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.
Tag: 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
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? …
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.
Hill Figures
- Filed under Britain, Hill Figure, Landscape feature
The Hill Figures of the British Isles Hill figures are large Geoglyphs cut into Britain’s chalk and Limestone hillsides, their bright-white forms visible for miles across the landscape. They range from abstract Bronze‐Age symbols to concrete horses and even regimental badges of the 20th century, each marking different moments when local communities, landowners or military …
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.
Jun 11
Guide: Spoil Heaps
- Filed under Archaeology, Guide, Industrial Heritage, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Mining, Spoil Heaps
These are artificial hills made from the unwanted rock, shale and tailings that come up with coal, metal ore, stone or clay when it is being mined or quarried. Because extractive industry is both deep and long-lived, single collieries or pits can generate tens of millions of cubic metres of spoil; pushed out by locomotive, conveyor or tippler wagon and dumped in successive layers, the piles quickly become a distinctive landform.
Jun 10
Guide: Barrows
- Filed under Archaeobotanical, Barrow, Bell Barrow, Bowl Barrow, Bronze Age, Dark Ages, Disc Barrow, Europe, Guide, Iron Age, Landscape Archaeology, Landscape feature, Long Barrow, Neolithic, Ring Barrow, Ritual Landscape, Roman, Round Barrow, Square Barrow, Steppe Kurgan
A barrow is a mound of earth and/or stones raised over a grave or group of graves. Used from the Neolithic through to the Iron Age (roughly 4000 BCE to 500 CE), barrows were often constructed to honour elite individuals, such as tribal leaders, warriors, or chieftains. They are frequently found singly or in cemeteries known as barrow fields.
- AngloViking, Arras Culture, barrow, Barrow Timeline, Bell Barrow, Bowl Barrow, britain, Bronze Age, Burial Mound, Disc Barrow, Eastern Europe, Hallstatt, Iberian Peninsular, ireland, Iron Age, la tene, Long Barrow, Neolithc, Nordic Bronze Age, Ring Barrow, Roman, Round Barrow, ScandinaviaUkraineCentral Europe, Square Barrow, Steppe Kurgan, timeline
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May 25
Brigantes Tribe
- Filed under Articles, Brigantia, Brigantia England, Britain, Celtic Tribes, Europe, Iron Age
The name Brigantia represents three separate concepts: a goddess, a people, and a tribal federation. By the Roman period, the name represented a tribal federation compromising all of what would become the Roman province of Britannia Secunda, except for the Parisi territory, east of the River Derwent.
Mar 27
Were Thornborough Henges built by giants?
- Filed under Giants, Henge, Landscape feature, Myth and Legend, Reports
I’ve started to realise there are an awful lot of myths involving giants in Yorkshire, and in the rest of Britain, regarding monument having been built by giants
- Arbor Low, Blakey Toppimg, Blakey Topping, Boroughbridge, Brigantes, Brigantia, Bronze Age, Cornwall, Coven, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devil, Devil's Arrows, Devil's Dyke, Giantess, Giants, Giants Causeway of North Yorkshire, Gient, Hole of Horcum, Hurlers, knights, Legend of Wade the Giant, Long Meg, Merlin, Mulgrave Castle, Neolithic, Rollright Stones, Roseberry Topping, Roulston Scar, Somerset, Stanton Drew, stone circle, Stonehenge, Thornborough Henges, Wade, Witch, Yorkshire
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Feb 07
Guide: The Ard – Early Ploughing in English Brigantia
- Filed under Agriculture, Archaeology, Field Systems, Guide, Iron Age, Landscape Archaeology, Medieval, Research, Roman
The ard, also known as a scratch plough, represents one of the earliest forms of agricultural technology used by the people of ancient Brigantia.
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Announcing: The Brigantian News!
- Roman Road to the West uncovered under Manchester Street 16 July 2025
- What might Stonehenge Mean? Dartmoor and Carnac add to the Picture 3 July 2025
- Megalithic Stone Monuments in France May Be Europe’s Oldest 1 July 2025
- Drumanagh Promontory Fort – First Ever Intact Roman Pot Found in Ireland 5 June 2025
Portable Antiquities News
A worn and pierced silver penny of Charles I (AD 1625-1649) probably dating to 1625. The penny has roses on either face, one side with a wire inner lines, the other made up of pellets. [...]
