcing: The Brigantian News!
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Portable Antiquities News
A complete cast copper-alloy bell, probably of the Medieval period. The body is sub-conical with tapering sides and a flat upper surface. Projecting from the centre of this is a circular-sectioned bar extending into a [...]
A cast copper-alloy Medieval strap fitting or belt mountA corroded Medieval copper-alloy bar mount c. AD 1350-1400. The mount is18.26mm in length and has a convex, hemispherical cross section. At each end is a tapering arm with a [...]
A copper-alloy single-loop buckle of Medieval date, circa AD 1350-1400The buckle is trapezoidal in shape (now crushed inward) and rectangular in cross section. A small knop projects centrally from one of the outer sides of the frame The buckle [...]
Tertiary semi-hard hammer struck flake from a small, multi-platform core. One lateral edge has the remnants of a thermal (frost) fractured surface, notable by its matt surface. The dorsal face is covered with small, overlapping [...]
Tertiary, semi- hard hammer struck flake, of slightly orange/brown patinated dark flint. Sub-triangular in plan, natural and irregular platform, no bulbar scar though the hertzian cone is well pronounced. Both lateral edges are very finely [...]
A small copper alloy ring of uncertain date and function. The object is undecorated, circular, with a sub-rectangular cross-section.Dimensions: Diameter: 11.60 mm; Thickness: 1.3 mm, Weight 0.26g [...]
Possible mount fragment. Straight-sided sheet of copper alloy with incised herringbone decoration. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 700-850Length: 47.1mm, Width: 10.8mm, Thickness: 0.6mm [...]
Cast copper alloy fragment decorated with ring dot. suggested date: Early Medieval, 700-1000Length: 27.7mm, Width: 12.6mm, Thickness: 1.5mm [...]
Cast copper alloy fragment with a bulbous bottom topped with a double grooved strip. No surface treatment but good preservation. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 700-1000Length: 35.6mm, Width: 21.2mm, Thickness: 4.1mm [...]
Cast copper alloy strap end, front surface originally gilt overall but this only survives in recesses of design; no gilding on back. suggested date: Early Medieval, 850-1000Length: 46.4mm, Width: 14.3mm [...]
An incomplete Roman copper-alloy umbonate disc brooch, dating to c. AD 75 - 200. It is of Mackreth (2011) British Plate Type 6.a. Roughly 80% of the brooch remains. The brooch is circular with broken and worn edges from which there [...]
Circular copper alloy linked pin head with a plain cross dividing into 4 sections; each is decorated differently. Three rivet holes have been drilled from the front to attach the pin (now broken). Suggested date: [...]
A worn and heavily corroded copper-alloy Post-Medieval farthing of Charles I (AD 1625-1649), dating to AD 1636-1644. Unclear rose type. Mint of London. Unclear initial mark. North (1991: 165) nos. 2290-2292. The object is mostly obscured by corrosion. [...]
Small medieval sheet copper-alloy mount with an in-situ rivet and rove, also made of copper-alloy. The mount has five edges: two longer and parallel, one short and perpendicular, and two shorter still, oblique and forming a [...]
Cast copper alloy pin head with four holes. Between the holes is a braided cross. Pin appears to have broken off and the head was possibly attached to another pin; the remnant of an attached [...]
An incomplete copper-alloy of unclear function and date.The object is curved and cylindrical with worn breaks terminating both ends. It is formed from rolled copper-alloy sheet divided by three irregularly located copper-alloy knops or collars. Each knop is formed [...]
A worn and heavily corroded copper-alloy Post-Medieval farthing of Charles I (AD 1625-1649), dating to AD 1636-1644. Unclear rose type. Mint of London. Unclear initial mark. North (1991: 165) nos. 2290-2292. The object is mostly obscured by corrosion. [...]
Fragment of heavily gilded cast copper alloy that resembles a crown, curved in profile. The source record is annotated: 'Schleswig Holstein Landesmuseum, Hedeby Boat, 10th-century, Danish'. Suggested date: Early Medieval, 900-1000Length: 16mm, Width: 26.2mm, Thickness: [...]
A worn Roman copper-alloy nummus of the House of Constantine dating to the period AD 335 to 341 (Reece Period 17). GLORIA EXERCITVS reverse type depicting two soldiers and one standard. Mint is not legible. [...]
Almost-complete early-medieval to medieval copper-alloy hooked tag of Read’s (2008) Class B, Type 2. The plate its circular and flat, with a small fragment missing at the edge. There are two circular attachment holes situated [...]
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