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

Head To Head   The Modern Antiquarian   Glastonbury Tor Forum Start a topic | Search
Glastonbury Tor
Re: Amazing tor
49 messages
Select a forum:
juamei wrote:
You know maybe its the tiredness, but I am starting to come round to your point of view! I'm still pretty unconvinced on the maze / spiral thing though...

Me too. I don't actually have a set point of view - I just feel that the farming terrace theory is pretty rubbish and a neolithic origin theory makes more sense than anything else currently on the table. I'm certainly unconvinced by the maze theory. While I don't think it's inherently implausible, it's simply impossible to interpret the surviving earthworks in such a fashion with any degree of certainty.

juamei wrote:
Neolithic is a weird one, there is a bronze age cross ditch on the land spur that links Glastonbury to hills on the way to Shepton Mallet; Pointers Ball. Its still quite large though hard to get to as its in back gardens.

Only on one side of the road. Where the earthwork falls on the other side it's quite easy to access. And it's a lot more impressive once you're standing on top of it! As far as I'm aware though, it's never been reliably dated. There's a school of thought that believes it might be a symbolic medieval boundary for the abbey, although I find that unlikely.

juamei wrote:
There was settlement on the Poldens and Wedmore certainly, probably from before the Neolithic, so I think there is no doubt people were on the Tor, Wearyall Hill and the other attached high ground.

If its neolithic would it be some kind of Causewayed Enclosure? Something novel?

No idea. I'm happy to dismiss the farming terrace theory (based on my current understanding), but anything else has to be utterly speculative - which is what makes it so interesting!

It's hardly authoritative (drawing as it does on extremely limited sources), but the Glastonbury Archaeological Assessment has this to say:

"Though there are few certain visible remains of the Prehistoric period on the Glastonbury peninsula, there is a possibility that Ponter’s Ball may have Iron Age origins, and that the Tor itself may have been sculpted in an even earlier time."


Reply | with quote
Posted by Mustard
26th February 2010ce
10:00

In reply to:

Re: Amazing tor (juamei)

2 replies:

Re: Amazing tor (Mustard)
Re: Amazing tor (juamei)

Messages in this topic: