1.
Maiden Castle, Dorset
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Maiden Castle is an Iron Age hill fort 2.5 kilometres south west of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements constructed across Britain during the Iron Age, the earliest archaeological evidence of human activity on the site consists of a Neolithic causewayed enclosure and bank barrow. In about 1800 BC, during the Bronze Age, the site was used for growing crops before being abandoned. Maiden Castle itself was built in about 600 BC, the phase was a simple and unremarkable site, similar to many other hill forts in Britain. At the same time, Maiden Castles defences were more complex with the addition of further ramparts. Around 100 BC habitation at the fort went into decline. It was occupied until at least the Roman period, by time it was in the territory of the Durotriges. After the Roman conquest of Britain in the 1st century AD, Maiden Castle appears to have been abandoned, in the late 4th century AD, a temple and ancillary buildings were constructed. In the 6th century AD the hill top was entirely abandoned and was used only for agriculture during the medieval period, Maiden Castle has provided inspiration for composer John Ireland and authors Thomas Hardy and John Cowper Powys. The study of hill forts was popularised in the 19th century by archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers, in the 1930s, archaeologist Mortimer Wheeler and Tessa Verney Wheeler undertook the first archaeological excavations at Maiden Castle, raising its profile among the public. Further excavations were carried out under Niall Sharples, which added to an understanding of the site, today the site is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is maintained by English Heritage. Before the hill fort was built, a Neolithic causewayed enclosure was constructed on the site. Dating from around 4000 BC, it was an area enclosed by two ditches, It is called a causewayed enclosure because the way the ditches were dug meant that there would originally have been gaps. These gaps, and the bank being only 17 centimetres high, instead the ditches may have been symbolic, separating the interior of the enclosure and its activities from the outside. Archaeologist Niall Sharples, who was involved in excavating the fort in the 1980s, has identified the hilltop views of the surrounding landscape as a likely factor for the enclosures position. The interior of the enclosure has been disturbed by later habitation, the site does not appear to have been inhabited, although a grave containing the remains of two children, aged 6–7, has been discovered. The enclosure is the earliest evidence of activity on the site. The purpose of Neolithic causewayed enclosures is unclear, and they probably had a variety of functions, radiocarbon dating indicates that the enclosure was abandoned around 3,400 BC
2.
Hillfort
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A hillfort or hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages, some were used in the post-Roman period. The fortification usually follows the contours of a hill, consisting of one or more lines of earthworks, with stockades or defensive walls, and external ditches. Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC, the terms hill fort, hill-fort and hillfort are all used in the archaeological literature. They all refer to a site with one or more ramparts made of earth, stone and/or wood. Many small early hill forts were abandoned, with the ones being redeveloped at a later date. Similar but smaller and less defendable earthworks are found on the sides of hills and these are known as hill-slope enclosures and may have been animal pens. It has been estimated that in about 5000 BC during the Neolithic between 2 million and 5 million lived in Europe, in the Late Iron Age it had an population of around 15 to 30 million. Outside Greece and Italy, which were densely populated, the vast majority of settlements in the Iron Age were small. Hill forts were the exception, and were the home of up to 1,000 people, with the emergence of oppida in the Late Iron Age, settlements could reach as large as 10,000 inhabitants. As the population increased so did the complexity of prehistoric societies, around 1100 BC hill forts emerged and in the following centuries spread through Europe. They served a range of purposes and were variously tribal centres, defended places, foci of ritual activity, during the Hallstatt C period, hill forts became the dominant settlement type in the west of Hungary. Julius Caesar described the large late Iron Age hill forts he encountered during his campaigns in Gaul as oppida, by this time the larger ones had become more like cities than fortresses and many were assimilated as Roman towns. Hill forts were occupied by conquering armies, but on other occasions the forts were destroyed, the local people forcibly evicted. For example, Solsbury Hill was sacked and deserted during the Belgic invasions of southern Britain in the 1st century BC. Excavations at hill forts in the first half of the 20th century focussed on the defenses, the exception to this trend began in the 1930s with a series of excavations undertaken by Mortimer Wheeler at Maiden Castle, Dorset. From 1960 onwards, archaeologists shifted their attention to the interior of hill forts, currently, post-processual archaeologists regard hill forts as symbols of wealth and power. Michael Avery has stated the view of hill forts by saying
3.
Neolithic British Isles
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The Neolithic British Isles refers to the period of British, Irish and Manx history that spanned from circa 4000 to circa 2,500 BCE. The final part of the Stone Age in the British Isles, it was a part of the greater Neolithic, or New Stone Age, during the preceding Mesolithic period, the inhabitants of the British Isles had been Mesolithic European hunter-gatherers. Around 4000 BCE migrants began arriving from central Europe and these migrants brought new ideas, leading to a radical transformation of society and landscape that has been called the Neolithic Revolution. The Neolithic period in the British Isles was characterised by the adoption of agriculture, to make room for the new farmland, these early agricultural communities undertook mass deforestation across the islands, dramatically and permanently transforming the landscape. At the same time, new types of stone tools requiring more skill began to be produced, the Neolithic also saw the construction of a wide variety of monuments in the landscape, many of which were megalithic in nature. These constructions are taken to reflect ideological changes, with new ideas about religion and this investigation began amongst the antiquarians of the 18th century, intensified in the 19th when John Lubbock coined the term Neolithic. In the 20th and 21st centuries, further excavation and synthesis went ahead, dominated by figures like V. Gordon Childe, Stuart Piggott, Julian Thomas, the period that preceded the Neolithic in the British Isles is known by archaeologists as the Mesolithic. During this period, Britain was still attached by the landmass of Doggerland to the rest of continental Europe, the site is still in early stages of excavation but is expected to yield major contributions to knowledge of the period. Meldon Bridge Period The period that followed the Neolithic is known by archaeologists as the Bronze Age, the Neolithic is largely categorised by the introduction of farming into Britain from continental Europe, from where it had come originally from the Middle East. Archaeologists disagree about whether the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural society was gradual, over a period of centuries, or rapid, There are a number of options. Groups of pioneers could have set off from the continent in one-off small-scale invasions, or people might have arrived after a long-term and eclectic mixture of contacts down the continental coast from Denmark to France. Or gatherer-hunters might have traveled by boat to the continent and brought back the animals, the reason for switching from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural lifestyle has been widely debated by archaeologists and anthropologists. Ethnographic studies of farming societies who use basic tools and crops have shown that it is a much more labour-intensive way of life than that of hunter-gatherers. It would have involved deforesting an area, digging and tilling the soil, storing seeds, the Neolithic agriculturalists deforested areas of woodland in the British Isles in order to use the cleared land for farming. Notable examples of forest clearance occurred around 5000 BCE in Broome Heath in East Anglia, on the North Yorkshire Moors and also on Dartmoor. Such clearances were performed not only with the use of stone axes, nonetheless, in many areas the forests had regrown within a few centuries, including at Ballysculion, Ballynagilly, Beaghmore and the Somerset Levels. For instance, it has suggested that farmers collected all the elm leaves to use as animal fodder during the winter. These areas saw an intensification of production, and larger settlements
4.
Bronze Age Britain
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Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from c.2500 until c.800 BC. Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as the Bronze Age, it was marked by the use of copper and then bronze by the prehistoric Britons, Great Britain in the Bronze Age also saw the widespread adoption of agriculture. This has been described as a time when elaborate ceremonial practices emerged among some communities of subsistence agriculturalists of western Europe, there is no clear consensus on the date for the beginning of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Some sources give a date as late as 2000 BC, while others set 2200 BC as the demarcation between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. The period from 2500 BC to 2000 BC has been called the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, 2500–2000 BC, Mount Pleasant Phase, Early Beaker culture, Britain, copper+tin. 2100–1900 BC, Late Beaker, knives, tanged spearheads, 1500–1300 BC, Acton Park Phase, palstaves, socketed spearheads, copper+tin, also lead. 1300–1200 BC, Knighton Heath Period, rapiers, 1200–1000 BC, Early Urnfield, Wilburton-Wallington Phase. 1000–900 BC, Late Urnfield, socketed axes, palstaves, 800–700 BC, Ewart Park Phase, Llyn Fawr Phase, leaf-shaped swords. In Ireland the final Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age appears to decline in about 600 BC, in around 2700 BC, a new pottery style arrived in Great Britain, the Beaker culture. Beaker pottery appears in the Mount Pleasant Phase, along with flat axes, people of this period were also largely responsible for building many famous prehistoric sites, such as the later phases of Stonehenge along with Seahenge. Movement of Europeans brought new people to the islands from the continent, recent tooth enamel isotope research on bodies found in early Bronze Age graves around Stonehenge indicates that at least some of the new arrivals came from the area of modern Switzerland. The Beaker culture displayed different behaviours from the earlier Neolithic people, integration is thought to have been peaceful, as many of the early henge sites were seemingly adopted by the newcomers. Also, the burial of dead became more individual, for example, in the Neolithic era, a large chambered cairn or long barrow was used to house the dead. The Early Bronze Age saw people buried in barrows, or sometimes in cists covered with cairns. They were often buried with a beaker alongside the body, modern thinking tends towards the latter view. Alternatively, a Beaker elite may have made the migration and come to influence the population at some level. Believed to be of Iberian origin, part of the Beaker culture brought to Great Britain the skill of refining metal, at first they made items from copper, but from around 2150 BC smiths had discovered how to make bronze by mixing copper with a small amount of tin
5.
British Iron Age
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The parallel phase of Irish archaeology is termed the Irish Iron Age. The Iron Age is not a horizon of common artefacts. The British Iron Age lasted in theory from the first significant use of iron for tools, the Romanised culture is termed Roman Britain and is considered to supplant the British Iron Age. The Irish Iron Age was ended by the rise of Christianity, at a minimum, Celtic is a linguistic term without an implication of a lasting cultural unity connecting Gaul with the British Isles throughout the Iron Age. However it cannot be assumed that particular cultural features found in one Celtic-speaking culture can be extrapolated to the others. At present over 100 large-scale excavations of Iron Age sites have taken place, dating from the 8th century BC to the 1st century AD, hundreds of radiocarbon dates have been acquired and have been calibrated on four different curves, the most precise being based on tree ring sequences. In parts of Britain that were not Romanised, such as Scotland, the geographer closest to AD100 is perhaps Ptolemy. Pliny and Strabo are a bit older, but Ptolemy gives the most detail, during the later Bronze Age there are indications of new ideas influencing land use and settlement. Extensive field systems, now called Celtic fields, were being set out and settlements were becoming more permanent, long ditches, some many miles in length, were dug with enclosures placed at their ends. These are thought to indicate territorial borders and a desire to control over wide areas. By the 8th century BC, there is increasing evidence of Great Britain becoming closely tied to continental Europe, especially in Britains South and East. New weapon types appeared with clear parallels to those on the continent such as the Carps tongue sword, phoenician traders probably began visiting Great Britain in search of minerals around this time, bringing with them goods from the Mediterranean. At the same time, Northern European artefact types reached Eastern Great Britain in large quantities from across the North Sea, defensive structures dating from this time are often impressive, for example the brochs of Northern Scotland and the hill forts that dotted the rest of the islands. Some of the most well-known hill forts include Maiden Castle, Dorset, Cadbury Castle, Somerset and Danebury, hill forts first appeared in Wessex in the Late Bronze Age, but only become common in the period between 550 and 400 BC. The earliest were of a simple form, and often connected with earlier enclosures attached to the long ditch systems. Few hill forts have been excavated in the modern era, Danebury being a notable exception. However, it appears that forts were also used for domestic purposes, with examples of food storage, industry. Many hill forts are not in fact forts at all, the development of hill forts may have occurred due to greater tensions that arose between the better structured and more populous social groups
6.
