Free Republic

An experiment has shed light on how Iron Age people communicated from their hilltop homes 2,500 years ago. About 200 volunteers stood on the summit of 10 hillforts in north Wales, the Wirral and Cheshire, and signalled to each other with torches. Their aim was to learn if communities used the summits to warn each other. "It was a success," said archaeologist Erin Robinson. "It captured the public's imagination and we made extra links we did not think were possible." Saturday night's Hilltop Glow event was rescheduled after December's severe weather. The ancient sites used were on the Clwydian Range;...

Following Alfred Watkins’s famous vision of straight paths crossing the landscape, the concept of “leys” has evolved over several decades (see panel, pp31–32), but it has become increasingly obvious to research-minded ley students that there never were such features as “leys”, let alone “leylines”. At best, these were convenient labels to cover a multitude of both actual and imaginary alignments from many different eras and cultures. This was because most enthusiasts were projecting their own ideas onto the past in various ways. But the handful of research-minded ley hunters cared about actual archæology, and they followed where the mythical leys...

Avebury Stone Is Found to Rival Stonehenge By Stuart Coles, PA News Archaeologists working at the ancient Avebury stone circle have been surprised to uncover what could be one of the largest standing stones in the country. Experts at English Heritage and the National Trust say the stone could weigh in at 100 tons, rivalling the largest megaliths at its fellow site in Wiltshire, Stonehenge. The surprise discovery was made during work at the 4,500 year-old stone circle to straighten two stones known as the Cove, which have begun to lean over the last 300 years and which it was...