Latest Fieldnotes

Here lie the bones of a monster. The entry in the Archaeological Inventory, following O’Nualláin, describes a stone pair – two slabs of mismatched height, the taller over two metres – but doesn’t mention the brooding block swaddled in whitethorn, 20 metres to the east.(1,2) Or the others fallen south from the body of the fence. While these latter may be coincidental the eastern megalith, tall, thick and imposing, sits the line of the recorded pair in position and wide-face orientation.

Only Aubrey Burl, with a politely suggestive question mark after the ‘2 st st’ in his gazetteer, gives a published hint of the giant that must have stretched here.(3)

‘Sleep.
Do not fear the roaming.
eye.
Sleep.‘

Federico Garcia Lorca, from ‘Berceuse for a Sleeping Mirror’.

Permission to visit may be obtained from the farmhouse immediately south, on the left hand side of the road.

(1) Archaeological Inventory of Cork, Volume 1, West Cork, 1992, no.196; 42
(2) O’Nualláin, PRIA 88 C, 1988, no.133; 247
(3) Burl, ‘From Carnac to Callanish: The Prehistoric Stone Rows and Avenues of Britain, Ireland and Brittany’, 1993; 261.

Quoit a resurrection

WOW! It’s true, the stones are all finally up!

Me and Rupe walked the dog round the bottom end of the lake this afternoon (rather than parking up by the recycling centre) to find this:

themodernantiquarian.com/post/68766/images/devils_quoits.html
themodernantiquarian.com/post/68767/images/devils_quoits.html

As well as the stones going up, the henge had been mown and looked all ‘coifed’ and magnificent, and the hundreds of rabbits I saw last month with ocifant were gone.

We paused by the biggest of the original stones – it was thrilling to see it back up again, looking just like in the 1882 photo by Henry Taunt. I took a photo, as the shadows looked remarkably similar to that in Taunt’s picture.

themodernantiquarian.com/post/68765/devils_quoits.html

To my knowledge this complete reconstruction of a site using what is left of the original stones, plus some new ones, is unique. Interesting that it’s the painstaking excavation of Oxford Archaeology working with site owner Hanson who have made it happen.

As we were leaving, two blokes wearing florescent yellow jackets and hard hats from the portakabin at the dump approached us. They had seen us as we walked round the top of the bank. One wore a tie and had clean hands (obviously the site manager) and the other wore a sweaty T-shirt, big shit-kicking boots and had dirty hands (obviously a workman). They asked what we were doing there as there is no public access. I told them the dog gets walked up there every day (by my kids) as we only live ‘over there’ *points towards to village*.

A charm offensive was needed to diffuse any whiff of trespass, so I enthused about the stones (not difficult!) and how over the years we’d watched the work continuing and how excited we were to see the stones go up on Wednesday. This seemed to do the trick.

The man in the tie said they’d be a public opening in late August/early September. He also told me that once it was open, they planned to limit access to it with a fence “like at Stonehenge”, he said, to stop people walking all over it, wearing it down and to prevent rabbits recolonising it and denuding it. “Like hell that’s going to happen” I thought. He said that all the rabbits had been gassed last week and they were keen to keep them off – they were damaging the ditch and bank very badly.

I asked the man with the dirty hands if he was part of the team who put the stones up. He was! He said it felt pretty special to be part of it, which I thought was nice.

So there you have it.

And as we walked back to Rupe’s house he said: “your stone-hugger friends will be excited … ooh, there’s two of them now!” and at that moment Vybik John and Common Era pulled up in a car. I told them which way to walk round the lake to the stones without being spotted by the site staff.

Please remember if you visit the henge that you are technically trespassing.

The Ratoira’s Lake Menhir.

A menhir in a lovely scenery. The Alps mountains and a small pretty alpine lake. A very special atmosphere...a big Thank to Mr. Sergio Piazzo who guide me to it !

Found by Professor Janigro D’Acquino. It was re-utilized by Romans as tombstone. They wrote “SEX MAIORI M:f:CAM” on it.

Nowadays it’s kept as an ornament... in a private garden.

Mindino “Chief-Wizard’s Stone”

When I held in my hands the picture of this stone, for the first time, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My friend Vanni Penone who found it years ago told me that because of the making of a new road the stone was destroyed and no more there. Happily he was wrong about it.

This kind of engravings are very rare to find (at least in Italy). I’ve seen another one only once in a book. I choose this name for it because the stylised figure reminds me of a very important person as a chief or a wizard in a tribe. It stands next to a spring. It can be found following the same muletrack that leads to Deversi Pietra delle Masche.

Deversi, Li Cunni. Pietra delle Masche

An interesting engraved stone. I found it thanks to Professor Renzo Amedeo.

A sacred area, in the neighbourhood there are other engraved stones. Ligurian tribes were living here too (so not only in Liguria but also Piemonte, Lombardia and other places in north Italy).