A partially worn silver voided long cross penny of Henry III (AD 1216-1272) dating to AD 1248-1250. Struck by the moneyer Adam in Newcastle. Class 3bc (with neck lines). North 987/1 [...]
A silver post Medieval threepence of Elizabeth I, dated 1580 on the coin. Unclear initial mark, but probably a long cross. London Tower mint. As North 1998. [...]
A very worn copper-alloy Roman nummus (AE3) of an uncertain ruler, dating to the fourth century AD. The obverse has a bust facing right, and the reverse has an unclear standing figure. [...]
A worn and corroding copper-alloy Roman radiate of an uncertain emperor, dating to the period AD 260-275. Reece Period 13. Reverse may have a figure standing, but it is hard to discern. [...]
A near-complete cast copper alloy Williams (1997) Class A Type 10a stirrup mount of Early Medieval date (c.AD 1000-1100). The mount is sub-triangular or teardrop-shaped in plan with a loop at the apex, convex on [...]
Copper alloy button. Cast discoid button front with a small central spread-eagle motif stamped into the concave front, which is surrounded by a milled tyre-like rim. The back bears a series of tiny stamps in [...]
A complete lead-alloy bifacial token of post-medieval date. One side has an anchor design (Powell Type 5) and the other either a plume of feathers or a stylised fleur-de-lys (Powell Type 4). Lead tokens had a [...]
Copper alloy dress hook, as kindly identified by the finder. Cast circular slightly concavo-convex plate surmounted by a trapezoid loop and with an uncollared short sharp back-ward-pointing hook below. The plate bears a moulded pattern [...]
Lead stylus, as kindly identified by the finder. A cast lead rod of diameter 4.2mm, knife -sharpened in the manner of a pencil at one end, flat at the other; heavily patinated overall and bent [...]
Opaque pale grey - appears buff under transmitted light - flint with cortex spot, biconvex or plano-convex knife. A sub-oval flake of lentoid section with invasive angled scalar retouch across its dorsal side, and with [...]
Copper alloy and iron brooch. Cast hinged Colchester derivative brooch, Mackreth type CD H1.d. Cast tubular wings clenched behind retain an iron axis bar whose rusting has extruded to retain a hinged pin [lost]. The [...]
A base-silver Roman denarius of Elagabalus (AD 218-222) dating to the period AD 220-222 (Reece Period 10). INVICTVS SACERDOS AVG reverse type depicting the Emperor sacrificing over an altar with a bull behind, holding a [...]
Flint scraper. Discoid scraper with four broad flakes struck from its dorsal side and two adjacent flakes struck from a probably smooth bulbar ventral surface, the angle of working differing by 90 degrees on the [...]
An incomplete cast socketed and pegged, copper-alloy decorated spearhead dating to the Late Bronze Age (c. 1100-800 BC). The spearhead is a small example measuring 75.5mm in length. The open, circular socket has an internal [...]
Copper alloy brooch. Cast headstud brooch, Mackreth type Headstud X1. Rectangular flat-faced wings mask a concave gutter behind with solder traces to retain a separate spring [lost] and are surmounted by what appears to be [...]
Two reject sections of hard hammer struck blades from gunflint manufacture. Both of trapezoidal cross section, one much larger than the other, sub-rectangular in plan. Black/dark brown flint of good quality and matt surface with [...]
Incomplete and worn copper alloy coin, possibly an Byzantine Follis, of uncertain date. On the obverse a bust facing, possibly the head of Christ.The reverse is worn and it is unclear what is depicted and therefore what [...]
An incomplete Medieval to Post-Medieval copper-alloy Scabbard chape, dating to c.AD 1450 - 1600. The object is an openwork sword scabbard chape which is sub-triangular in plan with tapering and rounded sides and a knop at the [...]
An incomplete late Early Medieval copper-alloy harness link or bit link, dating to AD 1000 - 1100. The object consists of a triple knobbed loop with projecting collar, it terminates in an old worn break.Williams, D., (2007) Anglo-Scandinavian Horse Harness Fittings [...]
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