Andy Burnham's Blog, page 155

Northern Earth Issue 166 Out Now

In this issue: Mike Haigh’s Archaeology Review - Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the dead, plus a dolmen, a shrine, and lakeside dwellings on a prehistoric armchair ramble

Clap-cans: A Greater Manchester bogie - Various uncanny entities from ghosts to boggarts are said to clank as they move; but do their tales really have currency, asks Simon Young?

The Neolithic specialist builder from Aberdeen - John Hill discusses the remarkable consistency of design in recumbent stone circles


Up the Bonk: Titterstone Revisited - Simon Moreton adds to the discussion from NE165 of intersections between place and human culture at a Shropshire hill

Steen van Noordbarge

The Steen van Noordbarge (Noordbarge Stone) is a glacial erratic that was in the past wrongly identified as a hunebed (passage grave). When Albert van Giffen was cataloguing the passage graves in Drenthe he listed this site as D48. When it turned out to be a single erratic, D48 was removed from the list. Because D33 (a real hunebed) was destroyed, Drenthe now has 52 hunebeds left, numbered D1 to D54. This stone has a sign in Dutch saying "The fat(test) stone in Drenthe" !

Komakino

Jōmon Prehistoric Sites in Northern Japan added to UNESCO World Heritage list, more in the comments on our page. Triple concentric circles and outer stone settings found in 1989 not far from Aomori Airport.

St Ceinwen Holy Well

An evocative holy well close to St Ceinwen church, Anglesey. Enter the church gate and the path curves down - the well is on the left, the church on the right. Both are looking a bit worse for wear.

Knonau Waldhof

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A short stone row, aligned N-S, a lonely menhir and a stone circle at the northern end of the stone row. Beautiful atmosphere in this forest near Zurich.

Tinkinswood

In the cliffhanger of the latest episode of Doctor Who, Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor gets transformed into a Weeping Angel at Tinkinswood burial chamber. See the comments on this page for Andy B's guide to when megalithic and prehistoric sites have featured in Doctor Who through the years. This chambered long cairn (or long barrow) is covered by an almost rectangular mound, which has a stone cist half way along the northern side. It has a forecourt to the east created by the horns of the cairn, allowing entrance to the main burial chamber. Its capstone, at 40 tons is thought to be the largest in maninland Britain.

Langstone Moor circle

Lots of new photos from the Langstone Moor area of Dartmoor, including this once splendid but now wrecked stone circle. What a lovely circle this must have been before it was largely destroyed as target practice during World War 2. It is superbly situated on a flattish bit of land high above the Walkham valley, seemingly equidistant from the three great tors overlooking the site, these being Great Mis Tor, Roos Tor and White Tor.

Hampelandsvej Rundhøj

A round barrow situated at the eastern end of the island of Møn (Moen), Denmark not far from the spectacular cliffs of Moens Klint, although the site is almost at sea level. It lies at 10m east from Hampelandsvej in the corner of a field used for arable crops. It is a round barrow by definition although in plan it has very definite corners making it almost square. There is some damage where a hawthorn tree has been allowed to grow.

Saux burial chamber

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The remains of a burial cist in the high Pyrénées, not far from the road just to the north of the entrance to the Bielsa road tunnel. Discovered by Martínez, Millán & Txintxurreta, October 2021

MuzeeAquarium Delfzijl

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A museum in Delfzijl focussing mainly on the sea and shipping but it also has an archaeological section containing finds from the area including the last hunebed (passage grave) to be discovered in the Netherlands. This hunebed, G5 Heveskes, was discovered in 1982 and is the northernmost hunebed in the Netherlands.