Jane
How it looks in the landscape, with Moth for scale.
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
Moth, for scale, purposes, obviously.
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
Moth and Joan stand in the lane which neatly runs through the middle of the long barrow...
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
‘One way‘
Building on the ideas about the Ridgeway and the landscape through which it passes which I developed in ‘Hannah’s Ridgeway walk’, in this watercolour painting I have tried push further the ideas of ‘what is the right way to go?’, right and wrong, straight lines versus curves and a lot more besides. See what you make of it.
Send it as an e-card from here: Http://www.janetomlinson.com/earthmagic.asp
Image credit: (c) Jane Tomlinson, 2003
Scottish Carved Stones Could be Safeguarded
Carving out a safe future for nation’s most precious stones by Stephen Stewart of ‘The Herald’, December 22 2003
ONE of Scotland’s most valuable historic resources could be safeguarded for future generations by a consultation document published today.
Carved stones, from prehistoric rock art to gravestones, will be the focus of a three-month investigation involving owners, local authorities, special interest groups and the wider public.
Frank McAveety, minister for tourism, culture and sport, launched the consultation, due to finish at the end of March, which is designed to protect carved stones such as the Pictish cross-slabs at Glamis, Aberlemno and Eassie.
Other significant carved stones include the eagle from the Broch of Burrian in Orkney and the boar on the roadside stone at Knocknagael, near Inverness.
From BBCi, 22 Dec 2003
A cross-border heritage group has been protesting against plans to build a rubbish incinerator near the site of Newgrange and the Battle of the Boyne in County Louth.
The demonstrators called on the Irish Government to stop what they described as “cultural vandalism”.
Volunteers from Tavistock Conservation Project have been helping to restore the setting of an ancient Scheduled Monument on Dartmoor, almost totally obscured by vegetation.
The Pound at Deeper Marsh on Spitchwick Common, an earthwork enclosure and ditch, was covered by thick scrub and gorse bushes until the volunteers, under close supervision by archaeologists, cleared the area.
A survey is now planned of the site to discover its original function. Over the years it has been described as a Neolithic henge, a Bronze Age burial mound or an Iron Age hill slope enclosure.
It is thought the Iron Age suggestion is most likely, as it would tie in other sites in the area. This would date the pound between 700BC and 43AD.
Other conservation measures to archaeological sites on Dartmoor have also been carried out recently by Dartmoor National Park Authority.
They include repairs to the Yellowmead stone circle and row on Cosdon Hill and damage to the Langstone Moor stone circle on Merrivale firing range, where visitors to the site have built two crude stone walls between the stones.
A DNPA spokesman said: ‘The material used in the construction was derived from inside the circle and consists of the shattered remains of former standing stones, destroyed by American military during the second world war.‘
(c)Tindle Newspapers Ltd 18 December 03
from the Tavistock Times Gazette
In two separate incidents metal detectorists working in Kent have unearthed fascinating hoards of prehistoric coins, axe heads and jewellery.
A number of weeks ago two metal detectorists found an Iron Age hoard on farmland near Maidstone and last Sunday another detectorist dug up a Bronze Age hoard near Wye.
Whole story here
Although strictly in Berkshire, not Oxfordshire, this marker stone in on a track above Lambourn (also listed on this website as Oxon) near the Sevenbarrows complex.
Included on Celia’s site
Much reconstructed and abused by treasure hunters and mineral prospectors, the capstone was recorded as becoming dislodged during a violent thunderstorm in the early 19th century, when one of the supporting stones was broken. (Must’ve been one HELLUVA lightening strike!) The whole structure had already been weakened by soil removal during successive ‘explorations’.
The capstone was replaced in 1824, but a piece broke apparently broke off during reconstruction. The capstone was replaced upon repositioned uprights, buried to a deeper level for more stability.
Prior to the reconstruction, it is said that a man on horseback could pass with ease beneath the capstone.
Taken from Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990
The inscription, probably made long after the menhir was orginally erected, reads
RIALOBRANI (Royal Raven)
CUNOVALI FILI (’Famous leader’ or ‘Glorious Prince’)
The raven is a bird of carrion, linked with death and the battlefield and was believed to have magical power for those who worshipped it. The raven is one of the forms taken by the Irish Morrigan, goddess of war and death.
Celtic legend links the name of Bran (in RialoBRANi) to a ancient British warrior king, keeper of the cauldron of immortality, whose decapitated head continued to have powers of speech and was later buried on the site of the Tower of London, where ravens still live. Bran also appears in Arthurian legend under a variety of names and he was a Celtic solar war god.
The story of RIALOBRANI (Ryalvran) is clearly very ancient. An invader attacked the Glorious Prince, seized his lands and occupied the Lescudjack hillfort at Penzance, which protected the harbour. The defeated royalty fled possibly to the area around Carn Euny or the hillfort of Caer Bran (Raven Castle). The Royal Raven tried to reclaim his territory and a battle took place, but Ryalvran was killed and buried by the stone which apparently was the same height as the dead warrior.
