 
|
|
|
|
|
What a lovely collection of round barrows, and a shame about the A4 spoiling the peace, and separating them. They are by The Ridgeway, which leads you up the hill to more tranquil surroundings, and the promise of a journey through history. The hairy old mounds, with a head of long grass, speak of the past, and I wonder about the scenes in the days when these monuments were being constructed. The Sanctuary is their neighbour, and leads the eye to nearby Avebury, and Silbury Hill, to which these sites are inexorably linked.
|
Bleasedale Circle is a wonderful place, surrounded by trees, through which the wind sighs or howls. Sometimes, well, quite a lot, it rains. It is Lancashire after all.
The peace within is complete. Few people visit, and the trees will be a bit overbearing for some, but for me it works well, and adds to the sense of the past. True, it'd be good to see the surrounding fells of the Trough of Bowland, and to look towards the Fylde coast, but the modern wooden markers of their predecessors, along the edge of the well preserved ditch, along with the info board all help to reconstruct the site in the Modern Antiquarian mind.
If in Preston, pop into the Harris Museum to view the beaker with cremation that was found here, along with a reconstruction of the site.
|
I can't believe I haven't posted owt about (like the rhyme?) one of the grestest of our chambered tombs. I'm having a blitz on sites I've not posted fieldnotes about, me.
Here goes. A few years ago we took our chances and crossed the A4 without being killed by some speed-freak with lowered suspension, wide tyres, and a big phallic exhaust. I suppose it makes them feel a little less inadequate. I'm turning into my dad.
Anyway, our ancestors, who built WKLB had other things to worry about, like missing thigh bones, skulls, and other body bits. What a memorial to a collective of people. It makes you think about how graves and grave markers have developed over the milennia, yet the basics have remained the same: stone. Did the WKLB people have any form of "writing", and is the absence of markings on the sarsens proof of no "writing"? I know of the carvings on the Stonehenge sarsens, but wouldn't you think that such a huge monument as WKLB would have had some form of "words", symbolic or otherwise? Or was the memory of people in the form of ancestral stories, passed down through the generations? Perhaps telly and stuff has got in the way of our modern communication.
It's an awe-inspiring site, with big stones, and an even bigger earthen mound, and great views. It's just below a ridge, so where was it supposed to be seen from?
Marvellous.
|
A few years ago I stood on top of Silbury Hill, and was absolutely gobsmacked by the sheer effort required to raise this behemoth. Why? Deep thought fails to bring an answer. With all the comforts and ease of a modern day life I bet we couldn't be arsed to do anything remotely as big with the tools they had to hand. Their life would be hard work without the hassle of this monumental construction.
To get into the mind of these people is impossible, and beyond the realms of archaeologists, who can, like us, just theorise.
Looking from The Sanctuary, on 07/07/09, I could see the downs rolling across the landscape, and there, in the middle of it all, was a flat-topped mini-down, dear old Silbury Hill. It didn't look at all drawfed by the surrounding landscape, truly a tribute to her architects, for she always seems a she to me. Bless 'er.
|
|
My latest visit (07/07/09), and the Natioinal Trust warden was finishing off strimming the grass, or rather the latest of many showers finished it for her, and sent her scuttling back to the Land Rover. I waited for the rain to stop, and the warm sun to return, and entered the sacred site, ankle-deep in strimmings (is there such a word?). They almost obscured the ugly concrete markers, which isn't a bad thing. The number of outstanding sites visible from The Sanctuary is more than you could shake a big stick at, and sites that would be on any anorak's ticklist: East Kennett long barrow, West Kennett long barrow, Seorfon round barrows, The Ridgeway, Silbury Hill, and dear old Avebury. Need I go on. Alright, I will - Adam's Grave. Good, eh? If The Sanctuary had a doorstep, I could safely say it's a crying shame that the A4 is on its doorstep. Why, as a nation, are we famous for ruining our historic sites by running roads right through or by them? The Sanctuary would be truly that if it was remote from the A4, and had its original stones. It still exudes an atmosphere, in spite of everything.
|
A few years ago I visited Knap Hill, and was blown away by the place. However, I then walked across to Adam's Grave, which outshone it. Knap Hill is the bridesmaid, and adam's Grave the bride. Having said that, it is a place to put on your places to visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil. Adam's Grave is a place to put on your list of places to visit tomorrow in case you shuffle off this mortal coil the day after tomorrow. In fact, stuff it, spoil yourself, visit them both tomorrow, it'd be daft not to.
Knap Hill is wide open, with outstanding views, and a sense of loneliness for a people gone. Choose a day of wind, and clouds sailing like galleons across the sky, with the sun-dappled landscape stretched out before you, with Avebury to the north, and Salisbury Plain to the south.
|
Big Wiltshire skies, cloud shadows chasing across the downs, creating a patchwork quilt over the already patchwork quilt of the farmland, wide-open spaces, pre-history peppered across the rolling landscape, a landscape of curvy, female-like form, and views over golden fields. There's the odd crop circle too.
I first visited Adam's Grave a few years ago, and was struck by the prominent position it occupies, visible from miles around. Knap Hill sits handily away to the east, and it's good to feel the wind through my scalp. This is a special place, a place of great atmosphere, and a place where I feel great inner peace. Whoever was placed to rest her for eternity was truly blessed. I wish I could meet the people who built this barrow, for they truly felt something, something intangible to us today.
Sit up there on the right sort of day, and dream of the distant people, for whom a great, unknown driving force set them to work on this tomb.
|
 
