Andy Burnham's Blog, page 13

Omodeo Nuraghe

Ancient sites with strange 'haircuts' #17. The remains of ancient stone Nuraghe or tower by the shore of Lake Omodeo, Sardegna.

Vikingeborgen Trelleborg

One of the places where the Viking Age can be experienced close at hand is the Viking fortress of Trelleborg, near Slagelse in West Zealand. The impressive remains of one of the Vikings’ great ring fortresses were originally constructed around AD 980 by King Harald Bluetooth and are located in the beautiful area of Tude ådal. The museum at Trelleborg includes models, archaeological finds and reconstructions that give a vivid impression of Trelleborg’s history, its inhabitants and the function of the fortress.

Fat Betty

July 2025: The ancient custom of leaving alms and offerings (skittles or biscoff anyone) at this boundary cross for those travellers less fortunate than oneself continues. Unfortunately when the wind picks up - it can get very windy up here - this detritus in its plastic covered wrapping gets strewn across the moor. The remains of a boundary cross on the North York moors. In his book "Folktales of the North York Moors" Peter Walker writes: "...fat betty is a carved piece of rock which is roughly square-shaped with a rounded head; she is painted white and is sometimes called White Cross,"

Stone Table Kunějov

An unusual megalithic monument in Bohemia - two quite large and flat granite boulders lying on each other. While the bottom one looks to be a natural rock outcrop, upper circular stone is seemingly carved into a plane surface. The object truly looks like a stone table. It was considered as an ancient sacrificial place or sanctum even in 19th century. In that times the place was known as "Steinschale" (Stone bowl).

Stone Circles, Flint Country Park (Modern)

These appear from above to be two "eye" shaped stone circles. Modern.

Sa Brecca

A sacred nuragic well of extraordinary importance located in the Ogliastra region, South-East Sardinia. Entrance to the well consists of a staircase of 11 steps that lead to an atrium with a seat along the side walls. Although it partially collapsed following a flood in 2014, it still preserves the tholos chamber that protects the spring water well and a chamber above it, also a tholos type.

Bury Castle (Exmoor)

A reconstruction by Tony Quickenden of how Bury Castle may have looked 'sometime in the Iron Age'. Tony has also uploaded to our page some sketch examples of how he develops his ancient site reconstruction artwork . An Iron Age defended settlement with an additional cross-ridge defence on the uphill west side, situated on the tip of a spur in the hill above Selworthy. It survives as a good and well-preserved example of its class, with an associated cross-ridge work which is a feature of several broadly contemporary monuments in the region.

Hentor A

One of seven cairns marked on the OS map and spread in a roughly east-west direction across the top of Hentor Warren. It includes a cist with an irregular coverstone, dating to the Bronze Age.

Terence Meaden: How Pytheas the Greek Discovered Iron-Age Britain and Stonehenge

...and Thule. Terence Meaden writes: Pytheas of Massalia, a Greek scientific adventurer of the fourth century BC was the first literate explorer to meet British countryfolk and write of their customs, crafts, food and farming practices. He explored parts of Britain including Kent, Stonehenge (*) and the Cornish tin mines, then sailed to Scotland, Shetland, Iceland and the amber coasts of Denmark.

Hellekiste fra Højmøllegård

This cist (hellekiste) from Højmøllegård is a 4,000-year-old stone burial chest, dating back to the late Neolithic. It was discovered in 1974 at Højmøllegård in Denmark, near the main A9 road, originally covered by a low mound, typical for ancient burials. During excavation, archaeologists discovered skeletal remains along with grave goods from two completely different burial periods. These included a Neolithic battle axe and an early Bronze Age flint dagger, potentially hundreds of years later. This suggests the reuse and continuity of a sacred space over generations or even centuries, challenging the notion of a grave as a single, sealed event.