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Posted by Chance
20th March 2016ce
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Posted by Chance 20th March 2016ce |
Relating to the picture of a possible megalithic female (?mother goddess) figure that I've just posted. Herm has many prehistoric sites, unfortunately not all extant*. If this is indeed a figure, and if it stood where it now lies (by the path down to Belvoir just after the Carrefour, by Le Manoir), it would be more or less in the centre of the island, by the crossroads, and on a high point.
*Links to Durham University excavations
http://community.dur.ac.uk/herm.project/
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Posted by Tiamthe 28th January 2016ce |
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Posted by Tiamthe
28th January 2016ce
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Vandals target Neolithic Dolmen From the Jersey Evening Post:
"A DOLMEN that has stood for thousands of years in St Clement has been vandalised.
The Société Jersiaise is appealing for information after Dolmen de Mont Ubé was daubed in spray paint.
The Neolithic passage grave was built around 6,000 years ago and can be found in trees around 100 metres from Rue de la Blinerie."
Full story with picture
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Posted by baza 5th December 2015ce |
Archaeologists in Jersey find solid gold torc hidden in Celtic coin hoard Archaeologists in Jersey find solid gold torc hidden in Celtic coin hoard
By Richard Moss
A Celtic coin hoard discovered on Jersey has been offering up its secrets and astounding archaeologists with a series of golden treasure finds.
For the last two weeks, the Jersey Heritage hoard conservation team have been excavating in an area known to contain gold jewellery and late last week, one end of a solid gold torc was uncovered.
The find comes on the back of several finds within the hoard including two other solid gold torcs, one gold plated and one of an unknown alloy, along with a silver brooch and a crushed sheet gold tube. But the latest discovery is considerably larger than anything previously unearthed on the island.
A large, rigid neck ring, archaeologist say the torc has a massive decorative ‘terminal’, which is where it was probably locked closed around the owner’s neck. The terminal is formed from two solid gold wheels, each about 4cm across and 1cm wide.
So far, 10cm of the curved gold collar has been uncovered and it is not yet known how complete it is.
“It’s an incredible time here,” said Neil Mahrer, Jersey Museum Conservator. “Every hour or so we are finding a new gold object.
“We did see some gold jewellery on the surface of the hoard, but since we’ve started looking at this shoe-box sized area, we’ve uncovered a total of six torcs, five of which are gold and one which we believe to be gold-plated. This is the only one that we think is whole, though.”
The extent of the torc’s wholeness will be discovered in the next few weeks as the coins currently hiding it will be painstakingly recorded and removed.
Dr Andrew Fitzpatrick, an Iron Age jewellery expert who has been involved in studying jewellery found in other Jersey hoards has been assisting with the interpretation. He has already identified comparable features in examples found in 2nd century BC hoards at Bergien, Belgium and Niederzier, Germany.
A small stone has also been uncovered, possibly of local granite. Archaeologists say it may be no more than a pebble in the field that fell into the treasure pit during the burial, but, as it is an odd shape and size, its purpose will be investigated.
At the end of the clearing period the torc will be scanned in place to record its position to fractions of a millimetre before being removed, probably along with some of the other jewellery surrounding it.
http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art508530-archaeologists-in-jersey-find-solid-gold-torc-hidden-in-celtic-coin-hoard
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Posted by moss 5th December 2014ce |
Herm is a rather special, unspoilt place. No cars or motorbikes, and you can walk around its coastline in a couple of hours. There are several broken and battered small passage tombs, and we only stopped by one (Robert's Cross). There used to be an enormous menhir on Herm Common but it fell prey to unscrupulous quarrymen. After circling the island we stopped for a beer in the Mermaid and read our newly purchased book "Hidden Treasures of Herm Island" by Catherine Kalamis. I'm not sure that you could buy this anywhere but on the island, but I recommend it for the in-depth history of the island and its owners over the years. Many of them, it seems, found the Common a weird and almost threatening place. I can imagine it gets pretty windswept and bleak, but to us the whole island seemed lovely and well worth a visit (boat from St Peter Port, Guernsey, several times a day). It was my first visit but my wife had been there many times as a child.
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Posted by UncleRob 13th April 2014ce |
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