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

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The Tump, Lewes (Artificial Mound) — Images (click to view fullsize)

<b>The Tump, Lewes</b>Posted by doublethink

The Tump, Lewes (Artificial Mound) — Fieldnotes

This is a Harvest Hill, very close to Lewes train station in East Sussex. It looks exactly like a minature Silbury Hill, and its use would have been very similar.
The hill is situatued next to an ruined priory, and has had a small corner of it cut off to accomodate a bowling green. This missing portion has meant that the original spiral path to the summit can no longer be followed as it once would have been, although there is still a path...
There is a wonderful view from it's top, which is still a very tranquil place, despite being almost in the middle of a town!
The top of the hill contains a post hole, and each easter, the christians come and place a large cross in this hole. Shortly after, the pagans come and remove the cross and leave their own offerings. As far as i can tell this is a yearly occurance!
There do not seem to be a celebrations at the tump on Lunassa, which would have been its original purpose.

sorry for no map reference - i will try to add it later -it is basically in the town of Lewes, by the station - easy to find!

The Long Man of Wilmington (Hill Figure) — Fieldnotes

This is a wonderful place. Above the long man there are a series of ancient burial mounds, in various styles dating from different periods. This place has been sacred for a very long time. Local legend says that there was once a goddess on the hill next to the long man who is now lost.

Also worth checking out is the 5,000+ year old Yew tree in the local churchyard. This is truly an amazing tree, and probably predates all around it (except the hill!) and marks the spot of the original shrine in this area.

The Plague Market At Merrivale (Multiple Stone Rows / Avenue) — Fieldnotes

Used to live near Merrivale and often return to visit this magical spot...
Has anyone else come across the large circular stone (a bit like a mill wheel) that sits atop three small stones? It looks for all the world like some kind of crazy altar... It is on amongst the main group of hut circles near the stone row. I have never been able to find anyone who can tell me what it might be.

Anyone any clue?
Having grown up on and around dartmoor, i have always been fascinated by the ancient stones and places doted around the area. As i grew older and moved away from the area, the fascination stayed with me. These days i am never happier than when out in some field looking for some ancient site, or climbing some ancient hillside and just looking at the landscape - trying to remove the modern infringements with my minds-eye, to reveal the landscape of the mother beneath it.

I now live in Brighton, co-run a small record label ( www.sonictonic.co.uk ) and spend much of my time exploring the landscape and training in a particularly old form of martial art - Ninpo - which it turns out has many of it's roots firmly placed in the neolithic (and before!) landscape of these isles (and particularly ireland). For an example, many of the spiral carvings and glyphs to be found inside many of the burial mounds - especially in ireland - which have confounded archaeologists for years (not hard to do with a lot of them!) are well known to the Amatsu Tatara tradition.

Formerly the teachings of this tradition where completely secret, and known only to a very few Grandmasters in Japan, but these teachings are starting to be brought into the open in the hope that they can be kept alive. If you want to find out more about this - visit a website i have designed which will be launched late DEC 2002CE and check the "training systems" menu.

Or search the web for Amatsu Tatara - although i'm not sure how much you will find...

that's all for now...

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