Roman Britain
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Roman Britain was the area of the island of Great Britain that was governed by the Roman Empire, from AD43 to 410. Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by other Celtic tribes during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesars enemies. He received tribute, installed a king over the Trinovantes. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34,27, in AD40, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel, only to have them gather seashells. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain, the Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the Province of Britain. By the year 47, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way, control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudicas uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward. Around 197, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces, Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior, during the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century, for much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410, the kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that. Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, after the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor, over the centuries Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire, such as Italy, Spain, Syria and Algeria. Britain was known to the Classical world, the Greeks, Phoenicians and Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC, the Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or tin islands, and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 5th century BC, however, it was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed at all. The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The second invasion involved a larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul. Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind but he established clients, Augustus planned invasions in 34,27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustuss reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in annual revenue than any conquest could
7.
Early Middle Ages
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The Early Middle Ages marked the start of the Middle Ages of European history, lasting from the 6th to the 10th century CE. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire, the Early Middle Ages largely overlap with Late Antiquity. The term Late Antiquity is used to emphasize elements of continuity with the Roman Empire, the period saw a continuation of trends begun during late classical antiquity, including population decline, especially in urban centres, a decline of trade, and increased immigration. The period has been labelled the Dark Ages, a characterization highlighting the relative scarcity of literary and cultural output from this time, especially in Northwestern Europe. However, the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantine Empire, continued to survive, many of these trends were reversed later in the period. In 800 the title of emperor was revived in Western Europe by Charlemagne, whose Carolingian Empire greatly affected later European social structure, Europe experienced a return to systematic agriculture in the form of the feudal system, which introduced such innovations as three-field planting and the heavy plow. Barbarian migration stabilized in much of Europe, although Northern Europe was greatly affected by the Viking expansion, starting in the 2nd century, various indicators of Roman civilization began to decline, including urbanization, seaborne commerce, and population. Archaeologists have identified only 40 percent as many Mediterranean shipwrecks from the 3rd century as from the first, estimates of the population of the Roman Empire during the period from 150 to 400 suggest a fall from 65 million to 50 million, a decline of more than 20 percent. Some scholars have connected this de-population to the Dark Ages Cold Period, Early in the 3rd century Germanic peoples migrated south from Scandinavia and reached the Black Sea, creating formidable confederations which opposed the local Sarmatians. In Dacia and on the north of the Black Sea the Goths. The arrival of the Huns in 372–375 ended the history of these kingdoms, the Huns, a confederation of central Asian tribes, founded an empire with a Turkic-speaking aristocracy. They had mastered the art of shooting composite recurve bows from horseback. The Goths sought refuge in Roman territory, agreeing to enter the Empire as unarmed settlers, however many bribed the Danube border-guards into allowing them to bring their weapons. The discipline and organization of a Roman legion made it a fighting unit. The Romans preferred infantry to cavalry because infantry could be trained to retain the formation in combat, while cavalry tended to scatter when faced with opposition. While a barbarian army could be raised and inspired by the promise of plunder, the legions required a government and taxation to pay for salaries, constant training, equipment. The decline in agricultural and economic activity reduced the empires taxable income, in the Gothic War, the Goths revolted and confronted the main Roman army in the Battle of Adrianople. The general decline in discipline also led to the use of smaller shields, not wanting to share the glory, Eastern Emperor Valens ordered an attack on the Therving infantry under Fritigern without waiting for Western Emperor Gratian, who was on the way with reinforcements
8.
Early modern period
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The early modern period of modern history follows the late Middle Ages of the post-classical era. Historians in recent decades have argued that from a worldwide standpoint, the period witnessed the exploration and colonization of the Americas and the rise of sustained contacts between previously isolated parts of the globe. The historical powers became involved in trade, as the exchange of goods, plants, animals, and food crops extended to the Old World. The Columbian Exchange greatly affected the human environment, New economies and institutions emerged, becoming more sophisticated and globally articulated over the course of the early modern period. This process began in the medieval North Italian city-states, particularly Genoa, Venice, the early modern period also included the rise of the dominance of the economic theory of mercantilism. The European colonization of the Americas, Asia, and Africa occurred during the 15th to 19th centuries, the early modern trends in various regions of the world represented a shift away from medieval modes of organization, politically and economically. Historians typically date the end of the modern period when the French Revolution of the 1790s began the modern period. Early modern themes Other In 16th century China, the Ming Dynastys economy was stimulated by trade with the Portuguese, Spanish. China became involved in a new trade of goods, plants, animals. Trade with Early Modern Europe and Japan brought in massive amounts of silver, during the last decades of the Ming the flow of silver into China was greatly diminished, thereby undermining state revenues and the entire Chinese economy. This damage to the economy was compounded by the effects on agriculture of the incipient Little Ice Age, natural calamities, crop failure, the ensuing breakdown of authority and peoples livelihoods allowed rebel leaders such as Li Zicheng to challenge Ming authority. The Ming Dynasty fell around 1644 to the Qing Dynasty, which was the last ruling dynasty of China, during its reign, the Qing Dynasty became highly integrated with Chinese culture. The Azuchi-Momoyama period saw the unification that preceded the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Edo period from 1600 to 1868 characterized early modern Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period gets its name from the city, Edo. The Tokugawa shogunate ruled from Edo Castle from 1603 until 1868, in 1392, General Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty with a largely bloodless coup. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture, King Sejong the Great promulgated hangul, the Korean alphabet. The period saw various other cultural and technological advances as well as the dominance of neo-Confucianism over the entirety of Korea, during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, invasions by the neighboring Japanese and Qing Chinese nearly overran the Korean peninsula
9.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites
10.
Welsh Marches
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The Welsh Marches is an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods, in modern usage, the Marches is often used to describe those English counties which lie along the border with Wales, particularly Shropshire and Herefordshire, and sometimes adjoining areas of Wales. Over the next few centuries, the Angles, Saxons and others gradually conquered and settled in eastern and southern Britain, the kingdom of Mercia, under Penda, became established around Lichfield, and initially established strong alliances with the Welsh kings. However, his successors sought to expand Mercia further westwards into what is now Cheshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire. Campaigns and raids from Powys then led, possibly around about AD820, to the building of Wats Dyke, the Dyke still exists, and can best be seen at Knighton, close to the modern border between England and Wales. In the centuries which followed, Offas Dyke largely remained the frontier between the Welsh and English, by the mid-eleventh century, Wales was united under Gruffudd ap Llywelyn of Gwynedd, until his death in 1063. The process took a century and was never permanently effective, the term March of Wales was first used in the Domesday Book of 1086. Over the next four centuries, Norman lords established mostly small marcher lordships between the Dee and Severn, and further west, military adventurers went to Wales from Normandy and elsewhere and after raiding an area of Wales, then fortified it and granted land to some of their supporters. One example was Bernard de Neufmarché, responsible for conquering and pacifying the Welsh kingdom of Brycheiniog, the precise dates and means of formation of the lordships varied, as did their size. By about AD1100 the March covered the areas which would later become Monmouthshire and much of Flintshire, Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, Brecknockshire, Glamorgan, ultimately, this amounted to about two-thirds of Wales. During the period, the Marches were a society in every sense. Hundreds of small castles were built in the area in the 12th and 13th centuries, predominantly by Norman lords as assertions of power as well as defences against Welsh raiders. The area still contains Britains densest concentration of motte-and-bailey castles, the Marcher lords encouraged immigration from all the Norman-Angevin realms, and encouraged trade from fair haven ports like Cardiff. Peasants went to Wales in large numbers, Henry I encouraged Bretons, Flemings, Normans, many new towns were established, some such as Chepstow, Monmouth, Ludlow and Newtown becoming successful trading centres, and these tended also to be a focus of English settlement. At the same time, the Welsh continued to attack English soil, the Norman lords each had similar rights to the Welsh princes. The lordships were geographically compact and jurisdictionally separate one from another, Marcher lords ruled their lands by their own law—sicut regale as Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester stated— whereas in England fief-holders were directly accountable to the king. However, Welsh law was used in the Marches in preference to English law. The Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 followed the conquest of the Principality by Edward I of England
11.
Tumulus
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A tumulus is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans, a cairn, which is a mound of stones built for various purposes, may also originally have been a tumulus. Tumuli are often categorised according to their external apparent shape, in this respect, a long barrow is a long tumulus, usually constructed on top of several burials, such as passage graves. A round barrow is a tumulus, also commonly constructed on top of burials. The internal structure and architecture of both long and round barrows has a range, the categorization only refers to the external apparent shape. The method of inhumation may involve a dolmen, a cist, a mortuary enclosure, examples of barrows include Duggleby Howe and Maeshowe. The funeral of Patroclus is described in book 23 of the Iliad, Patroclus is burned on a pyre, and his bones are collected into a golden urn in two layers of fat. The barrow is built on the location of the pyre, achilles then sponsors funeral games, consisting of a chariot race, boxing, wrestling, running, a duel between two champions to the first blood, discus throwing, archery and spear throwing. Beowulfs body is taken to Hronesness, where it is burned on a funeral pyre, during cremation, the Geats lament the death of their lord, a widows lament being mentioned in particular, singing dirges as they circumambulate the barrow. Afterwards, a mound is built on top of a hill, overlooking the sea, a band of twelve of the best warriors ride around the barrow, singing dirges in praise of their lord. Parallels have also drawn to the account of Attilas burial in Jordanes Getica. Jordanes tells that as Attilas body was lying in state, the best horsemen of the Huns circled it, as in circus games. An Old Irish Life of Columcille reports that every funeral procession halted at a mound called Eala, whereupon the corpse was laid, archaeologists often classify tumuli according to their location, form, and date of construction. Some British types are listed below, Bank barrow Bell barrow Bowl barrow D-shaped barrow - round barrow with a flat edge at one side often defined by stone slabs. Disc barrow Fancy barrow - generic term for any Bronze Age barrows more elaborate than a hemispherical shape. Long barrow Oval barrow - a Neolithic long barrow consisting of an elliptical, platform barrow - The least common of the recognised types of round barrow, consisting of a flat, wide circular mound that may be surrounded by a ditch. They occur widely across southern England with a concentration in East and West Sussex. Pond barrow - a barrow consisting of a circular depression, surrounded by a bank running around the rim of the depression
12.
