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Fieldnotes by tiompan

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Showing 1-20 of 244 fieldnotes. Most recent first | Next 20

Gladsax 8:1 (Passage Grave)

400m north of http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/18310/gladsax_91.html and clearly visible from it .
The passage ,at 136 degrees , is one of the few with a possible winter solstice sunrise alignment .
The capstone has 11 ships ,animal figures and 90 cup marks .
Finds included a large amount of ceramic, flint fragments, 5 amber pearls, 3 arrows , 2 pins and a slate pendant.

Lunnabjär aka Borrby 3:1 (Barrow / Cairn Cemetery)

A group of nine Bronze Age barrows and five urn graves discovered in 1934 and recently cleared .
Finds were human remains , bronze knives tweezers and a tutulus (circular bronze ornament with projecting central point , associated with female burials e.g. Egtved girl . See :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5SwWPu2So8&feature=player_embedded#! )

Hellig Kvinde (Stone Setting)

Hellig Kvinde (trans.) Holy woman and the other smaller stones in the open (to the west ) rectangular setting , her children .
The adjacent broken stone could have been the bodach (Hellig Mand ) to the cailleach but goes unmentioned .

Järrestad (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art)

The main panel at Järrestad is probably the most important in Skåne . Measuring approx 25 x20m it consist of nearly 210 foot soles ,130 of which have toes ,riders on horseback , animals , wheeled crosses , 4 spirals ,27 ships , weapons , cup marks ,serpentiforms ,axes ,lurer and the "Dancer " .

Louisenlund (Standing Stones)

There are approx 50 standing stones . There has never been any excavation and there is no site plan that I'm aware of . A very superficial attempt at a survey shows a rough circle of ten stones to the south and to the north of that , a horseshoe /open rectangular grouping open to the north , consisting of 16 stones .The biggest stone is aligned roughly east to west is between the two most obvious groupings and is cup marked .
The area was named in 1851 , after Louise ,wife of the King of Denmark .

Dolmen dit Grand Juyan de Roubiac (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

This dolmen has similar features to some others in the area i.e. http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/17864/dolmen_feuilles.html , http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/17863/dolmen_lamalou.html and http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/17865/dolmen_du_capucin.html
The common features are paved floor ,an ante chamber usually smaller in width and length and the use of indented stones at points in the passage and a surrounding cairn .

Glennan (Cup Marked Stone)

This site deserves it's own page but as there is no appropriate site type (Cinerary Urn (findspot )) in the site type list list it will have to be included with the nearest available site .

It's approx 500 m east of the Glennan marked rocks .

Discovered by a bird watcher ,after publication of the RCAHMS Kilmartin guide .

"NM 8622 0097 An evaluation was undertaken of the findspot of a cremation deposit in an urn within a boulder shelter near to Kilmartin Glen.

Excavation established that the urn was cordoned and had been inverted in an irregular cut into the scree slope below the boulder shelter. The urn is decorated with horizontal lines of impressed decoration comprising twisted cord and bone. Only the upper 0.15m of the vessel survives; its poor condition necessitated the contents being excavated in situ and the vessel was lifted in pieces. All spoil was sieved, resulting in the recovery of further burnt bone, fragments of pot and a single retouched flint flake.

It was impossible to establish the nature of potential further archaeological deposits under the area of the boulder shelter because of constraints of space and issues of safety.

See https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-310-1/dissemination/pdf/sair8.pdf
For more detail .

Dolmen del barranc d'Espolla (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

There are 10 dolmens in the hills surrounding Espolla . None are oriented towards any solstice event and 8 are oriented towards a part of the horizon where the sun will never be seen to rise or set . This is one of the eight .

Dolmen Palet de Rolan (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

This dolmen and http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/18146/dolmen_roquetraoucade.html are on the same hillside , less than 400m apart , much the same height and have very similar views . The orientation of each differs by 100 degrees .

Dolmen d'Arreganyats (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

Discovered in 1881 .
A deposit of flint arrowheads was found in a small pit on the left hand side of the corridor . Other finds were remnants of a bronze awl and some pottery .
Fwiw declination of chamber is -29.8 , therefore close to major standstill .

Wormy Hillock (Henge)

Crap pic , but it does show the horizon before the trees blotted it out . Worth comparing with Thelonius' pic to see the changes 10 yrs approx can make .
This a one of the rare cases of a possible henge entrance orientation towards the winter solstice sun rise .

Dolmen de Vinyes Mortes 2 (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

Discovered in 1947 . Only finds were small amount of ceramics .
90 metres from
http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/site/18047 /dolmen_de_vinyes_mortes_1.html
, horizon very similar , orientation of chambers differ by 60 degrees .

Dolmen de Morelles (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

Discovered in the early 1970's. A Flint Knife and small amount of ceramics were found when excavated . Orientation of chamber and passage is 170 degrees and therefore not facing any solar or lunar set or rise .

Dolmen Estanys 2 (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

Discovered in 1986 by Josep Tarrus and Miquel Cura . Finds were 170 pottery fragments ,some of which were decorated , a flint blade and fragment of granite millstone . At 278 degrees this is the most westerly oriented dolmen in the region

Mas Baleta (Cromlech (France and Brittany))

The site was cleared of gorse and shrubbery in 1986 and excavated and restored in 2005 -6 . Worth having a look at it on Google Earth to get a better idea of the aerial view . Even better , use the timeline to see what it looked like in 2004 .
Unlike all the dolmens in area ,most of which are oriented in the other direction i.e. easterly , the axis of the monument and entrance is close enough to be considered as oriented on the mid winter solstice sunset . It doesn’t “work” in the other direction i.e. to the mid summer solstice due to the height of the hills impacting on the resulting declination . The enclosures around the main monument had later Iron Age burials with the earlier monument providing Chalcolithic Bell Beaker ceramics from beneath the menhirs .

Dolmen de Vinyes Mortes 1 (Dolmen / Quoit / Cromlech)

A Catalan Gallery dolmen . Very few finds from the chamber when excavated , a piece of flint and some undecorated ceramics . In common with the other dolmens in the area (approx 20 in the Serra Rodes )the chambers tends to follow the orientation of the ridge they are on , or perpendicular to the ridge , the latter tend to be lower down and not on the ridges . Most are aligned on a part of the horizon where the sun and moon are never seen to rise or set .

Pyrenees Orientale (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art)

The Pyrenees are the new Ben Lawers .
When I finally heard back from French archaeos about a load of unrecorded rock art I was asked to not mention the area or site .
Therefore the best I can do is list them under Pyrenees . That should be vague enough .

The Cochno Stone (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art)

No digging today , it wasn't raining , but did find a new previously unrecorded find nearby

Corrymuckloch (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art)

New find today from an area I know very well.
I think this has been moved from elsewhere .Possibly dug up in the Beauly -Denny hydro work that has been going on in the area and put somewhere "safe ".

Coire Thaochaidh (Cup and Ring Marks / Rock Art)

New find from yesterday .From a side glen of Glen Lyon .Considering it 's length and later historical period finds ,it has very little prehistoric discoveries .
A prominent rock spotted from above and some distance away proved to be worth investigating .Some of the exposed markings were difficult to capture but those that were under moss were in much better condition with pick marks still evident .
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