Old Oswestry Hillfort and its Landscape: Ancient Past, Uncertain Future


Book Description

This book, organised into 14 well-crafted chapters, charts the archaeology, folklore, heritage and landscape development of one of England's most enigmatic monuments, Old Oswestry Hillfort, from the Iron Age, through its inclusion as part of an early medieval boundary between England and Wales, to its role during World War I.




Old Oswestry: a Hillfort in Its Landscape Over 3000 Years


Book Description

This book, organised into 14 well-crafted chapters, charts the archaeology, folklore, heritage and landscape development of one of England's most enigmatic monuments, Old Oswestry Hillfort, from the Iron Age, through its inclusion as part of an early medieval boundary between England and Wales, to its role during World War I.




Hidden Histories: A Spotter's Guide to the British Landscape


Book Description

For the times when you’re driving past a lumpy, bumpy field and you wonder what made the lumps and bumps; for when you’re walking between two lines of grand trees, wondering when and why they were planted; for when you see a brown heritage sign pointing to a ‘tumulus’ but you don’t know what to look for… Entertaining and factually rigorous, Hidden Histories will help you decipher the story of our landscape through the features you can see around you. This Spotter’s Guide arms the amateur explorer with the crucial information needed to ‘read’ the landscape and spot the human activities that have shaped our green and pleasant land. Photographs and diagrams point out specific details and typical examples to help the curious Spotter ‘get their eye in’ and understand what they’re looking at, or looking for. Specially commissioned illustrations bring to life the processes that shaped the landscape - from medieval ploughing to Roman road building - and stand-alone capsules explore interesting aspects of history such as the Highland Clearances or the coming of Christianity. This unique guide uncovers the hidden stories behind the country's landscape, making it the perfect companion for an exploration of our green and pleasant land.




The Social Context of Technology


Book Description

The Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals – including gold, silver, tin and lead – is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling ‘entrepreneurs’, and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking. This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris. The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.




The Modern Antiquarian


Book Description

In this unique guide to Britain's megalithic culture, rock n' roller Julian Cope provides an inspired fusion of travel, history, poetry, maps, field notes, and pure passion.




Places of Poetry


Book Description

Presenting the best poems from the nationwide Places of Poetry project, selected from over 7,500 entries Poetry lives in the veins of Britain, its farms and moors, its motorways and waterways, highlands and beaches. This anthology brings together time-honoured classics with some of the best new writing collected across the nation, from great monuments to forgotten byways. Featuring new writing from Kayo Chingonyi, Gillian Clarke, Zaffar Kunial, Jo Bell and Jen Hadfield, Places of Poetry is a celebration of the strangeness and variety of our islands, their rich history and momentous present.







History of Britain and Ireland


Book Description

Discover the pivotal political, military, and cultural events that shaped British and Irish history, from Stone Age Britain to the present day, in this revised and updated ebook. Combining over 700 photographs, maps, and artworks with accessible text, the History of Britain and Ireland is an invaluable resource for families, students, and anyone seeking to learn more about the fascinating story of the England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Spanning six distinct periods of British and Irish history, this ebook is the best way to find out how Britain transformed with the Norman rule, fought two world wars in the 20th century, and faced new economic challenges in the 21st century. DK's visual guide places key figures - from Alfred the Great to Winston Churchill - and major events - from Roman invasion to the Battle of Britain - in their wider context, making it easier than ever before to learn how they influenced Britain and Ireland's development through the age of empire into the modern era.




The Stonehenge Enigma


Book Description

This is a NEW third (2020) edition of the best seller - that contains conclusive and extended evidence of Robert John Langdon's hypothesis, that rivers of the past were higher than today - which changes the history of not only Britain, but the world.In his first book of the trilogy 'The Post-Glacial Hypothesis', Langdon discovered that Britain was flooded directly after the last Ice Age, which remained waterlogged in to the Holocene period through raised river levels, not only in Britain, but worldwide. In this second book of the series 'The Stonehenge Enigma', he also shows that a new civilisation known to archaeologists as the 'megalithic builders' adapted to this landscape, to build sites like Stonehenge, Avebury, Woodhenge and Old Sarum, where carbon dating has now shown that these sites were constructed about five thousand years earlier than previously believed.Within the trilogy 'Prehistoric Britain', Langdon looks at the anthropology, archaeology and landscape of Britain and the attributes and engineering skills of the builders of these megalithic structures. Including finding and dating the original bluestones of Stonehenge Phase I from the quarry of Craig-Rhos-Y-Felin in Wales, five thousand year earlier than current archaeological theory and how this civilisation used the sites surrounding Stonehenge at a time of these raised river levels.This unique insight into how the prehistoric world looked in the 'Mesolithic Period' allows Langdon to explain archaeological mysteries that have confused archaeologist since the beginning of the science and allows us to make sense of these sites, allowing us to understand their function for this society for the first time.With over thirty 'proofs' of his hypothesis and one hundred and twenty-five peer-reviewed references - Langdon uses existing excavation findings and carbon dating to forward a new understanding of the environment and our ancient society, which consequently rewrites our history books and allows us to find more conclusive and persuasive evidence which is currently trapped in our landscape, ready to be discovered by future students of archaeology.




Alligators All Around


Book Description

‘An alligator jamboree, with all the letters ' A through Z.'