British Camp
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The British Camp is an Iron Age hill fort located at the top of Herefordshire Beacon in the Malvern Hills. The hill fort is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is owned and maintained by Malvern Hills Conservators, the fort is thought to have been first constructed in the 2nd century BC. A Norman castle was built on the site, the extensive earthworks remain clearly visible today and determine the shape of the hill. The height of the summit of British Camp is 1,109 feet, the British Camp is composed of extensive earthworks that have been compared to a giant wedding cake. Midsummer Hill fort is a mile south of the British Camp, there are a number of generally round hut platforms on the British Camp, which may well suggest a permanent occupation. However it is unusual to have two major hill forts within such a short distance, the diarist John Evelyn remarked that the view from the hill was one of the godliest vistas in England. The ditch and counterscarp bank around the site covers three hills, although those to north and south are little more than spurs. With a perimeter of 6,800 feet, the defences enclose an area of around 44 acres, the first earthworks were around the base of the central hill otherwise known as the citadel. At least four pre-historic phases of building have so far been identified, original gates appear to have existed to east, west and north-east. There is no evidence about whether the coming of the Romans ended the use of the British Camp. This is unlikely, according to the description of the Roman historian Tacitus who implies a site closer to the river Severn, excavation at Midsummer Hill fort, Bredon Hill and Croft Ambrey all show evidence of violent destruction around 48 AD. This may suggest that the British Camp was abandoned or destroyed around the same time, medieval castles were sometimes built within earlier sites, reusing the earthworks of Iron Age hill forts for instance as was the case at British Camp. A ringwork and bailey castle, known as Colwall Castle as well as The Herefordshire Beacon, was built within the Iron Age hill fort, quite possibly the builder was Earl Harold Godwinson, the future King Harold II of England. Earl Harold is recorded as building another fortress in the county at Longtown Castle, the castle would appear to have been refortified during The Anarchy of the reign of King Stephen. Before 1148 the fortress was held by Waleran de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Worcester, the castle appears to have changed hands again in 1151 and 1153 when attacked by royalists. At this time it was defended by the men of Earl Walerans brother, Robert de Beaumont, the castle was finally destroyed by King Henry II in 1155 and mentioned in passing by William Langland before 1386. The Shire Ditch, or Red Earls Dyke, runs north and south of the British Camp along the ridge of the hills. It was created in 1287 by Gilbert de Clare, the Earl of Gloucester, following a dispute with Thomas de Cantilupe
13.
Herefordshire Beacon
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The Herefordshire Beacon is one of the hills of the Malvern Hills. The name Malvern of the town is probably derived from the Welsh moel fryn or bare hill. It is 1,109 feet high, although the Victorian era inscription at the foot of the hill puts its height at 1,145 feet and it is surrounded by a British Iron Age hill fort earthwork known as British Camp. The boundary between Herefordshire and Worcestershire is about 100 metres east of the summit and it is called the Shire Ditch and it is thought to have been built over a law. It was thought to be built as a ritual site
14.
Plateau
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Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers. Magma rises from the mantle, causing the ground to swell upward, in way, large, flat areas of rock are uplifted. Plateaus can also be built up by lava spreading outward from cracks, plateaus can also be formed by the erosional processes of glaciers on mountain ranges, leaving them sitting between the mountain ranges. Water can also erode mountains and other landforms down into plateaus, volcanic plateaus are produced by volcanic activity. The Columbia Plateau in the northwestern United States is an example, dissected plateaus are highly eroded plateaus cut by rivers and broken by deep narrow valleys. Plateaus are classified according to their surrounding environment, intermontane plateaus are the highest in the world, bordered by mountains. The Tibetan Plateau is one such plateau, Piedmont plateaus are bordered on one side by mountains and on the other by a plain or a sea. The Piedmont Plateau of the Eastern United States between the Appalachian Mountains and the Atlantic Coastal Plain is an example, continental plateaus are bordered on all sides by plains or oceans, forming away from the mountains. The Tibetan plateau covers approximately 2,500,000 km2, the plateau is sufficiently high enough to reverse the Hadley cell convection cycles and to drive the monsoons of India towards the south. The second-highest plateau is the Deosai Plateau of the Deosai National Park at an elevation of 4,114 m. It is located in the Astore and Skardu districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, Deosai means the land of giants. The park protects an area of 3,000 km2 and it is known for its rich flora and fauna of the Karakoram-West Tibetan Plateau alpine steppe ecoregion. In spring it is covered by sweeps of wildflowers and a variety of butterflies. The highest point in Deosai is Deosai Lake, or Sheosar Lake from the Shina language meaning Blind lake near the Chilim Valley. The lake lies at an elevation of 4,142 m, one of the highest lakes in the world, and is 2.3 km long,1.8 km wide, and 40 m deep on average. Some other major plateaus in Asia are, Armenian Highlands, Iranian plateau, Anatolian Plateau, Mongolian Plateau, and the Deccan Plateau. This polar ice cap is so massive that the echolocation sound measurements of ice thickness have shown that parts of the Antarctic dry land surface have been pressed below sea level. Thus, if that same ice cap were removed, the large areas of the frozen white continent would be flooded by the surrounding Antarctic Ocean or Southern Ocean
15.
Revetment
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In stream restoration, river engineering or coastal engineering, revetments are sloping structures placed on banks or cliffs in such a way as to absorb the energy of incoming water. In military engineering they are structures, again sloped, formed to secure an area from artillery, bombing, River or coastal revetments are usually built to preserve the existing uses of the shoreline and to protect the slope, as defense against erosion. Many revetments are used to line the banks of rivers, lakes. Many materials may be used, wooden piles, loose-piled boulders or concrete shapes, revetments are used as a low-cost solution for coastal erosion defence in areas where crashing waves may otherwise deplete the coastline. Wooden revetments are made of planks laid against wooden frames so that they disrupt the force of the water, although once popular, the use of wooden revetments has largely been replaced by modern concrete-based defence structures such as tetrapods. In coastal engineering, a tetrapod is a concrete structure used as armour unit on breakwaters. A few log revetments have been preserved due to high resin pine or cypress, after an entrenchment was abandoned, many log or rail revetments were scavenged for other uses, causing the interior slope to slump more quickly. An interior slope will appear more vertical if the parapet eroded with the revetment still in place, Revetment Riparian zone Riparian zone restoration Seawall Rip-rap Pisa Revetment Gabion Revetment EPA - River Bend Project Levee and Revetment Routine Maintenance US DOT - Design of Riprap Revetment
16.
Danebury
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Danebury is an Iron Age hill fort in Hampshire in England, about 19 kilometres north-west of Winchester. The site, covering 5 hectares, was excavated by Barry Cunliffe in the 1970s, Danebury is considered a type-site for hill forts, and was important in developing the understanding of hill forts, as very few others have been so intensively excavated. Built in the 6th century BC, the fort was in use for almost 500 years, Danebury was remodelled several times, making it more complex and resulting in it becoming a developed hill fort. It is now protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, until the 19th century very little was known about hill forts, as none had been excavated and their original purpose had been long forgotten. In the medieval period, their construction was attributed variously to iconic figures such as King Arthur, King Alfred, the Danes, Julius Caesar, by the 18th century, it was widely thought that hill forts were Roman in origin. Interest in hill forts was roused by the investigation of a fort at Worlebury Hill in the early-19th century. The first excavation at Danebury was carried out in November 1859 and his workers cleared out an Iron Age pit that was 2 metres deep and 1.5 m in diameter, although they were not able to ascertain its purpose. The first widespread investigation of hill forts was carried out in the half of the 19th century under Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Pitt-Rivers work on the forts of Sussex led him to the conclusion that most hill forts were built in the Iron Age. In the 1920s and 1930s, there was hill fort mania in British archaeology, by 1940, about 80 had been archaeologically excavated. In the late 1960s, Barry Cunliffe decided to examine a single hill fort and its territory in an attempt to shed light on Iron Age society, its politics. With the permission of the owner, Hampshire County Council, archaeological excavations began in 1969. It was the lengthiest investigation of any fort in western Europe. A further non-invasive survey was carried out in 1997, as part of the Wessex Hillforts Project, there is no historical record of events in Iron Age Britain, so archaeological investigation is the only way to reconstruct the history of Danebury, and other such hill forts. The hill fort was occupied from the mid-6th century BC until around 100 BC, when Danebury was built in the 6th century BC, it coincided with the construction of several other hillforts in the Wessex region, all of a similar size and layout. The first phase of defences dates from around 550 BC, when the ditch was cut, the chalk rubble fill was used to build the rampart, along with some of the local clay soil. The material was contained by timber, making it a box rampart with a vertical face, the east gateway was a simple 4 m wide gap in the defences with a timber gatehouse. Around the same time the ramparts were altered, the east gateway was widened to 9 m, the gates were burnt down not long after the east gateway was altered
17.
War
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War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme aggression, destruction, and mortality, an absence of war is usually called peace. Warfare refers to the activities and characteristics of types of war. Total war is warfare that is not restricted to legitimate military targets. While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, as concerns a belligerents losses in proportion to its prewar population, the most destructive war in modern history may have been the Paraguayan War. In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths, down from 72,000 deaths in 1990, in 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, the word is related to the Old Saxon werran, Old High German werran, and the German verwirren, meaning “to confuse”, “to perplex”, and “to bring into confusion”. In German, the equivalent is Krieg, the Spanish, Portuguese, the scholarly study of war is sometimes called polemology, from the Greek polemos, meaning war, and -logy, meaning the study of. Studies of war by military theorists throughout military history have sought to identify the philosophy of war, asymmetric warfare is a conflict between two populations of drastically different levels of military capability or size. Biological warfare, or germ warfare, is the use of weaponized biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, chemical warfare involves the use of weaponized chemicals in combat. Poison gas as a weapon was principally used during World War I. Civil war is a war between forces belonging to the nation or political entity. Conventional warfare is declared war between states in which nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons are not used or see limited deployment, cyberwarfare involves the actions by a nation-state or international organization to attack and attempt to damage another nations information systems. Information warfare is the application of force on a large scale against information assets and systems, against the computers. Nuclear warfare is warfare in which weapons are the primary, or a major. War of aggression is a war for conquest or gain rather than self-defense, the earliest recorded evidence of war belongs to the Mesolithic cemetery Site 117, which has been determined to be approximately 14,000 years old. About forty-five percent of the skeletons there displayed signs of violent death, since the rise of the state some 5,000 years ago, military activity has occurred over much of the globe. The advent of gunpowder and the acceleration of technological advances led to modern warfare
18.
Barry Cunliffe
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Sir Barrington Windsor Cunliffe CBE FBA FSA, known as Barry Cunliffe, is a British archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2007, since 2007, he has been an Emeritus Professor. Cunliffes decision to become an archaeologist was sparked at the age of nine by the discovery of Roman remains on his uncles farm in Somerset. After studying at Portsmouth Northern Grammar School and reading archaeology and anthropology at the University of Cambridge, fascinated by the Roman remains in nearby Bath he embarked on a programme of excavation and publication. In 1966 he became a young professor when he took the chair at the newly founded Department of Archaeology at the University of Southampton. There he became involved in the excavation of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex, another site in southern England led him away from the Roman period. He began a series of summer excavations of the Iron Age hill fort at Danebury. His interest in Iron Age Britain and Europe generated a number of publications, Cunliffe lives with his wife in Oxford. Cunliffe inspired the name for the character Currant Bunliffe, an archaeologist in David Macaulays 1979 book, Motel of the Mysteries. Keith Brannigan, alternative perspectives from archaeology, genetics and literature. Britain Begins By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean, The Birth of Eurasia Barry Cunliffe School of Archaeology, video interview Prof Cunliffe describes the East Gate at Danebury hillfort
19.
