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I've listed this site as a Taula as that's probably the main attraction for most folk. The taula is missing it's cap, but does have an interesting hole in it, in the manner of the Stone of Odin.
I was quite chuffed to find this out, as it seemed very difficult to get any information regarding the site, it's existence only being marked in a very vague fashion on one of the Menorcan Megalithic tourist maps.
Thankfully, there were some helpful folks at the farm, one of whom was quite happy to guide me to the right area. This is just as well, as it would have been nigh on impossible to find without exact directions.
The poblat is still quite in evidence, though it's been co-opted for agricultural purposes, and it seems as if some of the original structures have been rebuilt over the centuries. Like little circular drystone structures which my guide explained were alleged to be made from the stones of the dwellings in the ancient village.
There are also a couple of interesting anomalies in the poblat zone, namely a line of large orthostats which seemed reminiscent of the facade of something or other, and a patch of outcrop bearing large stonecut basins, some circular, some irregular almost head-and-torso shaped.
These parts are reasonably accessible, as the grove in which they sit is grazed by livestock. The livestock are prevented from getting into the Taula sanctuary/Talaoit by a substantial wall.
On the other side of this wall, it is very overgrown. The trees and bushes are virtually impenetrable. it's a bit of a scramble to get to the holed Taula, around which can be made out a good few other orthostats poking up from the very uneven undergrowth/cobbles mixture that is underfoot. Some of these orthostats also have holes, some of which looked natural, as if the stones had been chosen specifically because of the holes.
The talaoit is not easy to get up, I found myself wriggling under branches and through nettles to circumnavigate it to find if there was one of those little cave things built into the side, which there is. It was very disorientating, but I think the cave thing points roughly in the direction of El Toro.
It's a bit of a mad and gnarly old site, but if you like your prehistoric sites raw, unexcavated and untended, this is a very untidy and atmospheric example of exactly those qualities.
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From Camden's Brittannia, 2nd Ed."W. Matfen is the seat of sir William Blacket, bart. and in an adjoining field is a circular mount with a cavity at top, and by it a stone nine feet high, three feet by one and a half thick, called the Stob stone.
In opening of other tumuli of stones have been found two kistvaens, or coffins of four stones set on edge with a bottom and cover, containing the ashes of the dead appearing in a white dust. It has since all been removed" There's certainly no large mound next to the Matfen stone nowadays.
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The grid ref given here is that matching the spot where in 1913, an oak coffin was discovered during ploughing. It's 1.67m in length and contained a few teeth, remains of stitched calf skin, a drinking cup and flint scraper. Radiocarbon dates of 2400-2200BC were determined, suggesting an early BA date for the burial.
the C&R stone does not seem to have been part of this burial, but it's exact findspot is unclear.
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Having spent best part of a week in the village, I got a few opportunities to examine the various chunks of oolitic stone dotted about the village. It's difficult to avoid thoughts that these could so easily have once been part of something Rollrighty.
The larger stones forming the kerb of the church looked to me as if they were once fewer, larger stones that had been split to be the right size for the kerb. There are definite feather marks, and the more angular edges Jane mentions seemed to me to be the bits where larger stones had been split. Some of the others in the kerb are just as gnarly as the Rollrights themselves, making it easy to imagine them as part of a monument.
There are also a couple of the roadside stones that bore slight circular depressions that if they appeared on fell sandstone in Northumberland, I would have no hesitation in declaring them cupmarks. But as these Churchill stones are oolitic, its not so easy to say. Though the presence of the possible cups in Salford might lend a tiny sliver of credence to the possibility that they are artificial, and not just statistically inevitable natural cup-like formations.
Overall, I'm in agreement that these stones really do look like they could have been part of the circle that Hamish says was once down the way at Sarsgrove wood.
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A strange mirror-image copy of the UWH in El Paso, Mexico. With a little lizard in the corner.
No indication of the it's age though. (Modern one would assume...)
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This collection of circles is now destroyed, the correct grid ref would have been SW36753306, but I've tweaked it slightly so that the pin appears in the right place on the inline map.
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This mound features in Camden's Brittania as 'Dewley Lowe', where it is mentioned in association with the nearby Heddon Law burial mound:
There is yet remaining one very great heap of stones, besides other tumuli, and a remarkable one farther to the east called Dewley Lowe, with a smaller one near it. The reference to another mound is particularly interesting.
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Stone Age descendents of Durham City discovered
"Water works have uncovered the most significant archaeological site of ancient Britons in County Durham dating back 5,000 years. Northumbrian Water are building a new £3.5 million drinking water reservoir on the outskirts with views overlooking Durham City Cathedral and Castle. Before work began extensive archaeology investigations were undertaken.
Experts from Tyne and Wear Museums found evidence of continuous settlement on the site from 3,000BC to 300BC by stone age, bronze age and iron age man. Pottery remains and flint knives and skin scrapers were unearthed. Digging also uncovered very well preserved timbers used to shore up ditches and shaped by bronze age tools and elsewhere traces of iron age fields were found."
A little more detail at: http://www.bdaily.info/story/view/4768
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