The Modern Antiquarian. Ancient Sites, Stone Circles, Neolithic Monuments, Ancient Monuments, Prehistoric Sites, Megalithic Mysteries

Links by Rhiannon

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Showing 1-20 of 436 links. Most recent first | Next 20

Cottrell Park (Standing Stones)

Welsh Journals Online


W F Grime's article about the excavation and resiting of the stone, in 'Reports and Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists Society' (v67, 1934).

Paviland Cave (Cave / Rock Shelter)

Welsh Journals Online


Advice for visiting the cave (inc map) from 'Gower' magazine, v13 (1960).

Burry Standing Stones

Welsh Journals Online


A map of 1784 (printed in 'Gower' magazine, v13) shows three stones in a line near the standing Knelston stone.

Piedmont (Region)

Internet Archive


In the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London for 1899-1900, there's a report about a cupmarked stone near Gignese with a drawing. Other stones are mentioned too, with the amusing detail that rubbings took nine sheets of the Daily Telegraph, and papier mache casts made with sheets of the Guardian. No penny dreadfuls for this sort of work, naturally. Or indeed local Italian papers.

Alderney

Internet Archive


Volume 3 of the Journal of the British Archaeological Association (1847) has engravings of various megalithic remains on the island, along with a tall story that one stone tomb had a giant's skull with teeth as big as a man's fist.

Northumberland (County)

Internet Archive


History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, volume 9 (1879-81) - has a list of "The named Stones of Northumberland; being a list of huge stones, single and in groups, in situ and detached, to which local names have been given in the County." by G. A. Lebour.

Cuddesdon Stones (Standing Stones)

Ashmolean Museum: Oxfordshire's Historic Archives


This page has drawing of the 'Upper' and 'Lower' stones at Cuddesdon, which seem to have been at SP604024 and SP607020. "Local inhabitants have stated that the stones were removed sometime in the 1980s." But I wonder where they were removed to - it's possible they might be lying in the hedge I suppose. The writer of the website sounds hopeful they won't have disappeared without trace.

Trusty's Hill (Hillfort)

Internet Archive


A page from the 'Fifth Report and Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in Galloway' (1914) that shows the curious carvings (one is surely an alien?) and the fort's reputed vitrifiedness.

White Horse Stone (Standing Stone / Menhir)

Internet Archive


A whole little booklet about the stone, written in 1907 by F J Bennett.

Corbridge (Cup Marked Stone)

Biodiversity Heritage Library


'A cup-marked stone in the Roman town of Corstopitum' - a short article by R H Walton in the 1962 edition of the History of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club.

"Only the other day, gang after gang of Irish labourers was dismissed rather than agree to put an air-port runway across some thorn trees which they considered to be free from interference - even in the cause of "Progress." Perhaps the British workmen thought the same thing, in 200AD."

Higher Boden Fogou

Archaeology Data Service


Introduction and a link to James Gossip's paper (click on 'downloads) which describes the fogou and its rediscovery.

St Catherine's Hill (Sacred Hill)

Google Books


From the London Review, 1863. You wouldn't believe what the riff-raff are getting up to at St Catherine's Hill on 'Tap-Up Sunday'. Four hundred of Guildford's 'lowest inhabitants' were there causing havoc apparently.

The 1898 edition of Brewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable' points at why:
The Sunday preceding the fair held on the 2nd October, on St. Catherine's Hill, near Guildford, and so called because any person, with or without a licence, may open a "tap," or sell beer on the hill for that one day.

Lots more information about the fair (held since the middle ages) can be found in Matthew Alexander's article on the St Catherine's Village website.

Nempnett Thrubwell (Long Barrow)

Google Books - The Gentleman's Magazine


'Tumboracos' sent a letter to The Gentleman's Magazine in 1789 in response to Bere's. He sounds very (too?) level headed and he pushes for the date of the barrow to be accepted as pre-Roman. He doesn't believe Bere's story about an eight-foot skeleton either, and tells a little anecdote about breathlessly running to see a skeleton found in a barrow dug by three soldiers, who claimed it was that of 'a prodigious giant'. But actually when he held the femur up to one of them they had to concede it was of ordinary size (it made him feel better to have a little rant). And I guess it's true that people have "a natural promptness to magnify casual discoveries into the marvellous" as he says. Though that's quite nice sometimes.

Kent

Exploring Kent's Past


Searchable Historic Environment Record for Kent. If you look at the sites on a map you can also choose historic maps for the area.

Cornwall

Access to Monuments: Cornwall's Archaeological Heritage


Lovely clear interactive maps with links to more information on the Heritage Gateway.

Dunrod (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art)

Canmore


I felt suspicious of adding these because mysteriously they're not already on TMA. But I think the probable reason is that they're within a firing range. Maybe they're accessible occasionally...

Leacet Circle (Stone Circle)

Internet Archive


Notes on Excavations at Leacet Hill Stone Circle, Westmorland, by Joseph Robinson and R S Ferguson. P76 in volume 5 of the Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmoreland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (1881). Their investigations found three stones that were buried on the far side of the wall, and several urns. There's a nice little plan with a table of the sizes of the stones.

Torrs Hill (Hillfort)

National Museums Scotland


There's not much of the fort left on top of this hill. But more exciting is the "Torrs Chamfrein" found in the immediate vicinity - a superb bit of Early Iron Age bronze work.

Two curly pointy things were also found. Initially they were thought to be 'horns' to go with the pony mask. eg p29 here:
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/PSAS_2002/pdf/vol_007/7_334_361.pdf
And then it was decided that they were the bottoms of drinking horns. But now the NMS record wisely hedges its bets, and says they were from 'an ostentatious display object'. Very nice whatever.

Cheetham Close (Stone Circle)

Internet Archive


Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society for 1895 - "The Stone Circles on Chetham's Close" by Major Gilbert J French. Includes some plans of the stones, and also a report from 1871 when Thomas Greenhalgh's 'disgust and astonishment may easily be imagined when I found two of the stones broken almost to fragments, and several others damaged'. Disappointing.

Dumfries and Galloway

Dumfriesshire and Galloway Nat Hist and Antiq Soc


Online versions of the DGNHAS Transactions - from the 1860s to the 1920s.
Showing 1-20 of 436 links. Most recent first | Next 20
This hill, it has a meaning that is very important for me, but it's not rational. It's beautiful, but when you look, there's nothing there. But I'd be a fool if I didn't listen to it.
-- Alan Garner.


..I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn..
-- William Wordsworth.

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