Scratchbury Camp
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Scratchbury Camp is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort located on Scratchbury Hill, near the village of Norton Bavant in Wiltshire, England. The fort covers an area of 37 acres and occupies the summit of the hill on the edge of Salisbury Plain, the Iron Age hillfort dates to around 100 BC, but contains the remains of an earlier and smaller D-shaped enclosure or camp. There are seven tumuli located within the enclosure of the fort, finds from excavations at that time included relics of bone, pottery, flint, brass, and amber jewellery, most of which can be seen today at the Wiltshire Museum in Devizes. Other items of interest have been found in and around the site including Roman artefacts and neolithic flint, the site is listed on Wiltshire Councils Sites and Monuments Record with number ST94SW200, and is also a scheduled monument number SM10213. The name of the hill could be derived from a number of old English words and meanings, Hill forts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age, roughly the start of the first millennium BC. The reason for their emergence in Britain, and their purpose, has been a subject of debate, the dominant view since the 1960s has been that the increasing use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Power passed into the hands of a new group of people, but I wouldnt see them as having been built because there was a state of war. The steeply contoured sides of Scratchbury Hill form natural defences to the north, west and southwestern sides, elsewhere on the hill the contours are less steep and afford easier access, with the southeastern boundary merging into the adjacent Cotley Hill with only a small change in level. The Iron Age fortifications at Scratchbury Camp consist of a large ditch and rampart to the most steeply contoured flanks. Within the quarry ditch numerous curvilinear and circular depressions may represent remains of structures, the fortifications are best preserved on the western side of the hill where the ditch is between 5 and 8 metres wide and up to 1 metre deep. The banks and ditches are generally uneven in height and depth, elsewhere, the enclosure is defined by a bank 3 to 6 metres in height above the ditch bottom, the ditch being 4 to 6 metres wide and up to 0.5 metres deep. On parts of the side of the fort the ditch is absent and is replaced by a ledge of between 3 to 8 metres wide. There are two entrances to the fort on the eastern side, and a possible third on the northwest side. These survive mainly as shallow circular hollows of between 5 to 10 metres in diameter and up to 0.6 metres deep, the best preserved is a rectangular platform immediately within the southern terminal of the western entrance. The location and unusual morphology suggests a function for this structure. Within the centre of the lies the remains of an earlier and smaller D-shaped inner earthwork enclosure of circa 3.5 hectares. Today, all that remains of this enclosure is one well defined lynchet of approximately 0.5 metres high along the southern section. Subsequent excavations by Grimes in 1957 re-interpreted this feature to be an earlier Iron Age enclosure dating to approximately 250 BC and it was therefore speculated that the visible interruptions have been made by post Medieval ploughing
20.
Wiltshire
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Wiltshire is a county in South West England with an area of 3,485 km2. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, the county town was originally Wilton, after which the county is named, but Wiltshire Council is now based in the new county town of Trowbridge. Wiltshire is characterised by its high downland and wide valleys, Salisbury Plain is noted for being the location of the Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles and other ancient landmarks, and as a training area for the British Army. The city of Salisbury is notable for its mediaeval cathedral, important country houses open to the public include Longleat, near Warminster, and the National Trusts Stourhead, near Mere. The county, in the 9th century written as Wiltunscir, later Wiltonshire, is named after the county town of Wilton. Wiltshire is notable for its pre-Roman archaeology, the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age people that occupied southern Britain built settlements on the hills and downland that cover Wiltshire. Stonehenge and Avebury are perhaps the most famous Neolithic sites in the UK, in the 6th and 7th centuries Wiltshire was at the western edge of Saxon Britain, as Cranborne Chase and the Somerset Levels prevented the advance to the west. The Battle of Bedwyn was fought in 675 between Escuin, a West Saxon nobleman who had seized the throne of Queen Saxburga, in 878 the Danes invaded the county. Following the Norman Conquest, large areas of the country came into the possession of the crown, at the time of the Domesday Survey the industry of Wiltshire was largely agricultural,390 mills are mentioned, and vineyards at Tollard and Lacock. In the 17th century English Civil War Wiltshire was largely Parliamentarian, the Battle of Roundway Down, a Royalist victory, was fought near Devizes. The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry currently lives on as Y Squadron, based in Swindon, around 1800 the Kennet and Avon Canal was built through Wiltshire, providing a route for transporting cargoes from Bristol to London until the development of the Great Western Railway. Information on the 261 civil parishes of Wiltshire is available on the Wiltshire Community History website, run by the Libraries and this site includes maps, demographic data, historic and modern pictures and short histories. The local nickname for Wiltshire natives is moonrakers and this originated from a story of smugglers who managed to foil the local Excise men by hiding their alcohol, possibly French brandy in barrels or kegs, in a village pond. The officials took them for simple yokels or mad and left them alone, many villages claim the tale for their own village pond, but the story is most commonly linked with The Crammer in Devizes. Two-thirds of Wiltshire, a rural county, lies on chalk. This chalk is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group, the largest area of chalk in Wiltshire is Salisbury Plain, which is used mainly for arable agriculture and by the British Army as training ranges. The highest point in the county is the Tan Hill–Milk Hill ridge in the Pewsey Vale, just to the north of Salisbury Plain, the chalk uplands run northeast into West Berkshire in the Marlborough Downs ridge, and southwest into Dorset as Cranborne Chase. Cranborne Chase, which straddles the border, has, like Salisbury Plain, yielded much Stone Age, the Marlborough Downs are part of the North Wessex Downs AONB, a 1,730 km2 conservation area
21.
1st century
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The 1st century was the century that lasted from AD1 to AD100 according to the Julian calendar. It is often written as the 1st century AD or 1st century CE to distinguish it from the 1st century BC which preceded it, the 1st century is considered part of the Classical era, epoch, or historical period. During this period Europe, North Africa and the Near East fell under increasing domination by the Roman Empire, the reforms introduced by Augustus during his long reign stabilized the empire after the turmoil of the previous centurys civil wars. Later in the century the Julio-Claudian dynasty, which had been founded by Augustus, the Roman Empire generally experienced a period of prosperity and dominance in this period and the First Century is remembered as part of the Empires golden age. The 1st Century saw the appearance of Christianity, China continued to be dominated by the Han Dynasty, despite a fourteen-year interruption by the Xin dynasty under Wang Mang. Han rule was restored in AD23, Wang Mangs rule represents the watershed between the Western/Former Han and the Eastern/Later Han, the capital was also moved from Changan to Luoyang. Western Asia, Roman and Parthian Empires, Sabaean and Arabian Kingdoms, southeast Asia, Mandala of city-states, Kingdom of Funan East Asia, Han Dynasty, Yamatai, Xiongnu and Xianbei tribal chiefdoms, Three Kingdoms of Korea. North America, Central America, Mayan, Teotihuacan and Zapotec civilizations, caribbean, South America, Nazca, Moche civilizations, Tairona tribal chiefdoms. Early 1st century – Augustus of Primaporta, is made and it is now kept in Musei Vaticani, Braccio Nuovo, Rome. Early 1st century – Gemma Augustea is made and it is now kept at Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Early 1st century – House of the Silver Wedding, Pompeii, is built, excavated in 1893, the year of the silver wedding anniversary of Italys King Humbert and his wife, Margherita of Savoy, who have supported archaeological fieldwork at Pompeii. Early 1st century - Inner shrine, Ise, Mie, Mie Prefecture, is built, AD1, Lions became extinct in Western Europe. AD2, First Census of China, the census is one of the most accurate in Chinese history, AD7, Prince Cunobeline of Catuvellauni defeats the Trinovantes in England and establishes his capital at Camulodunum. AD9, Three Roman legions were ambushed and destroyed at Teutoberg Forest by Germans under the leadership of Arminius, AD9, Prince Cunobeline is crowned King of Catuvellauni, his Kingdom dominates Southern England. AD 9–23, Wang Mang temporarily overthrew the Han dynasty of China, AD14, Augustus Caesar, first emperor of Rome, dies. His adopted son, stepson and son-in-law Tiberius is his successor, AD25, The Han dynasty is restored by Liu Xiu who proclaims himself Emperor Guangwu of Han. AD 28–75, Emperor Ming of Han, Buddhism reaches China, humans arrive on Pentecost Island and establish the Bunlap tribe, among others. AD29, Jesus begins his ministry, AD33, The Crucifixion of Jesus
22.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
23.
Dinas Powys hillfort
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The Dinas Powys hillfort is an Iron Age hillfort near Dinas Powys, Glamorgan, Wales. It is just one of several thousand hillforts to have been constructed around Great Britain during the British Iron Age, the site was subsequently excavated by a team of archaeologists led by Leslie Alcock from 1954 through to 1958. The hillfort was constructed on one such of these geographical features, the fort was built on the northerly tip of the whale-back hill, the highest and narrowest point of the vicinity. It had no defences, but on the west side there is a single bank. Phase One at the Dinas Powys site, which comprised purely of the hillfort on the northernmost tip of the hill, began construction during the Iron Age, at some point in the third or 2nd century BCE. It was evidently settled by a community at time, as is evidenced by large quantities of Iron Age pottery at the site. There are also several postholes that have been excavated inside the fort, indeed, excavator Leslie Alcock remarked that the main Dinas Powys fort was heavily defended, but that the Southern Banks were far less defensible. This period would last until the 4th century, when the Roman armies left Britain, during this period, the Vale of Glamorgan saw intensive settlement, with the construction of at least three Roman villas in the local area, each presumably with its own agricultural estate. As Alcock noted, Seen in its context, the Phase 3 material can scarcely amount to a Romano-British occupation of the site. A new period of occupation at the hillfort began in the post-Roman, Early Mediaeval era and it recalls the burials found within, or immediately adjacent to, Romano-British settlements, and clearly looks back to native, pre-Christian traditions despite probably being a Christian burial. To judge from the material which has been recovered, the main basis of the Dinas Powys economy was stock-raising, primarily of cattle. As well as eating meat, the inhabitants of Dinas Powys hillfort apparently ate bread, as rotary querns used for grinding grain. As Dinas Emrys, for instance, a position of great strength was chosen. At Carreg-y-Ilam the enclosure walls had similar dimensions, following the Norman invasion of Wales, in which the Norman-dominated English monarchy occupied Wales, it appears that Dinas Powys continued to be used. As Alcock noted, The defences of Phase 5 were clearly well contrived, a further wave of construction, known as Phase 6, took place later in the Norman era. It was subsequently omitted from several later OS maps, wheeler himself took a particular interest in the monument, producing the first accurate plan of the fort for the National Museum of Wales. An actual project designed to excavate the hillfort was developed by professors at the newly founded department of University College. In 1953, archaeologists Sir Cyril Fox, Dr V. E, the excavations continued for four years, till 1958, mostly at weekends in spring and early summer, and also at Easter from 1954 through to 1957, and during July–August 1958
24.
