Andy Burnham's Blog, page 235

Affoltern Bernhau Steinkreis

A long moraine ridge stretches about 1 km to the south-east from the town of Affoltern, Switzerland. On the ridge there is a cromlech with 7 blocks and several radial alignments. The central circle has a diameter of about 8m.

Some top ancient sites to visit in the Greek Islands

The Aegean sea is home to many hundreds of islands, some tiny, but many inhabited. To the north and west is the Greek mainland, with Turkey to the east and the island of Crete to the south. Here we are looking at some of the best archaeological sites to visit on the Greek Islands, specifically on Naxos, Santorini, and the tiny island of Kos to the east.


The Portara gate (the Great Door - pictured top left) is on a tongue of land just beyond the harbour in Naxos town (Chora). There has been a settlement here since the 3rd millennium BC. The gate is the entrance to an unfinished Temple of Apollo and points directly across the sea to the sacred island of Delos, where the Greek gods Apollo and Artemis are said to have been born.

Ty Mawr (Nr Holyhead)

The god-awful buildings now surrounding this standing stone on Anglesey at least enabled some exciting archaeological discoveries, including a Neolithic long house, settlements, and apparent 'ritual fire pits'. There's an upcoming talk on the 5th April in Bangor, more details of all this in the comments on our page.. Standing Stone in Anglesey. Access: Very good. On the road outside of Holyhead. Reminiscent of a whippy ice-cream, twisted around to a conical point.

Green Dike and Three Lords’ Stones (Staintondale)

This is a boundary dyke in North Yorkshire, and is thought to have been first laid out in about 660 AD by Lady Hilda the founding Abbess of Whitby Abbey as part of the estates eastern boundary line. It has marked a boundary of one form or another ever since. Pastscape also suggest that the dyke may have earlier origins similar to other dykes in the area which date to the late prehistoric,

Raikō-ji temple

A temple in Honshū, Japan, named after a brave landowner Minamoto-no Yorimitsu (aka Minamoto-no Raikō) who was said to be a hero who eliminated the chief ogre and a giant spider! It has a fine pond garden with stones behind the buildings and a stone monument in front.

Pennglaouic menhir

At the edge of the estuary at Pennglaouic, Finistère, Brittany, this menhir is below mid sea level, so can often be seen going for a swim with its base in the water...!

The Old Stones wins Current Archaeology Book of the Year!

I'm delighted to say we have won Current Archaeology Book of the Year with our book 'The Old Stones', which so many of you contributed to. Thanks to everyone involved as we really wouldn’t have won it without you. The community enthusiasm aspect really shines through the pages.

The Old Stones wins Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2018!

I'm delighted to say we have won Current Archaeology Book of the Year with our book 'The Old Stones', which so many of you contributed to. Thanks to everyone involved as we really wouldn’t have won it without you. The community enthusiasm aspect really shines through the pages.

Grannie Stane

The Grannie stane is either the only surviving part of a stone circle or a simple glacial erratic. It lies in the River Irvine below the Rivergate Centre in Irvine, North Ayrshire, Scotland. The stone is clearly visible when the water is low. Other stones were removed by blasting in 1897 and 1899, after the Irvine weir was constructed in 1895, but popular protests saved this remaining stone.

Book Review: Blick Mead: Exploring the 'first place' in the Stonehenge landscape

Book Review: Blick Mead: Exploring the 'first place' in the Stonehenge landscape:
Archaeological excavations at Blick Mead, Amesbury, Wiltshire 2005-2016
Authors: David Jacques, Tom Phillips, Tom Lyons
Rob Ixer writes: Despite the regular, often quite incarnadine dispatches to the red top newspapers, this is the first substantial (and for the greater part, most welcome) account of Blick Mead and its finds.