|
|
    
|
  
|
        
|
This site is thought to have started its life as a henge, later adapted by the Romano-British as a settlement with hut-circles. There is also evidence of a round cairn. See the ADS link below:-
http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/search/fr.cfm?rcn=LDNPHER08-2983
It's about 100 feet in diameter, with what appear to be standing stones on top of the bank, in places, which is highest at the northern quarter, and seemingly constructed of rocks, which appear on the surface in this quarter.
When you visit it, you are struck more by its henge-like appearance than by any hut-circles, and the "standing stones" certainly seem too coincidental to be true. Some do appear to be large boulders "placed" on top of the bank, but others seem to have been erected. Even so, why are they on top of the bank if they're natural?
Visit it, and decide for yourselves. It's worth it for the views into beautiful upper Dovedale. The Brotherswater campsite, Sykeside Farm, is a few hundred yards away, as is the pub, always a bonus.
|
The Museum of Kendal, one of the oldest in the country, covering a wide range of archaeology, as well as the geology and natural history of Cumbria, and the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland.
|
   
|
|
Eterwater is a beautiful place, full of lifelong memories for me. There is a supposed ancient cairn in the outskirts, but it's scratchng at the truth. Many investigations leave me doubtful. I want a burial cairn at Elterwater.
|
13/04/09
Easter Monday in the Lakes, eh? Deserted on mine and Mrs. TEs' walk. From Elterwater, over the shoulder of Lingmoor, into the twin valley of Little Langdale and a pastoral idyll. This is what Great Langdale must have been like before the internal (infernal more like) combustion engine.
We continued over the ancient (not prehistoric) Slater Bridge, and along to Fell Foot. In days gone bye, and in the second half of the 20th century, an old chap used to sit by the fell gate, opening and closing the gate to cars for a penny or two.
Sorry to go on, but we continued a couple of hundred yards up Wrynose Pass, before cutting across Blea Moss. According to local writer Bill Birkett, in his book (Great Langdale, A Year in the Life of), it's a site of a neolithic/bronze age burial cairn, not that I've found it. We continued to delectable waterfalls, and on to Blea Tarn. Then we had our sarnies on the shoulder of Lingmoor, with Great Langdale below our boots.
I looked, through the bins, to the Pike of Stickle, and Harrison Stickle stone axe factories. Knowing where they are helps.
We descended soft, grassy, and mossy slopes to the Great Langdale campsite, stopping to admire the cup-marked boulder, amongst the sighing trees.
It does make you wonder what it was all about. Something to do with the axe factories? Why just the one boulder, when half-a-dozen similar ones lay about? Why just cup-marks, so near the axe factories, especially when the Copt Howe boulders are so elaborate?
The beer in the friendly, and familiar, beer garden at the Old Dungeon Ghyll finished off a perfect day.
|
   