Vale of Glamorgan
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The Vale of Glamorgan, often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in Wales. With an economy based largely on agriculture and chemicals, it is the southernmost unitary authority in Wales, attractions include Barry Island Pleasure Park, the Barry Tourist Railway, Porthkerry Park, St Donats Castle, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park and Cosmeston Medieval Village. It is also the location of Atlantic College, one of the United World Colleges, other towns include Penarth, Llantwit Major and Cowbridge. There are many villages in the county borough, the village would have consisted of a number of small stone round houses, or crofts, with thatched roofs. Clemenstone, to the west, was the seat of several high sheriffs of Glamorganshire, william Curre, known to have lived in Clemenstone in 1766, was also an occupant of Itton Court in Monmouthshire. In the early 19th century, Lady Sale née Wynch, wife of Sir Robert Sale, in 1974, the area became part of South Glamorgan, under the Local Government Act 1972. It created several problems in local governance, between the South Glamorgan County Council, Cardiff City Council and the Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council owing to their conflicting interests. It was a turbulent time for governance in the city of Cardiff, as for the first time in its history it had to authority with the county council. In April 1996, the Vale of Glamorgan became a county borough of Wales, located immediately to the west of Cardiff between the M4 motorway and the Severn Estuary, the Vale of Glamorgan covers 33,097 hectares and has 53 km of coastline. The largest centre of population is Barry, other towns include Cowbridge, Dinas Powys, Llantwit Major and Penarth. Much of the population inhabits villages, hamlets and individual farms, the area is low-lying, with a maximum height of 137.3 metres above sea level at Tair Onen to the east of Cowbridge. The borough borders Cardiff to the north east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, Bridgend to the north west and the Bristol Channel to the south. The yellow-grey cliffs on the Glamorgan Heritage Coast are unique on the Celtic Sea coastline as they are formed of a combination of limestone, shale. They were formed 200 million years ago when the area lay underneath a warm, shallow. Thus today the cliffs contain traces of Jurassic sea creatures, such as ammonites and this stratification can also be found on other parts of the Celtic seaboard, such as Bude in Cornwall, across the Bristol Channel. As the Glamorgan Heritage Coast faces westwards out to the Atlantic, it bears the brunt of onshore winds, ideal for surfing, but a nuisance for ships sailing up the Bristol Channel to Cardiff. As in North Cornwall and South-West Ireland, the fierce Atlantic gales created ideal conditions for deliberate shipwrecking, the Vale of Glamorgan was determined to be the wealthiest area in Wales in a 2003 survey conducted by Barclays Bank that measured disposable income. Chemical industries are located to the east of the port of Barry while further inland the main activity is agriculture, especially beef and dairy cattle, with marketing facilities at Cowbridge
25.
Common Era
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Common Era or Current Era is a year-numbering system for the Julian and Gregorian calendars that refers to the years since the start of this era, i. e. since AD1. The preceding era is referred to as before the Common or Current Era, the Current Era notation system can be used as a secular alternative to the Dionysian era system, which distinguishes eras as AD and BC. The two notation systems are equivalent, thus 2017 CE corresponds to AD2017 and 400 BCE corresponds to 400 BC. The year-numbering system for the Gregorian calendar is the most widespread civil calendar used in the world today. For decades, it has been the standard, recognized by international institutions such as the United Nations. The expression has been traced back to Latin usage to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, the term Common Era can be found in English as early as 1708, and became more widely used in the mid-19th century by Jewish academics. He attempted to number years from a reference date, an event he referred to as the Incarnation of Jesus. Dionysius labeled the column of the table in which he introduced the new era as Anni Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, numbering years in this manner became more widespread in Europe with its usage by Bede in England in 731. Bede also introduced the practice of dating years before what he supposed was the year of birth of Jesus, in 1422, Portugal became the last Western European country to switch to the system begun by Dionysius. The first use of the Latin term vulgaris aerae discovered so far was in a 1615 book by Johannes Kepler, Kepler uses it again in a 1616 table of ephemerides, and again in 1617. A1635 English edition of that book has the title page in English – so far, a 1701 book edited by John LeClerc includes Before Christ according to the Vulgar Æra,6. A1716 book in English by Dean Humphrey Prideaux says, before the beginning of the vulgar æra, a 1796 book uses the term vulgar era of the nativity. The first so-far-discovered usage of Christian Era is as the Latin phrase aerae christianae on the page of a 1584 theology book. In 1649, the Latin phrase æræ Christianæ appeared in the title of an English almanac, a 1652 ephemeris is the first instance so-far-found for English usage of Christian Era. The English phrase common Era appears at least as early as 1708, a 1759 history book uses common æra in a generic sense, to refer to the common era of the Jews. The first-so-far found usage of the phrase before the era is in a 1770 work that also uses common era and vulgar era as synonyms. The 1797 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica uses the terms vulgar era, the Catholic Encyclopedia in at least one article reports all three terms being commonly understood by the early 20th century. Thus, the era of the Jews, the common era of the Mahometans, common era of the world
26.
Chysauster Ancient Village
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Chysauster Ancient Village is a late Iron Age and Romano-British village of courtyard houses in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, which is currently in the care of English Heritage. The village included eight to ten houses, each with its own internal courtyard, to the south east is the remains of a fogou, an underground structure of uncertain function. Chysauster lies in southwest Cornwall in the Penwith District and it is located about 5 km north of Penzance at 175 m above sea level. The site is open from March/April to early November, and it is in the care of English Heritage, the iron-age hill fort of Castle An Dinas is just over 1 km to the east. Another similar Iron Age settlement is Carn Euny about 10 km to the southwest, Chysauster village is believed to have been inhabited from about 100 BC until the 3rd century AD, it was primarily agricultural and unfortified and probably occupied by members of the Dumnonii tribe. The village consists of the remains of around 10 courtyard houses, eight of the houses form two distinct rows, and each house had an open central courtyard surrounded by a number of thatched rooms. The houses have a similar layout, the buildings are oriented on an east-west axis, with the entrance facing east. The walls survive to heights of up to 3 metres, a field system in the vicinity attests to the sites farming connections. Chysauster has been excavated several times, including a dig by the antiquarian William Copeland Borlase in 1873, reconstruction work has been carried out on several occasions. To the south of the settlement is a passage of a type known locally as fogou. Fogous can be found in places in the UK and Ireland. The fogou at Chysauster was originally recorded as running well over 16 metres in length but was blocked up in the late 20th century for safety reasons and it was recorded around 1847 by Henry Crozier who described it as a voe or sepulchral chamber. Cavendish, Richard, Prehistoric England Christie, Patricia Maeve Lascelles, Chysauster Ancient Village, Cornwall Reynolds, P. K. B
27.
Kelly Rounds
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Kelly Rounds, or Castle Killibury is an Iron Age hill fort in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated beside the A39 trunk road approximately two miles east of Wadebridge, the site is north of the village of St Mabyn, approximately 300 metres east of Three Holes Cross on the border of the parish of Egloshayle. Radiocarbon dating has dated the occupation of Kelly Rounds to between 400 and 100 BC, more carbon dating has dated a pre-hill fort occupation as between 1250 and 950 BC. The fort was described by Craig Weatherhill as a bivallate Iron Age hill fort 230m in diameter, the ramparts, each about 3. 0m high externally, are widely spaced and fronted by ditches 1. 8m deep. The north side of the fort is preserved, but to the south of the lane the defences have been ploughed almost flat. The northern half of a rectangular annexe survives on the west side of the fort, on the opposite side of the fort cropmarks and traces of two contiguous annexes have been detected. Excavations found the inner ditch to have been cut 2. 8m into the bedrock and it also showed that the earliest occupation of the site was during the 11th or 10th century BC. It is not known if this was before the defences were built, the fort has long been a leading candidate as the location of Arthurs home fort of Celliwig, but only two post-Roman sherds have been unearthed. In July 2010 it was added to English Heritages heritage at risk register because of ongoing deterioration, mills, Henrietta, Excavations at Killibury Hillfort, Egloshayle 1975–6, Cornish Archaeology,16, 89–121
28.
Sub-Roman Britain
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The term Post-Roman Britain is also used for the period, mainly in non-archaeological contexts. It is now often used to denote this period of history instead. Gradually the latter assumed more control, the Picts in northern Scotland were outside the applicable area. The period of sub-Roman Britain traditionally covers the history of the area subsequently became England from the end of Roman imperial rule in 410 to the arrival of Saint Augustine in 597. The date taken for the end of period is arbitrary in that the sub-Roman culture continued in the West of England. This period has attracted a deal of academic and popular debate. The term post-Roman Britain is also used for the period, mainly in non-archaeological contexts, Britain south of the Forth–Clyde line. The history of the area between Hadrians Wall and the Forth–Clyde line is unclear, North of the line lay an area inhabited by tribes about whom so little is known that we resort to calling them by a generic name, Picts. The period may also be considered as part of the early Middle Ages, popular works use a range of more dramatic names for the period, the Dark Ages, the Brythonic Age, the Age of Tyrants, or the Age of Arthur. There is very little extant written material available from this period, a lot of what is available deals with the first few decades of the 5th century only. The sources can usefully be classified into British and continental, two primary contemporary British sources exist, the Confessio of Saint Patrick and Gildas De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Patricks Confessio and his Letter to Coroticus reveal aspects of life in Britain and it is particularly useful in highlighting the state of Christianity at the time. Gildas is the nearest to a source of Sub-Roman history but there are problems in using it. The document represents British history as he and his audience understood it, though a few other documents of the period do exist, such as Gildas letters on monasticism, they are not directly relevant to British history. The historical section of De Excidio is short, and the material in it is selected with Gildas purpose in mind. There are no dates given, and some of the details, such as those regarding the Hadrians. There are more continental contemporary sources that mention Britain, though these are highly problematic, the most famous is the so-called Rescript of Honorius, in which the Western Emperor Honorius tells the British civitates to look to their own defence. The work of Procopius, another 6th century Byzantine writer, makes references to Britain
29.
Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
30.
Imperialism
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Imperialism is an action that involves a country extending its power by the acquisition of territories. It may also include the exploitation of these territories, an action that is linked to colonialism, colonialism is generally regarded as an expression of imperialism. However, both are examples of imperialism, the word imperialism originated from the Latin word imperium, which means supreme power. It first became common in Great Britain, during the 1870s and was used with a negative connotation, the term was and is mainly applied to Western political and economic dominance, especially in Asia and Africa, in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its precise meaning continues to be debated by scholars, some writers, such as Edward Said, use the term more broadly to describe any system of domination and subordination organised with an imperial center and a periphery. This definition encompasses both nominal empires and neocolonialism, the word empire comes from the Latin word imperium, for which the closest modern English equivalent would perhaps be sovereignty, or simply rule. The greatest distinction of an empire is through the amount of land that a nation has conquered and expanded, Political power grew from conquering land, however cultural and economic aspects flourished through sea and trade routes. A distinction about empires is that although political empires were built mostly by expansion overland, economic, some of the main aspects of trade that went overseas consisted of animals and plant products. European empires in Asia and Africa have come to be seen as the forms of imperialism. European expansion caused the world to be divided by how developed, the two main regions are the core and the periphery. The core consists of areas of income and profit, the periphery is on the opposing side of the spectrum consisting of areas of low income. These critical theories of Geo-politics have led to increased discussion of the meaning and this idea from Lenin stresses how important new political world order has become in our modern era. Geopolitics now focuses on states becoming major players in the market, some states today are viewed as empires due to their political. The term imperialism is often conflated with colonialism, however scholars have argued that each have their own distinct definition. Imperialism and colonialism have been used in order to describe ones superiority, domination, colonialism in modern usage also tends to imply a degree of geographic separation between the colony and the imperial power. Thus it can be said that imperialism includes some form of colonialism, colonialism is seen to be the architect deciding how to start dominating areas and then imperialism can be seen as creating the idea behind conquest cooperating with colonialism. Colonialism is when the imperial nation begins a conquest over an area, colonialisms core meaning is the exploitation of the valuable assets and supplies of the nation that was conquered and the conquering nation then gaining the benefits from the spoils of the war. The meaning of imperialism is to create an empire, by conquering the states lands
31.