It’s called Pietra delle Masche (Witches’ or Hags’ Stone) because legends tell of witches dancing on the stone on certain nights.

This stone is standing next to a spring. The engravings are spindle-shaped carvings ending in small cups, and others are just small cups.

This stone is very close to the menhirs of Ceresa 1 and Ceresa 2 (to the west of them).

I found this stone thanks to Mr Italo Pucci of Istituno Internazionale di Studi Liguri.

I don’t know who was responsible for the recent alterations, but well done whoever you are. The removal of the dodgy old sign did make me slightly wistful, as even though it was a bit of a vile old relic, it had a certain gravitas that seemed appropriate.

The removal of the fence and trees has improved the site in my opinion. Access is easier, there is now no impediment to getting to the outcrop from the road, and the removal of the tree has taken away the possibility of damage from it’s roots. It also makes it possible to see the whole whaleback in one go, so visually, it’s an unqualified success. It would be even better if the view had been restored, but the rest of the trees ain’t doing no harm, if anything, they probably provide a bit of protection against the scouring effects of the Northumbrian Climate. The carvings have only been exposed for about 150 years, as Canon Greenwell reported removing 9 inches of turf, so it’s probably for the best if the surrounding trees are left to do their own thing.

Monte Beigua. Dolmen, Hill, lake and river “Della Biscia”

On the northern slopes of Monte Beigua another sacred area, the other one is in Ceresa 1, Ceresa 2 and Strada Megalitica on the southern slopes.

This area is called “Della Biscia” (of the Water Snake) because there are a lake an hill and a river all named the same “Della Biscia”. It has all to do with the cult of the waters (very plentiful here as on the southern side of the mountain) and with the cult of the “fairy-eel”. Water Snake and Eel are the same thing. But on the hill some engravings are showing also a fertility cult.

The area is not so far from Pietra Scritta, sited on the north-west of Monte Beigua. All around there are many engraved stones and a dolmen that has lost his roof-stone, which can be found next to it.

My big thanks again to Mr Italo Pucci and Mr Fenoglio. Their information has led me to the site.

Always grateful to Mr Italo Pucci and Mr M Fenoglio from the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, to the memory of whom I want to dedicate my little work in this site. Because of them I found this great engraved Sacred Stone. It stands on the northern slopes of Monte Beigua on a bank of the river Traversa and it has to do with a water cult.

It appears as a big blackboard where people wrote through the centuries. So engraved there you’ll find prehistoric sacred images together with christian crosses (specially made to exorcise the stone...) together with much more modern engravings, such as people’s names. Anyway the oldest engravings are recognisable and still remarkable.

Ceresa is a place where several prehistoric sites are located and a little bit farther starts the Sacred Path Strada Megalitica Del Monte Beigua.

So it has to be said that all this area was a special sacred place for ancient Ligurians, adorers of elements like water (this area is particularly rich in water) or fire.

In front of this menhir, another menhir higher up than this one that has been thrown down, even in front of the final cromlech at the end of Strada Megalitica stands the Bric Greppino, an hill that attracts lightning in stormy weather. The religion of the ancient Ligurian was animism.

And more evidence the Ligurians were part of Celtic World are some houses that still can be found in the village of Alpicella in the neighbourhood of Ceresa. Those houses, the oldest in the village, are built in a typical celtic way (the walls of the front and the back of the house contain the roof in the central part of the house where the roof stands lower than the front and back walls as holding to protect the roof).

Again I have to thank Mr Italo Pucci and Mr Fenoglio of Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri for the information.

Nice views of Cheviot, and before the trees, it would have been probably intervisible with Roughting Linn. Good access (we managed to get a 3 wheeler buggy up there, but a wheelchair wouldn’t work) with public footpaths making it quite easy to get to from Roughting Linn, via Goatscrag.

The outcrops known as 1 and 2 are fairly easy to spot if the bracken isn’t too high. I didn’t get to panel 3, but there is only one conspicuous outcrop in the right area, so it’s probably not too tricky either. In direct mid-day sun, the motifs of both 1 and 2 are almost invisible. I’d say anyone wanting to see the carvings would be well advised to time their visit to early morning or late evening, preferably earlier in the year when the bracken won’t be a problem.

The carvings are quite eroded, and I found it tricky to reconcile what I saw with the complexity of the drawings by Beckensall, Tate and Bruce.

Leaze remains off limits to the casual visitor to the moor. I have found an easy way in but with the fields full of lambs at the moment I was not going to trespass. At least now I have a decent lens I can get a photo of the circle from both the east and west.

Altar Rock of Sotto di S.Lorenzo.
Very close to the menir of Passo di Mezzaluna, at a lower level, there’s a small valley, once site of a small lake. In the valley stands this Altar Rock with engraved cup and small drainage canal. It was probably used during ceremonies to receive liquids such as water, milk or blood from sacrifices.