From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall
Holed stones have a long tradition of healing properties. At Men An Tol children were passed through the hole as an act of baptism and to seure good health during their lifetime. Engagements were sealed at new year by young people holing hands through the hole and for young women in particular it was considered to help in having easier childbirth and to cure infertility, as well as promote an abundance of crops and cattle.
From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990.
The legend
Robert Hunt in the 19th century says:
In the parish of Burian are the Dawns Myin or Men – the dancing stones, commonly called the Merry Maidens; and near them are two granite pillars named the Pipers. One sabbath evening some of the thoughtless maidens of the neighbouring village instead of attending vespers, strayed into the fields and two evil spirits assuming the guise of pipers, began to play some dance tunes. The young people yielded to the temptation, forgetting the day, commenced dancing. The excitement increased and soon the music and dancuing became extremely wild; when lo! a flash of lightening from the clear sky transfixed them all, the tempters and the tempted and there in stone they stand.
No clubbing on a Sunday, then, Pop-pickers.
From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990
The name
Pre-20th century descriptions of Cornish stone circles frequently refer to them as ‘Dans Men’ or ‘Dawns Meyn’, usually interpreted at as ritual places where ceremonies including dancing mayhave taken place. However, ‘Dans Men’ may be a mispronunciation of ‘Zans Meyn’ the Cornish phrase meaning ‘stone circle’.
So, ‘maiden’ may be a simple misinterpretation of the Cornish word for stone: men, maen or meyn.
The word ‘merry’ may be a corruption of the word Mary, the name of an ancient goddess and nothing to do with Christianity. She was Ma-Ri, her name signifiying a fruitful or fertile mother.
From Ian Cooke’s ‘Antiquities of West Cornwall’, 1990
The tale of ‘Duffy and the Devil’ tells of how the squire, out hunting hares one night, chased one from the nearby Merry maidens, past the Pipers and down into the fogou. Once inside the fogou he witnessed a ceremony of witches, disturbing them as they met with the Devil. He reportedly had to run for his life.
From William Bottrell’s ‘Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall’ (1873)
sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/swc2/index.htm
When I visited, two years ago I had only the OS map and my intuition to find this one.
As baza says, it’s in a copse, which requires you to trespass. I went in winter when the undergrowth had died back and after frightening a least half a dozen pheasants as I paced up and down, I found a monumental stone, now sadly down, and pretty much ready to be reclaimed by the earth. It was undoubtedly the Hoar stone. All mossy and uneven and covered in leaf-mulch and fruits of the forest floor, it’s over 10 feet in length. This one is crying out to be re-erected before it becomes lost to us forever, as it surely will be if it is left in it’s current condition.
Goodbye Hoar stone.
Local oral tradition has it that the three big standing stones are the remains of an old man, his horse and dog, turned to stone for reasons now not remembered.
The petrification story is similiar to that of other folktales from around the Cotswold, including the Rollrights and the Goose stones.
There is also a local story of a ghost which can be seen walking from the tomb along the old road into the the village of Enstone.
The two Hoar stones at Steeple Barton, Oxon, are recorded as far back as 1210CE, referring to them as Nordlanglawe, Langlaue and Succelaue, which mean respectively, ‘valley of the long barrow’, ‘the Northern long barrow’ and ‘the grave of the goblin’. Later 13th century references call one of them Stanlow or ‘burial stone’, Demnesweye or ‘goblin’s pathway or track’ and Wyrstaneslawe which means either ‘Wyrstons’ tomb’ or ‘the Wyr stone at the long barrow’, but the reference doesn’t distinguish which stone it belongs to.
A second prehistoric log boat has been unearthed in a Derbyshire quarry less than a mile from where a similar find was discovered five years ago.
Archaeologists found the 3,500-year-old log boat, which dates back to the Bronze Age, at Shardlow Quarry, Shardlow, in an area that used to be river channel into the Trent.
The boat lay 1km away from the area where a similar boat, now on display at Derby Museum and Art Gallery, the Strand, was found in 1998.
University of Birmingham archaeologists made the discovery in September while carrying out a study on behalf of the quarry’s owners, Hanson Aggregates, but news of the find has just been revealed.
More here at ‘This is Derbyshire‘
‘Lengthening shadows, Avebury‘
Watercolour, (c) JCTomlinson, 2003
Image credit: Jane Tomlinson
A very curious affair this! I counted six obvious low stones making a reasonably easy to spot construction. But the thing about this one is in the middle of the circle is a large grassy mound – a collapsed cairn with a whopping great deep chamber into which you can walk. It goes pretty deep, maybe 5 feet? I likes this one hugely. It was quirky.