Dunadd
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Dunadd is an Iron Age and later hillfort near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute, Scotland and believed to be the capital of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata. Dunadd is a rocky crag that may have one time an island and now lies inland near the River Add, from which it takes its name. The surrounding land, now largely reclaimed, was formerly boggy and this no doubt increased the defensive potential of the site. It is known for its stone carvings below the upper enclosure, including a footprint. On the same flat outcrop of rock is a boar in Pictish style. The inscription is read as referring to a Finn Manach and is dated to the late 8th century or after, Dunadd is mentioned twice in early sources. In 683 the Annals of Ulster record, The siege of Dún At, the site was occupied after 736, at least into the 9th century. It is mentioned twice in later sources, suggesting that it retained some importance. In 1436, it is recorded that Alan son of John Riabhach MacLachlan of Dunadd was made seneschal of the lands of Glassary, in June 1506, commissioners appointed by James IV, including the earl and bishop of Argyll, met at Dunadd to collect rents and resolve feuds. The site is an Ancient Monument, under the care of Historic Scotland, finds range from the 6th to the 8th centuries AD. These include tools, weapons, quernstones, imported pottery and motif-pieces, Dunadd is the location for Claire R. McDougalls novel Veil of Time, in which a modern-day woman is transported back to Dunadds heyday in the 8th century. All the features of Dunadd, including the footprint, the boar, the well, other ancient sites in the Kilmartin Valley also play a part in the narrative. Petrosomatoglyph Three Dimensional Modelling of Scottish Early Medieval Sculpted Stones AVI, QuickTime and VRML format images of Dunadd, the Kingdom of the Gaels, BBC Scotland - Scotlands History Brief history with photos with respect to the Siol Alpin 56°5′9. 33″N 5°28′42. 55″W
32.
Argyll
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Argyll, archaically Argyle, is an ancient shire of western Scotland. At present, Argyll is one of the counties of Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the ancient kingdom of Dál Riata, Argyll was also a medieval bishopric with its cathedral at Lismore, as well as an early modern earldom and dukedom, the Dukedom of Argyll. Between 1890 and 1975, Argyll was a county with a county council, there was an Argyllshire constituency of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 until 1983. The name derives from Old Gaelic airer Goídel, however, the word airer naturally carries the meaning of the word coast when applied to maritime regions, so the placename can also be translated as Coast of Gaels. The mainland area, renamed Airer Goídel, would have contrasted with the islands of Innse Gall. They were referred to this way because during the 9th to 12th centuries, the first record of Argyll as a shire dates from 1326, when a sheriff was appointed. At that time the shire covered a larger area than the later county. It included the islands which later formed Buteshire, which became a shire by 1388. It also included the area of Ross-shire, which was separated from Argyll by an act of 1503, between 1890 and 1975, Argyll had a county council. Argylls neighbouring counties were Inverness-shire, Perthshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Renfrewshire and Ayrshire are on the other side of the Firth of Clyde. Bute is a county of islands in the firth, the county town of Argyll was historically Inveraray, which is still the seat of the Duke of Argyll. Lochgilphead later claimed to be the county town, as the seat of government for the county from the 19th century. Neither town was the largest settlement geographically, nor in terms of population, argylls largest towns were Oban, Dunoon and Campbeltown. The island of Egg or Eigg was already in Inverness-shire, the use of the County of Argyll for local government purposes ceased in 1975 with its area being split between Highland and Strathclyde Regions. A local government district called Argyll and Bute was formed in the Strathclyde region, including most of Argyll, the Ardnamurchan, Ardgour, Ballachulish, Duror, Glencoe, Kinlochleven and Morvern areas of Argyll were detached to become parts of Lochaber District, in Highland. They remained in Highland following the 1996 revision, in 1996 a new unitary council area of Argyll and Bute was created, with a change in boundaries to include part of the former Strathclyde district of Dumbarton. There was an Argyllshire constituency of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1801, the Argyll and Bute constituency was created when the Argyll constituency was abolished
33.
Iberian Peninsula
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The Iberian Peninsula /aɪˈbɪəriən pəˈnɪnsjᵿlə/, also known as Iberia /aɪˈbɪəriə/, is located in the southwest corner of Europe. The peninsula is divided between Portugal and Spain, comprising most of their territory. With an area of approximately 582,000 km2, it is the second largest European peninsula, at that time, the name did not describe a single political entity or a distinct population of people. Strabos Iberia was delineated from Keltikē by the Pyrenees and included the land mass southwest of there. The ancient Greeks reached the Iberian Peninsula, of which they had heard from the Phoenicians, hecataeus of Miletus was the first known to use the term Iberia, which he wrote about circa 500 BC. Herodotus of Halicarnassus says of the Phocaeans that it was they who made the Greeks acquainted with. According to Strabo, prior historians used Iberia to mean the country side of the Ἶβηρος as far north as the river Rhône in France. Polybius respects that limit, but identifies Iberia as the Mediterranean side as far south as Gibraltar, elsewhere he says that Saguntum is on the seaward foot of the range of hills connecting Iberia and Celtiberia. Strabo refers to the Carretanians as people of the Iberian stock living in the Pyrenees, according to Charles Ebel, the ancient sources in both Latin and Greek use Hispania and Hiberia as synonyms. The confusion of the words was because of an overlapping in political, the Latin word Hiberia, similar to the Greek Iberia, literally translates to land of the Hiberians. This word was derived from the river Ebro, which the Romans called Hiberus, hiber was thus used as a term for peoples living near the river Ebro. The first mention in Roman literature was by the annalist poet Ennius in 200 BC. Virgil refers to the Ipacatos Hiberos in his Georgics, the Roman geographers and other prose writers from the time of the late Roman Republic called the entire peninsula Hispania. As they became interested in the former Carthaginian territories, the Romans began to use the names Hispania Citerior. At the time Hispania was made up of three Roman provinces, Hispania Baetica, Hispania Tarraconensis, and Lusitania, Strabo says that the Romans use Hispania and Iberia synonymously, distinguishing between the near northern and the far southern provinces. Whatever language may generally have been spoken on the peninsula soon gave way to Latin, except for that of the Vascones, the Iberian Peninsula has always been associated with the Ebro, Ibēros in ancient Greek and Ibērus or Hibērus in Latin. The association was so known it was hardly necessary to state, for example. Pliny goes so far as to assert that the Greeks had called the whole of Spain Hiberia because of the Hiberus River, the river appears in the Ebro Treaty of 226 BC between Rome and Carthage, setting the limit of Carthaginian interest at the Ebro. The fullest description of the treaty, stated in Appian, uses Ibērus, with reference to this border, Polybius states that the native name is Ibēr, apparently the original word, stripped of its Greek or Latin -os or -us termination
34.
Germanic peoples
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The Germanic peoples are an ethno-linguistic Indo-European group of Northern European origin. They are identified by their use of Germanic languages, which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, the term Germanic originated in classical times when groups of tribes living in Lower, Upper, and Greater Germania were referred to using this label by Roman scribes. Tribes referred to as Germanic by Roman authors generally lived to the north, in about 222 BCE, the first use of the Latin term Germani appears in the Fasti Capitolini inscription de Galleis Insvbribvs et Germ. This may simply be referring to Gaul or related people, the term Germani shows up again, allegedly written by Poseidonios, but is merely a quotation inserted by the author Athenaios who wrote much later. Somewhat later, the first surviving detailed discussions of Germani and Germania are those of Julius Caesar, from Caesars perspective, Germania was a geographical area of land on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Gaul, which Caesar left outside direct Roman control. This usage of the word is the origin of the concept of Germanic languages. In other classical authors the concept sometimes included regions of Sarmatia, also, at least in the south there were Celtic peoples still living east of the Rhine and north of the Alps. Caesar, Tacitus and others noted differences of culture which could be found on the east of the Rhine, but the theme of all these cultural references was that this was a wild and dangerous region, less civilised than Gaul, a place that required additional military vigilance. Caesar used the term Germani for a specific tribal grouping in northeastern Belgic Gaul, west of the Rhine. He made clear that he was using the name in the local sense and these are the so-called Germani Cisrhenani, whom Caesar believed to be closely related to the peoples east of the Rhine, and descended from immigrants into Gaul. Caesar described this group of both as Belgic Gauls and as Germani. Gauls are associated with Celtic languages, and the term Germani is associated with Germanic languages, but Caesar did not discuss languages in detail. It has been claimed, for example by Maurits Gysseling, that the names of this region show evidence of an early presence of Germanic languages. The etymology of the word Germani is uncertain, the likeliest theory so far proposed is that it comes from a Gaulish compound of *ger near + *mani men, comparable to Welsh ger near, Old Irish gair neighbor, Irish gar- near, garach neighborly. Another Celtic possibility is that the name meant noisy, cf. Breton/Cornish garm shout, however, here the vowel does not match, nor does the vowel length ). Others have proposed a Germanic etymology *gēr-manni, spear men, cf. Middle Dutch ghere, Old High German Ger, Old Norse geirr. However, the form gēr seems far too advanced phonetically for the 1st century, has a vowel where a short one is expected. The term Germani, therefore, probably applied to a group of tribes in northeastern Gaul who may or may not have spoken a Germanic language
35.
Anglo-Saxons
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The Anglo-Saxons are a people who have inhabited Great Britain from the 5th century. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after their settlement and up until the Norman conquest. The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including government of shires. During this period, Christianity was re-established and there was a flowering of literature, charters and law were also established. The term Anglo-Saxon is popularly used for the language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons in England, in scholarly use, it is more commonly called Old English. The history of the Anglo-Saxons is the history of a cultural identity and it developed from divergent groups in association with the peoples adoption of Christianity, and was integral to the establishment of various kingdoms. Threatened by extended Danish invasions and occupation of eastern England, this identity was re-established, the visible Anglo-Saxon culture can be seen in the material culture of buildings, dress styles, illuminated texts and grave goods. Behind the symbolic nature of these emblems, there are strong elements of tribal. The elite declared themselves as kings who developed burhs, and identified their roles and peoples in Biblical terms, above all, as Helena Hamerow has observed, local and extended kin groups remained. the essential unit of production throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. Use of the term Anglo-Saxon assumes that the words Angles, Saxons or Anglo-Saxon have the meaning in all the sources. Assigning ethnic labels such as Anglo-Saxon is fraught with difficulties and this term began to be used only in the 8th century to distinguish the Germanic groups in Britain from those on the continent. The Old English ethnonym Angul-Seaxan comes from the Latin Angli-Saxones and became the name of the peoples Bede calls Anglorum, Anglo-Saxon is a term that was rarely used by Anglo-Saxons themselves, it is not an autonym. It is likely they identified as ængli, Seaxe or, more probably, also, the use of Anglo-Saxon disguises the extent to which people identified as Anglo-Scandinavian after the Viking age or the conquest of 1016, or as Anglo-Norman after the Norman conquest. The earliest historical references using this term are from outside Britain, referring to piratical Germanic raiders, Saxones who attacked the shores of Britain, procopius states that Britain was settled by three races, the Angiloi, Frisones, and Britons. The term Angli Saxones seems to have first been used in writing of the 8th century. The name therefore seemed to mean English Saxons, the Christian church seems to have used the word Angli, for example in the story of Pope Gregory I and his remark, Non Angli sed angeli. The terms ænglisc and Angelcynn were also used by West Saxon King Alfred to refer to the people, at other times he uses the term rex Anglorum, which presumably meant both Anglo-Saxons and Danes. Alfred the Great used Anglosaxonum Rex, the term Engla cyningc is used by Æthelred
36.
