A History of Ancient Britain (71 page)

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Authors: Neil Oliver

Tags: #Great Britain, #Europe, #History, #Ireland

BOOK: A History of Ancient Britain

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7. Inside the chamber of the Table des Marchands burial mound at Carnac, the focal point is a massive upright stone shaped like a phallus and decorated all over
with representations of throwing sticks – weapons for hunting birds.

8. West Kennet long barrow in Wiltshire. The remains of around 40 individuals were placed in the chambers inside before the entrance was ritually
‘blocked’ by the erection of massive stones across the façade.

9. Inside the chamber of Maes Howe, in Orkney – an architectural masterpiece and a true wonder of the ancient world. The entrance passage is 23 feet long
and is formed, for the most part, by two giant monoliths laid on their sides.

10. A talisman of the Neolithic period – a polished stone axe, representing hundreds if not thousands of hours of skilled and painstaking work on the part of
its maker.

11. Like a film set for a remake of
The Flintstones
, the 5,000-year-old Neolithic village of Skara Brae was home to Neolithic farmers before the pyramids were
built in Egypt.

12. Surrounded by all of his finery – including copper knives and gold jewellery – the so-called Amesbury Archer lived and died while the finishing
touches were being put to Stonehenge.

13. Three and a half thousand years ago, the Dover Boat – made by ‘sewing’ planks of oak together with twisted slivers of yew – was in use
ferrying passengers and cargo back and forth between Britain and the Continent.

14. Nether Largie South Cairn, in Kilmartin Glen, Argyll. No fewer than 350 historic sites are clustered within a six-mile radius of the village of Kilmartin
– indicating how much the valley has mattered to countless generations.

15. A rock-cut footprint near the summit of Dunadd, in Argyll. Tradition has it that by placing one naked foot into the hollow during their coronations, kings were
symbolically wedded to the land they sought to rule.

16. Testament to the skill of an Early Bronze Age jeweller, a necklace made of Whitby Jet found in a woman’s grave at Poltalloch, near Lochgilphead, in
1928.

17. Deep inside the Great Orme copper mine, at Llandudno in north Wales. Generations of Bronze Age miners burrowed for miles into the limestone in search of ore,
leaving an awe-inspiring network of claustrophobia-inducing tunnels.

18. An aerial view of Gurness Broch – once a massively built stone tower that would have stood around 30 feet high, dominating the land for miles
around.

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