Current thinking, came from Jan Harding on Sunday, you can hardly get more current or authorative than that! - must be wrong ;o).

I personally don't agree. For example I think Boltby Scar was a site before the hillfort was build but also that the hillfort could well date to 2400BC or there abouts. I think that the single post alignment that runs along the top of the scar interplays with Boltby in a way that suggests its contemporary.

One thing I'd like you to consider, is just who were the Roman's? As I see it, Brigantia was never a truly Romanised place. It was always under military control as opposed to being an integrated civil population as we see in the south. This is demonstrated to a certain extent in the way the Brigantians revolted whenever the Romans withdrew too many troops.

So as I see it, the Brigantian Roman Landscape is one of two seperate aspects - a macro picture and a micro picture.

The macro picture is that one carved out by the military authorities - the placement of forts, building of roads etc. The micro picture is the local interpretation of these military dictats. Given that during the Roman period, less than 0.1% of the population of Brigantia was actually Roman, and 99% were of the Brigantes tribe, 98% of these being brought up in exactly the same manner that they had prior to the Roman invasion and with largely the same beliefs, then what we should see is largely a continuation of religious and cultural practice. This I'd expect to change over time, becoming increasingly more romanised. However, what we should perhaps bear in mind is that when we look at the local picture, it would be one dominated by the pre Roman Celtic practices and beliefs.

Some sacred sites, I think have retained a universal significance - Wells and springs for example. I'm sure we are all reminded of this at the moment when we see so many dry streambeds yet on the occasion we stumble upon a gushing stream - I'm sure that in times of drought our ancestors were quick to realise these were "provided by the gods" and would see their eternal life as being a constant reminder of their gods presence. It must be these highly local aspects of life, as well as the universal symbols such as the stars, that must have helped form ealy religion.

In some cases, these sacred springs were bigger, and sustained much larger communities. I think I may have discovered the reason for the Ure being a sacred River - Semerwater Lake, close to Bainbridge it appears is largely fed by underground springs. According to a geological review I have been reading, up to 75% of it's output cannot be accounted for by rainfall.

The Swale Ure Plateau, in particular the area around Thornborough and south of here, is noted in that many times in the distant past the Swale and the Ure mave joined together at this point. Perhaps this serves to give another clue as to the reasons for the positioning of these monuments - a location were the two sacred rivers meet - perhaps a struggle between two gods.

The Neolithic Thornborough Cursus appears to join the rivers Swale and Ure symbolically, at a point where they have been known to join in the distant past.

We know that during the Iron Age and Roman periods water retained a massive ritual importance. So far over 3,000 artifacts have been salvaged from the Piercebridge Roman crossing point - 98% of these objects placed by local Celts I'd bet.

Not sure exactly where I'm going with this thought flow but I thought you might be interested.