Wales
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Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, and it had a population in 2011 of 3,063,456 and has a total area of 20,779 km2. Wales has over 1,680 miles of coastline and is mountainous, with its higher peaks in the north and central areas, including Snowdon. The country lies within the temperate zone and has a changeable. Welsh national identity emerged among the Celtic Britons after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, Llywelyn ap Gruffudds death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of Englands conquest of Wales, though Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to Wales in the early 15th century. The whole of Wales was annexed by England and incorporated within the English legal system under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism, Welsh national feeling grew over the century, Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and the Welsh Language Society in 1962. Established under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters, two-thirds of the population live in south Wales, mainly in and around Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, and in the nearby valleys. Now that the countrys traditional extractive and heavy industries have gone or are in decline, Wales economy depends on the sector, light and service industries. Wales 2010 gross value added was £45.5 billion, over 560,000 Welsh language speakers live in Wales, and the language is spoken by a majority of the population in parts of the north and west. From the late 19th century onwards, Wales acquired its popular image as the land of song, Rugby union is seen as a symbol of Welsh identity and an expression of national consciousness. The Old English-speaking Anglo-Saxons came to use the term Wælisc when referring to the Celtic Britons in particular, the modern names for some Continental European lands and peoples have a similar etymology. The modern Welsh name for themselves is Cymry, and Cymru is the Welsh name for Wales and these words are descended from the Brythonic word combrogi, meaning fellow-countrymen. The use of the word Cymry as a self-designation derives from the location in the post-Roman Era of the Welsh people in modern Wales as well as in northern England and southern Scotland. It emphasised that the Welsh in modern Wales and in the Hen Ogledd were one people, in particular, the term was not applied to the Cornish or the Breton peoples, who are of similar heritage, culture, and language to the Welsh. The word came into use as a self-description probably before the 7th century and it is attested in a praise poem to Cadwallon ap Cadfan c. 633. Thereafter Cymry prevailed as a reference to the Welsh, until c.1560 the word was spelt Kymry or Cymry, regardless of whether it referred to the people or their homeland. The Latinised forms of names, Cambrian, Cambric and Cambria, survive as lesser-used alternative names for Wales, Welsh
37.
West Country
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Some usages of the term include wider areas, while others are more specific, though with little consistency of definition. The West Country is mostly rural, with only a few sizeable towns, tourism and agriculture, especially dairy farming, play a significant role in the economy. The landscape is principally granite moorland in the west, and chalk and limestone downland, historically, tin mining and the fishery were sources of income and employment in the west of the area, but less so today, although the latter still contributes to the economy. The region is famous for its production of cider, clotted cream, and pasties. Apart from the Bristol Channel and English Channel, the West Countrys boundaries are not precisely defined, some definitions are roughly synonymous with the administrative South West Region, while others use it more specifically to refer to just the southwestern part. The term is used, for example, to refer to sports matches between such cities as Bristol and Bath or Gloucester and Bath. West Country Carnival events take place in Somerset, Devon, Wiltshire, ITV Westcountry is an ITV franchise covering Devon, Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly and areas of Somerset and Dorset. Local news and sport website This is the Westcountry, part of the Newsquest group, similarly covers Devon, Cornwall, the West Country Clothing District was an area that made woollen cloth, but only part of the region described above. It covered east Somerset and parts of the counties of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, the clothing district around Tiverton and Exeter in Devon and west Somerset tended to make different kinds of cloth and is best regarded as distinct. Scrumpy and Western music South West Peninsula Wessex West of England West Country English West Country derby
38.
Cadbury Castle, Somerset
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Cadbury Castle, formerly known as Camalet, is a Bronze and Iron Age hillfort in the civil parish of South Cadbury in the English county of Somerset. It is a monument and has been associated with King Arthurs legendary court at Camelot. The hillfort is formed by a 7.28 hectares plateau surrounded by ramparts on the slopes of the limestone Cadbury Hill. The site has been excavated in the late 19th and early 20th century by James Bennett, more recent examination of the site was conducted in the 1960s by Leslie Alcock and since 1992 by the South Cadbury Environs Project. These have revealed artifacts from human occupation and use from the Neolithic through the Bronze, the site was reused by the Roman forces and again from c. 470 until some time after 580. In the 11th century, it housed a Saxon mint. Hillforts developed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages, around the start of the 1st millennium BC, the reason for their emergence in prehistoric Britain and their purpose has been a subject of debate. The dominant view since the 1960s has been that the use of iron led to social changes in Britain. Deposits of iron ore were located in different places from the tin and copper ore necessary to make bronze and, as a result, the old elites lost their economic and social status and power passed into the hands of a new group of people. But I would not see them as having been built there was a state of war. The earliest settlement on the site is represented by pits and post holes dated with Neolithic pottery and these are the remains of a small agricultural settlement which was unenclosed. Bones recovered from the site have been dated to 3500 and 3300 BC. A bank under the later Iron Age defences is likely to be a lynchet or terrace derived from early ploughing of the hilltop, the site was also occupied in the Late Bronze Age, from which ovens have been identified. Radical revisions of the Bronze Age archaeology on the lower slopes resulted from discoveries during excavations, Finds include the first Bronze Age shield from an excavation in northwest Europe, an example of the distinctive Yetholm-type. Carbon dating implies that the shield was deposited in the 10th century BC, a metal-working building and associated enclosure were discovered 2 km south east of the hillfort, roughly contemporary with the period of manufacture. Human occupation continued throughout the Iron Age, a stone enclosure was constructed around 300 BC with timber revetting, and ploughing ceased within the hilltop site. Excavations have shown the signs of four and six post rectangular buildings which were replaced with roundhouses. Large ramparts and elaborate timber defences were constructed and refortified over the following centuries, excavation revealed round and rectangular house foundations, metalworking, and a possible sequence of small rectangular temples or shrines, indicating permanent oppidum-like occupation
39.
Camelot
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Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. The stories locate it somewhere in Great Britain and sometimes associate it with real cities, nevertheless, arguments about the location of the real Camelot have occurred since the 15th century and continue to rage today in popular works and for tourism purposes. The castle is mentioned for the first time in Chrétien de Troyes poem Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, dating to the 1170s, though it does not appear in all the manuscripts. It is mentioned in passing, and is not described, A un jor dune Acenssion / Fu venuz de vers Carlion / Li rois Artus et tenu ot / Cort molt riche a Camaalot / Si riche com au jor estut. Upon a certain Ascension Day King Arthur had come from Caerleon, nothing in Chrétiens poem suggests the level of importance Camelot would have in later romances. For Chrétien, Arthurs chief court was in Caerleon in Wales, Chrétien depicts Arthur, like a typical medieval monarch, holding court at a number of cities and castles. Most Arthurian romances of this produced in English or Welsh did not follow this trend, Camelot was referred to infrequently. However, in the late 15th century, Thomas Malory created the image of Camelot most familiar to English speakers today in his Le Morte dArthur, a work based mostly on the French romances. He firmly identifies Camelot with Winchester, an identification that remained popular over the centuries, though it was rejected by Malorys own editor, William Caxton, who preferred a Welsh location. Renowned Arthurian scholar Ernst Brugger suggested that it was a corruption of the site of Arthurs final battle, roger Sherman Loomis believed it was derived from Cavalon, a place name that he suggested was a corruption of Avalon. He further suggested that Cavalon/Camelot became Arthurs capital due to confusion with Arthurs other traditional court at Carlion, the Lancelot-Grail Cycle and the texts it influenced depict the city of Camelot as standing along a river, downstream from Astolat. It is surrounded by plains and forests, and its magnificent cathedral, there, Arthur and Guinevere are married and there are the tombs of many kings and knights. In a mighty castle stands the Round Table, it is here that Galahad conquers the Siege Perilous, jousts are held in a meadow outside the city. In the Palamedes and other works, the castle is destroyed by King Mark of Cornwall after the loss of Arthur at the Battle of Camlann. It should be noted, too, that there is a Kamaalot featured as the home of Percevals mother in the romance Perlesvaus, the romancers versions of Camelot drew on earlier descriptions of Arthurs fabulous court. From Geoffreys grand description of Caerleon, Camelot gains its impressive architecture, its many churches, Geoffreys description in turn drew on an already established tradition in Welsh oral tradition of the grandeur of Arthurs court. Even at this stage Arthur could not be tied to one location, many other places are listed as a location where Arthur holds court in the later romances, Carlisle and London perhaps being the most prominent. The romancers versions of Camelot draw on traditions of Arthurs fabulous court
40.