On the western slopes of Monte Beigua there’s a hill called Bric Aliberti. On the western slopes of the hill at 820 metres above sea level there’s this engraved rock. This kind of engraving, made by repeated scratching, have the meaning of a ritual: repeating a prayer while scratching the stone. I have to thank Mister Italo Pucci from Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri as I found this sacred rock because of his book, written with Mr Ausilio Priuli. The name of the book is:“Incisioni rupestri e megalitismo in Liguria” edited by Priuli & Verlucca.

You cannot miss this one,it’s rather large. There are clear cup marks on pointy end and other eroded featuring on the face. There are other stones in the near area but I couldn’t find them. Maybe next time I’ll bring a strimmer.

What can I say, easy access, beautifully restored site. What a setting,you can see for miles,when I was there you could see Dark Lochnagar.What more could you want.

Not to difficult to find, as you round the corner there it is. It sits amongst the debris of farming but this does not detract from the stones magnificence. It must have commanded quite a view in the past for the land drops away towards the hills.

The ideal spot for a rock shelter. South facing, with the ridge as a great barrier to the north winds, with a nice platform to lean logs against the cliff, could have made this a des-res in the days when rockshelters were the height of fashion. It’s also got the obligatory excellent views of Cheviot and I think it would have been intervisible with the goings on at Roughting Linn. Though the carving of the outcrop at Roughting Linn most likely occurred a good while after Goatscrag was being used, there’s a strong chance that the Roughting Linn outcrop had significance for long before it was chosen as a rock that needed to be marked with cups and rings.

One other interesting feature of the outcrop is the way that the dep fissures which are home to nesting birds channels the sound of hungry chicks, so that you can stand in one spot, moving your head from side to side, and whilst leaning left, silence, then when leaning to the right, loud chirruping. It gave me quite a start when walking past, there was a sudden blast of noise that vanished in a second. It probably hints at this having once been a good spot to go hunting for extra protein in the form of hidden eggy comestibles.

The deer carvings are so basic, and so anomalous. there have been doubts about their antiquity, but the crudity, and the definite weathering do give them a high likelihood of ancientness. Their anomalous nature, being one of the rare examples of representative rock carvings in not just Northumberland (where they are the only example of such), but in Britain and Ireland also, makes this a significant place. It’s possible that the orientation of the cliff face which makes it so sheltered, it the reason why the carvings may have survived. it’s equally possible that other similar surfaces once bore similar marks, but that the more exposed surfaces have long since been sandblasted by the elements, so that no trace of carvings remains. There are a few patches on the vertical surfaces of the Bowden Doors that would be good candidates for such unprovable claims.

Another thing that makes me lean towards the idea of the Goatscrag deer being prehistoric is the nature of the more standard abstract carvings on the outcrop above the shelter. The small cups with their horseshoe linking arcs remind me of Australian Aborigine motifs which are said to represent humans sitting in camps. It’s a highly tenuous link, and it’s supposed to be bad form to make anthropological comparison across space and time (for many good reasons), but hey, the pondering of improbables is a large part of the fun of going to look at ancient carvings.

You cannot miss these. There is a layby and if you don’t mind clambering over barbed wire it is easy to access. Lovely stones , possibly a four poster with an outlier although a stone would be missing.

What a delight it was to find this, it is at the back of the manse garden on a hill. Nick has said all there is to say about this site and I have nothing to add. The minister has changed and the new one is very enthusiastic about his treasure.

On the southern slopes of Monte Beigua, in front of Bric Greppino. There’s this Sacred path, a hundred meters long, called “Strada Megalitica”. At his beginning there are two big rocks as threshold, the distance between the two rocks is 1,65 meters. The threshold is close to a fountain. Where the path ends, at an highest level, are the remains of a wide cromlech. Not so far from this site there’s a small village called Faie that means Faires in Ligurian. Next to a hill called Priafaia. In Ligurian Pria means stone and faia means fairy. So the name of that hill is “the stone of the fairy”...

Strange to find this in the middle of a housing estate. Not too difficult to find with the way through called Standing Stone Walk.
Not badly damaged and only a little autographing.Plenty of people about.

The farm was being renovated so no one to ask, so I went into the field anyway. The stone was a bit over grown with nettles and the like but you could get an appreciation of it.

From Lacra C the terrier and I headed across the fields in search of the elusive avenues. After crossing some boggy low ground we came across a group of stones that more or less fitted Burls description of ‘a few footballish boulders’. The eye of faith is definitely required here but given enough to-ing and fro-ing it is possible to make out an avenue. Saying that, if Mr Burl had said that they were just a fortuitous arrangement of boulders I would also agree with him.
I’m not too sure what to say about this site other than have a look for yourself and see what you think.