|
  
|
Skara Brae Sea Wall Set For Work.
Work to strengthen the foundations of the sea wall near the famous Neolithic village of Skara Brae in Orkney is about to begin.
Waves have affected a section of concrete on which the protective walling was built, which could lead to more damage.
Historic Scotland has started a project which will involve digging down to insert new reinforcements.
It is described as important and highly-skilled work.
Stephen Watt, Historic Scotland district architect, said: "The area affected is a bit beyond Skara Brae itself, but it is important because it stops the sea outflanking us.
"These are interim measures which help protect an enormously important part of Scotland's heritage.
"We are currently working with a number of other groups and organisations to put together a strategy to protect the entire bay from the effects of natural erosion."
The settlement was inhabited 5,000 years ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7840463.stm
|
Ancient Burial Ground Uncovered.
More than a dozen skeletons thought to be thousands of years old, have been found by Oxford archaeologists working at an ancient burial site in Dorset.
Excavations are taking place at the site in Weymouth before builders move in to build an access road to the Olympic sailing centre for 2012.
Archaeologist David Score said they had catalogued finds from almost every period of human life.
He said it "really added to knowledge of the Bronze and Neolithic eras".
"Building the relief road has given archaeologists an excuse to excavate and record finds dating back thousands of years," Mr Score said.
"I think it is very important because it's not very often that you get the opportunity to excavate an area of this size, in a location of such importance with so many burials from a wide span of time.
"I think once we have done all the analysis it really will contribute quite a lot to the corpus of knowledge that we've got about the Bronze Age and Neolithic periods in this area.
"We found more than a dozen skeletons they're in various states of preservation. Some are fairly poorly preserved, but the later ones, particularly the Roman ones are fairly well preserved."
All the finds are being taken back to Oxford where they are being catalogued.
Scientists will also look for small fish bones or charred plant remains to try and find out more about ancient eating habits.
The items will eventually be returned to Dorset where they will be put on display in a museum.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7804287.stm
|
"Oldest human brain" discovered.
Archaeologists have found the remains of what could be Britain's oldest surviving human brain.
The team, excavating a York University site, discovered a skull containing a yellow substance which scans showed to be shrunken, but brain-shaped.
Brains consist of fatty tissue which microbes in the soil would absorb, so neurologists believe the find could be some kind of fossilised brain.
The skull was found in an area first farmed more than 2,000 years ago.
More tests will now be done to establish what it is actually made of.
The team from York Archaeological Trust had been commissioned by the university to carry out an exploratory dig at Heslington East, where campus extension work is under way.
The skull was discovered in an area of extensive prehistoric farming landscape of fields, trackways and buildings dating back to at least 300 BC.
The archaeologists believe the skull, which was found on its own in a muddy pit, may have been a ritual offering.
"There is something unusual in the way the brain has been treated, or something that it's been exposed to that has preserved the shape of it." York Hospital neurologist
It was taken to York University where CT scans were used to look at the skull's contents.
Philip Duffey, the consultant neurologist who carried out the scans, said the find was "amazing".
"It's exciting that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin.
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME
More from Today programme
"I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition."
He added: "This could be the equivalent of a fossil. The brain itself would generally not survive. Fatty tissues would be feasted on by microbes.
"This isn't like the remains found in bogs; it doesn't have any skin on the skull or any tissue remains elsewhere.
"There is something unusual in the way the brain has been treated, or something that it's been exposed to that has preserved the shape of it."
Dr Sonia O'Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford added: "The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare.
"This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide."
The skull was found in an area first farmed more than 2,000 years ago
The find is the second major discovery during investigations at the site.
Earlier this year, a team from the university's department of archaeology unearthed a shallow grave containing the skeleton of a man believed to be one of Britain's earliest victims of tuberculosis.
Radiocarbon dating suggests that the man died in the fourth century, the late-Roman period.
The Vice-Chancellor of the University of York, Professor Brian Cantor, said: "The skull is another stunning discovery and its further study will provide us with incomparable insights into life in the Iron Age."
Specialists now hope to carry out further tests on the skull to establish how it has survived for so long, and perhaps more about the person whose brain it was.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7777385.stm
|
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
|
|
Log in |
Register
Previous 50 | Showing 51-100 of 424 posts. Most recent first | Next 50 
Top of page