Andy Burnham's Blog, page 178

Albury Fishponds

This impressive 200mm long Neolithic axe was discovered in the 1990s, when the smaller western Weston Fishery lake in Albury was being dredged. With thanks to Trevor Brook from the Albury History Society, who has also found an intriguing map of stones around the Weston Woods area of Albury, drawn by a local surveyor in 1975.. The village of Albury in Surrey is rumoured to have been the location of a cromlech, and was certainly home to other prehistoric finds including barrows and a Mesolithic or possibly Neolithic house in the nearby quarry. See the nearby sites list from this page for more potential sites.

Necrópolis de las Aguilillas

This site is located north-west of Málaga, at the junction of the rivers Guadalteba, Guadalhorce and Turón. It dates back to the transition from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BCE and is made up of seven structures that were excavated from the sandstone, featuring corridors that lead to the main chamber. These 'artificial caves' resemble a mother's womb, to which the deceased would return after being laid to rest.

Museum of Buryatia History

The Museum of Buryatia History is located at Profsoyuznaya ul., 29, Ulan-Ude in Siberia. It contains a variety of historical displays including archaeological and cultural items.

Castle Ditch Eddisbury

Following the rediscovery of the excavator Bill Varley's archive, Rachel Pope and Richard Mason have worked out the functioning and development of the iron gate mechanisms at Eddisbury, Hembury, and South Cadbury hillforts. Eddisbury’s gate-mechanisms are revealed as the earliest in Europe, with Roman adoption of Iron Age technology. Details in the comments on our page.. Eddisbury is the largest and most complex of the seven hill forts in the county of Cheshire. It was constructed from 400 BC onwards. In the 1st century AD, the Romans slighted the site.

Sinodun Camp

‘Astonishing’ dig reveals domestic life in the iron age, more details in the comments on our page. At Wittenham, near Didcot, two prominent hills known locally as the Clumps overlook the river Thames, just across the river from Dorchester-on-Thames. The southerly 'Clump', Castle Hill, is an Iron-Age hillfort. This page also covers the wider Wittenham Clumps area, including Round Hill which is not a specific archaeological site, although the whole area is rich with remains from the Bronze Age to modern times.

Waun Mawn NE

Researchers suggest Stonehenge’s first stone circle was transplanted from this Welsh hillside, paper out today and on the TV tonight in the UK, details in the comments on our page . The stones are part of the Talfarn y Bwlch Stone Complex, Nr Brynberian in Pembrokeshire. These stones possibly formed part of a stone circle. The complex includes two other standing stones and a further standing stone close by.

Curraghawaddra

A Pair of Standing Stones in Co. Cork, one of which has fallen. Sited on a bog-covered hillside near the headwaters of Glashagarriff River. The north-eastern stone is prostrate; it measures 4.3m by 1.4m and 0.6m tall. The second stone stands 1.8m to the south-west in a townland boundary fence; it is 0.8m by 0.6m by 2.4m. There is a boulder-burial immediately to the south-west, see the nearby sites list on our page.

Announcing the Megalithic Portal photo competition winners for Jan to June 2017

Although we haven't run a photo competition for some years, your votes have continued to be collected by the Portal. So before restarting the competition proper we thought we should do a bit of a catch up. With much thanks due to Peter Boyle (PAB) who kindly stepped up to organise this and future competitions, I am delighted to announce the winners for the best images submitted to the Megalithic Portal in the first half of the year 2017 - voted for by you our visitors and contributors:

Crays statue menhir

Replica statue menhir standing near the crossroads of the D143 to Cray hamlet. The position given is the location of this replica. The original statue menhir seems to be kept in the castle of the neighbouring town of Brousse-le-Château.

Great Ayton Moor Chambered Cairn

A chambered cairn and adjacent monuments on Great Ayton Moor. North Yorkshire. There are also ring cairns, a round cairn, a round barrow and an enclosure. John D Hunter has kindly included detailed notes on these sites in his comments and photos added to this page.