{"id":20355,"date":"2022-10-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-12T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/?post_type=purple_issue&p=20355"},"modified":"2022-10-27T15:46:32","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T13:46:32","slug":"ancient-britain-from-above","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/2022\/10\/13\/ancient-britain-from-above\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient Britain \u2026 from above"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ancient Britain \u2026 from above<\/h2>\n\n

Fascinated by the story of Ancient Britain, aerial photographer David <\/strong>R <\/strong>Abram <\/strong>has captured a bird\u2019s eye view of our prehistoric sites, and reveals that the land is etched with the extraordinary prints of our forebears <\/p>\n\n

B<\/span>ritain<\/strong> holds tens of thousands of prehistoric sites. Collectively, they illustrate how ways of life developed over long periods of time: how the huntergatherer communities of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic gave way to the first herder-farmers from northern France; how their descendants built great earth circles from the chalk soils of Wessex, erecting stone-lined tombs and, centuries on, the colossal enclosures of megaliths. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The story of how these migrants displaced the builders of Stonehenge and Avebury is traced across the British landscape to this day, along with the outlines of the field enclosures, farmsteads and hillforts erected by subsequent generations, when the \u2018bow wave\u2019 of Roman influence began to be felt. These wonders are hidden in plain sight around us. Discovering them will take you to wonderful places that may fundamentally alter the way you think and feel about the land. If I have learned one thing after my prehistoric odyssey around these islands, it is that we should trust our ancestors: they knew all the best places. <\/p>\n\n

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Find more spectacular images in Aerial Atlas of Ancient Britain <\/strong><\/em>by David R Abram, published by Thames and Hudson (\u00a330, HB). <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n\n

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1. Badbury Rings Dorset<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n\n

The advent of iron nearly 3,000 years ago had a transformational impact on everyday life in Britain, making wagons more robust and vessels sturdier. Iron ploughshares allowed farmers to work heavier soils, cultivate more land, grow more grain and feed more people. Tools such as hammers and chisels became commonplace, allowing people to build larger and stronger roundhouses to accommodate a growing population. Dorset is home to 18 Iron Age hillforts; Badbury Rings in East Dorset is one of its most impressive, sitting 100 metres above sea level and featuring three defensive rings of ramparts and ditches. The inner ring is thought to date from around 500\u2013600 BC. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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2. Nantlle Ridge Snowdonia <\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n\n

A series of large Early Bronze Age cairns overlooks the valley from the great Nantlle Ridge \u2013 two of them sit on the summit of Y Garn. Backed by a dramatic wall of dark peaks, these grave-markers barely warrant a mention in local walking guides, perhaps because they are believed to be of fairly recent vintage. But they are probably over 4,000 years old and must have taken years to assemble. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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3. Traprain Law East Lothian <\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n\n

This intrusion of volcanic magma was sculpted smooth through the Ice Age and its whaleback-summit plateau provided the perfect site for a Late Bronze Age hillfort. The ramparts were extended during the Iron Age, when they enclosed one of the largest oppida (settlements) of the era, thought to be a stronghold of the Votadini tribe. A huge cache of Roman silver was excavated here in 1919. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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4. The Cursus Barrows Wiltshire<\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n\n

In a fenced enclosure to the northwest of Stonehenge lies a spectacular row of bell barrows from the Early Bronze Age, with 18 mounds dotted along a low rise over roughly \u00be of a mile. Excavations revealed Beaker and collared urn graves, with inhumations and cremated remains. The Beaker folk began arriving in Britain from mainland Europe mid- to late third millennium BC and were harbingers of a technological revolution rooted in metalworking. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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5. Barclodiad y Gawres<\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Rhosneigr, Anglesey This restored chambered tomb is unusual because Neolithic burials in Wales rarely occur so close to the shore. Also, the cruciform cavern at its heart was found to hold large orthostats (upright stones) inscribed with horizontal bands, spirals, lozenges and chevrons, connecting it stylistically with nearby Bryn Celli Ddu and the art adorning the great tomb of Newgrange in Ireland\u2019s Boyne Valley.<\/p>\n\n

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6. The Broch of Gurness Orkney <\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Dating from the Middle Iron Age, between 500 and 200 BC, the Broch of Gurness presided over a small hamlet. The vestiges of a boundary ditch and bank, roughly 45 metres across, encircles the ruined tower, inside which are the remnants of numerous drystone houses, livestock pens and sheds. The broch appears to have been abandoned sometime around 100 BC. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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7. The Devil\u2019s Quoits <\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Windrush Valley, Oxfordshire One of a string of large installations built in the Windrush Valley from 2,900\u20132,600 BC, this Late Neolithic henge was bulldozed by the Royal Air Force in 1940 to make way for a runway, and later quarried for aggregate. But a replica of the structure has since been built, recreating the site as it might have looked in the Roman era. <\/p>\n\n

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8. Priddy Nine Barrows North Hill, Somerset <\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n\n

At around 300 metres in altitude, North Hill is a high point in the Mendips, thus closer to the sky and heavens than any land around it. This is perhaps why the two parallel ridges of North Hill hold lines of impressive Bronze Age burial mounds. Among the group to the south, known as the \u2018Priddy Nine Barrows\u2019, an Early Neolithic causewayed enclosure was discovered. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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9. Grimes Graves Thetford Forest, Norfolk<\/span><\/span><\/h4>\n\n

It is hard to overstate the importance of flint to Neolithic people; the splintered rock was used to make weapons, slice meat, scrape hides and cut wood. The most prized flint came from Grime\u2019s Graves, where 433 shafts were dug 14 metres down to the valuable flint below. Enough rock was removed in the Chalcolithic period (2,600\u2013 2,300 BC) to create hundreds of thousands of axes. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

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10. White Caterthun <\/span><\/h5>\n\n

Angus The White and Brown Caterthuns are two vast Iron Age hillforts overlooking Strathmore. Surrounded by earth ramparts and ditches, hillforts were primarily defensive structures, as well as places to store grain safely, though equally the strongholds served as expressions of power. Some were used for religious ceremonies and feasts, with larger strongholds providing central points around which smaller forts coalesced. <\/p>\n\n

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Watch <\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Discover the origins and beliefs of Iron Age people in The Celts: Blood, Iron and Sacrifice with Alice Roberts and Neil Oliver, <\/em>available on iPlayer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aerial photographer David R Abram has captured a bird\u2019s eye view of our prehistoric sites<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":20344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"62","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"62","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_62-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_62-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"March-2022","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"November-2022","purple_external_id":"March-2022-62-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"November-2022-62-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000084064||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000084064||","purple_android_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_ios_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.countryfile.196","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"91da22fd-9e7f-40d1-a93f-fc46e9516d91","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2022-10-12T15:40:34Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"2e3e0042-8128-4bb1-aec5-e65853a896b1","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2022-10-27T13:46:40Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ALj4AQoEoS7GuxeZYU6iWsQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":true,"apple_news_is_preview":true,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"[]"},"categories":[20],"tags":[14],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53.jpg",2048,1938,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53-300x284.jpg",300,284,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53-768x727.jpg",768,727,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53-1024x969.jpg",800,757,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53-1536x1454.jpg",1536,1454,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2022\/10\/8fd65a7f-b313-4874-8495-d317baacab53.jpg",2048,1938,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Aerial photographer David R Abram has captured a bird\u2019s eye view of our prehistoric sites","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20355"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20796,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20355\/revisions\/20796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}