Space Age Lasers Reveal Offa's Dyke Missing Link

Western Daily Press ^ | 6-1-2007 | Janet Hughes

[Old Professer]

Dumb headline, I was curious to see what happened to Oprah’s girlfriend.

[Sawdring]

Do you think an average senior in high school would like reading Sykes book? My stepson is getting interested in his Norwegian heritage and I think he might enjoy it if isn’t too technical.

[SittinYonder]

mark

[CholeraJoe]

BTW, the world's highest concentration of 'O' type blood is behind Offa's Dyke.

Having 3 of 4 grandparents with Welsh surnames would certainly explain the almost universal prevalence of O positive in my family.

[blam]

"Do you think an average senior in high school would like reading Sykes book? My stepson is getting interested in his Norwegian heritage and I think he might enjoy it if isn’t too technical."

Sykes book would be fine. Oppenheimer's would be a bit too technical.

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	Just updating the GGG info, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·

[SunkenCiv]

• Ancient Offa's Dyke ... was built 200 years before King Offa was born [2014]
• Ancient graves hint at cultural shift to Anglo-Saxon Britain [2014]
• 'Travellers' flatten 50 yards of Offa's Dyke with a bulldozer: [2013]
• English Heritage steps in to rescue prehistoric earthwork ["Roman Ridge"] [2011]
• Ancient Britain Had Apartheid-Like Society, Study Suggests [2009]
• Medieval canals spotted from air [2008]
• Work Begins To Uncover Secrets Of Silbury Hill [2007]
• 100-Mile-Long Wall in Africa [Sungbo's Eredo] [2006]
• Was Arthur a king or just a battle commander? [2005]
• New Dating For Wat's Dyke [2004]
• Genes show Welsh are the true Britons [2002]

[SunkenCiv]

The Roman historian Eutropius in his book Historiae Romanae Breviarium, written around 369, mentions the Wall of Severus, a structure built by Septimius Severus who was Roman Emperor between 193 and 211:

Novissimum bellum in Britannia habuit, utque receptas provincias omni securitate muniret, vallum per CXXXIII passuum milia a mari ad mare deduxit. Decessit Eboraci admodum senex, imperii anno sexto decimo, mense tertio. Historiae Romanae Breviarium, viii 19.1

"He had his most recent war in Britain, and to fortify the conquered provinces with all security, he built a wall for 133 miles from sea to sea. He died at York, a reasonably old man, in the sixteenth year and third month of his reign."

This source is conventionally thought to be referring, in error, to either Hadrian's Wall, 73 miles (117 km), or the Antonine Wall, 37 miles (60 km), which were both shorter and built in the 2nd century. Recently, some writers have suggested that Eutropius may have been referring to the earthwork later called Offa's Dyke...

The Venerable Bede also mentions the wall built by Septimus Severus. But Bede says that the wall was made of earth and timber, a description which would closer match Offa's Dyke than the Hadrian Wall Antonine Walls.

After many great and severe battles, (Severus) thought fit to divide that part of the island, which he had recovered, from the other unconquered nations, not with a wall, as some imagine, but with a rampart. For a wall is made of stones, but a rampart, with which camps are fortified to repel the assaults of enemies, is made of sods, cut out of the earth, and raised high above the ground, like a wall, having in front of it the trench whence the sods were taken, with strong stakes of wood fixed above it. Thus Severus drew a great trench and strong rampart, fortified with several towers, from sea to sea. Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of England, Bk 1-5

[Wikipedia, Offa's Dyke]