Cornwall
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Cornwall is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area of England within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, Cornwall has a population of 551,700 and covers an area of 3,563 km2. Cornwall forms the westernmost part of the south-west peninsula of the island of Great Britain, and this area was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age peoples, there is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. In the mid-19th century, however, the tin and copper mines entered a period of decline, subsequently, china clay extraction became more important and metal mining had virtually ended by the 1990s. Traditionally, fishing and agriculture were the important sectors of the economy. Railways led to a growth of tourism in the 20th century, however, the area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its long and varied coastline, its attractive villages, its many place-names derived from the Cornish language, and its very mild climate. Extensive stretches of Cornwalls coastline, and Bodmin Moor, are protected as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Cornwall is the homeland of the Cornish people and is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, retaining a distinct cultural identity that reflects its history. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative Cornish Assembly. On 24 April 2014 it was announced that Cornish people will be granted minority status under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The modern English name Cornwall derives from the concatenation of two ancient demonyms from different linguistic traditions, Corn- records the native Brythonic tribe, the Cornovii. The Celtic word kernou is cognate with the English word horn. -wall derives from the Old English exonym walh, the Ravenna Cosmography first mentions a city named Purocoronavis in the locality. This is thought to be a rendering of Duro-cornov-ium, meaning fort of the Cornovii. The exact location of Durocornovium is disputed, with Tintagel and Carn Brea suggested as possible sites, in later times, Cornwall was known to the Anglo-Saxons as West Wales to distinguish it from North Wales. The name appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 891 as On Corn walum, in the Domesday Book it was referred to as Cornualia and in c.1198 as Cornwal. Other names for the county include a latinisation of the name as Cornubia, the present human history of Cornwall begins with the reoccupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods and it continued to be occupied by Neolithic and then Bronze Age people. The Common Brittonic spoken at the time developed into several distinct tongues
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Tintagel Castle
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Tintagel Castle is a medieval fortification located on the peninsula of Tintagel Island adjacent to the village of Tintagel, north Cornwall in England in the United Kingdom. It subsequently saw settlement during the Early Medieval period, when it was one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia. A castle was built on the site by Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall in the 13th century, during the Later Medieval period and it later fell into disrepair and ruin. Archaeological investigation into the site began in the 19th century as it became a tourist attraction, in the 1930s, excavations revealed significant traces of a much earlier high status settlement, which had trading links with the Mediterranean during the Late Roman period. The castle has an association with legends related to King Arthur. This began in the century when Geoffrey of Monmouth described Tintagel as the place of Arthurs conception in his fictionalized account of British history. Geoffrey told the story that Arthurs father, King Uther Pendragon, was disguised by Merlins sorcery to look like Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, Tintagel Castle has been a tourist destination since the mid-19th century. Owned by Charles, Prince of Wales as part of the landholdings of the Duchy of Cornwall, in the first century AD, southern Britain was invaded and occupied by the Roman Empire. The territory of modern Cornwall was assigned to the Roman administrative region of civitas Dumnoniorum, at the time, this south-westerly point of Britain was remote, under-populated. and therefore also unimportant until, during the third century AD, the local tin-streaming industry attracted attention. Archaeologists know of five milestones or route-markers in Cornwall erected in the Romano-British period, two of these are in the vicinity of Tintagel, indicating that a road passed through the locality. Cornish historian and archaeologist Charles Thomas noted in 1993, So far, can be put forward as a Roman-period settlement, native-peasant or otherwise. Either the Island or the area of the later Castle formed the scene of third-fourth century habitation even if no evidence has been found of any buildings dating from this period. It was in this background that settlement continued at Tintagel Castle. However, there has been some dispute amongst archaeologists as to exactly what the site of Tintagel Island was used for in this period, in the mid-twentieth century, it was typically thought that there was an early Christian monastery on the site, but since about 1980. Had to be abandoned, with archaeologists now believing that it was instead an elite settlement inhabited by a local warlord or even Dumnonian royalty. Devon archaeologist Ralegh Radford excavated at the site from 1933 through to 1938 and he came to this conclusion based upon some similarities in the structures of the Early Medieval elements of Tintagel Castle and the seventh century monastery at the site of Whitby Abbey in Yorkshire. Archaeologists no longer accept this viewpoint, however, instead, they now believe that this was an elite settlement in the Early Medieval period that was inhabited by Dumnonian royalty and their entourage. Various luxury items dating from this period have been found at the site, namely African and Phocaean red slip, examining this pottery, Charles Thomas remarked that the quantity of imported pottery from Tintagel
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Dumnonia
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Dumnonia is the Latinised name for the Brythonic kingdom in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, in what is now the more westerly parts of South West England. The spelling Damnonia is sometimes encountered, but is used for the land of the Damnonii, later part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde. Domnonia also occurs and shares a relationship with the Breton region of Domnonée, Breton. The kingdom is named after the Dumnonii, a British Celtic tribe living in the southwest at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain, according to Ptolemys Geography. Variants of the name Dumnonia include Domnonia and Damnonia, the latter being used by Gildas in the 6th century as a pun on damnation to deprecate the areas contemporary ruler Constantine, the name has etymological origins in the proto-Celtic root word *dubno-, meaning both deep and world. Groups with similar names existed in Scotland and Ireland, later, the area became known to the English of neighbouring Wessex as the kingdom of West Wales, and its inhabitants were also known to them as Defnas. In Welsh, and similarly in the Southwestern Brythonic languages, it was Dyfneint, historian Barbara Yorke has speculated that the Dumnonii may have seen the end of the Roman empire as an opportunity to establish control in new areas. In the Roman period there was a boundary between the area governed from Exeter and those governed from Dorchester and Ilchester. Julius Caesars Comentarii de Bello Gallico, Book III notes the close trading, in the post Roman period the eastern boundary of Dumnonia is unclear. The boundary may have formed by the West Wansdyke, Selwood Forest. Thus Dumnonia would have included later Cornwall, Devon, west Somerset, if so Dumnonia would have included places such as Glastonbury and South Cadbury and may have included continental holdings in Armorica. The people of Dumnonia would have spoken a Brythonic dialect, the ancestor of modern Cornish, apart from fishing and agriculture, the main economic resource of the Dumnonii was tin mining, the tin having been exported since ancient times from the port of Ictis. Tin working continued throughout Roman occupation and appears to have reached a peak during the 3rd century AD, the area maintained trade links with Gaul and the Mediterranean after the Roman withdrawal, and it is likely that tin played an important part in this trade. Post-Roman imported pottery has been excavated from sites across the region. An apparent surge in late 5th century Mediterranean imports is thought to be related to the trade in metals from Cornwall, christianity seems to have survived in Dumnonia after the Roman departure from Britain, with a number of late Roman Christian cemeteries extending into the post-Roman period. In the 5th and 6th centuries the area was evangelised by the children of Brychan and saints from Ireland, like Saint Piran. Sporadically, Cornish bishops are named in records until they submitted to the See of Canterbury in the mid-9th century. Parish organisation was a development of fully Normanised times
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Promontory forts of Cornwall
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Cornish promontory forts, commonly known in Cornwall as cliff castles, are coastal equivalents of the hill forts and Cornish rounds found on Cornish hilltops and slopes. Similar coastal forts are found on the north–west European seaboard, in Normandy, Brittany and around the coastlines of the British Isles, especially in Wales, many are known in southwest England, particularly in Cornwall and its neighbouring county, Devon. Two have been identified immediately west of Cornwall, in the Isles of Scilly, a promontory fort is a coastal headland, isolated from the mainland by a stone, turf or earthen rampart, or more than one. Some promontory forts also have ditches, British promontory forts were constructed during the Iron Age, and remained in more-or-less continuous use into the early Roman period. They would have offered ready access to sea-routes but those built in particularly inhospitable settings may have had only occasional or seasonal use, inland hillforts show signs of human habitation and other uses before and after the Roman era, but cliff castles were occupied sparsely, if at all. Some hill forts abandoned during or before the Roman era were reoccupied from the post-Roman to early medieval eras, some were quarried for their building stone. Treryn Dinas is one of the few Cornish promontory forts to have been systematically excavated, archaeologists believe it might have been developed from a Bronze Age site of ceremonial, religious or social significance to the surrounding community. Possible ancient contexts and uses of Cornish cliff castles have been a subject for study, unproven or uncertain sites are in italics. The Dizzard is an area of slumping cliff in the parish of St Gennys, the site is within the Boscastle to Widemouth SSSI and is known for its lichen communities which are of international importance. The promontory fort identified by the West Cornwall Field Club is probably a natural feature, Castle Point is claimed as a possible site by the West Cornwall Field Club. English Heritage describes it as a natural feature. Willapark is a headland to the west of Boscastle with a former coastguard lookout on the summit and it has a single 110 m straight bank, indistinct to the south-west and up to 1.8 m high, with a ditch on the landward side at its north-eastern end. The present path onto the headland may indicate the original entrance, the fort overlooks Forrabury Common, a medieval field system. Dinas Head is on the side of Trevose Head within the parish of St Merryn. The headland is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and is included in a list of cliff castles awaiting classification, aerial photographs show no sign no sign of earthworks on the neck of the headland. to the south of Treyarnon Bay, within the parish of St Merryn. The three headlands situated between White Cove and Wine Cove are registered as separate Ancient Monuments, the South West Coast Path passes on the east side of the entrance. Trevelgue Head is a monument a short distance north-east of Newquay. The defensive ramparts of the fort, and two round barrows dating from the early Bronze Age, can be seen
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Brittany
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Brittany is a cultural region in the north-west of France. Brittany has also referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain. It is bordered by the English Channel to the north, the Celtic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and its land area is 34,023 km². Since reorganisation in 1956, the administrative region of Brittany comprises only four of the five Breton departments. The remaining area of old Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique department around Nantes, at the 2010 census, the population of historic Brittany was estimated to be 4,475,295. Of these, 71% lived in the region of Brittany, while 29% lived in the Loire-Atlantique department, in 2012, the largest metropolitan areas were Nantes, Rennes, and Brest. Brittany is the homeland of the Breton people and is recognised by the Celtic League as one of the six Celtic nations. A nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the French Republic, the word Brittany, along with its French, Breton and Gallo equivalents Bretagne, Breizh and Bertaèyn, derive from the Latin Britannia, which means Britons land. This word had been used by the Romans since the 1st century to refer to Great Britain and this word derives from a Greek word, Πρεττανικη or Βρεττανίαι, used by Pytheas, an explorer from Massalia who visited the British Islands around 320 BC. This term probably comes from a Gallic word, aremorica, which close to the sea. Another name, Letauia, was used until the 12th century and it possibly means wide and flat or to expand and it gave the Welsh name for Brittany, Llydaw. Later, authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth used the terms Britannia minor, breton-speaking people may pronounce the word Breizh in two different ways, according to their region of origin. Breton can be divided into two dialects, the KLT and the dialect of Vannes. KLT speakers pronounce it and would write it Breiz, while the Vannetais speakers pronounce it, the official spelling is a compromise between both variants, with a z and an h together. In 1941, efforts to unify the dialects led to the creation of the so-called Breton zh, on its side, Gallo language has never had a widely accepted writing system and several ones coexist. For instance, the name of the region in that language can be written Bertaèyn in ELG script, or Bertègn in MOGA, Brittany has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic. This population was scarce and very similar to the other Neanderthals found in the whole of Western Europe and their only original feature was a distinct culture, called Colombanian. One of the oldest hearths in the world has found in Plouhinec
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Celtic Christianity
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Celtic Christianity or Insular Christianity refers broadly to certain features of Christianity that were common, or held to be common, across the Celtic-speaking world during the Early Middle Ages. Scholars now reject the notion, but note that there were certain traditions. These include a system for determining the dating of Easter, a style of monastic tonsure, a unique system of penance. Additionally, there were other practices that developed in parts of Britain or Ireland. The term therefore denotes regional practices among the churches and their associates. The term Celtic Church is deprecated by many historians as it implies a unified, others prefer the term Insular Christianity. As Patrick Wormald explained, One of the common misconceptions is that there was a Roman Church to which the Celtic was nationally opposed, in German, the term Iroschottisch is used, with Lutz von Padberg placing the same caveat about a supposed dichotomy between Irish-Scottish and Roman Christianity. Nonetheless, some distinctive traditions developed and spread to both Ireland and Great Britain, especially in the sixth and seventh centuries. Some elements may have introduced to Ireland by the Briton St. Patrick. The histories of the Irish, Welsh, Scots, Breton, Cornish, later interest in the subject has led to a series of Celtic Christian revival movements, which have shaped popular perceptions of the Celts and their religious practices. Celtic Christianity has been conceived of in different ways at different times, One particularly prominent feature ascribed to Celtic Christianity is that it is supposedly inherently distinct from – and generally opposed to – the Catholic Church. Others have been content to speak of Celtic Christianity as consisting of certain traditions, however, modern scholars have identified problems with all of these claims, and find the term Celtic Christianity problematic in and of itself. The idea of a Celtic Church is roundly rejected by modern scholars due to the lack of substantiating evidence, indeed, there were distinct Irish and British church traditions, each with their own practices, and there was significant local variation even within the individual Irish and British spheres. While there were some known to have been common to both the Irish and British churches, these were relatively few. Even these commonalities did not exist due to the Celticity of the regions, additionally, the Christians of Ireland and Britain were not anti-Roman, the authority of Rome and the papacy were venerated as strongly in Celtic areas as they were in any other region of Europe. Caitlin Corning further notes that the Irish and British were no more pro-women, pro-environment, Corning notes that scholars have identified three major strands of thought that have influenced the popular conceptions of Celtic Christianity. The first arose in the English Reformation, when the Church of England declared itself separate from papal authority, Protestant writers of this time popularised the idea of an indigenous British Christianity that opposed the foreign Roman church and was purer in thought. The English church, they claimed, was not forming a new institution, ideas of Celtic Christianity were further influenced by the Romantic movement of the 18th century, in particular Romantic notions of the noble savage and the intrinsic qualities of the Celtic race
